The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) Part 96

LEMONADE.

Three lemons to a pint of water makes strong lemonade; sweeten to your taste.

STRAWBERRY WATER.

Take one cupful of ripe hulled berries; crush with a wooden spoon, mixing with the ma.s.s a quarter of a pound of pulverized sugar and half a pint of cold water. Pour the mixture into a fine sieve, rub through and filter till clear; add the strained juice, of one lemon and one and a half pints of cold water, mix thoroughly and set in ice chest till wanted.

This makes a nice, cool drink on a warm day and easily to be made in strawberry season.

STRAWBERRY AND RASPBERRY SYRUP.

Mash the fresh fruit, express the juice and to each quart add three and a half pounds of granulated sugar. The juice, heated to 180 Fahrenheit, and strained or filtered previous to dissolving the sugar, will keep for an indefinite time, canned hot in gla.s.s jars.

The juice of soft fruits is best when allowed to drop therefrom by its own weight; lightly mash the fruit and then suspend in a cloth, allowing the juice to drop in a vessel beneath. Many housekeepers, after the bottles and jars are thoroughly washed and dried, smoke them with sulphur in this way: Take a piece of wire and bend it around a small piece of brimstone the size of a bean; set the brimstone on fire, put it in the jar or bottle, bending the other end over the mouth of the vessel, and cover with a cork; after the brimstone has burned away, fill the vessel with the syrup or preserves and cover tightly. There is no sulphurous taste left by the process.

KOUMISS.

Koumiss is prepared by dissolving four ounces of white sugar in one gallon of skimmed milk, and placing in bottles of the capacity of one quart; add two ounces of baker's yeast or a cake of compressed yeast to each bottle. Cork and tie securely, set in a warm place until fermentation is well under way, and lay the bottles on their sides in a cool cellar. In three days, fermentation will have progressed sufficiently to permit the koumiss to be in good condition.

PINEAPPLE VINEGAR.

Cover sliced pineapples with pure cider vinegar; let them stand three or four days, then mash and strain through a cloth as long as it runs clear; to every three quarts of juice add five pounds of sugar.

Boil it altogether about ten minutes, skim carefully until nothing rises to the surface, take from the fire; when cool, bottle it.

Blackberries and raspberries, and, in fact, any kind of highly flavored fruit, is fine; a tablespoonful in a gla.s.s of ice-cold water, to drink in warm weather.

RASPBERRY VINEGAR. No. 1.

Put a quart of raspberries into a suitable dish, pour over them a quart of good vinegar, let it stand twenty-four hours, then strain through a flannel bag and pour this liquor on another quart of berries; do this for three or four days successively and strain it; make it very sweet with loaf sugar; bottle and seal it.

RASPBERRY VINEGAR. NO. 2.

Turn over a quart or ripe raspberries, mashed, a quart of good cider vinegar, add one pound of white sugar, mix well, then let stand in the sun four hours. Strain it, squeeze out the juice and put in a pint of good brandy. Seal it up in bottles, air-tight, and lay them on their sides in the cellar; cover them with sawdust. When used, pour two tablespoonfuls to a tumblerful of ice-water. Fine.

HOME-MADE TABLE VINEGAR.

Put in an open cask four gallons of warm rain-water, one gallon of common mola.s.ses and two quarts of yeast; cover the top with thin muslin and leave it in the sun, covering it up at night and when it rains. In three or four weeks it will be good vinegar. If cider can be used in place of rain-water the vinegar will make much sooner--will not take over a week to make a very sharp vinegar. Excellent for pickling purposes.

VERY STRONG TABLE VINEGAR.

Take two gallons of good cider and thoroughly mix it with two pounds of new honey, pour into your cask or bottle and let it stand from four to six months, when you will have vinegar so strong that it cannot be used at table without diluting with water. It is the best ever procured for pickling purposes.

PINEAPPLE-ADE.

Pare and slice some very ripe pineapples; then cut the slices into small pieces. Put them with all their juice into a large pitcher, and sprinkle among them plenty of powdered white sugar. Pour on boiling water, allowing a small half pint to each pineapple. Cover the pitcher and let it stand till quite cool, occasionally pressing down the pineapple with a spoon. Then set the pitcher for a while in ice.

Lastly, strain the infusion into another vessel and transfer it to tumblers, putting into each gla.s.s some more sugar and a bit of ice.

This beverage will be found delicious.

SEIDLITZ POWDERS.

Fold in a white paper a mixture of one drachm of Roch.e.l.le salts and twenty-five grains of carbonate of soda, in a blue paper twenty grains of tartaric acid. They should all be pulverized very finely.

Put the contents of the white paper into a tumbler, not quite half full of cold water, and stir it till dissolved. Then put the mixture from the blue paper into another tumbler with the same quant.i.ty of water, and stir that also. When the powders are dissolved in both tumblers, pour the first into the other, and it will effervesce immediately. Drink it quickly, while foaming.

INEXPENSIVE DRINK.

A very nice, cheap drink which may take the place of lemonade and be found fully as healthful is made with one cupful of pure cider vinegar, half a cupful of good mola.s.ses, put into one quart pitcher of ice-water. A tablespoonful of ground ginger added makes a healthful beverage.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

THE VARIETIES OF SEASONABLE FOOD TO BE OBTAINED IN OUR MARKETS DURING THE YEAR.

JANUARY.

MEATS.--Beef, mutton, pork, lamb.

POULTRY AND GAME.--Rabbits, hares, partridges, woodc.o.c.ks, grouse or prairie chickens, snipes, antelope, quails, swans, geese, chickens, capons, tame pigeons, wild ducks, the canvas-back duck being the most popular and highly prized; turkeys.

FISH.--Haddock, fresh codfish, halibut, flounders, ba.s.s, fresh salmon, turbot. Frozen fresh mackerel is found in our large cities during this month; also frozen salmon, red-snapper, shad, frozen bluefish, pickerel, smelts, green turtle, diamond-back terrapin, prawns, oysters, scallops, hard crabs, white bait, finnan haddie, smoked halibut, smoked salmon.

VEGETABLES.--Cabbage, carrots, turnips, parsnips, beets, pumpkins, chives, celery, winter squash, onions, white and sweet potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, chiccory, Brussels-sprouts, kale-sprouts, oyster plant, leeks, cress, cauliflower. Garden herbs, both dry and green, being chiefly used in stuffing and soups, and for flavoring and garnishing certain dishes, are always in season, such as sage, thyme, sweet basil, borage, dill, mint, parsley, lavender, summer savory, etc., may be procured green in the summer and dried in the winter.

FEBRUARY.

MEATS.--Beef, mutton, pork, lamb, antelope.

POULTRY AND GAME.--Partridges, hares, rabbits, snipes, capons, pheasants, fowls, pullets, geese, ducks, turkeys, wild ducks, swan, and pigeons.

FISH.--Halibut, haddock, fresh codfish, striped ba.s.s, eels, fresh salmon, live lobsters, pompano, sheep's-head, red-snapper, white perch, a panfish, smelts--green and frozen; shad, herring, salmon-trout, whitefish, pickerel, green turtle, flounders, scallops, prawns, oysters, soft-sh.e.l.l crabs--which are in excellent condition this month; hard crabs, white bait, boneless dried codfish, finnan haddie, smoked halibut, smoked salmon.

VEGETABLES.--White potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, onions, parsnips, oyster plant, okra, celery, chiccory, carrots, turnips, Jerusalem artichokes, French artichokes, Brussels-sprouts, beets, mushrooms raised in hot houses, pumpkins, winter squash, dry shallots and garden herbs for seasoning put up in the dried state.

MARCH.