Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-01-04


confectioner to a STAR writer the other |
day, but that is because they don't realize |
what skilled and difficult labor it is 1t does
seem high price to pay so for three pints
OF water ice-itself worth only IS cents-in a
shape. However, you will readily see that it is
not excessive when 1 describe the elaborate
ness Of the process. Suppose you order your
three pints of cream in the shape of hen, which
is comparatively simple one. dare say you
imagine that it is merely necessary to squeeze
the material into the mold with a spoon and
then empty it out of the form. all ready TO so
on the table As matter Of fact the filling of
the mold requires great care and skill The
operator has TO take the material bit by bit aud
force il with his fingers into every creyice of
the interior OF the pewter, which is usually in
two or three pieces In the case of the hen
the bird opens into two halves from bill to tail
at the back. and the workman, seated before a
row OF tubs containing different kinds of
cream. first
FILLS IN THE WINGS WITH CHOCOLATE;
then he stuffs the places for the bill and crest
with yellow orange water ice and loads the
breast cavity with speckled bisque to give the
proper effect The tail is filed with pistache
and the body suitably made up otherwise. the
mold being finally closed and the halves fast
ehed together again. But that Is only the be-
ginning. Next, the mold thus stuffed must be
put In a freezer, with ice and salt around it for
a while, and when 1t has got thoroughly hard
the cream hen is taken ont of the mold and put
into cold-air box TO freeze some more. When
1t comes out of that il is like a rock and the
last thing is to touch up the feathers with
water colors outline the eyes and give a smooth
finish to the general effect. Then You have
your hen natural as life, with yellow beak
and crest, brown wings. speckled body and
green tail Maybe you seat her in nest of
spun sugar to heighten the effect. That is
what you call art. 1t is worth the money you
pay for it. The ice cream, too, tastes better
when SO PRETTY served. OF course each kind
of mold is filled on different artistic plan. A
swan, for instance, would have to be all of
white vanilla with yellow water ice bill"
FRENCH MoLDs THAT COST MONEY.
Where do the molds that you use come
FROM" the confectoner was asked.
From Paris" he replied. They are very
expensive. Twenty-Five dollars apiece they
| cost if not very elaborate. Pewter is the ma
terial always, and l think they made on
wooden models. You can see for yourself how
carefully they are made-each feather dis
| tiuctly carved out so that it shows naturally in
the cream bird. Beasts of different kinds and
other things are equally artistic IN other
ways"
'You were speaking of spun sugar. How is
it that you make it?
That is a confectioner's secret, and /
oughtn't to give it away. However. will tell
! you. No end of people exercise their wits to
the point of despair in trying to make spun SUI
gar. They know how to boil the sugar to Just
the right point, SO that 1t will spin beautiful
| threads, like silk; but when they have spun a
| few such threads, laboriously-not enough to
| fill a spool, perhaps-the mixture gets hard
ened and 'sugary,' and won't spin any more
| from the forks or whatever unsuitable instru-
ments are employed. Now, will inform You
very simply how to make as good spun sugar
| az a confectioner can, in any quantity you may
desire. Take two parts of graduated sugar TO
one part of cold water and stir them up to-
gether in q saucepan-the bigger the quantity
the easier the operation. Let the mixture boil
hard, without stirring, until little of it drop
ped into cold water becomes at once as brittle
| as glass. Then remove the saucepan to a table
and you are ready for business. Previously YOU
must have provided yourself with bakers
egg-beater, the wire end of which you have cut
off with wire nlppers, SO as to leave a handle
with perhaps fifty long wire points projecting
from the end.
THIS Is THE TOOL
with which spun sugar is made. You dip it
| into the saucepan and draw it out thread of
candied sugar hansiag from each point. And
thereupon you wave the tool in every direc-
ton, to right and left, over your head and all
around as far as you can reach, above the
/ creased pans with which you have completely
covered as large an area on table and floor as
| possible. When l make spun sugar / place in
| the middle of a large room great quantity of
| the boiling sugar and cover the entire floor
save the small space necessary for standing
room, with huge bakers pans. Then my as
slstant and myself dip our wire brushes into
| the hot candy and throw the spun threads all
over the place, up to the ceiling and this way
and that, redipping the brushes as often as is
necessary, until the room looks like a silk fac
tory. Finally. when we have spun all want is
| gathered up and made into any shape desired.
BY the way, 1t may interest you to know that if
you will dip white grapes, mandarin oranges,
| figs, nuts and such things into the same mix
ture that is prepared for spun sugar you can
make i'll that way good fruits glaces as can
be bought at any confectloners. When the
| sugar has been boiled to a crack pour it into
previously warmed cups. drop in your fruits,
fish them out as quickly as possible with forks,
place them on creased pans, and set them
out in the cold for few moments. Twenty
minutes later you will have the most delicious
candies producable. Would you like to know
how to make ice cream for yourself as well as
any confectioner can make it,
Every much, indeed"
SUGGESTIONS ON ICE CREAM.
Nothing could possibly be simpler. In the
first place use pure cream, unmixed with milk
or water-so long as the cream is not very unu-
suaily thick-and fresh fruits. Ii you want to
| make strawberry ice cream take full quart of
strawberries and quart of cream Mash the
strawberries, put some sugar on them and let
| them stand an hour or two. Then mix them
with the cream and sweeten to the taste. Put
| the mixture into freezer, turn the crank and
| when it is frozen it will be as good ice cream
| as any one can produce. For orange water ice
| take the Juice of dozen oranges and three
| lemons and put with ii as much water as there
| is Juice, with sugar to suit the palate; then
| freeze it. The reason why homemade ice
| cream is nearly always failure is that house.
wives will put milk into it or even arrowroot."
| STALE PRODUCTS.
SIS not a good deal Of ice cream wasted by
getting stale on your hands,"
mot so much as a half pint. 1t will keep in
| definitely in the porcelain-lined vessels We use
| Tin is not good for the purpose, because il
corrodes. How do we dispose Of cakes that get
stale on our hands? Throw them into the gar
| bage barrel; nobody is poor enough hereabout
| to want stale cake. The doughnuts and one or
two other things, sometimes. are given to the
garbage man personally. We don't lose so
much in that way as you might suppose. Our
| loss is chiefly ON charlottes-russes cream cakes
and eclaires, all of which sour in day. The de-
mand for these goods is very capricious and we
never tell how many will be called for within a
given twenty-four hours. Maybe twenty or thirty
| charlottes for instance, will be left on the
counter Of an evening, to be thrown away the
| next morning. Mixed cakes, such ss pound
cake, keep much better, though all cakes are
best not later than the day after they
| made. Macaroons will last fresh enough for a
| week. Pies are never left on our hands, be-
cause the demand for them ia n very steady one.