Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine Part 6

_To preserve whole Quinces white_:--Take the largest quinces of the greenest colour, and scald them till they are pretty soft; then pare them and core them with a scoop; then weigh your quinces against so much double-refin'd sugar, and make a syrup of one half, and put in your quinces, and boil them as fast as you can; then you must have in readiness pippin liquor; let it be very strong of the pippins, and when 'tis strained out, put in the other half of your sugar, and make it a jelly, and when your quinces are clear, put them into the jelly, and let them simmer a little; they will be very white; so gla.s.s them up, and when they are cold, paper them and keep them in a stove.

_To make white Quince Marmalade_:--Scald your quinces tender, take off the skin and pulp them from the core very fine, and to every pound of quince have a pound and half of double-refin'd sugar in lumps, and half a pint of water; dip your sugar in the water and boil and sc.u.m it till 'tis a thick syrup: then put in your quince, boil and sc.u.m it on a quick fire a quarter of an hour, so put it in your pots.

_To make red Quince Marmalade_:--Pare and core a pound of quince, beat the parings and cores and some of your worst quinces, and strain out the juice; and to every pound of quince take ten or twelve spoonfuls of that juice, and three-quarters of a pound of loaf-sugar; put all into your preserving-pan, cover it close, and let it stew over a gentle fire two hours; when 'tis of an orange-red, uncover and boil it up as fast as you can: when of a good colour, break it as you like it, give it a boil, and pot it up.

_To make Melon Mangoes_:--Take small melons, not quite ripe, cut a slip down the side, and take out the inside very clean; beat mustard-seeds, and shred garlick, and mix with the seeds, and put in your mangoes; put the pieces you cut out into their places again, and tye them up, and put them into your pot, and boil some vinegar (as much as you think will cover them) with whole pepper, and some salt, and Jamaica pepper, and pour in scalding hot over your mangoes, and cover them close to keep in the steam; and so do every day for nine times together, and when they are cold cover them with leather.

_To make Conserve of Hips_:--Gather the hips before they grow soft, cut off the heads and stalks, slit them in halves, and take out all the seed and white that is in them very clean; then put them in an earthen pan, and stir them every day, else they will grow mouldy; let them stand till they are soft enough to rub through a coa.r.s.e hair-sieve; as the pulp comes, take it off the sieve; they are a dry berry, and will require pains to rub it through; then add its weight in sugar, and mix it well together without boiling; keeping it in deep gallipots for use.

_To make clear Cakes of Gooseberries_:--Take your white Dutch gooseberries when they are thorough ripe, break them with your fingers and squeeze out all the pulp into a fine piece of cambrick or thick muslin to run thro' clear; then weigh the juice and sugar one against the other; then boil the juice a little while, then put in your sugar and let it dissolve, but not boil; sc.u.m it and put it into gla.s.ses, and stove it in a warm stove.

_To make white Quince Paste_:--Scald the quinces tender to the core, and pare them, and sc.r.a.pe the pulp clean from the core, beat it in a mortar, and pulp it through a colander; take to a pound of pulp a pound and two ounces of sugar, boil the sugar till 'tis candy-high; then put in your pulp, stir it about constantly till you see it come clear from the bottom of the preserving-pan; then take it off, and lay it on plates pretty thin: you may cut it in what shape you please, or make quince chips of it; you must dust it with sugar when you put it into the stove, and turn it on papers in a sieve, and dust the other side; when they are dry, put them in boxes with papers between. You may make red quince paste the same way as this, only colour the quince with cochineel.

_To make Syrup of any flower_:--Clip your flowers, and take their weight in sugar; then take a high gallipot, and a row of flowers, and a strewing of sugar, till the pot is full; then put in two or three spoonfuls of the same syrup or still'd water; tye a cloth on the top of the pot, and put a tile on that, and set your gallipot in a kettle of water over a gentle fire, and let it infuse till the strength is out of the flowers, which will be in four or five hours; then strain it thro' a flannel, and when 'tis cold bottle it up.

VIII.--PICKLES.

_To pickle Nasturtium-Buds_:--Gather your little k.n.o.bs quickly after your blossoms are off; put them in cold water and salt for three days, shifting them once a day; then make a pickle (but do not boil it at all) of some white-wine, some white-wine vinegar, eschalot, horse-radish, pepper, salt, cloves, and mace whole, and nutmeg quartered; then put in your seeds and stop them close; they are to be eaten as capers.

_To keep Quinces in Pickle_:--Cut five or six quinces all to pieces, and put them in an earthen pot or pan, with a gallon of water and two pounds of honey; mix all these together well, and then put them in a kettle to boil leisurely half an hour, and then strain your liquor into that earthen pot, and when 'tis cold, wipe your quinces clean, and put them into it: they must be covered very close, and they will keep all the year.

_To pickle Ashen-keys_:--Take ashen-keys as young as you can get them, and put them in a pot with salt and water; then take green whey, when 'tis hot, and pour over them; let them stand till they are cold before you cover them, so let them stand; when you use them, boil them in fair water; when they are tender take them out, and put them in salt and water.

_To pickle Pods of Radishes_:--Gather the youngest pods, and put them in water and salt twenty-four hours; then make a pickle for them of vinegar, cloves, mace, whole pepper: boil this, and drain the pods from the salt and water, and pour the liquor on them boiling hot: put to them a clove of garlick a little bruised.

_To pickle Broom-Buds_:--Put your broom-buds into little linnen-bags, tie them up, and make a pickle of bay-salt and water boiled, and strong enough to bear an egg; put your bags in a pot, and when your pickle is cold, put it to them; keep them close, and let them lie till they turn black; then shift them two or three times, till they change green; then take them out, and boil them as you have occasion for them: when they are boiled, put them out of the bag: in vinegar they will keep a month after they are boiled.

_To pickle Purslain Stalks_:--Wash your stalks, and cut them in pieces six inches long; boil them in water and salt a dozen walms; take them up, drain them, and when they cool, make a pickle of stale beer, white-wine vinegar, and salt, put them in, and cover them close.

IX.--WINES.

_To make strong Mead_:--Take of spring-water what quant.i.ty you please, and make it more than blood-warm, and dissolve honey in it till 'tis strong enough to bear an egg, the breadth of a shilling; then boil it gently near an hour, taking off the sc.u.m as it rises; then put to about nine or ten gallons, seven or eight large blades of mace, three nutmegs quarter'd, twenty cloves, three or four sticks of cinamon, two or three roots of ginger, and a quarter of an ounce of Jamaica pepper; put these spices into the kettle to the honey and water, a whole lemon, with a sprig of sweet-briar, and a sprig of rosemary; tie the briar and rosemary together, and when they have boiled a little while, take them out and throw them away; but let your liquor stand on the spice in a clean earthen pot till the next day; then strain it into a vessel that is fit for it; put the spice in a bag, and hang it in the vessel, stop it, and at three months draw it into bottles. Be sure that 'tis fine when 'tis bottled; after 'tis bottled six weeks 'tis fit to drink.

_To make small White Mead_:--Take three gallons of spring-water and make it hot, and dissolve in it three quarts of honey and a pound of loaf sugar; and let it boil about half an hour, and sc.u.m it as long as any rises, then pour it out into a tub, and squeeze in the juice of four lemons; put in the rinds of but two; twenty cloves, two races of ginger, a top of sweet-briar, and a top of rosemary. Let it stand in a tub till 'tis but blood warm; then make a brown toast and spread it with two or three spoonfuls of ale-yeast, put it into a vessel fit for it; let it stand four or five days, then bottle it out.

_To make Frontiniac Wine_:--Take six gallons of water and twelve pounds of white sugar, and six pounds of raisins of the sun cut small; boil these together an hour; then take of the flowers of elder, when they are falling and will shake off, the quant.i.ty of half a peck; put them in the liquor when 'tis almost cold, the next day put in six spoonfuls of syrup of lemons, and four spoonfuls of ale-yeast, and two days after put it in a vessel that is fit for it, and when it has stood two months bottle it off.

_To make English Champagne, or the fine Currant Wine_:--Take to three gallons of water nine pounds of Lisbon sugar; boil the water and sugar half an hour, sc.u.m it clean, then have one gallon of currants pick'd, but not bruised, pour the liquor boiling-hot over them, and when cold, work it with half a pint of balm two days; then pour it through a flannel or sieve, then put it into a barrel fit for it with half an ounce of ising-gla.s.s well bruised; when it has done working, stop it close for a month, then bottle it, and in every bottle put a very small lump of double-refin'd sugar. This is excellent wine, and has a beautiful colour.

_To make Saragossa Wine, or English Sack_:--To every quart of water, put a sprig of rue, and to every gallon a handful of fennel-roots, boil these half an hour, then strain it out, and to every gallon of this liquor put three pounds of honey; boil it two hours, and sc.u.m it well, and when 'tis cold pour it off and turn it into a vessel, or such cask that is fit for it; keep it a year in the vessel, and then bottle it; 'tis a very good sack.

_Mountain Wine_:--Pick out the big stalks of your Malaga raisins, then chop them very small, five gallons to every gallon of cold spring-water, let them steep a fortnight or more, squeeze out the liquor and barrel it in a vessel fit for it; first fume the vessel with brimstone; don't stop it up till the hissing is over.

_To make Quince Wine_;--Take your quinces when they are thorough ripe, wipe off the fur very clean; then take out the cores and bruise them as you do apples for cyder, and press them, and to every gallon of juice put two pounds and a half of fine sugar, stir it together till 'tis dissolved; then put it in your cask, and when it has done working stop it close; let it stand till March before you bottle it. You may keep it two or three years, it will be better.

_To make Plumb Wine_:--Take twenty pounds of Malaga raisins, pick, rub, and shred them, and put them into a tub; then take four gallons of fair water and boil it an hour, and let it stand till 'tis blood-warm; then put it to your raisins; let it stand nine or ten days, stirring it once or twice a day, strain out your liquor, and mix with it two quarts of damson juice, put it in a vessel, and when it has done working, stop it close; at four or five months bottle it.

_To make Birch Wine_:--In March bore a hole in a tree, and put in a faucet, and it will run two or three days together without hurting the tree; then put in a pin to stop it, and the next year you may draw as much from the same hole; put to every gallon of the liquor a quart of good honey, and stir it well together, boil it an hour, sc.u.m it well, and put in a few cloves, and a piece of lemon-peel; when 'tis almost cold, put to it so much ale-yeast as will make it work like new ale, and when the yeast begins to settle, put it in a runlet that will just hold it: so let it stand six weeks or longer if you please; then bottle it, and in a month you may drink it. It will keep a year or two. You may make it with sugar, two pounds to a gallon, or something more, if you keep it long. This is admirably wholesome as well as pleasant, an opener of obstructions, good against the phthisick, and good against the spleen and scurvy, a remedy for the stone, it will abate heat in a fever or thrush, and has been given with good success.

_To make Sage Wine_:--Boil twenty-six quarts of spring-water a quarter of an hour, and when 'tis blood-warm, put twenty-five pounds of Malaga raisins pick'd, rubb'd and shred into it, with almost half a bushel of red sage shred, and a porringer of ale-yeast; stir all well together, and let it stand m a tub cover'd warm six or seven days, stirring it once a day; then strain it out, and put it in a runlet. Let it work three or four days, stop it up; when it has stood six or seven days put in a quart or two of Malaga sack, and when 'tis fine bottle it.

_Sage Wine another way_:--Take thirty pounds of Malaga raisins pick'd clean, and shred small, and one bushel of green sage shred small, then boil five gallons of water, let the water stand till 'tis luke-warm; then put it in a tub to your sage and raisins; let it stand five or six days, stirring it twice or thrice a day; then strain and press the liquor from the ingredients, put it in a cask, and let it stand six months: then draw it clean off into another vessel; bottle it in two days; in a month or six weeks it will be fit to drink, but best when 'tis a year old.

_To make Ebulum_:--To a hogshead of strong ale, take a heap'd bushel of elder-berries, and half a pound of juniper-berries beaten; put in all the berries when you put in the hops, and let them boil together till the berries brake in pieces, then work it up as you do ale; when it has done working, add to it half a pound of ginger, half an ounce of cloves, as much mace, an ounce of nutmegs, and as much cinamon grosly beaten, half a pound of citron, as much eringo-root, and likewise of candied orange-peel; let the sweetmeats be cut in pieces very thin, and put with the spice into a bag and hang it in the vessel when you stop it up. So let it stand till 'tis fine, then bottle it up and drink it with lumps of double-refined sugar in the gla.s.s.

_To make c.o.c.k Ale_:--Take ten gallons of ale, and a large c.o.c.k, the older the better, parboil the c.o.c.k, flea him, and stamp him in a stone mortar till his bones are broken, (you must craw and gut him when you flea him) put the c.o.c.k into two quarts of sack, and put to it three pounds of raisins of the sun stoned, some blades of mace, and a few cloves; put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find the ale has done working, put the ale and bag together into a vessel; in a week or nine days' time bottle it up, fill the bottles but just above the necks, and leave the same time to ripen as other ale.

_To make it Elder Ale_:--Take ten bushels of malt to a hogshead, then put two bushels of elder-berries pickt from the stalks into a pot or earthen pan, and set it in a pot of boiling water till the berries swell, then strain it out and put the juice into the guile-fat, and beat it often in, and so order it as the common way of brewing.

_To clear Wine_:--Take half a pound of hartshorn, and dissolve it in cyder, if it be for cyder, or Rhenish-wine for any liquor: this is enough for a hogshead.

_To fine Wine the Lisbon way_:--To every twenty gallons of wine take the whites of ten eggs, and a small handful of salt, beat it together to a froth, and mix it well with a quart or more of the wine, then pour it in the vessel, and in a few days it will be fine.

COOKERY BOOKS.

PART III.

In 1747 appeared a thin folio volume, of which I will transcribe the t.i.tle: "The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, which far Exceeds Every Thing of the Kind Ever yet Published ... By a Lady. London: Printed for the Author; and sold at Mrs. Ashburn's, a China Shop, the Corner of Fleet Ditch. MDCCXLVII." The lady was no other than Mrs.

Gla.s.se, wife of an attorney residing in Carey Street; and a very sensible lady she was, and a very sensible and interesting book hers is, with a preface showing that her aim was to put matters as plainly as she could, her intention being to instruct the lower sort. "For example," says she, "when I bid them lard a fowl, if I should bid them lard with large lardoons they would not know what I meant; but when I say they must lard with little pieces of Bacon, they know what I mean." I have been greatly charmed with Hannah Gla.s.se's "Art of Cookery," 1747, and with her "Complete Confectioner" likewise in a modified degree. The latter was partly derived, she tells you, from the ma.n.u.script of "a very old experienced housekeeper to a family of the first distinction." But, nevertheless, both are very admirable performances; and yet the compiler survives scarcely more than in an anecdote for which I can see no authority. For she does not say, "First catch your hare" [Footnote: Mrs. Gla.s.se's cookery book was reprinted at least as late as 1824].

Mrs. Gla.s.se represents that, before she undertook the preparation of the volume on confectionery, there was nothing of the kind for reference and consultation. But we had already a curious work by E.

Kidder, who was, according to his t.i.tle-page, a teacher of the art which he expounded eventually in print. The t.i.tle is sufficiently descriptive: "E. Kidder's Receipts of Pastry and Cookery, for the use of his Scholars, who teaches at his School in Queen Street, near St.

Thomas Apostle's, [Footnote: In another edition his school is in St. Martin's Le Grand] on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, in the afternoon. Also on Thursdays, Fridays and Sat.u.r.days, in the afternoon, at his School next to Furnivalls Inn in Holborn. Ladies may be taught at their own Houses." It is a large octavo, consisting of fifty pages of engraved text, and is embellished with a likeness of Mr. Kidder.

For all that Mrs. Gla.s.se ignores him.

I have shown how Mrs. Gla.s.se might have almost failed to keep a place in the public recollection, had it not been for a remark which that lady did not make. But there is a still more singular circ.u.mstance connected with her and her book, and it is this--that in Dr. Johnson's day, and possibly in her own lifetime, a story was current that the book was really written by Dr. Hill the physician. That gentleman's claim to the authorship has not, of course, been established, but at a dinner at Dilly's the publisher's in 1778, when Johnson, Miss Seward, and others were present, a curious little discussion arose on the subject. Boswell thus relates the incident and the conversation:--"The subject of cookery having been very naturally introduced at a table, where Johnson, who boasted of the niceness of his palate, avowed that 'he always found a good dinner,' he said, 'I could write a better book about cookery than has ever yet been written; it should be a book upon philosophical principles. Pharmacy is now made much more simple.

Cookery may be so too. A prescription, which is now compounded of five ingredients, had formerly fifty in it. So in Cookery. If the nature of the ingredients is well known, much fewer will do. Then, as you cannot make bad meat good, I would tell what is the best butcher's meat, the best beef, the best pieces; how to choose young fowls; the proper seasons of different vegetables; and then how to roast, and boil, and compound."

DILLY:--"Mrs. Gla.s.se's 'Cookery,' which is the best, was written by Dr. Hill. Half the trade know this."

JOHNSON:--"Well, Sir, that shews how much better the subject of cookery may be treated by a philosopher. I doubt if the book be written by Dr Hill; for in Mrs. Gla.s.se's Cookery, which I have looked into, saltpetre and salt-prunella are spoken of as different substances, whereas salt-prunella is only saltpetre burnt on charcoal; and Hill could not be ignorant of this. However, as the greatest part of such a book is made by transcription, this mistake may have been carelessly adopted. But you shall see what a book of cookery I could make. I shall agree with Mr. Dilly for the copyright."

Miss SEWARD:--"That would be Hercules with the distaff indeed!"

JOHNSON:--"No, Madam. Women can spin very well; but they cannot make a good book of cookery."

But the Doctor's philosophical cookery book belongs to the voluminous calendar of works which never pa.s.sed beyond the stage of proposal; he did not, so far as we know, ever draw out a t.i.tle-page, as Coleridge was fond of doing; and perhaps the loss is to be borne with. The Doctor would have pitched his discourse in too high a key.

Among the gastronomical enlargements of our literature in the latter half of the last century, one of the best books in point of cla.s.sification and range is that by B. Clermont, of which the third edition made its appearance in 1776, the first having been anonymous.

Clermont states that he had been clerk of the kitchen in some of the first families of the kingdom, and lately to the Earl of Abingdon. But elsewhere we find that he had lived very recently in the establishment of the Earl of Ashburnham, for he observes in the preface: "I beg the candour of the Public will excuse the incorrectness of the Language and Diction. My situation in life as an actual servant to the Earl of Ashburnham at the time of the first publication of this Book will I trust plead my Apology." He informs his readers on the t.i.tle-page, and repeats in the preface, that a material part of the work consists of a translation of "Les Soupers de la Cour," and he proceeds to say, that he does not pretend to make any further apology for the t.i.tle of _supper_, than that the French were, in general, more elegant in their suppers than their dinners. In other words, the late dinner was still called supper.

The writer had procured the French treatise from Paris for his own use, and had found it of much service to him in his capacity as clerk of the kitchen, and he had consequently translated it, under the persuasion that it would prove an a.s.sistance to gentlemen, ladies, and others interested in such matters. He specifies three antecedent publications in France, of which his pages might be considered the essence, viz., "La Cuisine Royale," "Le Maitre d'Hotel Cuisinier," and "Les Dons de Comus"; and he expresses to some of his contemporaries, who had helped him in his researches, his obligations in the following terms:--"As every country produces many Articles peculiar to itself, and considering the Difference of Climates, which either forward or r.e.t.a.r.d them, I would not rely on my own Knowledge, in regard to such Articles; I applied therefore to three Tradesmen, all eminent in their Profession, one for Fish, one for Poultry, and one for the productions of the Garden, viz., Mr. Humphrey Turner, the Manager in St. James's Market; Mr. Andrews, Poulterer in ditto; and Mr. Adam Lawson, many years chief gardener to the Earl of Ashburnham; in this article I was also a.s.sisted by Mr. Rice, Green-Grocer, in St. Albans Street."