Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt-Book Part 20

Put the juice and sugar (well mixed) into a preserving-kettle. Give it a boil, and skim it well. When it has come to a boil, and the sc.u.m has ceased to appear, take off the kettle; measure the liquid; and pour it carefully into a large vessel; allowing an equal quant.i.ty of the best French brandy. Stir it well, and when cold, put it into a demijohn, or a large stone jug, and cork it tightly. Let it stand undisturbed a fortnight; then, if it is not perfectly clear, filter it through blotting-paper pinned inside the bottom of a sieve. Bottle it, and seal the corks. Instead of brandy, you may use the best Jamaica spirits.

Currant or cherry cordial may be made in the above manner: first stoning all the cherries, which should be fully ripe, and of the largest and best kind; either red or black, or a mixture of both. The flavour will be much improved by cracking the stones, and putting them into the demijohn before you pour on the liquid.

Peach cordial, also, may be made as above. The peaches should be fine, ripe, juicy free-stones; cut in pieces, and the stones removed.

Afterwards, crack the stones, and put the kernels (broken up) into the bottom of the demijohn, to infuse with the liquid.

FINE RASPBERRY VINEGAR.--Put a sufficient quant.i.ty of ripe raspberries into a large wooden or stone vessel, and pour on as much of the best _genuine_ white wine vinegar as will cover them well. Cover the vessel, and let it stand undisturbed during twenty-four hours; or longer, if the juice is not entirely extracted; when it is, the raspberries will look whitish and shrunk. You must, on no account, bruise or stir them. Then strain the whole liquid through a large hair sieve placed over a broad stone pan. Let the juice run through of itself, without any mashing or squeezing. The least pressing will cause the liquid, when finished, to look cloudy and dull. Have ready, in another vessel, the same quant.i.ty of fresh raspberries that you put in at first; and pour the strained liquid over them. Cover it, and let it again stand undisturbed for twenty-four hours or more. Then again pa.s.s it through a sieve, without any squeezing. A third time pour the liquid over the original quant.i.ty of fresh raspberries in another vessel, and let it stand untouched during twenty-four hours. Afterwards measure the liquid, and to every pint allow a pound of the best double-refined loaf-sugar, broken small.

Put the whole into a large preserving-kettle, and boil and skim it about twenty minutes. Then pour it into a clean stone vessel, and set it to cool. Cover it, and let it stand all night. Next day, transfer it to bottles, which must be perfectly dry and clean. Cork them closely, and seal the corks. It will keep for years if made exactly according to the above directions.

To use it as a beverage, put a large wine-gla.s.s of the raspberry vinegar into a tumbler, and fill it up with ice-water. Mixed with hot water, and drank as warm as possible immediately on going to bed, it is an excellent palliative for a cold; and, by producing a perspiration, will sometimes effect a cure.

FRENCH RASPBERRY VINEGAR.--Take a sufficiency of fine ripe raspberries.

Put them into a deep pan, and mash them with a wooden beetle. Then pour them, with all their juice, into a large linen bag, and squeeze and press out the liquid into a vessel beneath. Measure it; and to each quart of the raspberry-juice allow a pound of powdered white sugar, and a pint of the best cider vinegar. First mix together the juice and the vinegar, and give them a boil in a preserving-kettle. When they have boiled well, add gradually the sugar, with a beaten white of egg to every two pounds; and boil and skim it till the sc.u.m ceases to rise.

When done, put it into clean bottles, and cork them tightly. It is a very pleasant and cooling beverage in warm weather, and for invalids who are feverish. To use it, pour out half a tumbler of raspberry vinegar, and fill it up with ice-water.

It is a good palliative for a cold, mixed with hot water, and taken as hot as possible immediately on going to bed, so as to produce perspiration.

GOOD VINEGAR.--Take five gallons of soft, clear water, two quarts of whisky, two quarts of the best West India mola.s.ses, and half a pint of the best fresh yeast. Lay a sheet of white foolscap paper at the bottom of a very clean keg, and pour in the mixture. Place it in the sun the first warm weather at the close of May, or beginning of June. In six weeks it will be fit for use. Put in the bung loosely, and do not stop it tight till the fermentation is over. If you make it in winter, keep it in a place where there is a stove or furnace.

Much of the vinegar that is offered for sale is excessively and disagreeably sharp; overpowering the taste of every thing with which it is combined. This vinegar is deleterious in its effects, and should never be used; it is made entirely of drugs. Oysters and pickled vegetables have been entirely destroyed or eaten up by it in a few hours, so that nothing was left but a whitish liquid. To avoid all risk from the unwholesome vinegar offered for sale, families would do well to make their own. A keg of hard cider kept in a warm kitchen in winter, and exposed to the hot sun in summer, will become excellent vinegar.

COMMON MOLa.s.sES VINEGAR.--Mix together a gallon of West India mola.s.ses, and four gallons of lukewarm water. Pour it into a clean five-gallon cask, and place it in the chimney-corner; standing the cask on end, and leaving the bung out. To give it, occasionally, some additional heat, set the cask in the mouth of the oven on baking-days, after the bread is drawn, and let it remain while the oven continues warm. In three months it will be excellent and wholesome vinegar, at a very trifling cost,--only that of the gallon of mola.s.ses. When the liquid is sufficiently acid, stop the bung-hole closely, and remove the cask to a cool place. In summer, you may make this vinegar by letting the cask stand three or four months exposed to the hot sun; taking care to cover the bung-hole in damp or rainy weather.

APPLE-WATER.--Take three large, juicy pippin apples; pare, core, and cut them into very thin slices. Put them into a pitcher, (the yellow rind of a lemon, pared thin, will be an improvement,) and pour on a pint of boiling water. Cover the pitcher closely, and let it stand four hours.

Then pour the liquid into a gla.s.s, and sweeten it with loaf-sugar.

This is a cooling drink in a fever.

TOAST-WATER.--Take _thin_ slices of wheat bread, and toast it very brown on both sides, but do not let it burn or blacken. Put the toast into a pitcher that has straining holes at the spout, and pour over it, from a tea-kettle, as much boiling water as you wish to make into drink. The water must be actually boiling at the time. Cover the pitcher, and let it stand till the water is cold. Then pour it off into a decanter. Made in this way, toast-water is very wholesome and refreshing, and is frequently drank at table by persons in health, as well as by invalids.

AN EXCELLENT WAY OF MAKING COFFEE.--For this purpose you should have a percolator, or coffee-pot with strainers inside. The coffee will be much stronger and better, if roasted and ground just before it is put in the pot. There are no coffee-roasters so good as those of sheet-iron, made somewhat in the form of a large long candle-box; standing before the fire on feet; and turned round by a handle, so as to give all the coffee that is inside an equal chance of heat. When about half done, put among the coffee a piece of fresh b.u.t.ter. It should be roasted evenly throughout, of a fine brown colour, and not allowed to blacken or burn.

Grind it while warm; and put into the percolator a sufficient quant.i.ty of coffee, placing it _between_ the two strainers. Then (having stopped up the spout) pour into the upper strainer a due proportion of _cold_ water; allowing a quart of water to half a pint or more of ground coffee. Cold water is now found to make a stronger infusion than hot water, as there is less evaporation, and none of the strength of the coffee is carried off in steam. As soon as the water is all in, put on the lid closely, and set away the pot. It is well to put the coffee to infuse over night, if wanted for breakfast; and in the morning, if required for evening. But, when necessary, it may be done in a much shorter time. A little before the coffee is to go to table, lift off the upper half of the percolator, (the part that contains the strainers,) transfer the lid to the lower part; set the pot over the fire, and give it one boil up--not more. As soon as it has come to a boil it is ready for drinking; being already strained, and drawn. It will be found clear, strong, and in all respects superior to that prepared in any other manner. A short boil is sufficient to take off all taste of rawness.

Long boiling weakens coffee, and frequently turns it sour.

The above method will, we are confident, be highly approved on trial.

Also, it saves the expense of isingla.s.s, white of egg, and other articles generally used in clearing coffee. Percolators for making coffee in this manner, can be obtained of all sizes at the large tin manufactory of Messrs. Williams & Co., 276 Market street, between Seventh and Eighth streets, Philadelphia.

A china or metal coffee-pot should always be scalded twice before coffee is transferred to it, from the vessel in which it has been made.

COCOA.--The cocoa which is put up solid in close packages, and usually sold at a shilling a paper, is far superior to the chocolate that is manufactured into squares or cakes, and which is too frequently adulterated with lard and meal. Baker's prepared cocoa is excellent.

When you intend having it for drinking, shave down, or cut fine a sufficient quant.i.ty of the cocoa; allowing about half the contents of a paper to a quart of water, if you wish it very strong, and three pints of water for moderate strength. Then put the cocoa into a clean sauce-pan or a tin pot with a spout. Measure the water from a kettle that is boiling hard at the time; and when you have the proper quant.i.ty pour it scalding hot on the cocoa. Cover it closely; place it over the fire; and let it boil till it is all dissolved into the same consistence, and quite smooth, and free from the smallest lumps. While boiling, you must several times take off the lid, and with a spoon stir the cocoa down to the bottom. Then transfer it to your chocolate pot, which must be twice scalded with boiling water. Send it to table as hot as possible, adding milk and sugar to the cups when poured out. Eat with it dry toast; _unb.u.t.tered_ rolls; milk-biscuit; or sponge-cake.

TO KEEP ORANGE-JUICE.--The oranges must be large and ripe. To increase the quant.i.ty of juice, roll each orange under your hand on a table, or with your foot upon a clean hearth-stone. Then cut them in half, and score each half with four deep notches, so that when squeezed the juice may run out more freely. Squeeze them through a strainer into a large bowl. To each pint of juice allow a pound of the best loaf-sugar, broken small. Cover the bowl, and let it stand undisturbed all night. In the morning remove all the sc.u.m that has risen to the surface, and pour the liquid through a funnel into clean, well-dried pint bottles; into each of which you have previously put a table-spoonful of the best white brandy. Cork each bottle tightly, and tie down a thin wet leather closely over each cork. Keep the bottles in a dry place. You will find this preparation excellent for flavouring, when fresh oranges are not to be had.

Lemon-juice may be kept in the same manner, for flavouring or for punch.

TO PRESERVE LEMON-JUICE FOR A VOYAGE.--Select only the best and freshest lemons. One that is in the least tainted will spoil the whole. Roll every lemon under your hand upon a table to increase the juice. Then squeeze them well through a strainer. To every quart of juice add an ounce of cream of tartar. Let it stand three days, (stirring it frequently,) and then filter it through thin muslin pinned tightly on the bottom of a sieve. Put it into pint-bottles; filling up the neck of each bottle with a little of the best olive oil. The corks must be put in very tightly, and then sealed. When you open a bottle, avoid shaking it; and carefully pour off the olive oil that is on the top of the lemon-juice.

FINE MEAD.--Beat to a strong froth the whites of three eggs, and mix them with six gallons of water; sixteen quarts of strained honey; and the yellow rind of two dozen large lemons, pared very thin. Boil all together, during three-quarters of an hour; skimming it well. Then put it into a tub; and when lukewarm, add three table-spoonfuls of the best fresh yeast. Cover it, and leave it to ferment. When it has done working, transfer it to a barrel, with the lemon-peel in the bottom. Let it stand six months. Then bottle it.

TO KEEP CIDER SWEET.--When barreling the cider, put into each barrel or keg a jill (eight large table-spoonfuls) of white mustard-seed. This will r.e.t.a.r.d its becoming hard or sour.

TO MAKE BOTTLED CIDER VERY BRISK.--When you are bottling the cider, put a large raisin into the bottom of each bottle before you pour in the cider. Then cork it tightly.

In bottling spruce or mola.s.ses beer put in also a raisin.

TO KEEP ORANGES AND LEMONS.--Take a sufficiency of fine sand, and make it very dry by exposing it to the heat of the sun or the fire, stirring it frequently. Afterwards let it become quite cold, and then put a quant.i.ty of it in a close box or barrel. Bury your oranges (which must all be perfectly good) in this sand; placing them so as not to touch each other, and with the stem-end downwards. At the top put a thick layer of sand quite two inches deep. Cover the box closely, and keep it in a cool place.

TO KEEP GRAPES.--See that there are no imperfect grapes on any of the bunches. They must not be too ripe. Put in the bottom of a keg a layer of bran that has been dried in the sun, or in an oven, and afterwards become quite cold. Upon the bran, place a layer of grapes with bran between the bunches so that they may not touch each other. Proceed thus with alternate layers of bran and grapes till the keg is full; seeing that the last is a thick layer of bran. Then close the keg, nailing on the head so that no air can penetrate.

Grapes may also be packed in fine wood-ashes that has been well sifted.

TO KEEP APPLES.--Wipe every apple dry with a cloth, and see that no blemished ones are left among them. Have ready a very dry tight barrel, and cover the bottom with dry pebbles. These will attract the damp of the apples. Then put in the fruit; head up the barrel; and plaster the seams with mortar, taking care to have a thick rim of mortar all round the top. Let the barrel remain undisturbed in the same place till you want the apples for use. Pippins, bell-flowers, or other apples of the best sorts, may be kept in this way till July.

TO KEEP CARROTS, PARSNIPS, BEETS, AND SWEET POTATOES.--These should all be housed before the first frost. Range them side by side, and bury them in dry sand; a bed of sand at the bottom; another between each layer of the vegetables, and a thick sand covering for the whole. When wanted for use, begin at one end, and draw them out in regular order, and not out of the middle till you come to it.

TO KEEP FRESH b.u.t.tER FOR FRYING, STEWING, &c.--Take several pounds of the _very best_ fresh b.u.t.ter. Cut it up in a large tin sauce-pan, or in any clean cooking vessel lined with tin. Set it over the fire, and boil and skim it during half an hour. Then pour it off, carefully, through a funnel into a stone jar, and cover it closely with a bladder or leather tied down over the lid. The b.u.t.ter having thus been separated from the salt and sediment, (which will be found remaining at the bottom of the boiling-vessel,) if kept closely covered and set in a cool place, will continue good for a year, and be found excellent for frying, and stewing, and other culinary purposes. Prepare it thus in May or June, and you may use it in winter, if living in a place where fresh b.u.t.ter is not to be obtained in cold weather. Try it.

AN EASY WAY OF MAKING b.u.t.tER IN WINTER.--The following will be found an excellent method of making b.u.t.ter in cold weather for family use. We recommend its trial. Take, in the morning, the unskimmed milk of the preceding evening, (after it has stood all night in a _tin_ pan,) and set it over a furnace of hot coals, or in a stove; being careful not to disturb the cream that has risen to the surface. Let it remain over the fire till it simmers, and begins to bubble round the edges; but on no account let it come to a boil. Then take the pan carefully off, (without disturbing the cream) and carry it to a cool place, but not where it is cold enough to freeze. In the evening, take a spoon, and loosen the cream round the sides of the pan. If very rich it will be almost a solid cake. Slip off the sheet of cream into another and larger pan; letting as little milk go with it as possible. Cover it, and set it away. Repeat the process for several days, till you have thus collected a sufficiency of clotted cream to fill the pan. Then scald a wooden ladle, and beat the cream hard with it during ten minutes. You will then have excellent b.u.t.ter. Take it out of the pan; lay it on a flat dish; and with the ladle, squeeze and press it hard, till all the b.u.t.ter-milk is entirely extracted and drained off. Then wash the b.u.t.ter in cold water, and work a very little salt into it. Set it away in a cool place for three hours.

Then squeeze and press it again; also washing it a second time in cold water. Make it up into pats, and keep it in a cool place.

The unskimmed morning's milk, of course, may also be used for this purpose, after it has stood twelve hours. The simmering over the fire adds greatly to the quant.i.ty of cream, by throwing all the oily part of the milk to the surface; but if allowed to boil, this oleaginous matter will again descend, and mix with the rest, so as not to be separated.

This is the usual method of making winter b.u.t.ter in the south of England; and it is very customary in the British provinces of America.

Try it.

COCHINEAL COLOURING.--Take an ounce of cochineal, and pound it to a fine powder. Put it into an earthen or porcelain vessel, that is quite clean, and entirely free from grease. Add a small salt-spoonful of potash, or soda, and pour in a pint of clear, soft water. Set it over the fire; and, when it has come to a boil, add a quarter of an ounce of cream of tartar, with a quarter of an ounce of powdered alum; and let it boil ten minutes. Then, while it is boiling hot, stir in three ounces of powdered loaf-sugar. Bottle it, when cold, and keep it closely corked. You can then have it always at hand, as a fine red colouring for icings, blanc-mange, creams, jellies, and other sweetmeats.