Mix together the milk, cream, and sugar. Stir the wine into it, and pour the mixture into your custard-cups. Set them in a warm place near the fire, till they become a firm curd. Then set them on ice, or in a very cold place. Grate nutmeg over them.
CURDS AND WHEY.
Take a small piece of rennet about two inches square. Wash it very clean in cold water, to get all the salt off, and wipe it dry. Put it in a tea-cup, and pour on it just enough of lukewarm water to cover it. Let it set all night, or, for several hours. Then take out the rennet, and stir the water in which it was soaked, into a quart of milk, which should be in a broad dish.
Set the milk in a warm place, till it becomes a firm curd. As soon as the curd is completely made, set it in a cool place, or on ice (if in summer) for two or three hours before you want to use it.
Eat it with wine, sugar, and nutmeg.
The whey, drained from the curd, is an excellent drink for invalids.
A TRIFLE.
A quart of cream. A quarter of a pound of loaf sugar, powdered. Half a pint of white wine and Half a gill of brandy mixed. Eight maccaroons, or more if you choose. Four small sponge-cakes or Naples biscuit. Two ounces of blanched sweet almonds, pounded in a mortar. One ounce of blanched bitter almonds or peach-kernels. The juice and grated peel of two lemons. A nutmeg, grated. A glass of noyau. A pint of rich baked custard, made of the yolks of eggs.
Pound the sweet and bitter almonds to a smooth paste, adding a little rose-water as you pound them.
Grate the yellow peels of the lemons, and squeeze the juice into a saucer.
Break the sponge cake and maccaroons into small pieces, mix them with the almonds, and lay them in the bottom of a large glass bowl. Grate a nutmeg over them, and the juice and peel of the lemons. Add the wine and brandy, and let the mixture remain untouched, till the cakes are dissolved in the liquor. Then stir it a little.
Mix the cream and sugar with a glass of noyau, and beat it with a whisk or rods, till it stands alone.
As the froth rises, take it off with a spoon, and lay it on a sieve (with a large dish under it) to drain. The cream, that drains into the dish, must be poured back into the pan with the rest, and beaten over again. When the cream is finished, set it in a cool place.
When the custard is cold, poor it into the glass bowl upon the dissolved cakes, &c. and when the cream is ready, fill up the bowl with it, heaping it high in the middle. You may ornament it with nonpareils.
If you choose, you can put in, between the custard and the frothed cream, a layer of fruit jelly, or small fruit preserved.
WHIPT CREAM.
A quart of cream. The whites of four eggs. Half a pint of white wine. A quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Tea drops of strong essence of lemon, or two lemons cut in thin slices, or the juice of a large lemon.
Mix together, in a broad pan, all the ingredients, unless you use slices of lemon, and then they must be laid at intervals among the froth, as you heap it in the bowl.
With a whisk or rods, beat the cream to a strong froth. Have beside your pan a sieve (bottom upwards) with a large dish under it. As the froth rises, take it lightly off with a spoon, and lay it on the sieve to drain. When the top of the sieve is full, transfer the froth to a large glass or china bowl. Continue to do this till the bowl is full.
The cream which has dropped through the sieve into the dish, must be poured into the pan, and beaten over again. When all the cream is converted into froth, pile it up in the bowl, making it highest in the middle.
If you choose, you may ornament it with red and green nonpareils.
If you put it in glasses, lay a little jelly in the bottom of each glass, and pile the cream on it.
Keep it in a cool place till you want to use it.
FLOATING ISLAND.
Six whites of eggs. Six large table-spoonfuls of jelly. A pint of cream.
Put the jelly and white of egg into a pan, and beat it together with a whisk, till it becomes a stiff froth and stands alone.