Part 9
In freezing animal substances, for the purpose of preserving them, no other precaution is necessary than exposing them to a sufficient degree of cold. “Animal substances,” says Captain Scoresby, “requisite as food, of all descriptions (fish excepted), may be taken to Greenland and there preserved any length of time, without being smoked, dried, or salted. No preparation of any kind is necessary for their preservation; nor is any other precaution requisite, excepting suspending them in the air when taken on shipboard, shielding them a little from the sun and wet, and immersing them occasionally in sea-water, or throwing sea-water over them after heavy rains, which will effectually prevent putrescency on the outward passage; and, in Greenland, the cold becomes a sufficient preservation, by freezing them as hard as blocks of wood. The moisture is well preserved by freezing, a little from the surface only evaporating; so that if cooked when three, four, or five months old, meat will frequently appear as profuse of gravy, as if it had been but recently killed.” Captain Scoresby has not informed us why fish cannot be taken to Greenland in a frozen state, though this is a mode of preservation much used in Russia and Germany, and even in this country.
Some attention is necessary for thawing provisions which have been frozen. “When used, the beef cannot be divided but by an axe or saw; the latter instrument is preferred. It is then put into cold water, from which it derives heat by the formation of ice around it, and soon thaws; but if put into hot water, much of the gravy is extracted, and the meat is injured without being thawed more readily. If an attempt be made to cook it before it is thawed, it may be burnt on the outside, while the centre remains raw, or actually in a frozen state.” These observations, which we have transcribed from Captain Scoresby, an excellent observer, agree with the directions of earlier writers. Thus Krünitz says,[35] “when fish taken under the ice are frozen, lay them in cold water, which thus draws the ice out of the fish, so that it can be scraped off their scales. They taste much better afterwards than when they are allowed to thaw in a warm room.”
[35] Encyclop. Vol. X. p. 586.
Pickles.
The antiseptic power of vinegar is employed with advantage in domestic economy for preserving from decay a variety of fruits, roots, leaves, and other parts of vegetables, which by a species of refinement and luxury, are often considered as condiments to improve the relish of several kinds of food. Their qualities, no doubt, depends almost entirely on the vinegar, spice, or salt imbibed by them.
The art of preparing vinegar pickles consists in impregnating the vegetable substances with the strongest vinegar, to which are usually added a portion of common salt, and the most heating spices. To effect this object, the substance to be pickled is usually suffered to macerate, or slightly boiled with the acid, and afterwards kept infused in it, together with spices and salt.
It is customary to impregnate the article to be pickled first in a strong brine of common salt; but this is not absolutely necessary for the preservation of the pickled substance. To facilitate the action of the vinegar or salt, the articles to be pickled, especially such as walnuts, cucumbers, &c. should be punctured with a large needle or fork. To assist their preservation, and to improve their flavour, a variety of pungent and aromatic spices are added, which vary according to the fancy of the cook; pepper, pimento, cloves, mace, ginger, capsicum, and mustard, are the spices usually employed.
For the preparation of acid pickles, the vinegar prepared from wood, as in itself containing no substance liable to a spontaneous decay, is preferable to common malt vinegar, although the contrary has been asserted, because it is free from mucilage, which promotes the spoiling of common vinegar, and therefore the former is a better antiseptic than vinegar abounding in mucilage. We prepare our home-made pickles with this acid, and we are authorised to state that, although kept for years, they are inferior to none met with in commerce.
All pickles should be preserved in unglazed earthenware jars, carefully corked, and tied over with a bladder to exclude air. The vinegar used for preparing them should always be heated in an unglazed earthenware pan, it should never be suffered to boil, but poured over the substance to be pickled, just when it begins to simmer. The spices may be simmered with the vinegar.
PICKLED RED CABBAGE.
Put sliced red cabbage into a stone jar, and strew amongst it common salt; then heat vinegar nearly to a boiling point, and pour it over the cabbage, in a sufficient quantity to cover the sliced leaves. It is customary to add long pepper, allspice, and ginger, to the vinegar, which impart to the pickle a pungent taste. A small quantity of powdered cochineal is also frequently added, with an intent to give to the cabbage a beautiful red colour; the cochineal should be strewed amongst the sliced leaves previous to the infusion of the vinegar; two drachms are sufficient to one pound of cabbage. Red beet root is employed for a similar purpose, but the former pigment, which is perfectly harmless, is preferable. When the pickle is cold, it should be tied over with a bladder skin to exclude the air.
PICKLED ONIONS.
For this pickle the small white round onions, of the size of a child’s playing marble, are usually chosen. Having peeled off the exterior brown coat of the onions, simmer them in water, till their outer layers have acquired a semi-transparency, (not longer), then strain off the water, and suffer the onions to dry; put them into an unglazed earthen jar and pour over them so much colourless vinegar, previously heated nearly to the boiling point, as will cover them. The seasoning spices usually added are white pepper, ginger root, white mustard seed, mace, and salt.
PICKLED WALNUTS.
Take unripe walnuts; run a large needle through each in several places; suffer them to macerate for ten or twelve days, in a strong brine of common salt. When this has been done, decant the brine, transfer the walnuts into a stone jar, and pour vinegar, previously heated nearly to the boiling point, over them, in a sufficient quantity to cover them.
They may be seasoned with long pepper, capsicum, ginger, mustard seed, mace, and pimento. These substances should be simmered with the vinegar for a few minutes.
The walnuts will not be fit for use till when about six months old.
PICKLED CUCUMBERS.
Perforate fresh gathered cucumbers, with a needle, or fork, put them into a stone jar, and pour over them boiling hot vinegar. Season with salt, pimento, long pepper, and ginger. These substances should be simmered with the vinegar for a few minutes.
To this pickle is sometimes intentionally given a lively green colour, by copper, and numerous fatal consequences are known to have ensued from the use of such a practice.[36]
[36] Treatise on the Adulteration of Food and Culinary Poisons, 1821.--“Poisonous Pickles.”
If pickled cucumber, or any other kind of vegetable pickle, be wanted of a lively green colour, it may readily be effected by soaking them when ready prepared, for a few minutes, first in tincture of turmeric, and then in a diluted solution of the colouring matter of indigo, dissolved in water.[37] This method of straining the pickle is perfectly harmless.
[37] This substance is called, at the colour-shops, intense (not liquid blue, which is quite a different preparation of Indigo,) blue.
Samphire, French beans, tomatoes, capsicum pods, nasturtium and raddish pods, may be pickled in the same manner.
PICKLED RED BEET-ROOT.
Boil the root till sufficiently done; peel it and cut it into thin slices. Put it into a stone jar, and pour over it white vinegar, seasoned with long pepper, horse-raddish, cut into small slices, allspice, cloves, and salt.
PICKLED MUSHROOMS.
Having peeled small button mushrooms, put them in a strong brine of salt for three or four days; strain off the brine, and pour over them boiling hot vinegar: season with long pepper, ginger, and mace.
PICKLED ARTICHOKE.
Take large fresh gathered artichokes, boil and simmer them till they are nearly tender, remove the leaves and choke, and put the bottom part of the artichoke in a salt brine for about forty-eight hours; then strain off the brine, put the artichoke into a jar, and cover it with vinegar, previously heated to the boiling point, and seasoned with pepper, salt, eschalots, and mace.
SOUR KRAUT.
M. Parmentier has given a minute description of a process of making sour kraut on the large scale. The heads of white winter cabbages, after removing the outer leaves, are to be cut into fine shreds, by means of a knife, or with a plane, and spread out to dry upon a cloth in the shade. A cask is to be set on end, with the head taken out. If it formerly contained vinegar or wine, so much the better, as it will promote the fermentation, and give the cabbage a more vinous taste; if not, the inside may be rubbed over with sour kraut liquor. Caraway seeds are to be mixed with the shreds of cabbage, a good layer of salt is placed at the bottom of the cask, and then cabbage shreds evenly packed, to the depth of four or six inches. The layers are regularly stamped down with a wooden stamper, to half their original bulk. The same process is to be repeated, with additional layers of salt, and shreds, till the whole be packed. They are then to be covered with a layer of salt, or till the barrel be filled within two inches of the top, over which the outside leaves of the cabbages are to be spread. About two pounds of salt are required for twenty middling sized cabbages.
The head of the barrel, which should have been previously well fastened together, is lastly to be put within the barrel above the leaves, and loaded with stones, to prevent the mixture from rising during the fermentation. The mass thus compressed subsides, and the cabbage gives out its juice, which rises to the surface, it is green, muddy, and fætid. It is to be drawn off by a spigot placed two or three inches from the bottom, and re-placed by fresh brine.
* * * * *
The following notice may serve to remind the reader of the time when the various articles for preparing pickles are in season.
_Nasturtium pods_ fit for pickling, are in season in the middle of July.
_Onions_, by the middle and end of July.
_Cucumbers_, the latter part of July and August.
_Capsicum pods_, the end of July and beginning of August.
_Tomatas, or Love Apples_, the end of July and August.
_Cauliflower_, in July and August.
_Artichokes_, in July and August.
_Radish pods_, in July.
_French Beans_, in July.
_Mushrooms_, in September.
_Red Cabbage_, in August.
_Samphire_, in August.
MUSHROOM CATSUP.
The name of catsup is given to several kinds of liquid pickles, made of savoury vegetable substances, such as mushrooms, walnuts, &c. The following method of preparing mushroom catsup is copied from the Cook’s Oracle:--
Take full grown mushrooms; put a layer of them at the bottom of a deep earthen pan, and sprinkle them with salt, then another layer of mushrooms, put some more salt on them, and so on, alternately, salt and mushrooms; let them remain two or three hours, by which time the salt will have penetrated the mushrooms, and rendered them easy to break; mash them well and let them remain for a couple of days, stirring them up, and mashing them well each day; then pour them into a stone jar, and to each quart add half an ounce of whole black pepper; stop the jar very close, set it in a stew-pan of boiling water, and keep it simmering for two hours at least. Take out the jar, and pour off the juice clear from the sediment through a hair sieve into a stewpan (without squeezing the mushrooms); let it boil up, skim it, and pour it into a dry jar; let it stand till next day, then pour it off as gently as possible, through a tammis, or flannel bag, (so as not to disturb the sediment at the bottom of the jar.) Bottle it in pints or half pints; for it is best to keep it in such quantities as are soon used: in each pint, put a dozen berries of black pepper, the same of allspice, and a table-spoonful of brandy.
TOMATA CATSUP.
Mash a gallon of ripe tomatas; add to it one pound of salt, press out the juice, and to each quart add a quarter of a pound of anchovies, two ounces of eshallots, and an ounce of ground black pepper; simmer the mixture for a quarter of an hour; then strain it through a sieve, and put to it a quarter of an ounce of pounded mace, the same quantity of allspice, ginger, and nutmeg, and half a drachm of cochineal; let the whole simmer for twenty minutes, and strain it through a bag: when cold, bottle it:
Or, put tomatas into an earthen pan, and bake them very slowly in an oven. Rub the pulp through a hair sieve, to separate the seeds and skins. To every pound, by weight, of the pulp, add a pint and a quarter of vinegar, with a drachm of mace, ginger, cloves, allspice, and one ounce each of white pepper, and minced eshallot. Simmer them for half an hour, and strain off the liquid.
WALNUT CATSUP.
Take 28 lbs. of unripe walnuts when quite tender, reduce them to a pulp in a marble mortar; add to the mass two gallons of vinegar; let it stand three or four days; to each gallon of liquor, put a quarter of a pound of minced eshallots, half an ounce of bruised cloves, the same of mace and black pepper, one tea-spoonful of Cayenne pepper, and a quarter of a pound of salt: give it a boil up, and strain it through a flannel.
Conserved Fruits.
The preserving of the pulpy fruits employed in housekeeping for making fruit pies, tarts and puddings, so as to render them fit for that purpose, when they cannot be procured in their recent state, is an object of considerable importance in every well regulated family.
The expence of sugar is frequently urged as a reason for not conserving fruits in housekeeping, and to this may be added the uncertainty of success from the strong fermentable quality of many fruits, if the sugar has not been very liberally added. They may indeed be conserved for a length of time without sugar, by baking them in an oven, and then closely stopping them up; but if the cork becomes dry, the atmospheric air exchanges place with what is impregnated by the fruit, which then soon becomes mouldy; some pulpy fruits may be conserved in good condition by the following method, for years, or even it is probable for a longer period, in hot climates.
CONSERVATION OF RECENT FRUITS WITHOUT SUGAR.
The following fruits may be conserved without sugar. The more juicy fruits of the berry kind, such as currants, mulberries, strawberries, raspberries, are not well calculated for this process.
METHOD OF CONSERVING GOOSEBERRIES,
Orlean Plums Green Gages Damsons Peaches Nectarines Bullaces.
Let the fruit be clean picked, and not too ripe, put it into wide-mouthed, or what are called gooseberry bottles, let the bottles be filled as full as they can be packed, and stick the corks lightly into them; then place them upright in a saucepan of water, heated gradually to about 100 or 170° F. that is, until the water feels very hot to the finger, but does not scald. Let this degree of heat be kept up for half an hour, then remove the bottles one by one, and fill them up to within half an inch of the cork with boiling water; when cold let the cork be fitted very close, and lay the bottles on their sides, that the cork may be kept moist by the water. To prevent fermentation and mould, the bottles must be turned once or twice a week for the first month or two, and once or twice a month afterwards. When applied to use, some of the liquor first poured off may serve to be put into the pie, or pudding, instead of water, and the remainder being boiled up with a little sugar, makes a rich and agreeable syrup.
The fruit ought not be cracked by the heat; some trials were made by keeping the bottles in a heat of 190° for three quarters of an hour, but the fruit was reduced nearly to a pulp. It is also advisable that the fruit be not quite ripe, nor should it be bruised.
Some fruits may be preserved in a succulent state by being kept in water, without boiling. This is practised in regard to the cranberry: it also succeeds with the smaller kinds of apples. All pulpy fruits, such as damsons, plums, &c., if gathered when not quite ripe, and not wounded, may likewise be preserved, by putting them into dry bottles, so as to exclude the air, by sealing over the cork, and then burying them in a trench, with the cork downwards.
CONSERVATION OF RECENT FRUITS, BY MEANS OF SUGAR, IN A LIQUID STATE.
A great number of fruits in their natural state may be conserved in a fluid, transparent syrup, of such a consistence as will prevent them from spoiling. This method of conserving fruits requires some care; for if they are too little impregnated with sugar, they do not keep, and if the syrup is too concentrated, the sugar crystallizes, and thus spoils the conserved fruit.
METHOD OF CONSERVING APRICOTS BY MEANS OF SUGAR.
Plums Damsons Green Gages Peaches Nectarines.
Take apricots, not too ripe, cut a small slit near the stem end of the fruit, and push out the stone; simmer them in water till nearly half done, then peel them, and simmer them again for about twenty minutes in a syrup, made of two parts by measure of water, and one part by weight of loaf sugar. When this has been done, put them aside for about twelve hours; strain off the syrup, and to one pint of it add four ounces of lump sugar, simmer the fruit again for about ten minutes in this concentrated syrup; skim off the impurities that rise to the surface, and repeat the simmering of the fruit in the syrup three or four times; and, lastly, put the apricots into pots, and cover them with a syrup made of seven ounces, by measure, of water, and one pound of loaf sugar. Tie over or cork the jar to exclude the air.
CONSERVED PINE APPLES.
Break off the top and stalk of the pine apple, cut the fruit into slices, about one-fifth of an inch in thickness; put the slices into an earthenware jar, at the bottom of which has been previously put a layer of powdered lump sugar, about one-eighth of an inch in thickness. Place on this stratum of sugar, a layer of the slices of the fruit, then put another layer of sugar, and so on; lastly, put the jar up to the neck into a saucepan of boiling water, and keep the water boiling for about half an hour, or till the sugar is completely dissolved, taking care to remove the scum that rises on the surface. Tie over the mouth of the jar with a wet bladder, or keep it well corked.
CONSERVED PEARS.
Put peeled pears in a stone pan with water, let them simmer till they are soft, skim them, and when cold simmer them for about ten minutes in a syrup made of three parts by measure, of water, and one by weight of loaf sugar, let them remain in the syrup till the next day; then pour off the syrup from the pears, simmer them again for about ten minutes, and repeat the simmering in the syrup three or four times successively. They are usually coloured red by powdered cochineal, a small portion of which is added during the boiling process. Some persons add cinnamon, and other spices, and a portion of port wine. If the pears be not intended to keep, they may be simmered till done in a syrup, composed of one pound of sugar and three pints and a half of water.
CONSERVATION OF RECENT FRUITS, BY MEANS OF SUGAR, IN A SOLID FORM.
The name of _candied fruits_, or _comfits_, is given to such substances as are preserved by means of sugar in a solid state, so that the whole substance is impregnated and covered with sugar, in a crystalline, or solid state.
CANDIED ORANGE, OR LEMON PEEL.
Soak Seville orange peel, well cleaned from the pulp in several waters, till it loses its bitterness; cut it into thin slips, simmer them in a syrup composed of two parts, by weight, of lump sugar, and one of water, and continue the simmering till they are become tender, and nearly transparent. Then take them out, put them aside for about twenty-four hours; and simmer them again in a sufficient quantity of a syrup composed of six ounces, by measure, of water, and one pound of loaf sugar, and continue the simmering till the sugar candies about the pan and peel. Now lay them separately on a wire sieve to drain; sift finely powdered sugar over them, whilst still hot, and put them to dry in a warm stove.
Candied lemon peel may be prepared in the same manner.
Marmalades, Jams,
AND
Fruit Pastes.
Marmalades, Fruit Jams, and Pastes, are compositions of the pulpy matter of recent Fruits, or other vegetable substances, so combined into a mass with sugar, as will cause them to suffer as little alteration as possible in their native qualities. These comfitures are therefore in reality solid extracts of the pulpy matter of fruit conserved by means of sugar.
The evaporation of the mass is most conveniently performed in broad hollow vessels; the larger the surface of the vessel, the sooner will the aqueous parts exhale. When the pulpy matter begins to grow thick, great care is necessary to prevent its burning. This accident is almost unavoidable if the quantity be large, and the fire applied, as usual, under the pan; it may be effectually prevented, by pouring the mass, when it has acquired the consistence of syrup, into shallow earthen pans, and placing those in an oven with its door open, moderately heated; which, acting uniformly on every part of the liquid, will soon reduce it to any degree of consistence required. This may likewise be done, and more securely, by setting the evaporating vessels in boiling water; but the evaporation is in this way very tedious. The application of steam by means of what is called a _preserving pan_, is the best contrivance for preparing jams, fruit pastes, and all other culinary preparations, which are liable to become injured by a degree of heat exceeding that of boiling water.
BLACK CURRANT PASTE.
Mash the currants in a bowl or marble mortar, so as to break all the berries without materially bruising the seeds; put the mass into a saucepan, and heat it nearly to the boiling point; then rub it through a sieve to separate the seeds. To one pint measure of the pulpy juice, add one pound and a half of loaf sugar, let the mixture simmer gently over the fire, and keep stirring it to prevent it burning at the bottom of the pan. Continue the simmering till the mass, when cold, assumes the consistence of a stiff, or almost solid paste, which may be readily known by placing from time to time a tea spoonful of it on a cold plate. When the mass has acquired the proper consistence, pour it out on a marble slab, or earthenware plate, and continue the further exsiccation by putting it in a stove, or on a hot hearth.
APRICOT PASTE,
Peach Paste Plum Paste Cherry Paste Quince Paste.
Take ripe apricots, boil them till quite soft, mash them, and rub the mass through a splinter sieve, put the pulp into a pan, and to every pound put half a pound of powdered loaf sugar; put it again on the fire to simmer till the paste drops off easily from the spoon, then take it from the fire and pour it on a slab.
Peach, quince, plum, and cherry paste, may be prepared in the same manner.
RASPBERRY PASTE.
Mash the raspberries, and having heated the mass in a saucepan, pass it through a splinter sieve; simmer the mass gently to the consistence of a paste, and to every pound and a quarter of the pulp, add one pound and a half of powdered loaf sugar, and proceed as before directed.--_See black currant paste._
ORANGE AND LEMON PASTE.