PASTES FORMED WITH GUM--PATE DE GUIMAUVE--MARSH MALLOW PASTE.--Gum arabic three pounds, roots of fresh marsh-mallows eight ounces, one dozen of rennet apples, loaf sugar three pounds. Peel, core, and cut the apples in pieces. Cleanse the roots, and slice them lengthways in an oblique direction; add this to seven pints of water; soft or river water is the best when filtered; put it on the fire and boil for a quarter of an hour, or until reduced to six pints; pound and sift the gum through a hair sieve; strain the decoction into a pan with the gum; put it on a moderate fire, or into a bain-marie, stirring it until the gum is perfectly dissolved; then strain it through a coarse towel or tamis cloth, the ends being twisted by two persons; add it to the sugar, which has been previously clarified and boiled to the feather; dry it well over the fire, keeping it constantly stirred from the bottom. When it has acquired a thick consistence, take the whites of eighteen eggs, and whip them to a strong froth; add them to the paste, and dry until it does not stick to the hand when it is applied to it; add a little essence of neroli, or a large glassful of double orange-flower water, and evaporate again to the same consistence. Pour it on a marble slab well dusted with starch powder, flatten it with the hand; the next day cut it into strips, powder each strip, and put them in boxes. Powder the bottom, that they may not stick.
PATE DE BLANCHE REGLISSE--WHITE LICORICE PASTE.--This is made the same as marsh-mallow paste, using licorice-root instead of mallow. It may be made without the eggs, and finished as jujubes.
PATE DE GOMME ARABIQUE--ARABIC PASTE.--Very white gum arabic two pounds, sugar two pounds, orange-flower water four ounces, the whites of twelve eggs. Pound and sift the gum, add it to the water, dissolve and evaporate it over a slow fire, stirring it constantly until it is reduced to the consistence of honey with the sugar in syrup. Whip the whites to a strong snow; add it to the paste with the orange-flower water, gradually; stir and finish as marsh-mallow paste, for which this is mostly substituted, and much used for coughs. It should be very white, light, and spongy.