much pains in the process of mixing, that all the different articles may
be thoroughly incorporated together. Take then two large fresh lemons
with rough skins, quite ripe, and some lumps of double-refined sugar.
Rub the sugar over the lemons, till it has absorbed all the yellow part
of the rinds. Put these lumps into a bowl, and as much more as the juice
of the lemons may be supposed to require: no certain weight or quantity
can be mentioned, as the acidity of a lemon cannot be known till tried,
and therefore this must be determined by the taste. Then squeeze the
lemon juice upon the sugar, and with a bruiser press the sugar and the
juice particularly well together, for a great deal of the richness and
fine flavour of the punch depends on this rubbing and mixing being
thoroughly performed. Having well incorporated the juice and the sugar,
mix it up with boiling soft water, and let it stand a little to cool.
When this mixture, which is now called the sherbet, is made of a
pleasant flavour, take equal quantities of rum and brandy and put into
it, mixing the whole well together. The quantity of liquor must be
according to taste: two good lemons are generally enough to make four
quarts of punch, including a quart of liquor, with half a pound of
sugar: but this depends much on taste, and on the strength of the
spirit. As the pulp of the lemon is disagreeable to some persons, the
sherbet may be strained before the liquor is put in. Some strain the
lemon before they put it to the sugar, which is improper; as when the
pulp and sugar are well mixed together, it adds much to the richness of
the punch. When only rum is used, about half a pint of porter will
soften the punch; and even when both rum and brandy are used, the porter
gives a richness, and also a very pleasant flavour. A shorter way is to
keep ready prepared a quarter of an ounce of citric or crystallized
lemon acid, pounded with a few drops of the essence of lemon peel,
gradually mixed with a pint of clarified syrup or capillaire. Brandy or
rum flavoured with this mixture, will produce good punch in a minute.
PUNCH ROYAL. Take thirty Seville oranges and thirty lemons quite sound,
pare them very thin, and put the parings into an earthen pan, with as
much rum or brandy as will cover them. Take ten gallons of water, and
twelve pounds of lump sugar, and boil them. When nearly cold, put in the
whites of thirty eggs well beaten, stir it and boil it a quarter of an
hour, then strain it through a hair sieve into an earthen pan, and let
it stand till the next day. Then put it into a cask, strain the spirit
from the parings, and add as much more as will make it up five gallons.
Put it into the cask with five quarts of Seville orange juice, and three
quarts of lemon juice. Stir it all together with a cleft stick, and
repeat the same once a day for three successive days; then stop it down
close, and in six weeks it will be fit to drink.
PURPLE GLOVES. To dye white gloves of a beautiful purple, boil four
ounces of logwood, and two ounces of roche alum, in three pints of soft
water, till half wasted. Strain off the liquid, and let it stand to be
cold. Mend the gloves neatly, brush them over with the dye, and when dry
repeat it. Twice is sufficient, unless the colour is to be very dark.
When quite dry, rub off the loose dye with a coarse cloth. Beat up the
white of an egg, and with a sponge rub it over the leather. The dye will
stain the hands, but wetting them with vinegar will take it off before
they are washed.
Q.
QUAILS. These are dressed in the same manner as snipes and woodcocks.
They should be roasted without drawing, served on toast, and eaten with
butter only.
QUAKING PUDDING. Scald a quart of cream; when almost cold, put to it
four eggs well beaten, a spoonful and a half of flour, with nutmeg and
sugar. Tie it close in a buttered cloth, boil it an hour, and turn it
out carefully, without cracking it. Serve it with melted butter, a
little wine, and sugar.
QUARTER OF LAMB. A fore-quarter may either be roasted whole, or in
separate parts. If left to be cold, chopped parsley should be sprinkled
over it. The neck and breast together are called a scoven.
QUEEN CAKES. Mix a pound of dried flour, a pound of sifted sugar, and a
pound of currants, picked and cleaned. Wash a pound of butter in rose
water, beat it well, and mix with it eight eggs, yolks and whites beaten
separately. Put in the dry ingredients by degrees, beat the whole an
hour, butter little tins, teacups or saucers, fill them half full of
batter, and bake them. Sift over them a little fine sugar, just before
they are put into the oven.--Another way. Beat eight ounces of butter,
and mix it with two eggs, well beaten and strained. Mix eight ounces of
dried flour, the same of lump sugar, and the grated rind of a lemon. Put
the whole together, and beat it full half an hour with a silver spoon.
Butter small pattipans, half fill them, and bake twenty minutes in a
quick oven.
QUEEN ANNE'S BISCUITS. A pound of flour well dried, half a pound of fine
sugar powdered and sifted, a pound of currants well washed and picked,
and half a pound of butter. Rub the butter into the flour, then mix in
the sugar and currants; add ten spoonfuls of cream, the yolks of three
eggs, three spoonfuls of sack, and a little mace finely pounded. When
the paste is well worked up, set it in a dish before the fire till it be
thoroughly warm. Make it up into cakes, place them on a tin well
buttered, prick them full of holes on the top, and bake them in a quick
oven.
QUEEN ANNE'S KITCHEN. The economy of the royal kitchen a century ago,
though not equal perhaps to the refinement of modern times, was
sufficiently sumptuous; and what it wanted in delicacies, was abundantly
compensated by a profusion of more substantial dishes of truly English
fare. The following are only a few specimens of the stile of cooking
approved by queen Anne, sufficient to show in what manner royalty was
provided for in the days of our forefathers. Under the article of
Roasting, a few particulars will occur. When a turkey, capon, or fowl
was to be dressed, it was laid down to the fire, at a proper distance,
till it became thoroughly hot. It was then basted all over with fresh
butter, and afterwards dredged thinly with flour. The heat of the fire
converted this into a thin crust, to keep in the gravy; and no more
basting was allowed till the roasting was nearly done, when it was once
more basted all over with butter. As the meat began to brown, it was
sprinkled a little with large salt, and the outside finished with a fine
brown. It was sometimes the custom to baste such meats with the yolks of
fresh eggs beaten thin, which was continued during the time of roasting.
The following directions were given for roast Veal. Chop some parsley
and thyme very small. Beat up the yolks of five or six eggs with some
cream, add the chopped herbs, some grated bread, a few cloves, a little
mace and nutmeg, some currants and sugar. Mix these well together, raise
the skin of the breast of veal, put the stuffing under it, and skewer it
down close. Lay the veal before the fire, and baste it with butter. When
sufficiently roasted, squeeze on the juice of a lemon, and serve it up.
For roast Pig, chop up some sage, and sow it up in the belly of the pig.
Roast and baste it with butter, sprinkled with a little salt. When
roasted fine and crisp, serve it upon a sauce made of chopped sage and
currants, well boiled in vinegar and water, the gravy and brains of the
pig, a little grated bread, some barberries and sugar, all well mixed
together, and heated over the fire. Another way. Fill the belly of the
pig with a pudding made of grated bread, a little minced beef suet, the
yolks of two or three raw eggs, three or four spoonfuls of good cream,
and a little salt. Sow it up in the belly of the pig, lay it down to
roast, and baste it with yolks of eggs beat thin. A few minutes before
it is taken up, squeeze on the juice of a lemon, and strew it over with
bread crumbs, pepper, nutmeg, ginger, and salt. Make a sauce with
vinegar, butter, and the yolks of eggs boiled hard and minced. Boil the
whole together, with the gravy of the pig, and then serve it up in this
sauce. When a Hare is to be dressed, wash it well, and dry it in a
cloth. Sow up a pudding in the belly, truss the hare as if it were
running, and roast it. Make a sauce of claret wine, grated bread, sugar,
ginger, barberries, and butter, boiled all together, and serve it up
with the hare.--Boiled dishes were prepared in the following manner. If
a capon, pullet, or chicken, boil it in good mutton broth. Put in some
mace, a bunch of sweet herbs, a little sage, spinage, marigold leaves
and flowers, white or green endive, borage, bugloss, parsley, and
sorrel. Serve it up on sippets of white bread. If to be dressed with
cauliflower, cut the vegetable into small heads, with about an inch and
a half of stalk to them. Boil them in milk with a little mace, till they
are very tender, and beat up the yolks of two eggs with a quarter of a
pint of sack. Melt some butter very thick, with a little vinegar and
sliced lemon. Pour this and the eggs to and fro till they are well
mixed, then take the cauliflower out of the milk, and put it into the
sauce. Having boiled the chicken tender, serve it upon sippets of white
bread, finely carved, and pour the sauce over it. Pigeons are to be put
into a skillet with some strong broth, or spring water. Boil and skim
them, put in some mace, a bunch of sweet herbs, some white endive,
marigold flowers, and salt. When finely boiled, serve them upon sippets
of white bread, and garnish the dish with mace and white endive. Small
birds, such as woodcocks, snipes, blackbirds, thrushes, fieldfares,
rails, quails, wheatears, larks, martins, and sparrows, are to be boiled
in strong broth, or in salt and water. When boiled, take out the trails,
and chop them and the livers small. Add some crumb of grated bread, a
little of the liquor in which the birds were boiled, some mace, and stew
them all together in some gravy. Beat up the yolks of two eggs, with a
little white wine vinegar and grated nutmeg; and when ready to serve,
stir these into the sauce with a small piece of butter. Dish up the
birds upon sippets of white bread, and pour the sauce over them with
some capers, lemon finely minced, and barberries, or pickled grapes,
whole. Carrots and onions boiled together in broth, separately from the
sauce, are sometimes added to it. When no onion is put in, rub the
bottom of the dish with a clove or two of garlic. A Goose, before it is
boiled, is to be salted for a day or two. Steep some oatmeal in warm
milk, or some other liquor, and mix it with some shred beef suet, minced
apples and onions, sweet herbs chopped, and a seasoning of cloves, mace,
and pepper. Fill the belly of the goose with this stuffing, and tie it
close at the neck and vent. Boil and serve it on slices of bread, dipped
in any kind of broth, with cauliflowers, cabbage, turnips, and
barberries. Pour melted butter over it. A Wild Duck, being first drawn
and trussed, must be parboiled, and then half roasted. Having carved it,
put the gravy into a pipkin with plenty of onion and parsley, sliced
ginger, mace, some washed currants, barberries, and a quart of claret.
Boil all together, skim it clean, add some butter and sugar, and serve
up the duck with the sauce poured over it. A Rabbit is to be boiled in
salt and water. Chop some parsley and thyme together, a handful of each,
and boil it in a little of the liquor in which the rabbit is boiling.
Then add to it three or four spoonfuls of verjuice, a piece of butter,
and two or three eggs well beaten. Stir the whole together, thicken it
over the fire, and serve up the rabbit with this sauce poured over
it.--In the royal kitchen, a Florentine Pie was made of a leg of veal or
mutton, cut into thin slices, and seasoned with sweet marjoram, thyme,
savory, parsley, rosemary, an onion and a clove of garlic, all cut
small. To these were added, nutmeg and pepper beaten fine, some grated
manchet, a little salt, and the yolks of three or four raw eggs, to mix
and make them adhere together. The meat is laid in a dish, with a crust
under it, intermixed with some thin slices of streaked bacon. A few bay
leaves and some oyster liquor are added, the dish covered with a crust,
and baked. For a Veal Pie, cut a fillet into pieces, about the size of
walnuts, and season them with cinnamon, ginger, sugar, and salt. Use a
raised crust or dish, at pleasure, lay in the meat with roasted chesnuts
peeled and quartered, dates sliced, and the marrow from two beef bones.
Put on the top crust, bake the pie; and when done, serve it up with the
following sauce poured into it. Beat up the yolk of an egg with some
white wine, cinnamon, ginger, and sugar. Heat it over the fire till it
thickens a little, taking care not to let the egg curdle. Sauce for a
loin of veal was made of all kinds of sweet herbs, with the yolks of two
or three hard eggs minced very fine. They were then boiled up with some
currants, a little grated bread, pounded cinnamon, sugar, and two whole
cloves. The sauce was poured into the dish intended for the veal, with
two or three slices of an orange. A Cod's Head was directed to be
dressed in the following manner. Cut the head large, and a good piece of
the shoulder with it, and boil it in salt and water. Have prepared a
quart of cockles, with the shelled meat of two or three crabs. Put these
into a pipkin with nearly half a pint of white wine, a bunch of sweet
herbs, two onions, a little mace, a little grated nutmeg, and some
oyster liquor. Boil these till the liquor is wasted, then add three or
four large spoonfuls of melted butter. Drain the cod's head well over a
chafing-dish of coals, and serve it up with the above sauce, taking out
the bunch of herbs, and adding more butter, if required. Serve up the
liver and roe on the sides of the dish.
QUICK HEDGES. A great variety of different sorts of plants is employed
in forming and constructing these hedges, as those of the hawthorn, the
black-thorn, the crab-tree, the hazel, the willow, the beech, the elder,
the poplar, the alder, and several other kinds, according to particular
circumstances and situations. Whatever sort of plants may be employed
for this purpose, the work should constantly be well performed in the
first instance, and the hedges and plants be afterwards kept in due
order and regularity by suitable pruning, cutting in, and other proper
management. Excellent hawthorn hedges are raised by planting one row
only at six inches asunder, rather than two rows nine inches or a foot
apart. Those planted six inches apart do not require to be cut down to
thicken them at the bottom, and will form a complete protection against
hogs, and in other respects form a beautiful and effectual fence.
QUICKSILVER, when rubbed down and blended with unctuous matters, forms a
sort of ointment, which is useful in the curing of different diseases of
the skin, as well as in destroying lice and other vermin that infest
animals of different kinds, which form the live stock of the farmer. It
has also been found useful in its crude state in destroying insects on
fruit trees. Take a small awl, and pierce sloping, through the rind, and
into part of the wood of the branch, but not to the heart or pith of it;
and pour in a small drop or two of the quicksilver, and stop it up with
a small wooden plug made to fit the orifice, and the insects will drop
off from that very branch the next day; and in a day or two more, from
the other branches of the trees without any other puncture, and the tree
will continue in full vigour and thrive well through the summer.
Honeysuckles and other shrubs may be cleared of insects, by scraping
away the top of the ground with a trowel, and running an awl in the same
sloping manner, into the main stem just above the roots; but with the
same caution as above, not quite to the inner pith, and then applying
the quicksilver. The insects will drop off the day after the
experiment.
QUILLS. To harden and prepare them for use, dip them for a minute in
some boiling water in which alum has been dissolved; or thrust them into
hot ashes till they become soft, and afterwards press and scrape them
with the back of a knife. When they are to be clarified, the barrels
must be scraped and cut at the end, and then put into boiling water for
a quarter of an hour, with a quantity of alum and salt. Afterwards they
are dried in an oven, or in a pan of hot sand.
QUIN'S FISH SAUCE. Half a pint of walnut pickle, the same of mushroom
pickle, six anchovies pounded, six anchovies whole, and half a
tea-spoonful of cayenne. Shake it up well, when it is to be used.
QUINCE. The fruit of the quince is astringent and stomachic; and its
expressed juice, in small quantities, as a spoonful or two, is of
considerable service in nausea, vomitings, eructations, &c. Quince trees
are very apt to have rough bark, and to be bark-bound; in these cases it
will be necessary to shave off the rough bark with a draw-knife, and to
scarify them when bark-bound, brushing them over with the composition.
It is also advised to plant quince trees at a proper distance from apple
and pears, as bees and the wind may mix the farina, and occasion the
apples and pears to degenerate. These trees may be raised from the
kernels of the fruit sown in autumn; but there is no depending on having
the same sort of good fruit from seedlings, nor will they soon become
bearers. But the several varieties may be continued the same by cuttings
and layers; also by suckers from such trees as grow upon their own
roots, and likewise be increased by grafting and budding upon their own
pear-stocks raised from the kernels in the same manner as for apples.
Standard quinces, designed as fruit trees, may be stationed in the
garden or orchard, and some by the sides of any water, pond, watery
ditch, &c. as they delight in moisture.
QUINCE JELLY. When quinces have been boiled for marmalade, take the
first liquor and pass it through a jelly bag. To every pint allow a
pound of fine loaf sugar, and boil it till it is quite clear and comes
to a jelly. The quince seeds should be tied in a piece of muslin, and
boiled in it.
QUINCE MARMALADE. Pare and quarter some quinces, and weigh an equal
quantity of sugar. To four pounds of the latter put a quart of water,
boil and skim it well, by the time the quinces are prepared. Lay the
fruit in a stone jar, with a teacupful of water at the bottom, and pack
them with a little sugar strewed between. Cover the jar close, set it in
a cool oven, or on a stove, and let the quinces soften till they become
red. Then pour the syrup and a quart of quince juice into a preserving
pan, and boil all together till the marmalade be completed, breaking the
lumps of fruit with the ladle; otherwise the fruit is so hard, that it
will require a great deal of time. Stewing quinces in a jar, and then
squeezing them through a cheese cloth, is the best method of obtaining
the juice; and in this case the cloth should first be dipped in boiling
water, and then wrung out.
QUINCE PUDDING. Scald six large quinces very tender, pare off the thin
rind, and scrape them to a pulp. Add powdered sugar enough to make them
very sweet, and a little pounded ginger and cinnamon. Beat up the yolks
of four eggs with some salt, and stir in a pint of cream. Mix these with
the quince, and bake it in a dish, with a puff crust round the edge. In
a moderate oven, three quarters of an hour will be sufficient. Sift
powdered sugar over the pudding before it is sent to table.
QUINCE WINE. Gather the quinces in a dry day, when they are tolerably
ripe; rub off the down with a linen cloth, and lay them in hay or straw
for ten days to perspire. Cut them in quarters, take out the cores, and
bruise them well in a mashing tub with a wooden pestle. Squeeze out the
liquid part by degrees, by pressing them in a hair bag in a cider press.
Strain the liquor through a fine sieve, then warm it gently over a fire,
and skim it, but do not suffer it to boil. Now sprinkle into it some
loaf sugar reduced to powder, and boil a dozen or fourteen quinces
thinly sliced, in a gallon of water mixed with a quart of white wine.
Add two pounds of fine sugar, strain off the liquor, and mingle it with
the natural juice of the quinces. Put this into a cask, but do not fill
it, and mix them well together. Let it stand to settle, put in two or
three whites of eggs, and draw it off. If it be not sweet enough, add
more sugar, and a quart of the best malmsey. To make it still better,
boil a quarter of a pound of stone raisins, and half an ounce of
cinnamon bark, in a quart of the liquor, till a third part is reduced.
Then strain it, and put it into the cask when the wine is fermenting.
QUINCES PRESERVED. Wipe clean a quantity of golden pippins, not pared
but sliced, and put them into two quarts of boiling water. Boil them
very quick, and closely covered, till the water is reduced to a thick
jelly, and then scald the quinces, either whole or cut in halves. To
every pint of pippin jelly add a pound of the finest sugar, boil and
skim it clear. Put those quinces that are to be done whole into the
syrup at once, and let it boil very fast; and those that are to be in
halves by themselves. Skim it carefully, and when the fruit is clear,
put some of the syrup into a glass, to try whether it jellies, before
taking it off the fire. A pound of quinces is to be allowed to a pound
of sugar, and a pound of jelly already boiled with the sugar.
QUINSEY. For a quinsey, or inflammation of the throat, make a volatile
liniment, by shaking together an ounce of Florence oil, and half an
ounce of the spirit of hartshorn; or an equal quantity of each, if the
patient be able to bear it. Moisten a piece of flannel with the
liniment, and apply it to the throat every four or five hours. After
bleeding, it will seldom fail to lessen or carry off the complaint.
R.