Sweet dishes : a little treatise on confectionery and entremets sucrés / by "Wyvern".

  • Kenney-Herbert, A. R. (Arthur Robert), 1840-1916.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sweet dishes : a little treatise on confectionery and entremets sucrés / by "Wyvern". Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    The crockery I have enumerated may be composed of odds and ends, and be of the cheapest kind. It is essential on the score of cleanliness, and will be found, in the long run, well worth the money spent upon it, for it will render the use of pieces of your dinner set unnecessary. All know how soon things get broken when they are sent to the kitchen, and nice plates are completely spoiled by being put into the oven. The spoons and forks may also be of a common kind, but they cannot be dispensed with. Iron spoons impart a metallic taste to delicate custards, creams, &c., and wooden spoons are often too clumsy for certain operations. The marble slab for pastry is strongly recommended. The ingredients we use for sweets must be of the best quality we can obtain. The butter is, if possible, a more important element in this, than in the savoury branch. How easily, for instance, is the presence of an inferior butter detected in a cake. We cannot therefore be too particular in using what we know to be reliable. The sugar is another item of importance. The best crystal- lized sort will do for sweetening most dishes, but powdered loaf sugar is a st7te qua non for frosting, and for the finishing touches when serving souffles, sweet omelettes, fritters, and all kinds of puddings. We should never forget that sweet dishes form the ornamental part of a dinner, and that they should, therefore, be made to look as tempting as possible. The final dusting of powdered loaf sugar never fails to attract the eye pleasingly, A sweet dish garnished with crystallized sugar may look fairly well, but the effect upon the teeth is far from pleasant. Those tiny little sugar plums called by our school confec- tioners “ hundreds and thousands,” and by the ‘ profession’ “ Nonpareils,” will, on account of their variegated colours, be found most useful for garnishing. That the best milk and cream should be used need scarcely be said : those who keep cows of their own possess an incalcu- lable advantage in this important particular. The stuff that is sold as cream in Madras is scarcely better than rich milk, and