Part 10

Squeeze out the juice of Seville oranges, and boil the rinds in water till they are tender enough to be crushed between the finger; scoop out the pulp of the fruit, and put it aside; pound the rind, in a mortar, to form a smooth mass, pass it through a splinter sieve; add to it the juice, and keep it on the fire till the mass acquires the consistence of a paste; then take it off, weigh it, and to every pound and a quarter add two pounds of powdered loaf sugar; mix and finish it like black currant paste. _See page 260._

Lemon paste is made in a like manner.

RASPBERRY JAM.

Strawberry Jam Currant Jam Gooseberry Jam Mulberry Jam.

Having mashed the raspberries, put them into a saucepan, and make them boiling hot; rub the pulp through a coarse splinter sieve, and to a pint, by measure, add one pound of powdered loaf sugar; simmer the mixture with a gentle heat till the mass has acquired the consistence of a stiff paste, and comes off from the bottom of the pan, taking care to stir the mixture continually with a wooden spatula when it begins to thicken. Put the jam into pots, which should be perfectly dry, for the least damp spoils it. When quite cold, tie it over.

Strawberry, currant, gooseberry, and mulberry jam, may be prepared in a like manner.

APRICOT JAM.

Take ripe apricots, cut them into pieces, and remove the stones; mash the fruit in a marble mortar, to form it into a smooth pulp; heat it over the fire, and when nearly boiling hot, rub it through a splinter sieve; add to one pint, by measure, of the pulp, one pound of powdered sugar; stir the mixture together, and suffer it to simmer over the fire till it comes clear from the bottom of the pan, taking care to stir the mixture all the time.

ORANGE MARMALADE.

Marmalades scarcely differ from jams. This name is applied to those comfitures which are composed of the firmer fruits, such as quinces, pine-apples, &c.; whereas jams are made of the more juicy, esculent berries, such as strawberries, currants, mulberries, &c.

Cut the oranges into pieces, remove the pulp, squeeze it through a sieve, and measure it. Boil the rind in water till it is quite soft, then clear it from the interior side of the white pulpy mass, so that nothing but the thin outer yellow rind is left. To every pint of the pulpy juice add three-quarters of a pound of coarsely powdered loaf sugar, and add also the rind of the yellow orange, cut into thin slips. Let the whole simmer, till a sample, when taken out of the saucepan, and suffered to cool on a plate, exhibits the consistence of a semi-fluid mass.

PEACH MARMALADE.

Peel the peaches and take out the stones, simmer them till half done, then drain them, reduce them to a pulp, and squeeze the mass through a coarse splinter sieve. Weigh the pulp, and to every pound add twelve ounces of powdered loaf sugar; simmer the mass till it has acquired a stiff pasty consistence.

PINE APPLE MARMALADE.

Cut the fruit into small pieces, pound it in a mortar, and pass the mass through a coarse splinter sieve; weigh the pulp, and add to every pound three-quarters of a pound of powdered loaf sugar, and six ounces of water, and simmer it as before described.

APRICOT MARMALADE.

Boil ripe apricots in water till they can be crushed between the fingers, then take them out, extract the stones, reduce the fruit to a pulp, and pass the mass through a sieve; weigh the pulp, and to every pound take three-quarters of a pound of loaf sugar; simmer it till it hangs on the spoon, like a stiff jelly. Quince marmalade may be prepared in a like manner.

FRUIT JELLIES

Are compounds of the juices of fruits combined with sugar, concentrated by boiling to such a consistence, that the liquid, upon cooling, assumes the form of a tremulous glue.

In the preparation of jellies, care must be taken not to boil it too long, as it looses by this means the property of gelatinising, and assumes the form of mucilage, the danger of this is greatest when the quantity of sugar is too small to absorb the water of the juice.

Fruit jellies should not be kept in glazed earthenware pots, because they act, or dissolve a portion of the glaze. They should (and all other comfitures) be covered with paper dipped in brandy, and the pots should be tied over with paper.

CURRANT JELLY.

Mash the currants, and pass them through a splinter sieve, put the pulp on the fire, stir it with a spoon till it begins to boil, then strain the mass through a flannel bag to render the juice clear; measure it, and to a pint put one pound and a half of loaf sugar, and let it simmer very gently, till you see, by dipping a spoon or skimmer in the jelly, and again raising it, the jelly forms a web upon it, which, if simmered enough, will remain on the skimmer. Then take it off the fire, let it stand a few minutes till the scum has collected on the surface, remove it and put the clear fluid into pots. When quite cold, cut pieces of writing paper to the size of the brim of the pots, steep the paper in brandy and place it on the jelly.

RASPBERRY JELLY.

The juice of this fruit does not gelatinize readily on account of the quantity of mucilage which it contains; hence, for preparing a jelly by means of this fruit, it is necessary to add to one part of raspberries at least two parts of red or white currant juice. The jelly may then be obtained by following the directions stated for making currant jelly.

BARBERRY JELLY.

Pick the barberries from the stalks, mash them, and having heated the mass in a saucepan throw it into a flannel bag, to strain off the juice. To one pint of the clear juice add one pound and a half of loaf sugar, simmer it with a gentle heat till it gelatinizes.

GOOSEBERRY JELLY.

Take two quarts of bruised gooseberries, simmer the mass with one pint and a half of water for about a quarter of an hour, then put it into a flannel bag to strain off the juice, and to one pint add one pound and a half of lump sugar; simmer it, as stated under the article currant jelly.

APPLE JELLY.

Pare four pounds of russettins or any other sub-acid apples, cut them into small pieces, and boil them in two quarts of water, till they become quite soft, then put them into a sieve, strain off the liquid, and run it through a flannel bag to render it clear; measure it, and to one pint of the liquid add one pound and a half of sugar, and finish the jelly as before directed. _See Currant Jelly._

QUINCE AND APRICOT JELLY

May be prepared in a similar manner.

FRUIT SYRUPS.

A weak syrup has a tendency to ferment and quickly become sour if kept in a temperate degree of heat; it is therefore not calculated to prevent the natural fermentation of vegetable juices, which always increase its tendency to corrupt. Pharmaceutists have ascertained that a solution, prepared by dissolving two parts of double refined sugar in one of water, or any watery fluid, and boiling the solution a little, forms a syrup, which neither ferments nor crystallizes; and this proportion may be considered as the basis of all syrups, and seems to be the degree of boiling syrup called _smooth_ by the confectioners.

After having squeezed the fruit for the syrup, leave the mass for several days undisturbed: a slight fermentation takes place, this will separate the mucilage and thick parenchyma which rendered the juice viscid. By degrees these matters subside, and very often the liquor appears perfectly clear. This liquor may be separated by decantation: put the remaining matter under the press, and by these means a juice not so clear as the preceding is obtained, but which easily becomes clear spontaneously, especially if put into bottles immediately on its being expressed, and suffered to ferment during some days; by this means a transparent juice of the fruit is obtained.

LEMON SYRUP.

Take a pint of fresh lemon juice, add to it two pounds of lump sugar; simmer it for a few minutes, and remove the scum till the surface is quite clean, then add an ounce of thin cut lemon-peel; let them all simmer very gently for a few minutes, and strain it through a flannel. When cool, bottle, and keep it in a cool place.

ORANGE SYRUP.

Squeeze the oranges, and strain the juice from the pulp; to a pint of the juice, add two pounds of sugar; give it a boil, skim it well, strain it through a flannel, and let it stand till cold, and then bottle it.

MULBERRY SYRUP.

Take Mulberry juice strained, rendered clear by having suffered it to ferment, as directed page 273, one pint; add to it refined sugar, two pounds; simmer the sugar in the juice, and proceed as directed.--_See Currant Syrup._

RASPBERRY AND CURRANT SYRUP

May be prepared in a like manner.

PRESERVATION AND STORING OF FRUIT,--PRINCIPAL REQUISITES OF A GOOD FRUIT ROOM.

In storing fruits, care should be taken not to bruise them. Pears, apples, and all other summer fruit should be placed on shelves singly in a dry and well aired room, and not on moss, hay, or straw, as is often done, because they thereby contract a very disagreeable flavour. It is better to lay the fruit on a clean shelf, covered with a sheet of common writing paper; brown paper gives them a flavour of pitch.

The finer large kinds of pears should not be allowed to touch one another, but should be laid single and distinct. Apples, and all kinds of pears, should be laid thin; never tier above tier, which causes them to sweat, and undergo a kind of fermentation, which renders them mealy. A great deal of the preservation of summer fruit depends on the manner of gathering them. After having prepared the fruit-room, a fine day is to be chosen, and, if possible, after two or three preceding days of dry weather, and about two in the afternoon the fruit is to be gathered, and deposited in baskets of a moderate size, taking care that none of it receive any bruise or blemish, for the injured part soon rots and spoils the sound fruit in contact with it. As the summer fruits ripen more quickly after they are pulled, only a few days’ consumption should be gathered at once. Autumn apples and pears should be gathered about eight days before they are ripe, and indeed some kinds never become fit for eating on the tree. If they have been necessarily gathered in wet weather, or early in the morning, they should be exposed a day to the sun to dry, and they should on no account be wiped, which rubs off the _bloom_, as it is called, which, when allowed to dry, on some fruits, constitutes a natural varnish, closing up the pores, and preventing the evaporation of the juices.

Fine pears may be preserved by passing a thread through the stack, and having sealed up the end of the stack with a drop of sealing wax, to hang them up separately in a cone of paper, suspended by the thread.

_Grapes_ keep much better when hanging than when laid upon a table, and it is advisable also to seal the cut end with a drop of sealing wax; or they may be hung by the stack, or by the point of the bunch, as the grapes are thus less pressed against each other; but it is in both cases necessary to visit them from time to time, and to cut off with a pair of scissors every berry that is mouldy or spoiled.

More artificial modes of preserving grapes in a succulent state are sometimes used, and become necessary for their transportation to distant countries. They are often packed with bran and saw dust. If intended for transportation they should not be quite ripe.

The principal requisites of a good fruit room are great dryness and equality of temperature, and the power of excluding light. It should be furnished with a number of shallow trays, supported on a rack or stand one above another. It should have openings to admit fresh air during fine weather. It should be warmed during frost.

PRESERVATION OF RECENT ESCULENT ROOTS, POT-HERBS, AND OTHER CULINARY VEGETABLES.

When it is necessary to keep vegetables a few days before they are made use of, care should be taken that they receive as little injury as possible from keeping. The rules are simple and easy:--vegetables of different sorts should not be left in the same bundle, or basket; they should not be washed till they are about to be used; but if they have got flaccid, or dry-shrivelled, and wrinkly, (not otherwise,) they should be immersed in water: but to prevent them becoming so, the best method is not to expose them to the sun or air, but to keep them in a cool, dark, damp place, not scattered about, but close together, though not in great quantities, lest they heat, and a sort of fermentation begins, which destroys the quality altogether.--Strong scented vegetables should be kept apart from those that are inodorous.

Leeks or cellery will quickly spoil a whole basketful of cauliflower, sallads, or the finer vegetables.

Another general rule, as already stated, is, that they should not be kept in water when fresh, or refreshed by sprinkling them with water, (as is often practised,) till they are to be used, for the flavour is thereby greatly injured. It is only when they have become flaccid that they should be immersed in water to restore their crispness before they are cooked, otherwise they will be tough and unpalatable; this is to be done, when the size of the vegetable admits of it, as cauliflower, sallad, cellery, &c., by cutting off a piece of the stalk and setting the fresh surface, thus exposed, in water, which will be absorbed; in other cases the whole vegetable must be immersed in water.

Most vegetable substances being more or less succulent, their full proportion of fluids is necessary for their retaining that state of crispness or plumpness which they have when growing. On being cut or gathered the exhalation from their surface continues, while, from the open vessels of the cut surface, there is often great exudation or evaporation, and thus their natural moisture is diminished, and the tender leaves become flaccid, and the thicker masses or roots lose their plumpness. This is not only less pleasant to the eye, but is a real injury to the nutritious powers of the vegetable; for in this flaccid and shrivelled state its fibres are less easily divided in chewing, and the water which exists in vegetable substances, in the form of their respective natural juices, is directly nutritious. The first care in the preservation of succulent vegetables, therefore, is to prevent them from losing their natural moisture. In regard to the tender succulent vegetables this is not altogether possible; because there is a constant exhalation from their surface, while the supply of moisture is cut off. The principle of preserving them, then, is to retard and diminish the exhalation. Even growing vegetables become flaccid in a hot sun, because the exhalation is then greater than the supply; and exposure to the sun is absolutely ruinous to all the more delicate vegetables.--The operation of heat and air is slower but similar. Succulent vegetables should, therefore, be kept in a cool, shady, and damp place.

Common sense will suggest what is best, when it is known that to keep vegetables fresh for a short time, the best way is to hinder them from becoming too dry, and therefore to keep them from heat and air, and to avoid crushing or bruising them.

If they become frozen in the cold of winter, they should be immersed in cold water for an hour or two, and the water should be changed once or twice.

The earthy mould should never be washed from potatoes, or any other sort of roots, till they are to be dressed.

When potatoes, turnips, carrots, or any other roots are to be preserved for a length of time, they should be covered with earth, or straw and mats, to preserve them both from the air and the action of frost, which is peculiarly hurtful to all vegetable substances.

Sweet herbs, or savoury pot-herbs should be gathered in a dry day. Cleanse them well from dirt and dust, cut off the roots, separate the bunches into smaller ones, and hang them across a line in the kitchen, where there is a moderate heat, which will dry them in an excellent manner: when perfectly dry, put them in bags, and lay them by on a shelf in the kitchen, they will keep good for twelve months, and be ready in the moment when wanted: or rub off the stalks, put them through a coarse hair sieve, and put the powder into stopped bottles; by this means their flavour is still better preserved.--They are in the highest state of perfection just before they begin to flower; the first and last crop have neither the fine flavour nor the perfume of those which are gathered in the height of the season; that is when the greater part of the crop of each species is ripe at the same period.

* * * * *

_Basil_ is in the best state for drying from the middle and end of August.

_Knotted Marjoram_, from the beginning of July, and during the whole month.

_Winter Savory_, the latter end of July, and throughout August.

_Summer Savory_, the latter end of July, and throughout August.

_Thyme_, _Lemon-Thyme_, and _Orange-Thyme_, during June and July.

_Mint_, the latter part of June, and during July.

_Sage_, in August and September.

_Tarragon_, in June, July, August.

Vinegar.

Vinegar may be made in the small way from grapes, gooseberries, or other sub-acid fruits, with the addition of a portion of Muscovado sugar, honey, or malt wort.

In this country vinegar is prepared from a wort obtained by the infusion of malted grain; the fermentation being excited by yeast. This vinegar is inferior in strength and purity to that from wine, and is more liable to become mouldy, or suffer the putrefactive fermentation. And this appears to be owing to the presence of a large portion of glutinous matter.

To make vinegar for domestic use, fit for keeping, it is essential that the fluid employed for that purpose should contain in every gallon at least three pounds of sugar; to allow some access of air to the vessel in which it is kept, and to keep it in a temperature rather higher than that of the atmosphere in this climate, that is about 75° to 80° Fahr. It is also essential, where a liquor already fermented is employed, to add a portion of yeast; for though any fermented liquor, if kept in a moderate temperature in an open vessel, will spontaneously run sour, or become changed to vinegar, this change is too gradual to produce this acid in perfection, and the first acetified portion turns mouldy before the last has become sour: but where the substance employed has not yet undergone fermentation, the whole process of the vinous and subsequent acetous fermentation will go on uninterruptedly with the same ferment which at first set it in action, which happens, for example, in the making vinegar from malt, or from fruit, sugar, and water.

METHOD OF MAKING GOOSEBERRY VINEGAR.

Take gooseberries, when full ripe, mash them in a tub or marble mortar, and to every quart of the mashed fruit, put three quarts of water, stir the pulp well together, let it stand 24 hours, and press it through a coarse bag. To every gallon of the strained liquor add four pounds of brown sugar, or four pounds and a half of honey, the latter is preferable; put the mixture into a barrel, which it should fill about three fourths, and add to eight or nine gallons of it one pint of good ale yeast; cover the bung hole of the cask with a slate, to exclude dust, and place the barrel in the sun in summer, or a little away from a fire in winter. The mixture will soon begin to ferment; keep up the fermentation by keeping the liquor at the same temperature, till the taste and odour indicate that the vinegar is complete. When the liquor has become perfectly clear, draw it off into bottles. It will keep much better if it be heated nearly to the boiling point, which is best accomplished by putting the bottles containing it in a saucepan with water, and causing the water to boil for about one quarter of an hour. When this has been done, remove the bottles, and when quite cold cork them. Earthenware bottles are much less liable to crack, during this process, than glass bottles.

RASPBERRY VINEGAR.

Take a pound of fine gathered red raspberries, mash them in a wooden bowl, or earthenware pan, add to the pulp a pint and a half of vinegar; make the mixture boiling hot, and strain it through a flannel bag. To every pint of liquor add a pound of lump sugar, suffer it to simmer in an earthen pipkin for about five minutes, and remove the scum as it rises. When cold put it into dry bottles.

Or, better mash the raspberries, suffer them to ferment till the juice separates from the pulpy matter; then add to a pint of the mass a pint and a half of vinegar, let it simmer for a few minutes, and strain it through a flannel.

CHILLI VINEGAR.

Tarragon Vinegar Mint Vinegar Eschallot Vinegar Burnet Vinegar

Put an ounce of red chillies, (capsicum) cut into small pieces, into a bottle containing a pint of vinegar, stop the bottle close, and suffer the chillies to macerate for eight or ten days, and then strain off the clear infusion. Tarragon, mint, or burnet vinegar may be made in a similar way, by suffering four ounces of fresh gathered tarragon, mint, or burnet, (or three ounces) eschallots, to macerate for eight or ten days in a quart of vinegar.

Tea.

The dried leaves of the tea plant, a commodity with which we are so well acquainted, and which affords a beverage so generally used in this country, must excite curiosity to know something of its natural history, or the nature of the plant from which it is obtained.

The precise period when tea was first made known in Europe cannot be ascertained; it is said that some Dutch adventurers, seeking for such objects as might fetch a high price in China, and hearing of the general use there of a beverage from a plant of that country, made them fall upon the idea of trying whether not an European plant might be relished by the Chinese, and become an article of commerce among them, and accordingly they introduced to them the herb _Sage_, the adventurers accepting in return the Chinese tea, which they brought to Europe. The European herb did not continue long in use in China, but the consumption of tea has been amazingly increasing in Europe ever since. It is generally said, that it was first imported from Holland into England, about 1666, by lord Arlington and lord Ossory, who brought it into fashion among people of quality. But it was used in coffee-houses before this period, as it appears by an act of parliament made in 1660, in which a duty of 8_d._ was laid on every gallon of the infusion sold in these places. In 1666 it was sold in London for 60_s._ per pound, though it did not cost more than 2_s._ 6_d._ or 3_s._ 6_d._ at Batavia. It continued at this price till 1700. In 1715 green tea began to be used; and as great quantities were then imported, the price was lessened, and the practice of drinking tea descended to the lower ranks. In 1720, the French began to send tea to us by a clandestine commerce. Since that period the demand has been increasing yearly, and it has become almost a necessary of life in several parts of Europe, even among the lowest as well as the highest ranks.

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE TEA TREE.

The tea tree (Polyandria Monogynia) is a native of China, Japan, and Tonquin, it has never been found growing wild in any other country. Linnæus says, that there are two species of this plant, the Bohe´a, or black, and the Vir´idis, or green tea. The green has much longer leaves than the black, it is a more hardy plant; and, with very little protection, bears the severity of our winters. The tea is planted in China round borders of fields, without regard to the soil.

The tree attains the height of ten or twelve feet, and is an evergreen: the leaves, which are the only valuable part of it, are about an inch and a half long, and resemble those of sweet brier. The flowers are something like the wild white-rose; the seeds are round, and blackish, about the size of a large pea.