May be prepared in a like manner.
PRESERVATION AND STORING OF FRUIT,--PRINCIPAL REQUISITES OF A GOOD FRUIT
ROOM.
In storing fruits, care should be taken not to bruise them. Pears,
apples, and all other summer fruit should be placed on shelves singly in
a dry and well aired room, and not on moss, hay, or straw, as is often
done, because they thereby contract a very disagreeable flavour. It is
better to lay the fruit on a clean shelf, covered with a sheet of common
writing paper; brown paper gives them a flavour of pitch.
The finer large kinds of pears should not be allowed to touch one
another, but should be laid single and distinct. Apples, and all kinds
of pears, should be laid thin; never tier above tier, which causes them
to sweat, and undergo a kind of fermentation, which renders them mealy.
A great deal of the preservation of summer fruit depends on the manner
of gathering them. After having prepared the fruit-room, a fine day is
to be chosen, and, if possible, after two or three preceding days of dry
weather, and about two in the afternoon the fruit is to be gathered, and
deposited in baskets of a moderate size, taking care that none of it
receive any bruise or blemish, for the injured part soon rots and spoils
the sound fruit in contact with it. As the summer fruits ripen more
quickly after they are pulled, only a few days’ consumption should be
gathered at once. Autumn apples and pears should be gathered about eight
days before they are ripe, and indeed some kinds never become fit for
eating on the tree. If they have been necessarily gathered in wet
weather, or early in the morning, they should be exposed a day to the
sun to dry, and they should on no account be wiped, which rubs off the
_bloom_, as it is called, which, when allowed to dry, on some fruits,
constitutes a natural varnish, closing up the pores, and preventing the
evaporation of the juices.
Fine pears may be preserved by passing a thread through the stack, and
having sealed up the end of the stack with a drop of sealing wax, to
hang them up separately in a cone of paper, suspended by the thread.
_Grapes_ keep much better when hanging than when laid upon a table, and
it is advisable also to seal the cut end with a drop of sealing wax; or
they may be hung by the stack, or by the point of the bunch, as the
grapes are thus less pressed against each other; but it is in both cases
necessary to visit them from time to time, and to cut off with a pair
of scissors every berry that is mouldy or spoiled.
More artificial modes of preserving grapes in a succulent state are
sometimes used, and become necessary for their transportation to distant
countries. They are often packed with bran and saw dust. If intended for
transportation they should not be quite ripe.
The principal requisites of a good fruit room are great dryness and
equality of temperature, and the power of excluding light. It should be
furnished with a number of shallow trays, supported on a rack or stand
one above another. It should have openings to admit fresh air during
fine weather. It should be warmed during frost.
PRESERVATION OF RECENT ESCULENT ROOTS, POT-HERBS, AND OTHER CULINARY
VEGETABLES.
When it is necessary to keep vegetables a few days before they are made
use of, care should be taken that they receive as little injury as
possible from keeping. The rules are simple and easy:--vegetables of
different sorts should not be left in the same bundle, or basket; they
should not be washed till they are about to be used; but if they have
got flaccid, or dry-shrivelled, and wrinkly, (not otherwise,) they
should be immersed in water: but to prevent them becoming so, the best
method is not to expose them to the sun or air, but to keep them in a
cool, dark, damp place, not scattered about, but close together, though
not in great quantities, lest they heat, and a sort of fermentation
begins, which destroys the quality altogether.--Strong scented
vegetables should be kept apart from those that are inodorous.
Leeks or cellery will quickly spoil a whole basketful of cauliflower,
sallads, or the finer vegetables.
Another general rule, as already stated, is, that they should not be
kept in water when fresh, or refreshed by sprinkling them with water,
(as is often practised,) till they are to be used, for the flavour is
thereby greatly injured. It is only when they have become flaccid that
they should be immersed in water to restore their crispness before they
are cooked, otherwise they will be tough and unpalatable; this is to be
done, when the size of the vegetable admits of it, as cauliflower,
sallad, cellery, &c., by cutting off a piece of the stalk and setting
the fresh surface, thus exposed, in water, which will be absorbed; in
other cases the whole vegetable must be immersed in water.
Most vegetable substances being more or less succulent, their full
proportion of fluids is necessary for their retaining that state of
crispness or plumpness which they have when growing. On being cut or
gathered the exhalation from their surface continues, while, from the
open vessels of the cut surface, there is often great exudation or
evaporation, and thus their natural moisture is diminished, and the
tender leaves become flaccid, and the thicker masses or roots lose their
plumpness. This is not only less pleasant to the eye, but is a real
injury to the nutritious powers of the vegetable; for in this flaccid
and shrivelled state its fibres are less easily divided in chewing, and
the water which exists in vegetable substances, in the form of their
respective natural juices, is directly nutritious. The first care in the
preservation of succulent vegetables, therefore, is to prevent them from
losing their natural moisture. In regard to the tender succulent
vegetables this is not altogether possible; because there is a constant
exhalation from their surface, while the supply of moisture is cut off.
The principle of preserving them, then, is to retard and diminish the
exhalation. Even growing vegetables become flaccid in a hot sun, because
the exhalation is then greater than the supply; and exposure to the sun
is absolutely ruinous to all the more delicate vegetables.--The
operation of heat and air is slower but similar. Succulent vegetables
should, therefore, be kept in a cool, shady, and damp place.
Common sense will suggest what is best, when it is known that to keep
vegetables fresh for a short time, the best way is to hinder them from
becoming too dry, and therefore to keep them from heat and air, and to
avoid crushing or bruising them.
If they become frozen in the cold of winter, they should be immersed in
cold water for an hour or two, and the water should be changed once or
twice.
The earthy mould should never be washed from potatoes, or any other sort
of roots, till they are to be dressed.
When potatoes, turnips, carrots, or any other roots are to be preserved
for a length of time, they should be covered with earth, or straw and
mats, to preserve them both from the air and the action of frost, which
is peculiarly hurtful to all vegetable substances.
Sweet herbs, or savoury pot-herbs should be gathered in a dry day.
Cleanse them well from dirt and dust, cut off the roots, separate the
bunches into smaller ones, and hang them across a line in the kitchen,
where there is a moderate heat, which will dry them in an excellent
manner: when perfectly dry, put them in bags, and lay them by on a shelf
in the kitchen, they will keep good for twelve months, and be ready in
the moment when wanted: or rub off the stalks, put them through a coarse
hair sieve, and put the powder into stopped bottles; by this means their
flavour is still better preserved.--They are in the highest state of
perfection just before they begin to flower; the first and last crop
have neither the fine flavour nor the perfume of those which are
gathered in the height of the season; that is when the greater part of
the crop of each species is ripe at the same period.
* * * * *
_Basil_ is in the best state for drying from the middle and end of
August.
_Knotted Marjoram_, from the beginning of July, and during the whole
month.
_Winter Savory_, the latter end of July, and throughout August.
_Summer Savory_, the latter end of July, and throughout August.
_Thyme_, _Lemon-Thyme_, and _Orange-Thyme_, during June and July.
_Mint_, the latter part of June, and during July.
_Sage_, in August and September.
_Tarragon_, in June, July, August.
Vinegar.
Vinegar may be made in the small way from grapes, gooseberries, or other
sub-acid fruits, with the addition of a portion of Muscovado sugar,
honey, or malt wort.
In this country vinegar is prepared from a wort obtained by the infusion
of malted grain; the fermentation being excited by yeast. This vinegar
is inferior in strength and purity to that from wine, and is more liable
to become mouldy, or suffer the putrefactive fermentation. And this
appears to be owing to the presence of a large portion of glutinous
matter.
To make vinegar for domestic use, fit for keeping, it is essential that
the fluid employed for that purpose should contain in every gallon at
least three pounds of sugar; to allow some access of air to the vessel
in which it is kept, and to keep it in a temperature rather higher than
that of the atmosphere in this climate, that is about 75° to 80° Fahr.
It is also essential, where a liquor already fermented is employed, to
add a portion of yeast; for though any fermented liquor, if kept in a
moderate temperature in an open vessel, will spontaneously run sour, or
become changed to vinegar, this change is too gradual to produce this
acid in perfection, and the first acetified portion turns mouldy before
the last has become sour: but where the substance employed has not yet
undergone fermentation, the whole process of the vinous and subsequent
acetous fermentation will go on uninterruptedly with the same ferment
which at first set it in action, which happens, for example, in the
making vinegar from malt, or from fruit, sugar, and water.