English Housewifery Part 24

Take a quart of vinegar or alegar, put it into a jug, then take Jamaica pepper whole, some sliced ginger and mace; a few cloves, some lemon-peel, horse radish sliced, sweet herbs, six shalots peeled, eight anchovies, and two or three spoonfuls of shred capers, put all those in a linen bag, and put the bag into your alegar or vinegar, stop the jug close, and keep it for use.

A spoonful cold is an addition to sauce for either fish or flesh.

426. _To make a_ savoury Dish of VEAL.

Cut large collops of a leg of veal, spread them abroad on a dresser, hack them with the back of a knife, and dip them in the yolks of eggs, season them with nutmeg, mace, pepper and salt, then make forc'd-meat with some of your veal, beef-suit, oysters chop'd, and sweet herbs shred fine, and the above spice, strow all these over your collops, roll and tie them up, put them on skewers, tie them to a spit and roast them; and to the rest of your forc'd-meat add the yolk of an egg or two, and make it up in b.a.l.l.s and fry them, put them in a dish with your meat when roasted, put a little water in the dish under them, and when they are enough put to it an anchovy, a little gravy, a spoonful of white wine, and thicken it up with a little flour and b.u.t.ter, so fry your b.a.l.l.s and lie round the dish, and serve it up.

This is proper for a side-dish either at noon or night.

427. _To make_ FRENCH BREAD.

Take half a peck of fine flour, the yolks of six eggs and four whites, a little salt, a pint of ale yeast, and as much new milk made warm as will make it a thin light paste, stir it about with your hand, but be sure you don't knead them; have ready six wooden quarts or pint dishes, fill them with the paste, (not over full) let them stand a quarter of an hour to rise, then turn them out into the oven, and when they are baked rasp them. The oven must be quick.

428. _To make_ GINGER-BREAD _another Way_.

Take three pounds of fine flour, and the rind of a lemon dried and beaten to powder, half a pound of sugar, or more if you like it, a little b.u.t.ter, and an ounce and a half of beaten ginger, mix all these together and wet it pretty stiff with nothing but treacle; make it into rolls or cakes which you please; if you please you may add candid orange peel and citron; b.u.t.ter your paper to bake it on, and let it be baked hard.

429. _To make_ QUINCE CREAM.

Take quinces when they are full ripe, cut them in quarters, scald them till they be soft, pare them, and mash the clear part of them, and the pulp, and put it through a sieve, take an equal weight of quince and double refin'd sugar beaten and sifted; and the whites of eggs beat till it is as white as snow, then put it into dishes.

You may do apple cream the same way.

430. _To make_ CREAM _of any preserved Fruit_.

Take half a pound of the pulp of any preserved fruit, put it in a large pan, put to it the whites of two or three eggs, beat them well together for an hour, then with a spoon take off, and lay it heaped up high on the dish and salver without cream, or put it in the middle bason.

Rasberries will not do this way.

431. _To dry_ PEARS _or_ PIPPENS _without Sugar_.

Take pears or apples and wipe them clean, take a bodkin and run it in at the head, and out at the stalk, put them in a flat earthen pot and bake them, but not too much; you must put a quart of strong new ale to half a peck of pears, tie twice papers over the pots that they are baked in, let them stand till cold then drain them, squeeze the pears flat, and the apples, the eye to the stalk, and lay 'em on sieves with wide holes to dry, either in a stove or an oven not too hot.

432. _To preserve_ MULBERRIES _whole_.

Set some mulberries over the fire in a skellet or preserving pan, draw from them a pint of juice when it is strain'd; then take three pounds of sugar beaten very fine, wet the sugar with the pint of juice, boil up your sugar and skim it, put in two pounds of ripe mulberries, and let them stand in the syrrup till they are throughly warm, then set them on the fire, and let them boil very gently; do them but half enough, so put them by in the syrrup till next day, then boil them gently again; when the syrrup is pretty thick and well stand in round drops when it is cold, they are enough, so put all in a gally-pot for use.

433. _To make_ ORANGE CAKES.

Cut your oranges, pick out the meat and juice free from the strings and seeds, set it by, then boil it, and s.h.i.+ft the water till your peels are tender, dry them with a cloth, mince them small, and put them to the juice; to a pound of that weigh a pound and a half of double refin'd sugar; dip your lumps of sugar in water, and boil it to a candy height, take it off the fire and put in your juice and peel, stir it well, when it is almost cold put it into a bason, and set it in a stove, then lay it thin on earthen plates to dry, and as it candies fas.h.i.+on it with a knife, and lay them on gla.s.ses; when your plate is empty, put more out of your bason.

434. _To dry_ APRIc.o.c.kS _like_ PRUNELLOS.

Take a pound of apric.o.c.ks before they be full ripe, cut them in halves or quarters, let them boil till they be very tender in a thin syrrup, and let them stand a day or two in the stove, then take them out of the syrrup, lay them to dry till they be as dry as prunellos, then box 'em, if you please you may pare them.

You may make your syrrup red with the juice of red plumbs.

435. _To preserve great white_ PLUMBS.

To a pound of white plumbs take three quarters of a pound of double refin'd sugar in lumps, dip your sugar in water, boil and skim it very well, slit your plumbs down the seam; and put them into the syrrup with the slit downwards; let them stew over the fire a quarter of an hour, skim them very well, then take them off, and when cold cover them up; turn them in the syrrup two or three times a day for four or five days, then put them into pots and keep them for use.

436. _To make_ Gooseberry Wine _another Way_.

Take gooseberries when they are full ripe, pick and beat them in a marble mortar; to every quart of berries put a quart of water, and put them into a tub and let them stand all night, then strain them through a hair-sieve, and press them very well with your hand; to every gallon of juice put three pounds of four-penny sugar; when your sugar is melted put it into the barrel, and to as many gallons of juice as you have, take as many pounds of Malaga raisins, chop them in a bowl, and put them in the barrel with the wine; be sure let not your barrel be over full, so close it up, let it stand three months in the barrel, and when it is fine bottle it, but not before.

437. _To pickle_ NASTURTIUM BUDS.

Gather your little n.o.bs quickly after the blossoms are off, put them in cold water and salt three days, s.h.i.+fting them once a day; then make a pickle for them (but don't boil them at all) of some white wine, and some white wine vinegar, shalot, horse-radish, whole pepper and salt, and a blade or two of mace; then put in your seeds, and stop 'em close up. They are to be eaten as capers.

438. _To make_ ELDER-FLOWER WINE.

Take three or four handfuls of dry'd elder-flowers, and ten gallons of spring water, boil the water, and pour in scalding hot upon the flowers, the next day put to every gallon of water five pounds of Malaga raisins, the stalks being first pick'd off, but not wash'd, chop them grosly with a chopping knife, then put them into your boiled water, stir the water, raisins and flowers well together, and do so twice a day for twelve days, then press out the juice clear as long as you can get any liquor; put it into a barrel fit for it, stop it up two or three days till it works, and in a few days stop it up close, and let it stand two or three months, then bottle it.

439. _To make_ PEARL BARLEY PUDDING.

Take half a pound of pearl barley, cree it in soft water, and s.h.i.+ft it once or twice in the boiling till it be soft; take five eggs, put to them a pint of good cream, and half a pound of powder sugar, grate in half a nutmeg, a little salt, a spoonful or two of rose-water, and half a pound of clarified b.u.t.ter; when your barley is cold mix them altogether, so bake it with a puff-paste round your dish-edge.

Serve it up with a little rose-water, sugar and b.u.t.ter for your sauce.

440. _To make_ Gooseberry Vinegar _another Way_.

Take gooseberries when they are full ripe, bruise them in a marble mortar or wooden bowl, and to every upheap'd half peck of berries take a gallon of water, put it to them in the barrel, let it stand in a warm place for two weeks, put a paper on the top of your barrel, then draw it off, wash out the barrel, put it in again, and to every gallon add a pound of coa.r.s.e sugar; set it in a warm place by the fire, and let it stand whilst christmas.

441. _To preserve_ APRIc.o.c.kS _green_.

Take apric.o.c.ks when they are young and tender, coddle them a little, rub them with a coa.r.s.e cloth to take off the skin, and throw them into water as you do them, and put them in the same water they were coddled in, cover them with vine leaves, a white paper, or something more at the top, the closer you keep them the sooner they are green; be sure you don't let them boil; when they are green weigh them, and to every pound of apric.o.c.ks take a pound of loaf sugar, put it into a pan, and to every pound of sugar a jill of water, boil your sugar and water a little, and skim it, then put in your apric.o.c.ks, let them boil together whilst your apric.o.c.ks look clear, and your syrrup thick, skim it all the time it is boiling, and put them into a pot covered with a paper dip'd in brandy.

442. _To make_ ORANGE CHIPS _another Way_.

Pare your oranges, not over thin but narrow, throw the rinds into fair water as you pare them off, then boil them therein very fast till they be tender, filling up the pan with boiling water as it wastes away, then make a thin syrrup with part of the water they are boiled in, put in the rinds, and just let them boil, then take them off, and let them lie in the syrrup three or four days, then boil them again till you find the syrrup begin to draw between your fingers, take them off from the fire and let them drain thro' your cullinder, take out but a few at a time, because if they cool too fast it will be difficult to get the syrrup from them, which must be done by pa.s.sing every piece of peel through your fingers, and lying them single on a sieve with the rind uppermost, the sieve may be set in a stove, or before the fire; but in summer the sun is hot enough to dry them.