four and a half pounds of sugar to seven pounds of apples. Put the
sugar and fruit in the kettle and add just enough water to cover the
lower layer of fruit. Bring slowly to a boil, and cook until the apples
are clear and tender, but not broken. When they can be pierced with
a stiff straw they are done. Have ready boiling a pint of vinegar
that has been spiced with cinnamon, cloves and mace. (The cloves may
be whole, the mace and cinnamon broken into bits, and all boiled in
the vinegar for ten minutes.) Add the spiced vinegar to the boiling
fruit five minutes before the apples are ready to take out. Remove the
apples, spread on platters; boil the syrup and vinegar until thick;
pack the apples in jars, and fill these to overflowing with the boiling
liquid. Seal at once.
Pickled crabapples (No. 2)
Weigh and peel fourteen pounds of Siberian crabapples, and measure out
a quart of vinegar and eight pounds of granulated sugar. Put the apples
in a kettle with a pint of warm water and stew gently for ten minutes.
Drain, remove the apples from the kettle, and then put them back in
layers, strewing each layer with sugar. Bring to a boil. Have ready
boiling the vinegar, into which has been stirred three tablespoonfuls
of broken stick cinnamon and whole cloves, and a tablespoonful of
ground mace. Pour this spiced vinegar over the apples and boil for
five minutes. With a perforated skimmer remove the fruit, spread it on
platters to cool, boil the syrup until thick, pack the apples in jars,
and fill the jars with the boiling syrup. Seal immediately.
Pickled beets
Select nice red beets and boil until tender. Plunge each one separately
into cold water, and with your hands give a little twist to strip off
the skin. Cut lengthwise into strips. Place these, not too closely,
in glass jars, leaving room that the liquor may surround each piece.
To two quarts of vinegar add four pounds of brown sugar and one-half
teaspoonful of alum, powdered. Let this boil. After skimming, add one
teaspoonful, each, of cloves, allspice, mustard, a few peppercorns—all
unground and tied in a bag. Boil again, adding a little cayenne and
salt. Pour over the beets. Next day drain off the syrup, bring to a
boil, pour over the beets again, then seal. This pickle will be of a
rich red color and very delicious.
Spiced cranberries
These are good with roast duck or game. Wash a quart of cranberries
and put them into a saucepan with a half cupful of cold water. Tie in
a small cheese-cloth bag a dozen cloves, a dozen allspice, two sticks
of cinnamon (broken) and several blades of mace. Put this bag into the
cranberries and water, and stew all together until the fruit is broken
to bits. Remove the spice bag, rub the berries through a colander, add
two teacupfuls of brown sugar, stir over the fire until dissolved, and
set away to get cold.
Spiced grapes (No. 1)
Stem, pulp and seed the grapes, then weigh them. To five pounds of
fruit allow two and a half pounds of granulated sugar and a teacupful
of vinegar. Put all over the fire with two ounces, each, of stick
cinnamon, broken into bits, and whole cloves. Boil until very thick.
This will take about half an hour. The mixture should be so thick that
the juice will not run. When this point is reached put the fruit into
jelly glasses set in a pan of hot water. Cover the tops of the glasses
with rounds of tissue paper and fasten on metal covers.
The wild or “fox” grape is good for spicing, when half-ripe. The grapes
must always be firm, and not overripe.
Spiced currants
See preceding recipe.
Spiced grapes (No. 2)
Remove the skins from grapes, put the pulp over the fire and stew
gently until it can be rubbed through a strainer that will not
allow the seeds to pass. Weigh the pulp, and to every five pounds of
this add a pint of cider vinegar, four pounds of brown sugar, three
tablespoonfuls of ground cinnamon, and two of ground cloves. Stew all
together until very thick. Pour into jelly glasses and cover with
closely-fitting tops.
Spiced rhubarb
To two and a half pounds of rhubarb, washed and cut into inch bits, add
a cupful of vinegar, two pounds of sugar and a tablespoonful, each, of
cinnamon and cloves. Put all into a preserving kettle and boil steadily
for half an hour. Put up in jelly glasses, as you would jelly.
Olive oil pickles
(Contributed)
Peel and slice fifteen large cucumbers and six onions. Salt down
heavily and let them stand all night. In the morning drain; pour over
them half a gallon of cider vinegar and let them stand four hours.
Drain off the vinegar and heat with half a bottle of olive oil. Add
some chopped red peppers and celery seed for seasoning and when
thoroughly heated pour over the cucumbers and onions, put into glass
jars and seal at once.
Sweet green tomato pickles
(Contributed)
Slice one peck of green tomatoes and two quarts of small white onions,
and sprinkle over them a large cupful of salt. Let them stand over
night in the brine. In the morning drain well and let them stand in
cold water for a few minutes. Pour this water off and add enough
vinegar to cover. Add two pounds of brown sugar, one-fourth of a pound
of mustard seed and two tablespoonfuls each of allspice, whole cloves
and stick cinnamon. Cook all together until the pickles are tender; put
into jars and seal.
Pickled cauliflower
(Contributed)
Break the heads into small flowerlets, and boil ten or fifteen minutes
in salt and water; take from the fire and drain carefully. When cold
place in a jar, and pour over it hot vinegar in which have been scalded
whole cloves, pepper, allspice and white mustard. Have the spices
tied in a bag, and remove when well scalded. For each quart of hot
vinegar add two tablespoonfuls of French mustard and half a cupful of
white sugar. Be sure to cover the pickle with vinegar and keep covered
closely.
Dill pickles
(Contributed)
Make a brine strong enough to bear an egg, then add half as much more
water as you have brine. Wash the cucumbers in cold water, and into a
stone jar put first a layer of cucumbers, then a layer of grape-leaves
and a layer of dill, using leaves and stems. Continue in this way until
the jar is full. Pour the brine over all and cover, first with a cloth,
then with a plate, and put a weight on top of the plate. The cloth must
be taken off and washed frequently as in making sauerkraut.
Peach mangoes
Halve firm, free-stone peaches when you have washed and wiped them to
get rid of the “fur,” and remove the stones. Lay them in brine for
two days and in fresh water for one. Stuff with a mixture of grated
horseradish and mustard seed, adding a little celery seed. Tie the
halves into shape with soft pack-thread; pack in a stone jar and pour
spiced and sweetened vinegar over them. Cover closely. Scald the
vinegar and cover the peaches with it again once a fortnight for two
months. They will be fit to use in four months.
CATSUPS, ETCETERA
Catsups and spiced sauces are now so much used that the epicure feels
they are an indispensable accompaniment to his roast or broiled meat,
his bit of fish, or fowl, or dish of game. They may be prepared months
beforehand and kept against the day of need. The same rule holds in
the preparation of these relishes which we have quoted with regard to
pickles. They must be cooked in a porcelain-lined vessel, or one of
agate iron.
Chili sauce (No. 1)
Peel, and cut up together three dozen large tomatoes and a dozen
onions. Chop into bits half a dozen green peppers and mix with the
tomatoes and onions. Stir together a teacupful of brown sugar, five
tablespoonfuls of salt, half a dozen teaspoonfuls, each, of powdered
allspice, cloves and cinnamon, two teaspoonfuls of ground ginger, and a
saltspoonful of paprika. Put these spices into three quarts of vinegar,
add the vegetables, mix thoroughly, and cook steadily for two hours.
When cold, bottle and seal.
Chili sauce (No. 2)
Peel and chop two dozen ripe tomatoes and six onions. Remove the seeds
from two red peppers and chop the peppers fine; then stir them into the
tomatoes and onions. Season all with a teacupful of granulated sugar,
four tablespoonfuls of salt, three teaspoonfuls, each, of powdered
allspice, cloves and cinnamon, and a teaspoonful of ground ginger. Pour
over all two quarts of vinegar, and boil in a porcelain-lined kettle
for two and a half hours. When cool, bottle and seal.
Chutney
Chop a white cabbage and eight onions. Pack in a crock with alternate
layers of salt and let it stand twenty-four hours. Into a pint of
vinegar stir a half-pound of brown sugar, a heaping teaspoonful, each,
of tumeric, powdered alum, cinnamon, allspice, mace, black pepper,
mustard and celery seed, and heat all to boiling. Pour this liquid over
the cabbage and onions, and set aside for twenty-four hours longer.
Now drain off the liquid, bring again to the boil, and pour it again
over the pickle. Do this for three mornings; put liquor and vegetables
together in the preserving kettle, boil for five minutes; set aside
until cold, then pack in jars.
Piccalilli
Chop two fine large cabbages and a pint of onions, and mix. Pack
down in a stone crock and stir in a handful of salt. Leave thus for
twenty-four hours. Bring to a boil a quart of vinegar, into which
have been stirred a pound of sugar and a tablespoonful, each, of the
following ground spices—mustard, pepper, mace, allspice, celery seed,
cinnamon and tumeric. Pour over the cabbage and onion, turn all into
a preserving kettle and boil for ten minutes. When cold, pack in pint
jars.
Grape catsup
Wash tart grapes, remove the stems and put the fruit into a kettle,
with just enough water to prevent scorching. Stir often with a wooden
spoon and cook until tender. Rub, a little at a time, through a fine
colander. Reject the seeds and skins, and measure the pulp. To each
quart and a pint of this add a pound of brown sugar, a cupful of white
vinegar, a heaping teaspoonful, each, of ground cinnamon, allspice,
mace, salt and white pepper, and a half teaspoonful of ground cloves.
Boil long and steadily until the catsup is reduced to less than half
the original quantity, and very thick. When cold, bottle, cork tightly
and cover the corks with sealing wax.
Currant catsup
To four pounds of stemmed currants add two pounds of sugar, crush all
together, and boil slowly until quite thick. Add one-quarter of a
teaspoonful of salt, one-half pint of vinegar, one teaspoonful, each,
of powdered allspice, mace and cinnamon. Boil up and bottle at once.
Mushroom catsup
Break into quarters firm, fresh mushrooms. Put a layer of the broken
mushrooms into an earthen vessel and sprinkle with salt; then put in
more mushrooms and more salt until all are used. Cover the vessel and
set it on the cellar floor for three days, stirring the contents with
a wooden spoon three times a day. At the end of this time, warm the
mushrooms, mash them to a pulp, and strain through coarse netting,
squeezing out all the juice. Boil this for ten minutes and measure. To
every pint of the liquor allow a generous teaspoonful of whole peppers
and allspice, a blade of mace, two slices of onion, a bay-leaf and a
dash of paprika. Put liquor and spices over the fire, and boil until
thick. Strain, cool and fill bottles with catsup. Seal tightly.
Tomato catsup
Slice a peck of unpeeled tomatoes with six white onions and boil
together until so soft they can be rubbed through a colander. Now
strain through a sieve and return to the fire with three bay-leaves, a
tablespoonful, each, of powdered mace, pepper, cloves, sugar, salt, a
half teaspoonful of paprika, and a tablespoonful of celery seed—this
last tied up in a small cheese-cloth bag. Boil for nearly six hours,
stirring frequently. Remove the bag of celery seed, and pour in a pint
of vinegar. Bring again to a boil, and remove from the fire. When cold,
bottle and seal.
Walnut catsup
Select walnuts but half-grown and into which a needle enters easily.
Prick each clear through three times, pack in layers, strewing a
handful of salt between the layers. Pour in cold water until the
walnuts are covered, lay a heavy inverted saucer upon them to hold the
walnuts under the brine, and keep them in it two weeks. Every day churn
them with a wooden mallet to bruise and crack them into small bits. At
the end of the fortnight turn off the brine, beat the nuts fine; cover
them with boiling vinegar and add the reserved brine. Measure liquid
and crushed nuts, and allow for each quart a teaspoonful, each, of
onion juice and grated horseradish; two teaspoonfuls, each, of ground
cloves and mace, and a tablespoonful, each, of ground ginger and black
pepper. Boil steadily for two hours, run through a sieve, cool, bottle
and seal.
Pepper vinegar
Break up half a dozen red peppers. Add three dozen black peppercorns
and two tablespoonfuls of sugar to a quart of vinegar. Scald vinegar
and sugar, and pour over the peppers. Put in a jar, steep eight hours,
strain and bottle.
This is to be eaten with fish or raw oysters.
Mixed mustard
Into four tablespoonfuls of dry English mustard stir a tablespoonful of
salad oil. When this is well rubbed in, add enough vinegar to make a
smooth paste, a teaspoonful, each, of paprika, sugar and onion juice.
Beat hard until light, and bottle.
Home-made French mustard
Compound as directed in the preceding recipe, but have the vinegar
scalding hot and when all the ingredients are beaten to a paste set
this in a pan of boiling water; cover closely to keep in the strength
and cook fifteen minutes. Make a large quantity at a time and put up in
corked bottles or jars. It will improve with age.
THE HOME BREW
Tea (hot)
_First._ Never buy poor, cheap tea. It is the dearest in the end, in
every sense of the word, being unwholesome, unpalatable and wasteful.
One teaspoonful of good oolong, souchong, hyson or “bud” tea, will go
farther than four of a mixture which, when brewed, tastes at the best,
like boiled hay.
_Second._ Have the kettle boiling, and _freshly_ boiled. An hour’s
simmer after the boil has once been reached, makes the water stale and
flat.
_Third._ Draw off the tea within three minutes after the water is
poured upon the dry leaves. After that, the boiling liquid extracts
tannic acid in pernicious quantities and strength.
_Fourth._ Have the cups hot and fill with clear tea, adding sugar, or
cream, or both afterwards, to suit the taste of each drinker.
Cold tea
Strain the liquid from the leaves within a few minutes after it is
poured on. Set away until cold. Half-fill glasses with cracked ice;
add a slice of peeled lemon, a squeeze of lemon juice (if desired) and
granulated sugar to taste.
Breakfast coffee
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Allow a cupful of freshly ground coffee to a quart of boiling water.
Put the coffee into the strainer and add the boiling water by degrees,
until it is all in. Pour off into a heated pitcher, and return this to
the strainer. Repeat until the beverage is of the requisite strength,
and pour into heated cups.
[Illustration: BEVERAGES]
After-dinner coffee
Make as directed in last recipe, allowing, however, three cupfuls of
boiling water to one of freshly ground coffee, and run three times
through the filter.
Never pass cream with black coffee in after-dinner cups—“demi-tasses,”
as the French, who taught us to drink it, call the dainty digestive
agent.
To ask for cream in such a case is a gastronomic and social solecism.
Café au lait
Make strong black coffee and, while hot, add to it one-third as much
scalding milk. Cover and set in boiling water until needed.
Iced coffee
Set aside _café au lait_ until cold. Fill tumblers half-full of cracked
ice; sugar to taste, and pour in the coffee.
Chocolate
Heat two cupfuls of milk, and the same of water. Rub six tablespoonfuls
of chocolate to a thin, smooth paste with cold water; pour the water
gradually upon it; put into a saucepan and bring it quickly to a boil.
Cook thus five minutes, pour in the milk and boil ten minutes longer.
Sweeten to the taste of each drinker, and lay a tablespoonful of
whipped cream upon the top.
If you would make the chocolate particularly good, heat a sillibub
churn and beat the beverage _hard_ for five minutes; set in a vessel of
boiling water on the range to get smoking hot; pour out, sweeten, and
cap with whipped cream.
Cocoa
It is made in the same way.
Cocoa nibs or “shells”
Wet two ounces of cocoa shells with a little cold water, and stir them
into a quart of boiling water. Boil steadily for an hour and a half;
strain, stir in a quart of fresh milk, bring almost to the scalding
point, and serve. Sweeten in the cups.
Mint punch (very fine)
Put into your punch-bowl a cupful of granulated sugar; add the juice
of six lemons, and stir until the sugar melts. Put in three peeled
lemons, sliced very thin, and leave in the ice until you are ready to
use it. Add, then, a dozen sprays of green mint and a quart, at least,
of pounded ice. Stir well for a minute, and pour from a height into it,
two or three bottles of imported ginger ale.
Tea punch
Pour a quart of boiling water upon four teaspoonfuls of good tea.
Cover, and leave it for five minutes. Strain off, and cool. Half-fill
the punch-bowl with cracked ice, add a cupful of granulated sugar and
the strained juice of four lemons. Pour the tea over these, and, as it
goes to table, add a pint bottle of Apollinaris water. Strew a handful
of mint sprays on the surface, and serve at once.
Strawberry punch
Pour two cupfuls of strained fresh strawberry juice upon a cupful
(heaping) of granulated sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add
the juice of a lemon, and four cupfuls of cold water. Let it get very
cold upon the ice; stir well and put into a punch-bowl. Just before
serving, add a tablespoonful of maraschino, and half a cupful of fine,
whole strawberries.
Cherry wine
Stem and wash ripe, sweet cherries, and with a wooden mallet crush
to a pulp. Press out all the juice and to each quart of it, add a
half-pound of granulated sugar and a cupful of water. Stir thoroughly,
pour into a crock; cover this closely with a thickness of cheese-cloth,
and let the wine ferment for a month. When the fermentation has ceased
rack off and bottle.
Lemonade, or plain sherbet
Roll, peel carefully and slice thin six lemons. Put into a pitcher or
bowl with alternate layers of granulated sugar, two teaspoonfuls for
each lemon. Leave on the ice until you are ready to serve; then add a
quart of iced water and a great lump of ice.
Lively lemonade
Make as directed in preceding recipe, but pour in at the last, a quart
of chilled Apollinaris, instead of the iced water.
Raspberry vinegar
Mash the berries and, when reduced to a pulp, add enough vinegar to
cover them. Set close by the stove for twelve hours, stirring often.
Strain and press; add as many raspberries (mashed) to the vinegar as
before; cover and leave in the kitchen or in the hot sun for six hours.
Now strain, and measure the juice; add half as much water as you have
juice, and stir into this five pounds of granulated sugar for every
three pints of liquid. Bring slowly to a boil, let it boil up once, and
strain. Bottle, cork and seal.
Blackberry vinegar
Make this by the recipe for raspberry vinegar, only putting in five
and a half pounds of sugar to every three pints of the juice and water
mixed.
Rhubarb wine
Boil the rhubarb in a double boiler, adding no water after you have
washed it and cut it into bits. Press out all the juice and measure
this. Add as much water as you have juice, sweeten to taste, and add a
cup of brandy to a gallon of the liquid. Bottle and seal.
Grape juice
Stem six quarts of grapes and put them over the fire with one quart of
water; bring slowly to a boil and strain. Return the juice to the fire,
bring again to the boil, bottle and seal, while scalding-hot.
Cherry bounce
Beat to a pulp two pounds, each, of sweet and tart cherries, and
mix together. The beating should be done with a heavy mallet that
the stones may be crushed. Stir into the mashed fruit a pound and a
quarter of granulated sugar; turn all into a stone crock, and stir in
a quart of white whiskey. Leave thus for an hour; stir and pour into
a demijohn. Cork and let it stand for a month, shaking hard each day;
then let it alone for six weeks without shaking. Rack off, strain and
bottle.
Wild cherry bounce
Bruise with a potato beetle five quarts of ripe, wild cherries, and
stir into them four cupfuls of granulated sugar. Turn into a stone
crock, cover, and set in the cellar for twenty-four hours. Now, add a
quart and a cupful of brandy—stirring it in well. Let the mixture alone
for six weeks—stirring every few days—before straining off the liquor
through double cheese cloth. Bottle and seal. When ready for use, fill
liquor glasses with crushed ice and pour the crimson cordial into them.
It is an excellent tonic, and also good for a cough.
Homemade grape wine (No. 1)
Put the grapes, stems and all, into an open cask, and mash them. Cover
your cask with cheese-cloth to prevent anything from falling in, as one
crumb of bread will change the contents into vinegar. When the grapes
have fermented, pass through a fruit press; turn the juice that has
been extracted into a clean, close cask, and let it remain on its side
for a month, when your wine will be ready to be bottled. By no means
disturb the cask, or the wine will not be clear. Keep the wine in a
dark, cool place, and lay the bottles containing it on their sides.
When the grapes are fermenting, stir every day.
Grape wine (No. 2)
Crush out the juice of ripe grapes, after having picked them from the
stems. A large quantity could be crushed in a cider press, but when
only a few are to be used they can be mashed in a crock, or clean
tub, with a potato beetle. Strain, then, through a bag, squeezing or
pressing this so as to get all the juice possible. To each quart of the
juice add half a pound of white sugar, and put away in a clean cask, or
big jar to ferment. Cover the top, or the bung-hole, with a piece of
netting. Let the juice and sugar ferment for three or four weeks, until
it is clear and still. Pour it off the lees carefully, and bottle.
Matzoon
Take one and a half ounces of prepared matzoon, which you can get at
drug stores, and one quart of fresh milk. Stir well and place in a
pitcher at a temperature of from 70 to 90 degrees, for from nine to
twelve hours, until it begins to thicken like junket; then beat it for
ten minutes. Bottle in patent-stoppered bottles, and put on ice. Fresh
matzoon may be made from that which you have prepared in this way. You
have to buy but one bottle to start with. This quantity makes three
bottles, not quite full, as it effervesces like koumiss.
Strawberry wine
Mash and strain six quarts of ripe strawberries. To every quart of
juice add a quart of water and a pound of sugar. Stir well, and turn
into a crock to ferment. When fermentation ceases, rack off carefully,
bottle and seal.
Dandelion wine
Steep the dandelion flowers in boiling water for five minutes, and
strain off the liquid, pressing the flowers hard. Sweeten to taste and
add brandy in the proportion of a pint to every four gallons of liquid.
Put in uncorked bottles and keep in a cool place until fermentation
ceases. Draw off and rebottle.
Dandelion cordial
Four quarts of dandelion blossoms; four quarts of boiling water; four
quarts of granulated sugar; three tablespoonfuls of compressed yeast;
two lemons grated fine; one orange.
Let the blossoms and water stand together until lukewarm; mix and add
the sugar, orange, lemons and yeast; strain, and put in a cold place
for two days; then strain again. Put into a keg and let it work,
without tight corking, until as clear as water.
Dandelion tea
Pour boiling water over the dandelion blossoms; let them stand at the
side of the fire to steep, but not boil, for five minutes; then strain,
pressing out all the juice. Sweeten to taste and drink very hot, or
cold, in a glass filled with cracked ice.
Ginger beer
Boil six ounces of bruised ginger in six quarts of water for half an
hour; then add five pounds of loaf sugar, a gill of lemon juice, a
quarter-pound of honey, and seventeen quarts of cold water, and strain
through a cloth. When it is cold put in an egg and two teaspoonfuls of
essence of lemon. After standing three or four days it may be bottled.
Ginger wine