The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual Part 77

_Paregoric Elixir._--(No. 570.)

A drachm of purified opium, same of flowers of benjamin, same of oil of aniseed, camphor, two scruples; steep all in a pint of brandy or proof spirit; let it stand ten days, occasionally shaking it up: strain.

A tea-spoonful in half a pint of White wine whey (No. 562), tewahdiddle (No. 467), or gruel (No. 572), taken the last thing at night, is an agreeable and effectual medicine for coughs and colds. It is also excellent for children who have the hooping-cough, in doses of from five to twenty drops in a little water, or on a little bit of sugar.

_Dr. Kitchiner's Receipt to make Gruel._--(No. 572.)

Ask those who are to eat it, if they like it thick or thin; if the latter, mix well together by degrees, in a pint basin, one table-spoonful of oatmeal, with three of cold water; if the former, use two spoonfuls.

Have ready in a stew-pan, a pint of boiling water or milk; pour this by degrees to the oatmeal you have mixed; return it into the stew-pan; set it on the fire, and let it boil for five minutes; stirring it all the time to prevent the oatmeal from burning at the bottom of the stew-pan; skim and strain it through a hair-sieve.

2d. To convert this into caudle, add a little ale, wine, or brandy, with sugar; and if the bowels are disordered, a little nutmeg or ginger, grated.

_Obs._ Gruel may be made with broth (No. 490, or No. 252, or No. 564), instead of water; (to make _crowdie_, see No. 205*); and may be flavoured with sweet herbs, soup roots, and savoury spices, by boiling them for a few minutes in the water you are going to make the gruel with; or zest (No. 255), pease powder (No. 458), or dried mint, mushroom catchup (No. 409); or a few grains of curry powder (No. 455); or savoury ragout powder (No. 457); or Cayenne (No. 404); or celery-seed bruised, or soup herb powder (No. 459); or an onion minced very fine and bruised in with the oatmeal; or a little eschalot wine (No. 402); or essence of celery (Nos. 409, 413, 417, or No. 420), &c.

Plain gruel, such as is directed in the first part of this receipt, is one of the best breakfasts and suppers that we can recommend to the rational epicure; is the most comforting soother of an irritable stomach that we know; and particularly acceptable to it after a hard day's work of intemperate feasting: when the addition of half an ounce of b.u.t.ter, and a tea-spoonful of Epsom salt, will give it an aperient quality, which will a.s.sist the princ.i.p.al viscera to get rid of their burden.

"Water gruel," says Tryon in his _Obs. on Health_, 16mo. 1688, p. 42, is "the king of spoon meats," and "the queen of soups," and gratifies nature beyond all others.

In the "Art of Thriving," 1697, p. 8, are directions for preparing fourscore n.o.ble and wholesome dishes, upon most of which a man may live excellently well for two-pence a day; the author's Obs. on water gruel is, that "essence of oatmeal makes a n.o.ble and exhilarating meal!"

Dr. Franklin's favourite breakfast was a good basin of warm gruel, in which there was a small slice of b.u.t.ter, with toasted bread and nutmeg; the expense of this he reckoned at three halfpence.

_Scotch Burgoo._--(No. 572*.)

"This humble dish of our northern brethren forms no contemptible article of food. It possesses the grand qualities of salubrity, pleasantness, and cheapness. It is, in fact, a sort of oatmeal hasty pudding without milk; much used by those patterns of combined industry, frugality, and temperance, the Scottish peasantry; and this, among other examples of the economical Scotch, is well worthy of being occasionally adopted by all who have large families and small incomes."

It is made in the following easy and expeditious manner:--

"To a quart of oatmeal add gradually two quarts of water, so that the whole may smoothly mix: then stirring it continually over the fire, boil it together for a quarter of an hour; after which, take it up, and stir in a little salt and b.u.t.ter, with or without pepper. This quant.i.ty will serve a family of five or six persons for a moderate meal."--Oddy's Family Receipt Book, p. 204.

_Anchovy Toast._--(No. 573.)

Bone and wash the anchovies, pound them in a mortar with a little fresh b.u.t.ter; rub them through a sieve, and spread them on a toast, see Nos.

434 and 435, and No. 355.

_Obs._ You may add, while pounding the anchovies, a little made mustard and curry powder (No. 455) or a few grains of Cayenne, or a little mace or other spice. It may be made still more savoury, by frying the toast in clarified b.u.t.ter.

_Deviled Biscuit_,--(No. 574.)

Is the above composition spread on a biscuit warmed before the fire in a Dutch oven, with a sufficient quant.i.ty of salt and savoury spice (No.

457), zest (No. 255), curry powder (No. 455), or Cayenne pepper sprinkled over it.

_Obs._ This _ne plus ultra_ of high spiced relishes, and No. 538, frequently make their appearance at tavern dinners, when the votaries of Bacchus are determined to vie with each other in sacrificing to the jolly G.o.d.

FOOTNOTES:

[300-*] This may be still longer preserved by the process directed in No. 252.

[303-*] Hashes and meats dressed a second time, should only simmer gently till just warm through; it is supposed they have been done very nearly, if not quite enough, already; select those parts of the joint that have been least done.

In making a hash from a leg of mutton, do not destroy the marrow-bone to help the gravy of your hash, to which it will make no perceptible addition; but saw it in two, twist writing-paper round the ends, and send it up on a plate as a side dish, garnished with sprigs of parsley: if it is a roast leg, preserve the end bone, and send it up between the marrow-bones. This is a very pretty luncheon, or supper dish.

[303-+] See "_The Court and Kitchen of_ ELIZABETH, commonly called _Joan Cromwell_," 16mo. London, 1664, page 106.

[304-*] The "_bain-marie_," or water-bath (see note to No. 529*), is the best utensil to warm up made dishes, and things that have been already sufficiently dressed, as it neither consumes the sauce, nor hardens the meat. If you have not a water-bath a Dutch oven will sometimes supply the place of it.

"_Bain-marie_ is a flat vessel containing boiling water; you put all your stew-pans into the water, and keep that water always very hot, but it must not boil: the effect of this _bain-marie_ is to keep every thing warm without altering either the quant.i.ty or the quality, particularly the quality. When I had the honour of serving a n.o.bleman, who kept a very extensive hunting establishment, and the hour of dinner was consequently uncertain, I was in the habit of using _bain-marie_, as a certain means of preserving the flavour of all my dishes. If you keep your sauce, or broth, or soup, by the fireside, the soup reduces, and becomes too strong, and the sauce thickens as well as reduces. This is the best way of warming turtle, or mock turtle soup, as the thick part is always at the bottom, and this method prevents it from burning, and keeps it always good."--UDE'S _Cookery_, page 18.

[306-*] Probably a contraction of "_haut ragout_."

[308-*] The proverb says, "_Of all the fowls of the air_, commend me to the shin of beef; for there's marrow for the master, meat for the mistress, gristles for the servants, and bones for the dogs."

[309-*] The remotest parts of the world were visited, and earth, air, and ocean ransacked, to furnish the complicated delicacies of a Roman supper.

"_Suidas_ tells us, that _Pityllus_, who had a _hot_ tongue and a _cold_ stomach, in order to gratify the latter without offending the former, made a sheath for his tongue, so that he could swallow his pottage scalding hot; yea, I myself have known a Shropshire gentleman of the like quality!!"--See Dr. MOFFAT _on Food_, 4to. 1655.

"In the refined extravagance of the tables of the great, where the culinary arts are pushed to excess, luxury becomes false to itself, and things are valued, not as they are nutritious, or agreeable to the appet.i.te, but in proportion as they are rare, out of season, or costly."--CADOGAN _on Gout_, 8vo. 1771, p. 48.

[309-+] "Cookery is an art, appreciated by only a very few individuals, and which requires, in addition to a most studious and diligent application, no small share of intellect, and the strictest sobriety and punctuality."--Preface to UDE'S _Cookery_, p. 6.

[310-*] This suet is not to be wasted: when it comes from the oven, take out the beef, and strain the contents of the pan through a sieve; let it stand till it is cold; then clarify the fat as directed in No. 83, and it will do for frying, &c.

[312-*] If you have no broth, put in half a pint of water, thicken it as in the above receipt, and just before you give it the last boil up, add to it a large spoonful of mushroom catchup, and, if you like, the same quant.i.ty of port wine.

[313-*] "It must be allowed to muse gently for several hours, inaccessible to the ambient air, and on the even and persevering heat of charcoal in the furnace or stove. After having lulled itself in its own exudations, and the dissolution of its auxiliaries, it may appear at table with a powerful claim to approbation."--_Tabella Cibaria_, p. 47.

[313-+] "'_C'est la soupe_,' says one of the best of proverbs, '_qui fait le soldat_.' 'It is the soup that makes the soldier.' Excellent as our troops are in the field, there cannot be a more unquestionable fact, than their immense inferiority to the French in the business of cookery.

The English soldier lays his piece of ration beef at once on the coals, by which means the one and the better half is lost, and the other burned to a cinder. Whereas, six French troopers fling their messes into the same pot, and extract a delicious soup, ten times more nutritious than the simple _roti_ could ever be."--BLACKWOOD'S _Edinburgh Magazine_, vol. vii. p. 668.

[314-*] The less gravy or b.u.t.ter, and the more beating, the better will be your potted beef, if you wish it to keep: if for immediate eating, you may put in a larger proportion of gravy or b.u.t.ter, as the meat will pound easier and look and taste more mellow.

[318-*] See receipt to hash mutton, Nos. 360 and 361, and No. 484.

[320-*] Some cooks make the gravy, &c. in the following manner:--Slice a large onion; fry it brown; drain all fat from it, and put it into a stew-pan with a bunch of sweet herbs, a couple of dozen berries of allspice, same of black pepper, three blades of mace, and a pint and a half of water; cover down close, and boil gently, for half an hour; then strain it through a sieve over the veal, and let it simmer gently for about three hours: about half an hour before it is done, mix two table-spoonfuls of flour in a tea-cupful of cold water; mix some of the gravy with it, and then put it into the stew-pan.

N.B. Three pints of full-grown green pease are sometimes added when the veal is put in.

[323-*] Vulgo, _salary_.

[324-*] Supposed sorrel.

[324-+] This is by Dr. BENTLEY thought to be time, or thyme.