Tame rabbits are scarcely eatable, unless kept delicately clean. The doe
brings forth every month, and must be allowed to go with the buck as
soon as she has kindled. The sweetest hay, oats, beans, sow-thistle,
parsley, carrot tops, cabbage leaves, and bran, should be given to the
rabbits, fresh and fresh. If not carefully attended, their own stench
will destroy them, and be very unwholesome to those who live near them.
Constant care is requisite to prevent this inconvenience.--When rabbits
are to be dressed, they may have gravy and stuffing like hare; or they
may be larded, and roasted without stuffing. For the manner of trussing
a rabbit, either for roasting or boiling, see the Plate. If boiled, it
should be smothered with onion sauce, the butter to be melted with milk
instead of water. If fried in joints, it must be dressed with dried or
fried parsley, and liver sauce made for it, the same as for roasting.
Chop up the liver with parsley, and put it into melted butter, with
pepper and salt. If fricasseed, the same as for chickens. Young rabbits
are good in a pie, with forcemeat as for chicken pie.--When rabbits are
to be purchased for cooking, the following things must be observed. If
the claws are blunt and rugged, the ears dry and tough, and the haunch
thick, it is old. But if the claws are smooth and sharp, the ears easily
tear, and the cleft in the lip is not much spread, it is young. If fresh
and newly killed, the body will be stiff, and in hares the flesh is
pale. They keep a good while by proper care, and are best when rather
beginning to turn, if the inside is preserved from being musty. To
distinguish a real leveret from a hare, a knob or small bone will be
discovered near the foot on its fore leg.----_Tame rabbits_ may be bred
with much success and ornamental effect in a small artificial warren, in
a lawn in the garden, made in the following manner. Pare off the turf of
a circle about forty feet diameter, and lay it on the outside; then dig
a ditch within this circle, the outside perpendicular, the inner
sloping, and throw earth sufficient into the middle to form a little
hill, two or three feet higher than the level of the lawn; the rest must
be carried away. Then lay down the turf on the hill, and beat it well to
settle. The ditch at bottom should be about three feet wide, and three
and a half deep, with two or three drains at the bottom, covered with an
iron grate, or a stone with holes, to carry off the hasty rains, in
order to keep the rabbits dry. In the outside bank should be six
alcoves, the sides and top supported, either by boards or brick-work, to
give the rabbits their dry food in; by their different situations some
will always be dry; six boxes or old tea-chests, let into the bank will
do very well. If the ground be very light, the outside circle should
have a wall built round it, or some stakes driven into the ground, and
boards or hurdles nailed to them, within a foot of the bottom, to
prevent the bank from falling in. The entrance must either be by a board
to turn occasionally across the ditch, or by a ladder. The turf being
settled, and the grass beginning to grow, turn in the rabbits, and they
will immediately go to work to make themselves burrows in the sides, and
in the hill. By way of inducing them rather to build in the sides, to
keep the turf the neater, make a score of holes about a foot deep, and
they will finish them to their own mind; and if there be a brick wall
round it, it should be built on pillars, with an arch from each, to
leave a vacancy for a burrow. Lucern, parsley and carrots are very
proper food for them; and they should also be fed upon some of the best
upland pasture hay. Rabbits are subject to several diseases, as the
_rot_, which is caused by giving them too large a quantity of green
food, or the giving it fresh gathered, with the dew or rain hanging in
fresh drops upon it, as it is over-moisture that always causes the
disease; the green food should therefore always be given dry, and a
sufficient quantity of hay, or other dry food, intermixed with it, to
counteract the bad effects of it. And a sort of _madness_ often seizes
them: this may be known by their tumbling about; their heels upwards,
and hopping in an odd manner into the boxes. This distemper is supposed
to be owing to the rankness of their feeding; and the general cure is
the keeping them low and giving them the prickly herb called
tare-thistle to eat as much as possible. They are also subject to a sort
of scabby eruption, which is seldom removed. These should, however, be
directly separated from the rest of the stock.
RABBIT LIKE HARE. Choose a full-grown young rabbit, and hang it up three
or four days. Then skin it, and without washing, lay it in a seasoning
of black pepper and allspice, in very fine powder. Add a glass of port
wine, and the same quantity of vinegar. Baste it occasionally for forty
hours, then stuff and roast it as hare, and with the same sauce. Do not
wash off the liquor that it was soaked in.
RADISHES. These are raised from seed by different sowings from the end
of October till April, or the following month. They should have a light
fine mould, and the more early sowings be made on borders, under warm
walls, or other similar places, and in frames covered by glasses. The
common spindle-rooted, short-topped sorts are mostly made use of in
these early sowings, the seed being sown broadcast over the beds after
they have been prepared by digging over and raking the surface even,
being covered in with a slight raking. Some sow carrots with the early
crops of radishes. It is usual to protect the early sown crops in the
borders, during frosty nights and bad weather, by mats or dry wheat
straw, which should be carefully removed every mild day. By this means
they are brought more forward, as well as form better roots. When mats
are used, and supported by pegs or hoops, they are readily applied and
removed. A second more general sowing should be made in January or
February. When the crops have got their rough leaf; they should be
thinned out, where they are too thick, to the distance of two inches,
as there will be constantly more thinning by the daily drawing of the
young radishes. When the weather is dry in March, or the following
month, the crops should be occasionally well watered, which not only
forwards the growth of the crops, but increases the size of the roots,
and renders them more mild and crisp in eating. And the sowings should
be continued at the distance of a fortnight, till the latter end of
March, when they should be performed every ten days, until the end of
April or beginning of the following month. In sowing these later crops,
it is the practice of some gardeners to sow coss-lettuces and spinach
with them, in order to have the two crops coming forward at the same
time; but the practice is not to be much recommended, where there is
sufficient room. But in sowing the main general crops in the open
quarters, the market-gardeners generally put them in on the same ground
where they plant out their main crops of cauliflowers and cabbages,
mixing spinach with the radish-seed as above, sowing the seeds first,
and raking them in, then planting the cauliflowers or cabbages; the
radishes and spinach come in for use before the other plants begin to
spread much, and as soon as those crops are all cleared off for use, hoe
the ground all over to kill weeds and loosen the soil, drawing earth
about the stems of the cauliflowers and cabbages. The turnip radish
should not be sown till the beginning of March, the plants being allowed
a greater distance than for the common spindle-rooted sort. The seeds of
this sort are apt to degenerate, unless they are set at a distance from
that kind. The white and black Spanish radishes are usually sown about
the middle of July, or a little earlier, and are fit for the table by
the end of August, or the beginning of September, continuing good till
frost spoils them. These should be thinned to a greater distance than
the common sort, as their roots grow as large as turnips, and should not
be left nearer than six inches. To have these roots in winter, they
should be drawn before hard frost comes on, and laid in dry sand, as
practised for carrots, carefully guarding them from wet and frost; as in
this way they may be kept till the spring. In regard to the culture of
the general crops, they require very little, except occasional thinning,
where they are too thick, when the plants are come into the rough leaf,
either by hoeing or drawing them out by hand: though for large
quantities, small hoeing is the most expeditious mode of thinning, as
well as most beneficial to the crop by loosening the ground; in either
method thinning the plants to about two or three inches distance,
clearing out the weakest, and leaving the strongest to form the crop. In
order to save the seed, about the beginning of May some ground should be
prepared by digging and levelling; then drawing some of the straightest
and best coloured radishes, plant them in rows three feet distant, and
two feet asunder in the rows; observing, if the season be dry, to water
them until they have taken root: after which they will only require to
have the weeds hoed down between them, until they are advanced so high
as to overspread the ground. When the seed begins to ripen, it should be
carefully guarded against the birds. When it is ripe, the pods will turn
brown: then it must be cut, and spread in the sun to dry; after which it
must be thrashed, and laid up for use where no mice can come at it. In
order to have the roots early, as in January or the following month, the
method of raising them in hot-beds is sometimes practised. They should
have eighteen inches depth of dung to bring them up, and six or seven
inches depth of light rich mould. The seed should be sown moderately
thick, covering it in half an inch thick, and putting on the lights: the
plants usually come up in a week or less; and when they appear, the
lights should be lifted or taken off occasionally, according to the
weather; and in a fortnight thin the plants to the distance of an inch
and half or two inches, when in six weeks they will be fit to draw.
Where there are no frames to spare, the beds may be covered with mats
over hoops, and the sides secured by boards and straw-bands. And when in
want of dung, if the beds be covered with frames, and the lights put on
at night and in bad weather, the plants may be raised for use a
fortnight sooner than in the open borders.--To raise them in constant
succession, steep the seed in rain water for twenty-four hours, tie it
up in a linen bag, and hang it in the sun all day. The seed beginning to
shoot, is then to be sown in fresh earth well exposed to the sun, and
covered with a tub. In three days the radishes will be produced fit for
salad, and much more delicate than those grown in the common way. In the
winter the seeds should be steeped in warm water, and the bag put in a
place sufficiently hot to make them sprout. Then fill a tub with rich
mould, sow the seeds in it, and cover them over closely with another
tub, taking care to sprinkle them now and then with warm water. The two
tubs closely joined should be set in a warm place, and in about a
fortnight some fine salad will be produced. Radishes may be raised in
this manner all the year round, and by the quickness of their growth
they will be rendered fine and delicate.
RAGOUT OF EGGS. Boil eight eggs hard, then shell and cut them into
quarters. Have ready a pint of good gravy, well seasoned, and thickened
over the fire with two ounces of butter rolled in flour. When quite
smooth and hot, pour it over the eggs, and serve them up. By using cream
instead of gravy, this will make a fricassee.
RAGOUT OF MORELS. Cut them in long slices, then wash and drain them
well. Put them into a stewpan with a piece of butter, some chopped
parsley, a bunch of herbs, and some gravy. Simmer them over a gentle
fire, and when nearly done, add a little pepper, salt, and flour. Set
them over the fire, till the sauce is properly thickened. Stewed with a
little water and a blade of mace, and thickened with cream, and yolks of
eggs, they make a white ragout. Serve them with sippets of bread
toasted.
RAGOUT OF TRUFFLES. Peel the truffles, cut them in slices, wash and
drain them well. Put them into a saucepan with a little gravy, and stew
them gently over a slow fire. When they are nearly done enough, thicken
them with a little butter and flour. Stewed in a little water, and
thickened with cream and yolk of egg, they make a nice white ragout.
Truffles, mushrooms, and morels, are all of them very indigestible, and
therefore not to be recommended to general use.
RAISED CRUST. For meat pies or fowls, boil some water with a little fine
lard, and an equal quantity of fresh dripping or butter, but not much of
either. While hot, mix this with as much fine flour as is necessary,
making the paste as stiff as possible, to be smooth. Good kneading will
be required for this purpose, and beating it with a rolling-pin. When
quite smooth, put a part of it into a cloth, or under a pan, to soak
till nearly cold. Those who are not expert in raising a crust, may roll
the paste of a proper thickness, and cut out the top and bottom of the
pie, then a long piece for the sides. Cement the bottom to the sides
with egg, bringing the former rather farther out, and pinching both
together. Put egg between the edges of the paste, to make it adhere at
the sides. Fill the pie, put on the cover, and pinch it and the side
crust together. The same mode of uniting the paste is to be observed, if
the sides are pressed into a tin form, in which the paste must be baked,
after it is filled and covered; but in the latter case, the tin should
be buttered, and carefully taken off when done enough; and as the form
usually makes the sides of a lighter colour than is proper, the paste
should be put into the oven again for a quarter of an hour. The crust
should be egged over at first with a feather.--Another. Put four ounces
of butter into a saucepan with water; and when it boils, pour it into a
quantity of flour. Knead and beat it quite smooth, cover it with small
bits of butter, and work it in. If for custard, put a paper within to
keep out the sides till half done. Mix up an egg with a little warm
milk, adding sugar, a little peach water, lemon peel, or nutmeg, and
fill up the paste.--Another way. To four pounds of flour, allow a pound
of butter, and an ounce of salt. Heap the flour on a pie board, and make
a hole in the middle of it, and put in the butter and salt. Pour in
water nearly boiling, but with caution, that the crust be not too
flimsey. Work the butter with the hand till it is melted in the water,
then mix in the flour, mould it for a few minutes as quick as possible,
that it may be free from lumps, and the stiffer it is the better. Let it
be three hours before it is used.
RAISIN WINE. To every gallon of spring water, allow eight pounds of
fresh Smyrnas, and put them together in a large tub. Stir it thoroughly
every day for a month, then press the raisins in a horse-hair bag as dry
as possible, and put the liquor into a cask. When it has done hissing,
pour in a bottle of the best brandy, stop it close for twelve months,
and then rack it off free from the dregs. Filter the dregs through a bag
of flannel of three or four folds, add what is clear to the general
quantity, and pour on a quart or two of brandy, according to the size of
the vessel. Stop it up, and at the end of three years it may either be
bottled, or drank from the cask. If raisin wine be made rich of the
fruit, and well kept, the flavour will be much improved.--To make raisin
wine with cider, put two hundred-weight of Malagas into a cask, and pour
upon them a hogshead of good sound cider that is not rough; stir it well
two or three days, stop it up, and let it stand six months. Then rack it
into a cask that it will fill, and add a gallon of the best brandy. If
raisin wine be much used, it would answer well to keep a cask always for
it, and bottle off one year's wine just in time to make the next, which,
allowing the six months of infusion, would make the wine to be eighteen
months old. In cider counties this way is found to be economical; and if
the wine is not thought strong enough, the addition of another stone or
two of raisins would be sufficient, and the wine would still be very
cheap. When the raisins are pressed through a horse-hair bag, they will
either produce a good spirit by distillation, if sent to a chemist, or
they will make excellent vinegar.--Raisin wine without cider. On four
hundred-weight of Malagas pour a hogshead of spring water, stir it well
every day for a fortnight, then squeeze the raisins in a horse-hair bag
in a press, and tun the liquor. When it ceases to hiss, stop it close.
In six months rack it off into another cask, or into a tub; and after
clearing out the sediment, return it into the cask without washing it.
Add a gallon of the best brandy, stop it close, and bottle it off in
six months. The pressed fruit may be reserved for making vinegar.
RAMAKINS. Scrape a quarter of a pound of Cheshire cheese, and the same
of Gloucester cheese, and add them to a quarter of a pound of fresh
butter. Beat all in a mortar, with the yolks of four eggs, and the
inside of a small French roll boiled soft in cream. Mix the paste with
the whites of the eggs previously beaten, put it into small paper pans
made rather long than square, and bake in a Dutch oven to a fine brown.
They should be eaten quite hot. Some like the addition of a glass of
white wine. The batter for ramakins is equally good over macaroni, when
boiled tender; or on stewed brocoli, celery, or cauliflower, a little of
the gravy they have been stewed in being put in the dish with them, but
not enough to make the vegetable swim.
RASPBERRY BRANDY. Pick some fine dry fruit, put them into a stone jar,
and the jar into a kettle of water, or on a hot hearth, till the juice
will run. After straining it, add to every pint of juice, half a pound
of sugar; give it one boil, and skim it. When cold, put equal quantities
of juice and brandy; shake it well, and bottle it. Some persons prefer
it stronger of the brandy.
RASPBERRY CAKES. Pick out some fine ripe raspberries, weigh and boil
them. When mashed, and the liquor is wasted, add sugar equal to the
first weight of the fruit. Take it off the fire, mix it well, until
perfectly dissolved, and then put it on china plates to dry in the sun.
As soon as the top part dries, cut the paste into small cakes with the
cover of a canister; then turn them on fresh plates, and put them into
boxes when dry, with layers of white paper.
RASPBERRY CREAM. Mash the fruit gently, and let them drain; sprinkle
some sugar over, and that will produce more juice. Then put the juice to
some cream, and sweeten it. After this it may be lowered with milk; but
if the milk be put in before the cream, it will curdle it. When fresh
fruit cannot be obtained, it is best made of raspberry jelly, instead of
jam.--Another way. Boil an ounce of isinglass shavings in three pints of
cream and new milk mixed, for fifteen minutes, or till the shavings be
melted. Strain it through a hair sieve into a bason; when cool, add
about half a pint of raspberry juice or syrup, to the milk and cream.
Stir it till it is well incorporated; sweeten, and add a glass of
brandy. Whisk it about till three parts cold, and then put it into a
mould till it is quite cold. In summer, use the fresh juice; in winter,
syrup of raspberries.
RASPBERRY JAM. Weigh equal quantities of fruit and sugar; put the former
into a preserving-pan, boil and break it, stir it constantly, and let it
boil very quickly. When most of the juice is wasted, add the sugar, and
simmer it half an hour. By this mode of management the jam is greatly
superior in colour and flavour, to that which is made by putting the
sugar in at first.--Another way. Put the fruit in a jar, and the jar in
a kettle of water on a hot hearth, and let it remain till the juice will
run from it. Then take away a quarter of a pint from every pound of
fruit, boil and bruise it half an hour. Put in the weight of the fruit
in sugar, add the same quantity of currant juice, and boil it to a
strong jelly. The raspberry juice will serve to put into brandy, or may
be boiled with its weight in sugar, for making the jelly for raspberry
ice or cream.
RASPBERRY TARTS. Roll out some thin puff paste, and lay it in a
pattipan. Put in the raspberries, strew some fine sugar over them,
cover with a thin lid, and bake the tart. Mix a pint of cream with the
yolks of two or three eggs well beaten, and a little sugar. Cut open the
tart, pour in the mixture, and return it to the oven for five or six
minutes.--Another. Line the dish with puff paste, put in sugar and
fruit, lay bars across, and bake them. Currant tarts are done in the
same way.
RASPBERRY VINEGAR. Put a pound of fine fruit into a china bowl, and pour
upon it a quart of the best white wine vinegar. Next day strain the
liquor on a pound of fresh raspberries, and the following day do the
same; but do not squeeze the fruit, only drain the liquor as dry as
possible from it. The last time pass it through a canvas, previously
moistened with vinegar, to prevent waste. Put it into a stone jar, with
a pound of sugar to every pint of juice, broken into large lumps. Stir
it when melted, then put the jar into a saucepan of water, or on a hot
hearth; let it simmer, and skim it clean. When cold, bottle it up. This
is one of the most useful preparations that can be kept in a house, not
only as affording the most refreshing beverage, but being of singular
efficacy in complaints of the chest. A large spoonful or two in this
case is to be taken in a tumbler of water. No glazed or metal vessel of
any kind should be used in this preparation. The fruit, with an equal
quantity of sugar, makes excellent Raspberry Cakes, without boiling.
RASPBERRY WINE. To every quart of well-picked raspberries put a quart of
water; bruise, and let them stand two days. Strain off the liquor; and
to every gallon add three pounds of lump sugar. When dissolved, put the
liquor in a barrel; and when fine, which will be in about two months,
bottle it off. To each bottle put a spoonful of brandy, or a glass of
wine.
RATIFIA. Blanch two ounces of peach and apricot kernels, bruise and put
them into a bottle, and fill it nearly up with brandy. Dissolve half a
pound of white sugar-candy in a cup of cold water, and add it to the
brandy after it has stood a month on the kernels, and they are strained
off. Then filter through paper, and bottle it up for use. The leaves of
peaches and nectarines, when the trees are cut in the spring, being
distilled, are an excellent substitute for ratifia in puddings.
RATIFIA CAKES. Blanch and beat fine in a mortar, four ounces of bitter
almonds, and two ounces of sweet almonds. Prepare a pound and a half of
loaf sugar, pounded and sifted; beat up the whites of four eggs to a
froth, and add the sugar to it a little at a time, till it becomes of
the stiffness of dough. Stir and beat it well together, and put in the
almonds. Drop the paste on paper or tins, and bake it in a slow oven.
Try one of the cakes, and if it rises out of shape, the oven is too hot.
The cakes must not be handled in making, but a spoon or a knife must be
used.
RATIFIA CREAM. Boil three or four laurel, peach, or nectarine leaves, in
a full pint of cream, and strain it. When cold, add the yolks of three
eggs beaten and strained, sugar, and a large spoonful of brandy stirred
quick into it. Scald and stir it all the time, till it thickens. Or mix
half a quarter of a pint of ratifia, the same quantity of mountain wine,
the juice of two or three lemons, a pint of rich cream, and agreeably
sweetened with sugar. Beat it with a whisk, and put it into glasses. The
cream will keep eight or ten days.--Another. Blanch a quarter of an
ounce of bitter almonds, and beat them with a tea-spoonful of water in a
marble mortar. Rub with the paste two ounces of loaf sugar, simmer it
ten minutes with a tea-cupful of cream, and then strain and ice it.
RATIFIA DROPS. Blanch and beat in a mortar four ounces of bitter
almonds, and two ounces of sweet almonds, with a small part of a pound
of fine sugar sifted. Add the remainder of the sugar, and the whites of
two eggs, and make the whole into a paste. Divide the mass into little
balls the size of a nutmeg, put them on wafer paper, and bake them
gently on tin plates.