having a little salt rubbed down the bone, and along the thick part,
even if eaten the same day. Tie it up, put it on the fire in cold water
sufficient to cover it, and throw a handful of salt into it. Great care
must be taken to serve it up without the smallest speck of black, or
scum. Garnish with plenty of double parsley, lemon, horse radish, and
the milt, roe and liver, and fried smelts, if approved. If with smelts,
no water must be suffered to hang about the fish, or the beauty and
flavour of the smelts will be lost. Serve with plenty of oyster or
shrimp sauce, anchovy and butter.
COD PIE. Take a piece of the middle of a small cod, and salt it well one
night. Wash it the next day, season with pepper and salt, mixed with a
very little nutmeg. Lay the meat in a dish, with the addition of a
little good broth of any kind, and some bits of butter on it. Cover the
dish with a crust, and bake it. When done, make a sauce of a spoonful of
broth, a quarter of a pint of cream, a little flour and butter, and a
dust of grated lemon and nutmeg. Give it one boil, and pour it into the
pie. Oysters may be added, but parsley will do instead. Mackarel may be
done in the same way, but must not be salted till they are used.
COD SOUNDS BOILED. Soak them in warm water half an hour, then scrape and
clean them. If to be dressed white, boil them in milk and water. When
tender, serve them up in a napkin, with egg sauce. The salt must not be
much soaked out, unless for fricassee.
COD SOUNDS BROILED. Scald them in hot water, rub well with salt, pull
off the dirty skin, and simmer them till tender. Then take them out,
flour, and broil them. While this is doing, season a little brown gravy
with pepper, salt, a tea-spoonful of soy, and a little mustard. Give it
a boil with a little flour and butter, and pour it over the sounds.
COD SOUNDS RAGOUT. Having scalded, cleaned, and rubbed them well with
salt, stew them in white gravy seasoned. Before they are served, add a
little cream, butter and flour, gently boiling up. A bit of lemon peel,
nutmeg, and the least pounded mace, will give it a good flavour.
COD SOUNDS LIKE CHICKENS. Carefully wash three large sounds, boil them
in milk and water, but not too tender. When cold, put a forcemeat of
chopped oysters, crumbs of bread, a bit of butter, nutmeg, pepper, salt,
and the yolks of two eggs. Spread it thin over the sounds, roll up each
in the form of a chicken, and skewer it. Then lard them as chickens,
dust a little flour over, and roast them slowly in a tin oven. When done
enough, pour over them a fine oyster sauce, and place them on the table
as a side or corner dish.
CODLINS. This fruit may be kept for several months, if gathered of a
middling size at midsummer, and treated in the following manner. Put
them into an earthen pan, pour boiling water over them, and cover the
pan with cabbage leaves. Keep them by the fire till ready to peel, but
do not peel them; then pour off the water, and leave them cold. Place
the codlins in a stone jar with a smallish mouth, and pour on the water
that scalded them. Cover the pot with bladder wetted and tied very
close, and then over it coarse paper tied again. The fruit is best kept
in small jars, such as will be used at once when opened.
CODLIN CREAM. Pare and core twenty good codlins; beat them in a mortar
with a pint of cream, and strain it into a dish. Put to it sugar, bread
crumbs, and a glass of wine; and stir it well.
CODLIN TART. Scald the fruit, and take off the skin. Put a little of the
liquor on the bottom of a dish, lay in the apples whole, and strew them
over with Lisbon or fine sugar. When cold, put a paste round the edges,
and over the fruit. Moisten the crust with the white of an egg, and
strew some fine sugar over it; or cut the lid in quarters, without
touching the paste on the edge of the dish. Remove the lid when cold,
pour in a good custard, and sift it over with sugar. Another way is to
line the bottom of a shallow dish with paste, lay in the scalded fruit,
sweeten it, and lay little twists of paste over in bars.
COFFEE. Put two ounces of fresh-ground coffee, of the best quality, into
a coffee pot, and pour eight coffee cups of boiling water on it. Let it
boil six minutes, and return it; then put in two or three chips of
isinglass, and pour on it one large spoonful of boiling water. Boil it
five minutes more, and set the pot by the fire for ten minutes to keep
it hot: the coffee will then be of a beautiful clearness. Fine cream
should always be served with coffee, and either pounded sugar-candy, or
fine Lisbon sugar. If for foreigners, or those who like it very strong,
make only eight dishes from three ounces. If not fresh roasted, lay it
before the fire until perfectly hot and dry; or put the smallest bit of
fresh butter into a preserving pan, and when hot, throw the coffee into
it, and toss it about until it be freshened, but let it be quite cold
before it is ground.--But as coffee possesses a raw and astringent
quality, which often disagrees with weak stomachs, and by being drank
too warm is as frequently rendered unwholesome, the following is
recommended as an improved method of preparing it. To an ounce of
coffee, add a tea-spoonful of the best flour of mustard, to correct its
acidity, and improve its fragrance; and in order to render it truly fine
and wholesome, it should be made the evening before it is wanted. Let an
ounce of fresh-ground coffee be put into a clean coffee pot well tinned,
pour upon it a full pint of boiling water, set it on the fire, and after
it has well boiled, let it stand by to settle. Next morning pour off the
clear liquor, add to it a pint of new milk, warm it over the fire, and
sweeten it to taste. Coffee made in this way, will be found particularly
suitable to persons of a weak and delicate habit.--A substitute for
foreign coffee may be prepared from the acorns of the oak, by shelling
and dividing the kernels, drying and roasting them gradually in a close
vessel, and keeping them constantly stirring. Grind it like other
coffee, and either use it alone, or mix with it a small quantity of
foreign coffee. The seeds of the flower de luce, or common waterflag,
being roasted in the same manner as coffee, very much resembles it in
colour and flavour. Coffee made of these seeds is extremely wholesome,
in the proportion of an ounce to a pint of boiling water.
COFFEE CAKES. Melt some fresh butter in a pint of thin cream, and work
up with it four pounds of dried flour. Add a pound of sugar, a pint of
yeast, and half an ounce of carraways. Stir them all together, set it
before the fire to rise, roll the paste out thin, cut it into small
cakes, and bake them on buttered paper.
COFFEE CREAM. Boil a calf's foot in water till reduced to a pint of
jelly, clear of sediment and fat. Make a tea-cupful of strong fresh
coffee, clear it perfectly bright with isinglass, and pour it to the
jelly. Add a pint of very good cream, sweeten it with fine Lisbon
sugar, boil it up once, and pour it into the dish. This article is much
admired, but the jelly must not be stiff, and the coffee must be fresh.
COFFEE MILK. Boil a dessert-spoonful of ground coffee, in nearly a pint
of milk, a quarter of an hour. Then put in a shaving or two of isinglass
to clear it; let it boil a few minutes, and set it on the side of the
fire to grow fine. This makes a very fine breakfast; it should be
sweetened with real Lisbon sugar of a good quality.
COLD CAUDLE. Boil a quart of spring water; when cold, add the yolk of an
egg, the juice of a small lemon, six spoonfuls of sweet wine, sugar to
taste, and syrup of lemons one ounce.
COLD FISH. Soles, cod, whitings, or smelts may be cut into bits, and put
into scallop shells, with cold oyster, lobster, or shrimp sauce. Having
added some bread crumbs, they may be put into a Dutch oven, and browned
like scalloped oysters.
COLD MEAT. If it be a little underdone, the best way to warm it up is to
sprinkle over a little salt, and put it into a Dutch oven at some
distance before a gentle fire, that it may warm gradually. Watch it
carefully, and keep turning it till it is quite hot and brown, and serve
it up with gravy. This is preferable to hashing, as it will retain more
of its original flavour. Roast beef or mutton, of course, are best for
this purpose.
COLD SALLAD. Boil an egg quite hard, put the yolk into a sallad dish,
mash it with a spoonful of water, then add a little of the best sallad
oil or melted butter, a tea-spoonful of ready-made mustard, and some
vinegar. Cut the sallad small and mix it together, adding celery,
radishes, or other sallad herbs with it. Onions may be served in a
saucer, rather than mixed in the bowl. An anchovy may be washed, cut
small, and mixed with it; also a bit of beet root, and the white of an
egg. Celery may be prepared in the same way.
COLDS. For a bad cold take a large tea-cupful of linseed, two pennyworth
of stick liquorice, and a quarter of a pound of sun raisins. Put them
into two quarts of water, and let it simmer over a slow fire till
reduced one half. Then add a quarter of a pound of sugar-candy pounded,
a table-spoonful of rum, and the same of lemon juice or vinegar. The rum
and lemon juice are better added when the mixture is taken, or they are
apt to grow flat. Take half a pint just warm at bed time.
COLLARED BEEF. Choose the thin end of the flank of fine mellow beef, but
not too fat: lay it into a dish with salt and saltpetre, turn and rub it
every day for a week, and keep it cool. Then take out every bone and
gristle, remove the skin of the inside part, and cover it thick with the
following seasoning cut small; a large handful of parsley, the same of
sage, some thyme, marjoram and pennyroyal, pepper, salt, and allspice.
Roll the meat up as tight as possible, and bind it round with a cloth
and tape; then boil it gently for seven or eight hours. Put the beef
under a good weight while hot, without undoing it: the shape will then
be oval. Part of a breast of veal rolled in with the beef, looks and
eats very well.
COLLARED EEL. Bone a large eel, but do not skin it. Mix up pepper, salt,
mace, allspice, and a clove or two, in the finest powder, and rub over
the whole inside: roll it tight, and bind it with a coarse tape. Boil it
in salt and water till done enough, then add vinegar, and when cold keep
the collar in pickle. Serve it either whole or in slices. Chopped
parsley, sage, a little thyme, knotted marjoram, and savoury, mixed with
the spices, greatly improve the taste.
COLLARED MACKAREL. Do them the same as eels, omitting the herbs.
COLLARED MUTTON. Take out the bones and gristle of a breast of mutton,
lay the meat flat, and rub it over with egg. Mix some grated bread,
pounded cloves and mace, pepper, salt, and lemon peel, and strew over
it. Two or three anchovies, washed and boned, may be added. Roll the
meat up hard, bind it with tape and boil it; or if skewered, it may
either be roasted or baked.
COLLARED PORK. Bone a breast of pork, and season it with thyme, parsley
and sage. Roll it hard, tie it up in a cloth, and boil it. Press it
well, take it out of the cloth when cold, and keep it in the liquor it
was boiled in.
COLLARED PORK'S HEAD. Clean it well, take out the brains, rub it with a
handful of salt, and two ounces of saltpetre. Let it lie a fortnight in
brine, then wash it, and boil it till the bones will easily come out.
Lay it in a dish, take off the skin carefully, take out the bones, and
peel the tongue. Mix a handful of sage, a little thyme, and four shalots
chopped fine. Put the meat to it, and chop it into pieces about an inch
square. Put a thin cloth into an earthen pot, lay in the meat, cover the
cloth over, and press it down. Set the pot in the liquor again, boil it
nearly an hour longer, then take it out, place a weight on the cover
within side, and let it remain all night. Take it out, strip off the
cloth, and eat the collar with mustard and vinegar.
COLLARED SALMON. Split such part of the fish as may be sufficient to
make a handsome roll, wash and wipe it; and having mixed salt, white
pepper, pounded mace, and Jamaica pepper, in quantity to season it very
high, rub it inside and out well. Then roll it tight and bandage it, put
as much water and one third vinegar as will cover it, adding bay
leaves, salt, and both sorts of pepper. Cover it close, and simmer till
it is done enough. Drain and boil the liquor, put it on when cold, and
serve with fennel. It is an elegant dish, and extremely good.
COLLARED VEAL. Bone the breast and beat it, rub it with egg, and strew
over it a seasoning of pounded mace, nutmeg, pepper and salt, minced
parsley, sweet marjoram, lemon peel, crumbs of bread, and an anchovy.
Roll it up tight in a cloth, and boil it two hours and a half in salt
and water. Hang it up, or press it: make a pickle for it of the liquor
it was boiled in, and half the quantity of vinegar.
COLLEGE PUDDINGS. Grate the crumb of a two-penny loaf, shred eight
ounces of suet, and mix with eight ounces of currants, one of citron
mixed fine, one of orange, a handful of sugar, half a nutmeg, three eggs
beaten, yolk and white separately. Mix and make into the size and shape
of a goose-egg. Put half a pound of butter into a fryingpan; and when
melted and quite hot, stew them gently in it over a stove; turn them two
or three times, till they are of a fine light brown. Mix a glass of
brandy with the batter, and serve with pudding sauce.
COLOURING FOR JELLIES. For a beautiful Red, take fifteen grains of
cochineal in the finest powder, and a dram and a half of cream of
tartar. Boil them in half a pint of water very slowly for half an hour,
adding a bit of alum the size of a pea; or use beet root sliced, and
some liquor poured over. For White, use cream; or almonds finely
powdered, with a spoonful of water. For Yellow, yolks of eggs, or a
little saffron steeped in the liquor and squeezed. For Green, spinach or
beet leaves bruised and pressed, and the juice boiled to take off the
rawness. Any of these will do to stain jellies, ices, or cakes.
COLOURING FOR SOUPS. Put four ounces of lump sugar, a gill of water, and
half an ounce of fine butter into a small tosser, and set it over a
gentle fire. Stir it with a wooden spoon, till of a light brown. Then
add half a pint of water; let it boil and skim it well. When cold,
bottle and cork it close. Add to either soup or gravy as much of this as
will give it a proper colour.
COMMON CAKE. Mix three quarters of a pound of flour with half a pound of
butter, four ounces of sugar, four eggs, half an ounce of carraways, and
a glass of raisin wine. Beat it well, and bake it in a quick oven.--A
better sort of common cake may be made of half a pound of butter, rubbed
into two pounds of dried flour; then add three spoonfuls of yeast that
is not bitter, and work it to a paste. Let it rise an hour and a half;
then mix in the yolks and whites of four eggs beaten separately, a pound
of Lisbon sugar, about a pint of milk to make it of a proper thickness,
a glass of sweet wine, the rind of a lemon, and a tea-spoonful of
powdered ginger. A pound of currants, or some carraways may be added,
and let the whole be well beaten together.
COMMON PLANTS. The virtues of a great number of ordinary plants and
weeds being but little understood, they are generally deemed useless;
but they have properties nevertheless which might be rendered useful, if
carefully and judiciously applied. The young shoots and leaves of
chick-weed, for example, may be boiled and eaten like spinach, are
equally wholesome, and can scarcely be distinguished from it. The juice
expressed from the stem and leaves of goose-grass, taken to the amount
of four ounces, night and morning for several weeks, is very efficacious
in scorbutic complaints, and other cutaneous eruptions. The smell of
garlic is an infallible remedy against the vapours, faintings, and
other hysteric affections. The common poppy is an antidote to the stings
of venomous insects, and a remedy for inflammation of the eyes: it also
cures the pleurisy, and spitting of blood. Sage taken in any form tends
to cleanse and enrich the blood: it makes a good cordial, and is highly
useful in cases of nervous debility. It is often given in fevers with a
view to promote perspiration, and with the addition of a little lemon
juice it makes a grateful and cooling beverage.
COOL TANKARD. Put into a quart of mild ale a glass of white wine, one of
brandy, one of capillaire, the juice of a lemon, and a little piece of
the rind. Add a sprig of borage or balm, a bit of toasted bread, and
nutmeg grated on the top.
COPPER. Many serious accidents have been occasioned by the use of copper
in kitchen requisites. The eating of fruit especially that has been
prepared in a copper stewpan, where some of the oxide was insensibly
imbibed, has been known to produce death; or if coffee grounds are
suffered to remain long in a copper coffee-pot, and afterwards mixed
with fresh coffee, for the sake of economy, the effects will be highly
injurious, if not fatal. The best antidote in such cases, when they
unhappily occur, is to take immediately a large spoonful of powdered
charcoal, mixed with honey, butter, or treacle; and within two hours
afterwards, an emetic or a cathartic to expel the poison.
COPPERS. In domestic economy, the necessity of keeping copper vessels
always clean, is generally acknowledged; but it may not perhaps be so
generally known, that fat and oily substances, and vegetable acids, do
not attack copper while hot; and therefore, that if no liquor were
suffered to remain and grow cold in copper vessels, they might be used
for every culinary purpose with perfect safety. The object is to clean
and dry the vessels well before they turn cold.
COPYING LETTERS. Dissolve a little sugar in the ink, and write with it
as usual. When a copy is required, moisten a piece of unsized paper
lightly with a sponge, and apply it to the writing; then smooth the wet
paper over with a warm iron, such as is used in a laundry, and the copy
is immediately produced without the use of a machine.
COPYING PRINTS. Moisten a piece of paper with a solution of soap and
alum, lay it on the print or picture, and pass it under a rolling press.
Another method is to have a small frame in the form of a basin stand,
enclosing a square of glass on the pot, on which the print is laid with
the paper upon it; and then placing a candle under the glass, the print
may be traced with a pencil, or pen and ink. Impressions may also be
transferred by mixing a little vermillion with linseed oil so as to make
it fluid; then with a pen dipped in it, trace every line of the print
accurately. Turn the print with its face downwards on a sheet of white
paper, wet the back of the print, lay another sheet upon it, and press
it till the red lines are completely transferred.
CORKS. Economy in corks is very unwise: in order to save a mere trifle
in the purchase, there is a danger of losing some valuable article which
it is intended to preserve. None but velvet taper corks should be used
for liquors that are to be kept for any length of time; and when a
bottle of ketchup or of anchovy is opened, the cork should be thrown
away, and a new one put in that will fit it very tight. If a cork is
forced down even with the mouth of the bottle, it is too small, and
should be drawn, that a larger one may be put in.
CORK CEMENT. Liquors and preserves, intended to be kept a long time, are
often spoiled by the clumsy and ineffectual manner in which they are
fastened down. Bottles therefore should be secured with the following
cement, spread upon the cork after it is cut level with the top of the
bottle. Melt in an earthen or iron pot half a pound of black rosin, half
a pound of sealing wax, and a quarter of a pound of bees wax. When it
froths up, and before all is melted and likely to boil over, stir it
with a tallow candle, which will settle the froth till all is melted and
fit for use.
CORNS. Apply to warts and corns, a piece of soft brown paper moistened
with saliva, and a few dressings will remove them. A convenient plaster
may also be made of an ounce of pitch, half an ounce of galbanum
dissolved in vinegar, one scruple of ammoniac, and a dram and a half of
diachylon mixed together.
COSTIVENESS. From whatever cause it may arise, frequent exercise in the
open air, and abstinence from heating liquors, will be found very
beneficial. To those who are afflicted with this complaint, it is
particularly recommended that they should visit the customary retreat
every morning at a stated hour, that nature may in this respect, by
perseverance, acquire a habit of regularity. In obstinate cases, three
drams of carbon may be taken two or three times a day, mixed with three
ounces of lenitive electuary, and two drams of carbonate of soda, as
circumstances may require. Half an ounce of Epsom salts, dissolved in a
tumbler or two of cold water, and drank at intervals, will have a very
salutary effect.
COTTENHAM CHEESE. Though this is so much noted for its superior flavour
and delicacy, it does not appear to be owing to any particular
management of the dairy, but rather to the fragrance of the herbage on
which the cows feed in that part of the country.
COUGHS. The extract of malt will be found an excellent remedy for coughs
or colds. Pour as much hot water over half a bushel of pale ground malt
as will just cover it; the water must not be boiling. In forty-eight
hours drain off the liquor entirely, but without squeezing the grains.
Put the former into a large sweetmeat pan, or saucepan, that there may
be room to boil as quick as possible, without boiling over. When it
begins to thicken, stir it constantly, till it becomes as thick as
treacle. Take a dessert-spoonful of it three times a day.--Another
remedy for a bad cough may be prepared as follows. Mix together a pint
of simple mint water, two table-spoonfuls of sallad oil, two
tea-spoonfuls of hartshorns, sweetened with sugar, and take two large
spoonfuls of the mixture two or three times a day.
COURT PLAISTER. Dissolve half an ounce of isinglass in an ounce of
water, and boil it till the water is nearly all consumed; then add
gradually a dram of Friar's balsam, and stir them well together. Dip a
brush in the hot mixture, and spread it on a piece of clean silk.