1 meal in this book
“The cultivation of cacao is an extremely risky and delicate business, as, often when the planter's hopes are about to be realized, a slight storm will throw down the almost-ripened fruit in a day. A disease sometimes attacks the roots and spreads through a plantation. It would be imprudent, therefore, to devote one's time exclusively to the cultivation of this product at the risk of almost instantaneous ruin. Usually, the Philippine agriculturist rightly regards cacao only as a useful adjunct to his other crops. In the aspect of a cacao plantation there is nothing specially attractive. The tree itself is not pretty. The natives who grow the fruit usually make their own chocolate at home by roasting the beans over a slow fire, and after separating them from their husks (like almond-skins), they pound them with wet sugar, etc., into a paste, using a kind of rolling-pin on a concave block of wood. The roasted beans should be made into chocolate at once, as by exposure to the air they lose flavour. Small quantities of cacao are sent to Spain, but the consumption in the Colony, when made into chocolate [142] by adding sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, etc., to counteract the natural bitterness of the bean, is considerable. In making the paste, a large quantity of sugar is added, varying from one-third of its weight to equal parts, whilst one pod of vanilla is sufficient for 1 1/2 lbs. of cacao. Chocolate is often adulterated with roasted rice and _Pili_ nuts. The roasted _Pili_ nut alone has a very agreeable almond taste. As a beverage, chocolate is in great favour with the Spaniards and half-castes and the better class of natives. In every household of any pretensions the afternoon caller is invited to "merendar con chocolate," which corresponds to the English "5 o'clock tea."”
Blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water on them, and let them stand two or three minutes. Roast them in oven. Dip them in the following recipe for chocolate coating, and drop on paraffine paper. 1/2 pound cake of Walter Baker's Vanilla Sweet Chocolate, 2 level tablespoonfuls of butter, 2 tablespoonfuls of boiling water. Put chocolate in small saucepan over boiling water and when melted stir in butter and water. Mix well. If found to be too thick, add more water; if too thin, more chocolate.
Recipe from Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes and Home Made Candy Recipes of 1909.
Sources: Every passage above is quoted verbatim from The Philippine Islands, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipes come from cookbooks of the period, also free in full. All are in the public domain in the United States. The binding is ours — burgundy cloth, teapot stamp.