A Meringue Pudding
Rub off upon a large lump of sugar the yellow rind of two fine ripe lemons, and mix it with a pound of powdered loaf sugar, adding the juice. Whip, to a stiff froth, the whites only of eight eggs; and then, gradually, beat in the sugar and lemon, adding a heaped table-spoonful of the finest flour. Spread part of the mixture thickly over the bottom of a deep dish, the rim of which has been bordered with a handsome wreath of puff-paste, and baked. Lay upon it a thick layer of stiff currant or strawberry jelly. Then fill up the dish, and set it, a few minutes in a rather cool oven to brown slightly. This pudding is for dinner company. If you use oranges, omit half the grated peel.
You may flavor the meringue with vanilla. Split, and break up a small vanilla bean, and boil it in a very little cream till all the vanilla flavor is extracted, the cream tasting of it strongly. Then strain it well, and mix the vanilla cream with the white of egg. Or, a little home-made extract of vanilla will be still better. This is obtained by splitting and breaking up some vanilla beans, and steeping them for a week or two in a bottle of absolute alcohol; then straining the liquid, transferring it to a clean bottle, and keeping it closely corked. Very little of what is called “Extract of Vanilla” is good, and it is more expensive than to make it yourself. Also, what is generally sold for essence of lemon is very inferior to real lemon juice.