MANY THINGS.
_Choice and Cheap Cookery--New Receipts--Southern Dishes--Gumbo,
&c.--Home-made Wines, &c.--Dairy--Coloring--Diet--Health, &c._
1159. _To preserve Ginger._--Take green ginger, pare it with a sharp
knife, and then throw it into cold water as pared, to keep it white;
then boil it till tender, in three waters, at each change putting the
ginger into cold water. For seven pounds of ginger, clarify eight
pounds of refined sugar; when cold, drain the ginger, and put it into
a pan, with enough of the syrup to cover it, and let it stand two
days; then pour the syrup to the remainder of the sugar, and boil
it some time; when cold, pour it on the ginger again, and set it by
for three days; then boil the syrup again, and pour it hot over the
ginger. Proceed thus till you find the ginger rich and tender, and
the syrup is highly flavored. If you put the syrup on hot at first,
or if too rich, the ginger will shrink, and not take the sugar.
1160. _Orange Syrup._--Is so easily made, and can be used so
constantly with advantage, that no housekeeper should be without
it. Select ripe and thin-skinned fruit; squeeze the juice through
a sieve; to every pint, add a pound a half of powdered sugar; boil
it slowly, and skim as long as any scum rises; you may then take it
off, let it grow cold, and bottle it off. Be sure to secure the corks
well. Two table-spoonfuls of this syrup, mixed in melted butter, make
an admirable sauce for a plum or butter-pudding; and it imparts a
fine flavor to custards.
1161. _Apple or Quince Jelly._--Pare, quarter, and core the apples;
put them in a sauce-pan, with enough water to cover them only; let
them boil five minutes; put them in a bag, and let them drain until
the next day. To one pint of juice, put one pound of sugar, and boil
it from fifteen to twenty minutes.
[_Cranberry Jelly may be made in the same way._]
1162. _Brandy Cherries._--Take the nicest carnation cherries, and
trim them, leaving a short stem to keep in the juice; wash and wipe
them tenderly, and put them into wide-mouthed bottles. Make a good
syrup, and, when it is nearly done, add a pint and a half of French
brandy to one pint of syrup; mix it thoroughly, and, when cold, pour
it over the cherries. If carefully sealed, the fruit will be good for
years.
1163. _Brandy Peaches._--Drop the peaches in weak, boiling lye; let
them remain till the skin can be wiped off; make a thin syrup, and
let it cover the fruit; boil the fruit till they can be pierced with
a straw; take it out; make a very rich syrup, and add, after it is
taken from the fire, and while it is still hot, an equal quantity of
brandy. Pour this, while it is still warm, over the peaches in the
jar. They must be covered with it.
1164. _Brandied Peaches--an excellent way._--After having removed the
skin in the usual manner, by using _lye_, and throwing them in cold
water, weigh the peaches, and put them in a stone jar--allowing room
at the top for three-quarters of a pound of sugar for each pound of
peaches; then pour over enough white brandy to cover the fruit. Set
the jar in a pot of cold water, and let it remain over the fire till
the _brandy_ comes to a scald. When they are cold, they may either be
put in glass jars, and tied down with bladder, or left in the same
jar.
1165. _Tomato Catchup._--To one gallon of skinned tomatoes, add
four table-spoonfuls of salt; four table-spoonfuls of black pepper,
ground fine; half a table-spoonful of allspice, ground fine; three
table-spoonfuls of mustard; eight pods of red pepper. Simmer it
slowly in sharp vinegar, in a pewter vessel, three or four hours;
then strain it through a wire-sieve, and bottle it up. When cold,
seal up the corks, and it will last for years.
1166. _Green Tomato Pickle._--Cut in thin slices one peck of green
tomatoes; sprinkle them with salt, and let them stand a day or
two. Slice ten or twelve small onions. Mix together one bottle or
small tin box of mustard; half an ounce of mustard-seed; one ounce
of cloves; one ounce of pimento; two ounces of turmeric. Put in
the kettle a layer of tomatoes, then one of onions and spice, till
all are in. Cover it with good vinegar, and let it simmer till the
tomatoes are quite clear.
1167. _French Mustard._--Put on a plate, one ounce of the best
powdered mustard; a salt-spoonful of salt; a few leaves of tarragon;
and a clove of garlic, minced fine. Pour on it, by degrees,
sufficient vinegar to dilute it to the proper consistency; about a
wine-glassful; mix it with a wooden spoon. Do not use it in less than
twenty-four hours.
1168. _India Pickle._ (_E. R._)--Put two hundred gherkins, three
pints of small onions, one quart of nasturtiums, one quart of
radish-pods, 1 quartern of string-beans, six cauliflowers, and two
hard, white cabbages, sliced, into a pan, and sprinkle them with
salt--the onions having been previously peeled, and laid in salt
and water for a week, to take off their strength. Then, after a day
or two, take them out of the pan, and dry them thoroughly in a warm
place, in the shade: they must be spread out separately. To two
gallons of vinegar, put one ounce and a half of allspice, the same of
long pepper and of white, and two ounces of ginger, tied up in muslin
bags. When cold, mix with the vinegar one pound and a half of flour
of mustard, and two table-spoonfuls of Cayenne pepper. Boil it well
together, and pour it on the pickle. The vegetables mentioned, not
being all procurable at the same time, may be added separately, at
different periods, but they must all undergo the salting and drying
process.
In choosing those vegetables, some discrimination may also be used.
When in season, few things add a higher flavor to the pickle than the
buds and flowers of the elder.
1169. _Horse-radish._--Let the horse-radish lie one or two hours in
cold water; then scrape off the skin, grate it, and moisten it with
vinegar. Serve it with roast meat.
1170. _Oyster Gumbo._--Mix well one table-spoonful of flour and one
of lard, and brown the mixture in a frying-pan; take the liquor of
two quarts of oysters, set it on the fire, and when it boils, add
the browned flour with some chopped leeks and parsley; then put in
the oysters, and let the whole simmer for fifteen minutes; next sift
into it a table-spoonful and a half of powdered sassafras, to give
it the fillet; leave it two or three minutes longer on the fire,
and serve it very hot. No spices, but black pepper. This dish will
require more or less time to prepare, according to the ingredients
of which it is to be composed. For chicken or turkey gumbo, the fowl
must first be fricasseed. Any good cook will understand how to make
a piquante and palatable stock, of whatever she may select for her
gumbo.
1171. _Mayonnaise._--Roast a pair of chickens or a turkey, in the
morning, and put them away to settle the juices. Immediately before
serving the dish, carve the fowls, and put them compactly into a
dish; take the yolks of six eggs, and pour, in a very fine and
continued stream upon them, half a bottle of olive oil, and stir the
eggs one way, till they are creamed; then put half a tea-spoonful of
vinegar into this dressing, and having put pepper, salt, and a little
vinegar on the fowl, pour the dressing over it, and arrange all over
it bunches of cool, fresh lettuce. Garnish with hard eggs.
1172. _Jambalaya_--Cut up, and stew till half done, a fowl, brown or
white; then add rice, and a piece of ham well minced; this must be
left on the fire till the rice has taken up the liquid; the roundness
of the grain must be preserved, yet the dish must not be hard and
dry. It is served in a heap, on a flat dish. Pepper and salt the only
seasoning.
Southern children are very fond of this essentially home-dish. It is
said to be of Indian origin. Wholesome as it is palatable, it makes
part of almost every Creole dinner.
1173. _Imitation of Mock Turtle._--Put into a pan a knuckle of veal,
two fine cow-heels or two calf's feet, two onions, a few cloves,
peppers, berries of allspice, mace, and sweet herbs; cover them with
water, then tie a thick paper over the pan, and set it in an oven
for three hours. When cold, take off the fat very nicely; cut the
meat and feet into bits an inch and a half square; remove the bones
and coarse parts, and then put the rest on to warm, with a large
spoonful of walnut and one of mushroom catchup, half a pint of sherry
or Madeira wine, a little mushroom-powder, and the jelly of the meat.
When hot, if it wants any more seasoning, add some; and serve with
hard eggs, forcemeat balls, a squeeze of lemon, and a spoonful of
soy. This is a very easy way, and the dish is excellent.
1174. _Oyster Sausages._--Beard, rinse well in their strained liquor,
and mince, but not finely, three dozen and a half of plump oysters,
and mix them with ten ounces of fine bread-crumbs, and ten of
beef-suet chopped extremely small; add a salt-spoonful of salt, and
one of pepper, or less than half the quantity of cayenne, twice as
much pounded mace, and the third of a small nutmeg grated; moisten
the whole with two unbeaten eggs, or with the yolks only of three,
and a dessert-spoonful of the whites. When these ingredients have
been well worked together, and are perfectly blended, set the mixture
in a cool place for two or three hours before it is used; make it
into the form of small sausages or sausage-cakes, flour and fry them
in butter, of a fine light brown; or throw them into boiling water
for three minutes, drain, and let them become cold; dip them into
egg and bread-crumbs, and broil them gently until they are lightly
colored. A small bit should be cooked and tasted before the whole
is put aside, that the seasoning may be heightened if required. The
sausages thus made are very good.
Small plump oysters, three dozen and a half; bread-crumbs, ten
ounces; beef-suet, ten ounces; seasoning of salt, cayenne, pounded
mace, and nutmeg; unbeaten eggs, two, or yolks of three.
_Obs._--The fingers should be well floured for making up these
sausages.
1175. _New England Chowder._--Have a good haddock, cod, or any other
solid fish, cut it in pieces three inches square, put a pound of fat
salt pork in strips into the pot, set it on hot coals, and fry out
the oil. Take out the pork, and put in a layer of fish, over that a
layer of onions in slices, then a layer of fish with slips of fat
salt pork, then another layer of onions, and so on alternately, until
your fish is consumed. Mix some flour with as much water as will fill
the pot; season with black pepper and salt to your taste, and boil
it for half an hour. Have ready some crackers soaked in water till
they are a little softened; throw them into your chowder five minutes
before you take it up. Serve in a tureen.
1176. _Curing Hams--the Newbold Receipt._--Take seven pounds coarse
salt, five pounds brown sugar, two ounces pearl-ash, 4 gallons of
water. Boil all together, and scum the pickle well when cold. Put it
on the meat. Hams remain in it eight weeks--beef three weeks. The
above is for one hundred and ninety pounds weight.
1177. _A Pickle that will keep for years, for hams, tongues, or beef,
if boiled and skimmed between each parcel of them._--To two gallons
of spring water put two pounds of coarse sugar, two pounds of bay and
two and a half pounds of common salt, and half a pound of saltpetre,
in a deep earthen glazed pan that will hold four gallons, and with
a cover that will fit close. Keep the beef or hams as long as they
will bear before you put them into the pickle; and sprinkle them with
coarse sugar in a pan, from which they must drain. Rub the hams, &c.,
well with the pickle, and pack them in close, putting as much as the
pan will hold, so that the pickle may cover them. The pickle is not
to be boiled at first. A small ham may lie fourteen days, a large
one three weeks; a tongue twelve days, and beef in proportion to its
size. They will eat well out of the pickle without drying. When they
are to be dried, let each piece be drained over the pan; and when it
will drop no longer, take a clean sponge and dry it thoroughly. Six
or eight hours will smoke them, and there should be only a little
sawdust and wet straw burnt to do this; but if put into a baker's
chimney, sew them in a coarse cloth, and hang them a week. Add two
pounds of common salt and two pints of water every time you boil the
liquor.
1178. _To smoke Hams and Fish on a small scale._--Drive the ends out
of an old hogshead or barrel; place this over a heap of sawdust of
green hard wood, in which a bar of red-hot iron is buried; or take
corn-cobs, which make the best smoke; place them in a clean iron
kettle, the bottom of which is covered with burning coals; hang the
hams, tongues, fish, &c., on sticks across the cask, and cover it,
but not closely, that the cobs or sawdust may smoulder slowly, but
not burn.
1179. _Onion Sauce._--Peel the onions, and boil them tender; squeeze
the water from them; chop them; and pour on them butter that has been
carefully incited, together with a little good milk, instead of
water. Boil it up once. A turnip boiled with the onions, makes them
milder.
1180. _Sauce Robert._--Cut into small dice, four or five large
onions, and brown them in a stew-pan, with three ounces of butter,
and a dessert-spoonful of flour. When of a deep yellow-brown, pour
to them half a pint of beef or of veal-gravy, and let them simmer
for fifteen minutes; skim the sauce; add a seasoning of salt and
pepper, and, at the moment of serving, mix in a dessert-spoonful of
made-mustard.
Large onions, four or five; butter, three ounces; flour, a
dessert-spoonful: ten to fifteen minutes. Gravy, half a pint: fifteen
minutes. Mustard, a dessert-spoonful.
1181. _Tomato Sauce._--Crush half a dozen, more or less, of very
ripe, red tomatoes; pick out the seeds, and squeeze the water from
them; put them into a stew-pan, with two or three finely-sliced
shalots, and a little gravy: simmer till nearly dry; when add half a
pint of brown sauce, and simmer twenty minutes longer; then rub it
through a tammy into a clean stew-pan; season with Cayenne pepper
and salt, a little glaze, and lemon-juice; simmer a few minutes, and
serve. Tarragon or Chili vinegar are sometimes added; and sliced
onions may be substituted for the shalots.
1182. _Brown Caper Sauce._--Thicken half a pint of good veal
or beef-gravy, as directed for Sauce-Tournée; and add to it
two table-spoonfuls of capers, and a dessert-spoonful of the
pickle-liquor, or of Chili vinegar, with some Cayenne, if the former
be used, and a proper seasoning of salt.
Thickened veal, or beef-gravy, half a pint; capers, two
table-spoonfuls; caper liquor, or Chili vinegar, one dessert-spoonful.
1183. _Horse-radish Sauce._--Scrape, finely, a stick of horse-radish
into about half a pint of brown sauce and a gravy-spoonful of
vinegar; simmer, and season with salt and sugar. This sauce is eaten
with hot roast beef.
1184. _Sauce for cold Roast Beef._--Mix scraped horse-radish,
made-mustard, and vinegar, and sweeten with white sugar.
1185. _Mint Sauce._--Mix vinegar and brown sugar, and let it stand at
least an hour; then add chopped mint, and stir together. It should be
very sweet.
1186. _Mild Mustard._--Mustard, for instant use, should be mixed with
milk, to which a spoonful or two of very thin cream may be added.
1187. _Mustard, the common way._--The great art of mixing mustard,
is to have it perfectly smooth, and of a proper consistency. The
liquid with which it is moistened, should be added to it in small
quantities, and the mustard should be well rubbed, and beaten with a
spoon. Mix half a tea-spoonful of salt with two ounces of the flour
of mustard, and stir to them, by degrees, sufficient boiling water
to reduce it to the appearance of a thick batter. Do not put it into
the mustard-glass until cold. Some persons like half a tea-spoonful
of sugar, in the finest powder, mixed with it. It ought to be
sufficiently diluted always to drop easily from the spoon.
1188. _Parsley and Butter._--Scald a large handful of parsley in
boiling water that has some salt in it; when tender, chop it fine,
and stir it into some rather thick melted butter. There should be
sufficient parsley to make the sauce green; and the parsley should
not be put to the melted butter until about to be served, otherwise
it will turn brown.
1189. _To make Sage and Onion Stuffing, for Roast Pork, Geese, Ducks,
&c._--To make this stuffing, take two middling-sized onions, peel
them, and boil them for about ten minutes in plenty of water; next
take as much dry sage-leaves, as, when rubbed into powder and sifted
through the top of your flour-dredger, will fill a table-spoon. When
the onion has boiled about ten minutes, squeeze it dry, chop it fine,
and mix it with the crumbled sage; then add to them a tea-cupful of
stale, white bread-crumbs, with a tea-spoonful of black pepper, a
very little pinch of Cayenne, and a salt-spoonful of salt. Mix all
well together, and it is ready.
1190. _Sippets of Bread, for Garnishing._--Cut the crumb of a stale
loaf in slices a quarter of an inch thick: form them into diamonds or
half-diamonds, or in any other way: fry them in fresh butter. Dry
them well, and place them around the dish to be garnished.
1191. _Seasoning for Stuffing._--One pound of salt, dried and sifted;
half an ounce of ground white pepper; two ounces of dried thyme; one
ounce of dried marjoram; and one ounce of nutmeg. When this seasoning
is used, parsley only is required to be chopped in sufficient
quantity to make the stuffing green. The proportions are--half a
pound of bread-crumbs; three eggs; a quarter of a pound of suet; half
an ounce of seasoning; and the peel of half a lemon, grated.
1192. _White Bread-Crumbs._--Put the crumb of very white bread into a
slow oven or screen, and let it dry without color; beat and sift it;
keep it in a close-covered pan in a dry, warm place: everything looks
well, done with it. The crust may be dried, beaten, and sifted, for
frying and garnishing.
When crumbs are not prepared till wanted, the bread is never in a
proper condition; so that the crumbs are not only coarse and vulgar,
but a sponge for fat, which shows bad taste, as well as being
wasteful.
1193. _Panada._--Is indispensable in making good farce of any kind;
it is even better for it than Naples' biscuit, and is made as
follows:--Steep a sufficient quantity of good stale bread-crumb in
cream or stock; set it over the fire in a sauce-pan, and work it with
a wooden spoon till it is as smooth and dry as a stiff paste: let it
cool, and beat it with a yolk or two, according to the quantity, in a
mortar: it is then ready to be put into all kinds of farces.
CAKES, BREAD, PIES, AND PUDDINGS.
1194. _Wine Crust for Cakes or Pastry--a foreign Receipt._--Pour
gradually to the well-beaten yolks of three fresh eggs, cleared from
the specks, a quarter of a pint of light white wine (Marsala will
serve for the purpose well enough), stirring them briskly as it is
added; throw in half a salt-spoonful of salt, and an ounce and a half
of pounded sugar; and when this last is dissolved, or nearly so, add
the mixture to as much flour as will be required to form a smooth,
firm paste: about three-quarters of a pound will be sufficient,
unless the eggs should be of an unusual size. Roll it out, cut it
asunder, and spread one half with eight ounces of butter, cut small;
lay the other half of the paste upon it, and roll them together as
lightly as possible; turn the paste on the board, and fold the two
ends over each other, so as to make the whole of equal thickness;
roll it quite thin, and repeat the folding once or twice, touching
the paste in doing it as little as can be, and rolling it _very_
lightly. It may be used for any kind of sweet pastry; or it may be
served in the form of cakes, either iced or plain; these again may
be adapted to the second course, by spreading the under-sides of one
half with rich preserve, and pressing the others on them.
1195. _Pic-nic Biscuits._--Work, very small, two ounces of fresh
butter into a pound of flour; reduce to the finest powder, and mix,
intimately, half a salt-spoonful of very pure carbonate of soda
(Howard's is the best), with two ounces of sugar; mingle these
thoroughly with the flour, and make up the paste with a few spoonfuls
of milk; it will require scarcely a quarter of a pint. Knead it
very smooth, roll it a quarter of an inch thick, cut it in rounds
about the size of the top of a _small_ wine-glass; roll these out
thin, prick them well, lay them on lightly-floured tins, and bake
them in a gentle oven until they are crisp quite through. As soon as
they are cold put them into dry canisters. The sugar can be omitted
at pleasure. If thin cream be used instead of milk, in making the
paste, it will much enrich the biscuits; but this would often not be
considered an improvement, as plain simple biscuits are generally
most in favor.
Carraway seeds or ginger can be added, to vary these at pleasure. The
proportion of soda used should be too small to be perceptible, even
to the taste: it will be no disadvantage to use milk with it which is
slightly acid.
1196. _A good Soda Cake._--Rub half a pound of good butter into a
pound of fine dry flour, and work it very small; mix well with these
half a pound of sifted sugar, and pour to them first a quarter of
a pint of boiling milk, and next three well-whisked eggs; add some
grated nutmeg, or fresh lemon-rind, and eight ounces of currants;
beat the whole well and lightly together, and the instant before the
cake is moulded and set into the oven, stir to it a tea-spoonful
of carbonate of soda in the finest powder. Bake it from an hour to
an hour and a quarter, or divide it in two, and allow from half to
three-quarters of an hour for each cake.
Flour, one pound; butter, three ounces; sugar, eight ounces, milk,
full quarter-pint; eggs, three; currants, half a pound; carbonate of
soda, one tea-spoonful; one hour to one and a half. Or, divided, a
half to three-quarters of an hour--moderate oven.
_Obs._--This, if well made, resembles a pound-cake, but is much
more wholesome. It is very good with two ounces less of butter, and
with caraway-seeds or candied orange or citron substituted for the
currants.
1197. _To make Fine Pancakes, Fried without Butter or Lard._--Take
a pint of cream and six new-laid eggs; beat them well together; put
in a quarter of a pound of sugar and one nutmeg or a little beaten
mace--which you please, and so much as will thicken--almost as much
as ordinary pancake flour batter; your pan must be heated reasonably
hot, and wiped with a clean cloth; this done, spread your batter thin
over it, and fry.
1198. _To make Loaves of Cheese-curd._--Take a porringer full of
curds, and four eggs, whites and yolks, and as much flour as will
make it stiff; then take a little ginger, nutmeg, and some salt; make
them into loaves, and set them into an oven with a quick heat; when
they begin to change color, take them out, and put melted butter to
them, and some sack, and good store of sugar; and so serve.
1199. _Cheap Ginger Biscuits._--Work into quite small crumbs three
ounces of good butter, with two pounds of flour; then add three
ounces of pounded sugar and two of ginger, in fine powder, and knead
them into a stiff paste, with new milk. Roll it thin, cut out the
biscuits with a cutter, and bake them in a slow oven until they are
crisp quite through, but keep them of a pale color. A couple of eggs
are sometimes mixed with the milk for them, but are no material
improvement; an additional ounce of sugar may be used when a sweeter
biscuit is liked. To make good ginger _cakes_, increase the butter
to six ounces, and the sugar to eight, for each pound of flour, and
wet the ingredients into a paste with eggs; a little lemon-grate will
give it an agreeable flavor.
Biscuits--flour, two pounds; butter, three ounces; pounded sugar,
three ounces; ginger, two ounces.
Cakes--flour, one pound; butter, six ounces; sugar, eight ounces;
ginger, one ounce; three to four eggs; rind of half a lemon.
1200. _Ginger Snaps._--Beat together half a pound of butter, and
half a pound of sugar; mix with them half a pint of molasses, half a
tea-cupful of ginger, and one pound and a half of flour.
1201. _Gingerbread._--Mix together three and a half pounds of flour;
three-quarters of a pound of butter; one pound of sugar; one pint of
molasses; a quarter of a pound of ginger, and some ground orange-peel.
1202. _Raspberry Cakes._--Take any quantity of fruit you please,
weigh and boil it, and when mashed, and the liquor is washed, add as
much sugar as was equal in weight to the raw fruit. Mix it very well
_off_ the fire till the whole is dissolved, then lay it on plates,
and dry it in the sun. When the top part dries, cut it off into small
cakes, and turn them on a fresh plate. When dry, put the whole in
boxes, with layers of paper.
1203. _Rock Cakes._--Mix together one pound of flour; half a pound of
sugar; half a pound of butter; half a pound of currants or cherries,
and four eggs, leaving out the whites of two; a little wine and
candied lemon-peel are a great improvement.
1204. _Cup Cakes._--Mix together five cups of flour; three cups of
sugar; one cup of butter; one cup of milk; three eggs, well beaten;
one wine-glass of wine; one of brandy, and a little cinnamon.
1205. _Jumbles._--Take one pound of loaf-sugar, pounded fine; one
pound and a quarter of flour; three-quarters of a pound of butter;
four eggs, beaten light, and a little rose-water and spice; mix them
well, and roll them in sugar.
1206. _Sponge Cake._--Take the weight of the eggs in sugar; half
their weight in flour, well sifted; to twelve eggs, add the grated
rind of three lemons, and the juice of two. Beat the eggs carefully,
white and yolks separately, before they are used. Stir the materials
thoroughly together, and bake in a quick oven.
1207. _Apple Fritters._--Pare and core some fine large pippins, and
cut them into round slices. Soak them in wine, sugar, and nutmeg,
for two or three hours. Make a batter of four eggs; a table-spoonful
of rose-water; a table-spoonful of wine; a table-spoonful of milk;
thicken with enough flour, stirred in by degrees, to make a batter;
mix it two or three hours before it is wanted, that it may be light.
Heat some butter in a frying pan; dip each slice of apple separately
in the batter, and fry them brown; sift pounded sugar, and grate
nutmeg over them.
1208. _A Charlotte Russe._--It is very difficult to prepare this
delicate dish, and we advise all inexperienced house-keepers not to
undertake it without the superintendence of a professed cook.
Extract the flavor from a vanilla-bean, by boiling it in half a pint
of milk. The milk must then be strained; and, when cold, mix with
it a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar. Beat the yolks of four eggs
very light, and stir them into the mixture. Heat it over the fire for
five minutes, until it becomes a custard, but take great care that it
does not boil. Boil an ounce of isinglass with a pint of water. The
isinglass must be thoroughly dissolved before it is fit for use, and
one-half of the water boiled away. The custard being cold, drain the
isinglass into it, and stir them hard together. Leave them to cool,
while you prepare the rest of the mixture. Whip a quart of cream to
a froth, (the cream should be rich,) and mix it with the custard;
in whipping the cream, great care should be taken to make it quite
light; the safest way is, to remove the froth as fast as it gathers,
with a strainer, until the whole is whipped.
Take two round slices of almond sponge-cake; glaze them with the
beaten white of egg mixed with sugar. Lay one on the bottom of a
circular mould, and reserve the other for the top.
Cut some more sponge-cake into long pieces; glaze them carefully
with the egg, and line the sides of the mould with them. Each piece
should lap a little over the other, or the form will not be perfect.
The custard will by this time be just beginning to congeal; pour
it gently into the mould, and cover the top with the piece of cake
which has already been prepared. The cake around the sides must be
trimmed evenly, so that the upper piece will fit without leaving any
vacancies.
Pound some ice, and throw it into a tub, covering it well with coarse
salt. The mould should then be set into the midst of this ice, and
must remain there an hour. Prepare an icing with powdered sugar and
the beaten white of egg, flavoring it with lemon-juice, or essence of
lemon, orange, or rose-water, according to the taste. The Charlotte
Russe is then turned out upon a handsome dish, and iced over. It
should be moved about as little as possible; and, to ensure success
in preparing it, the utmost care must be taken to follow the above
directions.
At large parties, a Charlotte Russe is as indispensable on the
supper-table as ice-cream.
1209. _Batter Pudding._--Take six ounces of fine flour, a little
salt, and three eggs; beat it up well with a little milk, added by
degrees till the batter is quite smooth: make it the thickness of
cream: put it into a buttered pie-dish, and bake three-quarters of
an hour; or, in a buttered and floured basin, tied over tight with a
cloth: boil one hour and a half or two hours.
Any kind of ripe fruit that you like may be added to the batter--only
you must make the batter a little stiffer. Blueberries, or
finely-chopped apple, are most usually liked.
1210. _French Batter, (for frying Vegetables, and for Apple, Peach,
or Orange Fritters._)--Cut two ounces of good butter into small bits;
pour on it less than a quarter of a pint of boiling water; and, when
it is dissolved, add three-quarters of a pint of cold water, so that
the whole shall not be quite milk-warm: mix it then by degrees, and
very smoothly, with twelve ounces of fine, dry flour, and a _small_
pinch of salt, if the batter be for fruit-fritters, but with more,
if for meat or vegetables. Just before it is used, stir into it
the whites of two eggs beaten to a solid froth; but, previously
to this, add a little water, should it appear too thick, as some
flour requires more liquid than others, to bring it to a proper
consistency.
Butter, two ounces; water, from three-quarters to nearly a pint;
little salt; flour, three-quarters of a pound; whites of two eggs,
beaten to snow.
1211. _Terrines of Rice, sweet and savory._--Wash four ounces of
Carolina rice in several waters, and leave it to soak for ten
minutes; then put it into a common Nottingham jar, with a cover,
and in shape, larger, considerably, in the middle than at the
top--as those of narrower form and proportionably greater height
will not answer so well. This jar may contain one quart or two, as
the stove-oven in which it is to be placed, may permit. The smaller
size has, on compulsion, been used for the present and following
receipts--the iron-plate in the centre of the only oven which the
writer had at command, preventing a larger one from standing in it.
Pour on the rice an exact pint of new milk; add two ounces of pounded
sugar, the slightest pinch of salt, and any flavor which may be
liked. Stir the whole well for a minute or two; put on the cover of
the jar; make a bit of paste with flour and water, sufficient to form
a wide, thick band; moisten the side which is laid on the jar, and
bind the edges of the cover and the jar together securely with it;
tie brown paper over, and set it into the coolest part of the oven of
the kitchen-range. Bake the rice _gently_ for two hours and a quarter
at the least, and turn the jar half-round once or twice while it is
in the oven. Stir it lightly up, heap it on a hot dish, and send it
to table. A _compôte_ of fresh fruit is an admirable accompaniment to
it.
1212. _Nutmeg Pudding._--Pound, fine, two large or three small
nutmegs; melt three pounds of butter, and stir into it half a pound
of loaf-sugar, a little wine, the yolks of five eggs, well beaten,
and the nutmegs. Bake on a puff-paste.
1213. _Wine Jelly._--Soak four ounces of gelatine in one quart of
cold water, for half an hour. In the meantime, mix with two quarts of
cold water, six table-spoonfuls of brandy; one pint of white-wine;
six lemons, cut up with the peel on; the whites and shells of six
eggs, the whites slightly beaten, the shells crushed; three pounds of
white sugar: then mix the gelatine with the other ingredients, and
put them over the fire. Let it boil, without stirring, for twenty
minutes. Strain it through a flannel-bag, without squeezing. Wet the
mould in cold water. Pour the jelly in, and leave it in a cool place
for three hours.
1214. _Economics._--It is often a matter of great convenience as well
as of economy, to give a new and presentable form to the remains of
dishes which have already appeared at table: the following hints may,
therefore, be not unacceptable to some of our readers.
No. 1.--Calf's-feet jelly and good blanc-mange are excellent
when just melted and mixed together, whether in equal or unequal
proportions. They should be heated only sufficient to liquify them,
or the acid of the jelly might curdle the blanc-mange. Pour this
last, when melted, into a deep earthen bowl, and add the jelly to it
in small portions, whisking them briskly together as it is thrown in.
A small quantity of prepared cochineal--which may be procured from a
chemist's--will serve to improve or to vary the color, when required.
Many kinds of creams and custards also may be blended advantageously
with the blanc-mange, after a little additional isinglass has been
dissolved in it, to give sufficient firmness to the whole. It must be
observed, that, though just liquid, either jelly or blanc-mange must
be as nearly cold as it will become without thickening and beginning
to set, before it is used for this receipt.
A sort of marbled or Mosaic mass is sometimes made by shaking
together, in a mould, remnants of various-colored blanc-manges, cut
nearly of the same size, and then filling it up with some clear jelly.
No. 2.--When a small part only of an open tart has been eaten, divide
the remainder equally into triangular slices, place them at regular
intervals round a dish, and then fill the intermediate spaces, and
cover the tart entirely, with slightly-sweetened and well-drained
whipped cream.
1215. _Pumpkin Pie._--Stew the pumpkin dry, and make it like squash
pie, only season rather higher. In the country, where this _real
Yankee pie_ is prepared in perfection, ginger is almost always used
with other spices. There, too, part cream, instead of milk, is mixed
with the pumpkin, which gives it a richer flavor.
1216. _Rhubarb Stalks, or Persian Apple_--Is the earliest ingredient
for pies, which the spring offers. The skin should be carefully
stripped, and the stalks cut into small bits, and stewed very tender.
These are dear pies, for they take an enormous quantity of sugar:
seasoned like apple pies. Gooseberries, currants, &c., are stewed,
sweetened, and seasoned like apple pies, in proportions suited to
the sweetness of the fruit; there is no way to judge but by your own
taste. Always remember, it is more easy to add seasoning, than to
diminish it.
1217. _Superlative Mince-meat, for Pies._--Take four large lemons,
with their weight of golden pippins, pared and cored, of jar-raisins,
currants, candied citron and orange-rind, and the finest suet, and a
fourth-part more of pounded sugar. Boil the lemons tender, chop them
small; but be careful first to extract all the pips; add them to the
other ingredients, after all have been prepared with great nicety,
and mix the whole _well_ with from three to four glasses of good
brandy. Apportion salt and spice by the preceding receipt. We think
that the weight of one lemon, in meat, improves this mixture; or, in
lieu of it, a small quantity of crushed macaroons, added just before
it is baked.
1218. _Rolls._--Rub into a pound of sifted flour, two ounces
of butter; beat the whites of three eggs to a froth, and add a
table-spoonful of good yeast, a little salt, and sufficient warm milk
to make a stiff dough. Cover and put it where it will be kept warm,
and it will rise in an hour. Then make it into rolls, or round cakes;
put them on a floured tin, and bake in a quick oven or stove. They
will be done in ten or fifteen minutes.
1219. _To make Yeast in the Turkish manner._--Take a small tea-cupful
of split or bruised peas, and pour on it a pint of boiling water, and
set it in a vessel all night on the hearth, or any warm place. The
next morning the water will have a froth on it, and be good yeast,
and will make as much bread as two quartern loaves.
1220. _Dyspepsia Bread._--The following receipt for making bread,
has proved highly salutary to persons afflicted with dyspepsia,
viz:--Three quarts unbolted wheat meal; one quart soft water, warm,
but not hot; one gill of fresh yeast; one gill of molasses, or not,
as may suit the taste; one teaspoonful of saleratus.
This will make two loaves, and should remain in the oven at least
one hour; and when taken out, placed where they will cool gradually.
Dyspepsia crackers can be made with unbolted flour, water, and
saleratus.
1221. _Unfermented Bread._--This keeps moist longer than bread made
with yeast, and is more sweet and digestible. The brown bread made
in this way is particularly recommended for dyspeptics. Take four
pounds of flour, half an ounce avoirdupois of muriatic acid; the same
of carbonate of soda; about a quart of water. First mix the soda
and flour well together by rubbing in a pan; pour the acid into the
water, and stir it well together. Mix all together to the required
consistence and bake in a hot oven immediately. If instead of flour,
unbolted meal should be used, take three pounds of meal; half an
ounce avoirdupois of muriatic acid; the same of carbonate of soda;
and water enough to make it of a proper consistence. Mix in the same
way.
1222. _Rice Caudle._--When the water boils, pour into it some ground
rice mixed with a little cold water; when of a proper consistency,
add sugar, lemon-peel, and cinnamon, and a glass of brandy to a
quart. Boil all smooth.
_Or_:--Soak some Carolina rice in water an hour, strain it, and put
two spoonfuls of the rice into a pint and a quarter of milk; simmer
till it will pulp through a sieve, then put the pulp and milk into
the saucepan, with a bruised clove, and a bit of white sugar. Simmer
ten minutes: if too thick, add a spoonful or two of milk, and serve
with thin toast.
1223.--_Johnny Cakes._--Sift a quart of corn meal into a pan; make a
hole in the middle, and pour in a pint of warm water. Mix the meal
and water gradually into a batter, adding a tea-spoonful of salt;
beat it very quickly, and for a long time, till it becomes quite
light; then spread it thick and even on a stout piece of smooth
board; place it upright on the hearth before a clear fire, with
something to support the board behind, and bake it well; cut it into
squares, and split and butter them hot.
They may also be made with a quart of milk, three eggs, one
tea-spoonful of carbonate of soda, and one tea-cupful of wheaten
flour; add Indian corn-meal sufficient to make a batter like that of
pancakes, and either bake it in buttered pans, or upon a griddle, and
eat them with butter.
1224. _Green Corn._--Must be boiled in clear water, with salt, from
twenty minutes to half an hour; if old, it will require a longer
time. It must be sent to table directly it is done, as it loses its
sweetness by either boiling after it is done, or standing when dished.
(A tea-spoonful of saleratus boiled with corn is said to prevent
sickness.)
1225. _Corn Oysters._--One pint of grated green corn, one cup of
flour, one dessert-spoonful of salt, one tea-spoonful of pepper, one
egg.
Mix the ingredients together, drop, and fry them in hot lard. In
taste they resemble fried oysters. They are an excellent relish for
breakfast, and a good side-dish for dinner.
1226. _Sackatash, or Corn and Beans._--Boil three pints of shelled
beans, or a quarter of a peck of string beans, half an hour, pour off
the water. Cut the corn off of four dozen ears--put it in the pot
among the beans, add salt and pepper, and cover them with boiling
water--boil all together twenty minutes. Rub flour into a large piece
of butter and stir it in, then let it boil up once. Pour it into your
tureen and send it to table.
1227. _Winter Sackatash._--As in winter the beans and corn are both
dried, they will have to be soaked over night. Par-boil the beans in
one or two waters, then add the corn, and boil all together until the
beans are boiled to pieces, which will be several hours. Add a small
piece of loaf sugar. Before dishing it for table, mix a large piece
of butter with flour, stir it in and let it boil.
1228. _To make Curry Powders._--Take one ounce of ginger, the same of
coriander-seed, half an ounce of cayenne pepper, and two ounces of
fine pale turmeric; these ingredients to be pounded separately to a
fine powder, and then warmed by the fire, and mixed together. Put the
powder into a wide-mouthed bottle, cork it well down, and put it into
a dry place.
Those who dislike the flavor of turmeric may substitute saffron.
1229. _To prepare a Curry._--The meat should be fresh and free from
bone. Cut it into pieces which can be easily served. To each pound
of meat add a table-spoonful of curry powder, and about half the
quantity of flour, and a little salt; mix these together, and rub
a portion of it upon the meat before it is fried, the remainder
afterwards. Fry the meat in a little butter. Fry onions a light
brown, with a clove of garlic if approved; drain the fat from both
the meat and onions; put them into a stewpan, and cover with boiling
water; stew for twenty minutes, then rub the remainder of the powder
smooth with a little cold water, add it, and let it stew for an hour,
or according to the time necessary for the meat to be well done.
If no other acid is used, stir in a little lemon-juice just before
serving: place it in the centre of the dish, and put carefully boiled
rice round it.
1230. _Lord Clive's Curry._--Slice six onions, one green apple,
and a clove of garlic; stew them in a little good stock until
they will pulp, then add one tea-spoonful of curry-powder, a few
table-spoonfuls of stock, a little salt, and a little cayenne pepper,
half a salt-spoonful of each; stew in this gravy any kind of meat cut
into small pieces, adding a piece of butter, the size of a walnut,
rolled in flour.
1231. _To free Molasses from its sharp taste, and to render it fit
to be used instead of Sugar._--Take twenty-four pounds of molasses,
twenty-four pounds of water, and six pounds of charcoal, coarsely
pulverized: mix them in a kettle, and boil the whole over a slow
wood fire. When the mixture has boiled half an hour, pour it into a
flat vessel, in order that the charcoal may subside to the bottom:
then pour off the liquid, and place it over the fire once more, that
the superfluous water may evaporate, and the molasses be brought to
their former consistence. Twenty-four pounds of molasses will produce
twenty-four pounds of syrup.
1232. _To make Apple Molasses._--Take new sweet cider just from the
press, made from sweet apples, and boil it down as thick as West
India molasses. It should be boiled in brass, and not burned, as that
would injure the flavor. It will keep in the cellar, and is said to
be as good, and for many purposes better than West India molasses.
1233. _To dress Chestnuts for Dessert._--Let them be well roasted,
and the husks taken off. Dissolve a quarter pound of sugar in a
wine-glassful of water, and the juice of a lemon. Put this and the
chestnuts into a saucepan over a slow fire for ten minutes; add
sufficient orange-flower water to flavor the syrup; serve in a deep
dish, and grate sugar over them. To be handed round whilst quite hot.
1234. _To improve Claret Wine when acid._--Place the cask on a stand
for refining, put into it a quarter pound of chalk broken into small
pieces. Let it remain one day, and then refine with the whites of
six eggs, the shells broken, and a handful of salt; all these are to
be mixed with some of the wine, and then thrown into the cask. The
shells are not to be powdered, but simply crushed in the hand. The
wine will be fit for bottling in two weeks. When bottled, it should
be laid on the side. The bungs to be out as short a time as possible.
1235. _To improve Home-made wines._--When there is a tendency to
acidity in wine, add to it sugar-candy in the proportion of a pound
to every four gallons; dissolve it, and put it into the cask,
incorporating it well.
Poor wines may be improved by the addition of bruised raisins. If one
ounce of powdered roche-alum be put into a cask of four gallons of
wine, it will make it fine and brisk in ten days. Ripe medlars, or
bruised mustard-seed, tied in a bag, will remove mustiness, or other
disagreeable taste.
Pricked wines may be improved, if not recovered, by being racked off
into a cask that has contained the same kind of wine. The cask should
be first matched or sulphured; and, to every ten gallons of wine, put
two ounces of oyster-shell powder, and half an ounce of bay-salt;
stir it, and leave it a few days to fine; after which, rack it into
another cask, also matched.
Burn dry walnuts over a charcoal fire, and when they are well lit,
throw them into the wine, and bung up; in forty-eight hours they will
correct the acidity. One walnut will suffice for every gallon of wine.
If bottled wine be _ropy_, shake it for twenty minutes, uncork it,
and pour off the froth or scum, when the rest of the wine will be
drinkable.
1236. _Casking._--The casks should be washed with hot salt and water,
then with hot water, and lastly with a portion of the fermented
liquor made to boil.
After the liquor is removed into the cask, it will slowly ferment,
and some will evaporate. The cask should, however, be kept filled
near the bung-hole, else the scum cannot be thrown out.
When the fret subsides, close the bung-hole, and bore a hole for a
peg, to be withdrawn occasionally, else the cask may burst.
In the following Spring, determine whether you bottle or keep in
wood another year; but wines that have been properly fermented, and
promise well, will be improved by remaining in the cask another year.
Then, if the wine wants rich flavor, add to twenty gallons, five
pounds of sugar-candy.
1237. _Bottling._--Brisk wines should be bottled on the approach of
Spring.
If the wine be not fine enough, draw off a quart, in which dissolve
isinglass in the proportion of half an ounce to twenty gallons, and
pour the solution in at the bung-hole. In about three weeks, the
liquor will be sufficiently clear for bottling.
In drawing off, be careful to tap the cask above the lees. The wine,
to be fit for bottling, should be fine and brilliant, else it will
never brighten after. When bottled, it should be stored in a cool
cellar, and the bottles laid on their sides, and in sawdust; but, on
no account set upright.
In making wines, it is a good plan to use two casks, one a very
small one, from which the larger one may be filled up, during the
fermentation.
1238. _Fining for Wine._--Put an ounce of isinglass into a quart jug,
with one pint of wine; stir it twice or thrice a day, and it will
soon dissolve; when strain it through a sieve. A pint of this fining
will be sufficient for a cask of twenty gallons.
When the fining is put into the cask, stir it up with a stick, taking
care not to touch the bottom, so as to disturb the lees. Fill up the
cask, if necessary, bung it down, and in a week the wine will be fit
for bottling.
For white wine only, add and mix, as above, a quarter of a pint of
milk to every gallon of wine. It may also be fined with the whites of
eggs, beaten up with some wine, in the proportion of four whites to
sixteen gallons of wine.
1239. _To sweeten Casks._--If a cask, after the contents are drunk
out, be well stopped, and the lees be allowed to remain in it till
it is again to be used, it will only be necessary to scald it; taking
care, before you fill it, to see that the hoops are well driven.
Should the air get into the cask, it will become musty, and scalding
will not improve it; the surest way will be then to take out the head
of the cask, to be shaved, then to burn it a little, and scald it for
use. Or, put into the cask some quick lime and cold water, bung it
down, shake it for some time, and then scald it; or, burn a _match_
in it, and scald it.
Or, mix half a pint of the strongest sulphuric acid in an open
vessel, with a quart of water, put it into the cask, and roll it well
about; next day, add one pound of chalk, bung it down, and in three
or four days the cask should be washed out with boiling water.
To prepare a match, melt some brimstone, and dip into it a long
narrow piece of coarse linen cloth, or brown paper; when to be used,
set fire to the match, put it in at the bung-hole of the cask,
fastening one end under the bung, and let it remain, for a few hours.
1240. _A Filtering Bag._--Will be useful in fining wines: it may be
made of a yard of moderately-fine flannel, laid sloping, so as to
have the bottom very narrow, and the top the full breadth; strongly
sew up the side, and fold and sew the upper part of the bag about a
broad wooden hoop, to be suspended by a cord fastened in three or
four places.
1241. _Coloring Wines._--In the coloring of wines, many substances
have been used, and it is desirable to select such as may also
communicate an agreeable flavor. Red colors are easily obtained from
beet-root, logwood, or the berries of the elder; and every variety of
yellow may be produced by the use of burnt sugar, which also gives an
agreeable bitterness.
There is no end to the materials which have been used to give a
flavor to wine. The flowers of elder, cowslips, clove-pinks, and
mignonette, are well known. The shavings of _orris-root_, in the
proportion of half an ounce to twenty gallons, will be found to
communicate an agreeable perfume. The shavings should be tied in
a linen bag, and suspended in the cask by a string, so as to be
removable at pleasure, if, upon trial, it is found that the flavor is
likely to be too predominant.
1242. _To check Fermentation._--_Sulphate of potash_ will stop
fermentation. _One dram_ is sufficient for a pipe of liquor. It
will be useful to the _confectioner_ to know, that by the use of
the same salt, the fermentation of syrups and preserves may also be
effectually prevented.
1243. _Currant Shrub; easily made._--To every quart of juice, add one
pound of sugar, and one gill of brandy. Bottle and cork it tight. Do
not put it over the fire.
1244. _Damson Wine._--To four gallons of boiling water, add a peck
of damsons; stir this liquor twice every day. Let it stand for three
days, and then strain the whole through a lawn sieve. Add nine pounds
of loaf sugar, and three spoonsful of yeast; after it has worked in
a tub for three days, turn it into a cask, and add three quarts of
elder syrup. Rack the wine in a fortnight. Put in two lemons, sliced,
a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar, rubbed on the peel, and two
pounds of raisins, chopped. Stop it close till March, and then bottle
it.
1245. _Red Cherry Wine._--Strip, when full ripe, any quantity of the
finest red, or Kentish cherries, from their stalks, and stamp them,
in the same manner as apples for cider, till the stones are broken.
Put the whole into a tub, and cover it up closely for three days and
nights; then press it in a cider-press; put the liquor again into a
tub, and let it stand, covered as before, two days longer. Carefully
take off the scum, without in the smallest degree disturbing the
liquor, which is to be poured off the lees, into a different tub.
After it has thus stood to clear another two days, it must again be
cautiously skimmed, and the clear liquid poured off as before. If the
cherries are, as they ought to be, quite ripe and sweet, a pound and
a half of good sugar will be sufficient for each gallon of juice,
which is to be well stirred in, and the liquor again closely covered
up, without being any more disturbed till the next day; then pour
it carefully from the lees, as before, put it to stand, in the same
manner, another day; and then, with the like care, pour it off into
the cask, or casks, in which it is intended to be kept. The above
process must be often repeated, should the lees appear gross and
likely to make the liquor fret. When entirely settled, stop it up,
for at least seven or eight months; then, if perfectly fine, put it
in bottles; if not, drain it off into another vessel, and stop it up
for six months longer, before you venture to bottle it, when it will
want only age to equal, if not exceed, all foreign wines. It will,
however, be best not to drink it till at least ten or twelve months
old.
1246. _Rich Morella Cherry Wine._--Having picked off from their
stalks the ripest and soundest morella cherries, bruise them well,
without breaking the stones, and let the whole stand twenty-four
hours in an open vessel. Then press out all the juice, and for every
gallon, add two pounds of fine loaf sugar. Put this wine into a cask,
and when the fermentation ceases, stop it close. Let it stand three
or four months, then bottle it, and in two months more it will be
fit to drink. Some crack the stones, and hang them, with the bruised
kernels, in a bag, from the bung, while the wine remains in the cask.
1247. _Incomparable Apricot Wine._--Take eight pounds of ripe
apricots, slice them into two gallons of spring water, and add five
pounds of powdered loaf sugar. Boil them together for some time,
without taking off the scum; then skim it off as it continues to
rise, and put it in a clean sieve, over a pan, to save the liquor
which comes from it. When the boiling liquor is as clear as it can
be made from the dross of the sugar, pour it, with the drainings of
the sieve, hot on the kernels of the apricots, which must be put
with the stones into the pan, where it is intended the wine should
be left to cool. Stir all well together, cover it up closely till it
grows quite cool, and then work it with a toast and yeast. In two or
three days, when it is found to be settled, fine it off into a cask,
leaving it to ferment as long as it will. After it has done working,
pour in a bottle of old hock, mountain, or sherry, and stop it up for
six months; then, if very fine, bottle it, and keep it twelve months.
This is indeed a most delicious wine.
1248. _To detect Sugar of Lead in Wines._--The tincture of orpiment
converts wine so adulterated to a black color.
1249. _Orange Wine._--To ten gallons of water put twenty-eight
pounds of loaf sugar, and the whites of six eggs. Boil them together
for three-quarters of an hour, keeping the liquor well skimmed all
the time, and then pour it hot into a tub, or large pan, over the
peels of fifty Seville oranges. When it is nearly cold, take three
spoonsful of yeast, spread on a piece of toasted bread, and put in
the liquor to make it ferment. After it has stood two or three days,
pour it from the peels into the cask, with a gallon of orange juice,
which takes about a hundred and twenty oranges. Let it remain in
the cask till it has done hissing, when the fermentation will have
ceased. Endeavor to proportion the size of the cask to the quantity,
as it must be kept filled, so as to work out at the bung-hole. When
the fermentation is over, draw off as much of the wine as will admit
one quart of brandy for every five gallons of wine. It will be fit to
bottle, or drink from the cask, in four or five months. This wine, if
carefully made, according to these plain directions, will be found
exquisitely delicious; and were it kept four or five years, would far
surpass most of the best foreign wines, as they are usually sold in
England.
1250. _Red Currant Wine._--To eight gallons of water add twenty-four
pounds of loaf sugar; boil the syrup and skim it, till the scum
disappears. Have ready, picked from the stalks, two gallons of red
currants, taking care not to bruise them. Pour the syrup, boiling
hot, on the currants. Let it all stand till nearly cold; then add
a teacupful of yeast. Let it ferment for two days; then strain it
through a sieve, into the cask, and when the fermentation entirely
ceases, bung it tight. It will be ready to bottle at the end of two
months. Into each bottle put a small lump of sugar.
1251. _Raisin Wine._--To every gallon of water weigh seven pounds of
raisins; pick them from the stalks, and put them into a tub; pour
the water on the fruit, and let it stand a fortnight or three weeks,
stirring it several times a day. Strain it, and press the fruit very
dry through hair bags, then put it into a barrel, but do not stop
it close. In about four months rack it, and then put a little fresh
fruit, and some brandy, into the barrel. A quart of brandy, and eight
or ten pounds of fruit, are sufficient for twenty-five or thirty
gallons of wine. When the wine is racked, draw it off into a tub,
and pass the sediment that remains through a flannel bag; the head
of the barrel must then be taken out, and the barrel rinsed with a
little of the wine. After the head is again put in, add the brandy
and fruit. Put the bung in for a little time, but not very tight. It
will be necessary to refine the wine with isinglass, about three
weeks before it is bottled, which should not be in less than a year.
One ounce of isinglass, dissolved in half a pint of wine, and stirred
into the barrel, will be sufficient.
Before the water is poured on the fruit, it should be boiled with the
stalks, and with hops; the latter in the proportion of a quarter of
a pound to every thirty gallons of water. Strain the liquor, let it
grow cold, and then add it to the fruit.
1252. _Spruce Wine._--To every gallon of water take a pound and a
half of honey, and half a pound of fine starch. Before the starch
is mixed with the honey-syrup, it must be reduced to a transparent
jelly, by boiling it with part of the water purposely reserved;--a
quarter of a pound of essence of spruce must be used to five gallons
of water, and when sufficiently stirred and incorporated, pour the
wine into the cask. Then add a quarter of a pint of good ale-yeast,
shake the cask well, and let it work for three or four days, after
which, bung it. It may be bottled in a few days, and in ten days
afterwards, will be fit to drink. When this wine is bunged, a quarter
of an ounce of isinglass, first dissolved in a little of the warmed
liquor, may be stirred in by way of fining it. In cold weather, the
quantity of yeast should be increased: in warm weather, very little
ferment is requisite.
1253. _American Currant Wine._--To one gallon of currant juice add
two of water; to each gallon of this mixture add three pounds and
a quarter of sugar, a gill of brandy, and a quarter of an ounce of
powdered alum: put the whole into a clean cask, in March draw off,
and add another gill of brandy to each gallon.
1254. _Rich Mead._--Mix well the whites of six eggs in twelve gallons
of water; and to this mixture, when it has boiled half an hour and
been well skimmed, add thirty-six pounds of the finest honey, with
the rinds of two dozen lemons. Let them boil together some little
time, and on the liquor's becoming sufficiently cool, work it with a
little ale-yeast. Put it with the lemon peel into a seasoned barrel,
which must be filled up as it flows over with some of the reserved
liquor; and when the hissing ceases, drive the bung close. After the
wine has stood five or six months, bottle it for use. If intended to
be kept several years, put in a pound more honey for every gallon of
water.
1255. _Red and White Mead with Raspberries and Currants._--For every
gallon of wine to be made, take one pound and a half of honey,
half an ounce of tartar, or Bologna argol, and three-quarters of a
pound of fruit. If for white wine, white argol should be used with
white currants; if for red wine, red argol with red currants or
raspberries. Prepare the honey by mixing it with as much water as
will, when added to the juice of the fruit (allowing for diminution
by boiling, &c.), make the proposed quantity of wine. This being well
boiled and clarified, infuse in it a moderate quantity of rosemary
leaves, lavender, and sweet-brier, and when they have remained for
two days, strain the liquor, and add it to the expressed juice of
the fruit, put in the dissolved argol, stir the whole well together,
and leave it to ferment. In two or three days, put it in a seasoned
barrel; keep filling it up, as the liquor flows over; and on its
ceasing to work, sink in it a muslin bag of Seville orange and lemon
peel, with cinnamon, cloves and nutmegs, and closely bung the cask.
If kept for six months or more in the wood, and at least nine in
bottles, this wine will be excellent, whether red or white. In a
similar way may be made all sorts of fruit wines, thus substituting
honey for sugar.
1256. _Nectar._--Take half a pound of raisins of the sun, chopped,
one pound of powdered loaf sugar, two lemons, sliced, and the peel
of one. Put them into an earthen vessel with two gallons of water,
the water having been boiled half an hour; and put them in while the
water is boiling. Let the whole stand three or four days, stirring it
twice a day; then strain it, and in a fortnight it will be ready for
use.
1257. _Syrup of Cloves, Cinnamon, or Mace._--All these syrups are
made exactly on the same plan.--Take two ounces of either cloves,
cinnamon, or mace, well pounded, and put it into a pint of boiling
water in a small stewpan. Let it boil half an hour, pass the liquor
through a hair sieve, dissolve in it a pound and a half of powdered
loaf sugar, clear it over the fire, with the white of an egg beaten
to a froth, and a little rose or orange-flower water, and let it
simmer gently till the syrup is formed and clear. When quite cold,
put it in bottles, which must be closely corked.
1258. _Syrup of Ginger._--Steep an ounce and a half of beaten ginger
in a quart of boiling water, closely covered up for twenty-four
hours; then, straining off the infusion, make it into a syrup, by
adding at least two pounds of fine loaf sugar, dissolved, and boiled
up in a hot water bath.
1259. _French Rossolis, perfumed with Flowers._--Boil two quarts
of spring water, to take off the hardness; then take it off the
fire, and when it is only lukewarm, throw in a pinch of the most
odoriferous flowers, and let them infuse till the liquid is cold,
and the fragrance all extracted. Then take away the flowers with a
skimmer, strain the liquid, and add to it a pint of clarified syrup,
and half a pint of spirits of wine, and a rossolis, or sun-dew, will
be produced.
1260. _Bergamot Water._--Make a pint of syrup; and when cold, press
into it half a dozen fine lemons, with, or without, a Seville orange,
or two China oranges, adding as much water as may be necessary; then
putting in a tea-spoonful of genuine essence of bergamot, run the
whole through a lawn sieve, and it is immediately ready for drinking.
1261. _Peach and Apricot Waters._--Both these waters, as well as
those of other fruits, are readily made by mixing two or three
table-spoonfuls of the respective jams with a few blanched and
pounded bitter almonds, lemon-juice, and cold spring water, with
powdered loaf sugar to your taste. On being run through a lawn sieve,
these waters are immediately fit to drink.
1262. _Persian and Turkish Sherbet._--The method pursued by the
Persians, Turks, &c., is to extract the fragrant, rich, and
acidulated juices of the finest flowers and fruits, and make them,
with the addition of sugar, into what we call fruit jellies or
lozenges, which are dissolved in the purest spring water, and thus
form the agreeable beverage denominated sherbet. For example, they
evaporate the purified juice of citrons in a water bath with a slow
fire, till it becomes of nearly the consistence of honey, melting,
in the mean time, some finely powdered loaf sugar in a silver dish,
and continually stirring it with a flat wooden spoon; when the sugar
is very dry, they sprinkle over it, a little at a time, the prepared
juice of citron; continuing to stir it till the whole has sufficient
moisture to form a paste, which they make into lozenges, and keep
in a dry, and rather warm situation; in this way, they prepare all
the acid juices, such as barberries, lemons, gooseberries, &c.: with
the less acid and more delicately flavored fruits, they proceed
differently, only well heating the sugar in a silver dish, adding
to it by degrees the fresh juice, and stirring it constantly till a
paste is formed. This must not be made into lozenges till perfectly
dry, and they must be put into a box lined with paper, and kept
in a dry place. They are variously prepared with orange-flowers,
roses, &c. The Persians and Turks are said to prepare a favorite
sherbet with violet vinegar, pomegranate-juice, and sugar formed into
lozenges.
1263. _Hypocras, as made at Paris._--Put into a quart of the best
and strongest red wine half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, half a
dram of cinnamon, a pinch of coriander seeds, two white pepper-corns,
a little Seville orange peel, a blade of mace, a small quantity of
lemon-juice, and four cloves; the spices, &c., being all previously
beaten in a mortar. When the whole has infused three or four hours,
add a table-spoonful of milk; and filtering the liquid through a
flannel bag, it will prove excellent for present or future use.
1264. _Strawberry Sherbet._--On half a pound of sugar of the best
quality, broken into lumps, pour a quart of spring water. Let it
stand until nearly dissolved; give it a stir, and boil it for about
ten minutes. Take off the scum, and throw into the syrup a pint and
a half of sound ripe strawberries, measured without their stalks.
Let these simmer gently until they shrink much and begin to break,
and keep them well skimmed, or the sherbet will not be clear. Before
it is taken from the fire, add the strained juice of a sound fresh
lemon, then turn the preparation into a jelly-bag, or let it stand
for a quarter of an hour, and then strain it through a muslin folded
in four. This latter method is generally quite sufficient to render
any liquid not thickened by the _over_-boiled pulp of fruit, quite
transparent. When strawberries abound, a quart, or even more, may be
used for this preparation; and the proportion of sugar can always be
increased or diminished to the taste. To give the sherbet an Oriental
character, boil in it the petals of six or eight orange, lemon, or
citron blossoms; or orange-flower water may be used.
1265. _Lemonade_ (_Italian_).--Two dozen lemons must be pared and
pressed; the juice should be poured on the peels, and remain on them
all night; in the morning add two pounds of loaf sugar, a quart
of good white wine, and three quarts of boiling water. When these
ingredients are blended, add a quart of boiling milk. Strain the
whole through a jelly-bag till it becomes quite clear.
1266. _Lemonade._--One of the best methods of making lemonade is to
prepare a syrup of sugar and water, over a clear fire, skimming it
quite clean; to this add the juice of any number of lemons, according
to the quantity you wish to make; also some of the rinds.
1267. _Rich Orangeade._--Steep the yellow rinds of six China, and
two Seville oranges in a quart of boiling water, closely covered up
for five or six hours; then make a syrup with a pound of sugar, and
three pints of water, mix the infusion and syrup together, press in
the juice of a dozen China oranges, and the two Seville oranges from
which the rind was taken, stir the whole well together, and run it
through a jelly-bag; afterwards, if agreeable, a little orange-flower
water, with some capillaire syrup, may be added, should sweetness be
wanted. Two lemons may be used, as well as the two Seville oranges;
but care should be taken that the flavor of the lemons does not
predominate.
1268. _Orgeat Paste._--This paste, which will keep twelve months,
is nearly as soon made into orgeat as the orgeat syrup. The mode of
preparing it in Paris, is by well pounding blanched almonds with a
little water, to prevent their turning to oil; then adding half the
weight of the almonds in pounded sugar, and mixing both together into
a paste.
Of this paste, when wanted, mix a small portion, about the size of
an egg, in a pint of spring water, and strain it through a napkin.
The usual English mode of making orgeat paste is, by pounding in the
same manner, half an ounce of bitter, to a pound of sweet, almonds;
and boiling a quart of common syrup, till it becomes what is called
blow; mixing the almonds with it over the fire, well stirred all the
time, to prevent burning, till it becomes a stiff paste; then, on its
getting quite cold, putting it in pots, to be used in the same manner
as the other.
1269. _To cork, and preserve Cider in Bottles._--Good corks are
highly necessary, and if soaked before used in scalding water, they
will be more the pliant and serviceable; and by laying the bottles so
that the liquor may always keep the cork wet and swelled, will much
preserve it.
1270. _Soda Water and Ginger Beer Powders._--Carbonate of soda and
tartaric acid, of each two ounces; fine loaf sugar rolled and sifted,
six ounces; pure essence of lemon, twenty-five or thirty drops. To be
well mixed in a marble mortar, kept in a bottle closely corked, and
_in a very dry place_. When required for use, two tea-spoonfuls to
less than a half pint of water, to be mixed in a glass that will hold
twice that quantity, and drunk while in a state of effervescence. If
half an ounce or one ounce (according as it may be liked more or less
hot), of best ground ginger be mixed with the above quantity, it will
be "ginger-beer powder."
1271. _Spruce Beer._--For _white_ spruce, pour ten gallons of boiling
water upon six pounds of good raw or lump sugar, and four ounces of
essence of spruce; ferment with half a pint of good yeast, put into
stone bottles, cork and tie them over. For _brown_ spruce use treacle
instead of sugar.
Essence of spruce is a remedy for colds, rheumatisms, &c., if drunk
warm at bed-time.
1272. _An Irish Cordial._--To every pound of white currants stripped
from the stalks and bruised, put the very thin rind of a large
fresh lemon, and a quarter of an ounce of ginger, well pounded and
sifted. Pour on these one quart of good old whiskey; mix the whole
up thoroughly, and let it stand for twenty-four hours in a new
well-scalded stone pitcher, or deep pan (_crock_), covered closely
from the air. Strain it off; stir in it, until dissolved, a pound and
a quarter of pounded sugar, and strain it again and bottle it. This
is an Irish receipt, and is given without variation from the original.
1273. _To prevent Beer from growing flat._--In a cask containing
eighteen gallons of beer, becoming vapid, put a pint of ground malt,
suspended in a bag, and close the bung perfectly; the beer will be
improved during the whole time of drawing it for use.
1274. _To recover sour Beer._--When beer has become sour, put into
the barrel some oyster-shells, calcined to whiteness, or a little
fine chalk or whiting. Any of these will correct the acidity, and
make the beer brisk and sparkling; but it cannot be kept long after
these additions are made.
1275. _Rose Vinegar for Salads or the Toilette._--To one quarter of a
pound of rose-leaves put two quarts of good vinegar; cover it firmly;
leave it to infuse till a fine tincture is obtained; then strain it.
1276. _Raspberry Vinegar._--Pour one quart of vinegar on two pounds
of fresh raspberries, and let it stand twenty-four hours. Then strain
them through a hair-sieve without breaking the fruit; put the liquor
on two pounds more fruit, and, after straining it in the same manner,
add to each pint of juice half a pound of loaf sugar; put it in a
stone vessel, and let it stand in boiling water until the sugar is
dissolved; when cold, take off the scum, and bottle it.
1277. _Cheap and easy method of Brewing._--One bushel of malt and
three-quarters of a pound of hops will, on an average, brew twenty
gallons of good beer.
For this quantity of malt, boil twenty-four gallons of water; and,
having dashed it in the copper with cold water to stop the boiling,
steep the malt (properly covered up) for three hours; then tie up
the hops in a hair-cloth, and boil malt, hops, and wort, altogether,
for three-quarters of an hour, which will reduce it to about twenty
gallons. Strain it off, and set it to work when lukewarm.
In large brewings, this process perhaps would not answer, but in
small ones, where the waste is not so great, and where the malt can
be boiled, the essence is sure to be extracted.
1278. _To make excellent and wholesome Table Beer._--To eight quarts
of boiling water put a pound of treacle, a quarter of an ounce of
ginger, and two bay leaves; let this boil for a quarter of an hour,
then cool, and work it with yeast, the same as other beer.
1279. _How the Chinese make Tea._--The art of making tea consists in
pouring the water on and off immediately, so as to get the flavor.