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Sugar: a Great Source of Heat and Energy: Frosting
BOILED CHOCOLATE FROSTING 1 1/2 cups of fine granulated 2 ounces of chocolate, melted sugar Whites of 2 eggs, beaten dry 3/4 cup of sweet milk 1 teaspoonful of vanilla extract Cook the sugar and milk to 238 deg F. (soft ball) in the same manner as the sugar and water were cooked in the boiled frosting; add the melted chocolate and, without stirring, pour together onto the whites of eggs. Flavor when cold. This frosting, if it be a little undercooked, will harden upon the outside in time. If it runs from the cake and is returned when cooler, it will not have its original gloss.
NUT CARAMEL FROSTING 1/2 cup of granulated sugar 2 tablespoonfuls of caramel cooked to caramel syrup 1/2 cup of boiling water 1/4 cup of water 1 cup of granulated sugar White of 1 egg, beaten dry 1/2 cup of pecan nut meats Add the half cup of boiling water to the caramel and let simmer to a thick syrup. Turn this into a bottle for use as required. Boil the sugar, syrup and water to 238 deg F. or until the syrup dripping from the spoon spins a thread two inches in length. Pour onto the white of egg, beating with an egg beater meanwhile. When all the syrup has been added to the egg, take out the beater, set the dish of frosting over the fire in a dish of boiling water, and beat until the frosting thickens and begins to sugar a little on the sides of the dish; beat in the nuts and spread at once upon a cake, leaving the surface uniformly rough, or with the spoon fashion waves through the frosting. When this is cooked just right, it cuts without crumbling. DIVINITY FROSTING 2 cups of sugar (granulated 1 cup of pecan nut meats brown or maple) 1/4 teaspoonful of salt 1/2 cup of Karo Corn syrup 4 cooked figs, cut in slices 1/2 cup of water 1 teaspoonful of vanilla extract Whites of 2 eggs, beaten dry Boil the sugar, syrup and water to about 236 deg F. (the beginning of the soft ball stage). Pour in the usual manner onto the whites of the eggs and return to the fire to cook over hot water until the mixture sugars slightly on the edge; add the nuts, salt, fruit and flavoring and spread upon the cake. CARAMEL MARSHMALLOW FROSTING 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar 1 teaspoonful of butter 1/2 cup of cream 1/2 pound of marshmallows Cook the sugar, cream and butter forty minutes, counting the time after boiling acutally begins. Remove from the fire and beat in the marshmallows. Continue beating until the frosting is of a consistency to spread. CONFECTIONER'S CHOCOLATE FROSTING 1/4 cup of granulated sugar Confectioner's sugar to make a 1/4 cup of boiling water paste 1 ounce of chocolate 1 teaspoonful of vanilla Cook the granulated sugar and water about five minutes; add the chocolate and let stand till melted, then stir in the sugar and extract. Use while hot. If any be "left over," set aside, covered. When ready to use, add a little hot water and confectioner's sugar if necessary, and it is ready to use. CONFECTIONER'S CARAMEL FROSTING 4 tablespoonfuls caramel syrup sifted confectioner's sugar 5 ounces (about one cup) of 1 teaspoonful of vanilla Heat the syrup, then stir in the sugar and vanilla. If too stiff to spread, add a little boiling water; if too thin, a little more sugar is needed. FROSTING WITH GELATINE 1 level teaspoonful of gelatine 3/4 cup of confectioner's sugar, 1 tablespoonful of cold water sifted 2 tablespoonfuls of boiling 1/2 teaspoonful of vanilla ex- water tract Soften the gelatine in the cold water and dissolve in the boiling water; stir in the sugar and flavoring and beat until of the proper consistency. This frosting may be used with pastry bag and tube. If it does not flow freely, set the bag in a warm (not hot) place for a few minutes. MARSHMALLOW ICING 1 cup of granulated sugar 1/4 pound of marshmallows 1/4 cup of water 1/2 teaspoonful of vanilla ex- The whites of 2 eggs tract Boil the sugar and water (as in making foundant) to 240 deg F. Pour in a fine stream upon the egg whites, beaten dry, beating constantly meanwhile. Beat occasionally until cool; add the marshmallows cut in four pieces, each, and the vanilla. This makes a light, fluffy icing that will not run from a cake.
A run of eight frostings that divide into two families: boiled syrups poured over beaten egg white, and quick confectioner's sugar pastes. The boiled ones stand or fall on the thermometer.
- Temperature is the whole recipe238°F is soft ball and 240°F only slightly firmer; two or three degrees either way is the difference between a frosting that sets with gloss and one that runs off the cake or turns to sand. Use a digital thermometer rather than the two-inch thread test, and calibrate it in boiling water first.
- "Beaten dry"This means whites whipped to stiff, dull peaks that hold their shape and no longer slide in the bowl — not the glossy medium peak of a modern meringue. The hot syrup is what supplies the final gloss.
- Pouring the syrupAdd it in a thin stream down the side of the bowl with the mixer running, avoiding the whisk, or it will fling hardened threads around the bowl. A stand mixer does what the original expects of a second pair of hands.
- Chocolate by the ounceTwo ounces of "chocolate" here is best read as unsweetened baking chocolate, which is generally what the unqualified word meant in American cookbooks of this period. Semisweet or chips will make the frosting cloying and slacker.
- Caramel syrupThe nut caramel frosting assumes you already keep a bottle of it: sugar cooked dark, then let down with boiling water and simmered thick. Both caramel recipes here need that syrup, not caramel sauce or dulce de leche, which contain dairy.
- "Sweet milk" and KaroSweet milk is plain whole milk, specified to distinguish it from sour or buttermilk. Karo corn syrup is still sold and light Karo is the right choice; it is there to prevent crystallization, so do not substitute honey or maple syrup for it.
- The forty-minute caramelCooking sugar, cream and butter for forty minutes is essentially a fudge. No temperature is given here; a thermometer is the safer guide, and stir often, since the dairy will scorch long before forty minutes on a modern high-output burner.
- MarshmallowsHalf a pound is about 8 oz, or roughly 30 standard modern marshmallows. They will need the frosting hot and steady beating, or gentle warming over hot water.
- YieldQuantities run larger than the book's title implies: the boiled frostings make enough for a two-layer 8- or 9-inch cake. Halve them for a small cake, or make the full quantity and use the surplus as a filling.
- Egg whitesThe hot syrup brings the whites well up in temperature but does not reliably pasteurize them. If serving anyone pregnant, elderly or immunocompromised, use pasteurized whites, which whip to the same dry stage.
Cooking for Two is generally attributed to Janet McKenzie Hill, longtime editor of the Boston Cooking School Magazine, and this chapter's framing of sugar as "a great source of heat and energy" is pure early-twentieth-century food chemistry, when calories were newly measurable and sugar could be defended as nutrition rather than indulgence. The boiled frostings here are Italian meringue by another name: syrup cooked to soft ball and beaten into egg white, a confectioner's technique that moved into the domestic kitchen once reliable thermometers and granulated sugar were both readily available. Divinity, the fluffy nougat-like candy of the American South, is usually traced to the spread of commercial corn syrup after the turn of the century, and Karo is named outright in the ingredient list. The marshmallows, meanwhile, had by this date largely stopped containing any marshmallow root and were gelatin confections bought by the pound at the grocer, which is why Hill can treat them as a simple ingredient to be beaten in.