Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume I Part 251

=FRIT.= The pulverulent materials of gla.s.s, heated until they coalesce without melting. See ENAMEL, GLa.s.s, &C.

=FRIT'TERS.= Fried batter. A species of pancake, containing fruit, sweetmeats, poultry, meat, or fish.

_Prep._ 1. (M. Alexis Soyer.) "The following is thirty receipts in one:"--Soak crum of bread, 1 lb., in cold water, q. s.; take the same quant.i.ty of any kind of boiled or roasted meat (a little fat), and chop it into fine dice; press the water out of the bread; put into the pan b.u.t.ter, lard, or dripping, 2 oz., with chopped onions, two teaspoonfuls; fry two minutes, add the bread, stir with a wooden spoon until rather dry, then add the meat, and season with salt, 1 teaspoonful, pepper, 1/2 do., and a little grated nutmeg if handy; stir till quite hot; then further add two eggs, one at a time, mix very quickly, and pour it on a dish to cool; next roll it into the shape of small eggs, then in flour, 'egg' them, and bread-crum them; lastly, fry in abundance of fat to a nice yellow colour, and serve either plain or with any sharp or other savory sauce you fancy.

Innumerable dishes can be made in this way; in fact, from everything that is eatable, and at any season of the year--from the remains of meat, poultry, game, fish, vegetables, &c. The same can be done with chopped, dried, or preserved fruits, simply using a 1/4 lb. more bread, and sifting powdered sugar and cinnamon over them. Cream may also be used for fruit, or curds.

Fritters are also (and more commonly) fried in ordinary batter, instead of bread-crumbs. "There is no end to what may be done with these receipts."

"They can be ornamented and made worthy the table of the greatest epicure if the bread be soaked in cream, and spirits or liquor introduced into them." (Soyer.)

2. Mrs Rundell:--_a._ (APPLE FRITTERS.) See FRUIT FRITTERS.

_b._ (BUCKWHEAT FRITTERS, B. CAKES, BOCKINGS.) Made by beating up buckwheat flour to a batter with some warm milk, adding a little yeast, letting it rise before the fire for 30 or 40 minutes, then beating in some eggs and milk or warm water, as required, and frying them like pancakes.

Buckwheat fritters, when well prepared, are excellent. Made without eggs and served up with mola.s.ses, they form a common dish in almost every breakfast in North America.

_c._ (CURD FRITTERS.) From dried curd, beaten with yolk of egg and a little flour, and flavoured with nutmeg.

_d._ (FRENCH FRITTERS.) Common pancakes, beaten up with eggs, almonds, and flavouring sugar, orange-flower water, and nutmeg, and the paste dropped into a stew- or frying-pan half full of boiling lard, so as to form cakes the size of large nuts, which are cooked till brown.

_e._ (FRUIT FRITTERS.) From the sliced fruits, with rich batter.

_f._ (SOUFFLe FRITTERS.) Rich pancakes, flavoured with lemon.

_g._ (SPANISH FRITTERS.) From slices of French rolls soaked in a mixture of cream, eggs, sugar, and spices, and fried brown.

=FROG.= The esculent variety, in Europe, is the common green or gibbous frog, the _Rana esculenta_ of Linnaeus. As an aliment, it is much esteemed on the Continent, the hind legs only being eaten. Its liver is among the simples of the Ph. L. 1618, and was once considered a useful remedy in certain forms of ague.

The Americans eat the bull-frog (the _Rana taurina_). This variety of the edible frog, which is a native of the Northern States and is much prized as a table delicacy, has been lately introduced into France by the Societe d'Acclimatisation. Its flesh, when cooked, is said to have a taste very like that of turtle. In South Africa, a large frog called Matlametlo is eaten. Frogs are also favourite food with the natives of China and Australia.

=FROG OINTMENT or Thrush Mixture.= Brown syrup, 90 grammes; verdigris, 6 grammes; strong acetic acid, 10 grammes; solution of perchloride of iron, 2 grammes. (Hager.)

=FROST-BITES.= When those parts of the body in which the circulation of the blood is most languid are exposed to extreme cold, they quickly become frozen, or, as it is called, 'frost bitten.' The fingers, toes, ears, nose, and chin are most liable to this attack. The remedy is long-continued friction with the hands or cold flannel, avoiding the fire, or even a heated apartment.

=FROSTBEULENTINCTUR, FROSTBEULENWa.s.sER--Chilblain Tincture, Chilblain Water.= Manufactured by a chiropodist of Munich. It is a solution of 2 grammes zinc sulphate in 60 grammes water. (Wittstein.)

=FROSTSALBE--Frost Ointment= (Wahler, Kupferzell). Mutton tallow, 24; hog's lard, 24; iron oxide, 4; heat it in an iron vessel, stirring continually with an iron rod until the whole has become black; then add 4 parts Venice turpentine, 2 parts bergamot oil, and 2 parts Armenian bole rubbed smooth with olive oil.

=FRUIT.= _Syn._ FRUCTUS, L. Among botanists this is the mature ovary or pistil, containing the ripened ovules or seeds. In familiar language, the term is applied to any product of a plant containing the seed, more especially those that are eatable.

Fruits are extensively employed as articles of diet by man, both as luxuries and nutriment. The fruit of the cereals furnishes our daily bread; that of the vine gives us the well-known beverage, wine, whilst other varieties enrich our desserts, and provide us with some of our most valuable condiments and aromatics. The acidulous and subacid fruits are antiseptic, aperient, attenuant, diuretic, and refrigerant. They afford little nourishment, and are apt to promote diarrha and flatulency. They are, however, occasionally exhibited medicinally, in putrid affections, and are often useful in bilious and dyspeptic complaints. The farinaceous fruits (grain), as already stated, furnish the princ.i.p.al and most useful portion of the food of man. The oleo-farinaceous (nuts, &c.) are less wholesome and less easy of digestion than those purely farinaceous. The saccharine fruits, or those abounding in sugar, are nutritious and laxative, but are apt to ferment and disagree with delicate stomachs when eaten in excess. Stone fruits are more difficult of digestion than the other varieties, and are very apt to disorder the stomach and bowels.

As a rule, fruit should never be eaten in large quant.i.ties at a time, and only when quite ripe. It then appears to be exceedingly wholesome, and to be a suitable corrective to the grossness of animal food. It also exercises a powerful action on the skin, and is a specific for scurvy in its early stages. Many cutaneous diseases may likewise be removed by the daily use of a moderate quant.i.ty of fruit, or other fresh vegetable food.

Cases are not uncommon which, after resisting every variety of ordinary medical treatment, yield to a mixed fruit or vegetable diet.

Fruits should be gathered in dry weather, and preferably about noon, because the dew and moisture deposited on them during the night and earlier part of the morning has then evaporated. They should be quite ripe when gathered, but the sooner they are removed from the tree after this point is arrived at, the better. Immature fruit never keeps so well as that which has ripened on the tree; and overripe fruit is liable to be bruised and to lose flavour. The less fruit is handled in gathering the better. Some of them, as PEACHES, NECTARINES, GRAPES, PLUMS, &c., require to be treated with great delicacy, to avoid bruising them or rubbing off the bloom. Some fruit, as a few varieties of APPLES, PEARS, and ORANGES, &c., are gathered before they are fully ripe, in order that they may the better undergo the perils of transit and storage.

_Pres._ Ripe fruits are commonly preserved in the fresh state by placing them in a cool dry situation, on shelves, so that they do not touch each other; or by packing them in clean, dry sand, sawdust, straw, bran, or any similar substance, with like care, to preserve them from the action of air and moisture. An excellent plan, commonly adopted for dessert fruit in this country, is to wrap each separately in a piece of clean, dry paper, and to fill small, wide-mouthed jars or honey-pots with them. The filled pots are then packed one upon another (see _engr._) in a dry and cold place (as a cellar), where the frost cannot reach them. The s.p.a.ce (_a_) between the two pots may be advantageously filled up with plaster of Paris made into a paste with water. The joint is thus rendered air-tight, and the fruit will keep good for a long time. The mouth of the top jar is covered with a slate. For use, the jars should be taken one at a time from the store-room as wanted, and the fruit exposed for a week or ten days in a warm dry room before being eaten, by which the flavour is much improved.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Fruit is preserved on the large scale for the London market by placing in a cool situation first a layer of straw or paper, and so on alternately, to the height of 20 or 25 inches, which cannot be well exceeded, as the weight of the superinc.u.mbent fruit is apt to crush or injure the lower layers. Sometimes alternate layers of fruit and paper are arranged in baskets or hampers, which are then placed in the cellar or fruit-room. The baskets admit of being piled one over the other without injury to the fruit. The use of brown paper is inadmissible for the above purposes, as it conveys its peculiar flavour to the fruit. Thick white-brown paper is the cheapest and the best.

=Fruit Essences (Artificial).= These remarkable products first attracted attention at the Exhibition of 1851. To speak somewhat generally, they are mixtures of amylic, butyric, pelargonic, valerianic, and other ethers, in alcohol. By judicious mixture, the flavour of almost any fruit can be more or less perfectly imitated. The artificial essences are generally coloured to represent the juice of the fruit from which they are supposed to be derived. The ESSENCE OF JARGONELLE PEAR and the ESSENCE OF APPLE, which are, perhaps, the best of all the artificial essences, are respectively formed from the ACETATE and VALERIANATE OF AMYLE. See AMYLE, ESSENCE, &c.

=FRU'MENTY.= Wheat boiled in water until quite soft, then taken out, drained, thinned with milk, sweetened with sugar, and flavoured with nutmeg. When currants and eggs are added, it forms 'SOMERSETSHIRE FRUMENTY,' Some persons boil the wheat like rice. "Eaten with milk, in the evening, for some time, it will often relieve costiveness." (Griffith.)

=FRY'ING.= "The frying-pan is, without doubt, the most useful of all kitchen implements, and, like a good-natured servant, is often imposed upon and obliged to do all the work, while its companion, the gridiron, is quietly reposing in the chimney corner." "The usual complaint of food being rendered greasy by frying is totally remedied by sauteing the meat in a small quant.i.ty of fat, b.u.t.ter, or oil, which has attained a proper degree of heat, instead of placing it in cold fat, and letting it soak while melting." "According to the (common) mode in which all objects are cooked which are called fried, it would answer to the French word 'saute,'

or the old English term 'frizzle,' but to fry any object, it should be immersed in very hot fat, oil, or b.u.t.ter." "To frizzle, saute, or, as I will now designate it, semi-fry, is to place in the pan any oleaginous substance, so that, when melted, it shall cover the bottom of the pan by about two lines; and when hot, the article to be cooked is to be placed therein. To do it to perfection requires a little attention, so that the pan shall never get too hot. It should also be perfectly clean--a great deal depends on this." (Soyer.)

According to the writer quoted above, a chop or steak, for frying, should be chosen 3/4 of an inch thick, and should "never exceed one inch, nor be less than half an inch, and to be as near as possible of the same thickness all over." "An ill-cut chop (or steak) never can be but ill-cooked; you can always equalise them (when badly cut) by beating them out with a chopper."

"The motive of semi-frying food is to have it done quickly; therefore, to fry a whole fowl, or even half (for example), is useless, as it could be cooked in a different way in the same time; but to semi-fry a fowl (in joints or pieces), with the object of having it quickly placed on the table, in order to satisfy a good, and perhaps fastidious appet.i.te, it should be done in a similar way to that practised in Egypt some 3000 years since, and of late years for the great Napoleon--that is, cooked in oil.

In France this dish is called '_Poulet a la Marengo_,' It is related that the great conqueror, after having gained that celebrated victory, ate three small chickens at one meal done in this way, and his appet.i.te and taste were so good, and he approved of them so highly, that he desired that they may always be served in the same way during the campaign."

"For many objects I prefer the frying-pan to the gridiron; that is, if the pan is properly used. As regards economy, it is preferable, securing all the fat and gravy, which is often lost when the gridiron is used." "This simple _batterie de cuisine_" may be employed "equally as well in the cottage as in the palace, or in the bachelor's chamber as in the rooms of the poor." (Soyer.)

=FUCH'SIN.= See TAR COLOURS.

=FUCUS'AMID, FU'CUSINE, and FU'CUSOL.= Compounds obtained by Dr Stenhouse from several varieties of FUCUS by treatment with sulphuric acid, as in the preparation of FURFURINE (which _see_).

=FU'EL.= Matter used for the production of heat by burning. The princ.i.p.al substances employed as fuel are--ANTHRACITE, CHARCOAL, COAL GAS, c.o.kE, OIL, SPIRIT, PITCOAL, TURF, and WOOD.

The heating power of almost every description of fuel has been determined by the direct experiments of Lavoisier, Regnault, Andrews, and others; the general principle of their methods consisting in the use of an apparatus wherein the entire heat of combustion was absorbed by a known weight of water, the whole arrangement being protected from the influence of external changes of temperature, and the increase of the temperature of the water being known by the simultaneous indication of several delicate thermometers suspended in it. The real value of such determinations is simply relative. The imperfect character of most boiler and furnace arrangements, and the large quant.i.ty of fuel which pa.s.ses into the 'ash-pit' unconsumed, together with the irregular 'draught,' and the amount of heat absorbed by excess of cold air, result practically in an enormous loss of heating power, even under the most careful management.

The mechanical condition of a fuel must be considered in estimating its value. In a series of trials inst.i.tuted by the Government it was a _sine qua non_ that the toughness of each kind of coal must be such, for naval use, as to resist, without crumbling, the constant friction in the ship's hold, at the same time that its 'fracture' must be such that it packs into the smallest possible s.p.a.ce.[319]

[Footnote 319: For full information on coal and other fuels, refer to Ure's 'Dict. of Arts, Manufactures, &c.,' Percy's 'Metallurgy,' and Watt's 'Dict. of Chemistry.']

In the _chemical laboratory_ COAL GAS is now generally employed as fuel.

It is cheap and manageable, and, with proper apparatus, may be made to supply almost any amount of heat. Where gas cannot be conveniently procured, OIL and SPIRIT are used as fuel for lamps. See ANTHRACITE, CHARCOAL, c.o.kE, FURNACE, PITCOAL, &c., also _below_.

=Fuel, Econom'ical.= Various mixtures have been recommended under this name. The following is one of the best:--

_Prep._ Small coal, charcoal, or sawdust, 1 part; clay, loam, or marl, 1 part; sand, or ashes, 2 parts; water, q. s.; make the ma.s.s up wet into b.a.l.l.s. For use, these b.a.l.l.s are piled on an ordinary fire to a little above the top bar. They are said to produce a heat considerably more intense than that of common fuel, and ensure a saving of one half the quant.i.ty of coals, whilst a fire thus made up will require no stirring, nor fresh fuel for ten hours. The quant.i.ty of the combustible ingredient in them should be doubled, when they are intended to be used with a very little foundation of coal.

_Obs._ Of late years simple FIRE-CLAY b.a.l.l.s have been much used for radiating heat from parlour-grates, and so effecting saving in the consumption of fuel. They are very useful for partially filling up those roomy, old-fashioned, badly-constructed grates, which are still to be found in many private houses.

PEAT and TURF, both recent and charred, are commonly used as fuel by the lower cla.s.ses, in neighbourhoods where they are plentiful. FIR CONES or TOPS contain a great quant.i.ty of solid woody in addition to the resinous matter, and are well adapted for domestic fires.

=Fuel, Prepared.= _Syn._ COMPRESSED FUEL, PATENT F., STEAM F. Many artificial fuels are now in use. The greater number have one character in common--they are composed of small coal cemented by some bituminous matter. The following are the princ.i.p.al kinds:--

FUEL, ABERDARE PATENT STEAM. From the 'small' of the South Wales Steam Coal mixed with coal, pitch, and compressed by hydraulic machinery. The pitch is broken up, and thoroughly mixed with the small coal over a furnace, in iron pans, in which shafts with obliquely attached blades are continually revolving. The mixture is afterwards pressed into iron moulds by a force equal to about 2-1/2 tons per inch. The weight of a cubic foot of this excellent fuel is 80 lbs.; the s.p.a.ce occupied by 1 ton, 28 cubic feet.

FUEL, CASE AND MORRIS'S PATENT. From the 'small' of the 'best steam coal,'

ground moderately fine, treated so as to absorb a certain portion of liquid coal tar, and then pressed by machinery into blocks. It is said to occupy less s.p.a.ce by about 10% than ordinary coal.

FUEL, GRANT'S PATENT. This is formed of coal dust, 1 cwt., and coal-tar pitch, 20 lbs., melted together by a heat of 220 Fahr., and moulded into blocks the size of common bricks, under a pressure of 5 or 6 tons. These are, lastly, whitewashed. It is heavier than common steam coal, and is said to go fully one third further, by which facility of transport and economy is combined.

FUEL, PURIFIED BLOCK. This is prepared by the torrefaction of washed coal dust, and is said to possess in a remarkable degree the advantages of both c.o.ke and steam coal.

=FU'LIGOKA'LI.= _Prep._ (Dr Polya.) Caustic pota.s.sa, 1 part; water, q. s.; dissolve; add of wood soot, 5 parts; boil 1 hour, dilute with water, filter, evaporate the filtrate to dryness, and put the product at once into warm, dry bottles.--_Dose_, 2 to 3 gr., thrice a day, made into pills, which must be coated with gum and kept from the air. (See _below_.)