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Gather them in early summer, when they are full-grown, but so tender that a large needle will easily pierce them all through. Rub off the outer skin with a coarse cloth, and then lay them in salt and water for a week, changing the brine every other day. Allow for this brine a smallquarter of a pound of salt to a large quart of water. Make enough to cover all the nuts well. Place a large lid over the pan, and keep them closely from the air. The last day take them out of the brine, drain them, and prick every one quite through in several places with a large needle. Drain them again, spread them out on large flat dishes, and set them to blacken for two days in the hot sun. For a hundred nuts, allow a gallon of excellent cider vinegar, half an ounce of black pepper-corns, half an ounce of cloves, half an ounce of allspice, an ounce of root ginger, and an ounce of mace. Boil the spice in the vinegar for ten minutes, tied up in eight small muslin bags. Then take them out, and having divided the nuts in four stone jars, distribute among them, equally, the bags of spice, and pour on the vinegar hot, an equal portion in each jar. While warm, secure them with flat corks, and tie leather over them. Done this way, you may begin to use them in a week. If you have not enough of vinegar to fill the jars up to the top, add some cold, and strew among the nuts some blades of mace. Finish with a large spoonful of salad oil at the top of each jar.
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Take large fine plums; perfect, and quite ripe. To every quart of plums allow half a pound of the best white sugar powdered, and a large pint of the best cider vinegar. Melt the sugar in the vinegar, and put it with thefruit into a porcelain kettle; all the plums having been previously pricked to the stone with a large needle. Lay among them some small muslin bags filled with broken nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon; and if you choose, a few cloves. Give them one boil up, skimming them well. Put them warm into stone jars, with the bags interspersed, and cork them immediately. Green gages may be done in this manner, first rendering them greener by boiling with vine leaves in the usual way.
Damsons Pickled.—Do these in the same manner as plums; but as they are much more acid, allow brown sugar of the best kind. Plums or damsons may be pickled plain, and with little trouble if full ripe, pricked with a needle, and packed down in a stone jar with profuse layers of brown sugar between the layers of fruit; the jars filled up with cold cider vinegar, and putting sweet oil at the top.
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Pickled Cherries.—Take the largest and finest red cherries, fully ripe. Morellas are the best. Either remove the stems entirely, or cut them short, within two inches of the fruit. Have ready a large glass jar. Fill it two thirds with fresh newly-gathered cherries, and then fill up to the top with the best vinegar. Keep it well covered, and if both fruit and vinegar are of excellent quality, no boiling is necessary, and no spice, as the cherry flavor will be retained, and they will not shrivel.
Button Tomatos.—The small round tomatos, either red or yellow, will keep perfectly, if put whole into cold vinegar of thereallybest quality. You may add a bag of spice if you choose.
Nasturtion Seeds.—Keep a large glass jar of cold cider vinegar, and put in the green seeds of nasturtions after the flowers are off, and the seeds full-grown, but not hard. Remove the stalks. In this simple way nasturtions will keep perfectly well, and are an excellent substitute for capers with boiled mutton. They can be raised profusely, even in a city garden, and the blossoms are very beautiful. With pepper-grass and nasturtion flowers from your own garden, you can have a nice salad for a summer evening tea-table.
The three pickles above (cherries, button tomatos, and nasturtion seeds,) are cheap, easy, and palatable. Try them. To flavor them with spice, boil the vinegar with a bag of spice in it, and pour it on hot, leaving the bag among them in the jar.
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Skin and cut up a fine full-grown fowl. If but little is wanted, take only the dark meat for the broth, and put it into a pot with a small quart of water, and slowly boil it to rags. Strain the liquid and return it to thepot, and thicken it with two spoonfuls of arrow root, if no vegetables are permitted. Otherwise, you may boil with the chicken some sliced onion and sliced turnip, with a grated parsnip and a sliced potato, straining out the vegetables with the shreds of fowl. You may reserve the white meat of the breast and wings to make another dish, if the patient is permitted to take it. This is the white meat cut off the bones, and stewed slowly in fresh oyster liquid, with a bit of nice butter. If the patient is well enough, stir in a beaten egg just before the stew is taken from the fire.
Oyster Soup for Invalids.—Remove the gristle from a dozen fine large fresh oysters. Take half their liquor and mix it with an equal portion of very good milk, seasoning it with three or four blades of mace, and a stalk of celery scraped and cut into pieces. When it has boiled and been skimmed well, strain it over the oysters, and let all simmer together till the oysters are plumped, but do not let them come to a boil. Serve it up in a bowl, with some milk biscuit to eat with it.
Clam Soup for Invalids.—Where salt is permitted, cut up and boil slowly in their own liquor a dozen or more small sand clams. When well boiled and skimmed, strain the liquor into a clean sauce-pan, and thicken it with bread crumbs, and a small bit of nice fresh butter. The clams are of no further use. Throw them away.
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Take two pounds from a nice neck of mutton, and leave out some of the fat if there seems too much. Cut the meat from the bones, and put it into a pot with a large quart of water, and no seasoning. Boil it till the meat is all in rags. Do not skim it, as the fat on the surface is very healing, if without salt or pepper. When done, strain it into a bowl. Let the patient eat with it a slice of very light wheat bread, having the crust cut off. It is excellent for the dysentery. When the patient is convalescent, a little seasoning may be allowed, and some well-boiled mashed turnips stirred into the bowl of soup with a boiled onion sliced, and a thickening of arrow-root or farina, stirred in about half an hour before the soup is taken up. Pour it off clear from the shreds of meat at the bottom.
Veal Broth for Invalids.—Take a pound of knuckle of veal cut in pieces, four calf's feet, split up. Boil them in a large quart of water, till they are all reduced to rags. Then strain the liquid, and add to it the soft part, only, of half a dozen fine oysters, and three or four blades of mace. Set it again on the fire, and as soon as it simmers well, take it off, and serve it up with very light milk biscuit, or little bread rolls, to eat with it. Veal broth may be made with a piece of knuckle of veal cut small, and boiled in the liquor of clams instead of water. The clams themselves must be omitted, as they are always tough and indigestible for an invalid, but their liquor adds a pleasantrelish to the insipidity of the veal. As the strength of the patient improves, a grated carrot, a sliced onion, and some sliced turnip, may be added to the veal from the beginning.
Raw Oysters for the Sick.—Take large fine fresh oysters, and carefully cut out the hard part or gristle. They are considered very good for convalescents, being, when raw, cooling, refreshing, and nutritious. Drain them well from the liquor, making them as dry as you can; and if permitted, accompany the oysters with black pepper and vinegar, and a plate of bread and butter.
Birds.—Convalescents, not yet allowed to eat meat, can generally relish birds nicely broiled, or stewed in their own gravy, with any appropriate seasoning, and a littlefreshbutter, if they are not very fat. When dished, lay under each a piece of nice toast, dipped for a minute in hot water.
Beefsteak for Invalids.—When this can be eaten with an appetite, there is no greater promoter of returning health; but it must be of the best sirloin steak, very tender, well broiled, and thoroughly done on both sides, the gravy being carefully saved to serve up with it, a little fresh butter being added after the meat comes off the gridiron. If the taste of onion is desired, merely rub the plate with a peeled onion. A very tender lamb-chop well broiled may be eaten by way of change; but a tenderloin steak is better. Avoid pork, or veal cutlets.
Gravy Sippets.—For invalids who cannot yet eat meat, a light and relishing preparation may bemade with one or two slices of the best wheat bread, divested of the crust, and spread on a hot plate, while some nice well-skimmed gravy is poured over them; the gravy of roast beef, veal, or mutton, that has had no butter about it. Gravy sippets will form a variety to the usual broths, and other beginnings for the resumption of animal food.
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Have one or more china or white-ware pots for the purpose of making herb teas; and see that, after using, they are well washed, well scalded and dried, and set open in the sun till wanted again. The herbs, whether green or dried, should be of excellent quality, and picked very clean from dust and stems. Having well-scalded the pot, take the allotted quantity of the herb and put it in; then pour on the water, which must be actually boiling at the time, and press the herbs down at the bottom with a silver spoon. Then put on the lid closely, and immediately stop up the spout with a small cork, or a wad of soft white paper rolled tightly. This is to keep in the steam, and prevent the strength of the herb from escaping. When sufficiently boiled, pour into a pitcher with a lid, and through a strainer, as much of the tea as is wanted. Strainers of block tin, with a handle andvery fineclose holes, are excellent for this and other purposes.
Herb Candies.—Hoarhound candy, and many others, may be made of a strong decoction or tea of the herb, thickened with loaf sugar, and boiled,skimmed, and stirred till very thick and stiff. Then pour it smoothly into a square tin pan and set it in a cool place to congeal. While still soft, mark it in even squares with a knife. When quite cold and hard, loosen it from the pan with a knife, and take it out. It is good for coughs.
Peppermint candy is made in the same way, and is used for flatulence.
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Gruels, for patients who are unable to take any thing more substantial, may be made of ground rice flour, arrow root, indian meal, oatmeal grits, or farina. Mix to a paste, with water, two large table-spoonfuls of any of the above articles; then stir the paste, gradually, into a pint of water boiling on the fire, making it very smooth and pressing out all the lumps. To prevent it boiling over, when it has risen nearly to the top of the pan, remove it from the fire. Sweeten it while hot, and, if permitted, add a little white wine with nutmeg, and a small bit of fresh butter.
Toast and Water.—Cut a large slice or two of the best wheat bread; pare off all the crust; and with a long-handled toasting fork toast it evenly on both sides, not allowing it to blacken or burn in any part. While hot from the fire, plunge the toast immediately into a quart pitcher of clear cold water. Cover the pitcher instantly, and let it infuse for half an hour or more, without leaving off the cover. When done, it should be of a very pale brown color.
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Stir a table-spoonful of currant jelly into a half pint tumbler of ice water, if the patient is feverish. The jelly may be of other fruit, and if not sweet enough add some loaf sugar. The juice of any ripe fruit, made sweet and mixed with cold water, is a good substitute when sweetmeats are not at hand. Warm drinks are now seldom used, but to promote perspiration and carry off a cold. Tamarinds are in themselves very cooling and pleasant, and make an agreeable drink infused in water, either warm or cold.
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Carrageen is a species of sea moss which becomes glutinous when boiled, and is considered remarkably nutritious and strengthening. It can also be rendered very palatable. It is found abundantly on some parts of our sea-coast, and may be obtained of the best druggists, very nicely cleaned and pressed. To a small loose handful of carrageen allow a small quart of rich unskimmed milk, half a pound of powdered white sugar, a stick of the best cinnamon broken-up, six or seven blades of mace, and half a nutmeg, powdered. Having washed the carrageen through two or three cold waters, and shaken it out to remove the drops that hang about it, put it to a pint and a half of the cold milk. Boil it half an hour in a covered porcelain kettle. Then take it out, for if it boils too long the carrageen will taste too strongly. In another vessel boil the remaining half pint of milk withthe spices, till very highly flavored. Then strain it into the carrageen milk, and stir in, gradually, the half pound of powdered loaf sugar. Set the porcelain kettle again over the fire, and let it boil fast for five minutes longer. Then strain it into moulds or bowls previously wet with cold water; and when it has well congealed, turn it out, and serve it up with sweetened cream, flavored with rose-water or peach-water. If for an invalid, who is not allowed spices, flavor it with rose-water only, stirred in after the blancmange has been taken from the fire.
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From a quart of rich milk take out half a pint. Put the half pint into a small sauce-pan, and add (if permitted) sufficient mace, nutmeg, and cinnamon to flavor it well; the spices being tied up in a very thin muslin bag. Then add the flavored milk to the remainder, having stirred in two heaped table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar. Set it over the fire in a porcelain kettle, and when it has come to a boil sprinkle in, gradually, four large heaping table-spoonfuls of farina, stirring it well. Keep it boiling a quarter of an hour after all the farina is in. When done, strain it into blancmange moulds, and set it on ice to congeal. If for an invalid not allowed spice, boil it plain, and when taken from the fire stir in a wine-glass of rose-water. If rose-water is boiled with it from the beginning, the strength and flavor will evaporate.
Farina Flummery.—Mix with a small pint of water a large pint of the juice of ripe currants, or strawberries, or of stewed cranberries in winter, made very sweet with white sugar. Boil the water and juice together, and stir in gradually a quarter pound of farina, and then boil it fifteen minutes longer. Afterwards transfer it to moulds, and set it on ice till congealed.
Farina Gruel.—Have some water boiling on the fire, and when it boils fast, sprinkle in sufficient farina to make it moderately thick. Then sweeten it with white sugar. If permitted, stir in some white wine, and nutmeg grated.
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Take a pound of fine fresh beefsteak cut from the round, without any fat. Chop it into small bits, and season it with a level salt-spoon of salt. Put it into a wide-mouthed bottle, cork it closely, and set it into a kettle of cold water, which must reach to the neck of the bottle. Let it boil steadily for three hours, by which time the essence will be all extracted from the beef. Then remove the cork, and strain the liquid into a bowl, and skim it. It can be made still more conveniently in abain-marieor double kettle; an article useful for many purposes, particular in cookery for an invalid. Mutton or veal tea are made in the same manner. Also chicken tea, or essence of any sort of poultry or game.
Chicken Panada.—Having skinned and cut up a fine full-grown chicken, take the white meatfrom the breast and wings, and mince it small for panada. The dark meat will do for chicken tea. Add to the panada a slice of wheat bread crumbled and mixed in, and boil it in abain-mariewith the water outside; seasoning it (if permitted) with powdered mace or nutmeg.
Sweet Panada.—Mix with a pint of water a glass of madeira or sherry; a heaped table-spoonful of powdered loaf sugar, half the yellow rind of a lemon grated, and half the juice; and a half tea-spoonful of powdered nutmeg or mace. Set the mixture over the fire, and as soon as it boils add crumbled milk biscuit, or a rusk. Then give it another boil up.
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Having washed clean two ounces of pearl barley, put it into a sauce-pan with a quart of water, the grated rind and the juice of a lemon, and two ounces of seeded raisins. Boil it slowly till the liquid is reduced one half. Then strain it, and sweeten it, while warm, with loaf sugar.
Gum Arabic Water.—Take an ounce of the best and cleanest gum arabic. Put it into a pitcher, and pour on a pint of boiling water, and stir while dissolving. When cool, squeeze in (if permitted) the juice of a lemon, and add loaf sugar enough to make it pleasantly sweet. Gum arabic water, alone, is sometimes given to a patient, whom it is expedient to keep very low as a preventive to inflammation.
Tamarind Water.—This is a pleasant and cooling drink in fevers, allowing half a pint of cold water to as many tamarinds as you can take up with a table-spoon. Cover it, and let it stand for a few minutes.
Apple Water.—Take four fine large juicy apples, (pippins or bellflowers,) core and pare them, and bake them side by side in a tin pan. When well done and quite soft all through, put them into a pitcher and fill up with warm water. Simmer them over the fire, and when quite soft mash them; and, if necessary, add more water till they become a thick liquid that can be drank. Sweeten well with loaf sugar, and if permitted, add some lemon juice or rose-water. Drink it cool.
Egg Wine.—Break a nice fresh egg into a tumbler, and beat it till smooth and thick. Add a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered loaf sugar, and stir in a glass of the best port wine. This, when permitted, is very strengthening and cheering for an invalid, to take about the hour of noon or earlier. When wine is not allowed, you may beat the egg into a glass of new unskimmed milk.
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Milk can be converted into a curd by the infusion of rennet water, white wine, lemon juice, tamarind juice, or vinegar, stirred into good milk, covered and set in a warm place till the curd has formed, and has separated from the whey which remains beneath it. Take off the curd carefully, breaking it as little as possible,and put it into a deep dish. Pour the whey into a pitcher. It should look clear, and greenish rather than white, and have none of the milk curd remaining about it. Set the pitcher on ice. It is an excellent drink in fevers. When approved, the curd may be eaten in a saucer with sugar. For rennet whey, cut a piece of dried rennet about two inches square, and wipe all the salt from the outside, but do not wash it. Soak the bit of rennet for several hours (or all night) in a small tea-cup of lukewarm water. Then pour the rennet water into the milk. For wine whey, boil a jill of sherry in a pint of milk, without stirring it.
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Having washed in cold water three heaped table-spoonfuls of tapioca; drain it, put it into a clean quart bowl, pour on water enough to cover it well, and soak it four hours. Then pour on as much more water, transfer the whole to a porcelain skillet, in the bottom of which you have laid the yellow peel of a fresh lemon, pared so thin as to be transparent, and boil the tapioca gently till it looks quite clear. Then take out the lemon peel, and stir in sufficient loaf sugar to make it very sweet. If approved, flavor it with some madeira or sherry, and some grated nutmeg. Tapioca may be boiled in plain milk, with no seasoning but the sugar to sweeten it.
Sago.—Pick and wash clean, in two cold waters, a half pint of sago. Put it into a porcelain skillet, with the yellow rind of a lemon pared transparent. Pour on it a quart of water, and let it all soak for two hours. Then set it over the fire, and boil it, gently, till the lemon is all to pieces and nearly dissolved, and the sago looks clear. Take out the lemon peel, and stir in, if permitted, some sherry wine, sugar, and grated nutmeg, and give it another boil.
If the above seasoning is not allowed, boil the sago in milk only, or water only, till the liquid becomes thick and like a jelly.
Sago Pudding for an invalid.—Boil three table-spoonfuls ofsoakedsago in a pint of milk till quite soft. Add gradually three ounces of white sugar, and set it away to cool. Beat three eggs till thick and smooth, and stir them by degrees into the sago and milk. Grate in some nutmeg, and bake the pudding in a deep dish. Tapioca pudding is made in the same manner.
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Cut open two fine fresh sweetbreads, and lay them in warm water till all the blood is discharged. Then transfer them to a pan of cold water to blanch or whiten. Stew them in the strained liquid of fresh oysters, till quite tender. When done, take out the sweetbreads, remove the gristle or pipe, and serve them up warm, having laid in the bottom of the dish a slice of nice toast that has been dipped for a minute in hot water. If permitted, the oysters may be cooked with the sweetbread, first removing the hard part.
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Smelts are considered a delicate and nutritious fish for invalids. They are in season in winter, and early in the spring. Choose them as large as you can find them. Having drawn and cleaned them, cut off their heads and tails. Put sufficient water to cover them in a small stew-pan, adding a very little powdered white sugar, and a few small sprigs of parsley, or sweet marjoram. When the water boils lay in the fish, and simmer them five minutes. Then stir in a very little arrow root, mixed with a few drops of cold water, and let it stew ten minutes longer. Serve up the stew in a small deep dish with a cover, and eat with it some very light bread-roll. It will be a pleasant change from the usual broths and infusions prepared for the sick.
A Molasses Supper.—Make a thick slice of very nice toast, evenly browned on both sides, but not the least burnt. Lay it in a pint bowl, and pour over it a small half pint of the bestWest Indiamolasses, having stirred into the molasses a heaped table-spoonful of ground ginger. Mix the molasses with half a pint of hot water, and pour the whole over the toast. Cover it with a plate for a few minutes, and eat it while warm, previous to going to bed. This is a wholesome strengthening palatable supper for an invalid, (as we know by experience) and may be continued as long as the patient continues to like it. It is always a good winter supper for children. The ginger must on no account be omitted. If the molasses has turned a little sour, stir in a salt-spoonful of soda.
To prevent a jug of molasses from running over when kept in a warm place, pour out a little into another vessel, and leave the molasses jug uncorked for two days. Then cork it tightly.
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No metal (not even silver,) is good for tea-pots. All tea should be made in china or queensware. Wedgewood (whether black or white) imbibes much of the essence of the tea, and from constant use soon becomes unpleasant. Britannia ware is exceedingly unwholesome for any sort of cooking, as one fourth of the composition is copper. Block tin for a common tea-pot is less objectionable, and much cheaper. All tea-pots should, after using, be thoroughly emptied of the old leaves, and washed very clean in warm water, and set open in the sun and air for several hours. To make good tea, the tea itself, whether black or green, must be of excellent quality. There is no economy in buying that which is low-priced. Green tea, if fresh and good, and not adulterated will look green in the cup, and have a fragrant odor. If it draws red, or brown, or blackish, it is old or mixed with something wrong. Begin to make your tea about a quarter of an hour before it is wanted. Scald the tea-pot (twice over) with boiling water. Then put in the tea, allowing three heaping table-spoonfuls to eachperson, and a pint of water, actually boiling, when put in. Cover it closely with the lid, and set it by the fire for ten or fifteen minutes to infuse. After the first cups have gone round, put some fresh tea into the pot, and pour on it some more boiling water, that the second cups may be as strong as the first, having time to infuse. Weak tea for company is very mean. For those that like it so, have a small pot of water on the server. If the water is not boiling fast when poured on the tea, and is beginning to cool, the tea will be flat and insipid, and the leaves will float on the surface of the cups. There is then no remedy but to make some fresh.
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To drink coffee in perfection, a sufficient quantity for breakfast should be roasted every morning, and ground hot, as it loses much of its strength by keeping even for a few hours. The best coffee roasters are iron cylinders, (standing on feet) with a door in one side, and a handle that turns the cylinder round towards the fire or from it, that the coffee may be equally done throughout. It must be roasted a bright brown color, and on no account black or burnt. When about half done, put in bits of fresh butter, allowing a table-spoonful to a pound of coffee. Previous to roasting pick the coffee carefully, throwing away the defective grains, and the stones or sand. Coffee should be ground while warm in amill kept solely for that purpose, and fastened up against the kitchen wall.
For boiled coffee allow four ounces of ground coffee (or a quarter of a pound) to a quart of water. When the water boils, stir in the coffee. Give it one hard boil up. Then set it farther from the fire, and simmer it for ten minutes, adding the white of an egg, (including the egg shell,) or a small strip of isinglass. Pour out a large cup of the coffee, and then (holding it high above the coffee-pot,) pour it back again. Repeat this till wanted, and then set the coffee-pot beside the fire, (but not over it.) For company, allow six ounces of coffee to a quart of water. Keep the lid always on, but if when boiling hard it rises and seems inclined to run over, remove it instantly from the fire and set it back. Cream is indispensable to first-rate coffee; if not to be obtained sweet, substitute rich milk boiling hot. On no consideration fill up the coffee-pot with water. A percolator (to be had at the best tin stores) makes excellent coffee without boiling, if properly managed.
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There is no plain chocolate better than Baker's prepared cacao, and none has so much of the true chocolate flavor. The foreign chocolate is generally mixed with sugar, spice, and milk. It cannot be made thick and strong, and therefore to many tastes is not agreeable. To make a pint (or two large cupfuls of chocolate,) scrape down two ounces on a plate, and moistenthe chocolate with a jill of water, rubbing it on the plate till quite smooth. Then boil it five minutes, and add a small pint of water. When it has been well stirred with a wooden spoon, and has come again to a boil, serve it as hot as possible, accompanied by a saucer of fine loaf sugar, and a small jug of rich hot cream and a plate of nice dry toast, or some milk biscuits or sponge cake. Milled chocolate is made with rich unskimmed milk instead of water. The chocolate mill is a deep pot, belonging to which is a stick with a broad wheel-shaped bottom, the other end coming up through a hole in the lid. Take this between your hands, and turn it round fast till the chocolate is finely frothed. Then transfer it to large cups. Chocolate, after it becomes cold, is unfit to drink. But if made with milk, you can convert what is left into a custard or pudding, with the addition of more sugar and some beaten egg. The low-priced chocolate is both unpalatable and unwholesome, being adulterated with animal fat or lard, and made witholdcacao beans.
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To a pint of nice rich milk allow a quarter of a pound of excellentfreshbutter. Boil the milk, and as soon as it boils take it off, and stir in the butter cut into pieces. When the butter has melted, give it another boil up Have ready a deep plate with four rather thick slices of bread, nicely and evenly toasted on both sides. Pour the milk hot over the toast, and keepit covered till it goes to the breakfast table. Send a spoon with it. Bread should always be toasted by a long-handled fork, such as are made for the purpose. They cost but twenty-five cents, and no kitchen should be without one.
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Cut even slices of bread all of the same thickness, and pare off the whole of the crust. With a long-handled toasting fork toast it evenly on both sides, taking care that no part of it is burnt or blackened. Butter the slices hot, as you take them off the fork, (using none but nice fresh butter) and lay them evenly on a heated plate. Cover them till they go to table.
All toast prepared for cookery, (to lay in the bottom of dishes,) should have the crust pared off, and be dipped in hot water after toasting.
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Take a gallon of fine ripe raspberries. Put them into a large deep earthen pan, and mash them well with a wooden beetle. Then pour them with all their juice into a large and very clean linen bag, and squeeze and press out their liquid into a vessel beneath. Measure it, and to each pint of juice allow half a pint of the best and clearest cider vinegar, and half a pound of fine loaf sugar, powdered. First mix the juice and the vinegar, and give them a boil in a porcelain kettle. Then stir in the sugar, gradually, adding to every two pounds of sugar a beaten white of egg. Boil and skim till the scum ceases to rise. When it is done, bottle it cold, cork it tightly, and seal the corks. To use it, pour out half a tumbler of raspberry vinegar, and fill up with ice water. It is a pleasant and cooling beverage in warm weather, and for invalids who are feverish. Mixed with hot water, and taken at bed-time, it is good for a cold.
Strawberry Vinegar—Is made in the above manner, carefully hulling them. The strawberries must be of the finest kind, and fully ripe. These vinegars are made with much less trouble than the usual way; and are quite as good, if not better.
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In buying macaroni, choose that of a large pipe; see that it is clean and white and that it has not been touched by insects. Half a pound makes one dish. Ifsoakedbefore boiling it is apt to dissolve or go to pieces, but wash and drain it through cold water in a sieve. Have over the fire a large pan of boiling water, in which has been melted a piece of fresh butter the size of an egg. If boiled steadily, it will be quite tender in less than an hour; but do not boil it so long that the pipes break up and lose their shape. Having drained it well through a clean sieve, transfer it to a deep dish, dividing it into four layers, having first cut it into even lengths of two or three inches. Between the layers place on it seasoning of grated cheese of the very best quality, and bits of fresh butter, with some powdered mace. On the top layer, add to the covering of cheese and butter sufficient bread-crumbs to form a slight crust all over the surface. Brown it with a salamander or a red hot shovel. Or (omitting the cheese) you may dress it with rich gravy of roast meat.
For Sweet Macaroni.—Having boiled it in milk instead of water, drain it, and mix with it powdered mace and nutmeg, with butter, sugar, and rose or peach-water. Macaroni (like vermicelli) has in itself no taste, but is only made palatable by the manner of dressing it. Good soup is rather weakened than improved by the addition of macaroni.
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Beat five eggs till very light and thick. Stir gradually into the pan of eggs four table-spoonfuls of sifted flour. Thin the batter with a large tea-cup of milk. Take a yeast powder; dissolve the soda (from the blue paper) in a small quantity of tepid or lukewarm water, and stir it into the batter. In another cup melt the tartaric acid, (from the white paper;) stir that into the mixture, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready in a frying-pan a large portion of lard, boiling hot. Put in the omelet mixture, and fry it well. When one side is done turn it, and fry the other. To flavor this omelet, mix gradually into the batter either grated ham or smoked tongue; minced oysters; minced onion; mixedwith sweet marjoram, or else some mushrooms chopped very fine.
For a Sweet Omelet, add to the above batter powdered sugar, nutmeg, mace, and powdered cinnamon.
The custom is now to dish omelets without folding them over, it being found that folding renders them heavy. Spread them out at full length on a very hot dish. The batter for omelets should always be made in sufficient quantity to allow them very thick.
There is no use in attempting to flavor an omelet, or any thing else, with marmalade or lemon, if you put in soda. The alkalies destroy the taste of every sort of fruit.
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Having pared a pound of fine large potatos, put them into a pot, cover them well with cold water, and boil them gently till tender all through. When done, lay each potato (one at a time,) in a clean warm napkin, and press and wring it till all the moisture is squeezed out, and the potato becomes a round, dry lump. Mince as fine as possible a quarter of a pound of fresh beef suet, (divested of skin, and strings.) Crumble the potato, and mix it well with the suet, adding a small salt-spoon of salt. Add sufficient milk to make a thick batter, and beat it well. Dip a strong square cloth in hot water, shake it out, and dredge it well with flour. Tie the pudding in, leaving room for it to swell,and put it into a large pot of hot water and boil it steady for an hour. This is a good and economical family pudding.
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Slice, rather thick, some fresh bread. Pare off all the crust. Butter the bread on both sides, and lay it in a deep dish. Fill up with molasses very profusely, having first seasoned the molasses with ginger, ground cinnamon, and powdered mace or nutmeg. It will be much improved by adding the grated yellow rind and the juice of a large lemon or orange. Bake it till brown all over the top, and till the bread and butter has absorbed the molasses; taking care not to let it burn.
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Mix in a pan half a pint of arrow-root, and half a pint of sifted wheat flour. Cut up a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and rub it into the pan of flour, crumbling the bits of butter so small as to be scarcely visible. Mix a quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar, and wet it with a beaten egg. Add gradually a very little cream, just enough to make it into a stiff dough. Flavor it with the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon, and half a nutmeg grated. Roll out the dough into thin sheets, and cut it out into biscuits with the edge of a tumbler. Prick every biscuit all over with a fork. Lay them in square pansslightly floured, and bake them immediately. They will be improved by adding (at the last of the mixture) a table-spoonful of the best rose-water. If rose-water is put into cakesearlyin the mixing, much of its strength will evaporate before baking. It should always be deferred to the last. These are very nice tea biscuits.