stronger. While the coffee is clearing, boil your cream or milk, and
pour some of it hot into each cup of coffee.
COFFEE WITHOUT BOILING.
Coffee made without boiling is much stronger, more economical, and less
troublesome than the usual way; but it requires a pot of a particular
construction. The best sort of pot for this purpose is called in French
a Grecque (Greek). It must be made of the best block-tin, and of a tall
cylindrical shape, with the spout very near the bottom. The receptacle
for the coffee-powder fits into the upper part of the coffee-pot, and
must be taken out when washed. The bottom of this receiver is pierced
with very small holes, and there are two other strainers, made of
movable plates of tin, also covered with fine holes. These two strainers
fit into the receiver. The powdered coffee is to be placed between them,
so that it may filter through the lower strainer, and also through the
holes at the bottom of the receiver. Having scalded the pot, put the
coffee into the receiver between the two movable strainers, and pour in
some water which must be boiling hard at the time. The coffee will then
drain through into the lower part of the pot where the spout is, and
will clear itself in passing through the holes. Shut down the lid, place
the pot near the fire, and the coffee will be ready for use as soon as
it has done draining through.
Allow a large tea-spoonful of the powder for each cup that you intend to
have.
This mode of preparing coffee is very expeditious, and requires neither
isinglass nor white of egg.
CHOCOLATE.
Never boil chocolate in milk, as that spoils the flavor; and do not
scrape it, but merely cut it into pieces. To an ounce of chocolate allow
a cup of boiling water.
Having first scalded the pot, put in the chocolate, pour the water on
it, and boil it till one third has evaporated. Then supply that third
with cream or milk, and take it immediately from the fire.
You need not stir it more than two or three times.
FINE LEMONADE.
Allow a whole lemon and four or five lumps of loaf-sugar to half a pint
of cold water. Roll the lemons hard on a table to make them more juicy.
Cut them in half, and squeeze them over the sugar. Then pour on the
water, and stir till the sugar is dissolved. Take out whatever seeds may
have fallen in. In warm weather, put a lump of ice into each glass.
PUNCH.
Take three large lemons, and roll them very hard on the table to make
them more juicy. Then pare them as thin as possible. Cut out the pulp,
and throw away the seeds and the white part of the rind. Put the yellow
rind and the pulp into a pint of boiling water; set it on the fire, and
let it boil two or three minutes. Take it off, and throw in a
tea-spoonful of raw green tea of the best sort, and let it infuse about
five minutes. Then strain it through linen. Stir into it three quarters
of a pound of loaf-sugar, and a pint of brandy, or any other suitable
liquor. Set it again over the fire, and when it is just ready to boil,
remove it, and pour it into a china bowl or pitcher.
CONVENIENT LEMONADE.
Take four ounces of powdered tartaric acid, and two drachms of essential
oil of lemon. Mix them together, and keep them in a well-corked phial. A
table-spoonful mixed with sugar and water, will make six or eight
glasses of lemonade.
It will keep about a month, but not longer, as it will then lose its
strength.
FRENCH MUSTARD.
Put on a plate an ounce of the very best mustard powder, with a
salt-spoon of salt, a few leaves of tarragon, and a clove of garlic
minced fine. Pour on by degrees sufficient vinegar to dilute it to the
proper consistence (about a wine-glassful), and mix it well with a
wooden spoon. Do not use it in less than twenty-four hours after it is
mixed.
POTATO FLOUR.
Potato flour is excellent for sponge-cake, and other things which
require extraordinary lightness. It is also good for young children, and
for convalescent sick persons.
Take the best and most mealy potatoes; pare them, and wash them through
several waters. Then rasp or grate them over a tureen half full of cold
water. Continue to grate the potatoes till the lower half of the tureen
is filled with the pulp, so that the water may rise to the top. The
mealy part of the potatoes will sink to the bottom, while the remainder
or the useless part will rise to the surface. When nothing more rises,
pour off the water carefully, and dry the flour which you find at the
bottom. When quite dry, pound it in a mortar to a fine powder, and sift
it through a sieve.
Potato flour is much lighter than that of wheat.
COLD PICKLES.
Season some of the best vinegar with a little garlic, a little tarragon,
and a little sweet-oil. Put it into a glass jar, and keep it well
covered. You may throw into it the green seeds of nasturtians, morella
cherries, little onions, small young carrots when but a finger long,
radish pods, and various other things. Keep the jar well closed, and
the pickles will be as good and keep as long as if they had been boiled.
Nasturtians and cherries will keep in plain vinegar without any
seasoning.
CORNICHONS, OR FRENCH CUCUMBER PICKLES.
Take ten pounds of very small cucumbers. Brush them all over to clean
them well, and cut off the stems. Put them into an earthen pan with two
handfuls of salt. Let them rest twenty-four hours, and then drain them.
When they are well drained, put them back into the same pan, and pour in
a quantity of boiling hot white wine vinegar, sufficient to cover them.
Then cover the pan carefully with a lid or dish, and let the cucumbers
set in the vinegar twenty-four hours. They will then be yellow. Pour the
vinegar from them, and cover them with vine-leaves. Boil the vinegar
again, and when it boils throw it over the cucumbers, stirring them
well.
When the vinegar is cold, pour it from the cucumbers, and boil it again.
Then pour it over them, and proceed in this manner four or five times,
till they become of a fine green. Keep them in the interval always
covered with a layer of vine-leaves, fresh each time, and also with a
cloth kept down by a large dish. This, by keeping in the steam, will
assist them in greening.
Then drain them on a sieve, and put them into glass jars.
Afterwards, boil some fresh white wine vinegar, first mixing in it the
following seasoning. To every quart of vinegar allow half an ounce of
mace, half an ounce of sliced ginger, half an ounce of whole black
pepper, six cloves, a few sprigs of tarragon, and half a clove of
garlic.
Boil the vinegar with these ingredients for five minutes, and then pour
it hot on the pickles. Tie them up carefully. They may be used in a
week.
The generality of French pickles, are made in a manner similar to those
of England and America.
FINE COLOGNE WATER.
Procure at an apothecary's the following oils and have them all put into
the same phial:--Oil of lemon, 2 drams; oil of rosemary, 2 drams; oil of
lavender, 1 dram; oil of bergamot, 2 drams; oil of cinnamon, 10 drops;
oil of cloves, 10 drops; oil of roses, 2 drops; tincture of musk, 8
drops.
Put 2 pint of highly rectified spirits of wine into a bottle, and pour
the oils into it. Shake it hard for a few minutes, having corked it
tightly. It will be fit for immediate use, but it improves by keeping.
If you wish it stronger, double the quantity of all the oils, but have
only a pint of spirits of wine.
THE END.
Transcriber's Note
The following typographical errors were corrected:
Page Error
v Green Peas Soup ib changed to Green Peas Soup ib.
v Garlic Butter ib changed to Garlic Butter ib.
vi Hazlenut changed to Hazelnut
viii French Cakes changed to French Paste
ix Chocolate Drops ib changed to Chocolate Drops ib.
16 our pounds changed to four pounds
21 marmelade changed to marmalade
31 rolled in flour changed to rolled in flour,
31 en minutes changed to ten minutes
32 SIRLOIN OF BEEF changed to SIRLOIN OF BEEF.
33 hem round changed to them round
34 pen-knife, changed to pen-knife.
67 same manner changed to same manner.
70 of brandy changed to of brandy.
73 warm water changed to warm water.
82 Ham Omelet changed to Ham Omelet.
92 over its inside changed to over its inside.
103 sieve or cullender changed to sieve or cullender.
110 through the sieve, changed to through the sieve.
The following words were inconsistently spelled or hyphenated.
bread-crumbs / breadcrumbs
sauce-pan / saucepan
sponge-cake / spunge-cake
spongy / spungy
sweet-herbs / sweet herbs
End of Project Gutenberg's Domestic French Cookery, 4th ed., by Sulpice Barue