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Ratafia Drops
1156. Blanch and beat in a mortar four ounces of bitter and two of sweet almonds, with a part of a pound of sugar sifted, then add the remainder of the pound of sugar, and the whites of two eggs, making a paste; of which put little balls, the size of a nutmeg, on wafer-paper, and bake gently on tin plates.
TOFFY. 1157. Mix one pound of coarse sugar, half a pound of treacle, a little butter, one tea-spoonful and a half of ginger, the same of mixed spice, let it boil for half an hour, grease a pewter plate and pour it in, then let it cool.
The proportions here are the problem: bitter almonds are the dominant ingredient by weight, not a flavouring trace. This cannot be made as printed.
- Bitter almonds are the hazardBitter almonds contain amygdalin, which releases hydrogen cyanide when the kernel is crushed and wetted — exactly what pounding blanched nuts in a mortar does. Four ounces is on the order of a hundred kernels, far past any tolerable dose for a batch this size, and while gentle baking will drive off some of the volatile it cannot be relied on to remove it.
- Bitter almonds todayRaw bitter almonds are not sold for eating in the UK, the US or the EU. The almond flavour they were prized for is now supplied by benzaldehyde-based almond extract, which carries none of the cyanogenic risk. If you want ratafia biscuits, use a current recipe.
- Wafer-paperThe edible starch sheet still sold for confectionery and cake decoration. It was used to stop sticky meringue-type pastes welding to the tin, a job now done by parchment.
- "Bake gently"The book gives no oven description beyond this. For a sugar-and-egg-white paste it is usually read as a cool oven, long enough to set and dry the drops rather than colour them. The instruction is sound; the filling is not.
- Treacle, in the adjoining noteBritish treacle is not molasses in the American sense — black treacle is closest, golden syrup much milder. "Coarse sugar" means unrefined brown sugar of the period.
- PewterOld pewter often contains lead, and pouring boiling sugar syrup onto it is not something to repeat. Use a marble slab or an oiled metal tray.