Brown Nougat for Center Pieces

Put into a copper pan one pound of powdered sugar and the juice of a quarter of a lemon; melt the sugar on a moderate fire, and when entirely dissolved stir in one pound of almonds, either chopped or slightly shredded; these are to be heated at the oven door, but great care must be paid that the almonds be not too hot, for should the sugar be slightly colored then the nougat would become too brown; should the almonds be too hot then have the sugar simply melted, and again, if the sugar be very hot, it is unnecessary to heat them only slightly. The best nougat for eating is made with melted sugar, but for elaborate panel pieces requiring much cutting it is better to use cooked sugar, the same as used for spinning work, without diluting with syrup. Almonds are used in the proportion of six to eight ounces for every pound of sugar. This nougat is certainly not so good for eating as the preceding, but it is much easier to work, for it cools with less rapidity and bends with more facility. It can be molded in arabesque molds made of plaster, or else pressed on to tin leaves to form moldings around different sized rings, or else around sticks to form columns. The nougat is cut out when in a flat three-sixteenths of an inch thick, or even thinner, with cardboard designs applied on, then cut away all around; these cardboards should be cut out beforehand into any shapes, such as rounds, ovals, squares, oblongs, triangles, etc.