Do not disturb the heap of potatoes before it is served up, or the flakes will fall and it will flatten. This preparation looks well; but many think that it renders the potato insipid.
ROASTED POTATOES.
Take large fine potatoes; wash and dry them, and either lay them on the hearth and keep them buried in hot wood ashes, or bake them slowly in a Dutch oven. They will not be done in less than two hours. It will save time to half-boil them before they are roasted. Send them to table with the skins on, and eat them with cold butter and salt. They are introduced with cold meat at supper.
Potatoes keep best buried in sand or earth. They should never be wetted till they are washed for cooking. If you have them in the cellar, see that they are well covered with matting or old carpet, as the frost injures them greatly.
SWEET POTATOES BOILED.
If among your sweet potatoes there should he any that are very large and thick, split them, and cut them in four, that they may not require longer time to cook than the others. Boil them with the skins on in plenty of water, but without any salt. You may set the pot on coals in the corner. Try them with a fork, and see that they are done all through; they will take at least an hour. Then drain off the water, and set them for a few minutes in a tin pan before the fire, or in the stove, that they may be well dried. Peel them before they are sent to table.
FRIED SWEET POTATOES.
Choose them of the largest size. Half boil them, and then having taken off the skins, cut the potatoes in slices, and fry them in butter, or in nice dripping.
Sweet potatoes are very good stewed with fresh pork, veal, or beef.
The best way to keep them through the cold weather, is to bury them in earth or sand; otherwise they will be scarcely eatable after October.
CABBAGE.
All vegetables of the cabbage kind should be carefully washed, and examined in case of insects lurking among the leaves. To prepare a cabbage for boiling, remove the outer leaves, and pare and trim the stalk, cutting it close and short. If the cabbage is large, quarter it; if small, cut it in half; and let it stand for a while in a deep part of cold water with the large end downwards. Put it into a pot with plenty of water, (having first tied it together to keep it whole while boiling,) and, taking off the scum, boil it two hours, or till the stalk is quite tender. When done, drain and squeeze it well. Before you send it to table introduce a little fresh butter between the leaves; or have melted butter in a boat. If it has been boiled with meat add no butter to it.
A young cabbage will boil in an hour or an hour and a half.
CALE-CANNON.
Boil separately some potatoes and cabbage. When done, drain and squeeze the cabbage, and chop or mince it very small. Mash the potatoes, and mix them gradually but thoroughly with the chopped cabbage, adding butter, pepper and salt. There should be twice as much potato as cabbage.
Cale-cannon is eaten with corned beef, boiled pork, or bacon.
Cabbages may be kept good all winter by burying them in a hole dug in the ground.
CAULIFLOWER
Remove the green leaves that surround the head or white part, and peel off the outside skin of the small piece of stalk that is left on. Cut the cauliflower in four, and lay it for an hour in a pan of cold water. Then tie it together before it goes into the pot. Put it into boiling water and simmer it till the stalk is thoroughly tender, keeping it well covered with water, and carefully removing the scum. It will take about two hours.
Take it up as soon as it is done; remaining in the water will discolour it. Drain it well, and send it to table with melted butter.
It will be much whiter if put on in boiling milk and water.
BROCOLI.
Prepare brocoli for boiling in the same manner as cauliflower, leaving the stalks rather longer, and splitting the head in half only. Tie it together again, before it goes into the pot. Put it on in hot water, and let it simmer till the stalk is perfectly tender.
As soon as it is done take it out of the water and drain it. Send melted butter to table with it.
SPINACH.
Spinach requires close examination and picking, as insects are frequently found among it, and it is often gritty. Wash it through three or four waters. Then drain it, and put it on in boiling water. Ten minutes is generally sufficient time to boil spinach. Be careful to remove the scum. When it is quite tender, take it up, and drain and squeeze it well. Chop it fine, and put it into a sauce-pan with a piece of butter and a little pepper and salt. Set it on hot coals, and let it stew five minutes, stirring it all the time.
SPINACH AND EGGS.
Boil the spinach as above, and drain and press it, but do not chop it. Have ready some eggs poached as follows. Boil in a sauce-pan, and skim some clear spring water, adding to it a table-spoonful of vinegar. Break the eggs separately, and having taken the sauce-pan off the fire, slip the eggs one at a time into it with as much dexterity as you can. Let the sauce-pan stand by the side of the fire till the white is set, and then put it over the fire for two minutes. The yolk should be thinly covered by the white. Take them up with an egg slice, and having trimmed the edges of the whites, lay the eggs on the top of the spinach, which should firstly seasoned with pepper and salt and a little butter, and must be sent to table hot.
TURNIPS.
Take off a thick paring from the outside, and boil the turnips gently for an hour and a half. Try them with a fork, and when quite tender, take them up, drain them on a sieve, and either send them to table whole with melted butter, or mash them in a cullender, (pressing and squeezing them well;) season with a little pepper and salt, and mix with them a very small quantity of butter. Setting in the sun after they are cooked, or on a part of the table upon which the sun may happen to shine, will give to turnips a singularly unpleasant taste, and should therefore he avoided.
When turnips are very young, it is customary to serve them up with about two inches of the green top left on them.
If stewed with meat, they should be sliced or quartered.
Mutton, either boiled or roasted, should always be accompanied by turnips.
CARROTS.
Wash and scrape them well. If large cut them into two three, or four pieces. Put them into boiling water with a little salt in it. Full grown carrots will require three hours’ boiling; smaller ones two hours, and young ones an hour. Try them with a fork, and when they are tender throughout, take them up and dry them in a cloth. Divide them in pieces and split them, or cut them into slices.
Eat them with melted butter. They should accompany boiled beef or mutton.
PARSNIPS.
Wash, scrape and split them. Put them into a pot of boiling water; add a little salt, and boil them till quite tender, which will be in from two to three hours, according to their size. Dry them in a cloth when done, and pour melted butter over them in the dish. Serve them up with any sort of boiled meat, or with salt cod.
Parsnips are very good baked or stewed with meat.
RUSSIAN OR SWEDISH TURNIPS
This turnip (the Ruta Baga) is very large and of a reddish yellow colour; they are generally much liked. Take off a thick paring, cut the turnips into large pieces, or thick slices, and lay them awhile in cold water. Then boil them gently about two hours, or till they are quite soft. When done, drain, squeeze and mash them, and season them with pepper and salt, and a very little butter. Take care not to set them in a part of the table where the sun comes, as it will spoil the taste.
Russian turnips should always be mashed.
SQUASHES OR CYMLINGS.
The green or summer squash is best when the outside is beginning to turn yellow, as it is then less watery and insipid than when younger. Wash them, cut them into pieces, and take out the seeds. Boil them about three quarters of an hour, or till quits tender. When done, drain and squeeze them well till you have pressed out all the water; mash them with a little butter, pepper and salt. Then put the squash thus prepared into a stew-pan, set it on hot coals, and stir it very frequently till it becomes dry. Take care not to let it burn.
WINTER SQUASH, OR CASHAW.
This is much finer than the summer squash. It is fit to eat in August, and, in a dry warm place, can be kept well all winter. The colour is a very bright yellow. Pare it, take out the seeds, cut it in pieces, and stew it slowly till quite soft, in a very little water. Afterwards drain, squeeze, and press it well, and mash it with a very little butter, pepper and salt.
PUMPKIN.
Deep coloured pumpkins are generally the best. In a dry warm place they can be kept perfectly good all winter. When you prepare to stew a pumpkin, cut it in half and take out all the seeds. Then cut it in thick slices, and pare them. Put it into a pot with a very little water, and stew it gently for an hour, or till soft enough to mash. Then take it out, drain, and squeeze it till it is as dry as you can get it.
Afterwards mash it, adding a little pepper and salt, and a very little butter.
Pumpkin is frequently stewed with fresh beef or fresh pork.
The water in which pumpkin has been boiled, is said to be very good to mix bread with, it having a tendency to improve it in sweetness and to keep it moist.
HOMINY.
Wash the hominy very clean through three or four waters. Then put it into a pot (allowing two quarts of water to one quart of hominy) and boil it slowly five hours. When done, take it up, and drain the liquid from it through a cullender. Put the hominy into a deep dish, and stir into it a small piece of fresh butter.
The small grained hominy is boiled in rather less water, and generally eaten with butter and sugar.
INDIAN CORN.
Corn for boiling should be full grown but young and tender. When the grains become yellow it is too old. Strip it of the outside leaves and the silk, but let the inner leaves remain, as they will keep in the sweetness. Put it into a large pot with plenty of water, and boil it rather fast for three hours or more. When done, drain off the water, and remove the leaves.
You may either lay the ears on a large flat dish and send them to table whole, or broken in half; or you may cut all the com off the cob, and serve it up in a deep dish, mixed with butter, pepper and salt.
MOCK OYSTERS OF CORN.
Take a dozen and a half ears of large young corn, and grate all the grains off the cob as fine as possible. Mix with the grated corn three large table-spoonfuls of sifted flour, the yolks of six eggs well beaten. Let all be well incorporated by hard beating.
Have ready in a frying-pan an equal proportion of lard and fresh butter. Hold it over the fire till it is boiling hot, and then put in portions of the mixture as nearly as possible in shape and size like fried oysters. Fry them brown, and send them to table hot. They should be near an inch thick.
This is an excellent relish at breakfast, and may be introduced as a side dish at dinner. In taste it has a singular resemblance to fried oysters. The corn must be young.
STEWED EGG PLANT.
The purple egg plants are better than the white ones. Put them whole into a pot with plenty of water, and simmer them till quite tender. Then take them out, drain them, and (having peeled off the skins) cut them up, and mash them smooth in a deep dish. Mix with them some grated bread, some powdered sweet marjoram, and a large piece of butter, adding a few pounded cloves. Grate a layer of bread over the top, and put the dish into the oven and brown it. You must send it to table in the same dish.
Eggplant is sometimes eaten at dinner, but generally at breakfast.
TO FRY EGG PLANT.
Do not pare your egg plants if they are to be fried, but slice them about half an inch thick, and lay them an hour or two in salt and water to remove their strong taste, which to most persons is very unpleasant. Then take them out, wipe them, and season them, with pepper only. Beat some yolk of egg; and in another dish grate a sufficiency of bread-crumbs. Have ready in a frying-pan some lard and batter mixed, and make it boil. Then dip each slice of egg plant first in the egg, and then in the crumbs, till both sides are well covered; and fry them brown, taking care to have them done all through, as the least rawness renders them very unpalatable.
STUFFED EGG PLANTS.
Parboil them to take off their bitterness. Then slit each one down the side, and extract the seeds. Have ready a stuffing made of grated bread-crumbs, butter, minced sweet herbs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and beaten yolk of egg. Fill with it the cavity from whence you took the seeds, and bake the egg plants in a Dutch oven. Serve them up with a made gravy poured into the dish.
FRIED CUCUMBERS.
Having pared your cucumbers, cut them lengthways into pieces about as thick as a dollar. Then dry them in a cloth. Season them with pepper and salt, and sprinkle them thick with flour. Melt some butter in a frying-pan, and when it boils, put in the slices of cucumber, and fry them of a light brown. Send them to table hot.
They make a breakfast dish..
TO DRESS CUCUMBERS RAW.
They should be as fresh from the vine as possible, few vegetables being more unwholesome when long gathered. As soon as they are brought in lay them in cold water. Just before they are to go to table take them out, pare them and slice them into a pan of fresh cold water. When they are all sliced, transfer them to a deep dish, season them with a little salt and black pepper, and pour over them some of the best vinegar, to which you may add a little salad oil. You may mix with them a small quantity of sliced onion; not to be eaten, but to communicate a slight flavour of onion to the vinegar.
SALSIFY.
Having scraped the salsify roots, and washed them in cold water, parboil them. Then take them out, drain them, cut them into large pieces and fry them in butter.
Salsify is frequently stewed slowly till quite tender, and then served up with melted butter. Or it may be first boiled, then grated, and made into cakes to be fried in butter.
Salsify must not be left exposed to the air, or it will turn blackish.
ARTICHOKES.
Strip off the coarse outer leaves, and cut off the stalks close to the bottom. Wash the artichokes well, and let them lie two or three hours in cold water. Put them with their heads downward into a pot of boiling water, keeping them down by a plate floated over them. They must boil steadily from two to three hours; take care to replenish the pot with additional boiling water as it is wanted. When they are tender all through, drain them, and serve them up with melted butter.
BEETS.
Wash the beets, but do not scrape or cut them while they are raw; for if a knife enters them before they are boiled they will lose their colour. Boil them from two to three hours, according to their size. When they are tender all through, take them up, and scrape off all the outside. If they are young beets they are best split down and cut into long pieces, seasoned with pepper, and sent to table with melted butter. Otherwise you may slice them thin, after they are quite cold, and pour vinegar over them.
TO STEW BEETS.
Boil them first, and then scrape and slice them. Put them into a stew-pan with a piece of butter rolled in flour, some boiled onion and parsley chopped fine, and a little vinegar, salt and pepper. Set the pan on hot coals, and let the beets stew for a quarter of an hour.
TO BOIL GREEN OR FRENCH BEANS.
These beans should be young, tender, and fresh gathered. Remove the strings with a knife, and take off both ends of the bean. Then cut them in two or three pieces only; for if split or cut very small, they become watery and lose much of their taste. They look best when cut slanting. As you cut them, throw them into a pan of cold water, and let them lay awhile. Boil them an hour and a half. They must be perfectly tender before you take them up. Then drain and press them well, season them with pepper, and mix into them a piece of butter.
SCARLET BEANS.
It is not generally known that the pod of the scarlet bean, if green and young, is extremely nice when cut into three or four pieces and boiled. They will require near two hours, and must be drained well, and mixed as before mentioned with butter and pepper. If gathered at the proper time, when the seed is just perceptible, they are superior to any of the common beans.
LIMA BEANS.
These are generally considered the finest of all beans, and should be gathered young. Shell them, lay them in a pan of cold water, and then boil them about two hours, or till they are quite soft. Drain them well, and add to them some butter and a little pepper.
They are destroyed by the first frost, but can be kept during the winter, by gathering them on a dry day when full grown but not the least hard, and putting them in their pods into a keg. Throw some salt into the bottom of the keg, and cover it with a layer of the bean-pods; then add more salt, and then another layer of beans, till the keg is full. Press them down with a heavy weight, cover the keg closely, and keep it in a cool dry place. Before you use them, soak the pods all night in cold water; the next day shell them, and soak the beans till you are ready to boil them.
DRIED BEANS.
Wash them and lay them in soak over night. Early in the morning put them into a pot with plenty of water, and boil them slowly till dinner time. They will require seven or eight hours to be sufficiently done. Then take them off, put them into a sieve, and strain off the liquid.
Send the beans to table in a deep dish, seasoned with pepper, and having a piece of butter mixed with them.
GREEN PEAS.
Green peas are unfit for eating after they become hard and yellowish; but they are better when nearly full grown than when very small and young. They should be gathered as short a time as possible before they are cooked, and laid in cold water as soon as they are shelled. They will require about an hour to boil soft. When quite done, drain them, mix with them a piece of butter, and add a little pepper.
Peas may be greatly improved by boiling with them two or three lumps of loaf-sugar, and a sprig of mint to be taken out before they are dished. This is an English way of cooking green peas, and is to most tastes a very good one.
TO BOIL ONIONS.
Take off the tops and tails, and the thin outer skin; but no more lest the onions should go to pieces. Lay them on the bottom of a pan which is broad enough to contain them without piling one on another; just cover them with water, and let them simmer slowly till they are tender all through, but not till they break.
Serve them up with melted butter.
TO ROAST ONIONS.
Onions are best when parboiled before roasting. Take large onions, place them on a hot hearth and roast them before the fire in their skins, turning them as they require it. Then peel them, send them to table whole, and eat them with butter and salt.
TO FRY ONIONS.
Peel, slice them, and fry them brown in butter or nice dripping.
Onions should be kept in a very dry place, as dampness injures them.
TO BOIL ASPARAGUS.
Large or full grown asparagus is the best. Before you begin to prepare it for cooking, set on the fire a pot with plenty of water, and sprinkle into it a handful of salt. Your asparagus should be all of the same size. Scrape the stalks till they are perfectly nice and white; cut them all of equal length, and short, so as to leave them but two or three inches below the green part. To serve up asparagus with long stalks is now becoming obsolete. As you scrape them, throw them into a pan of cold water. Then tie them up in small bundles with bass or tape, as twine will cut them to pieces. When the water is boiling fast, put in the asparagus, and boil it an hour; if old it will require an hour and a quarter. When it is nearly done boiling, toast a large slice of bread sufficient to cover the dish (first cutting off the crust) and dip it into the asparagus water in the pot. Lay it in a dish, and, having drained the asparagus, place it on the toast with all the heads pointed inwards towards the centre, and the stalks spreading outwards. Serve up melted butter with it.
SEA KALE.
Sea kale is prepared, boiled, and served up in the same manner as asparagus.
POKE.
The young stalks and leaves of the poke-berry plant when quite small and first beginning to sprout up from the ground in the spring, are by most persons considered very nice, and are frequently brought to market. If the least too old they acquire a strong taste, and should not be eaten, as they then become unwholesome. They are in a proper state when the part of the stalk nearest to the ground is not thicker than small asparagus. Scrape the stalks, (letting the leaves remain on them,) and throw them into cold water. Then tie up the poke in bundles, put it into a pot that has plenty of boiling water, and let it boil fast an hour at least. Serve it up with or without toast, and send melted butter with, it in a boat.
STEWED TOMATAS.
Peel your tomatas, cut them in half and squeeze out the seeds. Then put them into a stew-pan without any water, and add to them cayenne and salt to your taste, (and if you choose,) a little minced onion, and some powdered mace, Stew them slowly till they are first dissolved and then dry.
BAKED TOMATAS
Peel some large fine tomatas, cut them up, and take out the seeds. Then put them into a deep dish in alternate layers with grated bread-crumbs, and a very little butter in small bits. There must be a large proportion of bread-crumbs. Season the whole with a little salt, and cayenne pepper. Set it in an oven, and bake it. In cooking tomatas, take care not to have them too liquid.
MUSHROOMS.
Good mushrooms are only found in clear open fields where the air is pure and unconfined. Those that grow in low damp ground, or in shady places, are always poisonous. Mushrooms of the proper sort generally appear in August and September, after a heavy dew or a misty night. They may be known by their being of a pale pink or salmon colour on the gills or under side, while the top is of a dull pearl-coloured white; and by their growing only in open places. When they are a day old, or a few hours after they are gathered, the reddish colour changes to brown.
The poisonous or false mushrooms are of various colours, sometimes of a bright yellow or scarlet all over; sometimes entirely of a chalky white stalk, top, and gills.
It is easy to detect a bad mushroom if all are quite fresh; but after being gathered a few hours the colours change, so that unpractised persons frequently mistake them.
It is said that if you boil an onion among mushrooms the onion will turn of a bluish black when there is a bad one among them. Of course, the whole should then be thrown into the fire. If in stirring mushrooms, the colour of the silver spoon is changed, it is also most prudent to destroy them all.
TO STEW MUSHROOMS.
For this purpose the small button mushrooms are best. Wash them clean, peel off the skin, and cut off the stalks. Put the trimmings into a small sauce-pan with just enough water to keep them from burning, and, covering them closely, let them stew a quarter of an hour. Then strain the liquor, and having put the mushrooms into a clean sauce-pan, (a silver one, or one lined with porcelain,) add the liquid to them with a little nutmeg, pepper and salt, and a piece of butter rolled in flour. Stew them fifteen minutes, and just before you take them up, stir in a very little cream or rich milk and some beaten yolk of egg. Serve them hot. While they are cooking, keep the pan as closely covered as possible.
If you wish to have the full taste of the mushroom only, after washing, trimming, and peeling them, put them into a stew-pan with a little salt and no water. Set them on coals, and stew them slowly till tender, adding nothing to them but a little butter rolled in flour, or else a little cream. Be sure to keep the pan well covered.
BROILED MUSHROOMS.
For this purpose take large mushrooms, and be careful to have them freshly gathered. Peel them, score the under side, and cut off the stems. Lay them one by one in an earthen pan, brushing them over with sweet oil or oiled butter, and sprinkling each with a little pepper and salt. Cover them closely, and let them set for about an hour and a half. Then place them on a gridiron over clear hot coals, and broil them on both sides.
Make a gravy for them of their trimmings stewed in a very little water, strained and thickened with a beaten egg stirred in just before it goes to table.
BOILED RICE.
Pick your rice clean, and wash it in two cold waters, not draining off the last water till you are ready to put the rice on the fire. Prepare a sauce-pan of water with a little salt in it, and when it boils, sprinkle in the rice. Boil it hard twenty minutes, keeping it covered. Then take it from the fire, and pour off the water. Afterwards set the sauce-pan in the chimney-corner with the lid off, while you are dishing your dinner, to allow the rice to dry, and the grains to separate.
Rice, if properly boiled, should be soft and white, and every grain ought to stand alone. If badly managed, it will, when brought to table, be a grayish watery mass.
In most southern families, rice, is boiled every day for the dinner table, and eaten with the meat and poultry.
The above is a Carolina receipt.
TO DRESS LETTUCE AS SALAD.
Strip off the outer leaves, wash the lettuce, split it in half, and lay it in cold water till dinner time. Then drain it and put it into a salad dish. Have ready two eggs boiled hard, (which they will be in twelve minutes,) and laid in a basin of cold water for five minutes to prevent the whites from turning blue. Cut them in half, and lay them on the lettuce.
Put the yolks of the eggs on a large plate, and with a wooden spoon mash them smooth, mixing with them a table-spoonful of water, and two table-spoonfuls of sweet oil. Then add, by degrees, a salt-spoonful of salt, a tea-spoonful of mustard, and a tea-spoonful of powdered loaf-sugar. When these are all smoothly united, add very gradually three table-spoonfuls of vinegar. The lettuce having been cut up fine on another plate, put it to the dressing, and mix it well.
If you have the dressing for salad made before a dinner, put it into the bottom of the salad dish; then (having cut it up) lay the salad upon it, and let it rest till it is to be eaten, as stirring it will injure it.
You may decorate the top of the salad with slices of red beet, and with the hard white of the eggs cut into rings.
CELERY.
Scrape and wash it well, and let it lie in cold water till shortly before it goes to table; then dry it in a cloth, trim it, and split down the stalks almost to the bottom, leaving on a few green leaves. Send it to table in a celery glass, and eat it with salt only; or chop it fine, and make a salad dressing for it.
RADISHES.
To prepare radishes for eating, wash them and lay them in clean cold water as soon as they are brought in. Shortly before they go to table, scrape off the thin outside skin, trim the sharp end, cut off the leaves at the top, leaving the stalks about an inch long, and put them on a small dish. Eat them with salt.
Radishes should not be eaten the day after they are pulled, as they are extremely unwholesome if not quite fresh.
The thick white radishes, after being scraped and trimmed, should be split or cleft in four, half way down from the top.
TO ROAST CHESTNUTS.
The large Spanish chestnuts are the best for roasting. Cut a slit in the shell of every one to prevent their bursting when hot. Put them into a pan, and set them over a charcoal furnace till they are thoroughly roasted; stirring them up frequently and taking care hot to let them burn. When they are done, peel off the shells, and send the chestnuts to table wrapped up in a napkin to keep them warm.
Chestnuts should always be roasted or boiled before they are eaten.
GROUND-NUTS.
These nuts are never eaten raw. Put them, with their shells on, into an iron pan, and set them in an oven; or you may do them in a skillet on hot coals. A large quantity may be roasted in an iron pot over the fire. Stir them frequently, taking one out from time to time, and breaking it to try if they are done.
EGGS, &c.
TO KEEP EGGS.
There is no infallible mode of ascertaining the freshness of an egg before you break it, but unless an egg is perfectly good, it is unfit for any purpose whatever, and will spoil whatever it is mixed with. You may judge with tolerable accuracy of the state of an egg by holding it against the sun or the candle, and if the yolk, as you see it through the shell, appears round, and the white thin and clear, it is most probably a good one; but if the yolk looks broken, and the white thick and cloudy, the egg is certainly bad. You may try the freshness of eggs by putting them into a pan of cold water. Those that sink the soonest are the freshest; those that are stale or addled will float on the surface.
There are various ways of preserving eggs. To keep them merely for plain boiling, you may parboil them for one minute, and then bury them in powdered charcoal with their small ends downward. They will keep a few days in ajar of salt; but do not afterwards use the salt in which they have been immersed.
They are frequently preserved for two or three months by greasing them all over, when quite fresh, with melted mutton suet, and then wedging them close together (the small end downwards) in a box of bran, layer above layer; the box must be closely covered.
Another way (and a very good one) is to put some lime in a large vessel, and slack it with boiling water, till it is of the consistence of thin cream; you may allow a gallon of water to a pound of lime. When it is cold, pour it off into a large stone jar, put in the eggs, and cover the jar closely. See that the eggs are always well covered with the lime-water, and lest they should break, avoid moving the jar. If you have hens of your own, keep a jar of lime-water always ready, and put in the eggs as they are brought in from the nests. Jars that hold about six quarts are the most convenient.
It will be well to renew the lime-water occasionally.
TO BOIL EGGS FOR BREAKFAST.
The fresher they are the longer time
they will require for boiling. If you wish them quite soft, put them into a sauce-pan of water that is boiling hard at the moment, and let them remain in it five minutes. The longer they boil the harder they will be. In ten minutes’ fast boiling they will be hard enough for salad.
If you use one of the tin egg-boilers that are placed on the table, see that the water is boiling hard at the time you put in the eggs. When they have been in about four or five minutes, take them out, pour off the water, and replace it by some more that is boiling hard; as, from the coldness of the eggs having chilled the first water, they will not otherwise be done enough. The boiler may then be placed on the table, (keeping the lid closed,) and in a few minutes more they will be sufficiently cooked to be wholesome.
TO POACH EGGS.
Pour some boiling water out of a tea kettle through a clean cloth spread over the top of a broad stew-pan; for by observing this process the eggs will be nicer and more easily done than when its impurities remain in the water. Set the pan with the strained water on hot coals, and when it boils break each egg separately into a saucer. Remove the pan from the fire, and slip the eggs one by one into the surface of the water. Let the pan stand till the white of the eggs is set; then place it again on the coals, and as soon as the water boils again, the eggs will be sufficiently done. Take them out carefully with an egg-slice, and trim off all the ragged edges from the white, which should thinly cover the yolk. Have ready some thin slices of buttered toast with the crust cut off. Lay them in the bottom of the dish, with a poached egg on each slice of toast, and send them to the breakfast table.
FRICASSEED EGGS.
Take a dozen eggs, and boil them six or seven minutes, or till they are just hard enough to peel and slice without breaking. Then put them into a pan of cold water while you prepare some grated bread-crumbs, (seasoned with pepper, salt and nutmeg,) and beat the yolks of two or three raw eggs very light. Take the boiled eggs out of the water, and having peeled off the shells, slice the eggs, dust a little flour over them, and dip them first into the beaten egg, and then into the bread-crumbs so as to cover them well on both sides. Have ready in a frying-pan some boiling lard; put the sliced eggs into it, and fry them on both sides. Serve them up at the breakfast table, garnished with small sprigs of parsley that has been fried in the same lard after the eggs were taken out.
PLAIN OMELET.
Take six eggs, leaving out the whites of two. Beat them very light, and strain them through a sieve. Add pepper and salt to your taste. Divide two ounces of fresh butter into little bits, and put it into the egg. Have ready a quarter of a pound of butter in a frying-pan, or a flat stew-pan. Place it on hot coals, and have the butter boiling when you put in the beaten egg. Fry it gently till of a light brown on the under side. Do not turn it while cooking as it will do better without. You may brown the top by holding a hot shovel over it. When done, lay it in the dish, double it in half, and stick sprigs of curled parsley over it.
You may flavour the omelet by mixing with the beaten egg some parsley or sweet herbs minced fine, some chopped celery, or chopped onion, allowing two moderate sized onions to an omelet of six eggs. Or what is still better, it may be seasoned with veal kidney or sweet-bread minced; with cold ham shred as fine as possible; or with minced oysters, (the hard part omitted,) with tops of asparagus (that has been previously boiled) cut into small pieces.
You should have one of the pans that are made purposely for omelets.
AN OMELETTE SOUFFLÉ.
Break eight eggs, separate the whites from the yolks, and strain them. Put the whites into one pan, and the yolks into another, and beat them separately with rods till the yolks are very thick and smooth, and the whites a stiff froth that will stand alone. Then add gradually to the yolks, three quarters of a pound of the finest powdered loaf-sugar, and orange-flower water or lemon-juice to your taste. Next stir the whites lightly into the yolks. Butter a deep pan or dish (that has been previously heated) and pour the mixture rapidly into it. Set it in a Butch oven with coals under it, and on the top, and bake it five minutes. If properly beaten and mixed, and carefully baked, it will rise very high. Send it immediately to table, or it will fall and flatten.
Do not begin to make an omelette soufflé till the company at table have commenced their dinner, that it may be ready to serve up just in time, immediately on the removal of the meats. The whole must be accomplished as quickly as possible, and it must be cut and sent round directly that it is brought to table.
If you live in a large town, the safest way of avoiding a failure in an omelette soufflé is to hire a French cook to come to your kitchen with his own utensils and ingredients, and make and bake it himself, while the first part of the dinner is progressing in the dining room.
An omelette soufflé is a very nice and delicate thing when properly managed; but if flat and heavy it should not be brought to table.
TO DRESS MACCARONI.
Have ready a pot of boiling water. Throw a little salt into it, and then by slow degrees put in a pound of the maccaroni, a little at a time. Keep stirring it gently, and continue to do so very often while boiling. Take care to keep it well covered with water. Have ready a kettle of boiling water to replenish the maccaroni pot if it should be in danger of getting too dry. In about twenty minutes it will be done. It must be quite soft, but it must not boil long enough to break.
When the maccaroni has boiled sufficiently, pour in immediately a little cold water, and let it stand a few minutes, keeping it covered.
Grate half a pound of Parmesan cheese into a deep dish, and scatter over it a few small bits of butter. Then with a skimmer that is perforated with holes, commence taking up the maccaroni, (draining it well,) and spread a layer of it over the cheese and butter. Spread over it another layer of grated cheese and butter, and then a layer of maccaroni and so on till your dish is full; having a layer of maccaroni on the top, over which spread some butter without cheese. Cover the dish, and set it in an oven for half an hour. It will then be ready to send to table.
You may grate some nutmeg over each, layer of maccaroni.
Allow half a pound of butter to a pound of maccaroni and half a pound of cheese.
PICKLING
GENERAL REMARKS.
Never on any consideration use brass, copper, or bell-metal settles for pickling; the verdigris produced in them by the vinegar being of a most poisonous nature. Kettles lined with porcelain are the best, but if you cannot procure them, block tin may be substituted. Iron is apt to discolour any acid that is boiled in it.
Vinegar for pickles should always be of the very best kind. In putting away pickles, use stone, or glass jars. The lead which is an ingredient in the glazing of common earthenware, is rendered very pernicious by the action of the vinegar. Have a large wooden spoon and a fork, for the express purpose of taking pickles out of the jar when you want them for the table. See that, while in the jar, they are always completely covered with vinegar. If you discern in them any symptoms of not keeping well, do them over again in fresh vinegar and spice.
Vinegar for pickles should only boil five or six minutes.
The jars should be stopped with large flat corks, fitting closely, and having a leather or a round piece of oil-cloth tied over the cork.
It is a good rule to have two-thirds of the jar filled with pickles, and one-third with vinegar.
Alum is very useful in extracting the salt taste from pickles, and in making them firm and crisp. A very small quantity is sufficient. Too much will spoil them.
In greening pickles keep them very closely covered, so that none of the steam may escape; as its retention promotes their greenness and prevents the flavour from evaporating.
Vinegar and spice for pickles should be boiled but a few minutes. Too much boiling takes away the strength.
TO PICKLE CUCUMBERS.
Cucumbers for pickling should be very small, and as free from spots as possible. Make a brine of salt and water strong enough to bear an egg. Pour it over your cucumbers, cover them with fresh cabbage leaves, and let them stand for a week, or till they are quite yellow, stirring them at least twice a day. When they are perfectly yellow, pour off the water. Take a porcelain kettle, and cover the bottom and sides with fresh vine leaves. Put in the cucumbers (with a small piece of alum) and cover them closely with vine leaves all over the top, and then with a dish or cloth to keep in the steam. Fill up the kettle with clear water, and hang it over the fire when dinner is done, but not where there is a blaze. The fire under the kettle must be kept very moderate. The water must not boil, or be too hot to bear your hand in. Keep them over the fire in a slow heat till next morning. If they are not then of a fine green, repeat the process. When they are well greened, take them out of the kettle, drain them on a sieve, and put them into a clean stone jar. Boil for five or six minutes sufficient of the best vinegar to cover the cucumbers well; putting into the kettle a thin muslin bag filled with cloves, mace, and mustard seed. Pour the vinegar scalding hot into the jar of pickles, which should be secured with a large flat cork, and an oil-cloth or leather cover tied over it. Another way to green pickles is to cover them with vine leaves or cabbage leaves, and to keep them on a warm, hearth pouring boiling water on them five or six times a day; renewing the water as soon as it becomes cold.
In proportioning the spice to the vinegar, allow to every two quarts, an ounce of mace, two dozen cloves, and two ounces of mustard seed. You may leave the muslin bag, with the spice, for about a week in the pickle jar to heighten the flavour, if you think it necessary.
GREEN PEPPERS.
May be done in the same manner as cucumbers, only extracting the seeds before you put the pickles into the salt and water. Do not put peppers into the same jar with cucumbers, as the former will destroy the latter.
GHERKINS.
The gherkin is a small thick oval-shaped species of cucumber with a hairy or prickly surface, and is cultivated solely for pickling. It is customary to let the stems remain on them. Wipe them dry, put them into a broad stone jar, and scald them five or six times in the course of the day with salt and water strong enough to bear an egg, and let them set all night. This will make them yellow. Next day, having drained them from the salt and water, throw it out, wipe them dry, put them into a clean vessel (with a little piece of alum,) and scald them with boiling vinegar and water, (half and half of each,) repeating it frequently during the day till they are green. Keep them as closely covered as possible. Then put them away in stone jars, mixing among them whole mace and sliced ginger to your taste. Fill up with cold vinegar, and add a little alum, allowing to every hundred gherkins a piece about the size of a shelled almond. The alum will make them firm and crisp.
RADISH PODS.
Gather sprigs or bunches of radish pods while they are young and tender, but let the pods remain on the sprigs; it not being the custom to pick them off. Put them into strong salt and water, and let them stand two days. Then drain and wipe them and put them into a clean stone jar. Boil an equal quantity of vinegar and water. Pour it over the radish pods while hot, and cover them closely to keep in the steam. Repeat this frequently through the day till they are very green. Then pour off the vinegar and water, and boil for five minutes some very strong vinegar, with a little bit of alum, and pour it over them. Put them into a stone jar, (and having added some whole mace, whole pepper, a little tumeric and a little sweet oil,) cork it closely, and tie over it a leather or oil-cloth.
GREEN BEANS.
Take young green or French beans; string them, but do not cut them in pieces. Pat them in salt and water for two days, stirring them frequently. Then put them into a kettle with vine or cabbage leaves under, over, and all round them, (adding a little piece of alum.) Cover them closely to keep in the steam, and let them hang over a slow fire till they are a fine green.
Having drained them in a sieve, make for them a pickle of strong vinegar, and boil in it for five minutes, some mace, whole pepper, and sliced ginger tied up in a thin muslin bag. Pour it hot upon the beans, put them into a stone jar, and tie them up.
PARSLEY.
Make a brine of salt and water strong enough to bear an egg, and throw into it a large quantity of curled parsley, tied up in little bunches with a thread. After it has stood a week (stirring it several times a day) take it out, drain it well, and lay it for three days in cold spring or pump-water, changing the water daily. Then scald it in hard water, and hang it, well covered, over a slow fire till it becomes green. Afterwards take it out, and drain and press it till quite dry.
Boil for five minutes a quart of strong vinegar with a small bit of alum, a few blades of mace, a sliced nutmeg, and a few slips of horseradish. Pour it on the parsley, and put it away in a stone jar.
MANGOES.
Take very young oval shaped musk-melons. Cut a round piece out of the top or side of each, (saving the piece to put on again,) and extract the seeds. Then (having tied on the pieces with packthread) put them into strong salt and water for two days. Afterwards drain and wipe them, put them into a kettle with vine leaves or cabbage leaves under and over them, and a little piece of alum, and hang them on a slow fire to green; keeping them closely covered to retain the steam, which will greatly accelerate the greening. When they are quite green, have ready the stuffing, which must be a mixture of scraped horseradish, white mustard seed, mace and nutmeg pounded, race ginger cut small, pepper, tumeric and sweet oil. Fill your mangoes with this mixture, putting a small clove of garlic into each, and replacing the pieces at the openings; tie them with a packthread crossing backwards and forwards round the mango. Put them into stone jars, pour boiling vinegar over them, and cover them well. Before you put them on the table remove the packthread.
NASTURTIANS.
Have ready a stone or glass jar of the best cold vinegar. Take the green seeds of the nasturtian after the flower has gone off. They should be full-grown but not old. Pick off the stems, and put the seeds into the vinegar. No other preparation is necessary, and they will keep a year with nothing more than sufficient cold vinegar to cover them. With boiled mutton they are an excellent substitute for capers.
MORELLA CHERRIES.
See that all your cherries are perfect. Remove the stems, and put the cherries into a jar or glass with sufficient vinegar to cover them well. They will keep perfectly in a cool dry place.
They are very good, always retaining the taste of the cherry. If you cannot procure morellas, the large red pie-cherries may be substituted.
PEACHES.
Take, fine large peaches (either cling or free stones) that are not too ripe. Wipe off the down with a clean flannel, and put the peaches whole into a stone jar. Cover them with cold vinegar of the best kind, in which you have dissolved a little of salt, allowing a table-spoonful to a quart of vinegar. Put a cork in the jar and tie leather or oil-cloth over it.
Plums and grapes may be pickled thus in cold vinegar, but without salt.
BARBERRIES.
Have ready a jar of cold vinegar, and put into it ripe barberries in bunches. They make a pretty garnish for the edges of dishes.
TO PICKLE GREEN PEPPERS.
The bell pepper is the best for pickling, and should be gathered when quite young. Slit one side, and carefully take out the core, so as not to injure the shell of the pepper. Then put them into boiling salt and water, changing the water every day for one week, and keeping them closely covered in a warm place near the fire. Stir them several times a day. They will first become yellow, and then green. When they are a fine green put them into a jar, and pour cold vinegar over them, adding a small piece of alum.
They require no spice.
You may stuff the peppers as you do mangoes.
TO PICKLE BUTTERNUTS.
These nuts are in the best state for pickling when the shell is soft, and when they are so young that the outer skin can be penetrated by the head of a pin. They should be gathered when the sun is hot upon them.
If you have a large quantity, the easiest way to prepare them for pickling is to put them into a tub with sufficient lye to cover them, and to stir and rub them about with a hickory broom, till they are clean and smooth on the outside. This is much less trouble than scraping them, and is not so likely to injure the nuts. Another method is to scald them, and then to rub off the outer skin. Put the nuts into strong salt and water for nine or ten days; changing the water every other day, and keeping them closely covered from the air. Then drain and wipe them, (piercing each nut through in several places with a large needle,) and prepare the pickle as follows:–For a hundred large nuts, take of black pepper and ginger root of each an ounce; and of cloves, mace and nutmeg of each a half ounce. Pound all the spices to powder, and mix them well together, adding two large spoonfuls of mustard seed. Put the nuts into jars, (having first stuck each of them through in several places with a large needle,) strewing the powdered seasoning between every layer of nuts. Boil for five minutes a gallon of the best white wine vinegar, and pour it boiling hot upon the nuts. Secure the jars closely with corks and leathers. You may begin to eat the nuts in a fortnight.
Walnuts may be pickled in the same manner.
TO PICKLE WALNUTS BLACK.
The walnuts should he gathered while young and soft, (so that you can easily run a pin through them,) and when the sun is upon them. Rub them with a coarse flannel or tow cloth to get off the fur of the outside. Mix salt and water strong enough to bear an egg, and let them lie in it nine days, (changing it every two days,) and stirring them, frequently. Then take them out, drain them, spread them on large dishes, and expose them to the air about ten minutes, which will cause them to blacken the sooner. Scald them in boiling water, (but do not let them lie in it,) and then rub them with a coarse woollen cloth, and pierce everyone through in several places with a large needle, (that the pickle may penetrate them thoroughly.) Put them into stone jars, and prepare the spice and vinegar. To a hundred walnuts allow a gallon of vinegar, an ounce of cloves, an ounce of allspice, an ounce of black pepper, half an ounce of mace, and half an ounce of nutmeg. Boil the spice in the vinegar for five or six minutes; then, strain the vinegar, and pour it boiling hot over the walnuts. Tie up in a thin muslin rag, a tea-cupful of mustard seed, and a large table-spoonful of scraped horseradish, and put it into the jars with the walnuts. Cover them closely with corks and leathers.
Another way of pickling walnuts black, is (after preparing them as above) to put them into jars with the spices pounded and strewed among them, and then to pour over them strong cold vinegar.
WALNUTS PICKLED WHITE.
Take large young walnuts while their shells are quite soft so that you can stick the head of a pin into them. Pare them very thin till the white appears; and as you do them, throw them into spring or pump water in which some salt has been dissolved. Let them stand in that water six hours, with a thin board upon them to keep them down under the water. Fill a porcelain kettle with fresh spring water, and set it over a clear fire, or on a charcoal furnace. Put the walnuts into the kettle, cover it, and let them simmer (but not boil) for five or six minutes. Then have ready a vessel with cold spring water and salt, and put your nuts into it, taking them out of the kettle with a wooden ladle. Let them stand in the cold salt and water for a quarter of an hour, with the board keeping them down as before; for if they rise above the liquor, or are exposed to the air, they will be discoloured. Then take, them out, and lay them on a cloth covered with another, till they are quite dry. Afterwards rub them carefully with a soft flannel, and put them into a stone jar; laying among them blades of mace, and sliced nutmeg, but no dark-coloured spice. Pour over them the best distilled vinegar, and put on the top a table-spoonful of sweet oil.
WALNUTS PICKLED GREEN.
Gather them while the shells are very soft, and rub them all with a flannel. Then wrap them singly in vine leaves, lay a few vine leaves in the bottom of a large stone jar, put in the walnuts, (seeing that each of them is well wrapped up so as not to touch one another,) and cover them with a thick layer of leaves. Fill up the jar with strong vinegar, cover it closely, and let it stand three weeks. Then pour off the vinegar, take out the walnuts, renew all the vine leaves, fill up with fresh vinegar, and let them stand three weeks longer. Then again pour off the vinegar, and renew the vine leaves. This time take the best white wine vinegar; put salt in it till it will bear an egg, and add to it mace, sliced nutmeg, and scraped horseradish, in the proportion of an ounce of each and a gallon of vinegar to a hundred walnuts. Boil the spice and vinegar about eight minutes, and then pour it hot on the walnuts. Cover the jar closely with a cork and leather, and set it away, leaving the vine leaves with the walnuts. When you take any out for use, disturb the others as little as possible, and do not put back again any that may be left.
You may pickle butternuts green in the same manner.
TO PICKLE ONIONS.
Take very small onions, and with a sharp knife cut off the stems as close as possible, and peel off the outer skin. Then put them into salt and water, and let them stand in the brine for six days; stirring them daily, and changing the salt and water every two days. See that they are closely covered. Then put the onions into jars, and give them a scald in boiling salt and water. Let them stand till they are cold; then drain them on a sieve, wipe them, stick a clove in the top of each and put them into wide-mouthed bottles; dispersing among them some blades of mace and slices of ginger or nutmeg. Fill up the bottles with the best white wine vinegar, and put at the top a large spoonful of salad oil. Cork the bottles well.
ONIONS PICKLED WHITE.
Peel some very small white onions, and lay them for three days in salt and water changing the water every day. Then wipe them, and put them into a porcelain kettle with equal quantities of milk and water, sufficient to cover them well. Simmer them over a slow fire, but when just ready to boil take them off, and drain and dry them, and put them into wide-mouthed glass bottles; interspersing them with blades of mace. Boil a sufficient quantity of distilled white wine vinegar to cover them and fill up the bottles, adding to it a little salt; and when it is cold, pour it into the bottles of onions. At the top of each bottle put a spoonful of sweet oil. Set them away closely corked.
TO PICKLE MUSHROOMS WHITE.
Take small fresh-gathered button mushrooms, peel them carefully with a penknife, and cut off the stems; throwing the mushrooms into salt and water as you do them. Then put them into a porcelain skillet of fresh water, cover it closely, and set it over a quick fire. Boil it as fast as possible for seven or eight minutes, not more. Take out the mushrooms, drain them, and spread them on a clean board, with the bottom or hollow side of each mushroom turned downwards. Do this as quickly as possible, and immediately, while they are hot, sprinkle them over with salt. When they are cold, put them into a glass jar with slight layers of mace and sliced ginger. Fill up the jar with cold distilled or white wine vinegar. Put a spoonful of sweet oil on the top of each jar, and cork it closely.
MUSHROOMS PICKLED BROWN.
Take a quart of large mushrooms and (having trimmed off the stalks) rub them with a flannel cloth dipped in salt. Then lay them in a pan of allegar or ale vinegar, for a quarter of an hour, and wash them about in it. Then pat them into a sauce-pan with a quart of allegar, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, the same of allspice and whole pepper, and a tea-spoonful of salt. Set the pan over coals, and let the mushrooms stew slowly for ten minutes, keeping the pan well covered. Then take them off, let them get cold by degrees, and put them into small bottles with the allegar strained from the spice and poured upon them.
It will be prudent to boil an onion with the mushrooms, and if it turns black or blueish, you may infer that there is a poisonous one among them; and they should therefore be thrown away. Stir them for the same reason, with a silver spoon.
TO PICKLE TOMATAS.
Take a peck of tomatas, (the small round ones are best for pickling,) and prick every one with a fork. Put them into a broad stone or earthen vessel, and sprinkle salt between every layer of tomatas. Cover them, and let them remain three days in the salt. Then put them into vinegar and water mixed in equal quantities, half and half, and keep them in it twenty-four hours to draw out the saltness. There must be sufficient of the liquid to cover the tomatas well.
To a peck of tomatas allow a bottle of mustard, half an ounce of cloves, and half an ounce of pepper, with a dozen onions sliced thin. Pack the tomatas in a stone jar, placing the spices and onions alternately with the layers of tomatas. Put them in till the jar is two-thirds fall. Then fill it up with strong cold vinegar, and stop it closely. The pickles will be fit to eat in a fortnight.
If you do not like onions, substitute for them a larger quantity of spice.
TOMATA SOY.
For this purpose you must have the best and ripest tomatas, and they must be gathered on a dry day. Do not peel them, but merely cut them into slices. Having strewed some salt over the bottom of a tub, put in the tomatas in layers; sprinkling between each layer (which, should be about two inches in thickness) a half pint of salt. Repeat this till you have put in eight quarts or one peck of tomatas. Cover the tub and let it set for three days. Then early in the morning, put the tomatas into a large porcelain, kettle, and boil it slowly and steadily till ten at night, frequently mashing and stirring the tomatas. Then put it out to cool. Next morning strain and press it through a sieve, and when no more liquid will pass through, put it into a clean kettle with two ounces of cloves, one ounce of mace, two ounces of blade pepper, and two table-spoonfuls of cayenne, all powdered.
Again let it boil slowly and steadily all day, and put it to cool in the evening in a large pan. Cover it, and let it set all night. Next day put it into small bottles, securing the corks by dipping them in melted rosin, and tying leathers over them.
If made exactly according to these directions, and slowly and thoroughly boiled, it will keep for years in a cool dry place, and may be used for many purposes when fresh tomatas are not to be had.
TO PICKLE CAULIFLOWERS.
Take the whitest and closest full-grown cauliflowers; cut off the thick stalk, and split the blossom or flower part into eight or ten pieces. Spread them oh a large dish, sprinkle them with salt, and let them stand twenty-four hours. Then wash off the salt, drain them, put them into a broad flat jar or pan, scald them with salt and water, (allowing a quarter of a pound of salt to a quart of water,) cover them closely and let them stand in the brine till next day. Afterwards drain them in a hair sieve, and spread them on a cloth in a warm place to dry for a day and a night. Then put them carefully, piece by piece, into clean broad jars and pour over them a pickle which has been prepared as follows:–Mix together three ounces of coriander seed, three ounces of turmeric, one ounce of mustard seed, and one ounce of ginger. Pound the whole in a mortar to a fine powder. Put it into three quarts of the best white wine vinegar, set it by the side of the fire in a stone jar, and let it infuse three days. These are the proportions, but the quantity of the whole pickle must depend on the quantity of cauliflower, which must he kept well covered by the liquid. Pour it over the cauliflower, and secure the jars closely from the air.
You may pickle brocoli in the same manner. Also the green tops of asparagus.
TO PICKLE RED CABBAGE.
Take a fine firm cabbage of a deep red or purple colour. Strip off the outer leaves, and cut out the stalk. Quarter the cabbage lengthways, and then slice it crossways. Lay it in a deep dish, sprinkle a handful of salt over it, cover it with another dish, and let it lie twenty-four hours. Then drain it in a cullender from the salt, and wipe it dry. Make a pickle of sufficient white wine vinegar to cover the cabbage well, adding to it equal quantities of cloves and allspice, with some mace. The spices must be put in whole, with a little cochineal to give it a good red colour. Boil the vinegar and spices hard for five minutes, and having put the cabbage into a stone jar, pour the vinegar over it boiling hot. Cover the jar with a cloth till it gets cold; and then put in a large cork, and tie a leather over it.
COLD SLAW. [Footnote: This receipt was accidentally omitted in its proper place.]
Take a nice fresh cabbage, wash and drain it, and cut off all the stalk. Shave down the head into very small slips, with a cabbage cutter, or a very sharp knife. It must be done evenly and nicely. Put it into a deep china dish, and prepare for it the following dressing. Melt in a sauce-pan a quarter of a pound of butter, with half a pint of water, a large table-spoonful of vinegar, a salt-spoon of salt, and a little cayenne. Give this a boil up, and pour it hot upon the cabbage.
Send it to table as soon as it is cold.
WARM SLAW.
Cut the cabbage into shavings as for cold slaw; (red cabbage is best;) and put it into a deep earthen dish. Cover it closely, and set it on the top of a stove, or in a slack oven for half an hour till it is warm all through; but do not let it get so heated as to boil. Then make a mixture as for cold slaw, of a quarter of a pound of butter, half a pint of water, a little salt and cayenne, and add to it a clove of garlic minced fine. Boil this mixture in a sauce-pan, and pour it hot over the warm cabbage. Send it to table immediately.
This is a French method of dressing cabbage.
EAST INDIA PICKLE.
This is a mixture of various things pickled together, and put into the same jar.
Have ready a small white cabbage, sliced, and the stalk removed; a cauliflower cut into neat branches, leaving out the large stalk; sliced cucumbers; sliced carrots; sliced beets, (all nicked round the edges;) button-onions; string-beans; radish pods; barberries; cherries; green grapes; nasturtians; capsicums; bell-peppers, &c. Sprinkle all these things with salt, put them promiscuously into a large earthen pan, and pour scalding salt and water over them. Let them lie in the brine for four days, turning them all over every day. Then take them out, wash each thing separately in vinegar, and wipe them carefully in a cloth. Afterwards lay them on sieves before the fire and dry them thoroughly.
For the pickle liquor.–To every two quarts of the best vinegar, put an ounce and a half of white ginger root, scraped and sliced; the same of long pepper; two ounces of peeled shalots, or little button-onions, cut in pieces; half an ounce of peeled garlic; an ounce of-turmeric; and two ounces of mustard seed bruised, or of mustard powder. Let all these ingredients, mixed with the vinegar, infuse in a close jar for a week, setting in a warm place, or by the fire. Then (after the vegetables have been properly prepared, and dried from the brine) put them all into one large stone jar, or into smaller jars, and strain the pickle over them. The liquid must be in a large quantity, so as to keep the vegetables well covered with it, or they will spoil. Put a table-spoonful of sweet oil on the top of each jar, and secure them well with a large cork and a leather.
If you find that after awhile the vegetables have absorbed the liquor, so that there is danger of their not having a sufficiency, prepare some more seasoned vinegar and pour it over them.
East India pickle is very convenient, and will keep two years. As different vegetables come into season, you can prepare them with the salt and water process, and add them to the things already in the jar. You may put small mangoes into this pickle; also plums, peaches and apricots.
TO PICKLE OYSTERS FOR KEEPING.
For this purpose take none but the finest and largest oysters. After they are opened, separate them from their liquor, and put them into a bucket or a large pan, and pour boiling water upon them to take out the slime. Stir them about in it, and then take them out, and rinse them well in cold water. Then put them into a large kettle with fresh water, barely enough to cover them, (mixing with it a table-spoonful of salt to every hundred oysters,) and give them a boil up, just sufficient to plump them. Take them, out, spread them on large dishes or on a clean table, and cover them with a cloth. Take the liquor of the oysters, and with every pint of it mix a quart of the best vinegar, a table-spoonful of salt, a table-spoonful of whole cloves, the same of whole black pepper, and a tea-spoonful of whole mace. Put the liquid over the fire in a kettle, and when it boils throw in the oysters, and let them remain in it five minutes. Then take the whole off the fire, stir it up well, and let it stand to get quite cold. Afterwards (if you have a large quantity) put it into a keg, which must first be well scalded, (a new keg is best,) and fill it as full as it can hold. Do not put a weight on the oysters to keep them down in the liquor, as it will crush them to pieces if the keg should be moved or conveyed to a distance. If you have not enough to fill a keg, put them into stone jars when they are perfectly cold, and cover them securely.
SWEETMEATS.
GENERAL REMARKS.
The introduction of iron ware lined with porcelain has fortunately almost superseded the use of brass or bell-metal kettles for boiling sweetmeats; a practice by which the articles prepared in those pernicious utensils were always more or less imbued with the deleterious qualities of the verdigris that is produced in them by the action of acids.
Charcoal furnaces will be found very convenient for preserving; the kettles being set on the top. They can be used in the open air. Sweetmeats should be boiled rather quickly, that the watery particles may exhale at once, without being subjected to so long a process as to spoil the colour and diminish the flavour of the fruit. But on the other hand, if boiled too short a time they will not keep so well.
If you wish your sweetmeats to look bright and clear, use only the very best loaf-sugar. Fruit may be preserved for family use and for common purposes, in sugar of inferior quality, but it will never have a good appearance, and it is also more liable to spoil.
If too small a proportion of sugar is allowed to the fruit, it will _certainly_ not keep well. When this experiment is tried it is generally found to be false economy; as sweetmeats, when they begin to spoil, can only be recovered and made eatable by boiling them over again with additional sugar; and even then, they are never so good as if done properly at first. If jellies have not sufficient sugar, they do not congeal, but will remain liquid.
Jelly bags should be made of white flannel. It is well to have a wooden stand or frame like a towel horse, to which the bag can be tied while it is dripping. The bag should first be dipped in hot water, for if dry it will absorb too much of the juice. After the liquor is all in, close the top of the bag, that none of the flavour may evaporate.
In putting away sweetmeats, it is best to place them in small jars, as the more frequently they are exposed to the air by opening the more danger there is of their spoiling. The best vessels for this purpose are white queen’s-ware pots, or glass jars. For jellies, jams, and for small fruit, common glass tumblers are very convenient, and may be covered simply with double tissue-paper, cut exactly to fit the inside of the top of the glass, laid lightly on the sweetmeat, and pressed down all round with the finger. This covering, if closely and nicely fitted, will be found to keep them perfectly well, and as it adheres so closely as to form a complete coat over the top, it is better for jellies or jams than writing-paper dipped in brandy, which is always somewhat shrivelled by the liquor with which it has been saturated.
If you find that your sweetmeats have become dry and candied, you may liquefy them again by setting the jars in water and making it boil round them.
In preserving fruit whole, it is best to put it first in a thin syrup. If boiled in a thick syrup at the beginning, the juice will be drawn out so as to shrink the fruit.
It is better to boil it but a short time at once, and then to take it out and let it get cold, afterwards returning it to the syrup, than to keep it boiling; too long at a time, which will cause it to break and lose its shape.
Preserving kettles should be rather broad than deep, for the fruit cannot be done equally if it is too much heaped. They should all have covers belonging to them, to put on after the scum has done rising that the flavour of the fruit may be kept in with the steam.
A perforated skimmer pierced all through with holes is a very necessary utensil in making sweetmeats.
The water used for melting the sugar should be very clear; spring or pump water is best, but if you are obliged to use river water, let it first be filtered. Any turbidness or impurity in the water will injure the clearness of the sweetmeats.
If sweetmeats ferment in the jars, boil them over again with additional sugar.
CLARIFIED SUGAR SYRUP.
Take eight pounds of the best double-refined loaf-sugar, and break it up or powder it. Have ready the whites of two eggs, beaten to a strong froth. Stir the white of egg gradually into two quarts of very clear spring or pump water. Put the sugar into a porcelain kettle, and mix with it the water and white of egg. While the sugar is melting, stir it frequently; and when it is entirely dissolved, put the kettle over a moderate fire, and let it boil, carefully taking off the scum as it comes to the top, and pouring in a little cold water when you find the syrup rising so as to run over the edge of the kettle. It will be well when it first boils hard to pour in half a pint of cold water to keep down the bubbles so that the scum may appear, and be easily removed. You must not however boil it to candy height, so that the bubbles will look like hard pearls, and the syrup will harden in the spoon and hang from it in strings; for though very thick and clear it must continue liquid. When it is done, let it stand till it gets quite cold; and if you do not want it for immediate use, put it into bottles and seal the corks.
When you wish to use this syrup for preserving, you have only to put the fruit into it, and boil it till tender and clear, but not till it breaks. Large fruit that is done whole, should first be boiled tender in a very thin syrup that it may not shrink. Small fruit, such as raspberries, strawberries, grapes, currants, gooseberries, &c. may, if perfectly ripe, be put raw into strong cold sugar syrup; they will thus retain their form and colour, and then freshness and natural taste. They must be put into small glass jars, and kept well covered with the syrup. This, however, is an experiment which sometimes fails, and had best be tried on a scale, or only for immediate use.
TO PRESERVE GINGER.
Take root of green ginger, and pare it neatly with a sharp knife, throwing it into a pan of cold water as you pare it. Then boil it till tender all through, changing the water three times. Each time put on the ginger is quite cold water to lake out the excessive heat. When it is perfectly tender, throw it again into a pan of cold water, and let it lie an hour or more; this will make it crisp. In the mean time prepare the syrup. For every six pounds of ginger root, clarify seven pounds of the best double-refined loaf-sugar. Break up the sugar, put it into a preserving kettle, and melt it in spring or pump water, (into which you have stirred gradually the beaten white of two eggs,) allowing a pint of water to each pound of sugar. Boil and skim it well. Then let the syrup stand till it is cold; and having drained the ginger, pour the syrup over it, cover it, and do not disturb it for two days. Then, having poured it from the ginger, boil the syrup over again. As soon as it is cold, pour it again on the ginger, and let it stand at least three days. Afterwards boil the syrup again, and pour it _hot_ over the ginger. Proceed in this manner till you find that the syrup has thoroughly penetrated the ginger, (which you may ascertain by its taste and appearance when you cut a piece off,) and till the syrup becomes very thick and rich. Then put it all into jars, and cover it closely.
If you put the syrup hot to the ginger at first, it will shrink and shrivel. After the first time, you have only to boil and reboil the syrup; as it is not probable that it will require any further clarifying if carefully skimmed. It will be greatly improved by adding some lemon-juice at the close of the last boiling.
TO PRESERVE CITRONS.
Pare off the outer skin of some fine citrons, and cut them into quarters. Take out the middle. You may divide each quarter into several pieces. Lay them for four or five hours in salt and water. Take them out, and then soak them in spring or pump water (changing it frequently) till all the saltness is extracted, and till the last water tastes perfectly fresh. Boil a small lump of alum, and scald them in the alum-water. It must be very weak, or it will communicate an unpleasant taste to the citrons; a lump the size of a hickory nut will suffice for six pounds. Afterwards simmer them two hours with layers of green vine leaves. Then make a syrup, allowing a pint of water to each pound of loaf-sugar; boil and skim it well. When it is quite clear, put in the citrons, and boil them slowly, till they are so soft that a straw will pierce through them without breaking. Afterwards put them into a large dish, and set them in the sun to harden.
Prepare some lemons, by paring off the yellow rind very thin, and cutting it into slips of uniform size and shape. Lay the lemon-rind in scalding water, to extract the bitterness. Then take the pared lemons, cut them into quarters, measure a half pint of water to each lemon, and boil them to a mash. Strain the boiled lemon through a sieve, and to each pint of liquid allow a pound of the best double-refined loaf-sugar, for the second syrup. Melt the sugar in the liquid, and stir into it gradually some beaten white of egg; allowing one white to four pounds of sugar. Then set it over the fire; put the lemon-peel into the syrup, and let it boil in it till quite soft. Put the citrons cold into a glass jar, and pour the hot syrup over them. Let the lemon remain with the citrons, as it will improve their flavour.
If you wish the citrons to be candied, boil down the second syrup to candy height, (that is, till it hangs in strings from the spoon,) and pour it over the citrons. Keep them well covered. You may, if you choose, after you take the citrons from the alum-water, give them a boil in very weak ginger tea, made of the roots of green ginger if you can procure it; if not, of race ginger. Powdered ginger will not do at all. This ginger tea will completely eradicate any remaining taste of the salt or the alum. Afterwards cover the sides and bottom of the pan with vine leaves, put a layer of leaves between each layer of citron, and cover the top with leaves. Simmer the citrons in this two hours to green them.
In the same manner you may preserve water-melon rind, or the rind of cantelopes. Cut these rinds into stars, diamonds, crescents, circles, or into any fanciful shape you choose. Be sure to pare off the outside skin before you put the rinds into the salt and water.
Pumpkin cut into slips, may be preserved according to the above receipt.
CANTELOPES OR MUSK-MELONS.
Take very small cantelopes before they are ripe. Shave a thin paring off the whole outside. Cut out a small piece or plug about an inch square, and through it extract all the seeds, &c. from the middle. Then, return the plugs to the hole from whence you took them, and secure them with a needle and thread, or by tying a small string round the cantelope.
Lay the cantelopes for four or five hours in salt and water. Then put them into spring water to extract the salt, changing the water till you find it salt no longer. Scald them in weak alum-water. Make a syrup in the proportion of a pint of water to a pound of loaf-sugar, and boil the cantelopes in it till a straw will go through them. Then take them out, and set them in the sun to harden.
Prepare some fine ripe oranges, paring off the yellow rind very thin, and cutting it into slips, and then laying it in scalding water to extract the bitterness. Cut the oranges into pieces; allow a pint of water to each orange, and boil them to a pulp. Afterwards strain them, and allow to each pint of the liquid, a pound of the best loaf-sugar, and stir in a little beaten white of egg; one white to four pounds of sugar. This is for the second syrup. Boil the peel in it, skimming it well. When the peel is soft, take it all out; for if left among the cantelopes, it will communicate to it too strong a taste of the orange.
Put the cantelopes into your jars, and pour over them the hot syrup. Cover them closely, and keep them in a dry cool place.
Large cantelopes may be prepared for preserving (after you have taken off the outer rind) by cutting them into pieces according to the natural divisions with which they are fluted. This receipt for preserving cantelopes whole, will do very well for green lemons or limes, substituting lemon-peel and lemon-juice for that of oranges in the second syrup.
You may use some of the first syrup to boil up the pulp of the orange or lemons that has been left. It will make a sort of marmalade, that is very good for colds.
PRESERVED WATER-MELON RIND.
Having pared off the green skin, cut the rind of a water-melon into pieces of any shape you please; stars, diamonds, circles, crescents or leaves, using for the purpose a sharp penknife. Weigh the pieces, and allow to each pound a pound and a halt of loaf sugar. Set the sugar aside, and put the pieces of melon-rind into a preserving kettle, the bottom and sides of which you, have lined with green vine leaves. Put a layer of vine leaves between each, layer of melon-rind, and cover the top with leaves. Disperse among the pieces some very small bits of alum, each about the bigness of a grain of corn, and allowing one bit to every pound of the melon-rind. Pour in just water enough to cover the whole, and place a thick double cloth (or some other covering) over the top of the kettle to keep in the steam, which will improve the greening. Let it simmer (but not boil) for two hours. Then take out the pieces of melon-rind and spread them on dishes to cool. Afterwards if you find that they taste of the alum, simmer them in very weak ginger tea for about three hours. Then proceed to make your syrup. Melt the sugar in clear spring or pump water, allowing a pint of water to a pound and a half of sugar, and mixing in with it some white of egg beaten to a stiff froth. The white of one egg will be enough for four pounds of sugar. Boil and skim it; and when the scum ceases to rise, put in the melon-rind, and let it simmer an hour. Take it out and spread it to cool on dishes return it to the syrup, and simmer it another hour. After this take it out, and put it into a tureen. Boil up the syrup again, and pour it over the melon-rind. Cover it, and let it stand all night. Next morning give the syrup another boil; adding to It some lemon-juice, allowing the juice of one lemon to a quart of the syrup. When you find it so thick as to hang in a drop on the point of the spoon, it is sufficiently done. Then put the rind into glass jars, pour in the syrup, and secure the sweetmeats closely from the air with paper dipped in brandy, and a leather outer cover.
This, if carefully done and well greened, is a very nice sweetmeat, and may be used to ornament the top of creams, jellies, jams, &c. laying it round in rings or wreaths.
Citrons may be preserved green in the same manner, first paring off the outer skin and cutting them into quarters. Also green limes.
PRESERVED PEPPERS.
For this purpose take the small round peppers while they are green. With a sharp penknife extract the seeds and cores; and then put the outsides into a kettle with vine leaves, and a little alum to give them firmness, and assist in keeping them green. Proceed precisely as directed for the water-melon rind, in the above receipt.
PUMPKIN CHIPS.
It is best to defer making this sweetmeat (which will be found very fine) till late in the season when lemons are ripe and are to be had in plenty. Pumpkins (as they keep well) can generally be procured at any time through the winter.
Take a fine pumpkin, of a rich deep colour, pare off the outer rind; remove the seeds; and having sliced the best part, cut it into chips of equal size, and about as thick as a half dollar. They should be in long narrow pieces, two inches in breadth, and six in length. It is best to prepare the pumpkin the day before; and having weighed the chips, allow to each pound of them a pound of the best loaf-sugar. You must have several dozen of fine ripe lemons, sufficient to furnish a jill of lemon-juice to each pound of pumpkin. Having rolled them under your hand on a table, to make them yield as much juice as possible, pare off the yellow rind and put it away for some other purpose. Then having cut the lemons, squeeze out all the juice into a pitcher. Lay the pumpkin chips in a large pan or tureen, strewing the sugar among them. Then having measured the lemon-juice in a wine-glass, (two common wine-glasses making one jill,) pour it over the pumpkin and sugar, cover the vessel, and let it stand all night.
Next day transfer the pumpkin, sugar, and lemon-juice to n preserving kettle, and boil it slowly three quarters of an hour, or till the pumpkin becomes all through tender, crisp, and transparent; but it must not be over the fire long enough to break and lose its form. You must skim it thoroughly. Some very small pieces of the lemon-paring may be boiled with it. When you think it is done, take up the pumpkin chips in a perforated skimmer that the syrup may drain through the holes back into the kettle. Spread the chips to cool on large dishes, and pass the syrup through a flannel bag that has been first dipped in hot water. When the chips are cold, put them into glass jars or tumblers, pour in the syrup, and lay on the top white paper dipped in brandy. Then tie up the jars with leather, or with covers of thick white paper.
If you find that when cold the chips are not perfectly clear, crisp, and tender, give them another boil in the syrup before you put them up.
This, if well made, is a handsome and excellent sweetmeat It need not be eaten with cream, the syrup being so delicious as to require nothing to improve it. Shells of puff-paste first baked empty, and then filled with, pumpkin chips, will be found very nice.
Musk-melon chips may be done in the same manner.
TO PRESERVE PINE-APPLES.
Take fine large pine-apples; pare them, and cut off a small round piece from the bottom, of each; let the freshest and best of the top leaves remain on. Have ready on a slow fire, a large preserving kettle with a thin syrup barely sufficient to cover the fruit. In making this syrup allow a pound of fine loaf-sugar to every quart of water, and half the white of a beaten egg; all to be mixed before it goes on the fire. Then boil and skim it, and when the scum ceases to rise, put in the pine-apples, and simmer them slowly an hour. Then take them out to cool, cover them carefully and pat them away till next day; saving the syrup in another vessel. Next day, put them into the same syrup, and simmer them again an hour. On the third day, repeat the process. The fourth day, make a strong fresh syrup, allowing but a pint of water to each pound of sugar, and to every three pounds the beaten white of one egg. When this syrup has boiled, and is completely skimmed, put in the pine-apples, and simmer them half an hour. Then take them out to cool, and set them aside till next morning. Boil them again, half an hour in the same syrup, and repeat this for seven or eight days, or till you can pierce through the pine-apple with a straw from a corn-broom. At the last of these boilings enrich the syrup by allowing to each pound of sugar a quarter of a pound more; and, having boiled and skimmed it, put in the pine apples for half an hour. Then take them out, and when quite cold put each into a separate glass jar, and fill up with the syrup.
Pine apples may be preserved in slices by a very simple process. Pare them, and out them into round pieces near an inch thick, and take out the core from the centre of each slice. Allow a pound of loaf-sugar to every pound of the sliced pine-apple. Powder the sugar, and strew it in layers between the slices of pine-apple. Cover it and let it set all night. Next morning measure some clear spring or pump water, allowing half a pint to each pound of sugar. Beat some white of egg, (one white to four pounds of sugar,) and when it is a very stiff froth, stir it gradually into the water. Then mix with it the pine-apple and sugar, and put the whole into a preserving kettle. Boil and skim it well, till the pine-apple is tender and bright all through. Then take it out, and when cold, put it up in wide-mouthed glass jars, or in large tumblers.
TO PREPARE FRESH PINE-APPLES.
Cut off the top and bottom and pare off the rind. Then cut the pine-apples in round slices half an inch thick, and put them into a deep dish, sprinkling every slice with powdered loaf-sugar. Cover them, and let them lie in the sugar for an hour or two, before they are to be eaten.
PRESERVED LEMONS.
Take large fine ripe lemons, that have no blemishes. Choose those with thin, smooth rinds. With a sharp, knife scoop a hole in the stalk end of each, large enough to admit the handle of a tea-spoon. This hole is to enable the syrup to penetrate the inside of the lemons. Put them into a preserving kettle with clear water, and boil them gently till you find them tender, keeping the kettle uncovered. Then take them oat, drain, and cool them, and put them into a small tub. Prepare a thin syrup of a pound of loaf-sugar to a quart of water. When you have boiled and skimmed it, pour it over the lemons and cover them. Let them stand in the syrup till next day. Then poor the syrup from the lemons, and spread them on a large dish. Boil it a quarter of an hour, and pour it over them again, having first returned them to the tub. Cover them, and let them again stand till next day, when you must again boil the syrup and pour it over them. Repeat this process every day till you find that the lemons are quite clear, and that the syrup has penetrated them thoroughly. If you find the syrup becoming too weak, add a little more sugar to it. Finally, make a strong syrup in the proportion of half a pint of water to a pound of sugar, adding a jill of raw lemon-juice squeezed from fresh lemons, and allowing to every four pounds of sugar the beaten white of an egg. Mix all well together in the kettle. Boil and skim it, and when the scum ceases to rise, pour the syrup boiling hot over the lemons; and covering them closely, let them stand undisturbed for four days. Then look at them, and if you find that they have not sucked in enough of the syrup to make the inside very sweet, boil them gently in the syrup for a quarter of an hour. When they are cold, put them up in glass jars.
You may green lemons by burying them in a kettle of vine leaves when you give them the first boiling in the clear water.
Limes may be preserved by this receipt; also oranges.
To prepare fresh oranges for eating, peel and cut them in round slices and remove the seeds. Strew powdered loaf-sugar over them. Cover them and let them stand an hour before they are eaten.
ORANGE MARMALADE.
Take fine large ripe oranges, with thin deep-coloured skins. Weigh them, and allow to each pound of oranges a pound of loaf-sugar. Pare off the yellow outside of the rind from half the oranges as thin as possible; and putting it into a pan with plenty of cold water, cover it closely (placing a double cloth beneath the tin cover) to keep in the steam, and boil it slowly till it is so soft that the head of a pin will pierce it. In the mean time grate the rind from the remaining oranges, and put it aside; quarter the oranges, and take out all the pulp and the juice; removing the seeds and core. Put the sugar into a preserving kettle, with a half pint of clear water to each pound, and mix it with some beaten white of egg, allowing one white of egg, to every four pounds of sugar. When the sugar is all dissolved, put it on the fire, and boil and skim it till it is quite clear and thick. Next take the boiled parings, and cut them into very small pieces, not more than, half an inch long; put them into the sugar, and boil them in it ten minutes. Then put in the pulp and juice of the oranges, and the grated rind, (which will much improve the colour,) and boil all together for about twenty minutes, till it is a transparent mass. When cold, pot it up in glass jars, laying brandy paper on the top.
Lemon marmalade may be made in a similar manner, but you must allow a pound and a half of sugar to each pound of lemons.
ORANGE JELLY.
Take fourteen large ripe oranges, and grate the yellow rind from seven of them. Dissolve an ounce of isinglass in as much warm water as will cover it. Mix the juice with a pound of loaf-sugar broken up, and add the grated, rind and the isinglass. Put it into a porcelain pan over hot coals and stir it till it boils. Then, skim it well. Boil it ten minutes, and strain it (but do not squeeze it) through a jelly-bag till it is quite clear. Put it into a mould to congeal, and when you want to turn it out dip the mould into lukewarm water. Or you may put it into glasses at once.
You must have a pint of juice to a pound of sugar.