The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory Part 85

_Salmon, to marinate._

Cut your salmon in round slices about two inches thick, and tie it with matting, like sturgeon; season it with pepper, mace, and salt; then put it into a broad earthen pan, with an equal quant.i.ty of port wine and vinegar to cover it, and add three or four bay-leaves. The pickle also must be seasoned with the spices above-mentioned. The pan must be covered with a coa.r.s.e cloth, and baked with household bread.

_Samphire._

Pick and lay it in strong brine, cold; let it remain twenty-four hours, boil the brine once on a quick fire, and pour it immediately on the samphire. After standing twenty-four hours, just boil it again on a quick fire, and stand till cold. Lay it in a pot, let the pickle settle, and cover the samphire with the clear portion of the pickle. Set it in a dry place, and, should the pickle become mothery, boil it once a month, and, when cold, put the samphire into it.

_Smelts._

Lay the smelts in a pot in rows, and lay upon them sliced lemon, mace, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, powdered bay-leaves, and salt. Make pickle of red wine vinegar, saltpetre, and bruised cochineal; when cold, pour it on the smelts, and cover the pot close.

_Suckers, before the leaves are hard._

Pare off all the hard ends of the leaves and stalks of the suckers, and scald them in salt and water, and, when cold, put them into gla.s.s bottles, with three blades of mace, and thin sliced nutmeg; fill them with distilled vinegar.

_Vinegar for Pickling._ No. 1.

Take the middling sort of beer, but indifferently hopped, let it work as long as possible, and fine it down with isingla.s.s; then draw it from the sediment, and put ten pounds weight of the husks of grapes to every ten gallons. Mash them together, and let them stand in the sun, or, if not in summer, in a close room, heated by fire, and, in about three or four weeks, it will become an excellent vinegar. Should you not have grape husks, you may take the pressing of sour apples, but the vinegar will not prove so good either in taste or body. Cyder will make a decent sort of vinegar, and also unripe grapes, or plums, but foul white Rhenish wines, set in a warm place, will fine, naturally, into good vinegar.

_Vinegar._ No. 2.

To a pound and a half of the brownest sugar put a gallon of warm water; mix it well together; then spread a hot toast thick with yest, and let it work very well about twenty-four hours. Skim off the toast and the yest, and pour off the clear liquor, and set it out in the sun. The cask must be full, and, if painted and hooped with iron hoops, it will endure the weather better. Lay a tile over the bunghole.

_Vinegar._ No. 3.

To every gallon of water put three pounds of Malaga raisins; stop it up close, and let it stand in the cellar two years.

_Camp Vinegar._

Infuse a quarter of an ounce of cayenne, four heads of garlic, some shalots, half a drachm of cochineal, a quarter of a pint of ketchup, soy, walnut pickle, and an ounce of black, white, and long pepper, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg, all grossly bruised, a little mace, and cloves, in a quart of the best wine vinegar; cork it close, and put a leather and bladder over it. Let it stand before the fire for a month, shaking it frequently. You must let it stand upon the ingredients, and fill up with vinegar as you take any out. This is not only an excellent sauce, but a powerful preservative against infectious disorders.

_Another._

Half an ounce of cayenne pepper, a large head of garlic, half a drachm of cochineal, two spoonfuls of soy, the same of walnut pickle, and a pint of vinegar.

_Chili Vinegar._

Gather the pods of capsic.u.m when full ripe; put them into a jar with a clove of garlic and a little cayenne pepper; boil the vinegar, and pour it on hot; fill up your jar: let it stand for a fortnight; pour it off clear, and it will be fit for use.

_Elder-flower Vinegar._ No. 1.

Put two gallons of strong alegar to a peck of the pips of elder-flowers, set it in the sun in a stone jar for a fortnight, and then filter it through a flannel bag; when you draw it off, put it into small bottles, in which it will preserve its flavour better than in larger ones; when you mix the flowers and the alegar together, be careful not to drop any stalks amongst the pips.

_Elder-flower Vinegar._ No. 2.

Take good vinegar, fill a cask three quarters full, and gather some elder-flowers, nearly or moderately blown, but in a dry day; pick off the small flowers and sprigs from the greater stalks, and air them well in the sun, that they may grow dry, but not so as to break or crumble.

To every four gallons of vinegar put a pound of them, sewing them up in a fine rag.

_Elder-flower Vinegar._ No. 3.

Pick the flowers before they are too much blown from the stalks, and dry them in the sun, but not when it is very hot. Put a handful of them to a quart of the best white wine vinegar, and let it stand a fortnight.

Strain and draw it off, and put it into a cask, keeping out about a quart. Make it very hot, and put it into your cask to produce fermentation. Stop it very close, and draw it off when wanted.

_Elder-flower Vinegar._ No. 4.

Gather the elder-flowers in dry weather, pick them clean from the stalks, and put two pints of them to a gallon of the best white wine vinegar. Let them infuse for ten days, stirring them every day till the last day or two; then strain off the vinegar, and bottle it.

_Garlic Vinegar._

Take sixty cloves, two nutmegs sliced, and eight cloves of garlic, to a quart of vinegar.

_Gooseberry Vinegar._

To every gallon of water take six pounds of full ripe gooseberries; bruise them, and put them into a vessel, pouring the water cold upon them. Set the vessel in a hot place till the gooseberries come to the top, which they will do in about a fortnight; then draw off the liquor, and, when you have taken the gooseberries out of the vessel, measure the liquor into it again, and to every gallon put a pound of coa.r.s.e sugar.

It will work again, and, when it has done working, stop it down close, set it near the fire or in the sun: it will be fit for use in about six months. If the vessel is not full, it will be ready sooner.

_Plague, or Four Thieves' Vinegar._

Take rue, sage, mint, rosemary, wormwood, and lavender, of each a large handful; put them into a stone jar, with a gallon of the best vinegar; tie it down very close, and let it stand a fortnight in the sun, shaking the jar every day. Bottle it, and to every bottle add a quarter of an ounce of camphor, beaten very fine. The best time to make it is in June or July.

_Raisin Vinegar._

Put four quarts of spring water to two pounds of Malaga raisins, lay a stone or slate over the bung-hole, and set it in the sun till ready for use. If you put it into a stone jar or bottle, and let it stand in the chimney corner, for a proper time, it will answer the same purpose.

_Raspberry Vinegar._ No. 1.

Fill a very large jug or jar with raspberries; then pour as much white wine vinegar upon them as it will hold; let it stand four days, stirring it three times every day. Let it stand four days more, covered close up, stirring it once a day. Strain it through a hair sieve, and afterwards through a flannel bag; and to every pint of liquor add one pound of loaf-sugar. Simmer it over the fire, skimming it all the time, till quite clear. As soon as cold, bottle it.

This is very good sauce for a plain batter pudding and pancakes.