Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume Ii Part 137

=Capsic.u.ms.= As GHERKINS.

=Cauliflowers.= As CABBAGE (nearly). Or, they may be steeped in hot brine for 1 or 2 hours before pouring the vinegar over them.

=Cherries.= From the scarcely ripe fruit, bottled, and covered with strong and colourless pickling vinegar.

=Codlins.= As BEANS.

=Cuc.u.mbers.= As GHERKINS.

=Elderflowers.= From the cl.u.s.ters, just before they open, as RED CABBAGE.

A beautiful pickle.

=English Bamboo.= From the young shoots of elder, denuded of the outer skin, pickled in brine for 12 or 14 hours; then bottled with a little white pepper, ginger, mace, and allspice, and pickled with boiling vinegar. Excellent with boiled mutton.

=Eschalots.= With boiling spiced vinegar, or spices added to each bottle.

=French Beans.= See _above_.

=Garlic.= As ESCHALOTS.

=Gherkins.= From small cuc.u.mbers (not too young), steeped for a week in very strong brine; this last is then poured off, heated to the boiling point, and again poured on the fruit; the next day the gherkins are drained on a sieve, wiped dry, put into bottles or jars with some spice (ginger, pepper, or cayenne), and at once covered with strong pickling vinegar, boiling hot. Several other pickles may be prepared in the same way.

=Gooseberries.= From the green fruit, as either CABBAGE or CAULIFLOWERS.

=Indian Mango.= From green peaches. (See _below_.)

=Indian Pickle.= _Syn._ PICCALILLI. This is a mixed pickle which is characterised by being highly flavoured with curry-powder, or turmeric, mustard, and garlic. The following form is commonly used:--Take 1 hard white cabbage (sliced), 2 cauliflowers (pulled to pieces), some French beans, 1 stick of horseradish (sliced), about 2 dozen small white onions, and 1 dozen gherkins; cover them with boiling brine; the next day drain the whole on a sieve, put into a jar, and add, of curry-powder or turmeric, 2 oz.; garlic, ginger, and mustard seed, of each 1 oz.; capsic.u.ms, 1/2 oz.; fill up the vessel with hot pickling vinegar, bung it up close, and let it stand for a month, with occasional agitation. See MIXED PICKLES (_below_).

=Lemons.= From the fruit, slit half way down into quarters, and cored, put into a dish, and sprinkled with a little salt; in about a week the whole is placed in jars or bottles with a little turmeric and capsic.u.ms, and covered with hot vinegar.

=Limes.= As the last.

=Mangoes.= As LEMONS, adding mustard seed and a little garlic, with spices at will. ENGLISH MANGOES are made from cuc.u.mbers or small melons, split and deprived of their seeds.

=Melons.= As LEMONS (nearly).

=Mixed Pickles.= From white cabbage, cauliflowers, French beans, cuc.u.mbers, onions, or any other of the ordinary pickling vegetables, at will (except red cabbage or walnuts) treated as GHERKINS; with raw ginger, capsic.u.m, mustard seed, and long pepper, for spice, added to each bottle.

A little coa.r.s.ely bruised turmeric improves both the colour and flavour.

=Mushrooms.= From the small b.u.t.ton mushrooms, cleansed with cold spring water, and gently wiped dry with a towel, then placed in bottles, with a blade or two of mace, and covered with the strongest white pickling vinegar, boiling hot.

=Myrobalans.= The yellow myrobalan preserved in strong brine. Gently aperient.

=Nasturtiums.= From the unripe or scarcely ripe fruit, simply covered with cold strong vinegar; or, as CABBAGE or GHERKINS.

=Onions.= From the small b.u.t.ton or filbert onion, deprived of the outer coloured skin, and either at once put into bottles and covered with strong white pickling vinegar, or previously steeped for a day or two in strong brine or alum water. When required for early use, the vinegar should be poured on boiling hot.

=Peaches.= From the scarcely ripe fruit, as GHERKINS.

=Peas.= As BEANS or CAULIFLOWERS.

=Piccalilli.= See INDIAN PICKLE.

=Radish Pods.= As BEANS or GHERKINS.

=Samphire.= From the perennial samphire (_Erythmum maritimum_), covered with strong vinegar, to each pint of which 3/4 oz. of salt has been added, and poured on boiling hot. Said to excite the appet.i.te.

=Tomatoes.= From the common tomato or love apple, as GHERKINS.

=Walnuts.= From the young fruit of _Juglans regia_, or common walnut:--1.

Steep them in strong brine for a week, then bottle them, add spice, and pour on the vinegar boiling hot.

2. On each pint of the nuts, spread on a dish, sprinkle 1 oz. of common salt; expose them to the sun or a full light for 10 or 12 days, frequently basting them with their own liquor; lastly, bottle them, and pour on the vinegar, boiling hot.

3. (Dr Kitchener.) Gently simmer the fruit in brine, then expose it on a cloth for a day or two, or until it turns black; next put it into bottles or jars, pour hot spiced vinegar over it, and cork down immediately. In this way the pickle becomes sufficiently mature for the table in half the time required for that prepared by the common method. Dr Kitchener also recommends this parboiling process for several other pickles. Some persons pierce the fruit with an awl or stocking-needle, in several places, in order to induce early maturation. The spices usually employed are mustard seed, allspice, and ginger, with a little mace and garlic.

=PIC'OLINE.= An oily substance, discovered by Dr Anderson, a.s.sociated with aniline, chinoline, and some other volatile bases, in certain varieties of coal-tar naphtha.

=PIC'RIC ACID.= HC_{6}H_{2}(NO_{2})_{3}O. _Syn._ CARBAZOTIC ACID, NITROPHENISIC ACID, TRINITROPHENISIC ACID. A peculiar compound formed by the action of strong nitric acid on indigo, aloes, wool, and several other substances.

_Prep._ 1. Add, cautiously and gradually, 1 part of powdered indigo to 10 or 12 parts of hot nitric acid of the sp. gr. 143; when the reaction has moderated and the sc.u.m has fallen, add an additional quant.i.ty of nitric acid, and boil the whole until red fumes are no longer evolved; redissolve the crystals of impure picric acid deposited in boiling distilled water, and remove any oily matter found floating on the surface of the solution by means of bibulous paper; a second time redissolve in boiling water the crystals which form as the liquid cools, saturate the new solution with carbonate of pota.s.sa, and set it aside to crystallise; the crystals of picrate of pota.s.sium thus obtained must be purified by several re-solutions and re-crystallisations, and next decomposed by nitric acid; the crystals deposited as the liquid cools yield pure picric acid by again dissolving them in boiling water, and re-crystallisation.

2. Dissolve the yellow resin of _Xanthorrha hastilis_ (Botany Bay Gum) in a sufficiency of strong nitric acid. Red vapours are evolved, accompanied by violent frothing, and a deep red solution is produced, which turns yellow after boiling. Evaporate this solution over a water bath. A yellow crystalline ma.s.s is deposited, which consists of picric acid with small quant.i.ties of oxalic and nitrobenzoic acids. The picric acid is purified by neutralising the yellow ma.s.s with pota.s.sa, and crystallising twice out of water. The pure picrate of pota.s.sium thus obtained is decomposed by hydrochloric acid, and the liberated picric acid is purified by two crystallisations. This process, devised by Stenhouse, is one of the best, and yields a quant.i.ty of the acid amounting to 50% of the resin employed.

_Prop., &c._ Brilliant yellow scales, scarcely soluble in cold water, but very soluble in boiling water, and in alcohol and ether; fusible; volatile; taste insupportably bitter, and very permanent. It forms salts with the bases (picrates, carbazotates), mostly possessing a yellow colour, and exploding when heated. The picrate of lead has been proposed as a fulminating powder for percussion caps. The picrate of pota.s.sium has been given with advantage in intermittent fevers. A solution of picric acid in alcohol is an excellent test for pota.s.sa, if there be not too much water present, as it throws down a yellow crystalline precipitate with that alkali, but forms a very soluble salt with soda. Most of the picrates may be made by the direct solution of the carbonate, hydrate, or oxide of the metal, in a solution of the acid in hot water. The picrate of silver forms beautiful starry groups of acicular crystals, having the colour and l.u.s.tre of gold.

The princ.i.p.al use of crude picric acid is for dyeing yellow. It is said to be largely employed for the adulteration of beer. It is, however, highly poisonous. According to Prof. Rapp, it acts deleteriously both when swallowed and applied to the unsound skin. Five grains seriously affected a large dog, and killed it within twenty-four hours. It induces vomiting, feebleness, and general loss of nervous tone. The tissues of animals poisoned by it (even the white of the eye) were tinged of a yellow colour.

See PORTER, &c.

=PICROTOX'IN.= C_{12}H_{14}O_{5}. _Syn._ PICROTOXINE, PICTROTOXIA, PICROTOXINA. A poisonous principle discovered by Boullay in the fruit of _Anamirta paniculata_, or _Cocculus indicus_.

_Prep._ 1. Precipitate a decoction of _Cocculus indicus_ with a solution of acetate of lead, gently evaporate to dryness, redissolve the residuum in alcohol of 817, and crystallise by evaporation; repeat the solution and crystallisation a second and a third time. Any adhering colour may be removed by agitating it with a very little water; or by animal charcoal, in the usual manner.

2. (Kane.) Alcoholic extract of _Cocculus indicus_ is exhausted with the smallest possible quant.i.ty of water, and the mixed liquors filtered; to the filtrate hydrochloric acid is added, and the whole set aside to crystallise. The product may be purified as before.

_Prop., &c._ It forms small, colourless, stellated needles; soluble in alcohol, ether, and acetic acid, and feebly so in water; boiling water dissolves it freely; taste of solutions inexpressibly bitter; reaction neutral. It does not combine with acids, as formerly a.s.serted, but it forms feeble combinations with some of the bases. It is a powerful intoxicant and narcotico-acrid poison. It acts powerfully on the spinal cord and nervous system generally, occasioning an increase of the animal temperature, and peculiar movements, similar to those described by Flourens as resulting from sections of the cerebellum. It is frequently present in malt liquors, owing to their common adulteration with _Cocculus indicus_.

=PICTURES, Oil.= To clean. See PAINTINGS, OIL.

=PIERRE DIVINE.= _Syn._ CUPRUM ALUMINATUM. See LAPIS DIVINUS.

=PIES.= Alexis Soyer gives the following instructions for making pies:--

To make a pie to perfection,--when your paste (half-puff or short) is carefully made, and your dish or form properly full, throw a little flour on your paste-board, take about a 1/4 lb. of your paste, which roll with your hand until (say) an inch in circ.u.mference; then moisten the rim of your pie-dish, and fix the paste equally on it with your thumb. When you have rolled your paste for the covering, or upper crust, of an equal thickness throughout, and in proportion to the contents of your pie (1/2 inch is about the average), fold the cover in two, lay it over one half of your pie, and turn the other half over the remaining part; next press it slightly with your thumb round the rim, cut neatly the rim of the paste, form rather a thick edge, and mark this with a knife about every quarter of an inch apart; observing to hold your knife in a slanting direction, which gives it a neat appearance; lastly, make two small holes on the top, and egg-over the whole with a paste-brush, or else use a little milk or water. Any small portion of paste remaining may be shaped to fanciful designs, and placed as ornaments on the top.

"For meat pies, observe that, if your paste is either too thick or too thin, the covering too narrow or too short, and requires pulling one way or the other, to make it fit, your pie is sure to be imperfect, the covering no longer protecting the contents. It is the same with fruit; and if the paste happens to be rather rich, it pulls the rim of the pie to the dish, soddens the paste, makes it heavy, and, therefore, indigestible as well as unpalatable."

Meat pies require the addition of either cayenne, or black pepper, or allspice; and fruit pies, of enough sugar to sweeten, with mace, ginger, cloves, or lemon peel, according to taste and the substance operated on.