CHICKEN BROTH. Having boiled a chicken for panada, take off the skin and the rump, and put it into the water it was boiled in. Add one blade of mace, a slice of onion, and ten corns of white pepper. Simmer it till the broth be of a pleasant flavour, adding a little water if necessary. Beat a quarter of an ounce of sweet almonds with a tea-spoonful of water till it is quite fine, boil it in the broth, and strain it. When cold, remove the fat.
CHICKEN CURRIE. Cut up the chicken raw, slice onions, and fry both in butter with great care, of a fine light brown; or if chickens that have been dressed are used, fry only the onions. Having cut the joints into two or three pieces each, lay them in a stewpan, with veal or mutton gravy, and a clove or two of garlic. Simmer till the chicken is quite tender. Half an hour before serving it up, rub smooth a spoonful or two of currie powder, a spoonful of flour, and an ounce of butter; and add this to the stew, with four large spoonfuls of cream, and a little salt. Squeeze in a small lemon, when the dish is going to table.—A more easy way to make currie is to cut up a chicken or young rabbit; if chicken, take off the skin. Roll each piece in a mixture of a large spoonful of flour, and half an ounceof currie powder. Slice two or three onions, and fry them in butter, of a light brown; then add the meat, and fry all together till the meat begin to brown. Put all into a stewpan, cover it with boiling water, and simmer very gently two or three hours. If too thick, add more water half an hour before serving. If the meat has been dressed before, a little broth will be better than water, but the currie is richer when made of fresh meat. Slices of underdone veal, turkey, or rabbit, will make excellent currie. A dish of rice boiled dry should be served with it.
CHICKEN PANADA. Boil a chicken in a quart of water, till about three parts ready. Take off the skin, cut off the white meat when cold, and pound it to a paste in a marble mortar, with a little of the liquor it was boiled in. Season it with a little salt, a grate of nutmeg, and the least bit of lemon peel. Boil it gently for a few minutes till it be tolerably thick, but so it may be drank. The flesh of a chicken thus reduced to a small compass, will be found very nourishing.
CHICKEN PIE. Cut up two young fowls, season them with white pepper, salt, a little mace, nutmeg, and cayenne, all finely powdered. Put alternately in layers the chicken, slices of ham, or fresh gammon of bacon, forcemeat balls, and eggs boiled hard. If baked in a dish, add a little water, but none if in a raised crust. Prepare some veal gravy from the knuckle or scrag, with some shank-bones of mutton, seasoned with herbs, onions, mace, and white pepper, to be poured into the pie when it returns from the oven. If it is to be eaten hot, truffles, morels, and mushrooms may be added; but not if it is to be eaten cold. If baked in a raised crust, the gravy must be nicely strained, and then put in cold as jelly. To make the jelly clear, give it a boil with the whites of two eggs, after taking away the meat, and then run it through a fine lawn sieve.—Rabbits, if young and fleshy, will make as good a pie. Their legs should be cut short, and their breast-bones must not go in, but will help to make the gravy.
CHICKEN SAUCE. An anchovy or two boned and chopped, some parsley and onion chopped, and mixed together, with pepper, oil, vinegar, mustard, walnut or mushroom ketchup, will make a good sauce for cold chicken, veal, or partridge.
CHILI VINEGAR. Slice fifty English chilies, fresh and of a good colour, and infuse them in a pint of the best vinegar. In a fortnight, this will give a much finer flavour than can be obtained from foreign cayenne, and impart an agreeable relish to fish sauce.
CHIMNEY PIECES. To blacken the fronts of stone chimney-pieces, mix oil varnish with lamp black that has been sifted, and a little spirit of turpentine to thin it to the consistence of paint. Wash the stone very clean with soap and water, and sponge it with clear water. When perfectly dry, brush it over twice with this colour, leaving it to dry between the times, and it will look extremely well.
CHINA. Broken china may be repaired with cement, made of equal parts of glue, the white of an egg, and white-lead mixed together. The juice of garlic, bruised in a stone mortar, is also a fine cement for broken glass or china; and if carefully applied, will leave no mark behind it. Isinglass glue, mixed with a little finely sifted chalk, will answer the same purpose, if the articles be not required to endure heat or moisture.
CHINA CHILO. Mince a pint-basonful of undressed neck or leg of mutton, with some of the fat. Put into a stewpan closely covered, two onions, a lettuce, a pint of green peas, a tea-spoonful of salt, the same quantity of pepper, four spoonfulsof water, and two or three ounces of clarified butter. Simmer them together two hours, add a little cayenne if approved, and serve in the middle of a dish of boiled dry rice.
CHINE OF BACON. One that has been salted and dried requires to be soaked several hours in cold water, and scraped clean. Then take a handful of beech, half as much parsley, a few sprigs of thyme, and a little sage, finely chopped together. Make some holes in the chine with the point of a knife, fill them with the herbs, skewer the meat up in a cloth, and boil it slowly about three hours. A dried pig's face is cooked in the same manner, adding a little salt, pepper, and bread crumbs to the stuffing.
CHOCOLATE. Those who use much of this article, will find the following mode of preparing it both useful and economical. Cut a cake of chocolate into very small pieces, and put a pint of water into the pot; when it boils, put in the chocolate. Mill it off the fire till quite melted, then on a gentle fire till it boil; pour it into a bason, and it will keep in a cool place eight or ten days or more. When wanted, put a spoonful or two into some milk; boil it with sugar, and mill it well. If not made too thick, this will form a very good breakfast or supper.
CHOCOLATE CREAM. Scrape into one quart of thick cream, an ounce of the best chocolate, and a quarter of a pound of sugar. Boil and mill it: when quite smooth, take it off the fire, and leave it to be cold. Then add the whites of nine eggs; whisk it, and take up the froth on sieves, as other creams are done. Serve up the froth in glasses, to rise above some of the cream.
CHOLIC. Young children are often afflicted with griping pains in the bowels; and if attended with costiveness, it will be necessary to give them very small doses of manna and rhubarb every half hour, till they produce the desired effect. When the stools are green, a few drams of magnesia, with one or two of rhubarb, according to the age of the patient, may be given with advantage; but the greatest benefit will be derived from clysters made of milk, oil and sugar, or a solution of white soap and water. A poultice of bread, milk and oil, may likewise be applied to the lower part of the belly, and frequently renewed with a little warm milk to give it a proper consistence. The cholic in adults arises from a variety of causes, not easily distinguished except by professional persons; and therefore it is absolutely necessary to abstain from all violent remedies, or it may be attended with fatal consequences. Nothing can be applied with safety but emollient clysters and fomentations, and to drink copiously of camomile tea, or any other diluting liquor, till the spasms be relieved, and the nature of the disease more clearly understood. Persons who are subject to the bilious cholic in particular, should abstain from acrid, watery and oily food, especially butter, fat meat, and hot liquors: and pursue a calm and temperate course of life.
CHOPPED HANDS. Wash in common water, and then in rose water, a quarter of a pound of hog's lard not salted; mix with it the yolks of two new laid eggs, and a large spoonful of honey. Add as much fine oatmeal, or almond paste, as will work it into a paste; and by frequently rubbing it on the hands, it will keep them smooth, and prevent their being chopped.
CHOPPED LIPS. Put into a new tin saucepan, a quarter of an ounce of benjamin, storax, and spermaceti, two pennyworth of alkanet root, a large juicy apple chopped, a bunch of black grapes bruised, a quarter of a pound of unsalted butter, and two ounces of bees wax. Simmer them together till all be dissolved,and strain it through a linen. When cold melt it again, and pour it into small pots or boxes, or make it into cakes on the bottoms of tea-cups.
CHUMP OF VEAL. To dress ità-la-daube, cut off the chump end of the loin, take out the edge bone, stuff the hollow with good forcemeat, tie it up tight, and lay it in a stewpan with the bone that was taken out, a little faggot of herbs, an anchovy, two blades of mace, a few white peppercorns, and a pint of good veal broth. Cover the veal with slices of fat bacon, and lay a sheet of white paper over it. Cover the pan close, simmer it two hours, then take out the bacon, and glaze the veal. Serve it on mushrooms, with sorrel sauce, or any other that may be preferred.
CHURNING. In order to prepare for this important operation, the milk when drawn from the cow, and carefully strained through a cloth or hair sieve, should be put into flat wooden trays about three inches deep, and perfectly clean and cool. The trays are then to be placed on shelves, till the cream be completely separated; when it is to be nicely taken off with a skimming dish, without lifting or stirring the milk. The cream is then deposited in a separate vessel, till a proper quantity is collected for churning. In hot weather, the milk should stand only twenty-four hours, and be skimmed early in the morning before the dairy becomes warm, or in the evening after sun-set. In winter the milk may remain unskimmed for six and thirty or even eight and forty hours. The cream should be preserved in a deep pan during the summer, and placed in the coolest part of the dairy, or in a cellar where free air is admitted. The cream which rises first to the surface is richer in quality, and larger in quantity, than what rises afterwards. Thick milk produces a smaller proportion of cream than that which is thinner, though the former is of a richer quality: if therefore the thick milk be diluted with water, it will afford more cream, but its quality will be inferior. Milk carried about in pails, and partly cooled before it be strained and poured into the trays, never throws up such good and plentiful cream, as if it had been put into proper vessels immediately after it came from the cow. Those who have not an opportunity of churning every other day, should shift the cream daily into clean pans, in order to keep it cool; but the churning should take place regularly twice a week in hot weather, and in the morning before sun-rise, taking care to fix the churn in a free circulation of air. In the winter time, the churn must not be set so near the fire as to heat the wood, as by this means the butter will acquire a strong rancid flavour. Cleanliness being of the utmost importance, the common plunge-churn is preferable to any other; but if a barrel-churn be requisite in a large dairy, it must be kept thoroughly clean with salt and water. If a plunge-churn be used, it may be set in a tub of cold water during the time of churning, which will harden the butter in a considerable degree. The motion of the churn should be regular, and performed by one person, or the butter will in winter go back; and if the agitation be violent and irregular, the butter will ferment in summer, and acquire a disagreeable flavour. The operation of churning may be much facilitated by adding a table-spoonful or two of distilled vinegar to a gallon of cream, but not till after the latter has undergone considerable agitation. In many parts of England, butter is artificially coloured in winter, though it adds nothing to its goodness. The juice of carrots is expressed through a sieve, and mixed with the cream when it enters the churn, to give it the appearance of May butter. Verylittle salt is used in the best Epping butter; but a certain proportion of acid, either natural or artificial, must be used in the cream, in order to secure a successful churning. Some keep a small quantity of the old cream for that purpose; some use a little rennet, and others a few tea-spoonfuls of lemon juice. It has been ascertained however, by a variety of experiments, that it is more profitable to churn the cream, than to churn the whole milk, as is practised in some parts of the country. Cream butter is also the richest of the two, though it will not keep sweet so long.
CIDER. Particular caution is requisite in bottling this useful beverage, in order to its being well preserved. To secure the bottles from bursting, the liquor must be thoroughly fine before it be racked off. If one bottle break, it will be necessary to open the remainder, and cork them up again. Weak cider is more apt to burst the bottles, than that of a better quality. Good corks, soaked in hot water, will be more safe and pliant; and by laying the bottles so that the liquor may always keep the corks wet and swelled, will tend much to its preservation. For this purpose the ground is preferable to a frame, and a layer of sawdust better than the bare floor; but the most proper situation would be a stream of running water. In order to ripen bottled liquors, they are sometimes exposed to moderate warmth, or the rays of the sun, which in a few days will bring them to maturity.
CIDER CUP. To make a cooling drink, mix together a quart of cider, a glass of white wine, one of brandy, one of capillaire, the juice of a lemon, a bit of the peel pared thin, a sprig of borage or balm, a piece of toasted bread, and nutmeg grated on the top.
CINNAMON CAKES. Whisk together in a pan six eggs, and two table-spoonfuls of rose water. Add a pound of fine sugar sifted, a desert-spoonful of pounded cinnamon, and flour sufficient to make it into a paste. Roll it out, cut it into cakes, and bake them on writing paper.
CITRON PUDDING. Boil some Windsor beans quite soft, take off the skins, and beat a quarter of a pound of them into a paste. Then add as much butter, four eggs well beaten, with some sugar and brandy. Put a puff-paste in the dish, lay some slices of citron on it, pour in the pudding, garnish with bits of citron round the edge of the dish, and bake it in a moderate oven.
CLARIFIED BROTH. Put broth or gravy into a clean stewpan, break the white and shell of an egg, beat them together and add them to the broth. Stir it with a whisk; and when it has boiled a few minutes, strain it through a tammis or a napkin.
CLARIFIED BUTTER. To make clarified butter for potted things, put some butter into a sauceboat, and set it over the fire in a stewpan that has a little water in it. When the butter is dissolved, the milky parts will sink to the bottom, and care must be taken not to pour them over things to be potted.
CLARIFIED DRIPPING. Mutton fat taken from the meat before it is roasted, or any kind of dripping, may be sliced and boiled a few minutes; and when it is cold, it will come off in a cake. This will make good crust for any sort of meat pie, and may be made finer by boiling it three or four times.
CLARIFIEDSUGAR. Break in large lumps as much loaf sugar as is required, and dissolve it in a bowl, allowing a pound of sugar to half a pint of water. Set it over the fire, and add the white of an egg well whipt. Let it boil up; and when ready to run over, pour in a little cold water to give it a check. But when it rises the second time, takeit off the fire, and set it by in a pan a quarter of an hour. The foulness will sink to the bottom, and leave a black scum on the top, which must be taken off gently with a skimmer. Then pour the syrup very quickly from the sediment, and set it by for sweetmeats.
CLARIFIED SYRUP. Break two pounds of double-refined sugar, and put it into a stewpan that is well tinned, with a pint of cold spring water. When the sugar is dissolved, set it over a moderate fire. Beat up half the white of an egg, put it to the sugar before it gets warm, and stir it well together. As soon as it boils take off the scum, and keep it boiling till it is perfectly clear. Run it through a clean napkin, put it into a close stopped bottle, and it will keep for months, as an elegant article on the sideboard for sweetening.
CLARY WINE. Boil fifteen gallons of water, with forty-five pounds of sugar, and skim it clean. When cool put a little to a quarter of a pint of yeast, and so by degrees add a little more. In the course of an hour put the smaller to the larger quantity, pour the liquor on clary flowers, picked in the dry: the quantity for the above is twelve quarts. If there be not a sufficient quantity ready to put in at once, more may be added bydegrees, keeping an account of each quart. When the liquor ceases to hiss, and the flowers are all in, stop it up for four months. Rack it off, empty the barrel of the dregs, and add a gallon of the best brandy. Return the liquor to the cask, close it up for six or eight weeks, and then bottle it off.
CLEANLINESS. Nothing is more conducive to health than cleanliness, and the want of it is a fault which admits of no excuse. It is so agreeable to our nature, that we cannot help approving it in others, even if we do not practise it ourselves. It is an ornament to the highest as well as to the lowest station, and cannot be dispensed with in either: it ought to be cultivated everywhere, especially in populous towns and cities. Frequent washing not only improves the appearance, but promotes perspiration, by removing every impediment on the skin, while at the same time it braces the body, and enlivens the spirits. Washing the feet and legs in lukewarm water, after being exposed to cold and wet, would prevent the ill effects which proceed from these causes, and greatly contribute to health. Diseases of the skin, a very numerous class, are chiefly owing to the want of cleanliness, as well as the various kinds of vermin which infest the human body; and all these might be prevented by a due regard to our own persons. One common cause of putrid and malignant fevers is the want of cleanliness. They usually begin among the inhabitants of close and dirty houses, who breathe unwholesome air, take little exercise, and wear dirty clothes. There the infection is generally hatched, and spreads its desolation far and wide. If dirty people cannot be removed as a common nuisance, they ought at least to be avoided as infectious, and all who regard their own health should keep at a distance from their habitations. Infectious diseases are often communicated by tainted air: every thing therefore which gives a noxious exhalation, or tends to spread infection, should be carefully avoided. In great towns no filth of any kind should be suffered to remain in the streets, and great pains should be taken to keep every dwelling clean both within and without. No dunghills or filth of any kind should be allowed to remain near them. When an infection breaks out, cleanliness is the most likely means to prevent its spreading to other places, or its returning again afterwards. It will lodge a long time in dirty clothes, and be liable tobreak out again; and therefore the bedding and clothing of the sick ought to be carefully washed, and fumigated with brimstone. Infectious diseases are not only prevented, but even cured by cleanliness; while the slightest disorders, where it is neglected, are often changed into the most malignant. Yet it has so happened, that the same mistaken care which prevents the least admission of fresh air to the sick, has introduced the idea also of keeping them dirty; than which nothing can be more injurious to the afflicted, or more repugnant to common sense. In a room too, where cleanliness is neglected, a person in perfect health has a greater chance to become sick, than a sick person has to get well. It is also of great consequence, that cleanliness should be strictly regarded by those especially who are employed in preparing food; such as butchers, bakers, brewers, dairy maids, and cooks; as negligence in any of these may prove injurious to the public health. Good housekeepers will keep a careful eye on these things, and every person of reflection will see the necessity of cultivating general cleanliness as of great importance to the wellbeing of society.
CLEAR BROTH. To make a broth that will keep long, put the mouse round of beef into a deep pan, with a knuckle bone of veal, and a few shanks of mutton. Cover it close with a dish or coarse crust, and bake with as much water as will cover it, till the beef is done enough for eating. When cold, cover it close, and keep it in a cool place. When to be used, give it any flavour most approved.
CLEAR GRAVY. Slice some beef thin, broil a part of it over a very clear quick fire, just enough to give a colour to the gravy, but not to dress it. Put that and the raw beef into a very nicely tinned stewpan, with two onions, a clove or two, whole black pepper, berries of allspice, and a bunch of sweet herbs. Cover it with hot water, give it one boil, and skim it well two or three times. Then cover it, and simmer till it be quite strong.
CLOTHING. Those who regard their health should be careful to adapt their clothing to the state of the climate, and the season of the year. Whatever be the influence of custom, there is no reason why our clothing should be such as would suit an inhabitant of the torrid or the frigid zones, but of the state of the air around us, and of the country in which we live. Apparel may be warm enough for one season of the year, which is by no means sufficient for another; we ought therefore neither to put off our winter garments too soon, nor wear our summer ones too long. Every change of this sort requires to be made cautiously, and by degrees. In general, all clothes should be light and easy, and in no instance ought health and comfort to be sacrificed to pride and vanity. In the early part of life it is not necessary to wear many clothes: but in the decline of life, when many diseases proceed from a defect of perspiration, plenty of warm clothing is required. Attention should also be paid to the constitution, in this as well as in other cases. Some persons can endure either cold or heat better than others, and may therefore be less mindful of their clothing: the great object is to wear just so many garments as is sufficient to keep the body warm, and no more. Shoes in particular should be easy to the foot, and all tight bandages on every part of the body carefully avoided.
CLOUTED CREAM. String four blades of mace on a thread, put them to a gill of new milk, and six spoonfuls of rose water. Simmer a few minutes, then by degrees strain the liquor to the yolks of two eggs well beaten. Stir the whole into aquart of rich cream, and set it over the fire; keep it stirring till hot, but not boiling; pour it into a deep dish, and let it stand twenty-four hours. Serve it in a cream dish, to eat with fruits. Some prefer it without any flavour but that of cream; in which case use a quart of new milk and the cream, or do it as the Devonshire scalded cream. When done enough, a round mark will appear on the surface of the cream, the size of the bottom of the pan, which is called the ring; and when that is seen, remove the pan from the fire.
CLYSTER. A common clyster is made of plain gruel strained, and a table-spoonful of oil or salt. A pint is sufficient for a grown person.
COCK CHAFFERS. This species of the beetle, sometimes called the May bug, is a formidable enemy to the husbandman, and has been found to swarm in such numbers, as to devour every kind of vegetable production. The insect is first generated in the earth, from the eggs deposited by the fly in its perfect state. In about three months, the insects contained in these eggs break the shell, and crawl forth in the shape of a grub or maggot, which feeds upon the roots of vegetables, and continues in this state of secret annoyance for more than three years, gradually growing to the size of an acorn. It is the thick white maggot with a red head, so frequently found in turning up the soil. At the end of the fourth year, they emerge from the earth, and may be seen in great numbers in the mild evenings of May. The willow seems to be their favourite food; on this they hang in clusters, and seldom quit it till they have completely devoured its foliage. The most effectual way to destroy them, is to beat them off with poles, and then to collect and burn them. The smoke of burning heath, fern, or other weeds, will prevent their incursions in gardens, or expel them if they have entered.
COCK ROACHES. These insects, consisting of various species, penetrate into chests and drawers, and do considerable injury to linen, books, and other articles. They seldom appear till night, when they infest beds, and bite very severely, leaving an unpleasant smell. The best remedy is to fill an earthen dish with small beer, sweetened with coarse sugar, and set in the place infested. Lay a board against the pan, to form a kind of ladder, and the insects will ascend and fall into the liquor.
COCKLE KETCHUP. Open the cockles, scald them in their own liquor, and add a little water, if there be not enough; but it is better to have a sufficient quantity of cockles, than to dilute it with water. Strain the liquor through a cloth, and season it with savoury spices. If for brown sauce, add port, anchovies, and garlic: a bit of burnt sugar will heighten the colouring. If for white sauce, omit these, and put in a glass of sherry, some lemon juice and peel, mace, nutmeg, and white pepper.
COD FISH. In season from the beginning of December till the end of April. To be quite good, the fish should be thick at the neck, the flesh white and firm, the gills very red, and the eyes bright and fresh. When flabby, they are not good. The cod is generally boiled whole; but a large head and shoulders contain all that is relishing, the thinner parts being overdone and tasteless before the thick are ready. But the whole fish may often be purchased more reasonably; and the lower half, if sprinkled and hung up, will be in high perfection one or two days. Or it may be made salter, and served with egg sauce, potatoes, and parsnips. Small cod is usually very cheap. If boiled fresh, it is watery; but eats well if salted and hung up for a day, to give it firmness. Then it should be stuffedand boiled, or it is equally good broiled.
COD'S HEAD. The head and shoulders of the cod will eat much finer by having a little salt rubbed down the bone, and along the thick part, even if eaten the same day. Tie it up, put it on the fire in cold water sufficient to cover it, and throw a handful of salt into it. Great care must be taken to serve it up without the smallest speck of black, or scum. Garnish with plenty of double parsley, lemon, horse radish, and the milt, roe and liver, and fried smelts, if approved. If with smelts, no water must be suffered to hang about the fish, or the beauty and flavour of the smelts will be lost. Serve with plenty of oyster or shrimp sauce, anchovy and butter.
COD PIE. Take a piece of the middle of a small cod, and salt it well one night. Wash it the next day, season with pepper and salt, mixed with a very little nutmeg. Lay the meat in a dish, with the addition of a little good broth of any kind, and some bits of butter on it. Cover the dish with a crust, and bake it. When done, make a sauce of a spoonful of broth, a quarter of a pint of cream, a little flour and butter, and a dust of grated lemon and nutmeg. Give it one boil, and pour it into the pie. Oysters may be added, but parsley will do instead. Mackarel may be done in the same way, but must not be salted till they are used.
COD SOUNDS BOILED. Soak them in warm water half an hour, then scrape and clean them. If to be dressed white, boil them in milk and water. When tender, serve them up in a napkin, with egg sauce. The salt must not be much soaked out, unless for fricassee.
COD SOUNDS BROILED. Scald them in hot water, rub well with salt, pull off the dirty skin, and simmer them till tender. Then take them out, flour, and broil them. While this is doing, season a little brown gravy with pepper, salt, a tea-spoonful of soy, and a little mustard. Give it a boil with a little flour and butter, and pour it over the sounds.
COD SOUNDS RAGOUT. Having scalded, cleaned, and rubbed them well with salt, stew them in white gravy seasoned. Before they are served, add a little cream, butter and flour, gently boiling up. A bit of lemon peel, nutmeg, and the least pounded mace, will give it a good flavour.
COD SOUNDS LIKE CHICKENS. Carefully wash three large sounds, boil them in milk and water, but not too tender. When cold, put a forcemeat of chopped oysters, crumbs of bread, a bit of butter, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and the yolks of two eggs. Spread it thin over the sounds, roll up each in the form of a chicken, and skewer it. Then lard them as chickens, dust a little flour over, and roast them slowly in a tin oven. When done enough, pour over them a fine oyster sauce, and place them on the table as a side or corner dish.
CODLINS. This fruit may be kept for several months, if gathered of a middling size at midsummer, and treated in the following manner. Put them into an earthen pan, pour boiling water over them, and cover the pan with cabbage leaves. Keep them by the fire till ready to peel, but do not peel them; then pour off the water, and leave them cold. Place the codlins in a stone jar with a smallish mouth, and pour on the water that scalded them. Cover the pot with bladder wetted and tied very close, and then over it coarse paper tied again. The fruit is best kept in small jars, such as will be used at once when opened.
CODLIN CREAM. Pare and core twenty good codlins; beat them in a mortar with a pint of cream, andstrain it into a dish. Put to it sugar, bread crumbs, and a glass of wine; and stir it well.
CODLIN TART. Scald the fruit, and take off the skin. Put a little of the liquor on the bottom of a dish, lay in the apples whole, and strew them over with Lisbon or fine sugar. When cold, put a paste round the edges, and over the fruit. Moisten the crust with the white of an egg, and strew some fine sugar over it; or cut the lid in quarters, without touching the paste on the edge of the dish. Remove the lid when cold, pour in a good custard, and sift it over with sugar. Another way is to line the bottom of a shallow dish with paste, lay in the scalded fruit, sweeten it, and lay little twists of paste over in bars.
COFFEE. Put two ounces of fresh-ground coffee, of the best quality, into a coffee pot, and pour eight coffee cups of boiling water on it. Let it boil six minutes, and return it; then put in two or three chips of isinglass, and pour on it one large spoonful of boiling water. Boil it five minutes more, and set the pot by the fire for ten minutes to keep it hot: the coffee will then be of a beautiful clearness. Fine cream should always be served with coffee, and either pounded sugar-candy, or fine Lisbon sugar. If for foreigners, or those who like it very strong, make only eight dishes from three ounces. If not fresh roasted, lay it before the fire until perfectly hot and dry; or put the smallest bit of fresh butter into a preserving pan, and when hot, throw the coffee into it, and toss it about until it be freshened, but let it be quite cold before it is ground.—But as coffee possesses a raw and astringent quality, which often disagrees with weak stomachs, and by being drank too warm is as frequently rendered unwholesome, the following is recommended as an improved method of preparing it. To an ounce of coffee, add a tea-spoonful of the best flour of mustard, to correct its acidity, and improve its fragrance; and in order to render it truly fine and wholesome, it should be made the evening before it is wanted. Let an ounce of fresh-ground coffee be put into a clean coffee pot well tinned, pour upon it a full pint of boiling water, set it on the fire, and after it has well boiled, let it stand by to settle. Next morning pour off the clear liquor, add to it a pint of new milk, warm it over the fire, and sweeten it to taste. Coffee made in this way, will be found particularly suitable to persons of a weak and delicate habit.—A substitute for foreign coffee may be prepared from the acorns of the oak, by shelling and dividing the kernels, drying and roasting them gradually in a close vessel, and keeping them constantly stirring. Grind it like other coffee, and either use it alone, or mix with it a small quantity of foreign coffee. The seeds of the flower de luce, or common waterflag, being roasted in the same manner as coffee, very much resembles it in colour and flavour. Coffee made of these seeds is extremely wholesome, in the proportion of an ounce to a pint of boiling water.
COFFEE CAKES. Melt some fresh butter in a pint of thin cream, and work up with it four pounds of dried flour. Add a pound of sugar, a pint of yeast, and half an ounce of carraways. Stir them all together, set it before the fire to rise, roll the paste out thin, cut it into small cakes, and bake them on buttered paper.
COFFEE CREAM. Boil a calf's foot in water till reduced to a pint of jelly, clear of sediment and fat. Make a tea-cupful of strong fresh coffee, clear it perfectly bright with isinglass, and pour it to the jelly. Add a pint of very good cream,sweeten it with fine Lisbon sugar, boil it up once, and pour it into the dish. This article is much admired, but the jelly must not be stiff, and the coffee must be fresh.
COFFEE MILK. Boil a dessert-spoonful of ground coffee, in nearly a pint of milk, a quarter of an hour. Then put in a shaving or two of isinglass to clear it; let it boil a few minutes, and set it on the side of the fire to grow fine. This makes a very fine breakfast; it should be sweetened with real Lisbon sugar of a good quality.
COLD CAUDLE. Boil a quart of spring water; when cold, add the yolk of an egg, the juice of a small lemon, six spoonfuls of sweet wine, sugar to taste, and syrup of lemons one ounce.
COLD FISH. Soles, cod, whitings, or smelts may be cut into bits, and put into scallop shells, with cold oyster, lobster, or shrimp sauce. Having added some bread crumbs, they may be put into a Dutch oven, and browned like scalloped oysters.
COLD MEAT. If it be a little underdone, the best way to warm it up is to sprinkle over a little salt, and put it into a Dutch oven at some distance before a gentle fire, that it may warm gradually. Watch it carefully, and keep turning it till it is quite hot and brown, and serve it up with gravy. This is preferable to hashing, as it will retain more of its original flavour. Roast beef or mutton, of course, are best for this purpose.
COLD SALLAD. Boil an egg quite hard, put the yolk into a sallad dish, mash it with a spoonful of water, then add a little of the best sallad oil or melted butter, a tea-spoonful of ready-made mustard, and some vinegar. Cut the sallad small and mix it together, adding celery, radishes, or other sallad herbs with it. Onions may be served in a saucer, rather than mixed in the bowl. An anchovy may be washed, cut small, and mixed with it; also a bit of beet root, and the white of an egg. Celery may be prepared in the same way.
COLDS. For a bad cold take a large tea-cupful of linseed, two pennyworth of stick liquorice, and a quarter of a pound of sun raisins. Put them into two quarts of water, and let it simmer over a slow fire till reduced one half. Then add a quarter of a pound of sugar-candy pounded, a table-spoonful of rum, and the same of lemon juice or vinegar. The rum and lemon juice are better added when the mixture is taken, or they are apt to grow flat. Take half a pint just warm at bed time.
COLLARED BEEF. Choose the thin end of the flank of fine mellow beef, but not too fat: lay it into a dish with salt and saltpetre, turn and rub it every day for a week, and keep it cool. Then take out every bone and gristle, remove the skin of the inside part, and cover it thick with the following seasoning cut small; a large handful of parsley, the same of sage, some thyme, marjoram and pennyroyal, pepper, salt, and allspice. Roll the meat up as tight as possible, and bind it round with a cloth and tape; then boil it gently for seven or eight hours. Put the beef under a good weight while hot, without undoing it: the shape willthenbe oval. Part of a breast of veal rolled in with the beef, looks and eats very well.
COLLARED EEL. Bone a large eel, but do not skin it. Mix up pepper, salt, mace, allspice, and a clove or two, in the finest powder, and rub over the whole inside: roll it tight, and bind it with a coarse tape. Boil it in salt and water till done enough, then add vinegar, and when cold keep the collar in pickle. Serve it either whole or in slices. Chopped parsley, sage, a little thyme, knotted marjoram, and savoury, mixed with the spices, greatly improve the taste.
COLLARED MACKAREL. Do them the same as eels, omitting the herbs.
COLLARED MUTTON. Take out the bones and gristle of a breast of mutton, lay the meat flat, and rub it over with egg. Mix some grated bread, pounded cloves and mace, pepper, salt, and lemon peel, and strew over it. Two or three anchovies, washed and boned, may be added. Roll the meat up hard, bind it with tape and boil it; or if skewered, it may either be roasted or baked.
COLLARED PORK. Bone a breast of pork, and season it with thyme, parsley and sage. Roll it hard, tie it up in a cloth, and boil it. Press it well, take it out of the cloth when cold, and keep it in the liquor it was boiled in.
COLLARED PORK'S HEAD. Clean it well, take out the brains, rub it with a handful of salt, and two ounces of saltpetre. Let it lie a fortnight in brine, then wash it, and boil it till the bones will easily come out. Lay it in a dish, take off the skin carefully, take out the bones, and peel the tongue. Mix a handful of sage, a little thyme, and four shalots chopped fine. Put the meat to it, and chop it into pieces about an inch square. Put a thin cloth into an earthen pot, lay in the meat, cover the cloth over, and press it down. Set the pot in the liquor again, boil it nearly an hour longer, then take it out, place a weight on the cover within side, and let it remain all night. Take it out, strip off the cloth, and eat the collar with mustard and vinegar.
COLLARED SALMON. Split such part of the fish as may be sufficient to make a handsome roll, wash and wipe it; and having mixed salt, white pepper, pounded mace, and Jamaica pepper, in quantity to season it very high, rub it inside and out well. Then roll it tight and bandage it, put as much water and one third vinegar as will cover it, adding bay leaves, salt, and both sorts of pepper. Cover it close, and simmer till it is done enough. Drain and boil the liquor, put it on when cold, and serve with fennel. It is an elegant dish, and extremely good.
COLLARED VEAL. Bone the breast and beat it, rub it with egg, and strew over it a seasoning of pounded mace, nutmeg, pepper and salt, minced parsley, sweet marjoram, lemon peel, crumbs of bread, and an anchovy. Roll it up tight in a cloth, and boil it two hours and a half in salt and water. Hang it up, or press it: make a pickle for it of the liquor it was boiled in, and half the quantity of vinegar.
COLLEGE PUDDINGS. Grate the crumb of a two-penny loaf, shred eight ounces of suet, and mix with eight ounces of currants, one of citron mixed fine, one of orange, a handful of sugar, half a nutmeg, three eggs beaten, yolk and white separately. Mix and make into the size and shape of a goose-egg. Put half a pound of butter into a fryingpan; and when melted and quite hot, stew them gently in it over a stove; turn them two or three times, till they are of a fine light brown. Mix a glass of brandy with the batter, and serve with pudding sauce.
COLOURING FOR JELLIES. For a beautiful Red, take fifteen grains of cochineal in the finest powder, and a dram and a half of cream of tartar. Boil them in half a pint of water very slowly for half an hour, adding a bit of alum the size of a pea; or use beet root sliced, and some liquor poured over. For White, use cream; or almonds finely powdered, with a spoonful of water. For Yellow, yolks of eggs, or a little saffron steeped in the liquor and squeezed. For Green, spinach or beet leaves bruised and pressed, and the juice boiled to take off the rawness. Any of these will do to stain jellies, ices, or cakes.
COLOURING FOR SOUPS. Put four ounces of lump sugar, a gill of water, and half an ounce of fine butter into a small tosser, and set it over a gentle fire. Stir it with a wooden spoon, till of a light brown. Then add half a pint of water; let it boil and skim it well. When cold, bottle and cork it close. Add to either soup or gravy as much of this as will give it a proper colour.
COMMON CAKE. Mix three quarters of a pound of flour with half a pound of butter, four ounces of sugar, four eggs, half an ounce of carraways, and a glass of raisin wine. Beat it well, and bake it in a quick oven.—A better sort of common cake may be made of half a pound of butter, rubbed into two pounds of dried flour; then add three spoonfuls of yeast that is not bitter, and work it to a paste. Let it rise an hour and a half; then mix in the yolks and whites of four eggs beaten separately, a pound of Lisbon sugar, about a pint of milk to make it of a proper thickness, a glass of sweet wine, the rind of a lemon, and a tea-spoonful of powdered ginger. A pound of currants, or some carraways may be added, and let the whole be well beaten together.
COMMON PLANTS. The virtues of a great number of ordinary plants and weeds being but little understood, they are generally deemed useless; but they have properties nevertheless which might be rendered useful, if carefully and judiciously applied. The young shoots and leaves of chick-weed, for example, may be boiled and eaten like spinach, are equally wholesome, and can scarcely be distinguished from it. The juice expressed from the stem and leaves of goose-grass, taken to the amount of four ounces, night and morning for several weeks, is very efficacious in scorbutic complaints, and other cutaneous eruptions. The smell of garlic is an infallible remedy against the vapours, faintings, and other hysteric affections. The common poppy is an antidote to the stings of venomous insects, and a remedy for inflammation of the eyes: it also cures the pleurisy, and spitting of blood. Sage taken in any form tends to cleanse and enrich the blood: it makes a good cordial, and is highly useful in cases of nervous debility. It is often given in fevers with a view to promote perspiration, and with the addition of a little lemon juice it makes a grateful and cooling beverage.
COOL TANKARD. Put into a quart of mild ale a glass of white wine, one of brandy, one of capillaire, the juice of a lemon, and a little piece of the rind. Add a sprig of borage or balm, a bit of toasted bread, and nutmeg grated on the top.
COPPER. Many serious accidents have been occasioned by the use of copper in kitchen requisites. The eating of fruit especially that has been prepared in a copper stewpan, where some of the oxide was insensibly imbibed, has been known to produce death; or if coffee grounds are suffered to remain long in a copper coffee-pot, and afterwards mixed with fresh coffee, for the sake of economy, the effects will be highly injurious, if not fatal. The best antidote in such cases, when they unhappily occur, is to take immediately a large spoonful of powdered charcoal, mixed with honey, butter, or treacle; and within two hours afterwards, an emetic or a cathartic to expel the poison.
COPPERS. In domestic economy, the necessity of keeping copper vessels always clean, is generally acknowledged; but it may not perhaps be so generally known, that fat and oily substances, and vegetable acids, do not attack copper while hot; and therefore, that if no liquor were suffered to remain and grow cold in copper vessels, they might be used for every culinary purpose with perfect safety. The object is to cleanand dry the vessels well before they turn cold.
COPYING LETTERS. Dissolve a little sugar in the ink, and write with it as usual. When a copy is required, moisten a piece of unsized paper lightly with a sponge, and apply it to the writing; then smooth the wet paper over with a warm iron, such as is used in a laundry, and the copy is immediately produced without the use of a machine.
COPYING PRINTS. Moisten a piece of paper with a solution of soap and alum, lay it on the print or picture, and pass it under a rolling press. Another method is to have a small frame in the form of a basin stand, enclosing a square of glass on the pot, on which the print is laid with the paper upon it; and then placing a candle under the glass, the print may be traced with a pencil, or pen and ink. Impressions may also be transferred by mixing a little vermillion with linseed oil so as to make it fluid; then with a pen dipped in it, trace every line of the print accurately. Turn the print with its face downwards on a sheet of white paper, wet the back of the print, lay another sheet upon it, and press it till the red lines are completely transferred.
CORKS. Economy in corks is very unwise: in order to save a mere trifle in the purchase, there is a danger of losing some valuable article which it is intended to preserve. None but velvet taper corks should be used for liquors that are to be kept for any length of time; and when a bottle of ketchup or of anchovy is opened, the cork should be thrown away, and a new one put in that will fit it very tight. If a cork is forced down even with the mouth of the bottle, it is too small, and should be drawn, that a larger one may be put in.
CORK CEMENT. Liquors and preserves, intended to be kept a long time, are often spoiled by the clumsy and ineffectual manner in which they are fastened down. Bottles therefore should be secured with the following cement, spread upon the cork after it is cut level with the top of the bottle. Melt in an earthen or iron pot half a pound of black rosin, half a pound of sealing wax, and a quarter of a pound of bees wax. When it froths up, and before all is melted and likely to boil over, stir it with a tallow candle, which will settle the froth till all is melted and fit for use.
CORNS. Apply to warts and corns, a piece of soft brown paper moistened with saliva, and a few dressings will remove them. A convenient plaster may also be made of an ounce of pitch, half an ounce of galbanum dissolved in vinegar, one scruple of ammoniac, and a dram and a half of diachylon mixed together.
COSTIVENESS. From whatever cause it may arise, frequent exercise in the open air, and abstinence from heating liquors, will be found very beneficial. To those who are afflicted with this complaint, it is particularly recommended that they should visit the customary retreat every morning at a stated hour, that nature may in this respect, by perseverance, acquire a habit of regularity. In obstinate cases, three drams of carbon may be taken two or three times a day, mixed with three ounces of lenitive electuary, and two drams of carbonate of soda, as circumstances may require. Half an ounce of Epsom salts, dissolved in a tumbler or two of cold water, and drank at intervals, will have a very salutary effect.
COTTENHAM CHEESE. Though this is so much noted for its superior flavour and delicacy, it does not appear to be owing to any particular management of the dairy, but rather to the fragrance of the herbage on which the cows feed in that part of the country.
COUGHS. The extract of malt will be found an excellent remedy for coughs or colds. Pour as much hot water over half a bushel of pale ground malt as will just cover it; the water must not be boiling. In forty-eight hours drain off the liquor entirely, but without squeezing the grains. Put the former into a large sweetmeat pan, or saucepan, that there may be room to boil as quick as possible, without boiling over. When it begins to thicken, stir it constantly, till it becomes as thick as treacle. Take a dessert-spoonful of it three times a day.—Another remedy for a bad cough may be prepared as follows. Mix together a pint of simple mint water, two table-spoonfuls of sallad oil, two tea-spoonfuls of hartshorns, sweetened with sugar, and take two large spoonfuls of the mixture two or three times a day.
COURT PLAISTER. Dissolve half an ounce of isinglass in an ounce of water, and boil it till the water is nearly all consumed; then add gradually a dram of Friar's balsam, and stir them well together. Dip a brush in the hot mixture, and spread it on a piece of clean silk.
COWS. In the management of cows intended for the dairy, a warm stable or cowhouse is of great importance. Cows kept at pasture will require from one to two acres of land each to keep them during the summer months; but if housed, the produce of one fourth part will be sufficient. Their dung, which would otherwise be wasted on the ground by the action of the sun and weather, is hereby easily preserved, and given to the soil where it is most wanted, and in the best condition. The treading on the grass and pasture, which diminishes its value, is prevented; the expence of division-fences is avoided, and the time and trouble of driving them about is all saved. They are also kept more cool, are less tormented by flies than if pastured, acquire good coats and full flesh, though they consume a much smaller quantity of food. They are in all respects more profitably kept in the house, than out of doors; but they must be regularly and gradually trained to it, or they will not thrive. Cows should always be kept clean, laid dry, and have plenty of good water to drink. They should never be suffered to drink at stagnant pools, or where there are frogs, spawn, or filth of any kind; or from common sewers or ponds that receive the drainings of stables, or such kind of places; all which are exceedingly improper. One of the most effectual means of rendering their milk sweet and wholesome, as well as increasing its quantity, is to let them drink freely of water in which the most fragrant kind of clover or lucern has been steeped: and if they are curried in the same manner as horses, they will not only receive pleasure from it, but give their milk more freely. In Holland, where the greatest attention is paid to all kinds of domestic animals, the haunches of dairy cows are washed morning and evening with warm water previous to milking, and after calving are clothed with sacking. The floors of their cowhouses are paved with brick, with a descent in the middle, where a gutter carries off the drain, and the place is kept perfectly clean with a broom and pails of water. The filthy state in which cows are confined in the vicinity of London, and other large cities, and the manner in which they are literally crammed, not with wholesome food, but with such things as are calculated to produce an abundance of milk, cannot be too severely reprobated as injurious to the public health. It is also notorious, that vessels of hot and cold water are always kept in these cowhouses for theaccommodationof mercenary retailers, who purchase a quantity of milk at a low price, and then mix itwith such a proportion of water as they think necessary to reduce it to a proper standard; when it is hawked about at an exorbitant price. The milk is not pure in its original state, and being afterwards adulterated, it is scarcely fit for any purpose in a family. The first object in the article of food, is wholesomeness; and grass growing spontaneously on good meadow-land is in general deemed most proper for cows intended to supply the dairy. The quantity of milk produced by those which feed on sainfoin is however nearly double to that of any other provender: it is also richer in quality, and will yield a larger quantity of cream: of course the butter will be better coloured and flavoured than any other. Turnips and carrots form an excellent article, and cannot be too strongly recommended, especially as a winter food; but they should be cleaned and cut; and parsnips, with the tops taken off will produce abundance of milk, of a superior quality; and cows will eat them freely though they are improper for horses. Of all vegetable productions, perhaps the cabbage is the most exuberant for this purpose, and ought by all means to be encouraged. The drum-headed cabbage, and the hardy variety of a deep green colour with purple veins, and of the same size with the drum-head, are particularly useful in the feeding of cows, and afford an increase of milk far superior to that produced by turnips. They are also excellent for the fattening of cattle, which they will do six weeks sooner than any other vegetables, though the cabbage plant is generally supposed to impart a disagreeable flavour to butter and cheese made from the milk of cows fed upon it, yet this may easily be prevented by putting a gallon of boiling water to six gallons of milk, when it is standing in the trays; or by dissolving an ounce of saltpetre in a quart of spring water, and mixing about a quarter of a pint of it with ten or twelve gallons of milk as it comes from the cow. By breaking off the loose leaves, and giving only the sound part to the cows, this disagreeable quality may also be avoided, as other cattle will eat the leaves without injury. When a cow has been milked for several years, and begins to grow old, the most advantageous way is to make her dry. To effect this, bruise six ounces of white rosin, and dissolve it in a quart of water. The cow having been housed, should then be bled and milked; and after the mixture has been administered, she should be turned into good grass. She is no longer to be milked, but fattened on rich vegetables. Cows intended for breeding, should be carefully selected from those which give plenty of milk. During three months previously to calving, if in the spring, they should be turned into sweet grass; or if it happen in the winter, they ought to be well fed with the best hay. The day and night after they have calved, they should be kept in the house, and lukewarm water only allowed for their drink. They may be turned out the next day, if the weather be warm, but regularly taken in for three or four successive nights; or if the weather be damp and cold, it is better to girt them round with sacking, or keep them wholly within. Cows thus housed should be kept in every night, till the morning cold is dissipated, and a draught of warm water given them previously to their going to the field. If the udder of a milking cow becomes hard and painful, it should be fomented with warm water and rubbed with a gentle hand. Or if the teats are sore, they should be soaked in warm water twice a day; and either be dressed with soft ointment, or done with spirits and water. If the former, great cleanliness is necessary: the milk at these times is best givento the pigs. Or if a cow be injured by a blow or wound, the part affected should be suppled several times a day with fresh butter; or a salve prepared of one ounce of Castile soap dissolved in a pint and a half of fresh milk over a slow fire, stirring it constantly, to form a complete mixture. But if the wound should turn to an obstinate ulcer, take Castile soap, gum ammoniac, gum galbanum, and extract of hemlock, each one ounce; form them into eight boluses, and administer one of them every morning and evening. To prevent cows from sucking their own milk, as some of them are apt to do, rub the teats frequently with strong rancid cheese, which will prove an effectual remedy.
COW HEELS. These are very nutricious, and may be variously dressed. The common way is to boil, and serve them in a napkin, with melted butter, mustard, and a large spoonful of vinegar. Or broil them very tender, and serve them as a brown fricassee. The liquor will do to make jelly sweet or relishing and likewise to give richness to soups or gravies. Another way is to cut them into four parts, to dip them into an egg, and then dredge and fry them. They may be garnished with fried onions, and served with sauce as above. Or they may be baked as for mock turtle.
COWSLIP MEAD. Put thirty pounds of honey into fifteen gallons of water, and boil till one gallon is wasted; skim it, and take it off the fire. Have a dozen and a half of lemons ready quartered, pour a gallon of the liquor boiling hot upon them, and the remainder into a tub, with seven pecks of cowslip pips. Let them remain there all night; then put the liquor and the lemons to eight spoonfuls of new yeast, and a handful of sweet-briar. Stir all well together, and let it work for three or four days; then strain and tun it into a cask. Let it stand six months, and bottle it for keeping.
COWSLIP WINE. To every gallon of water, weigh three pounds of lump sugar; boil them together half an hour, and take off the scum as it rises. When sufficiently cool, put to it a crust of toasted bread dipped in thick yeast, and let the liquor ferment in the tub thirty six hours. Then put into the cask intended for keeping it, the peel of two and the rind of one lemon, for every gallon of liquor; also the peel and the rind of one Seville orange, and one gallon of cowslip pips. Pour the liquor upon them, stir it carefully every day for a week, and for every five gallons put in a bottle of brandy. Let the cask be close stopped, and stand only six weeks before it be bottled off.
CRABS. The heaviest are best, and those of a middling size the sweetest. If light they are watery: when in perfection the joints of the legs are stiff, and the body has a very agreeable smell. The eyes look dead and loose when stale. The female crab is generally preferred: the colour is much brighter, the claws are shorter, and the apron in front is much broader. To dress a hot crab, pick out the meat, and clear the shell from the head. Put the meat into the shell again, with a little nutmeg, salt, pepper, a bit of butter, crumbs of bread, and three spoonfuls of vinegar. Then set the crab before the fire, or brown the meat with a salamander. It should be served on a dry toast.—To dress a cold crab, empty the shell, mix the flesh with a small quantity of oil, vinegar, salt, white pepper and cayenne. Return the mixture, and serve it up in the shell.
CRACKNELS. Mix with a quart of flour, half a nutmeg grated, the yolks of four eggs beaten, and four spoonfuls of rose water. Make the whole into a stiff paste, with cold water. Then roll in a pound of butter,and make the paste into the shape of cracknels. Boil them in a kettle of water till they swim, and then put them into cold water. When hardened, lay them out to dry, and bake them on tin plates.
CRACKNUTS. Mix eight ounces of fine flour, with eight ounces of sugar, and melt four ounces of butter in two spoonfuls of raisin wine. With four eggs beaten and strained, make the whole into a paste, and add carraway seed. Roll the paste out as thin as paper, cut it into shapes with the top of a glass, wash them with the white of an egg, and dust them over with fine sugar.
CRAMP. Persons subject to this complaint, being generally attacked in the night, should have a board fixed at the bottom of the bed, against which the foot should be strongly pressed when the pain commences. This will seldom fail to afford relief. When it is more obstinate, a brick should be heated, wrapped in a flannel bag at the bottom of the bed, and the foot placed against it. The brick will continue warm, and prevent a return of the complaint. No remedy however is more safe or more certain than that of rubbing the affected part, to restore a free circulation. If the cramp attack the stomach or bowels, it is attended with considerable danger: medicine may relieve but cannot cure. All hot and stimulating liquors must be carefully avoided, and a tea-cupful of lukewarm gruel or camomile tea should be frequently given, with ten or fifteen drops of deliquidated salt of tartar in each.
CRANBERRIES. If for puddings and pies, they require a good deal of sugar. If stewed in a jar, it is the same: but in this way they eat well with bread, and are very wholesome. If pressed and strained, after being stewed, they yield a fine juice, which makes an excellent drink in a fever.
CRANBERRY GRUEL. Mash a tea-cupful of cranberries in a cup of water, and boil a large spoonful of oatmeal in two quarts of water. Then put in the jam, with a little sugar and lemon peel; boil it half an hour, and strain it off. Add a glass of brandy or sweet wine.
CRANBERRY JELLY. Make a very strong isinglass jelly. When cold, mix it with a double quantity of cranberry juice, pressed and strained. Sweeten it with fine loaf sugar, boil it up, and strain it into a shape.—To make cranberry and rice jelly, boil and press the fruit, strain the juice, and by degrees mix it into as much ground rice as will, when boiled, thicken to a jelly. Boil it gently, keep it stirring, and sweeten it. Put it in a bason or form, and serve it up with milk or cream.
CRAY FISH. Make a savoury fish-jelly, and put some into the bottom of a deep small dish. When cold, lay the cray-fish with their back downwards, and pour more jelly over them. Turn them out when cold, and it will make a beautiful dish. Prawns may be done in the same way.
CREAM. Rich cream for tea or coffee is prepared in the following manner. Put some new milk into an earthen pan, heat it over the fire, and set it by till the next day. In order to preserve it a day or two longer, it must be scalded, sweetened with lump sugar, and set in a cool place. If half a pint of fresh cream be boiled in an earthen pot with half a pound of sugar, and corked up close in phials when cold, it will keep for several weeks, and be fit for the tea-table.
CREAM FOR PIES. Boil a pint of new milk ten minutes, with a bit of lemon peel, a laurel leaf, four cloves, and a little sugar. Mix the yolks of six eggs and half a tea-spoonful of flour, strain the milk to them, and set it over a slow fire.Stir it to a consistence, but do not let it curdle: when cold it may be spread over any kind of fruit pies.
CREAM FOR WHEY BUTTER. Set the whey one day and night, and skim it till a sufficient quantity is obtained. Then boil it, and pour it into a pan or two of cold water. As the cream rises, skim it till no more comes, and then churn it. Where new-milk cheese is made daily, whey butter for common and present use may be made to advantage.
CREAM CHEESE. To make this article, put into a pan five quarts of strippings, that is, the last of the milk, with two spoonfuls of rennet. When the curd is come, strike it down two or three times with the skimming dish just to break it. Let it stand two hours, then spread a cheese cloth on a sieve, lay the curd on it, and let the whey drain. Break the curd a little with the hand, and put it into a vat with a two-pound weight upon it. Let it stand twelve hours, take it out, and bind a fillet round. Turn it every day till dry, from one board to another; cover them with nettles or clean dock-leaves, and lay them between two pewter plates to ripen. If the weather be warm, the cheese will be ready in three weeks.—Another way. Prepare a kettle of boiling water, put five quarts of new milk into a pan, five pints of cold water, and five of hot. When of a proper heat, put in as much rennet as will bring it in twenty minutes, likewise a bit of sugar. When the curd is come, strike the skimmer three or four times down, and leave it on the curd. In an hour or two lade it into the vat without touching it; put a two-pound weight on it when the whey has run from it, and the vat is full.—To make another sort of cream cheese, put as much salt to three pints of raw cream as will season it. Stir it well, lay a cheese cloth several times folded at the bottom of a sieve, and pour the curd upon it. When it hardens, cover it with nettles on a pewter plate.—What is called Rush Cream Cheese is made as follows. To a quart of fresh cream put a pint of new milk, warm enough to give the cream a proper degree of warmth; then add a little sugar and rennet. Set it near the fire till the curd comes; fill a vat made in the form of a brick, of wheat straw or rushes sewed together. Have ready a square of straw or rushes sewed flat, to rest the vat on, and another to cover it; the vat being open at top and bottom. Next day take it out, change it often in order to ripen, and lay a half pound weight upon it.—Another way. Take a pint of very thick sour cream from the top of the pan for gathering butter, lay a napkin on two plates, and pour half into each. Let them stand twelve hours, then put them on a fresh wet napkin in one plate, and cover with the same. Repeat this every twelve hours, till the cheese begins to look dry. Then ripen it with nut leaves, and it will be ready in ten days. Fresh nettles, or two pewter plates, will ripen cream cheese very well.
CREAM PUDDING. Slice the crumb of a penny loaf into a quart of cream, scald it over the fire, and break it with a spoon. Add to it six eggs, with three of the whites only, half a pound of fine raisins, a quarter of a pound of sugar, a little rose water and nutmeg. Beat it all up together, stir in a little marrow if approved, and bake it in a dish with paste.
CREAMS. To make an excellent cream, boil half a pint of cream and half a pint of milk with two bay leaves, a bit of lemon peel, a few almonds beaten to paste, with a drop of water, a little sugar, orange flower water, and a tea-spoonful of flour rubbed down with a little cold milk. When the cream is cold, add a little lemon juice, and serve it up in cups or lemonade glasses.—For a superiorarticle, whip up three quarters of a pint of very rich cream to a strong froth, with some finely-scraped lemon peel, a squeeze of the juice, half a glass of sweet wine, and sugar to make it pleasant, but not too sweet. Lay it on a sieve or in a form, next day put it on a dish, and ornament it with very light puff paste biscuits, made in tin shapes the length of a finger, and about two thick. Fine sugar may be sifted over, or it may be glazed with a little isinglass. Macaroons may be used to line the edges of the dish.
CRESS VINEGAR. Dry and pound half an ounce of the seed of garden cresses, pour upon it a quart of the best vinegar, and let it steep ten days, shaking it up every day. Being strongly flavoured with the cresses, it is suitable for salads and cold meat. Celery vinegar is made in the same manner.
CRICKETS. The fume of charcoal will drive them away: or a little white arsenic mixed with a roasted apple, and put into the holes and cracks where the crickets are, will effectually destroy them. Scotch snuff dusted upon the holes where they come out, will also have the same effect.
CRIMP COD. Boil a handful of salt in a gallon of pump water, and skim it clean. Cut a fresh cod into slices an inch thick, and boil it briskly in the brine a few minutes; take the slices out very carefully, and lay them on a fish plate to drain. Dry and flour them, and lay them at a distance upon a clear fire to broil. Serve with lobster or shrimp sauce.
CRIMP SALMON. When the salmon is scaled and cleaned, take off the head and tail, and cut the body through into large slices. Throw them into a pan of pump water, sprinkle on a handful of bay salt, stir it about, and then take out the fish. Set on a deep stewpan, boil the head and tail whole, put in some salt, but no vinegar. When they have boiled ten minutes, skim the water clean, and put in the slices. When boiled enough, lay the head and tail in the dish, and the slices round; or either part may be dressed separately.
CRISP PARSLEY. Pick and wash some young parsley, shake it in a dry cloth to drain the water from it, spread it on a sheet of white paper, in a Dutch oven before the fire, and turn it frequently until it is quite crisp. This is a much better way of preparing it than by frying, which is seldom well done; and it will serve as a neat garnish for fish or lamb chops.
CROSS BUNS. Warm before the fire two pounds and a half of fine flour; add half a pound of sifted loaf sugar, some coriander seeds, cinnamon and mace finely pounded. Melt half a pound of butter in half a pint of milk; after it has cooled, stir in three table-spoonfuls of thick yeast, and a little salt. Work the whole into a paste, make it into buns, and cut a cross on the top. Put them on a tin to rise before the fire, brush them over with warm milk, and bake in a moderate oven.
CROWS. These birds are extremely useful to the farmer, in devouring multitudes of locusts, caterpillars, and other insects, which are highly injurious to the crops; but at certain seasons they have become so numerous, and committed such depredations on the corn fields, that an act of parliament has been passed for their destruction. The most successful method is to prepare a kind of table between the branches of a large tree, with some carrion and other meat, till the crows are accustomed to resort to the place for food. Afterwards the meat may be poisoned; and the birds still feeding on it, will be destroyed. The drug callednux vomicais best adapted to the purpose.
CRUMPETS. Warm before the fire two pounds of fine flour, with alittle salt, and mix it with warm milk and water till it becomes stiff. Work up three eggs with three spoonfuls of thick yeast, and a cupful of warm milk and water; put it to the batter, and beat them well together in a large bowl, with as much milk and water as will make the batter thick. Set it before the fire to rise, and cover it close. Set on the fryingpan, rub it over with a bit of butter tied up in muslin, and pour in as much batter at a time as is sufficient for one crumpet. Let it bake slowly till it comes to a pale yellow; and when cold, the crumpets may be toasted and buttered.
CUCUMBERS. The best way of cultivating this delicious vegetable is as follows. When the plants have been raised on a moderate hot bed, without forcing them too much, they should be set in the open ground against a south wall in the latter end of May, and trained upon the wall like a fruit tree. When they have run up about five feet, they will send forth blossoms, and the fruit will soon appear. Cucumbers of the slender prickly sort are to be preferred, and they should not be watered too much while growing, as it will injure the fruit. The flesh of cucumbers raised in this way, will be thicker and firmer, and the flavour more delicious, than those planted in the usual manner, where the runners are suffered to trail upon the ground. Melons may also be treated in the same manner, and the quality of both will be greatly improved.—When cucumbers are to be prepared for the table, pare and score them in several rows, that they may appear as if slightly chopped. Add some young onions, pepper and salt, a glass of white wine, the juice of a lemon, and some vinegar. Or cut them in thin slices, with pepper, salt, vinegar, and sliced onions. Or send them to table whole, with a sliced onion in a saucer.
CUCUMBER KETCHUP. Pare some large old cucumbers, cut them in slices, and mash them; add some salt, and let them stand till the next day. Drain off the liquor, boil it with lemon peel, mace, cloves, horse-radish, shalots, white pepper, and ginger. Strain it; and when cold put it into bottles, with the mace, cloves and peppercorns, but not the rest. A little of this ketchup will give an agreeable taste to almost any kind of gravy sauce.
CUCUMBER VINEGAR. Pare and slice fifteen large cucumbers, and put them into a stone jar, with three pints of vinegar, four large onions sliced, two or three shalots, a little garlic, two large spoonfuls of salt, three tea-spoonfuls of pepper, and half a tea-spoonful of cayenne. Keep the vinegar in small bottles, to add to sallad, or to eat with meat.
CULLIS. To make cullis for ragouts, cut in pieces two pounds of lean veal, and two ounces of ham. Add two cloves, a little nutmeg and mace, some parsley roots, two carrots sliced, some shalots, and two bay leaves. Put them into an earthen jar on a hot hearth, or in a kettle of boiling water. Cover them close, let them simmer for half an hour, observing that they do not burn; then put in beef broth, stew it, and strain it off.
CUMBERLAND PUDDING. To make what is called the Duke of Cumberland's pudding, mix six ounces of grated bread, the same quantity of currants well cleaned and picked, the same of beef suet finely shred, the same of chopped apples, and also of lump sugar. Add six eggs, half a grated nutmeg, a dust of salt, and the rind of a lemon minced as fine as possible; also a large spoonful each of citron, orange, and lemon cut thin. Mix them thoroughly together, put the whole into a basin, cover it close with a flouredcloth, and boil it three hours. Serve it with pudding sauce, add the juice of half a lemon, boiled together.
CURD PUDDING. Rub the curd of two gallons of milk well drained through a sieve. Mix it with six eggs, a little cream, two spoonfuls of orange-flower water, half a nutmeg, flour and crumbs of bread each three spoonfuls, currants and raisins half a pound of each. Boil the pudding an hour in a thick well-floured cloth.
CURD PUFFS. Turn two quarts of milk to curd, press the whey from it, rub it through a sieve, and mix four ounces of butter, the crumb of a penny loaf, two spoonfuls of cream, half a nutmeg, a little sugar, and two spoonfuls of white wine. Butter some small cups or pattipans, and fill them three parts. Orange-flower water is an improvement. Bake the puffs with care, and serve with sweet sauce in a boat.
CURD STAR. Set on the fire a quart of new milk, with two or three blades of mace; and when ready to boil, put to it the yolks and whites of nine eggs well beaten, and as much salt as will lie upon a six-pence. Let it boil till the whey is clear; then drain it in a thin cloth, or hair sieve. Season it with sugar, and a little cinnamon, rose water, orange-flower water, or white wine. Put it into a star form, and let it stand some hours before it be turned into a dish: then pour round it some thick cream or custard.