and an ordinary table is more visible, than in the dressing of
vegetables, especially greens. They may be equally as fine at first, at
one place as at another, but their look and taste afterwards are very
different, owing entirely to the careless manner in which they have been
prepared. Their appearance at table however is not all that should be
considered; for though it is certainly desirable that they should be
pleasing to the eye, it is of still greater consequence that their best
qualities should be carefully preserved. Vegetables are generally a
wholesome diet, but become very prejudicial if not properly dressed.
Cauliflowers, and others of the same species, are often boiled only
crisp, to preserve their beauty. For the look alone, they had better not
be boiled at all, and almost as well for the purpose of food, as in such
a crude state they are scarcely digestible by the strongest stomach. On
the other hand, when overboiled they become vapid, and in a state
similar to decay, in which they afford no sweet purifying juices to the
stomach, but load it with a mass of mere feculent matter. The same may
be said of many other vegetables, their utility being too often
sacrificed to appearance, and sent to table in a state not fit to be
eaten. A contrary error often prevails respecting potatoes, as if they
could never be done too much. Hence they are popped into the saucepan or
steamer, just when it happens to suit, and are left doing, not for the
time they require, but till it is convenient to take them up; when
perhaps their nutricious qualities are all boiled away, and they taste
of nothing but water. Ideas of nicety and beauty in this case ought all
to be subservient to utility; for what is beauty in vegetables growing
in the garden is not so at table, from the change of circumstances. They
are brought to be eaten, and if not adapted properly to the occasion,
they are deformities on the dish instead of ornaments. The true
criterion of beauty is their suitableness to the purposes intended. Let
them be carefully adapted to this, by being neither under nor over done,
and they will not fail to please both a correct eye and taste, while
they constitute a wholesome species of diet. A most pernicious method of
dressing vegetables is often adopted, by putting copper into the
saucepan with them in the form of halfpence. This is a dangerous
experiment, as the green colour imparted by the copperas, renders them
in the highest degree unwholesome, and even poisonous. Besides, it is
perfectly unnecessary, for if put into boiling water with a little
salt, and boiled up directly, they will be as beautifully green as the
most fastidious person can require. A little pearlash might safely be
used on such an occasion, and with equal effect, its alkaline properties
tending to correct the acidity. Many vegetables are more wholesome, and
more agreeable to the taste, when stewed a good while, only care must be
taken that they stew merely, without being suffered to boil. Boiling
produces a sudden effect, stewing a slower effect, and both have their
appropriate advantages. But if preparations which ought only to stew,
are permitted to boil, the process is destroyed, and a premature effect
produced, that cannot be corrected by any future stewing. In order to
have vegetables in the best state for the table, they should be gathered
in their proper season, when they are in the greatest perfection, and
that is when they are most plentiful. Forced vegetables seldom attain
their true flavour, as is evident from very early asparagus, which is
altogether inferior to that which is matured by nature and common
culture, or the mere operation of the sun and climate. Peas and Potatoes
are seldom worth eating before midsummer; unripe vegetables being as
insipid and unwholesome as unripe fruit, and are liable to the same
objections as when they are destroyed by bad cooking. Vegetables are too
commonly treated with a sort of cold distrust, as if they were natural
enemies. They are seldom admitted freely at our tables, and are often
tolerated only upon a sideboard in small quantities, as if of very
inferior consideration. The effect of this is like that of all
indiscriminate reserve, that we may negatively be said to lose friends,
because we have not the confidence to make them. From the same distrust
or prejudice, there are many vegetables never used at all, which are
nevertheless both wholesome and palatable, particularly amongst those
best known under the denomination of herbs. The freer use of vegetable
diet would be attended with a double advantage, that of improving our
health, and lessening the expense of the table. Attention should however
be paid to their size and quality, in order to enjoy them in their
highest degree of perfection. The middle size are generally to be
preferred to the largest or the smallest; they are more tender, and full
of flavour, just before they are quite full grown. Freshness is their
chief value and excellence, and the eye easily discovers whether they
have been kept too long, as in that case they lose all their verdure and
beauty. Roots, greens, salads, and the various productions of the
garden, when first gathered, are plump and firm, and have a fragrant
freshness which no art can restore, when they have lost it by long
keeping, though it will impart a little freshness to put them into cold
spring water for some time before they are dressed. They should neither
be so young as not to have acquired their good qualities, nor so old as
to be on the point of losing them. To boil them in soft water will best
preserve the colour of such as are green; or if only hard water be at
hand, a tea-spoonful of potash should be added. Great care should be
taken to pick and cleanse them thoroughly from dust, dirt, and insects,
and nicely to trim off the outside leaves. If allowed to soak awhile in
water a little salted, it will materially assist in cleansing them from
insects. All the utensils employed in dressing vegetables should be
extremely clean and nice; and if any copper vessel is ever used for the
purpose, the greatest attention must be paid to its being well tinned.
The scum which arises from vegetables as they boil should be carefully
removed, as cleanliness is essential both to their looking and eating
well. The lid of the saucepan should always be taken off when they boil,
to give access to the air, even if it is not otherwise thought
necessary. Put in the vegetables when the water boils, with a little
salt, and let them boil quickly; when they sink to the bottom, they are
generally done enough. Take them up immediately, or they will lose their
colour and goodness. Drain the water from them thoroughly, before they
are sent to table. When greens are quite fresh gathered, they will not
require so much boiling by at least a third of the time, as when they
have been gathered a day or two and brought to the public market. The
following table shows when the various kinds of vegetables are in
season, or the time of their earliest natural growth, and when they are
most plentiful, or in their highest perfection.
Artichokes, July, September,
---- Jerusalem ditto, Sept. November,
Angelica stalks, May, June,
Asparagus, April, June,
Beet roots, Dec. January,
Boricole, November, January
Cabbage, May, July,
---- Red ditto, July, August,
---- White ditto, October,
Cardoons, Nov. December,
Carrots, May, August,
Cauliflowers, June, August,
Celery, Sept. November,
Chervil, March, May,
Corn Salad, May, June,
Cucumbers, July, September,
Endive, June, October,
Kidney Beans, July, August,
Leeks, Sept. December,
Lettuce, April, July,
Onions, August, November,
Parsley, February, March,
Parsnips, July, October,
Peas, June, August,
Potatoes, June, November,
Radishes, March, June,
---- Spanish ditto, August, September,
Scarlet Beans, July, August,
Small Salad, May, June,
Salsify, July, August,
Scorzonera, July, August,
Sea Kale, April, May,
Shalots, August, October,
Savory Cabbage, Sept. November,
Sorrel, June, July,
Spinage, March, July,
---- Winter ditto, Oct. November,
Turnips, May, July,
Turnip tops, April, May,
Windsor Beans, June, August.
VEGETABLES AND FISH. Pick, wash, and chop some sorrel, spinage, small
onions or chives, and parsley. Put them into a stewpan with fresh
butter, a good spoonful of lemon or Seville orange juice, or vinegar and
water, some essence of anchovy, and cayenne pepper. Do these gently over
the fire till the vegetables are tender, then put in the fish, and stew
them till well done.
VEGETABLE ESSENCES. The flavour of the various sweet and savoury herbs
may be obtained, by combining their essential oils with rectified spirit
of wine, in the proportion of one dram of the former to two ounces of
the latter; by picking the leaves, and laying them in a warm place to
dry, and then filling a wide-mouth bottle with them, and pouring on them
wine, brandy, or vinegar, and letting them steep for fourteen days.
VEGETABLE MARROW. Take off all the skin of six or eight gourds, put them
into a stewpan with water, salt, lemon juice, and a bit of butter, or
fat bacon. Let them stew gently till quite tender, and serve them up
with rich Dutch sauce, or any other sauce highly flavoured.
VEGETABLE PIE. Scald and blanch some broad beans, and cut in some young
carrots, turnips, artichoke bottoms, mushrooms, peas, onions, parsley,
celery, or any of these. Make the whole into a nice stew, with some
good veal gravy. Bake a crust over a dish, with a little lining round
the edge, and a cup turned up to keep it from sinking. When baked, open
the lid, and pour in the stew.
VEGETABLE SOUP. Pare and slice five or six cucumbers, add the inside of
as many cos-lettuces, a sprig or two of mint, two or three onions, some
pepper and salt, a pint and a half of young peas, and a little parsley.
Put these into a saucepan with half a pound of fresh butter, to stew in
their own liquor half an hour, near a gentle fire. Pour on the
vegetables two quarts of boiling water, and stew them two hours. Rub a
little flour in a tea-cupful of water, boil it with the rest nearly
twenty minutes, and serve it.--Another way. Peel and slice six large
onions, six potatoes, six carrots, and four turnips; fry them in half a
pound of butter, and pour on them four quarts of boiling water. Toast a
crust of bread quite brown and hard, but do not burn it; add it to the
above, with some celery, sweet herbs, white pepper, and salt. Stew it
all together gently four hours, and strain it through a coarse cloth.
Put in a sliced carrot, some celery, and a small turnip, and stew them
in the soup. An anchovy, and a spoonful of ketchup, may be added if
approved.
VEGETABLE SYRUP. To a pint of white wine vinegar, put two pounds of the
best brown sugar. Boil them to a syrup; and when quite cold, add two
table-spoonfuls of paregoric elixir, which is made in the following
manner. Steep in a pint of brandy a dram of purified opium, a dram of
flowers of benjamin, and two scruples of camphor, adding a dram of the
oil of anniseed. Let it stand ten days, occasionally shaking it up, and
then strain it off. This added to the above composition, forms the
celebrated Godbold's Vegetable Syrup. The paregoric elixir taken by
itself, a tea-spoonful in half a pint of white wine whey or gruel at bed
time, is an agreeable and effectual medicine for coughs and colds. It is
also excellent for children who have the hooping cough, in doses of from
five to twenty drops in a little water, or on a small piece of sugar.
The vegetable syrup is chiefly intended for consumptive cases.
VELVETS. When the pile of velvet requires to be raised, it is only
necessary to warm a smoothing iron, to cover it with a wet cloth, and
hold it under the velvet. The vapour arising from the wet cloth will
raise the pile of the velvet, with the assistance of a whisk gently
passed over it. To remove spots and stains in velvet, bruise some of the
plant called soapwort, strain out the juice, and add to it a small
quantity of black soap. Wash the stain with this liquor, and repeat it
several times after it has been allowed to dry. To take wax out of
velvet, rub it frequently with hot toasted bread.
VENISON. If it be young and good, the fat of the venison will be clear,
bright, and thick, and the cleft part smooth and close: but if the cleft
is wide and tough, it is old. To judge of its sweetness, run a very
sharp narrow knife into the shoulder or haunch, and the meat will be
known by the scent. Few people like it when it is very high.
VENISON PASTY. To prepare venison for pasty, take out all the bones,
beat and season the meat, and lay it into a stone jar in large pieces.
Pour over it some plain drawn beef gravy, not very strong; lay the bones
on the top, and set the jar in a water bath, or saucepan of water over
the fire, and let it simmer three or four hours. The next day, when
quite cold, remove the cake of fat, and lay the meat in handsome pieces
on the dish. If not sufficiently seasoned, add more pepper, salt, or
pimento. Put in some of the gravy, and keep the remainder for the time
of serving. When the venison is thus prepared, it will not require so
much time to bake, or such a very thick crust as usual, and by which the
under part is seldom done through. A shoulder of venison makes a good
pasty, and if there be a deficiency of fat, it must be supplied from a
good loin of mutton, steeped twenty-four hours in equal parts of rape,
vinegar, and port. The shoulder being sinewy, it will be of advantage to
rub it well with sugar for two or three days; and when to be used, clear
it perfectly from the sugar and the wine with a dry cloth. A mistake
used to prevail, that venison could not be baked too much; but three or
four hours in a slow oven will be sufficient to make it tender, and the
flavour will be preserved. Whether it be a shoulder or a side of
venison, the meat must be cut in pieces, and laid with fat between, that
it may be proportioned to each person, without breaking up the pasty to
find it. Lay some pepper and salt at the bottom of the dish, and some
butter; then the meat nicely packed, that it may be sufficiently done,
but not lie hollow to harden at the edges. In order to provide gravy for
the pasty, boil the venison bones with some fine old mutton, and put
half a pint of the gravy cold into the dish. Then lay butter on the
venison and cover as well as line the sides with a thick crust, but none
must be put under the meat. Keep the remainder of the gravy till the
pasty comes from the oven; pour it quite hot into the middle by means of
a funnel, and mix it well in the dish by shaking. It should be seasoned
with pepper and salt.--Another way. Take a side of venison, bone it, and
season it with pepper and salt, cloves, and mace finely beaten; cut your
venison in large pieces, and season it very well with your spices then
lay it into an earthen pan; make a good gravy of two pound of beef, and
pour this gravy over the venison; take three quarters of a pound of beef
suet, well picked from the skins, wet a coarse cloth, lay your suet on
it, and cover it over, and beat it with a rolling-pin, till it is as
fine as butter; as your cloth dries, wet it, and shift your suet, and
put it over the top of the venison; make a paste of flour and water, and
cover the pan, and send it to the oven to bake; it is best baked with a
batch of bread; when it comes from the oven, and is quite cold, make a
puff-paste; lay a paste all over your dish, and a roll round the inside,
then put in your venison with the fat, and all the gravy, if the dish
will hold it; put on the lid, and ornament it as your fancy leads. It
will take two hours and a half in a quick oven. A sheet of paper laid on
the top, will prevent it from catching, and the crust will be of a fine
colour. By baking your venison in this manner, it will keep four or five
days before you use it, if you do not take off the crust.
VENISON SAUCE. Boil an ounce of dried currants in half a pint of water,
and some crumbs of bread, a few cloves or grated nutmeg, a glass of port
wine, and a piece of butter. Sweeten it to your taste, and send it to
table in a boat.
VERJUICE. Lay some ripe crabs together in a heap to sweat, then take out
the stalks and decayed ones, and mash up the rest. Press the juice
through a hair cloth into a clean vessel, and it will be fit to use in a
month. It is proper for sauces where lemon is wanted.
VERMICELLI PUDDING. Boil a pint of milk with lemon peel and cinnamon,
and sweeten it with loaf sugar. Strain it through a sieve, add a quarter
of a pound of vermicelli, and boil it ten minutes. Then put in the yolks
of five and the whites of three eggs, mix them well together, and steam
the pudding an hour and a quarter, or bake it half an hour.
VERMICELLI SOUP. Boil two ounces of vermicelli in three quarts of veal
gravy, then rub it through a tammis, season it with salt, give it a
boil, and skim it well. Beat up the yolks of four eggs, mix with them
half a pint of cream, stir them gradually into the soup, simmer it for a
few minutes, and serve it up. A little of the vermicelli may be reserved
to serve in the soup, if approved.--Another way. Take two quarts of
strong veal broth, put into a clean saucepan a piece of bacon stuck with
cloves, and half an ounce of butter worked up in flour; then take a
small fowl trussed to boil, break the breastbone, and put it into your
soup; stove it close, and let it stew three quarters of an hour; take
about two ounces of vermicelli, and put to it some of the broth; set it
over the fire till it is quite tender. When your soup is ready, take out
the fowl, and put it into your dish; take out your bacon, skim your soup
as clean as possible; then pour it on the fowl, and lay your vermicelli
all over it; cut some French bread thin, put it into your soup, and send
it to table. If you chuse it, you may make your soup with a knuckle of
veal, and send a handsome piece of it in the middle of your dish,
instead of the fowl.
VICARAGE CAKE. Mix a pound and a half of fine flour, half a pound of
moist sugar, a little grated nutmeg and ginger, two eggs well beaten, a
table-spoonful of yeast, and the same of brandy. Make it into a light
paste, with a quarter of a pound of butter melted in half a pint of
milk. Let it stand half an hour before the fire to rise, then add three
quarters of a pound of currants, well washed and cleaned, and bake the
cake in a brisk oven. Butter the tin before the cake is put into it.
VINEGAR. Allow a pound of lump sugar to a gallon of water. While it is
boiling, skim it carefully, and pour it into a tub to cool. When it is
no more than milk warm, rub some yeast upon a piece of bread and put
into it, and let it ferment about twenty-four hours. Then tun the liquor
into a cask with iron hoops, lay a piece of tile over the bung-hole, and
set it in the kitchen, which is better than placing it in the sun. It
will be fit to bottle in about six months. March is the best time of the
year for making vinegar, though if kept in the kitchen, this is of less
consequence. A cheap sort of vinegar may be made of the refuse of the
bee hives, after the honey is extracted. Put the broken combs into a
vessel, and add two parts of water: expose it to the sun, or keep it in
a warm place. Fermentation will succeed in a few days, when it must be
well stirred and pressed down to make it soak; and when the fermentation
is over, the matter is to be laid upon sieves to drain. The yellow
liquor which forms at the bottom of the vessel must be removed, the
vessel well cleaned, and the liquor which has been strained is to be
returned to the vessel. It will immediately begin to turn sour; it
should therefore be covered with a cloth, and kept moderately warm. A
pellicle will be formed on the surface, beneath which the vinegar
acquires strength: it must be kept standing for a month or two, and then
put into a cask. The bunghole should be left open, and the vinegar will
soon be fit for use. The prunings of the vine, being bruised and put
into a vat or mash tub, and boiling water poured on them, will produce a
liquor of a fine vinous quality, which may be used as vinegar.--Another
method. To every pound of coarse sugar add a gallon of water; boil the
mixture, and take off the scum as long as any rises. Then pour it into
proper vessels, and when sufficiently cooled put into it a warm toast
covered with yeast. Let it work about twenty-four hours, and then put
it into an iron-bound cask, fixed either near a constant fire, or where
the summer sun shines the greater part of the day. In this situation it
should not be closely stopped up, but a tile or something similar should
be laid on the bunghole, to keep out the dust and insects. At the end of
three months or less it will be clear, and fit for use, and may be
bottled off. The longer it is kept after it is bottled, the better it
will be. If the vessel containing the liquor is to be exposed to the
sun's heat, the best time to begin making it is in the month of April.
VINEGAR FOR SALADS. Take three ounces each of tarragon, savory, chives,
and shalots, and a handful of the tops of mint and balm, all dry and
pounded. Put the mixture into a wide-mouthed bottle, with a gallon of
the best vinegar. Cork it down close, set it in the sun, and in a
fortnight strain off and squeeze the herbs. Let it stand a day to
settle, and filter it through a tammis bag.
VINEGAR WHEY. Set upon the fire as much milk as is wanted for the
occasion, and when it is ready to boil, put in vinegar sufficient to
turn it to a clear whey. Let it stand some minutes, and then pour it
off. If too acid, a little warm water may be added. This whey is well
adapted to promote perspiration. Lemon or Seville orange juice may be
used instead of vinegar.
VINGARET. Chop some mint, parsley, and shalot; and mix them up with oil
and vinegar. Serve the sauce in a boat, for cold fowl or meat.
VIPERS. The bites of such reptiles should constantly be guarded against
as much as possible, as they are not unfrequently attended with
dangerous consequences. Animals of the neat-cattle kind are more liable
to be bitten and stung by these reptiles, than those of any other sort
of live stock. Instances have been known where the tongues of such
cattle have been even bitten or stung while grazing or feeding, which
have proved fatal. Such stock are, however, seldom attacked by reptiles
of the adder kind, except in cases where these are disturbed by the
animals in pasturing or feeding; which is the main reason why so many of
them are bitten and stung about the head, and occasionally the feet.
There are mostly much pain, inflammation, and swelling produced by these
bites and stings; the progress of which may commonly be checked or
stopped, and the complaint removed, by the use of such means as are
directed below. A sort of soft liquid of the liniment kind may be
prepared by mixing strong spirit of hartshorn, saponaceous liniment,
spirit of turpentine, and tincture of opium, with olive oil; the former
in the proportion of about two ounces each to three of the last,
incorporating them well together by shaking them in a phial, which will
be found very useful in many cases. A proper quantity of it should be
well rubbed upon the affected part, two or three times in the course of
the day, until the inflammation and swelling begin to disappear, after
the bottle has been well shaken. In the more dangerous cases, it may
often be advantageous to use fomentations to the affected parts,
especially when about the head, with the above application; such as
those made by boiling white poppy-heads with the roots of the
marshmallow, the leaves of the large plantain, and the tops of wormwood,
in the quantities of a few ounces of the first, and a handful of each of
the latter, when cut small, and bruised in five or six quarts of the
stale grounds of malt liquor. They may be applied frequently to the
diseased parts, rubbing them afterwards each time well with the above
soft liquid liniment. Where there are feverish appearances, as is often
the case in the summer season, a proper quantity of blood may sometimes
be taken away with great benefit, and a strong purge be afterwards
given of the cooling kind with much use. In slight cases of this kind,
some think the continued free use of spirit of hartshorn, given
internally, and applied externally to the affected parts, is the best
remedy of any that is yet known. As they are so dangerous, these
reptiles should always be destroyed as much as possible in all pastures
and grazing grounds.
U.
UDDER SWEET PIE. Either parboil or roast a tongue and udder, slice them
into tolerably thin slices, and season them with pepper and salt. Stone
half a pound of sun raisins, raise a crust, or put a puff crust round
the edge of a dish, place a layer of tongue and udder at the bottom, and
then some raisins, and so on till the dish is full. Cover the top with a
crust, and when the pie is baked, pour in the following sauce. Beat up
some yolks of eggs, with vinegar, white wine, sugar, and butter. Shake
them over the fire till ready to boil, and add it to the pie immediately
before it is sent to table.
ULCERS. Ulcers should not be healed precipitately, for it may be
attended with considerable danger. The first object is to cleanse the
wound with emollient poultices, and soften it with yellow basilicon
ointment, to which may be added a little turpentine or red precipitate.
They may also be washed with lime water, dressed with lint dipped in
tincture of myrrh, with spermaceti, or any other cooling ointment.
UMBRELLA VARNISH. Make for umbrellas the following varnish, which will
render them proof against wind and rain. Boil together two pounds of
turpentine, one pound of litharge in powder, and two or three pints of
linseed oil. The umbrella is then to be brushed over with the varnish,
and dried in the sun.
UNIVERSAL CEMENT. To an ounce of gum mastic add as much highly rectified
spirits of wine as will dissolve it. Soak an ounce of isinglass in water
until quite soft, then dissolve it in pure rum or brandy, until it forms
a strong glue, to which add about a quarter of an ounce of gum ammoniac
well rubbed and mixed. Put the two mixtures in an earthen vessel over a
gentle heat; when well united, the mixture may be put into a phial, and
kept well stopped. When wanted for use, the bottle must be set in warm
water, and the china or glass articles having been also warmed, the
cement must be applied. It will be proper that the broken surfaces, when
carefully fitted, should be kept in close contact for twelve hours at
least, until the cement is fully set, after which the fracture will be
found as secure as any other part of the vessel, and scarcely
perceptible.
W.
WAFERS. Dry some flour well, mix with it a little pounded sugar, and
finely pounded mace. Make these ingredients into a thick batter with
cream. Butter the wafer irons, and make them hot; put a tea-spoonful of
the batter into them, bake them carefully, and roll them off the iron
with a stick.
WAINSCOTS. Dirty painted wainscots may be cleaned with a sponge wetted
in potato water, and dipped in a little fine sand. For this purpose
grate some raw potatoes into water, run the pulp through a sieve, and
let it stand to settle; the clear liquor will then be fit for use. If
applied in a pure state, without the sand, it will be serviceable in
cleaning oil paintings, and similar articles of furniture. When an oak
wainscot becomes greasy, and has not been painted, it should be washed
with warm beer. Then boil two quarts of ale, and put into it a piece of
bees' wax the size of a walnut, with a large spoonful of sugar. Wet the
wainscot all over with a brush dipped in the mixture, and when dry, rub
it bright: this will give it a fine gloss.
WALNUT KETCHUP. To make the finest sort of walnut ketchup, boil or
simmer a gallon of the expressed juice of walnuts when they are tender,
and skim it well. Then put in two pounds of anchovies, bones and liquor;
two pounds of shalot, one ounce of mace, one ounce of cloves, one of
whole pepper, and one of garlic. Let all simmer together till the
shalots sink; then put the liquor into a pan till cold; bottle it up,
and make an equal distribution of the spice. Cork it well, and tie a
bladder over. It will keep twenty years, but is not good at first. Be
careful to express the juice at home, for what is sold as walnut ketchup
is generally adulterated. Some people make liquor of the outside shell
when the nut is ripe, but neither the colour nor the flavour is then so
fine.--Another way. Take four quarts of walnut juice, two quarts of
white wine vinegar, three ounces of ginger sliced, two ounces of black
pepper bruised, two ounces of white pepper bruised, half a pound of
anchovies; let these simmer gently, till half the quantity is
evaporated; then add to it a quart of red wine, two heads of garlic, the
yellow rind of eight Seville oranges, or half a pound of dried orange
peel cut very small, and forty bay leaves: give it one boil together,
then cover it close in an earthen vessel, and let it stand till it is
cold. When it is cold put it into wide-mouthed quart bottles; and into
each of the bottles put one ounce of shalots skinned and sliced: cork
the bottles close, and put them by for two months, when it will be fit
for use. The shalots will likewise eat very fine when taken out, though
they will look of a bad colour.--Another way, for fish sauce. Take
walnuts, when they are fit for pickling, bruise them well in a marble
mortar, and strain off the liquor from them through a cloth, let it
stand to settle, pour off the clear, and to every pint of it add one
pound of anchovies, half a quarter of an ounce of mace, half a quarter
of an ounce of cloves, half a quarter of an ounce of Jamaica pepper,
bruised fine; boil them together till the anchovies are dissolved; then
strain it off, and to the strained liquor add half a pint of the best
vinegar, and eight shalots; just boil it up again, pour it into a stone
pan or china bowl, and let it stand till cold, when it is fit to put up
in bottles for use. It will keep for years, and is excellent with fish
sauce.