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| EMBELLISHMENTS, &c. have been |
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[Illustration: FASHIONABLE BONNETS AND CAPS.
FROM THE CELEBRATED ESTABLISHMENT OF THOMAS WHITE AND CO.,
_No. 41 South Second Street, Philadelphia._
No. 1.--INFANT'S TURBAN. No. 2.--BOY'S JOCKEY CAPS.
No. 3.--SUMMER BONNET. No. 4.--ITALIAN LEGHORN.
(Description on page 548.)]
[Illustration]
THE PYRAMID TALMA.
[From the establishment of G. BRODIE, No. 51 Canal Street, New York. Drawn
by L. T. VOIGT, from actual articles of costume.]
THE Talma we select for illustration is peculiarly becoming, especially
for the richest toilet. Its material is white _poult de soie_. It is
constructed of nine pieces cut in gores or pyramidal form, joined
together, the seams being hidden by a fancy braid trimming. Nine tabs,
widening at the bottom, and placed at distances equal to their width,
descending about one-third of the depth of the garment, constitute the
form of this novel garment. It is exquisitely adorned in needlework, and
beautified by an elegant netted fringe. By an oversight in the drawing,
fringe, which should also border the tabs that form the upper portion of
the dress, was omitted.
[Illustration: The Truant Detected.]
[Illustration]
THE SCARF VOLANT.
[From the establishment of G. BRODIE, No. 51 Canal Street, New York. Drawn
by L. T. VOIGT, from actual articles of costume.]
THIS is a novel and peculiarly dressy-looking garment, the distinctive
features being a closed square front (which is confined by a bow of a
rare fancy ribbon), and in the character of the flounce: this is gathered
or fulled in divisions, giving it the appearance somewhat of a series of
festoons. The separate compartments are strongly pronounced by transverse
bands of black velvet and narrow black lace; a similar trimming of which
outlines the whole scarf, and, with the piquant air of the garment,
renders it an exceedingly beautiful production. The color may be made to
taste. Those of lavender _glacé_ silks, the drabs, and of black taffeta,
especially are very beautiful.
THE PALACE WALTZ.
BY A YOUNG AMERICAN COMPOSER.
Published by T. C. ANDREWS, 66 Spring Garden St., Phila.
* * * * *
_Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1853,
by T. C. ANDREWS, in the Clerk's Office of the
District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania._
[Illustration: [Music]]
[Illustration: [Music]]
[Illustration:
THE EMPRESS. THE NOVADA.
A pattern of either of these will be sent on receipt of 62½ cents.
Post-office stamps received in payment. These patterns are exact
counterparts of the original, with trimmings, etc.
THE EMPRESS.--_A silk mantelet_, cut low in the neck. Two hollow plaits
forming a fichu are trimmed with a bow in the middle of the back. The
bottom is bordered by a wide ribbon plaited with bows at each side of the
arm. Two rows of lace complete it.
THE NOVADA.--_Pelisse_, cut low and square. A wide revers forms the
sleeve. All the edges are trimmed with ribbon, silk with gold fillets. Two
rows of lace fall on the back, one narrow between two plaited ribbons; the
other wider, which begins square in front and widens in the back: a deep
lace runs along the bottom. The back is plain, and falls in flutes from
the second row of ribbons.]
[Illustration: EAST PORT & PASSAMAQUODDY BAY.
_ENGRAVED BY ALFRED JONES FOR GODEY'S LADY'S BOOK._]
GODEY'S
LADY'S BOOK.
PHILADELPHIA, JUNE, 1854.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Consideration, 569
A Lace Basque, 550
A Loving Heart, by _W. S. Gaffney_, 543
A Song, by _Charles Stewart_, 501
A Strange Incident, 514
Braid for Child's Dress, 549
Bread-Cloth, 553
Caps and Headdress, 546
Celestial Phenomena, by _D. W. Belisle_, 504
Centre-Table Gossip, 569
Chemistry for Youth, 81, 185, 279, 566
Chinese Sayings, 548
Costly China, 569
Cottage Furniture, 551
Editors' Table, 555
Enigmas, 567
Evening Thoughts, by _H. Merran Parke_, 543
Everyday Actualities.--No. XX 487
Every Lady her own Dressmaker, 570
Fashions, 571
Geraniums, _from Mrs. Hale's New Household Receipt-Book_, 565
Godey's Arm-Chair, 561
Godey's Course of Lessons in Drawing, 502
History of Pearls, Natural and Artificial, 533
Illuminated, or Vellum-Painting, 538
Juvenile Fashions, 547
Lady's Riding Boots, 551
Lady's Slipper, 552
Legend of Long-Pond; or, Lake of the Golden
Cross, by _Fanny Fales_, 506
Let me Die! by _S. M. Montgomery_, 544
Letters Left at the Pastry Cook's, _Edited by Horace Mayhew_, 499
Lines to a Bronchitis Birdie, by _N. W. Bridge_, 545
L'Isolement, _Translated from the French of Alphonse
de Lamartine, by Wm. A. Kenyon_, 545
Literary Notices, 558
Mantillas, from the celebrated Establishment of G. Brodie,
New York, 482, 483
Mrs. Clark's Experience as a Servant, by _Bell_, 508
My Tulips, by _H. S. D._, 544
Niagara, 521
Ornaments, 570
Patterns for Embroidery, 554
Philadelphia Agency. 565
Physical Training, 525
Preservation of Food, 487
Receipts, &c., 567
Secret Love, by _Kate Harrington_, 542
Slander, 557
Smyrna Embroidery.--Lady's Slipper on Cloth, 552
Sonnets, by _Wm. Alexander_, 543
The Borrower's Department, 566
The Dead Tree, 544
The Last Kiss, by _Jenny A. M'Ewan_, 541
The Needle in the Haymow.--A Story for Housekeepers,
by _H. D. R._, 515
The Nursery Basket, 570
The Pedestrian Tour, by _Pauline Forsyth_, 494
The Schottisch Partner, by _Motte Hall_, 542
The Toilet, 568
The Trials of a Needle-Woman, by _T. S. Arthur_, 527
The Wild Flowers of the Month, by _H. Coultas_, 523
Time's Changes; or, Fashions in the Olden Times, 512
To a Friend on the Day of his Marriage, 545
To Correspondents. 571
Truth, by _D. Hardy, Jr._, 550
Two Mothers? by _Mrs. S. F. Jennings_, 543
What shall be done for the Insane? 555
Why don't Ladies learn to Cook? 549
EMBELLISHMENTS, &c.
_June._
Eastport and Passamaquoddy Bay.
Colored Fashions.
Embroidered Dress Collar.
The Truant Detected.
Fashionable Bonnets and Caps.
The Pyramid Talma.
The Scarf Volant.
Music.--The Palace Waltz.
The Empress and the Novada.
Preservation of Food.
Godey's Course of Lessons in Drawing.
The Wild Flowers of the Month.
Artificial Pearls in the Mussel.
Illuminated, or Vellum-Painting.
Caps and Headdress.
Juvenile Fashions.
Braid for Child's Dress.
Lace Basque.
Lady's Riding Boots.
Cottage Furniture.
Lady's Slipper on Cloth.--Smyrna Embroidery.
Design for a Bread-Cloth.
Patterns for Embroidery.
EVERYDAY ACTUALITIES.--NO. XX.
ILLUSTRATED WITH PEN AND GRAVER.
BY C. T. HINCKLEY.
PRESERVATION OF FOOD.
THE various organic substances furnished by the animal and vegetable
kingdoms, which constitute the food of man, are, from the nature of
their chemical structure, liable to change and decay; they are also
irregular in their supply; hence arises the necessity of storing up the
abundance of one season to meet the deficiencies of another. The art of
preserving food as much as possible in its original state is therefore of
great importance; it has been improved by gradual steps, depending, in
great measure, as in so many other cases, on chemical discovery and the
diffusion of chemical knowledge among persons engaged in the useful arts;
so that, at the present time, the deprivations suffered by our forefathers
may be prevented; the commonest articles of food may be enjoyed at all
seasons; and even the delicious fruits of our gardens may be made to
contribute to our health and refreshment at a season when the trees
which produced them are covered with snow. The mariner, too, is not now
necessarily confined to salt meats; he may, on the longest voyage, and in
the severest clime, as easily enjoy fresh meat and vegetables as when he
is in port.
The necessity for adopting means for the preservation of articles of
food arises from the complicated structure of organic compounds, and
their tendency to resolve themselves into simpler or inorganic compounds.
Although the comprehensive history of the animal and vegetable kingdoms
is written with a very brief alphabet; although the elements which enter
into the composition of organic bodies are only carbon, hydrogen, and
oxygen--often, but not always, nitrogen--and occasionally minute portions
of sulphur and phosphorus; yet their extraordinary powers of combination
are such that there appears to be no limit to the number of definite
substances which they are capable of producing, each substance having a
character peculiar to itself, and often a crystalline form. It is very
different with the fifty-eight other members of the list of elements; the
compounds which they assist in forming are inorganic, and they are formed
by the union of _pairs_ of elements, or _pairs_ of _binary_ compounds.
It is a consequence of this complicated structure that organic compounds
are unstable in their character, and liable to decomposition, or, in
other words, to resolve themselves into simpler compounds. An inorganic
substance, on the contrary, however complex its formula may appear, is
actually built up of binary compounds, the simplest that can be formed.
But in the organic substance the carbon and hydrogen have a strong
tendency to form carbonic acid; the hydrogen and oxygen to form water;
the hydrogen and nitrogen to form ammonia; or, the hydrogen and the
sulphur to form sulphuretted hydrogen, &c. In popular language, these
changes are expressed by such terms as _decay_ and _putrefaction_. Liebig,
however, has given precision to them by limiting the term _decay_ to
the decomposition of moist organic matter freely exposed to the air,
the oxygen of which gradually burns and destroys it without sensible
elevation of temperature.[1] The term _putrefaction_ is limited to
changes which occur in and beneath the surface of water, the effect
being a mere transposition of elements or metamorphosis of the organic
body.[2] The conversion of sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid is a
simple illustration of the term. The contact of oxygen is, however, first
necessary to the change, which, when once begun, is continued without
the aid of any other external substance, except perhaps water, or its
elements. Every instance of putrefaction begins with decay; and if the
decay, or its cause, viz., the absorption of oxygen, be prevented, no
putrefaction occurs. In short, if the access of oxygen be prevented,
there is no decay; if the access of water be prevented, there is no
putrefaction. The exclusion of air and moisture forms the basis of some of
the best methods of preserving food.
There are certain substances named _Antiseptics_ (from ἀντὶ, against,
and σήπομας, to putrefy), from their property (exerted, however, very
unequally) of preventing the putrefaction of organic substances. Thus,
alcohol, and common salt in certain proportions, check all putrefaction
and all the processes of fermentation by depriving the putrefying body
of water. Nitre, vinegar, spices, and sugar are also antiseptics.
The antiseptic effect of a very low temperature is caused by the
solidification of the water and other juices, which, in their usual fluid
state, allow the molecules to move freely on one another.
We will first notice the various methods of preserving animal food. These
are: 1, by drying; 2, by cold; 3, by salting and by sugar; 4, by smoking;
5, by vinegar; 6, by parboiling and excluding air; 7, by potting; 8, by
alcohol.
1. A familiar example of the first method is afforded in common glue,
which in its hard and dry state may be kept for any length of time. So
also may white of egg, if prepared by pouring the white of a number of
eggs into a large flat dish, and exposing this for twelve or fourteen
hours to heat in front of the fire. As the water evaporates, the albumen
forms into a yellow, transparent, hard, shining, brittle mass, which
scales off at the least touch--a test that it is properly done. These two
substances, _gelatine_ and _albumen_, are two of the constituents of
flesh; _fibrin_ or _fleshy fibre_, which is the third, dries equally well,
and is not liable to putrefaction in that state. Gelatine, after being
dried, may be softened by the action of hot water. Albumen _coagulated_
by heat cannot be softened again by water; but if dried at about 140°
without being coagulated, it may be dissolved in cold water, retaining
all its valuable properties. Hence, in preserving meat by drying, too
high a temperature must be carefully avoided, or the albumen will become
coagulated, and the meat be made insoluble.
The dried flesh of the bison, of the buffalo, and of the deer, forms
_pemmican_, the preparation of which is thus described in Captain Back's
Journal:--
"While meat remains in a thick piece, it is impossible to get the middle
dried before putrefaction commences; but if the meat be cut into slices,
its desiccation may be easily effected. The fleshy parts of the hind
quarters are cut into very thin slices, dried in the sun, or before the
fire, and pounded. Two parts of the pounded meat are then mixed with one
of melted fat, and packed into a bag formed of the hide of the animal.
A bag weighing ninety pounds is called a _taureau_ by the Canadian
voyageurs; and, in fact, only one bag of pemmican is generally made from
each bison cow. Two pounds of this kind of food are sufficient for the
daily support of a laboring man; though, when the voyageurs first commence
upon pemmican, they each consume three pounds or more. In the spring, they
generally boil the young shoots of _Epilobium angustifolium_ with it,
and some Scotchmen in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company add flour
or oatmeal, thus rendering it more palatable. The best pemmican is made
of finely-pounded meat mixed with marrow, and further improved by the
addition of dried berries or currants. If kept from the air, it may be
preserved sound for several years, and being very portable, it might be
used with great advantage in provisioning troops that have to make forced
marches. It may be eaten raw, or mixed with a little water and boiled; and
although not much relished by those who taste it for the first time, the
voyageur, with the single addition of the luxury of tea, requires nothing
else for breakfast, dinner, and supper."
In the West Indies, and in South America, jerked beef is prepared by
cutting the meat into slices, dipping them into sea-water or brine, and
then drying them in the sun. The flesh of wild cattle is thus preserved at
Buenos Ayres. Sometimes this dried meat is pounded in a mortar, into a
uniform paste, which is pressed into jars, and if intended to supply the
wants of the traveller, it is beaten up with maize meal and packed closely
in leather bags. It is eaten in this state without further cooking. Drying
meat in the air is said, however, to injure its flavor, and to dissipate a
great portion of the nutritious juices.
Some kinds of fish are preserved by slitting them down the middle, and
drying them in the air to evaporate the moisture. Small cod, haddock, and
stock fish, prepared in this way, will, if kept dry, remain good for a
great length of time.
Portable soup is prepared by processes similar to those used in the
manufacture of glue. The gelatine of meat is dissolved by boiling water,
and the water being evaporated, the gelatine is left in a solid state. Any
fresh lean meat, with the fat cut away, will answer the purpose. Bones
are also used for the purpose, the gelatine being extracted by means of a
digester. In the French manufacture of _gelatine brut fin_, one hundred
pounds of bones yield about twenty-five of gelatine, which is dried, cut
up into dice, and used for making soup.
2. The effect of cold in the preservation of animal substances received a
remarkable illustration in the discovery made by Pallas, in the year 1779,
on the shores of the Frozen Ocean, near the mouth of the river Lena, of an
animal of immense size, imbedded in ice, which, as it melted gradually,
exposed it to the air and furnished food for the hungry wolves and other
animals of those regions. It was the opinion of Cuvier that this animal
differed from every known species of elephant, and was antediluvian,
preserved from the remote period of the deluge in the mass of ice which
enveloped it. Some of the hair of this animal may be seen in the museum of
the Royal College of Surgeons, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, England.
In Russia, Canada, Hudson's Bay, and other countries where the frost
is sufficiently steady, meat preserved in this way is a common article
of commerce. Travellers speak with admiration of the frozen markets
of Russia, supplied as they are from distant places with provisions
solidified by the cold. Thus, in the market at Petersburg, Mr. Kohl
noticed partridges from Saratoff, swans from Finland, heathcocks and
grouse from Livonia and Esthuria, while the wide Steppes furnished the
trapp-geese which flutter over their endless plains, where the Cossack
hunts them on horseback, and kills them with his formidable whip.
All these birds, as soon as the life-blood has flown, are apparently
converted into stone by the frost, and, packed in huge chests, are
sent for sale to the capital. So rapid are the effects of frost in that
country, that the snow-white hares, which are brought in sledge-loads to
the market, are usually frozen in the attitude of flight, with their ears
pointed and their legs stretched out, just as they were at the moment
of death. Another curious sight in these markets is a frozen reindeer,
its knees doubled under its body, its hairy snout stretched forth upon
the ground, and its antlers rising majestically in the air; or a mighty
elk, disappearing piece by piece, as the action of the saw and the axe
separates it for distribution among the several customers.
When provisions have been frozen, great care is required in thawing them;
for, if this be done suddenly, putrefaction soon sets in, and although
cooked immediately, they are hard and deficient in flavor. They must be
thawed by immersion in cold water.
The London markets are supplied with salmon packed in ice from many of the
northern rivers that flow to the eastern coasts of Britain. Every salmon
fishery is now provided with an ice-house, and a stock of ice collected
during the winter. The salmon is packed in large oblong wooden boxes,
with pounded ice between, and the fish is received in London as fresh
as when it was taken out of the water. It is not, however, frozen. Most
fishmongers are furnished with ice-houses or cellars for the preservation
of their fish in tubs of ice; and we do not see why English butchers
should not be provided with larders cooled by the same means. In many
parts of the United States every housekeeper has a small ice-safe, in
which, through the warm season, all kinds of perishable provisions are
kept. Public ice-houses are also maintained by the butchers, so that,
under the burning climate of South Carolina, there is less loss in the way
of butcher's meat, fish, game, &c., than in the comparatively temperate
summer of London. The meat is sent to the ice-house, near the market,
every evening, and is cooled down to near the freezing-point during the
night; when exposed on the stalls next day, it retains its low temperature
for a long time. Such a plan, adopted in London, would prevent the immense
waste of meat during every summer, which is said to amount to at least
two thousand tons in London alone. It is true that, when meat has been
once frozen, its flavor is injured, but the reduction of meat to 32° or
thereabouts, and the solidification of its juices, are very different
things; and it would be easy to regulate the temperature within a range of
several degrees.
3. Various kinds of salt are used in the preservation of food.
Saltpetre and sal prunella (which is saltpetre deprived of its water
of crystallization by heat) are also used for the purpose. The action
of these alkaline salts upon animal substances is, as already noticed,
to abstract the water in the juices of the meat, and, being dissolved
therein, the salts enter the pores of the animal substance; the albumen
of the meat, which is more liable to putrefaction than the gelatine and
fibrine, is thus rendered less so. There are two methods of salting, _dry
salting_ and _pickling_. In dry salting, the meat is packed in dry salt,
or in some cases the surface is rubbed all over with salt. In pickling,
the meat is kept immersed in a solution (sometimes saturated) of common
salt dissolved in water. This method does not render the meat so salt as
dry rubbing, and is probably less injurious to its nutritious qualities,
but it will not keep the meat so well. Bacon is _cured_ by salting and
drying, for which latter purpose it is often hung up in the wide chimneys
of farm-house kitchens; cod is also salted and dried for the large demand
of the Peninsula; in England, it is used in a _green_ state; that is,
instead of being split quite open, it is only opened down to the navel,
then salted, and laid in brine or strong pickle, and put into casks
without drying. Haddock, cod, or ling, are cured by splitting the fish and
removing the backbone; they are then salted for two or three days, with
equal parts of salt and sugar, or with salt alone; they are next stretched
on sticks, and laid on the beach to dry in the sun, or they are arranged
on stages, or hung up in an inclosed space warmed by a stove. Herrings are
salted, or pickled, and smoked.
Sugar, like salt, takes away the water from animal substances, and
thus prevents putrefaction. By immersing meat in molasses, it has been
preserved fresh for months. Fish is sometimes preserved by cutting it
open, rubbing in sugar, and leaving it for a few days; it is then dried
in the air, taking care to turn it frequently. For a salmon of six pounds
weight, a table-spoonful of brown sugar is sufficient; but, if hardness be
required, a teaspoonful of saltpetre is to be added.
4. The efficacy of _smoking_, or _smoke-drying_, arises not only from the
heat of the smoke, but from certain chemical products disengaged during
the combustion of the wood fuel used for the purpose. Pyroligneous acid
vapor and creasote are both produced, and the latter substance possesses
the remarkable property of coagulating albumen. Hence, those chimneys only
are fit for the purpose where the fire below is wood or peat, not coal.
The kind of wood burnt is also of importance, the smoke from beech and
oak being preferable to that from fir or larch. Smoke from the twigs of
juniper, rosemary, peppermint, &c., impart to the meat a portion of their
aromatic flavor. Westphalia hams owe some of their excellence to being
smoked by juniper. Slow smoking is preferable to rapid, as it penetrates
completely into the interior of the meat. In some parts of the country,
the drying and smoking of hams are a separate trade. In such cases, a
smoking-house or hut is erected, about twelve feet square, and the walls
seven feet high, with a hole in the roof; joists are laid across inside,
to hang the flitches on, and the floor is covered five or six inches deep
with sawdust, which, being kindled, produces much smoke and little flame.
5. Vinegar and some other acids preserve both animal and vegetable
substances by coagulating their albumen, which, as already stated, is
peculiarly liable to putrefactive fermentation.
6. In the year 1810, M. Appert received a reward of 12,000 francs from the
French Government for his method of parboiling provisions, and inclosing
them in earthenware vessels in such a manner as to exclude the air. Many
vegetables, fruits, &c., can be kept fresh for a great length of time,
by shutting them up closely in a vessel, having previously filled up the
interstices with sand or other loose substance that will exclude nearly
all the air. Fresh walnuts may be preserved in this way in a jar, packed
with sand and closely covered over; grapes packed in sawdust are imported
into this country. Meat cannot be preserved in this way, but by exposing
it to the heat of boiling water, the albumen, in which putrefaction
first commences, coagulates; and as coagulated albumen is somewhat slow
in decomposing, we thus have a reason for the common observation that
cooked meat will keep longer than raw. It will not, however, keep many
days, unless the air be perfectly excluded, not only from the external,
but from the internal parts. The air in the interior may be expelled by
boiling, and the exterior air may be kept away by inclosing the substance
in an air-tight vessel. If these conditions be carefully observed, food
may be preserved for any length of time. Appert's method consists in
applying heat to the substances to be preserved, so as to coagulate their
fermentable juices, and then to place them in such a situation as to
deprive them of contact with air. The vessel in which the meat is prepared
is plunged for some time into boiling water before it is finally sealed,
in order to drive out the last portions of the air; for, if a small
portion of oxygen gas were present, this would be sufficient to commence
the process of fermentation, and when once begun it would be continued.
M. Appert's process may be described as follows:--
The meat to be preserved is first parboiled, or somewhat more, and freed
from the bones. It is then put, together with vegetables, if required,
into tin cases or canisters, which are filled quite up with a rich gravy;
a tin cover, with a small aperture in it, is then carefully fixed on to
each canister by solder, and while the vessel is perfectly full, it is
placed in boiling water, or in a saline bath, heated above the boiling
point of water, and kept therein until the air has been expelled as
completely as possible by the steam generated within the canister. The
small hole in the cover is completely closed up with a little solder
while the contents are yet hot, the issue of the steam being stopped for
a moment by means of a damp sponge. The canister, with its ingredients,
is now allowed to cool, in consequence of which these contract, and the
sides of the vessel are forced slightly inwards by the pressure of the
atmosphere, and become a little concave. As a precautionary measure,
however, the tins are placed in the testing-room, which is heated to above
100° Fahr. Should putrefaction take place in consequence of a minute
portion of oxygen left in the case, and not combined with the animal or
vegetable matter, the generated gases will burst the canisters; those,
however, which withstand this test will preserve the provisions for many
years; for as each vessel is hermetically sealed, and all access of air
prevented, it may be sent into any climate without fear of putrefaction,
and the most delicate food of one country be thus eaten in its original
perfection in a distant region, many months, or even years after its
preparation. In this manner may all kinds of alimentary substances be
preserved; beef, mutton, veal, and poultry; fish and game; soups, broths,
and vegetables; creams and custards. Of a quantity taken by Captain Nash
to India, not one canister was spoiled; and one which he brought back
contained, after two years, beef in the highest state of perfection and
preservation, and after having been carried upwards of 35,000 miles, in
the warmest climates. This method has been adopted by the commissioners
for victualling the English Navy, who, having examined some meat so
preserved for four years, during voyages in the Mediterranean, found it
as sound, sweet, and fresh, as if it had been boiled only the day before.
Captain Basil Hall bears similar testimony. It was stated, however, by
the officers in the Antarctic voyage, that they gradually got very tired
of preserved meats, but not of preserved vegetables, and that there was
an insipidity in them which they did not find in fresh food. There is,
however, no doubt that, if the articles be selected with care, and the
process be properly conducted, M. Appert's method of preserving food is a
valuable invention. If the contractor be careless or dishonest, the most
fearful consequences might ensue to the crews of ships victualled with
preserved meats. It appears, from a recent examination of several thousand
canisters of the preserved meat of the Navy at Portsmouth, England, that
their contents were masses of putrefaction, consisting of meat, &c.,
which, even in a fresh state, ought never to be used as food. It is stated
that this preserved meat was supplied from Galatz, in Moldavia.
[Illustration]
In 1842, M. Appert's method was made the subject of a further patent,
granted to Mr. Bevan, whose process consisted in expelling air from the
cases containing the food, by placing such cases in connection with a
vacuum chamber, or other exhausting apparatus, and also with a vessel
containing gelatine or other suitable fluid material, in such a manner
that, by opening the communications, the air escapes into the exhausting
apparatus and the gelatine takes its place. By this method the high
temperature previously used in preserving food was not required; it could,
on the contrary, be cooked at very low temperatures, and in a space almost
void of air. The apparatus used is shown in section, in the following
figure: A is a vessel open at the top, and filled to the line _i_ with
fluid gelatine, having a pipe _j_, and a stopcock _e_ firmly attached
to it. B is a sphere of metal in which a vacuum is produced by blowing
steam through it by the pipe _l_ out through _k_; _l_ and _k_ are then
closed, and a jet of water at _m_, applied to the outside of the sphere,
condenses the steam and leaves a vacuum within it. The substance to be
preserved is inclosed within a cylindrical tin vessel C, the top of which
is then soldered on, and two small metal pipes _d_ and _c_ passed into it
air-tight, as far as _a b_; the other ends being secure to the pipes _j j_
at _h h_. The case is next immersed in a water-bath N, at a temperature of
about 120°, and by turning the cock _f_, the greater portion of the air
in the case C rushes into B; the article of food, animal or vegetable, in
the case, being thus relieved of atmospheric pressure, the heat of 120° is
sufficient to cook it, and to expel the air from it. A fowl is cooked in
this way in about fifteen minutes. The cock _e_ is then opened, and the
gelatine, kept fluid by the warm bath P, enters by the pipes _j_ and _c_,
into the case C, and drives the small portion of air left therein into the
vacuum chamber B. The case C is then hermetically sealed by nipping the
tubes _d_ and _c_ at the points _g g_. The case is then submitted for a
few minutes to the action of boiling water (thirty minutes for a fowl),
and when cool, the process is complete.
A concentrated form of food, called _meat biscuit_, excited a considerable
degree of attention in the Great Exhibition. It is formed by boiling down
the fresh beef of Texas, and mixing into the strong beef-tea thus formed
a certain proportion of the finest flour. The biscuit formed from these
materials is so nutritive, that less than four ounces a day (mixed with
warm water or not, according to circumstances) is sufficient food for a
man in active service. It is very light and portable, and keeps perfectly
well without change; hence it is admirably adapted to the provisioning of
troops, ships, and overland expeditions. The manufacture is also of great
importance to those countries in which cattle are superabundant, and are
killed merely for the sake of their skins for the tanner, or their bones
for the farmer, the flesh being actually thrown away. In some places,
animals which we are accustomed to regard as valuable are so numerous that
they are drowned by hundreds, merely to get rid of them, neither their
skin, bones, nor flesh serving as a pretext for the wholesale slaughter.
Milk has been preserved in the following manner: Fresh milk is reduced by
boiling to one-half, and beaten up with yolk of eggs, in the proportion
of eight eggs to every ten and a half quarts of milk. The whole is then
placed on the fire for half an hour, and skimmed frequently; it is next
strained and heated in a water-bath for two hours. It is stated that this
milk will keep good for two years, and, if churned, would afford good
butter. Cream may be preserved by boiling five measures down to four;
then, after cooling and skimming, it is put into a bottle, corked down,
luted, and kept in the boiling heat of a water-bath for half an hour.
This, it is said, will keep two years.
A much better method of preserving milk is that first pointed out by M.
Dirchoff, the Russian chemist; namely, to solidify it by driving off
the aqueous portion by a gentle heat. Specimens of consolidated milk
were shown in the Great Exhibition; and it was stated that, after being
dissolved in boiling water, and reproduced in the form of milk, the
solution will keep pure for four or five days. As milk contains 873 parts
of water in every 1000, it follows that 1000 parts of milk will yield by
evaporation only 127 parts.
7. _Potting_ is only another contrivance for excluding animal substances
from contact with air. Lean meat should be selected, cooked, and then
reduced to a pulp by being beaten in a mortar, salt and spices being
incorporated. The pulp is then rammed into jars, and preserved from the
air by a thick coating of melted butter or lard poured over it.
In the preservation of fruits and vegetables, some are dried, as in the
case of nuts, raisins, sweet herbs, &c.; others are preserved by sugar,
such as many of the fruits, whose delicate juices would be dissipated in
the process of drying. Some are preserved in vinegar, as in the case of
pickles; a few by salting, as French beans; and others are preserved in
spirits.
Appert's method applies to vegetables and fruits of all kinds; they need
not, however, be parboiled. The dry and fresh-gathered fruits are put into
strong, wide-mouthed glass bottles, carefully corked, and luted with a
cement of lime and soft cheese, and bound down with wire. The bottles are
then inclosed separately in canvas bags, and put into a kettle of water,
which is gradually heated until it boils; the bottles are kept in this
condition until the fruits are boiled in their own juice. The whole is
then left to cool; after which the bottles are examined separately, and
put away for store.
Many kinds of vegetables may be preserved by being spread out on the floor
of a kiln, and dried by a gentle heat: the thicker kinds of roots, such
as carrots, turnips, potatoes, &c., are to be sliced, and thoroughly well
dried; after which they must be packed up in paper or very dry boxes, and
put into casks.[3]
A method of preserving vegetables by drying and pressure, recently
invented by M. Masson, was brought into prominent notice at the Great
Exhibition. Cabbage, sliced turnips, apples, or whatever vegetable be
selected, are dried in an oven at a certain temperature, so as to drive
off from seven to eight per cent. of water: the drying must not be
conducted too slowly nor too rapidly, but at a medium rate. After the
drying, the vegetables are packed into a very small compass by the intense
pressure of an hydraulic press; then squared and trimmed with a knife,
packed up in tinfoil, and lastly, stored in boxes. A short time ago, we
examined some red cabbage preserved in this way, which had been exposed
in the Great Exhibition all the time it was open, and had been slowly
absorbing moisture, and yet it appeared to be perfectly good. By this
method, from 15,000 to 18,000 rations, of a quarter pound each, can be
stowed into a cubic yard. We also saw some dried plantains from Mexico (a
vegetable of very considerable nutritious value), which had been lying in
a warehouse at Woolwich ever since the year 1835, and had undergone no
change. It was stated that the method of preparing them is cheap and easy,
and that the dried plant can be sent in any quantities to Europe, at six
cents per pound, with a considerable profit to the importer.
Some kinds of vegetables, such as French beans, artichokes, olives,
samphire, and barberries, are preserved by salt, a strong brine being
made by the addition of four pounds of salt to a gallon of water; the
vegetables are put into this, and quite covered with it. In Holland
and Germany, kidney beans are sliced by a machine something like a
turnip-cutter, and put into a cask in layers with salt between; a weight
is then put on, and pressure is kept up until a slight fermentation takes
place; the salt liquor is then poured off; the cask is covered up, and put
into the cellar as store. Before being cooked, the beans are steeped in
fresh water.
_Sauer Kraut_ is prepared somewhat in the same manner. The following
recipe for making it is given by Parmentier:--
The heads of white winter-cabbages, after removing the outer leaves, are
to be cut into fine shreds, and spread out upon a cloth in the shade. A
cask which has had vinegar in it is to be selected, or, if that cannot be
had, the inside should be rubbed over with vinegar or sauerkraut liquor.
A layer of salt is to be put in the bottom of the cask, caraway-seeds are
to be mixed with shreds of cabbage, and they are to be packed in the cask
to the depth of four or six inches; and layers of this kind, with salt
between each layer, are added till the cask is full, stamping them down
with a wooden stamper as they are put in, to half their original bulk;
some mix a little pepper and salad oil with the salt. Some salt is to be
put on the top, and some of the outside leaves of the cabbages. About two
pounds of salt suffice for twenty middle-sized cabbages. The head of the
barrel is to be placed upon the cabbage-leaves, and must be loaded with
heavy stones. A common method is for a man, with clean wooden shoes on, to
tread the cabbage down in the cask. Fermentation will take place, and some
juice will be given out, which is green, muddy, and fetid; this rises to
the surface, and is to be replaced with fresh brine. When the fermentation
is over, the casks are closed up. Cabbages are preferred, but any other
vegetables may be treated in the same manner.
When vegetables are preserved in vinegar, they form _pickles_. When sugar
is the preserving medium, they are variously named according to the mode
of preparation. Fruits, flowers, herbs, roots, and juices, boiled with
sugar or syrup, and employed in pharmacy, as well as for sweetmeats, are
called _confections_ (Latin, _conficere_, to make up). _Liquid confects_
consist of fruits, either whole or in pieces, preserved by immersion
in fluid transparent syrup: apricots, green citrons, and some foreign
fruits, are treated in this way. _Dry confects_ are prepared by boiling
in syrup those parts of vegetables adapted to this method, such as citron
and orange-peel, &c.; they are then taken out and dried in an oven.
_Marmalades_, _jams_, and _pastes_ are soft compounds made of the pulp
of fruits, or other vegetable substances, beaten up with sugar or honey;
oranges, apricots, pears, &c., are treated in this way. _Jellies_ are
the juices of fruits--currants, gooseberries, apples, &c.--boiled with
sugar to such a consistence as, on cooling, to form a trembling jelly.
_Conserves_ are dry confects, made by beating up flowers, fruits, &c. with
sugar not dissolved. _Candies_ are fruits candied over with sugar, after
having been boiled in the syrup.
The best syrup for preserving fruits is made by dissolving two parts of
double-refined sugar in one part of water, boiling a little, skimming, and
filtering through a cloth. This gives a good smooth syrup, which does not
readily ferment nor crystallize.
The specimens of preserved food in the Great Exhibition were exceedingly
numerous; they included animal and vegetable productions, fruits, &c. One
interesting specimen was a canister containing boiled mutton, prepared
by the exhibitor, Mr. Gamble, for the Arctic Expedition in 1824. A large
number of these canisters were landed from the ship _Fury_, on the beach
where the ship was wrecked in Prince Regent's Inlet, and were found by
Captain Sir John Ross in August, 1833, in a state of perfect preservation,
although annually exposed to a temperature of 92° below, and 80° above
zero. Had it not been for the large store of provisions left by Parry
near the spot where the _Fury_ was wrecked, Ross's expedition must have
perished.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Hence the term employed by Liebig and his followers,
_eremacausis_, or _slow-burning_.]
[Footnote 2: "The colorless, fresh-cut surfaces of a potato, of a turnip,
or of an apple, when exposed to the air, soon become brown. In all such
substances, the presence of a certain quantity of water, by which the
molecules are enabled to move freely on one another, is a condition
necessary to the production, by temporary contact with air, of a change
in form and composition, a resolving of the original body into new
products, which continues uninterrupted till no part of the original
compound is left. This process has been distinguished by the name of
_putrefaction_."--_Liebig._]
[Footnote 3: The flour and biscuit which are taken out to sea in the
British navy are packed in casks of wrought-iron. These were formerly
painted, to prevent rust, and also to make them water-tight; but the paint
was found to give a bad taste to the flour, &c., and they are now coated
outside with a waterproof composition of caoutchouc, black resin, and
Venice turpentine.]
THE PEDESTRIAN TOUR.
BY PAULINE FORSYTH.
BETWEEN the projecting a scheme in the mind and its actual accomplishing,
the difference is as great as that between the appearance of some Eastern
city seen from a distance in the moonlight, with its picturesque domes and
minarets silvered by the rays that throw over the darkest spots an unreal
glamour of purity and brightness, and the same place viewed in the broad
daylight, while standing in the midst of its narrow and dirty streets. It
is as if we had devised some airy palace, beautiful and complete in its
smallest details, and found ourselves, when going about to build it, with
no materials ready but a little clay and a few stones and sticks, and
those of the most crooked and unpliable materials. Few persons realize,
before they are twenty-five, the resolutely prosaic actualities of the
world as it is. Almost every one in his early youth is fully persuaded
that he is about to perform an important part in some deeply interesting
drama, and it is a hard lesson that disenchants him, and shows that he has
been acting the part of Don Quixote with the world for Sancho Panzo.
Frederic Lanier was a young man of nineteen. His early life had been
passed in the country; but when he was fifteen he had been sent to New
York to complete his education, and to reside in the mean time with his
uncle, Mr. Lawrence. The very day after his arrival in the city had been
marked by an important event. He had seen Adelaide Marshall, and had
fallen in love with her. This love had accompanied him during the one
year he had spent at the High School, and his three succeeding ones at
the college. The lady was six years older than himself, but that was an
additional attraction. Her stately and graceful movements, her majestic
presence, and the calm and regular beauty of her face, never lost their
charm to him. He was too much in love to observe that in the light of her
blue eyes there was no warmth, but a cold and critical scrutiny, and that
her mouth closed with a severe and slightly satirical expression. She was
to him a perfect Helen.
About soon to be elevated to the rank of a Senior, he had begun to think
himself in a position to show his passion more openly than he had hitherto
ventured to do. He little suspected that the lofty Adelaide had divined
his feelings from the first, and had received his timid attentions with
sensations of gratified pride and amusement that, unmingled with any
softer feeling, promised little for the success of his suit. The lady,
accustomed to admiration, considered all homage as her due; and, looking
on Frederick Lanier as a mere boy, she talked to him familiarly when she
so inclined, and made use of him in a gracious and royal manner without
the slightest tender consideration for his feelings, or fear of the
consequences. She had known many men and boys to fall in love with her,
and, when they had found out that she did not and would not reciprocate
their affection, the worst that had ever happened was that they had
married somebody else; and this she calmly contemplated as the probable
termination of Frederick Lanier's passion, while he was internally vowing
a lifelong devotion to the lady of his heart.
He had discovered that she was to pass two or three weeks at the White
Mountains during the month of July. He decided to arrange his summer
wanderings so as to be there at the same time. Meantime, a vague desire
to be alone, to feed on his own thoughts free from the importunate
interruptions of even the members of his own family, induced him to
follow the example of several of his college companions, and undertake a
pedestrian tour.
This proposal was not received with any approbation by his uncle's family.
"Now, Fred," said his cousin Emily, "this is too bad. We were going to
have such a pleasant time at Lake George this summer, and had relied upon
you to go with us. Father will have to be away a great deal, and I am
sure I don't know what we shall do without you to go about with us. I have
asked Bessie Graham to accompany us, too, and I particularly wanted you to
become better acquainted with her."
"Bessie Graham! Why, she is a little girl."
"She is nearly seventeen," replied Emily.
"Well, she is a very small specimen of womankind, and I have no particular
admiration for little women; besides, she is somewhat of a chatter-box, is
she not?"
"She talks a little, but not too much," was the reply.
"And laughs a great deal. I like dignified manners better."
"For instance, Miss Adelaide Marshall's," said Emily, with a little
irritation in her tone. "You are going to the White Mountains, you say?"
"Yes."
"And I heard Miss Marshall say, the other day, that she intended to pass
two or three weeks there; so that accounts for your plan. It is a most
absurd fancy of yours to fall in love with that iceberg. I have as much
expectation of seeing you return with Mount Washington in your pocket, as
with Miss Marshall on your arm."
Frederick Lanier grew red even to the tips of his ears with embarrassed
indignation at thus having the most cherished secret of his heart rudely
laid bare to the light of common day. He became only the more determined
to escape, where he could dwell in peace on the one idea that engrossed
all his thoughts.
"When do you think of leaving?" asked Emily.
"To-morrow," he replied.
"And Bessie comes the day after. And when will you return?"
"Perhaps by the last week in August."
"And Bessie will be gone by that time. It is too bad!"
"I do not understand what Bessie Graham has to do with my movements. I
might change my plans to suit you, Emily, but not a little chattering
thing like your friend."
Emily said nothing; she had had schemes of her own, and Frederick had
completely destroyed them, but she deigned no explanation.
"I think of going along the Hudson River until I reach the northern
extremity of the State, when I shall cross over to the Green Mountains
in Vermont, and go through that State into New Hampshire. I hope to find
myself at the foot of the White Mountains by the middle of July."
"The very time Miss Marshall expects to arrive there. She is going on
horseback with her brother. Her mother and sister are to accompany them in
the carriage."
"Ah!" said Frederick, endeavoring, in a most transparently artful manner,
to appear ignorant and indifferent.
"If you are going so soon," said his aunt, "we had better see if your
wardrobe is in a fit state for so long an absence."
"I shall need very little," replied Frederick; "the less the better, as I
intend to carry it myself."
"I have a little light valise I can lend you," said a cousin of his, John
Williams, who happened to be passing the evening there.
The offer was accepted, and the rest of the time was passed in discussing
the many delightful and romantic adventures that pedestrian tourists have
met with both in Europe and America.