Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches
by
Eliza Leslie
Part 7 out of 9
SCOTCH CAKE.
Rub three quarters of a pound of butter into a pound of sifted
flour; mix in a pound of powdered sugar, and a large table-spoonful
of powdered cinnamon. Mix it into a dough with three well
beaten eggs. Roll it out into a sheet; cut it into round cakes,
and bake them in a quick oven; they will require but a few
minutes.
SCOTCH QUEEN CAKE.
Melt a pound of butter by putting it into a skillet on hot coals.
Then set it away to cool. Sift a quarter of a peck of flour into a
deep pan, and mix with it a pound of powdered sugar and a table-spoonful
of powdered cinnamon and mace. Make a hole in the middle,
put in the melted butter, and mix it with a knife till you have
formed of the whole a lump of dough. If it is too stiff, moisten
it with a little rose water. Do not knead it; but roll it out into
a large oval sheet, an inch thick. Cut it down the middle, and
then across, so as to divide it into four cakes. Prick them with a
fork, and crimp or scollop the edges neatly. Lay them in shallow
pans; set them, in a quick oven and bake them of a light brown.
This cake will keep a week or two.
You may mix in with the dough half a pound of currants, picked,
washed, and dried.
HONEY CAKES.
Take a quart of strained honey, half a pound of fresh butter, and
a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash dissolved in a wine glass of
water. Add by degrees as much sifted flour as will make a stiff
paste. Work the whole well together. Roll it out about half an
inch thick. Cut it into cakes with the edge of a tumbler or with a
tin-cake cutter. Lay them on buttered tins and bake them with
rather a brisk fire, but see that they do not burn.
WAFER CAKES.
Mix together half a pound of powdered sugar, and a quarter of a
pound of butter; and add to them six beaten eggs. Then beat the
whole very light; stirring into it as much sifted flour as will
make a stiff batter; a powdered nutmeg, and a tea-spoonful of
cinnamon; and eight drops of oil of lemon, or a table-spoonful of
rose water. The batter must be very smooth when it is done, and
without a single lump. Heat your wafer iron on both sides by
turning it in the fire; but do not allow it to get too hot. Grease
the inside with butter tied in a rag, (this must be repeated
previous to the baking of every cake,) and put in the batter,
allowing to each wafer two large table-spoonfuls, taking care not
to stir up the batter. Close the iron, and when one side is baked,
turn it on the other; open it occasionally to see if the wafer is
doing well. They should be coloured of a light brown. Take them
out carefully with a knife. Strew them with powdered sugar, and
roll them up while warm, round a smooth stick, withdrawing it when
they grow cold. They are best the day after they are baked.
If you are preparing for company, fill up the hollow of the wafers
with whipt cream, and stop up the two ends with preserved
strawberries, or with any other small sweetmeat.
WONDERS, OR CRULLERS.
Rub half a pound of butter into two pounds of sifted flour, mixing
in three quarters of a pound of powdered sugar. Add a tea-spoonful
of powdered cinnamon, and a grated nutmeg, with a large
table-spoonful of rose water. Beat six eggs very light, and stir
them into the mixture. Mix it with a knife into a soft paste. Then
put it on the paste-board, and roll it out into a sheet an inch
thick. If you find it too soft, knead in a little more flour, and
roll it out over again. Cut it into long slips with a jagging
iron, or with a sharp knife, and twist them into various fantastic
shapes. Have ready on hot coals, a skillet of boiling lard; put in
the crullers and fry them of a light brown, turning them
occasionally by means of a knife and fork. Take them out one by
one on a perforated skimmer, that the lard may drain off through
the holes. Spread them out on a large dish, and when cold grate
white sugar over them.
They will keep a week or more.
DOUGH NUTS.
Take two deep dishes, and sift three quarters of a pound of flour
into each. Make a hole in the centre of one of them, and pour in a
wine glass of the best brewer's yeast; mix the flour gradually
into it, wetting it with lukewarm milk; cover it, and set it by
the fire to rise for about two hours. This is setting a sponge. In
the mean time, cut up five ounces of butter into the other dish of
flour, and rub it fine with your hands; add half a pound of
powdered sugar, a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, a grated
nutmeg, a table-spoonful of rose water, and a half pint of milk.
Beat three eggs very light, and stir them hard into the mixture.
Then when, the sponge is perfectly light, add it to the other
ingredients, mixing them all thoroughly with a knife. Cover it,
and set it again by the fire for another hour. When, it is quite
light, flour your paste-board, turn out the lump of dough, and cut
it into thick diamond shaped cakes with a jagging iron. If you
find the dough so soft as to be unmanageable, mix in a little more
flour; but not else. Have ready a skillet of boiling lard; put the
dough-nuts into it, and fry them brown; and when cool grate loaf-sugar
over them. They should be eaten quite fresh, as next day
they will be tough and heavy; therefore it is best to make no more
than you want for immediate use. The New York Oley Koeks are
dough-nuts with currants and raisins in them.
WAFFLES.
Put two pints of rich milk into separate pans. Cut up and melt in
one of them a quarter of a pound of butter, warming it slightly;
then, when it is melted, stir it about, and set it away to cool.
Beat eight eggs till very light, and mix them gradually into the
other pan of milk, alternately with half a pound of flour. Then
mix in by degrees the milk that has the butter in it. Lastly, stir
in a large table-spoonful of strong fresh yeast. Cover the pan,
and set it near the fire to rise. When the batter is quite light,
heat your waffle-iron, by putting it among the coals of a clear
bright fire; grease the inside with butter tied in a rag, and then
put in some batter. Shut the iron closely, and when the waffle is
done on one side, turn the iron on the other. Take the cake out by
slipping a knife underneath; and then heat and grease the iron for
another waffle. Send them to table quite hot, four or six on a
plate; having buttered them and strewed over each a mixture of
powdered cinnamon, and white sugar. Or you may send the sugar and
cinnamon in a little glass bowl.
In buying waffle-irons, do not choose those broad shallow ones
that are to hold four at a time; as the waffles baked in them are
too small, too thin, and are never of a good shape. The common
sort that bake but two at once are much the best.
NEW YORK COOKIES.
Take a half-pint or a tumbler full of cold water, and mix it with
half a pound of powdered white sugar. Sift three pounds of flour
into a large pan and cut up in it a pound of butter; rub the
butter very fine into the flour. Add a grated nutmeg, and a tea-spoonful
of powdered cinnamon, with a wine glass of rose water.
Work in the sugar, and make the whole into a stiff dough, adding,
if necessary, a little cold water. Dissolve a tea-spoonful of
pearl-ash in just enough of warm water to cover it, and mix it in
at the last. Take the lump of dough out of the pan, and knead it
on the paste-board till it becomes quite light. Then roll it out
rather more than half an inch thick, and cut it into square cakes
with a jagging iron or with a sharp knife. Stamp the surface of
each with a cake print. Lay them in buttered pans, and bake them
of a light brown in a brisk oven.
They are similar to what are called New Year's cakes, and will
keep two or three weeks.
In mixing the dough, you may add three table-spoonfuls of carraway
seeds.
SUGAR BISCUIT.
Wet a pound of sugar with two large tea-cups full of milk; and rub
a pound of butter into two pounds of flour; adding a table-spoonful
of cinnamon, and a handful of carraway seeds. Mix in the
sugar, add a tea-spoonful of pearl-ash dissolved, and make the
whole into a stiff dough. Knead it, and then roll it out into a
sheet about half an inch thick. Beat it on both sides with the
rolling-pin, and then cut it out with the edge of a tumbler into
round cakes. Prick them with a fork, lay them in buttered pans,
and bake them light brown in a quick oven. You may colour them
yellow by mixing in with the other ingredients a little of the
infusion of saffron.
RUSKS.
Sift three pounds of flour into a large pan, and rub into it half
a pound of butter, and half a pound of sugar. Beat two eggs very
light, and stir them into a pint and a half of milk, adding two
table-spoonfuls of rose water, and three table-spoonfuls of the
best and strongest yeast. Make a hole in the middle of the flour,
pour in the liquid, and gradually mix the flour into it till you
have a thick batter. Cover it, and set it by the fire to rise.
When it is quite light, put it on your paste-board and knead it
well. Then divide it into small round cakes and knead each
separately. Lay them very near each other in shallow iron pans
that have been sprinkled with flour. Prick the top of each rusk
with a fork, and set them by the fire to rise again for half an
hour or more. When they are perfectly light, bake them in a
moderate oven. They are best when fresh.
You can convert them into what are called Hard Rusks, or Tops and
Bottoms, by splitting them in half, and putting them again into
the oven to harden and crisp.
MILK BISCUIT.
Cut up three quarters of a pound of butter in a quart of milk, and
set it near the fire to warm, till the butter becomes soft; then
with a knife, mix it thoroughly with the milk, and set it away to
cool. Afterwards stir in two wine glasses of strong fresh yeast,
and add by degrees as much sifted flour as will make a dough just
stiff enough to roll out. As soon as it is mixed, roll it into a
thick sheet, and cut it out into round cakes with the edge of a
tumbler or a wine glass. Sprinkle a large iron pan with flour; lay
the biscuits in it, cover it and set it to rise near the fire.
When the biscuits are quite light, knead each one separately;
prick them with a fork, and set them again in a warm place for
about half an hour. When they are light again, bake them in a
moderate oven. They should be eaten fresh, and pulled open with
the fingers, as splitting them with a knife will make them heavy.
WHITE GINGERBREAD.
Sift two pounds of flour into a deep pan, and rub into it three
quarters of a pound of butter; then mix in a pound of common white
sugar powdered; and three table-spoonfuls of the best white
ginger. Having beaten four eggs very light, mix them gradually
with the other ingredients in the pan, and add a small tea-spoonful
of pearl-ash melted in a wine glass of warm milk. Stir
the whole as hard as possible. Flour your paste-board; lay the
lump of dough upon it, and roll it out into a sheet an inch thick;
adding more flour if necessary. Butter a large shallow square pan.
Lay the dough into it, and bake it in a moderate oven. When cold,
cut it into squares. Or you may cut it out into separate cakes
with a jagging iron, previous to baking. You must be careful not
to lay them too close together in the pan, lest they run into each
other.
COMMON GINGERBREAD.
Cut up a pound of butter in a quart of West India molasses, which
must be perfectly sweet; if it is in the least sour, use sugar
house molasses instead. Warm it slightly, just enough to melt the
butter. Crush with the rolling-pin, on the paste-board, half a
pound of brown sugar, and add it by degrees to the molasses and
butter; then stir in a tea-cup full of powdered ginger, a large
tea-spoonful of powdered cloves, and a table-spoonful of powdered
cinnamon. Add gradually sufficient flour to make a dough stiff
enough to roll out easily; and lastly, a small tea-spoonful of
pearl-ash melted in a little warm water. Mix and stir the dough
very hard with a spaddle, or a wooden spoon; but do not knead it.
Then divide it with a knife into equal portions; and, having
floured your hands, roll it out on the paste-board into long even
strips. Place them in shallow tin pans, that have been buttered;
either laying the strips side by side in straight round sticks,
(uniting them at both ends,) or coil them into rings one within
another, as you see them at the cake shops. Bake them in a brisk
oven, taking care that they do not burn; gingerbread scorching
sooner than any other cake.
To save time and trouble, you may roll out the dough into a sheet
near an inch thick, and cut it into round flat cakes with a tin
cutter, or with the edge of a tumbler.
Ground ginger loses much of its strength by keeping. Therefore it
will be frequently found necessary to put in more than the
quantity given in the receipt.
GINGERBREAD NUTS.
Rub half a pound of butter into a pound and a half of sifted
flour; and mix in half a pound of brown sugar, crushed fine with
the rolling-pin. Add two large table-spoonfuls of ginger, a tea-spoonful
of powdered cloves, and a tea-spoonful of powdered
cinnamon. Stir in a pint of molasses, and the grated peel of a
large lemon, but not the juice, as you must add at the last, a
very small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash dissolved in a little
lukewarm water, and pearl-ash entirely destroys the taste of
lemon-juice and of every other acid. Stir the whole mixture very
hard with a spaddle or with a wooden spoon, and make it into a
lump of dough just stiff enough to roll out into a sheet about
half an inch thick. Cut it out into small cakes about the size of
a quarter dollar; or make it up, with your hands well floured,
into little round balls, flattening them on the top. Lay them in
buttered pans, and bake them in a moderate oven. They will keep
several weeks.
FRANKLIN CAKE.
Mix together a pint of molasses, and half a pint of milk, and cut
up in it half a pound of butter. Warm them just enough to melt the
butter, and then stir in six ounces of brown sugar; adding three
table-spoonfuls of ginger, a table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon,
a tea-spoonful of powdered cloves, and a grated nutmeg. Beat seven
eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture, in turn
with a pound and two ounces of flour. Add, at the last, the grated
peel and juice of two large lemons or oranges; or twelve drops of
essence of lemon, there being no pearl-ash in this gingerbread.
Stir the mixture very hard; put it into little queen cake tins,
well buttered; and bake it in a moderate oven. It is best the
second day, and will keep soft a week.
GINGER PLUM CAKE.
Stone a pound and a half of raisins, and cut them in two. Wash and
dry half a pound of currants. Sift into a pan two pounds of flour.
Put into another pan a pound of brown sugar, (rolled fine,) and
cut up in it a pound of fresh butter. Stir the butter and sugar to
a cream, and add to it two table-spoonfuls of the best ginger; one
table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon; and one of powdered cloves.
Then beat six eggs very light, and add them gradually to the
butter and sugar, in turn with the flour and a quart of molasses.
Lastly, stir in a tea-spoonful of pearl-ash dissolved in a little
vinegar, and add by degrees the fruit, which must be well dredged
with flour. Stir all very hard; put the mixture into a buttered
pan, and bake it in a moderate oven. Take care not to let it burn.
MOLASSES CANDY.
Mix a pound of the best brown sugar with two quarts of West India
molasses, (which must be perfectly sweet,) and boil it in a
preserving kettle over a moderate fire for three hours, skimming
it well, and stirring it frequently after the scum has ceased to
rise; taking care that it does not burn. Have ready the grated
rind and the juice of three lemons, and stir them into the
molasses after it has boiled about two hours and a half; or you
may substitute a large tea-spoonful of strong essence of lemon.
The flavour of the lemon will all be boiled out if it is put in
too soon. The mixture should boil at least three hours, that it
may be crisp and brittle when cold. If it is taken off the fire
too soon, or before it has boiled sufficiently, it will not
congeal, but will be tough and ropy, and must be boiled over
again. It will cease boiling of itself when it is thoroughly done.
Then take it off the fire; have ready a square tin pan; put the
mixture into it, and set it away to cool.
You may make molasses candy with almonds blanched and slit into
pieces; stir them in by degrees after the mixture has boiled two
hours and a half. Or you may blanch a quart of ground-nuts and put
them in instead of the almonds.
NOUGAT.
Blanch a pound of shelled sweet almonds; and with an almond
cutter, or a sharp penknife, split each almond into five slips.
Spread them over a large dish, and place them in a gentle oven.
Powder a pound of the finest loaf-sugar, and put it into a
preserving pan without a drop of water. Set it on a chafing-dish
over a slow fire, or on a hot stove, and stir it with a wooden
spoon till the boat has entirely dissolved it. Then take the
almonds out of the oven, and mix with them the juice of two or
three lemons. Put them into the sugar a few at a time, and let
them simmer till it becomes a thick stiff paste, stirring it hard
all the while. Have ready a mould, or a square tin pan, greased
all over the inside with sweet oil; put the mixture into it;
smooth it evenly, and set it in a cold place to harden.
LEMON DROPS.
Squeeze some lemon-juice into a pan. Pound in a mortar some of the
best loaf-sugar, and then sift it through a very fine sieve. Mix
it with the lemon-juice, making it so thick that you can scarcely
stir it. Put it into a porcelain sauce-pan, set it on hot coals,
and stir it with a wooden spoon five minutes or more. Then take
off the pan, and with the point of a knife drop the liquid on
writing paper. When cold, the drops will easily come off.
Peppermint drops may be made as above, substituting for the lemon-juice
essence of peppermint.
WARM CAKES FOR BREAKFAST AND TEA.
BUCKWHEAT CAKES.
Take a quart of buckwheat meal, mix with it a tea-spoonful of
salt, and add a handful of Indian meal. Pour a large table-spoonful
of the best brewer's yeast into the centre of the meal.
Then mix it gradually with cold water till it becomes a batter.
Cover it, put it in a warm place and set it to rise; it will take
about three hours. When it is quite light, and covered with
bubbles, it is fit to bake. Put your griddle over the fire, and
let it get quite hot before you begin. Grease it well with a piece
of butter tied in a rag. Then dip out a large ladle full of the
batter and bake it on the griddle; turning it with a broad wooden
paddle. Let the cakes be of large size, and even at the edges.
Ragged edges to batter cakes look very badly. Butter them as you
take them off the griddle. Put several on a plate, and cut them
across in six pieces.
Grease the griddle anew, between baking each cake.
If your batter has been mixed over night and is found to be sour
in the morning, melt in warm water a piece of pearl-ash the size
of a grain of corn, or a little larger; stir it into the batter;
let it set half an hour, and then bake it. The pearl-ash will
remove the sour taste, and increase the lightness of the cakes.
FLANNEL CAKES.
Put a table-spoonful of butter into a quart of milk, and warm them
together till the butter has melted; then stir it well, and set it
away to cool. Beat five eggs as light as possible, and stir them
into the milk in turn with three pints of sifted flour; add a
small tea-spoonful of salt, and a large table-spoonful and a half
of the best fresh yeast. Set the pan of batter near the fire to
rise; and if the yeast is good, it will be light in three hours.
Then bake it on a griddle in the manner of buckwheat cakes. Send
them to table hot, and cut across into four pieces. This batter
may be baked in waffle-irons. If so, send to table with the cakes
powdered white sugar and cinnamon.
INDIAN BATTER CAKES.
Mix together a quart of sifted Indian meal, (the yellow meal is
best for all purposes,) and a handful of wheat flour. Warm a quart
of milk, and stir into it a small tea-spoonful of salt, and two
large table-spoonfuls of the best fresh yeast. Beat three eggs
very light, and stir them gradually into the milk in turn with the
meal. Cover it, and set it to rise for three or four hours. When
quite light, bake it on a griddle in the manner of buckwheat
cakes. Butter them, cut them across, and send them to table hot,
with molasses in a sauce-boat.
If the batter should chance to become sour before it is baked,
stir in about a salt-spoonful of pearl-ash dissolved in a little
lukewarm water; and let it set half an hour longer before it is
baked.
INDIAN MUSH CAKES.
Pour into a pan three pints of cold water, and stir gradually into
it a quart of sifted Indian meal which has been mixed with half a
pint of wheat flour, and a small tea-spoonful of salt. Give it a
hard stirring at the last. Have ready a hot griddle, and bake the
batter immediately, in cakes about the size of a saucer. Send them
to table piled evenly, but not cut. Eat them with butter or
molasses.
This is the most economical and expeditious way of making soft
Indian cakes; but it cannot be recommended as the best. It will be
some improvement to mix the meal with milk rather than water.
JOHNNY CAKE.
Sift a quart of Indian 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 small tea-spoonful of salt. Beat it very
hard, 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 a flat iron or
something of the sort to support the board behind, and bake it
well. Cut it into squares, and split and butter them hot.
INDIAN FLAPPERS.
Have ready a pint of sifted Indian meal, mixed with a handful of
wheat flour, and a small tea-spoonful of salt. Beat four eggs very
light, and stir them by degrees into a quart of milk, in turn with
the meal. They can be made in a very short time, and should be
baked as soon as mixed, on a hot griddle; allow a large ladle full
of batter to each cake, and make them all of the same size. Send
them to table hot, buttered and cut in half.
INDIAN MUFFINS.
Sift and mix together a pint and a half of yellow Indian meal, and
a handful of wheat flour. Melt a quarter of a pound of fresh
butter in a quart of milk. Beat four eggs very light, and stir
into them alternately (a little at a time of each) the milk when
it is quite cold, and the meal; adding a small tea-spoonful of
salt. The whole must be beaten long and hard. Then butter some
muffin rings; set them on a hot griddle, and pour some of the
batter into each.
Send the muffins to table hot, and split them by pulling them open
with your fingers, as a knife will make them heavy. Eat them with
butter, molasses or honey.
WATER MUFFINS.
Put four table-spoonfuls of fresh strong yeast into a pint of
lukewarm water. Add a little salt; about a small tea-spoonful;
then stir in gradually as much sifted flour as will make a thick
batter. Cover the pan, and set it in a warm place to rise. When it
is quite light, and your griddle is hot, grease and set your
muffin rings on it; having first buttered them round the inside.
Dip out a ladle full of the batter for each ring, and bake them
over a quick fire. Send them to table hot, and split them by
pulling open with your hands.
COMMON MUFFINS.
Having melted three table-spoonfuls of fresh butter in three pints
of warm milk, set it away to cool. Then beat three eggs as light
as possible, and stir them gradually into the milk when it is
quite cold; adding a tea-spoonful of salt. Stir in by degrees
enough of sifted flour to make a batter as thick as you can
conveniently beat it; and lastly, add two table-spoonfuls of
strong fresh yeast from the brewery. Cover the batter and set it
in a warm place to rise. It should be light in about three hours.
Having heated your griddle, grease it with some butter tied in a
rag; grease your muffin rings round the inside, and set them on
the griddle. Take some batter out of the pan with a ladle or a
large spoon, pour it lightly into the rings, and bake the muffins
of a light brown. When done, break or split them open with your
fingers; butter them and send them to table hot.
SODA BISCUITS.
Melt half a pound of butter in a pint of warm milk, adding a tea-spoonful
of soda; and stir in by degrees half a pound of sugar.
Then sift into a pan two pounds of flour; make a hole in the
middle; pour in the milk, &c., and mix it with the flour into a
dough. Put it on your paste-board, and knead it long and hard till
it becomes very light. Roll it out into a sheet half an inch
thick. Cut it into little round cakes with the top of a wine
glass, or with a tin cutter of that size; prick the tops; lay them
on tins sprinkled with flour, or in shallow iron pans; and bake
them of a light brown in a quick oven; they will be done in a few
minutes. These biscuits keep very well.
A SALLY LUNN.
This cake is called after the inventress. Sift into a pan a pound
and a half of flour. Make a hole in the middle, and put in two
ounces of butter warmed in a pint of milk, a salt-spoonful of
salt, three well-beaten eggs, and two table-spoonfuls of the best
fresh yeast. Mix the flour well into the other ingredients, and
put the whole into a square tin pan that has been greased with
butter. Cover it, set it in a warm place, and when it is quite
light, bake it in a moderate oven. Send it to table hot, and eat
it with butter.
Or, you may bake it on a griddle, in small muffin rings, pulling
the cakes open and buttering them when brought to table.
SHORT CAKES.
Rub three quarters of a pound of fresh butter into a
pound and a half of sifted flour; and make it into a dough with a
little cold water. Roll it out into a sheet half an inch thick,
and cut it into round cakes with the edge of a tumbler. Prick them
with a fork; lay them in a shallow iron pan sprinkled with flour,
and bake them in a moderate oven till they are brown. Send them to
table hot; split and butter them.
TEA BISCUIT.
Melt a quarter of a
pound of fresh butter in a quart of warm milk, and add a salt-spoonful
of salt. Sift two pounds of flour into a pan, make a hole
in the centre, and put in three table-spoonfuls of the best
brewer's yeast. Add the milk and butter and mix it into a stiff
paste. Cover it and set it by the fire to rise. When quite light,
knead it well, roll it out an inch thick, and cut it into round
cakes with the edge of a tumbler. Prick the top of each with a
fork; lay them in buttered pans and bake them light brown. Send
them to table warm, and split and butter them.
RICE CAKES.
Pick
and wash half a pint of rice, and boil it very soft. Then drain
it, and let it get cold. Sift a pint and a half of flour over the
pan of rice, and mix in a quarter of a pound of butter that has
been warmed by the fire, and a salt-spoonful of salt. Beat five
eggs very light, and stir them gradually into a quart of milk.
Beat the whole very hard, and bake it in muffin rings, or in
waffle-irons. Send them to table hot, and eat them with butter,
honey, or molasses. You may make these cakes of rice flour instead
of mixing together whole rice and wheat flour.
CREAM CAKES.
Having
beaten three eggs very light, stir them into a quart of cream
alternately with a quart of sifted flour; and add one wine glass
of strong yeast, and a salt-spoon of salt. Cover the batter, and
set it near the fire to rise. When it is quite light, stir in a
large table-spoonful of butter that has been warmed by the fire.
Bake the cakes in muffin rings, and send them to table hot, split
with your fingers, and buttered.
FRENCH ROLLS.
Sift a pound of
flour into a pan, and rub into it two ounces of butter; mix in the
whites only of three eggs, beaten to a stiff froth, and a table-spoonful
of strong yeast; add sufficient milk to make a stiff
dough, and a salt-spoonful of salt. Cover it and set it before the
fire to rise. It should be light in an hour. Then put it on a
paste-board, divide it into rolls, or round cakes; lay them in a
floured square pan, and bake them about ten minutes in a quick
oven.
COMMON ROLLS.
Sift two pounds of flour into a pan, and mix
with it a tea-spoonful of salt. Warm together a jill of water and
a jill of milk. Make a hole in the middle of the pan of flour; mix
with the milk and water a jill of the best yeast, and pour it into
the hole. Mix into the liquid enough of the surrounding flour to
make a thin batter, which you must stir till quite smooth and free
from lumps. Then strew a handful of flour over the top, and set it
in a warm, place to rise for two hours or more. When it is quite
light, and has cracked on the top, make it into a dough with some
more milk and water. Knead it well for ten minutes. Cover it, and
set it again to rise for twenty minutes. Then make the dough into
rolls or round balls. Bake them in a square pan, and send them to
table hot, cut in three, buttered and put together again.
BREAD.
Take one peck or two gallons of fine wheat flour, and sift it into
a kneading trough, or into a small clean tub, or a large broad
earthen pan; and make a deep hole in the middle of the heap of
flour, to begin the process by what is called setting a sponge.
Have ready half a pint of warm water, which in summer should be
only lukewarm, but even in winter it must not be hot or boiling,
and stir it well into half a pint of strong fresh yeast; (if the
yeast is home-made you must use from three quarters to a whole
pint;) then pour it into the hole in the middle of the flour. With
a spoon work in the flour round the edges of the liquid, so as to
bring in by degrees sufficient flour to form a thin batter, which
must be well stirred about, for a minute or two. Then take a
handful of flour, and scatter it thinly over the top of this
batter, so as to cover it entirely. Lay a warmed cloth over the
whole, and set it to rise in a warm place; in winter put it nearer
the fire than in summer. When the batter has risen so as to make
cracks in the flour on the top, scatter over it three or four
table-spoonfuls (not more) of fine salt, and begin to form the
whole mass into a dough; commencing round the hole containing the
batter, and pouring as much soft water as is necessary to make the
flour mix with the batter; the water must never be more than
lukewarm. When the whole is well mixed, and the original batter
which is to give fermentation to the dough is completely
incorporated with it, knead it hard, turning it over, pressing it,
folding it, and working it thoroughly with your clenched hands for
twenty minutes or half an hour; or till it becomes perfectly light
and stiff. The goodness of bread depends much on the kneading,
which to do well requires strength and practice. When it has been
sufficiently worked, form the dough into a lump in the middle of
the trough or pan, and scatter a little dry flour thinly over it;
then cover it, and set it again in a warm place to undergo a
farther fermentation; for which, if all has been done rightly,
about twenty minutes or half an hour will be sufficient. The oven
should be hot by the time the dough has remained twenty minutes in
the lump. If it is a brick oven it should be heated by faggots or
small light wood, allowed to remain in till burnt down into coals.
When the bread is ready, clear out the coals, and sweep and wipe
the floor of the oven clean. Introduce nothing wet into the oven,
as it may crack the bricks when they are hot. Try the heat of the
bottom by throwing in some flour; and if it scorches and burns
black, do not venture to put in the bread till the oven has had
time to become cooler. Put the dough on the paste-board, (which
must be sprinkled with flour,) and divide it into loaves, forming
them of a good shape. Place them in the oven, and close up the
door, which you may open once or twice to see how the bread is
going on. The loaves will bake in from two hours and a half to
three hours, or more, according to their size. When the loaves are
done, wrap each in a clean coarse towel, and stand them up on end
to cool slowly. It is a good way to have the cloths previously
made damp by sprinkling them plentifully with water, and letting
them lie awhile rolled up tightly. This will make the crust of the
bread less dry and hard. Bread should be kept always wrapped in a
cloth, and covered from the air in a box or basket with a close
lid. Unless you have other things to bake at the same time, it is
not worth while to heat a brick oven for a small quantity of
bread. Two or three loaves can be baked very well in a stove,
(putting them into square iron pans,) or in a Dutch oven.
[Footnote: If you bake bread in a Dutch oven, take off the lid
when the loaf is done, and let it remain in the oven uncovered for
a quarter of an hour.] If the bread has been mixed over night
(which should never be done in warm weather) and is found, on
tasting it, to be sour in the morning, melt a tea-spoonful of
pearl-ash in a little milk-warm water, and sprinkle it over the
dough; let it set half an hour, and then knead it. This will
remove the acidity, and rather improve the bread in lightness. If
dough is allowed to freeze it is totally spoiled. All bread that
is sour, heavy, or ill-baked is not only unpalatable, but
extremely unwholesome, and should never be eaten. These accidents
so frequently happen when bread is made at home by careless,
unpractised or incompetent persons, that families who live in
cities or towns will generally risk less and save more, by
obtaining their bread from a professional baker. If you like a
little Indian in your wheat bread, prepare rather a larger
quantity of warm water for setting the sponge; stirring into the
water, while it is warming, enough of sifted Indian meal to make
it like thin gruel. Warm water that has had pumpkin boiled in it
is very good for bread. Strong fresh yeast from the brewery should
always be used in preference to any other. If the yeast is home-made,
or not very strong and fresh, double or treble the quantity
mentioned in the receipt will be necessary to raise the bread. On
the other hand, if too much yeast is put in, the bread will be
disagreeably bitter. [Footnote: If you are obliged from its want
of strength to put in a large quantity of yeast, mix with it two
or three handfuls of bran; add the warm water to it, and then
strain it through a sieve or cloth; or you may correct the
bitterness by putting in a few bits of charcoal and then straining
it.] You may take off a portion of the dough that has been
prepared for bread, make it up into little round cakes or rolls,
and bake them for breakfast or tea.
BRAN BREAD.
Sift into a pan
three quarts of unbolted wheat meal. Stir a jill of strong yeast,
and a jill of molasses into a quart of soft water, (which must be
warm but not hot,) and add a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash, or
sal-aratus. Make a hole in the heap of flour, pour in the liquid,
and proceed in the usual manner of making bread. This quantity may
be made into two loaves. Bran bread is considered very wholesome;
and is recommended to persons afflicted with dyspepsia.
RYE AND INDIAN BREAD.
Sift two quarts of rye, and two quarts of Indian meal, and mix
them well together. Boil three pints of milk; pour it boiling hot
upon the meal; add two tea-spoonfuls of salt, and stir the whole
very hard. Let it stand till it becomes of only a lukewarm heat,
and then stir in half a pint of good fresh yeast; if from the
brewery and quite fresh, a smaller quantity will suffice. Knead
the mixture into a stiff dough, and set it to rise in a pan. Cover
it with a thick cloth that has been previously warmed, and set it
near the fire. When it is quite light, and has cracked all over
the top, make it into two loaves, put them into a moderate oven,
and bake them two hours and a half.
COMMON YEAST.
Put a large handful of hops into two quarts of boiling water,
which must then be set on the fire again, and boiled twenty
minutes with the hops. Have ready in a pan three pints of sifted
flour; strain the liquid, and pour half of it on the flour. Let
the other half stand till it becomes cool, and then mix it
gradually into the pan with the flour, &c. Then stir into it half
a pint of good strong yeast, fresh from the brewery if possible;
if not, use some that was left of the last making. You may
increase the strength by stirring into your yeast before you
bottle it, four or five large tea-spoonfuls of brown sugar, or as
many table-spoonfuls of molasses.
Put it into clean bottles, and cork them loosely till the
fermentation is over. Next morning put in the corks tightly, and
set the bottles in a cold place. When you are going to bottle the
yeast it will be an improvement to place two or three raisins at
the bottom of each bottle. It is best to make yeast very
frequently; as, with every precaution, it will scarcely keep good
a week, even in cold weather. If you are apprehensive of its
becoming sour, put into each bottle a lump of pearl-ash the size
of a hazle-nut.
BRAN YEAST.
Mix a pint of wheat bran, and a handful of hops with a quart of
water, and boil them together about twenty minutes. Then strain it
through a sieve into a pan; when the liquid becomes only milk-warm,
stir into it four table-spoonfuls of brewer's yeast, and two
of brown sugar, or four of molasses. Put it into a wooden bowl,
cover it, and set it near the fire for four or five hours. Then
bottle it, and cork it tightly next day.
PUMPKIN YEAST.
Pare a fine ripe pumpkin, and cut it into pieces. Put them into a
kettle with a large handful of hops, and as much water as will
cover them. Boil them till the pumpkin is soft enough to pass
through a cullender. Having done this, put the pulp into a stone
jar, adding half a pint of good strong yeast to set it into a
fermentation. The yeast must be well stirred into the pumpkin.
Leave the jar uncovered till next day; then secure it lightly with
a cork. If pumpkin yeast is well made, and of a proper
consistence, neither too thick nor too thin, it will keep longer
than any other.
BAKER'S YEAST.
To a gallon of soft water put two quarts of wheat bran, one quart
of ground malt, (which may be obtained from a brewery,) and two
handfuls of hops. Boil them together for half an hour. Then strain
it through a sieve, and let it stand till it is cold; after which
put to it two large tea-cups of molasses, and half a pint of
strong yeast. Pour it into a stone jug, and let it stand uncorked
till next morning. Then pour off the thin liquid from the top, and
cork the jug tightly. When you are going to use the yeast, if it
has been made two or three days, stir in a little pearl-ash
dissolved in warm water, allowing a lump the size of a hickory-nut
to a pint of yeast. This will correct any tendency to sourness,
and make the yeast more brisk.
TO MAKE BUTTER.
Scald your milk pans every day after washing them; and let them
set till the water gets cold. Then wipe them with a clean cloth.
Fill them all with cold water half an hour before milking time,
and do not pour it out till the moment before you are ready to use
the pans. Unless all the utensils are kept perfectly sweet and
nice, the cream and butter will never be good. Empty milk-pans
should stand all day in the sun.
When you have strained the milk into the pans, (which should be
broad and shallow,) place them in the spring-house, setting them
down in the water. After the milk has stood twenty-four hours,
skim off the cream, and deposits it in a large deep earthen jar,
commonly called a crock, which must be kept closely covered, and
stirred up with a stick at least twice a day, and whenever you add
fresh cream to it. This stirring is to prevent the butter from
being injured by the skin that will gather over the top of the
cream.
You should churn at least twice a week, for if the cream is
allowed to stand too long, the butter will inevitably have a odd
taste. Add to the cream the strippings of the milk. Butter of only
two or three days gathering is the best. With four or five good
cows, you may easily manage to have a churning every three days.
If your dairy is on a large scale, churn every two days.
Have your churn very clean, and rinse and cool it with cold water.
A barrel churn is best; though a small upright one, worked by a
staff or dash, will do very well where there are but one or two
cows.
Strain the cream from the crock into the churn, and put on the
lid. Move the handle slowly in warm weather, as churning too fast
will make the butter soft. When you find that the handle moves
heavily and with great difficulty, the butter has come; that is,
it has separated from the thin fluid and gathered into a lump, and
it then is not necessary to churn any longer. Take it out with a
wooden ladle, and put it into a small tub or pail. Squeeze and
press it hard with the ladle, to get out all that remains of the
milk. Add a little salt, and then squeeze and work It for a long
time. If any of the milk is allowed to remain in, it will speedily
turn sour and spoil the butter. Set it away in a cool place for
three hours, and then work it over again. [Footnote: A marble slab
or table will be found of great advantage in working and making up
butter.] Wash it in cold water; weigh it; make it up into separate
pounds, smoothing, and shaping it; and clap each pound on your
wooden butter print, dipping the print every time in cold water.
Spread a clean linen cloth on a bench in the spring-house; place
the butter on it, and let it set till it becomes perfectly hard.
Then wrap each pound in a separate piece of linen that has been
dipped in cold water.
Pour the buttermilk into a clean crock, and place it in the
spring-house, with a saucer to dip it out with. Keep the pot
covered. The buttermilk will be excellent the first day; but
afterwards it will become too thick and sour. Winter buttermilk is
never very palatable.
Before you put away the churn, wash and scald it well; and the day
that you use it again, keep it for an hour or more filled with
cold water.
In cold weather, churning is a much more tedious process than in
summer, as the butter will be longer coming. It is best then to
have the churn in a warm room, or near the fire. If you wish to
prepare the butter for keeping a long time, take it after it has
been thoroughly well made, and pack it down tightly into a large
jar. You need not in working it, add more salt than if the butter
was to be eaten immediately. But preserve it by making a brine of
fine salt, dissolved in water. The brine must be strong enough to
bear up an egg on the surface without sinking. Strain the brine
into the jar, so as to be about two inches above the butter. Keep
the jar closely covered, and set it in a cool place.
When you want any of the butter for use, take it off evenly from
the top; so that the brine may continue to cover it at a regular
depth.
This receipt for making butter is according to the method in use
at the best farm-houses in Pennsylvania, and if exactly followed
will be found very good. The badness of butter is generally owing
to carelessness or mismanagement; to keeping the cream too long
without churning; to want of cleanliness in the utensils; to not
taking the trouble to work it sufficiently; or to the practice of
salting it so profusely as to render it unpleasant to the taste,
and unfit for cakes or pastry. All these causes of bad butter are
inexcusable, and can easily be avoided. Unless the cows have been
allowed to feed where there are bitter weeds or garlic, the milk
cannot naturally have any disagreeable taste, and therefore the
fault of the butter must be the fault of the maker. Of course, the
cream is much richer where the pasture is fine and luxuriant; and
in winter, when the cows have only dry food, the butter must be
consequently whiter and more insipid than in the grazing season.
Still, if properly made, even winter butter cannot taste badly.
Many economical housekeepers always buy for cooking, butter of
inferior quality. This is a foolish practice; as when it is bad,
the taste will predominate through all attempts to disguise it,
and render every thing unpalatable with which it is combined. As
the use of butter is designed to improve and not to spoil the
flavour of cookery, it is better to omit it altogether, and to
substitute something else, unless you can procure that which is
good. Lard, suet, beef-drippings, and sweet oil, may be used in
the preparation of various dishes; and to eat with bread or warm
cakes, honey, molasses, or stewed fruit, &c, are far superior to
bad butter.
CHEESE.
In making good cheese, skim milk is never used. The milk should either
be warm from the cow or heated to that temperature over the fire.
When the rennet is put in, the heat of the milk should be from 90
to 96 degrees. Three quarts of milk will yield, on an average, about
a pound of cheese. In infusing the rennet, allow a quart of lukewarm
water, and a table-spoonful of salt to a piece about half the size
of your hand. The rennet must soak all night in the water before
it can be fit for use. In the morning (after taking as much of it
as you want) put the rennet water into a bottle and cork it
tightly. It will keep the better for adding to it a wine glass of
brandy. If too large a proportion of rennet is mixed with the
milk, the cheese will be tough and leathery.
To make a very good cheese, take three buckets of milk warm from
the cow, and strain it immediately into a large tub or kettle.
Stir into it half a tea-cupful of infusion of rennet or rennet-water;
and having covered it, set it in a warm place for about
half an hour, or till it becomes a firm curd. Cut the curd into
squares with a large knife, or rather with a wooden slitting-dish,
and let it stand about fifteen minutes. Then break it up fine with
your hands, and let it stand a quarter of an hour longer. Then
pour off from the top as much of the whey as you can; tie up the
curd in a linen cloth or bag, and hang it up to drain out the
remainder of the whey; setting a pan under it to catch the
droppings. After all the whey is drained out, put the curd into
the cheese-tray, and cut it again into slices; chop it coarse; put
a cloth about it; place it in the cheese-hoop or mould, and set it
in the screw press for half an hour, pressing it hard. [Footnote:
If you are making cheese on a small scale, and have not a regular
press, put the curd (after you have wrapped it in a cloth) into a
small circular wooden box or tub with numerous holes bored in the
bottom; and with a lid that fits the inside exactly. Lay heavy
weights on the lid in such a manner as to press evenly all over.]
Then take it out; chop the curd very fine; add salt to your taste;
and put it again into the cheese-hoop with a cloth about it, and
press it again. You must always wet the cloth all over to prevent
its sticking to the cheese, and tearing the surface. Let it remain
in the press till next morning, when you must take it out and turn
it; then wrap it in a clean wet cloth, and replace it in the
press, where it must remain all day. On the following morning
again take out the cheese; turn it, renew the cloth, and put it
again into the press. Three days pressing will be sufficient.
When you finally take it out of the press, grease the cheese all
over with lard, and put it on a clean shelf in a dry dark room, or
in a wire safe. Wipe, grease, and turn it carefully every day. If
you omit this a single day the cheese will spoil. Keep the shelf
perfectly clean, and see that the cheese does not stick to it.
When the cheese becomes firm, you may omit the greasing; but
continue to rub it all over every day with a clean dry cloth.
Continue this for five or sis weeks; the cheese will then be fit
to eat.
The best time for making cheese is when the pasture is in
perfection.
You may enrich the colour of the cheese by a little anatto or
arnotta; of which procure a small quantity from the druggist,
powder it, tie it in a muslin rag, and hold it in the warm milk,
(after it is strained,) pressing out the colouring matter with
your fingers, as laundresses press their indigo or blue rag in the
tub of water. Anatto is perfectly harmless.
After they begin to dry, (or ripen, as it is called,) it is the
custom in some dairy-farms, to place the cheeses in the haystack,
and keep them there among the hay for five or six weeks. This is
said greatly to improve their consistence and flavour. Cheeses are
sometimes ripened by putting them every day in fresh grass.
SAGE CHEESE.
Take some of the young top leaves of the sage plant, and pound
them in a mortar till you have extracted the juice. Put the juice
into a bowl, wipe out the mortar, put in some spinach leaves, and
pound them till you have an equal quantity of spinach juice. Mix
the two juices together, and stir them into the warm milk
immediately after you have put in the rennet. You may use sage
juice alone; but the spinach will greatly improve the colour;
besides correcting the bitterness of the sage.
STILTON CHEESE.
Having strained the morning's milk, and skimmed the cream from the
milk of the preceding evening, mix the cream and the new milk
together while the latter is quite warm, and stir in the rennet-water.
When the curd has formed, you must not break it up, (as is
done with other cheese,) but take it out all at once with a wooden
skimming dish, and place it on a sieve to drain gradually. While
it is draining, keep pressing it gently till it becomes firm and
dry. Then lay a clean cloth at the bottom of a wooden cheese-hoop
or mould, which should have a few small holes bored in the bottom.
The cloth must be large enough for the end to turn over the top
again, after the curd is put in. Place it in the press for two
hours; turn it, (putting a clean cloth under it,) and press it
again for six or eight hours. Then turn it again, rub the cheese
all over with salt, and return it to the press for fourteen hours.
Should the edges of the cheese project, they must be pared off.
When you take it finally out of the press, bind it round tightly
with a cloth, (which must be changed every day when you turn the
cheese,) and set it on a shelf or board. Continue the cloths till
the cheese is firm enough to support itself; rubbing or brushing
the outside every day when you turn it. After the cloths are left
off, continue to brush the cheese every day for two or three
months; during which time it may be improved by keeping it covered
all round, under and over, with grass, which must be renewed every
day, and gathered when quite dry after the dew is off. Keep the
cheese and the grass between two large plates.
A Stilton cheese is generally made of a small size, seldom larger
in circumference than a dinner plate, and about four or five
inches thick. They are usually put up for keeping, in cases of
sheet lead, fitting them exactly. There is no cheese superior to
them in richness and mildness.
Cream cheeses (as they are generally called) may be made in this
manner. They are always eaten quite fresh, while the inside is
still somewhat soft. They are made small, and are sent to table
whole, cut across into triangular slices like a pie or cake. After
they become fit to eat, they will keep good but a day or two, but
they are considered while fresh very delicious.
COTTAGE CHEESE.
This is that preparation of milk vulgarly called Smear Case. Take
a pan of milk that has just began to turn sour; cover it, and set
it by the fire till it becomes a curd. Pour off the whey from the
top, and tie up the curd in a pointed linen bag, and hang it up to
drain; setting something under it to catch the droppings. Do not
squeeze it. Let it drain all night, and in the morning put the
curd into a pan, (adding some rich cream,) and work it very fine
with a spoon, chopping and pressing it till about the consistence
of a soft bread pudding. To a soup plate of the fine curd put a
tea-spoonful of salt; and a piece of butter about the size of a
walnut; mixing all thoroughly together. Having prepared the whole
in this manner, put it into a stone or china vessel; cover it
closely, and set it in a cold place till tea time. You may make it
of milk that is entirely sweet by forming the curd with rennet.
A WELSH RABBIT.
Toast some slices of bread, (having cut off the crust,) butter
them, and keep them hot. Grate or shave down with a knife some
fine mellow cheese: and, if it is not very rich, mix with it a few
small bits of butter. Put it into a cheese-toaster, or into a
skillet, and add to it a tea-spoonful of made mustard; a little
cayenne pepper; and if you choose, a wine glass of fresh porter or
of red wine. Stir the mixture over hot coals, till it is
completely dissolved; and then brown it by holding over it a
salamander, or a red-hot shovel. Lay the toast in the bottom and
round the sides of a deep dish; put the melted cheese upon it, and
serve it up as hot as possible, with dry toast in a separate
plate; and accompanied by porter or ale.
This preparation of cheese is for a plain supper.
Dry cheese is frequently grated on little plates for the tea-table.
TO MAKE CHOCOLATE
To each square of a chocolate cake allow three jills, or a
chocolate cup and a half of boiling water. Scrape down the
chocolate with a knife, and mix it first to a paste with a small
quantity of the hot water; just enough to melt it in. Then put it
into a block tin pot with the remainder of the water; set it on
hot coals; cover it, and let it boil (stirring it twice) till the
liquid is one third reduced. Supply that third with cream or rich
milk; stir it again, and take it off the fire. Serve it up as hot
as possible, with dry toast, or dry rusk. It chills immediately.
If you wish it frothed, pour it into the cup, and twirl round in
it the little wooden instrument called a chocolate mill, till you
nave covered the top with foam.
TO MAKE TEA.
In buying tea, it is best to get it by the box, of an importer,
that you may be sure of having it fresh, and unmixed with any that
is old and of inferior quality. The box should be kept in a very
dry place. If green tea is good, it will look green in the cup
when poured out. Black tea should be dark coloured and have a
fragrant flowery smell. The best pots for making tea are those of
china. Metal and Wedgwood tea-pots by frequent use will often
communicate a disagreeable taste to the tea. This disadvantage may
be remedied in Wedgwood ware, by occasionally boiling the tea-pots
in a vessel of hot water.
In preparing to make tea, let the pot be twice scalded from the
tea-kettle, which must be boiling hard at the moment the water is
poured on the tea; otherwise it will be weak and insipid, even
when a large quantity is put in. The best way is to have a chafing
dish, with a kettle always boiling on it, in the room where the
tea is made. It is a good rule to allow two tea-spoonfuls of tea
to half a pint or a large cupful of water, or two tea-spoonfuls
for each grown person that is to drink tea, and one spoonful
extra. The pot being twice scalded, put in the tea, and pour on
the water about ten minutes before you want to fill the cups, that
it may have time to draw or infuse. Have hot water in another pot,
to weaken the cups of those that like it so. That the second
course of cups may be as strong as the first, put some tea into a
cup just before you sit down to table, pour on it a very little
boiling water, (just enough to cover it,) set a saucer over it to
keep in the steam, and let it infuse till you have filled all the
first cups; then add it to that already in the tea-pot, and pour
in a little boiling water from the kettle. Except that it is less
convenient for a large family, a kettle on a chafing dish is
better than an urn, as the water may be kept longer boiling.
In making black tea, use a larger quantity than of green, as it is
of a much weaker nature. The best black teas in general use are
pekoe and pouchong; the best green teas are imperial, young hyson,
and gunpowder.
TO MAKE COFFEE.
The manner in which coffee is roasted is of great importance to
its flavour. If roasted too little, it will be weak and insipid;
if too much, the taste will be bitter and unpleasant. To have it
very good, it should be roasted immediately before it is made,
doing no more than the quantity you want at that time. It loses
much of its strength by keeping, even in twenty-four hours after
roasting. It should on no consideration be ground till directly
before it is made. Every family should be provided with a coffee
roaster, which is an iron cylinder to stand before the fire, and
is either turned by a handle, or wound up like a jack to go of
itself. If roasted in an open pot or pan, much of the flavour
evaporates in the process. Before the coffee is put into the
roaster, it should be carefully examined and picked, lest there
should be stones or bad grains among it. It should be roasted of a
bright brown; and will be improved by putting among it a piece of
butter when about half done.
Watch it carefully while roasting, looking at it frequently.
A coffee-mill affixed to the wall is far more convenient than one
that must he held on the lap. It is best to grind the coffee while
warm.
Allow half a pint of ground coffee to three pints of water. If the
coffee is not freshly roasted, you should put in more. Put the
water into the tin coffee-pot, and set it on hot coals; when it
boils, put in the coffee, a spoonful at a time, (stirring it
between each spoonful,) and add two or three chips of isinglass,
or the white of an egg. Stir it frequently, till it has risen up
to the top in boiling; then set it a little farther from the fire,
and boil it gently for ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour; after
which pour in a tea-cup of cold water, and put it in the corner to
settle for ten minutes. Scald your silver or china pot, and
transfer the coffee to it; carefully pouring it off from the
grounds, so as not to disturb them.
If coffee is allowed to boil too long, it will lose much of its
strength, and also become sour.
FRENCH COFFEE.
To make coffee without boiling, you must have a biggin, the best
sort of which is what in France is called a Grecque. They are to
be had of various sizes and prices at the tin stores. Coffee made
in this manner is much less troublesome than when boiled, and
requires no white of egg or isinglass to clear it. The coffee
should be freshly roasted and ground. Allow two cupfuls of ground
coffee to sis cupfuls of boiling water. Having first scalded the
biggin, (which should have strainers of perforated tin, and not of
linen,) put in the coffee, and pour on the water, which should be
boiling hard at the time. Shut down the lid, place the pot near
the fire, and the coffee will be ready as soon as it has all
drained through the coarse and fine strainers into the receiver
below the spout. Scald your china or silver pot, and pour the
coffee into it. But it is best to have a biggin in the form of an
urn, in which the coffee can both be made and brought to table.
For what is called milk coffee,--boil the milk or cream
separately; bring it to table in a covered vessel, and pour it hot
into the coffee, the flavour of which will be impaired if the milk
is boiled with it.
DOMESTIC LIQUORS ETC.
SPRUCE BEER
Put into a large kettle, ten gallons of water, a quarter of a
pound of hops, and a tea-cupful of ginger. Boil them together till
all the hops sink to the bottom. Then dip out a bucket full of the
liquor, and stir into it six quarts of molasses, and three ounces
and a half of the essence of spruce. When all is dissolved, mix it
with the liquor in the kettle; strain it through a hair sieve into
a cask; and stir well into it half a pint of good strong yeast.
Let it ferment a day or two; then bung up the cask, and you may
bottle the beer the next day. It will be fit for use in a week.
For the essence of spruce, you may substitute two pounds of the
outer sprigs of the spruce fir, boiled ten minutes in the liquor.
To make spruce beer for present use, and in a smaller quantity,
boil a handful of hops in two gallons and a half of water, till
they fall to the bottom, Then strain the water, and when it is
lukewarm, stir into it a table-spoonful of ground white ginger; a
pint of molasses; a table-spoonful of essence of spruce; and half
a pint of yeast. Mix the whole well together in a stone jug, and
let it ferment for a day and a half, or two days. Then put it into
bottles, with three or four raisins in the bottom of each, to
prevent any further fermentation. It will then be fit for
immediate use.
GINGER BEER.
Break up a pound and a half of loaf-sugar, and mix with it three
ounces of strong white ginger, and the grated peel of two lemons.
Put these ingredients into a large stone jar, and pour over them
two gallons of boiling water. When it becomes milk-warm strain it,
and add the juice of the lemons and two large table-spoonfuls of
strong yeast. Make this beer in the evening and let it stand all
night. Next morning bottle it in little half pint stone bottles,
tying down the corks with twine.
MOLASSES BEER.
To six quarts of water, add two quarts of West India molasses;
half a pint of the best brewer's yeast; two table-spoonfuls of
ground ginger; and one table-spoonful of cream of tartar. Stir all
together. Let it stand twelve hours, and then bottle it, putting
three or four raisins into each bottle.
It will be much improved by substituting the juice and grated peel
of a large lemon, for one of the spoonfuls of ginger.
Molasses beer keeps good but two or three days.
SASSAFRAS BEER.
Have ready two gallons of soft water; one quart of wheat bran; a
large handful of dried apples; half a pint of molasses; a small
handful of hops; half a pint of strong fresh yeast, and a piece of
sassafras root the size of an egg.
Put all the ingredients (except the molasses and yeast) at once
into a large kettle. Boil it till the apples are quite soft. Put
the molasses into a small clean tub or a large pan. Set a hair
sieve over the vessel, and strain the mixture through it. Let it
stand till it becomes only milk-warm, and then stir in the yeast.
Put the liquor immediately into the keg or jugs, and let it stand
uncorked to ferment. Fill the jugs quite full, that the liquor in
fermenting may run over. Set them in a large tub. When you see
that the fermentation or working has subsided, cork it, and it
will be fit for use next day.
Two large table-spoonfuls of ginger stirred into the molasses will
be found an improvement.
If the yeast is stirred in while the liquor is too warm, it will
be likely to turn sour.
If the liquor is not put immediately into the jugs, it will not
ferment well.
Keep it in a cold place. It will not in warm weather be good more
than two days. It is only made for present use.
GOOSEBERRY WINE.
Allow three gallons of soft water (measured after it has boiled an
hour) to six gallons of gooseberries, which must be full ripe. Top
and tail the gooseberries; put them, a few at a time, into a
wooden dish, and with a rolling-pin or beetle break and mash every
one; transferring them, as they are done, into a large stone jar.
Pour the boiling water upon the mashed gooseberries; cover the
jar, and let them stand twelve hours. Then strain and measure the
juice, and to each quart allow three-quarters of a pound of loaf-sugar;
mix it with the liquid, and let it stand eight or nine
hours to dissolve, stirring it several times.
Then pour it into a keg of proper size for containing it, and let
it ferment at the bung-hole; filling it up as it works out with
some of the liquor reserved for that purpose. As soon as it ceases
to hiss, stop it close with a cloth wrapped round the bung. A pint
of white brandy for every gallon of the gooseberry wine may be
added on bunging it up. At the end of four or five months it will
probably be fine enough to bottle off. It is best to bottle it in
cold frosty weather. You may refine it by allowing to every gallon
of wine the whites of two eggs, beaten to a froth, with a very
small tea-spoonful of salt. When the white of egg, &c, is a stiff
froth, take out a quart of the wine, and mix them well together.
Then pour it into the cask, and in a few days it will be fine and
clear. You may begin to use it any time after it is bottled. Put
two or three raisins in the bottom of each bottle. They will tend
to keep the wine from any farther fermentation.
Fine gooseberry wine has frequently passed for champagne. Keep the
bottles in saw-dust, lying on their sides.
CURRANT WINE.
Take four gallons of ripe currants; strip them from the stalks
into a great stone jar that has a cover to it, and mash them with
a long thick stick. Let them stand twenty-four hours; then put the
currants into a large linen bag; wash out the jar, set it under
the bag, and squeeze the juice into it. Boil together two gallons
and a half of water, and five pounds and a half of the best loaf-sugar,
skimming it well. When the scum ceases to rise, mix the
syrup with the currant juice. Let it stand a fortnight or three
weeks to settle; and then transfer it to another vessel, taking
care not to disturb the lees or dregs. If it is not quite clear
and bright, refine it by mixing with a quart of the wine, (taken
out for the purpose,) the whites of two eggs beaten to a stiff
froth, and half an ounce of cream of tartar. Pour this gradually
into the vessel. Let it stand ten days, and then bottle it off.
Place the bottles in saw-dust, laying them on their sides. Take
care that the saw-dust is not from pine wood. The wine will be fit
to drink in a year, but is better when three or four years old.
You may add a little brandy to it when you make it; allowing a
quart of brandy to six gallons of wine.
RASPBERRY WINE.
Put four gallons of ripe raspberries into a stone jar, and mash
them with a round stick. Take four gallons of soft water,
(measured after it has boiled an hour,) and strain it warm over
the raspberries. Stir it well and let it stand twelve hours. Then
strain it through a bag, and to every gallon of liquor put three
pounds of loaf-sugar. Set it over a clear fire, and boil and skim
it till the scum ceases to rise. When it is cold bottle it. Open
the bottles every day for a fortnight, closing them again in a few
minutes. Then seal the corks, and lay the bottles on their sides
in saw-dust, which must not be from pine wood.
ELDERBERRY WINE.
Gather the elderberries when quite ripe; put them into a stone
jar, mash them with a round stick, and set them in a warm oven, or
in a large kettle of boiling water till the jar is hot through,
and the berries begin to simmer. Then take them out, and press and
strain them through a sieve. To every quart of juice allow a pound
of Havanna or Lisbon sugar, and two quarts of cold soft water. Put
the sugar into a large kettle, pour the juice over it, and, when
it has dissolved, stir in the water. Set the kettle over the fire,
an& boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. To four gallons
of the liquor add a pint and a half of brandy. Put it into a keg,
and let it stand with the bung put in loosely for four or five
days, by which time it will have ceased to ferment. Then stop it
closely, plastering the bung with clay. At the end of six months,
draw off a little of it; and if it is not quite clear and bright,
refine it with the whites and shells of three or four eggs, beaten
to a stiff froth and stirred into a quart of the wine, taken out
for the purpose and then returned to the cask; or you may refine
it with an ounce or more of dissolved isinglass. Let it stand a
week or two, and then bottle it.
This is an excellent domestic wine, very common in England, and
deserving to be better known in America, where the elderberry tree
is found in great abundance. Elderberry wine is generally taken
mulled with spice, and warm.
ELDER FLOWER WINE.
Take the flowers or blossoms of the elder tree, and strip them
from the stalks. To every quart of flowers allow one gallon of
water, and three pounds of while sugar. Boil and skim the sugar
and water, and then pour it hot on the flowers. When cool, mix in
with it some lemon juice and some yeast; allowing to six gallons
of the liquor the juice of six lemons, and four or five table-spoonfuls
of good yeast stirred in very hard. Let it ferment for
three days in a tub covered with a double blanket. Then strain the
wine through a sieve, (add six whites of eggs beaten to a stiff
froth, or an ounce of melted isinglass,) and put it into a cask,
in the bottom of which you have laid four or five pounds of the
best raisins, stoned. Stop the cask closely, and in six months the
wine will be fit to bottle. It will much resemble Frontiniac, the
elder flowers imparting to it a very pleasant taste.
CIDER WINE.
Take sweet cider immediately from the press. Strain it through a
flannel bag into a tub, and stir into it as much honey as will
make it strong enough to bear up an egg. Then boil and skim it,
and when the scum ceases to rise, strain it again. When cool, put
it into a cask, and set it in a cool cellar till spring. Then
bottle it off; and when ripe, it will be found a very pleasant
beverage. The cider must be of the very best quality, made
entirely from good sound apples.
MEAD.
To every gallon of water put five pounds of strained honey, (the
water must be hot when you add the honey,) and boil it three
quarters of an hour, skimming it well. Then put in some hops tied
in a thin bag, (allowing an ounce or a handful to each gallon,)
and let it boil half an hour longer. Strain it into a tub, and let
it stand four days. Then put it into a cask, (or into a demijohn
if the quantity is small,) adding for each gallon of mead a jill
of brandy and a sliced lemon. If a large cask, do not bottle it
till it has stood a year.
FOX GRAPE SHRUB.
Gather the grapes when they are full grown, but before they begin
to purple. Pick from the stems a sufficient quantity to nearly
fill a large preserving kettle, and pour on them as much boiling
water as the kettle will hold. Set it over a brisk fire, and keep
it scalding hot till all the grapes have burst. Then take them
off, press out and strain the liquor, and allow to each quart a
pound of sugar stirred well in. Dissolve the sugar in the juice;
then put them together into a clean kettle, and boil and skim them
for ten minutes, or till the scum ceases to rise. When cold,
bottle it; first putting into each bottle a jill of brandy. Seal
the bottles, and keep them in a warm closet.
You may make gooseberry shrub in this manner.
CURRANT SHRUB.
Your currants must be quite ripe. Pick them from the stalks, and
squeeze them through a linen bag. To each quart of juice allow a
pound of loaf-sugar. Put the sugar and juice into a preserving
kettle, and let it melt before it goes on the fire. Boil it ten
minutes, skimming it well. When cold, add a jill of the best white
brandy to each quart of the juice. Bottle it, and set it away for
use; sealing the corks. It improves by keeping.
Raspberry shrub may be made in this manner; also strawberry.
CHERRY SHRUB.
Pick from the stalks, and stone a sufficient quantity of ripe
morellas, or other red cherries of the best and most juicy
description. Put them with all their juice into a stone jar, and
set it, closely covered, into a deep kettle of boiling water. Keep
it boiling hard for a quarter of an hour. Then pour the cherries
into a bag, and strain and press out all the juice. Allow a pound
of sugar to a quart of juice, boil them together ten minutes in a
preserving kettle, skimming them well, and when cold, bottle the
liquid; first putting a jill of brandy into each bottle.
CHERRY BOUNCE.
Mix together six pounds of ripe morellas and six pounds of large
black heart cherries. Put them into a wooden bowl or tub, and with
a pestle or mallet mash them so as to crack all the stones. Mix
with the cherries three pounds of loaf-sugar, or of sugar candy
broken up, and put them into a demijohn, or into a large stone
jar. Pour on two gallons of the best double rectified whiskey.
Stop the vessel closely, and let it stand three months, shaking it
every day during the first month. At the end of the three months
you may strain the liquor and bottle it off. It improves by age.
LEMON SYRUP.
Break up into large pieces six pounds of fine loaf-sugar. Take
twelve large ripe lemons, and (without cutting them) grate the
yellow rind upon the sugar. Then, put the sugar, with the lemon
gratings and two quarts of water, into a preserving kettle, and
let it dissolve. When it is all melted, boil it till quite thick,
skimming it till no more scum rises; it will then be done. Have
ready the juice of all the lemons, and when the syrup is quite
cold, stir in the lemon juice. Bottle it, and keep it in a cool
place.
It makes a delicious drink in summer, in the proportion of one
third lemon syrup and two thirds ice water.
LEMON CORDIAL.
Pare off very thin the yellow rind of a dozen large lemons; throw
the parings into a gallon of white brandy, and let them steep till
next day, or at least twelve hours. Break up four pounds of loaf-sugar
into another vessel, and squeeze upon it the juice of the
lemons. Let this too stand all night. Next day mix all together,
boil two quarts of milk, and pour it boiling hot into the other
ingredients. Cover the vessel, and let it stand eight days,
stirring it daily. Then strain it through a flannel bag till the
liquid is perfectly clear. Let it stand six weeks in a demijohn or
glass jar, and then bottle it.
To make it still more clear, you may filter it through a piece of
fine muslin pinned down to the bottom of a sieve, or through
blotting paper, which must be frequently renewed. It should be
white blotting paper.
ROSE CORDIAL.
Put a pound of fresh rose leaves into a tureen, with a quart of
lukewarm water. Cover the vessel, and let them infuse for twenty-four
hours. Then squeeze them through a linen bag till all the
liquid is pressed out. Put a fresh pound of rose leaves into the
tureen, pour the liquid back into it, and let it infuse again for
two days. You may repeat this till you obtain a very strong
infusion. Then to a pint of the infusion add half a pound of loaf-sugar,
half a pint of white brandy, an ounce of broken cinnamon,
and an ounce of coriander seeds. Put it into a glass jar, cover it
well, and let it stand for two weeks. Then filter it through a
fine muslin or a blotting paper (which must be white) pinned on
the bottom of a sieve; and bottle it for use.
STRAWBERRY CORDIAL.
Hull a sufficient quantity of ripe strawberries, and squeeze them
through a linen bag. To each quart of the juice allow a pint of
white brandy, and half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Put the
liquid into a glass jar or a demijohn, and let it stand a
fortnight. Then filter it through a sieve, to the bottom of which
a piece of fine muslin or blotting paper has been fastened; and
afterwards bottle it,
RASPBERRY CORDIAL.
May be made in the above manner.
QUINCE CORDIAL.
Take the finest and ripest quinces you can procure, wipe them
clean, and cut out all the defective parts. Then grate them into a
tureen or some other large vessel, leaving out the seeds and
cores. Let the grated pulp remain covered in the tureen for
twenty-four hours. Then, squeeze it through a jelly-bag or cloth.
To six quarts of the juice allow a quart of cold water, three
pounds of loaf-sugar, (broken up,) and a quart of white brandy.
Mix the whole well together, and put it into a stone jar. Have
ready three very small flannel or thick muslin bags, (not larger
than two inches square,) fill one with grated nutmeg, another with
powdered mace, and the third with powdered cloves; and pat them,
into the jar that the spice may flavour the liquor without mixing
with it. Leave the jar uncorked for a few days; reserving some of
the liquor to replace that which may flow over in the
fermentation. Whenever it has done working, bottle it off, but do
not use it for six months. If not sufficiently bright and clear,
filter it through fine muslin, pinned round the bottom of a
sieve, or through a white blotting paper fastened in the same
manner.
PEACH CORDIAL.
Take the ripest and most juicy free-stone peaches you can procure.
Cut them from the stones, and quarter them without paring. Crack
the stones, and extract the kernels, which must be blanched and
slightly pounded. Put the peaches into a large stone jar in
layers, alternately with layers of the kernels, and of powdered
loaf-sugar. When the jar is three parts full of the peaches,
kernels, and sugar, fill it up with white brandy. Set the Jar in a
large pan, and leave it uncovered for three or four days, in case
of its fermenting and flowing over at the top. Fill up what is
thus wasted with more brandy, and then close the jar tightly. Let
it stand, five or six months; then filter it, and bottle it for
use.
Cherry, apricot, and plum cordial may be made in the above manner;
adding always the kernels.
ANNISEED CORDIAL.
Melt a pound of loaf-sugar in two quarts of water. Mix it with two
quarts of white brandy, and add a table-spoonful of oil of
anniseed. Let it stand a week; then filter it through, white
blotting paper, and bottle it for use.
Clove or Cinnamon Cordial may be made in the same manner, by
mixing sugar, water and brandy, and adding oil of cinnamon or oil
of cloves. You may colour any of these cordials red by stirring in
a little powdered cochineal that has been dissolved in a small
quantity of brandy.
ROSE BRANDY.
Nearly fill a china or glass jar with freshly-gathered rose
leaves, and pour in sufficient French white brandy to fill it
quite up; and then cover it closely. Next day put the whole into a
strainer, and having squeezed and pressed the rose leaves and
drained off the liquid, throw away the leaves, put fresh ones into
the jar, and return the brandy to it. Repeat this every day while
roses are in season, (taking care to keep the jar well covered,)
and you will find the liquid much better than rose water for
flavouring cakes and puddings.
LEMON BRANDY.
When you use lemons for punch or lemonade, do not throw away the
peels, but cut them in small pieces, and put them into a glass jar
or bottle of brandy. You will find this brandy useful for many
purposes.
In the same way keep for use the kernels of peach and plum stones,
pounding them slightly before you put them into the brandy.
NOYAU.
Blanch and break up a pound of shelled bitter almonds or peach
kernels. Mix with them the grated rinds of three large lemons,
half a pint of clarified honey that has been boiled and skimmed,
and three pounds of the best double-refined loaf-sugar. Put these
ingredients into a jar or demijohn; pour in four quarts of the
best white brandy or proof spirit; stop the vessel, and let it
stand three months, shaking it every day for the first month. Then
filter it, dilute it with rose water to your taste, (you may allow
a quart of rose water to each quart of the liquor,) and bottle it
for use.
This and any other cordial may be coloured red by mixing with it
(after it is filtered) cochineal, powdered, dissolved in a little
white brandy, and strained through fine muslin.
RATAFIA.
Pound in a mortar, and mix together a pound of shelled bitter
almonds, an ounce of nutmegs, a pound of fine loaf-sugar, and one
grain (apothecaries' weight) of ambergris. Infuse these
ingredients for a week in a gallon of white brandy or proof
spirit. Then filter it, and bottle it for use.
CAPILLAIRE.
Powder eight pounds of loaf-sugar, and wet it with three pints of
water and three eggs well beaten with their shells. Stir the whole
mass very hard, and boil it twice over, skimming it well. Then
strain it, and stir in two wine glasses of orange flower water.
Bottle it, and use it for a summer draught, mixed with a little
lemon juice and water; or you may sweeten punch with it.
ORGEAT.
To make orgeat paste, blanch, mix together, and pound in a mortar
till perfectly smooth, three quarters of a pound of shelled sweet
almonds, and one quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds;
adding frequently a little orange flower or rose water, to keep
them from oiling; and mixing with them, as you proceed, a pound of
fine loaf-sugar that has been previously powdered by itself. When
the whole is thoroughly incorporated to a stiff paste, put it into
little pots and close them well. It will keep five or six months,
and, when you wish to use it for a beverage, allow a piece of
orgeat about the size of an egg to each half pint or tumbler of
water. Having well stirred it, strain the mixture through a
napkin.
To make liquid orgeat for present use; blanch and pound in a
mortar, with rose water, a quarter of a pound of sweet and an
ounce and a half of bitter almonds. Then sweeten three pints of
rich milk with half a pound of loaf-sugar, and stir the almonds
gradually into it. Boil it over hot coals; and as soon as it comes
to a boil, take it off and stir it frequently till it gets cold.
Then strain it, add a glass of brandy, and put it into decanters.
When you pour it out for drinking dilute it with water.
LEMONADE.
Take fine ripe lemons, and roll them under your hand on the table
to increase the quantity of juice. Then cut and squeeze them into
a pitcher, and mix the juice with loaf-sugar and cold water. To
half a pint of lemon juice you may allow a pint and a half of
water; and ten or twelve moderate sized lumps of sugar. Send it
round in little glasses with handles.
To make a tumbler of _very good_ lemonade, allow the juice of
one lemon and four or five lumps of sugar, filling up the glass
with water. In summer use ice water.
ORANGEADE.
Is made of oranges, in the same proportion as lemonade. It is very
fine when frozen.
PUNCH.
Roll twelve fine lemons under your hand on the table; then pare
off the yellow rind very thin, and boil it in a gallon of water
till all the flavour is drawn out. Break up into a large bowl, two
pounds of loaf-sugar, and squeeze the lemons over it. When the
water has boiled sufficiently, strain it from the lemon-peel, and
mix it with the lemon juice and sugar. Stir in a quart of rum or
of the best whiskey.
Two scruples of flowers of benjamin, steeped in a quart of rum,
will make an infusion which much resembles the arrack of the East
Indies. It should be kept in a bottle, and a little of it will be
found to impart a very fine and fragrant flavour to punch made in
the usual manner.
FROZEN PUNCH.
Is made as above, omitting one half of the rum or whiskey. Put it
into an ice-cream freezer, shaking or stirring it all the time,
when it is frozen, send it round immediately, in small glasses
with a tea-spoon for each.
ROMAN PUNCH.
Grate the yellow rinds of twelve lemons and two oranges upon two
pounds of loaf-sugar. Squeeze on the juice of the lemons and
oranges; cover it, and let it stand till next day. Then strain it
through a sieve, add a bottle of champagne, and the whites of
eight eggs beaten to a froth. You may freeze it or not.
MILK PUNCH.
What is commonly called milk punch, is a mixture of brandy or rum,
sugar, milk and nutmeg, with-without either lemon juice or water.
It is taken cold with a lump of ice in each tumbler.
FINE MILK PUNCH.
Pare off the yellow rind of nine large lemons, and steep it for
twenty-four hours in a quart of brandy or rum. Then mix with it
the juice of the lemons, a pound and a half of loaf-sugar, two
grated nutmegs, and a quart of water. Add a quart of rich
unskimmed milk, made boiling hot, and strain the whole through a
jelly-bag. You may either use it as soon as it is cold, or make a
larger quantity, (in the above proportions,) and bottle it. It
will keep several months.
REGENT'S PUNCH.
Take four large lemons; roll them on the table to make them more
juicy, and then pare them as thin as possible. Cut out all the
pulp, and throw away the seeds and the white part of the rind. Put
the yellow rind and the pulp into a pint of boiling water with two
tea-spoonfuls of raw green tea of the best sort. Let all boil
together about ten minutes. Then strain it through linen, and stir
in a pound of powdered loaf-sugar and a bottle of champagne, or of
any liquor suitable for punch. Set it again over the fire, and
when just ready to boil, remove it, and pour it into a china bowl
or pitcher, to be sent round in glasses.
WINE JELLY.
Clarify a pound of loaf-sugar, by mixing it with half
a pint of water and the beaten white of an egg, and then boiling
and skimming it. Put an ounce of isinglass (with as much boiling
water as will cover it) into a small sauce-pan, and set it in hot
coals till the isinglass is thoroughly dissolved. Then when the
syrup has been taken from the fire, mix the melted isinglass with
it, add a quart of white wine and stir in a table-spoonful or a
spoonful and a half of old Jamaica spirits. Stir the mixture very
hard, and pour it into a mould. When it has congealed, wrap a
cloth dipped in warm water round the outside of the mould; turn
out the jelly, and eat it with ice-cream.
BISHOP.
The day before you want to use the liquor toast four large oranges
till they are of a pale brown. You may do them either before a
clear fire or in the oven of a stove. Dissolve half a pound of
loaf-sugar in half a pint of claret. When the oranges are roasted,
quarter them without peeling, lay them in the bottom of a bowl or
a tureen, add two beaten nutmegs and some cinnamon, and pour on
them the wine and sugar. Cover it, and let it stand till next day.
Then having heated the remainder of the bottle of claret till it
nearly boils, pour it into a pitcher, and having first pressed and
mashed the pieces of orange with a spoon to bring out the juice,
put them with the sugar, &c. into a cloth, and strain the liquid
into the hot claret. Serve it warm in large glasses.
MULLED WINE.
Boil together in a pint of water two beaten nutmegs, a handful of
broken cinnamon, and a handful of cloves slightly pounded. When
the liquid is reduced to one half, strain it into a quart of port
wine, which must be set on hot coals, and taken off as soon as it
comes to a boil. Serve it up hot in a pitcher with little glass
cups round it, and a plate of fresh rusk.
MULLED CIDER.
Allow six eggs to a quart of cider. Put a handful of whole cloves
into the cider, and boil it. While it is boiling, beat the eggs in
a large pitcher; adding to them as much sugar as will make the
cider very sweet. By the time the cider boils, the eggs will be
sufficiently light. Pour the boiling liquor on the beaten egg, and
continue to pour the mixture backwards and forwards from one
pitcher to another, till it has a fine froth on it. Then pour it
warm into your glasses, and grate some nutmeg over each.
Port wine may be mulled in the same manner.
EGG NOGG.
Beat separately the yolks and whites of six eggs. Stir the yolks
into a quart of rich milk, or thin cream, and add half a pound of
sugar. Then mix in half a pint of rum or brandy. Flavour it with a
grated nutmeg. Lastly, stir in gently the beaten white of an egg.
It should be mixed in a china bowl.
SANGAREE.
Mix in a pitcher or in tumblers one-third of wine, ale, or porter,
with two-thirds of water either warm or cold. Stir in sufficient
loaf-sugar to sweeten it, and grate some nutmeg into it.
By adding to it lemon juice, you may make what is called negus.
TURKISH SHERBET.
Having washed a fore-quarter or knuckle of veal, and cracked the
bones, put it on to boil with two quarts and a pint of water. Let
it boil till the liquid is reduced to one quart, and skim it well.
Then strain it, and set it away to cool. When quite cold, mix with
it a pint and a half of clear lemon juice, and a pint and a half
of capillaire or clear sugar-syrup. If you have no capillaire
ready, boil two pounds of loaf-sugar in a pint and a half of
water, clearing it with the beaten white of an egg mixed into the
sugar and water before boiling. Serve the sherbet cold or iced, in
glass mugs at the dessert, or offer it as a refreshment at any
other time.
Sherbet may be made of the juice of various sorts of fruit.
BOTTLED SMALL BEER.
Take a quart bottle of the very best brisk porter, and mix it with
four quarts of water, a pint of molasses, and a table-spoonful of
ginger. Bottle it, and see that the corks are of the very best
kind. It will be fit for use in three or four days.
TO KEEP LEMON JUICE.
Powder a pound of the best loaf-sugar; put it into a bowl, and
strain over it a pint of lemon juice; stirring it well with a
silver spoon till the sugar has entirely melted. Then bottle it,
sealing the corks; and keep it in a dry place.
ESSENCE OF LEMON-PEEL.
Rub lumps of loaf-sugar on fine ripe lemons till the yellow rind
is all grated off; scraping up the sugar in a tea-spoon, and
putting it on a plate as you proceed. When you have enough, press
it down into a little glass or china jar, and cover it closely.
This will be found very fine to flavour puddings and cakes.
Prepare essence of orange-peel in the same manner.
CIDER VINEGAR.
Take six quarts of rye meal; stir and mix it well into a barrel of
strong hard cider of the best kind; and then add a gallon of
whiskey. Cover the cask, (leaving the bung loosely in it,) set it
in the part of your yard that is most exposed to the sun and air;
and in the course of four weeks (if the weather is warm and dry)
you will have good vinegar fit for use. When you draw off a gallon
or more, replenish the cask with the same quantity of cider, and
add about a pint of whiskey. You may thus have vinegar constantly
at hand for common purposes.
The cask should have iron hoops.
A very strong vinegar may be made by mixing cider and strained
honey, (allowing a pound of honey to a gallon of cider,) and
letting it stand five or six months. This vinegar is so powerful
that for common purposes it should be diluted with a little water.
Vinegar may be made in the same manner of sour wine.
WHITE VINEGAR.
Put into a cask a mixture composed of five gallons of water, two
gallons of whiskey, and a quart of strong yeast, stirring in two
pounds of powdered charcoal. Place it where it will ferment
properly, leaving the bung loose till the fermentation is over,
but covering the hole slightly to keep out the dust and insects.
At the end of four months draw it off, and you will have a fine
vinegar, as clear and colourless as water.
SUGAR VINEGAR.
To every gallon of water allow a pound of the best brown sugar,
and a jill or more of strong yeast. Mix the sugar and water
together, and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. Then
pour it into a tub; and when it cools to lukewarm heat, put into
it the yeast spread on pieces of toast. Let it work two days; then
put it into an iron-hooped cask, and set it in a sunny place for
five months, leaving the bung loose, but keeping the bung-hole
covered. In five months it will be good clear vinegar, and you may
bottle it for use.
A cask that has not contained vinegar before, should have a quart
of boiling hot vinegar poured into it, shaken about frequently
till cold, and allowed to stand some hours.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE SICK.
CHICKEN JELLY.
Take a large chicken, cut it up into very small pieces, bruise the
bones, and put the whole into a stone jar with a cover that will
make it water tight. Set the jar in a large kettle of boiling
water, and keep it boiling for three hours. Then strain off the
liquid, and season it slightly with salt, pepper, and mace; or
with loaf-sugar and lemon juice, according to the taste of the
person for whom it is intended.
Return the fragments of the chicken to the jar, and set it again
in a kettle of boiling water. You will find that you can collect
nearly as much jelly by the second boiling.
This jelly may be made of an old fowl.
BREAD JELLY.
Measure a quart of boiling water, and set it away to get cold.
Take one-third of a six cent loaf of bread, slice it, pare off the
crust, and toast the crumb nicely of a light brown. Then put it
into the boiled water, set it on hot coals in a covered pan, and
boil it gently, till you find by putting some in a spoon to cool,
that the liquid has become a jelly. Strain it through a thin
Back to Full Books
|