that we recommend all families to make their own, or to buy it from a
cider farmer. Good cider, set in the sun, will after a while become good
vinegar.
What is shamefully called the best white wine vinegar is frequently a
slow poison, as may be known by its action upon oysters, pickles, &c. It
is quite clear and well to look at. Its taste is very sharp and pungent,
as to overpower and render every thing that is with it painfully sour,
and it has a singular and disagreeable smell when boiling. Oysters
cooked with this vinegar go immediately into rags, and are soon entirely
eaten up, or dissolved into a thin whitish liquid, fit for nothing but
to throw away.
Pickles the same. A punishment should be provided by law for persons who
manufacture and sell these deleterious compounds, of which we have now
so many, that it would indeed be well if we could make at home, as far
as possible, every thing we eat and drink.
PINK CHAMPAGNE--(_Domestic._)--Pick from the stems three quarts of fine
ripe red currants, and mix with them three quarts of ripe white
currants. Bruise them all. Put nine pounds of loaf sugar to melt in
three gallons of very clear soft water. Boil the water and sugar
together for half an hour, skimming carefully, and pour the liquid
boiling hot over the currants. When it is nearly cold, add a small
tea-cupful of excellent strong fresh yeast. Let it ferment for two days,
and then strain it into a small cask through a very clean hair sieve.
Put into the cask half an ounce of finely-chipped isinglass. Have rather
more liquor than will fill the cask at first, and keep it to fill up as
it works over. In about a fortnight bung it up. Let it remain in the
cask till April. Then transfer it to bottles, (putting into each a lump
of double-refined loaf sugar,) and letting them remain one day uncorked.
Then cork and wire them. They must stand upright in the cellar; but when
likely to be wanted, lay a few of them on their sides for a week.
SHERRY COBBLER.--Lay in the bottom of a large tumbler, two
table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar, and squeeze over it (through a
strainer) the juice of a large lemon that has been softened by rolling
under your hand. Then half fill the tumbler with ice, broken very small.
Add a large glass of very good sherry wine. Take another tumbler, and
pour the liquid back and forward from glass to glass, till completely
mixed without stirring. Sip it through a clean straw, or one of the
tubes made on purpose.
MINT JULEP.--Cut two or three round slices from a fine ripe pine-apple
that has been pared; and take out the core or hard part from the centre
of each slice. A still better way is to split down the pine-apple into
four pieces, and grate two of the quarters with a coarse grater,
standing it upright while doing so. Put it into a large tumbler, and
cover the fruit with two or three heaped table-spoonfuls of powdered
loaf sugar. Add a large glass of the best brandy, and pour on cold water
till the tumbler is two-thirds full. Then put in a thick layer of finely
broken ice, till it almost reaches the top. Finish by sticking in a full
bunch of fresh green mint in handsome sprigs, that rise far above one
side of the tumbler; and at the other side place a clean straw, or one
of the tubes used for the same purpose.
CAROLINA PUNCH.--Mix together a tumbler of peach brandy and a tumbler of
water, the juice of two lemons, the yellow rinds of four, pared to
transparent thinness, and four large juicy free-stone peaches cut in
half, and the kernels of their stones blanched and broken up. If you
cannot obtain peaches, quarter and grate down a ripe pine-apple. Let all
these ingredients infuse with a quart of Jamaica spirits in a bowl for
two days before the punch is wanted. Keep it carefully covered with a
cloth. Then pour on sufficient cold water to make the punch of the
desired strength; and strain the liquid into another bowl, and put in a
large lump of ice. Serve it out in small glasses.
NECTAR.--Take two pounds of _the best_ raisins, seeded and chopped; the
grated yellow rind and the juice of four fine lemons, and two pounds of
loaf sugar, powdered. Put the sugar into a large porcelain kettle, and
melt it in a gallon of water. Boil and skim it for half an hour, and
while it is boiling hard, put in by degrees the raisins and lemons.
Continue the boiling about ten minutes. Put the mixture into a stoneware
crock, and cover it closely. Let it stand three days, stirring it down
to the bottom twice every day. Then strain it through a linen bag, and
bottle it, sealing the corks. It will be fit for use in a fortnight.
Take it in wine-glasses, with a bit of ice in each. This is a nice
temperance drink.
CHOCOLATE CARAMEL.--Take half a pint of rich milk, and put it to boil in
a porcelain kettle; scrape down a square and a half of Baker's
chocolate, put it into a very clean tin cup, and set on the top of a
stove till it becomes soft. Let the milk boil up _twice_. Then add,
gradually, the chocolate, and stir both over the fire till thoroughly
mixed and free from lumps. Stir in a half pint of the best white sugar
powdered, and half a jill (or four large table-spoonfuls,) of molasses.
Let the whole boil fast and constantly (so as to bubble,) for at least
one hour or more, till it is nearly as stiff as good mush. When all is
done add a small tea-spoonful of essence of vanilla, and transfer the
mixture to shallow tin pans, slightly greased with very nice sweet oil.
Set it on ice, or in a very cool place, and while yet soft mark it
deeply in squares with a very sharp knife. When quite hard, cut the
squares apart. If it does not harden well it has not been boiled long
enough, or fast enough.
EGGS TO BOIL.--The water must be boiling fast when the eggs are put in.
First wipe them clean all over, with a wet cloth. It is true that the
shells are never eaten, but still, if brought to table dirty and
discolored, they look slovenly, disgusting, and vulgar, such as are
never seen in good houses. Put them into water that is boiling fast; and
if desired very soft, four minutes will be sufficient. Six or eight
minutes will barely set the whites and yolks, and ten or twelve minutes
(in water that is really boiling,) will render them hard enough for
salad. In the egg-boilers that are set on the table no egg will ever
boil hard, as the water cools too soon. A _stale_ egg never boils hard.
Except in the spring, and late in the winter, there is often much
difficulty in obtaining good eggs, unless you have fowls of your own. If
an egg is really fresh, when held up against the light, the yolk looks
round and compact and the white clear and transparent; you may then
trust it. But if the yolk is thick, broken, and mixed among the white,
and the white is cloudy and muddled, it is certainly bad, and should be
thrown away. When tried in a pan of cold water the freshest will sink,
and the stale ones float on the surface. It requires strong brine to
bear up a good egg. Eggs may be preserved for keeping a few months, by
putting every one in fast boiling water for _one minute_. Then grease
them all over the outside with good melted fat, and wedge down close
together (layer above layer,) in a box of powdered charcoal. This
preserves them for a sea voyage of several weeks. The charcoal box must
be kept closely covered, and closed immediately whenever opened. Pack
the eggs with the small end downwards.
POACHED EGGS.--See that the eggs are quite fresh. Pour from a kettle of
boiling water enough to fill a broad shallow stew-pan. Break the eggs
into a saucer, (one at a time,) slip them carefully into the hot water,
and let them stand in it till the whites are set. Then put the pan over
a moderate fire; and, as soon as the water boils again, the eggs are
ready. The whites should be firm, and the yolks should appear in the
centre looking yellow through a thin transparent coating of the white.
Take them out carefully (one by one,) with an egg-slice. Have ready, for
each egg, a nice slice of toast of a light brown or yellow all over.
Trim off all the crust, and dip the toast for a minute in hot water.
Then butter it _slightly_ with fresh butter. Trim off neatly the ragged
and discolored white from the edge of each egg. Lay a poached egg in the
middle of every toast, and serve them up warm.
Instead of toast, you may lay beneath every egg a thin slice of ham,
that has been soaked, and nicely broiled and trimmed. Or, large thin
slices from the breast of a cold roast turkey, or cold fillet of roast
pork or veal. These are nice breakfast dishes.
_Scrambled Eggs._--Make a mixture as for an omelet, but instead of
frying put it into a sauce-pan, and when it has boiled five minutes take
it off, and chop and mix all the ingredients into confusion. Serve it up
hot in a deep dish. It is eaten at breakfast, and is by many preferred
to a fried omelet. You may season it with grated ham, tongue, or sweet
herbs.
EGG-NOGG.--Beat, till very light and thick, the yolks only of six eggs.
Stir the eggs, gradually, into a quart of rich unskimmed milk, and add
half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, a half pint of brandy, and a grated
nutmeg. Next beat three whites of the eggs by themselves, and stir them
quickly into the mixture. Divide it into two pitchers, and pour it back
and forward from one pitcher to the other till it has a fine froth. Then
serve it in a large china bowl, with a silver ladle in it, and
distribute it in glasses with handles.
_To Beat Eggs._--For beating eggs have a broad shallow earthen pan. If
beaten in tin, the coldness of the metal retards their lightness; for
the same reason, hickory rods are better than tin wire. Beat with a
short quick stroke, holding the egg rods in your right hand close to
your side, and do not exert your elbow, or use your arm violently with a
hard sweeping stroke; of this there is no necessity. If beaten in a
proper manner, (moving your hand _only_ at the wrist) the eggs will be
light long before you are fatigued. But you must continue beating till
after the froth has subsided, and the pan of eggs presents a smooth
thick surface, like a nice boiled custard. White of egg is done if it
stands stiff alone, and will not fall from the beater when held upon it.
Butter and sugar should always be stirred with a strong hickory spaddle,
which resembles a short mush stick, rather broad and flattened at one
end.
BRAN MUFFINS.--Take three quarts of bran, (unbolted wheat flour) and
sift it into a large pan. Warm three half pints of rich milk, mixing
with it half a common tumbler of _West India_ molasses. Cut up in the
warm milk and molasses two ounces or two large heaped table-spoonfuls of
fresh butter, and stir it about till well mixed all through. Then stir
all the liquid into the flour. Beat in a shallow pan three eggs till
very thick and light, and then stir them gradually into the pan of
flour, &c. Lastly, add two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast. Cover
the mixture and set it to rise. When risen very light heat a griddle on
the oven of a stove, set muffin rings upon it, fill the rings nearly to
the top, and bake the muffins. Send them to table hot, pull them open
with your fingers, and butter them. They will be much liked if properly
made and baked.
COTTAGE CHEESE.--This is a good way of using up a pan of milk that is
found to be turning sour. Or you may turn it, on purpose, by stirring in
a spoonful of cider vinegar. Having covered it, set it in a warm place
till it becomes a curd. Then pour off the liquid, and tie up the curd in
a clean linen bag with a pointed end, and set a bowl under it to catch
the droppings; but do not squeeze it. After it has drained ten or twelve
hours, transfer the curd to a deep dish, enrich it with some cream, and
press and chop it with a large spoon till it is a soft mass; adding, as
you proceed, an ounce or more of nice fresh butter. Then set it on ice
till tea-time.
FRENCH HAM PIE.--Having soaked, boiled, and skinned a small ham of the
best quality, and taken out the bone, trim it into a handsome oval
shape. Of the trimmings make a rich gravy by stewing them in a sauce-pan
with a little water, and four pigs feet, (split up.) Have ready a
plentiful sufficiency of nice forcemeat made of cold roast chicken or
veal, minced suet, and grated bread-crumbs, butter, minced sweet
marjoram or tarragon, and some hard-boiled yolk of egg crumbled. Have
ready, prepared, a very nice puff paste; line with it the bottom and
sides of a large deep dish, and lay in it the oval ham, filling up at
the corners and all round with the forcemeat, and spreading a layer of
it on the top. Pour on gravy to moisten the whole, and put on the paste
intended for the lid. Notch the edges handsomely, and stick a flower or
tulip of paste in the cross slit at the top, and place a wreath of paste
leaves all round. Bake it light brown, and eat it warm or cold. It is a
fine dish for a dinner or supper party, or for a handsome luncheon or
breakfast.
_A Tongue Pie_--Is made in a similar manner of a boiled smoked tongue,
peeled and trimmed, and filled in with forcemeat. For a large company
have _two_ tongue pies, as it will be much liked, if made as above.
FIG PUDDING.--Take a pint of very ripe figs, (peeled,) cut them up and
mash them smooth with the grated yellow rind of a large ripe lemon or
orange, and the juice of two. Mix together a large spoonful of fresh
butter, and two table-spoonfuls of sugar, and stir the whole very hard.
Bake it in a deep dish, and eat it fresh, but not warm. Grate sugar over
the surface. When _ripe_ figs can be obtained, this pudding is much
liked.
POKE PLANT.--Early in the spring, the young green stalks of the
pokeberry plant, (when they are still mild and tender, and have not yet
acquired a reddish tinge or a strong unpleasant taste,) are generally
much liked as a vegetable, and are by many persons considered equal to
asparagus. They are brought in bundles to Philadelphia market. Wash and
drain them, and put them on to boil in a pot of cold water. When _quite
tender_ all through they are done. Dish them in the manner of asparagus,
laid on a toast dipped for a minute in hot water, and then buttered.
You may pour a very little drawn or melted butter over the poke.
RHUBARB TARTS.--Take large fresh stalks of the rapontica plant, such as
are full-grown and reddish. Peel off the thin skin, and cut them into
bits all of the same size, either one inch or two inches long. Wash them
in cold water through a cullender, (but do not drain them much,) and put
them into a stew-pan without any more water. Mix with them plenty of
good sugar, in the proportion of half a pound of sugar to a pint of
cut-up rhubarb stalks. Cover it, and stew it slowly till quite soft.
Then mash it into a smooth mass. Have some puff-paste shells baked
empty; and when cool, fill them to the top, and grate nutmeg and
powdered sugar thickly over them. The juice and grated yellow rind of a
lemon (added when the rhubarb is half stewed,) will be a pleasant
flavoring. This is sometimes called "spring-fruit" and "pie-plant." It
comes earlier, but is by no means so good as gooseberries. We do not
think it worth preserving, or making into a sweetmeat.
VOL-AU-VENT.--Have ready a large quantity of the best and lightest puff
paste. Roll it an inch thick, and then cut it neatly into shapes, either
square or circular. Bake every one separately on a flat tin pan, cutting
a round hole in the centre of each, and fitting in pieces of stale bread
to keep the holes open while baking. The cakes of paste should diminish
in size as they ascend to the top, but the holes should all be of
exactly the same dimensions. The lower cake, which goes at the bottom,
should be solid and not perforated at all. The small cake which finishes
the top of the pyramid must also be left solid, for a lid. When all the
cakes are baked and risen high, (as good puff-paste always does) take
them carefully off the baking plates; remove the bread that has kept the
centres open and in shape; brush over every cake, separately, with
beaten white of egg, and pile one upon another nicely and evenly so as
to form a pyramid. Have ready a very nice stew of oysters or game cut
small, and cooked with cream, &c. Fill the pyramid with this, and then
put on the top or lid, which may terminate in a flower of baked paste.
_A Sweet Vol-au-Vent_--May be filled with small preserves, or with ripe
strawberries or raspberries, made very sweet. Vol-au-vents are for
dinner, or supper parties. The paste should be peculiarly light. The
name _Vol-au-vent_ signifies, in French, something that will fly away in
the wind; which, however, it never does.
A SOUFFLÉ PUDDING.--Take eight rusks, or soft sugar-biscuits, or plain
buns. Lay them in a large deep dish, and pour on a pint of milk,
sufficient to soak them thoroughly. Cover the dish, and let them stand
undisturbed for about an hour and a half before dinner. In the mean
time, boil half a pint of milk in a small sauce-pan with a handful of
bitter almonds or peach kernels broken small, or a small bunch of fresh
peach-leaves, with two large sticks of cinnamon, broken up. Boil this
milk slowly, (keeping it covered,) and when it tastes strongly of the
flavoring articles, strain it, and set it away to cool. When cold, mix
it into another pint of milk, and stir in a quarter of a pound of
powdered loaf sugar. Beat eight eggs very light, and add them gradually
to the milk, so as to make a rich custard. After dinner has commenced,
beat and stir the soaked rusk very hard till it becomes a smooth mass,
and then, by degrees, add to it the custard. Stir the whole till
thoroughly amalgamated. Set the dish into a brisk oven, and bake the
pudding rather more than ten minutes. The yeast, &c., in the rusk, will
cause it to puff up very light. When done, send it to table warm, with
white sugar sifted over it. You may serve up with it as sauce sweetened
thick cream flavored with rose-water, and grated nutmeg, or powdered
loaf sugar and fresh butter stirred together in equal portions, and
seasoned with lemon or nutmeg.
ICED PLUM PUDDING.--Take two dozen sweet and half a dozen bitter
almonds. Blanch them in scalding water, and then throw them into a bowl
of cold water. Pound them one at a time in a mortar, till they become a
smooth paste, free from the smallest lumps. As you proceed, add
frequently a few drops of rose-water or lemon juice to make them light,
and prevent their oiling. Seed and cut in half a quarter of a pound of
the best bloom raisins. Mix with them a quarter of a pound of Zante
currants, picked, washed, and dried; and add to the raisins and currants
three ounces of citron, chopped. Mix the citron with the raisins and
currants, and dredge them all with flour to prevent their sinking or
clodding. Take a half pint of very rich milk; split a vanilla bean, and
cut it into pieces two or three inches long, and boil it in the milk
till the flavor of the vanilla is well extracted; then strain it out,
and mix the vanilla milk with a pint of rich cream, and stir in,
gradually, a half pound of powdered loaf sugar, and a nutmeg grated.
Then add the pounded almonds, and a large wine-glass of either
marasquino, noyau, curaçoa, or the very best brandy. Beat, in a shallow
pan, the yolks of eight eggs till very light, thick, and smooth, and
stir them gradually into the mixture. Simmer it over the fire, (stirring
it all the time,) but take it off just as it is about to come to a boil,
otherwise it will curdle. Then, while the mixture is hot, stir in the
raisins, currants, and citron. Set it to cool, and then add a large
tea-cupful of preserved strawberries or raspberries, half a dozen
preserved apricots or peaches; half a dozen preserved green limes; and
any other very nice and delicate sweetmeats. Then whip to a stiff froth
another pint of cream, and add it lightly to the mixture. Put the whole
into a large melon-mould that opens in the middle, and freeze it in the
usual way. It will take four hours to freeze it well. Do not turn it out
till just before it is wanted. Then send it to table on a glass dish. It
will be found delicious. Iced puddings are now considered indispensable
on fashionable supper tables or at dinner parties. There is no flour in
this pudding. The freezing will keep it together.
RENNETS.--Milk turned into a curd with wine is by no means so good as
that which is done with rennet-water alone. The curd and whey do not
separate so completely; the curd is less firm, and the whey less clear;
the latter being thick and white, instead of thin and greenish, as it
ought to be. Neither is it so light and wholesome as when turned with
rennet.
Rennets of the best quality can be had at all seasons in the
Philadelphia market; particularly in the lower part, called the Jersey
market. They are sold at twelve, eighteen, or twenty-five cents,
according to their size, and will keep a year or two; but have most
strength when fresh. You may prepare excellent rennets yourself at a
very trifling expense, by previously bespeaking them of a veal butcher;
a rennet being the stomach of a calf. Its form is a bag. As soon as you
get the rennet, empty out all its contents, and wipe it very clean,
inside and out; then rince it with cold water, but do not wash it much,
as washing will weaken its power of turning milk into curd. When you
have made it quite clean, lay the rennet in a broad pan, strew it over
on both sides with plenty of fine salt; cover it, and let it rest five
days. When you take it out of the pan, do not wipe or wash it, for it
must be stretched and dried with the salt on. For this purpose hold it
open like a bag, and slip within it a long, thick, smooth rod, bent into
the form of a large loop wide at the top, and so narrow at the bottom as
to meet together. Stretch the rennet tightly and smoothly over this bent
rod, on which it will be double, and when you have brought the two ends
of the rod together at the bottom, and tied them fast, the form will
somewhat resemble that of a boy's kite. Hang it up in a dry place, and
cut out a bit as you want it. A piece about two inches square will turn
one quart of milk; a piece of four inches, two quarts. Having first
washed off all the salt in several cold waters, and wiped the bit of
rennet dry, pour on it sufficient _lukewarm_ water to cover it well. Let
it stand several hours; then pour the rennet-water into the milk you
intend for the curd, and set it in a warm place. When the curd is
entirely formed, set the vessel on ice.
Rennet may be used with good effect before it has _quite_ dried.
AN EASY WAY OF MAKING BUTTER IN WINTER.--The following will be found an
excellent method of making butter in cold weather for family use. We
recommend its trial. Take, in the morning, the unskimmed milk of the
preceding evening, (after it has stood all night in a _tin_ pan,) and
set it over a furnace of hot coals, or in a stove; being careful not to
disturb the cream that has risen to the surface. Let it remain over the
fire till it simmers, and begins to bubble round the edges; but on no
account let it come to a boil. Then take the pan carefully off, (without
disturbing the cream) and carry it to a cool place, but not where it is
cold enough to freeze. In the evening take a spoon, and loosen the cream
round the sides of the pan. If very rich, it will be almost a solid
cake. Slip off the sheet of cream into another and larger pan, letting
as little milk go with it as possible. Cover it, and set it away. Repeat
the process for several days, till you have thus collected a sufficiency
of clotted cream to fill the pan. Then scald a wooden ladle, and beat
the cream hard with it during ten minutes. You will then have excellent
butter. Take it out of the pan, lay it on a flat dish, and with the
ladle squeeze and press it hard, till all the buttermilk is entirely
extracted and drained off. Then wash the butter in cold water, and work
a very little salt into it. Set it away in a cool place for three hours.
Then squeeze and press it again; also washing it a second time in cold
water. Make it up into pats, and keep it in a cool place.
The unskimmed morning's milk, of course, may also be used for this
purpose, after it has stood twelve hours. The simmering over the fire
adds greatly to the quantity of cream, by throwing all the oily part of
the milk to the surface; but if allowed to boil, this oleaginous matter
will again descend, and mix with the rest, so as not to be separated.
This is the usual method of making winter butter in the south of
England; and it is very customary in the British provinces of America.
Try it.