Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1202

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These should be arranged in rows in a pyramidal form, with the stalks inwards, so that when the whole is completed, nothing but the red part of the fruit is visible. When strawberries are served with cream, the stalks should be removed.

Although sugar may be boiled, and the degree approximately gauged by applying certain simple tests, the process is greatly simplified by the use of a saccharometer.

The different degrees to which sugar is boiled are classed is follows:—

Ingredients.—2 lbs of loaf sugar, 1 pint of water.

Method.—Dissolve the sugar in the water, bring to boiling point, and remove the scum. Boil for a few minutes, then dip the tip of the forefinger into the syrup and apply it to the thumb. If, on immediately separating the finger and thumb, the syrup is drawn out into a fine thread which breaks at a short distance, the sugar is boiled to the small thread (215° FF. [sic]).

Boil the syrup a little longer, and apply the same test; if the thread can be drawn longer without breaking, the syrup is boiled to the large thread (217° FF. [sic]).

Continue the boiling for a few moments and proceed as before. When the thumb and forefinger may be separated to a little distance without breaking the thread, the sugar is boiled to the small pearl (220° F.).