The American Housewife Part 18

Put to six ounces of hops five quarts of water, and boil them three hours--then strain off the liquor, and put to the hops four quarts more of water, a tea-cup full of ginger, and boil the hops three hours longer. Strain and mix it with the rest of the liquor, and stir in a couple of quarts of mola.s.ses. Take about half a pound of bread, and brown it very slowly--when very brown and dry, put it in the liquor, to enrich the beer. Rusked bread is the best for this purpose, but a loaf of bread cut in slices, and toasted till brittle, will do very well.

When rusked bread is used, pound it fine, and brown it in a pot, as you would coffee, stirring it constantly. When the hop liquor cools, so as to be just lukewarm, add a pint of new yeast, that has no salt in it.

Keep the beer covered in a temperate situation, till it has ceased fermenting, which is ascertained by the subsiding of the froth--turn it off carefully into a beer keg, or bottles. The beer should not be corked very tight, or it will burst the bottles. It should be kept in a cool place.

340. _Beer of Essential Oils._

Mix a couple of quarts of boiling water with a pint and a half of mola.s.ses. Stir in five quarts of cold water, then add ten drops of the oil of sa.s.safras, ten of spruce, fifteen of winter-green, and a tea-spoonful of essence of ginger. When just lukewarm, put in half a pint of fresh lively yeast. When fermented, bottle and cork it, and keep it in a cool place. It will be fit to drink in the course of two or three days.

341. _Spring Beer._

Take a small bunch of all, or part of the following: Sweet fern, sarsaparilla, winter-green, sa.s.safras, prince's pine, and spice wood.

Boil them with two or three ounces of hops to three or four gallons of water, and two or three raw potatoes, pared and cut in slices. The strength of the roots and hops is obtained more thoroughly by boiling them in two waters--for, when the liquor is strongly saturated with the hops, it will rather bind up the roots than extract their juices. The roots should be boiled five or six hours--the liquor should then be strained, and a quart of mola.s.ses put to three gallons of the beer. If you wish to have the beer very rich, brown half a pound of bread, and put it into the liquor. If the liquor is too thick, dilute it with cold water. When just lukewarm, put in a pint of fresh lively yeast, that has no salt in it. The salt has a tendency to keep it from fermenting. Keep it in a temperate situation, covered over, but not so tight as to exclude the air entirely, or it will not work. When fermented, keep it in a tight keg, or bottle and cork it up.

342. _Ginger Beer._

Boil gently, in a gallon of water, three table-spoonsful of cream of tartar, three of ginger, and a lemon cut in slices. When it has boiled half an hour, take it from the fire, strain and sweeten it to your taste--white sugar is the best, but brown sugar or mola.s.ses answers very well. Put to it, when lukewarm, half a pint of fresh yeast. Turn it off carefully, when fermented, bottle it, and keep it in a cool place. It will be fit to drink in the course of seven or eight days.

343. _Instantaneous Beer._

Put to a pint and a half of water four tea-spoonsful of ginger, a table-spoonful of lemon-juice--sweeten it to the taste with syrup or white sugar, and turn it into a junk bottle. Have ready a cork to fit the bottle, a string of wire to tie it down, and a mallet to drive in the cork. Then put into the bottle a heaping tea-spoonful of the super-carbonate of soda, cork it immediately, tie it down, then shake the whole up well, cut the string, and the cork will fly out. Turn it out, and drink immediately.

344. _Mixed Wine._

Take equal parts of ripe currants, grapes, raspberries, and English cherries. Bruise them, then mix cold water with them, in the proportion of four pounds of fruit to a gallon of water. Let the whole remain half a day. Stir the whole up well, then strain it--to each gallon of it put three pounds of sugar. Keep it in a temperate situation, where it will ferment slowly, three or four days--stir it up frequently. When fermented, add a ninth part of brandy to it, and stop it up tight--when it becomes clear, bottle it. In the course of a year it will be fit to drink.

345. _Currant Wine._

Strain the currants, which should be perfectly ripe. To each quart of juice put a couple of quarts of water, and three pounds of sugar--stir the whole well together, and let it stand twenty-four hours, without stirring--then skim and set it in a cool place, where it will ferment slowly. Let it remain three or four days--if, at the end of that time, it has ceased fermenting, add one quart of French brandy to every fifteen gallons of the liquor, and close up the barrel tight. When it becomes clear, it is fit to bottle. This will be good in the course of six months, but it is much improved by being kept several years.

346. _Grape Wine._

Bruise the grapes, which should be perfectly ripe. To each gallon of grapes put a gallon of water, and let the whole remain a week, without being stirred. At the end of that time, draw off the liquor carefully, and put to each gallon three pounds of lump sugar. Let it ferment in a temperate situation--when fermented, stop it up tight. In the course of six months it will be fit to bottle.

347. _To mull Wine._

To a pint of water put a tea-spoonful of powdered cloves and cinnamon.

Set it where it will boil--then separate the whites and yelks of three eggs, and beat the yelks with a large spoonful of powdered white sugar.

As soon as the water boils, turn it on to the yelks and sugar--add a pint of wine, and turn the beaten whites of the eggs over the whole.

348. _Quince Cordial._

Take ripe nice quinces, wipe off the fur, and grate them. Express the juices of the quince pulp through a strong cloth, and to each quart of it put two-thirds of a quart of French brandy, a pound and a half of white sugar, a hundred bitter almonds, or peach meats, a dozen cloves.

Put it in a stone pot, cover it tight, and keep it a week in a warm place, then skim and bottle it, and let it remain a year before using it.

349. _Peach Cordial._

Take ripe juicy peaches--wash and wipe them, to get off the down--gash them to the stone. Put to each peck of peaches a gallon of French brandy, and cover them up tight. Let the whole remain a couple of months, then drain the brandy free from the peaches--add sufficient cold water to render it of the strength of good white wine, and to every three gallons of it put four pounds of sugar. Stir it up well--let it remain a couple of days, stirring it up well each day, then turn it into a wine cask, and close it tight.

350. _Smallage Cordial._

Take young sprouts of smallage--wash and drain them till perfectly dry.

Cut them in small pieces, put them in a bottle, with seeded raisins, having an alternate layer of each. When the bottle is two-thirds full of the smallage, turn in French brandy, till the bottle is full. Let it remain three or four days, to have the smallage absorb the brandy--then put in as much more brandy as the bottle will hold. It will be fit for use in the course of eight or ten days. This is an excellent family medicine.

351. _Currant Shrub._

To a pint of strained currant juice, put a pound of sugar. Boil the sugar and juice gently together, eight or ten minutes, then set it where it will cool. Add, when lukewarm, a wine gla.s.s of French brandy to every pint of syrup--bottle and cork it tight--keep it in a cool place.

352. _Raspberry Shrub._

To three quarts of fresh, ripe raspberries, put one of good vinegar. Let it remain a day--then strain it, and put to each pint a pound of white sugar. Boil the whole together for half an hour, skim it clear. When cool, add a wine gla.s.s of French brandy to each pint of the shrub. A couple of table-spoonsful of this, mixed with a tumbler two-thirds full of water, is a wholesome and refreshing drink in fevers.

353. _Lemon Shrub._

Procure nice fresh lemons--pare the rind off thin, then squeeze out the juice of the lemons, and strain it. To a pint of the juice put a pound of white sugar, broken into small pieces. Measure out for each pint of the syrup three table-spoonsful of French brandy, and soak the rind of the lemons in it. Let the whole remain a day, stirring up the lemon-juice and sugar frequently. The next day turn off the syrup, and mix it with the brandy and lemon rinds--put the whole in clean bottles, cork and seal them tight, and keep them in dry sand, in a cool place.

354. _Sherbet._

Boil in three pints of water six or eight green stalks of rhubarb, a quarter of a pound of figs or raisins. When the whole has boiled between twenty-five and thirty minutes, strain it, and mix it with a tea-spoonful of rosewater, and lemon or orange syrup to the taste. Let it get cold before drinking it.

355. _Noyeau._

To three pints of French brandy, put four ounces of bitter almonds, or peach meats, and a couple of ounces of sweet almonds--they should be bruised before they are mixed with the brandy. Add half an ounce each of powdered cinnamon and mace, a quarter of an ounce of cloves. Let the whole remain a fortnight, shaking it up well each day, then drain off the brandy into another bottle, and put to the almonds a quart of water.

Let it stand three days, then turn back the brandy, and put in a pound and a half of white sugar. Let the whole remain a week, stirring it up frequently, then strain the liquor off, free from the dregs, into bottles for use.

356. _Mead._

Put to a pound of honey three pints of warm water--stir it up well, and let it remain till the honey is held in complete solution--then turn it into a cask, leaving the bung out. Let it ferment in a temperate situation--bottle it as soon as fermented, cork it up very tight.

357. _Essence of Lemon._

Turn gradually on to a drachm of the best oil of lemons a couple of ounces of strong rectified spirit. The best method of obtaining the essence of the lemon peel, is to rub all the yellow part of the peel off, with lumps of white sugar, and sc.r.a.pe off the surface of the sugar into a preserving pot, as fast as it becomes saturated with the oil of the lemon. The sugar should be pressed down tight, and covered very close. A little of this sugar gives a fine flavor to puddings, cakes, and pies. This mode of preserving the essence of the lemon is superior to the one in which spirit is used, as the fine aromatic flavor of the peel is procured without any alloy.