Fudges

Measure two cups of granulated sugar and one cup of milk. Set this on the fire to heat. After it is warm, add a piece of butter the size of an egg and three heaping tablespoons of grated chocolate. Boil twenty minutes. To judge whether it is done, drop a little into ice water, and if it stiffens, remove from the fire, and add a teaspoon of vanilla and beat until almost cold. Have ready buttered pans. Pour the mixture into them, and mark them off in squares. Set away to cool.

Maple Fudge

Take a cup and a half of maple sugar broken into very small pieces and half a cup of granulated sugar. Add a cup of milk, set over the fire, and add two heaping tablespoons of coarsely grated or scraped unsweetened chocolate and a tablespoon of butter. Boil all together carefully for half an hour. To test if it is done put a little in a saucer; if it hardens, it is done. Take from the fire, stir in a teaspoon of vanilla and a cup of walnut meats, keep on stirring till the fudge begins to stiffen, and then pour into shallow buttered tins. Mark off in squares and set in a cool place to chill.

Molasses Candy With Nuts

Put one tablespoon of butter, two tablespoons of water, and one cup of sugar in a kettle. Stir and watch when the mixture boils. Then add half a cup of molasses of the best sort not the adulterated which floods the market, but pure New Orleans molasses if you can get it. Boil fifteen minutes, watching carefully, and then test. If the mixture candies in cold water, it is done. Have on the bottom of buttered tins rows of hickorynuts or other meats you have picked out while the syrup is boiling. Pour the syrup over the meats and cool.

Nougat

To make this most delectable of candies, melt over the fire in a porcelainlined vessel one pound of fine white sugar with two tablespoons of water. Have ready a half pound of sweet almonds, blanched and chopped. When the syrup begins to turn yellow, add the nuts, stir for five minutes, add a little grated lemonpeel, and pour at once into a welloiled flat pan. When partly cooled, mark with a greased knife into bars.

Peanut Candy

Melt slowly in a saucepan a pound of heavy wet brown sugar add no water. Shell a quart of fresh roasted peanuts and chop them a little. When the sugar is cooked to a thick syrup, shake a little salt over the peanuts and stir them in. Pour in shallow buttered tins and cool.

Pralines

The fame of these delicious sweetmeats has come north from New Orleans, where you find them sold on the streets. Boil together two scant cups of powdered sugar, one cup of maple syrup, and half a cup of thick cream. When this mixture can be dipped into cold water and forms a soft ball it is ready to take from the fire. Beat it till smooth and creamy, then stir in two cups of broken pecan meats and drop from a teaspoon in small piles upon paraffine paper.

Popcorn Wafers

Make a receipt of boiled icing. Stir in fresh popcorn that has been buttered and salted. Have long wafers. Pile on the corn till it is nearly an inch thick; set in the oven and brown to a light color.

Chestnuts Candied Or Matrons Glaces

Parboil eighteen or twenty large French chestnuts till the skins rub off easily. Then put in hot water and simmer till tender. Dissolve a cup of sugar in a cup of water, and add the tender chestnuts. Move them carefully so they will not break. Let them cook in the hot syrup till clear, then take them out. Next boil the syrup till it hardens on being dropped in cold water, take from the fire, and add half a dozen drops of lemonjuice. Put in the chestnuts, turn them about till they are coated with the syrup and drain on oiled paper.

Stuffed Dates

Purchase the finest dates for this sweetmeat, and after separating them wipe each one carefully with a bit of damp cheesecloth. Make a cut the entire length of a date and remove the stone. Fill the cavity with a blanched almond or an English walnut. Sprinkle the palms of the hands with powdered sugar and roll the date to its original form. Leave the dates in powdered sugar until ready to serve.

Fruit Candy

Cut half a pound of figs in small pieces, add a tablespoon of grated chocolate and two pounds of sugar and enough water to dissolve the sugar. Cook all together till it creams, and then add, after taking from the fire, threequarters of a pound of seeded dates and the meats of a pound and a half of English walnuts. Stir all together till grains appear, and then spread in oiled pans and set to cool. Cut in squares when cold.

Candied Orange Rinds

Orange rinds left from breakfast you may convert into a dainty confection. Cut them in strips, carefully removing the bitter white part. Boil them in hot water till quite tender. To a cup of sugar add four tablespoons of water, cook to the crackling point and drop in the orange strips and cook five minutes longer. Set away to cool, leaving the rinds in the syrup. When cool drain the rinds on a sieve, dip in granulated sugar, and dry on oiled paper.

Almost any largeteamed nuts pecans, almonds, filberts, peanuts, or English walnuts may be salted. Buy pecans and walnuts shelled, as it is very difficult to remove them from the shells entire. A pound of shelled walnuts at forty cents a pound is really cheaper than when unshelled at twenty cents. Peanuts and almonds are more economical purchased unshelled. Obtain peanuts that are unroasted. Remove the skins by pouring boiling water over them a process which is called blanching then dry thoroughly. For a pound of nuts pour half a cup of olive oil in a spider. When hot, put in one cup of the nuts and shake gently over a brisk fire till they begin to brown delicately. When all are evenly browned, lift the nuts on a skimmer, drain as much oil from them as possible and toss on a sheet of white blotting paper. Dust liberally with fine salt. Do not salt nuts longer than twentyfour hours before they are eaten.