Part 48

Select nice red beets and boil until tender. Plunge each one separately into cold water, and with your hands give a little twist to strip off the skin. Cut lengthwise into strips. Place these, not too closely, in glass jars, leaving room that the liquor may surround each piece. To two quarts of vinegar add four pounds of brown sugar and one-half teaspoonful of alum, powdered. Let this boil. After skimming, add one teaspoonful, each, of cloves, allspice, mustard, a few peppercorns—all unground and tied in a bag. Boil again, adding a little cayenne and salt. Pour over the beets. Next day drain off the syrup, bring to a boil, pour over the beets again, then seal. This pickle will be of a rich red color and very delicious.

Spiced cranberries

These are good with roast duck or game. Wash a quart of cranberries and put them into a saucepan with a half cupful of cold water. Tie in a small cheese-cloth bag a dozen cloves, a dozen allspice, two sticks of cinnamon (broken) and several blades of mace. Put this bag into the cranberries and water, and stew all together until the fruit is broken to bits. Remove the spice bag, rub the berries through a colander, add two teacupfuls of brown sugar, stir over the fire until dissolved, and set away to get cold.

Spiced grapes (No. 1)

Stem, pulp and seed the grapes, then weigh them. To five pounds of fruit allow two and a half pounds of granulated sugar and a teacupful of vinegar. Put all over the fire with two ounces, each, of stick cinnamon, broken into bits, and whole cloves. Boil until very thick. This will take about half an hour. The mixture should be so thick that the juice will not run. When this point is reached put the fruit into jelly glasses set in a pan of hot water. Cover the tops of the glasses with rounds of tissue paper and fasten on metal covers.

The wild or “fox” grape is good for spicing, when half-ripe. The grapes must always be firm, and not overripe.

Spiced currants

See preceding recipe.

Spiced grapes (No. 2)

Remove the skins from grapes, put the pulp over the fire and stew gently until it can be rubbed through a strainer that will not allow the seeds to pass. Weigh the pulp, and to every five pounds of this add a pint of cider vinegar, four pounds of brown sugar, three tablespoonfuls of ground cinnamon, and two of ground cloves. Stew all together until very thick. Pour into jelly glasses and cover with closely-fitting tops.

Spiced rhubarb

To two and a half pounds of rhubarb, washed and cut into inch bits, add a cupful of vinegar, two pounds of sugar and a tablespoonful, each, of cinnamon and cloves. Put all into a preserving kettle and boil steadily for half an hour. Put up in jelly glasses, as you would jelly.

Olive oil pickles

(Contributed)

Peel and slice fifteen large cucumbers and six onions. Salt down heavily and let them stand all night. In the morning drain; pour over them half a gallon of cider vinegar and let them stand four hours. Drain off the vinegar and heat with half a bottle of olive oil. Add some chopped red peppers and celery seed for seasoning and when thoroughly heated pour over the cucumbers and onions, put into glass jars and seal at once.

Sweet green tomato pickles

(Contributed)

Slice one peck of green tomatoes and two quarts of small white onions, and sprinkle over them a large cupful of salt. Let them stand over night in the brine. In the morning drain well and let them stand in cold water for a few minutes. Pour this water off and add enough vinegar to cover. Add two pounds of brown sugar, one-fourth of a pound of mustard seed and two tablespoonfuls each of allspice, whole cloves and stick cinnamon. Cook all together until the pickles are tender; put into jars and seal.

Pickled cauliflower

(Contributed)

Break the heads into small flowerlets, and boil ten or fifteen minutes in salt and water; take from the fire and drain carefully. When cold place in a jar, and pour over it hot vinegar in which have been scalded whole cloves, pepper, allspice and white mustard. Have the spices tied in a bag, and remove when well scalded. For each quart of hot vinegar add two tablespoonfuls of French mustard and half a cupful of white sugar. Be sure to cover the pickle with vinegar and keep covered closely.

Dill pickles

(Contributed)

Make a brine strong enough to bear an egg, then add half as much more water as you have brine. Wash the cucumbers in cold water, and into a stone jar put first a layer of cucumbers, then a layer of grape-leaves and a layer of dill, using leaves and stems. Continue in this way until the jar is full. Pour the brine over all and cover, first with a cloth, then with a plate, and put a weight on top of the plate. The cloth must be taken off and washed frequently as in making sauerkraut.

Peach mangoes

Halve firm, free-stone peaches when you have washed and wiped them to get rid of the “fur,” and remove the stones. Lay them in brine for two days and in fresh water for one. Stuff with a mixture of grated horseradish and mustard seed, adding a little celery seed. Tie the halves into shape with soft pack-thread; pack in a stone jar and pour spiced and sweetened vinegar over them. Cover closely. Scald the vinegar and cover the peaches with it again once a fortnight for two months. They will be fit to use in four months.

CATSUPS, ETCETERA

Catsups and spiced sauces are now so much used that the epicure feels they are an indispensable accompaniment to his roast or broiled meat, his bit of fish, or fowl, or dish of game. They may be prepared months beforehand and kept against the day of need. The same rule holds in the preparation of these relishes which we have quoted with regard to pickles. They must be cooked in a porcelain-lined vessel, or one of agate iron.

Chili sauce (No. 1)

Peel, and cut up together three dozen large tomatoes and a dozen onions. Chop into bits half a dozen green peppers and mix with the tomatoes and onions. Stir together a teacupful of brown sugar, five tablespoonfuls of salt, half a dozen teaspoonfuls, each, of powdered allspice, cloves and cinnamon, two teaspoonfuls of ground ginger, and a saltspoonful of paprika. Put these spices into three quarts of vinegar, add the vegetables, mix thoroughly, and cook steadily for two hours. When cold, bottle and seal.

Chili sauce (No. 2)

Peel and chop two dozen ripe tomatoes and six onions. Remove the seeds from two red peppers and chop the peppers fine; then stir them into the tomatoes and onions. Season all with a teacupful of granulated sugar, four tablespoonfuls of salt, three teaspoonfuls, each, of powdered allspice, cloves and cinnamon, and a teaspoonful of ground ginger. Pour over all two quarts of vinegar, and boil in a porcelain-lined kettle for two and a half hours. When cool, bottle and seal.

Chutney

Chop a white cabbage and eight onions. Pack in a crock with alternate layers of salt and let it stand twenty-four hours. Into a pint of vinegar stir a half-pound of brown sugar, a heaping teaspoonful, each, of tumeric, powdered alum, cinnamon, allspice, mace, black pepper, mustard and celery seed, and heat all to boiling. Pour this liquid over the cabbage and onions, and set aside for twenty-four hours longer. Now drain off the liquid, bring again to the boil, and pour it again over the pickle. Do this for three mornings; put liquor and vegetables together in the preserving kettle, boil for five minutes; set aside until cold, then pack in jars.

Piccalilli

Chop two fine large cabbages and a pint of onions, and mix. Pack down in a stone crock and stir in a handful of salt. Leave thus for twenty-four hours. Bring to a boil a quart of vinegar, into which have been stirred a pound of sugar and a tablespoonful, each, of the following ground spices—mustard, pepper, mace, allspice, celery seed, cinnamon and tumeric. Pour over the cabbage and onion, turn all into a preserving kettle and boil for ten minutes. When cold, pack in pint jars.

Grape catsup

Wash tart grapes, remove the stems and put the fruit into a kettle, with just enough water to prevent scorching. Stir often with a wooden spoon and cook until tender. Rub, a little at a time, through a fine colander. Reject the seeds and skins, and measure the pulp. To each quart and a pint of this add a pound of brown sugar, a cupful of white vinegar, a heaping teaspoonful, each, of ground cinnamon, allspice, mace, salt and white pepper, and a half teaspoonful of ground cloves. Boil long and steadily until the catsup is reduced to less than half the original quantity, and very thick. When cold, bottle, cork tightly and cover the corks with sealing wax.

Currant catsup

To four pounds of stemmed currants add two pounds of sugar, crush all together, and boil slowly until quite thick. Add one-quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, one-half pint of vinegar, one teaspoonful, each, of powdered allspice, mace and cinnamon. Boil up and bottle at once.

Mushroom catsup

Break into quarters firm, fresh mushrooms. Put a layer of the broken mushrooms into an earthen vessel and sprinkle with salt; then put in more mushrooms and more salt until all are used. Cover the vessel and set it on the cellar floor for three days, stirring the contents with a wooden spoon three times a day. At the end of this time, warm the mushrooms, mash them to a pulp, and strain through coarse netting, squeezing out all the juice. Boil this for ten minutes and measure. To every pint of the liquor allow a generous teaspoonful of whole peppers and allspice, a blade of mace, two slices of onion, a bay-leaf and a dash of paprika. Put liquor and spices over the fire, and boil until thick. Strain, cool and fill bottles with catsup. Seal tightly.

Tomato catsup

Slice a peck of unpeeled tomatoes with six white onions and boil together until so soft they can be rubbed through a colander. Now strain through a sieve and return to the fire with three bay-leaves, a tablespoonful, each, of powdered mace, pepper, cloves, sugar, salt, a half teaspoonful of paprika, and a tablespoonful of celery seed—this last tied up in a small cheese-cloth bag. Boil for nearly six hours, stirring frequently. Remove the bag of celery seed, and pour in a pint of vinegar. Bring again to a boil, and remove from the fire. When cold, bottle and seal.

Walnut catsup

Select walnuts but half-grown and into which a needle enters easily. Prick each clear through three times, pack in layers, strewing a handful of salt between the layers. Pour in cold water until the walnuts are covered, lay a heavy inverted saucer upon them to hold the walnuts under the brine, and keep them in it two weeks. Every day churn them with a wooden mallet to bruise and crack them into small bits. At the end of the fortnight turn off the brine, beat the nuts fine; cover them with boiling vinegar and add the reserved brine. Measure liquid and crushed nuts, and allow for each quart a teaspoonful, each, of onion juice and grated horseradish; two teaspoonfuls, each, of ground cloves and mace, and a tablespoonful, each, of ground ginger and black pepper. Boil steadily for two hours, run through a sieve, cool, bottle and seal.

Pepper vinegar

Break up half a dozen red peppers. Add three dozen black peppercorns and two tablespoonfuls of sugar to a quart of vinegar. Scald vinegar and sugar, and pour over the peppers. Put in a jar, steep eight hours, strain and bottle.

This is to be eaten with fish or raw oysters.

Mixed mustard

Into four tablespoonfuls of dry English mustard stir a tablespoonful of salad oil. When this is well rubbed in, add enough vinegar to make a smooth paste, a teaspoonful, each, of paprika, sugar and onion juice.

Beat hard until light, and bottle.

Home-made French mustard

Compound as directed in the preceding recipe, but have the vinegar scalding hot and when all the ingredients are beaten to a paste set this in a pan of boiling water; cover closely to keep in the strength and cook fifteen minutes. Make a large quantity at a time and put up in corked bottles or jars. It will improve with age.

THE HOME BREW

Tea (hot)

_First._ Never buy poor, cheap tea. It is the dearest in the end, in every sense of the word, being unwholesome, unpalatable and wasteful. One teaspoonful of good oolong, souchong, hyson or “bud” tea, will go farther than four of a mixture which, when brewed, tastes at the best, like boiled hay.

_Second._ Have the kettle boiling, and _freshly_ boiled. An hour’s simmer after the boil has once been reached, makes the water stale and flat.

_Third._ Draw off the tea within three minutes after the water is poured upon the dry leaves. After that, the boiling liquid extracts tannic acid in pernicious quantities and strength.

_Fourth._ Have the cups hot and fill with clear tea, adding sugar, or cream, or both afterwards, to suit the taste of each drinker.

Cold tea

Strain the liquid from the leaves within a few minutes after it is poured on. Set away until cold. Half-fill glasses with cracked ice; add a slice of peeled lemon, a squeeze of lemon juice (if desired) and granulated sugar to taste.

Breakfast coffee

Allow a cupful of freshly ground coffee to a quart of boiling water. Put the coffee into the strainer and add the boiling water by degrees, until it is all in. Pour off into a heated pitcher, and return this to the strainer. Repeat until the beverage is of the requisite strength, and pour into heated cups.

After-dinner coffee

Make as directed in last recipe, allowing, however, three cupfuls of boiling water to one of freshly ground coffee, and run three times through the filter.

Never pass cream with black coffee in after-dinner cups—“demi-tasses,” as the French, who taught us to drink it, call the dainty digestive agent.

To ask for cream in such a case is a gastronomic and social solecism.

Café au lait

Make strong black coffee and, while hot, add to it one-third as much scalding milk. Cover and set in boiling water until needed.

Iced coffee

Set aside _café au lait_ until cold. Fill tumblers half-full of cracked ice; sugar to taste, and pour in the coffee.

Chocolate

Heat two cupfuls of milk, and the same of water. Rub six tablespoonfuls of chocolate to a thin, smooth paste with cold water; pour the water gradually upon it; put into a saucepan and bring it quickly to a boil. Cook thus five minutes, pour in the milk and boil ten minutes longer. Sweeten to the taste of each drinker, and lay a tablespoonful of whipped cream upon the top.

If you would make the chocolate particularly good, heat a sillibub churn and beat the beverage _hard_ for five minutes; set in a vessel of boiling water on the range to get smoking hot; pour out, sweeten, and cap with whipped cream.

Cocoa

It is made in the same way.

Cocoa nibs or “shells”

Wet two ounces of cocoa shells with a little cold water, and stir them into a quart of boiling water. Boil steadily for an hour and a half; strain, stir in a quart of fresh milk, bring almost to the scalding point, and serve. Sweeten in the cups.

Mint punch (very fine)

Put into your punch-bowl a cupful of granulated sugar; add the juice of six lemons, and stir until the sugar melts. Put in three peeled lemons, sliced very thin, and leave in the ice until you are ready to use it. Add, then, a dozen sprays of green mint and a quart, at least, of pounded ice. Stir well for a minute, and pour from a height into it, two or three bottles of imported ginger ale.

Tea punch

Pour a quart of boiling water upon four teaspoonfuls of good tea. Cover, and leave it for five minutes. Strain off, and cool. Half-fill the punch-bowl with cracked ice, add a cupful of granulated sugar and the strained juice of four lemons. Pour the tea over these, and, as it goes to table, add a pint bottle of Apollinaris water. Strew a handful of mint sprays on the surface, and serve at once.

Strawberry punch

Pour two cupfuls of strained fresh strawberry juice upon a cupful (heaping) of granulated sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the juice of a lemon, and four cupfuls of cold water. Let it get very cold upon the ice; stir well and put into a punch-bowl. Just before serving, add a tablespoonful of maraschino, and half a cupful of fine, whole strawberries.

Cherry wine

Stem and wash ripe, sweet cherries, and with a wooden mallet crush to a pulp. Press out all the juice and to each quart of it, add a half-pound of granulated sugar and a cupful of water. Stir thoroughly, pour into a crock; cover this closely with a thickness of cheese-cloth, and let the wine ferment for a month. When the fermentation has ceased rack off and bottle.

Lemonade, or plain sherbet

Roll, peel carefully and slice thin six lemons. Put into a pitcher or bowl with alternate layers of granulated sugar, two teaspoonfuls for each lemon. Leave on the ice until you are ready to serve; then add a quart of iced water and a great lump of ice.

Lively lemonade

Make as directed in preceding recipe, but pour in at the last, a quart of chilled Apollinaris, instead of the iced water.

Raspberry vinegar

Mash the berries and, when reduced to a pulp, add enough vinegar to cover them. Set close by the stove for twelve hours, stirring often. Strain and press; add as many raspberries (mashed) to the vinegar as before; cover and leave in the kitchen or in the hot sun for six hours. Now strain, and measure the juice; add half as much water as you have juice, and stir into this five pounds of granulated sugar for every three pints of liquid. Bring slowly to a boil, let it boil up once, and strain. Bottle, cork and seal.

Blackberry vinegar

Make this by the recipe for raspberry vinegar, only putting in five and a half pounds of sugar to every three pints of the juice and water mixed.

Rhubarb wine

Boil the rhubarb in a double boiler, adding no water after you have washed it and cut it into bits. Press out all the juice and measure this. Add as much water as you have juice, sweeten to taste, and add a cup of brandy to a gallon of the liquid. Bottle and seal.

Grape juice

Stem six quarts of grapes and put them over the fire with one quart of water; bring slowly to a boil and strain. Return the juice to the fire, bring again to the boil, bottle and seal, while scalding-hot.

Cherry bounce

Beat to a pulp two pounds, each, of sweet and tart cherries, and mix together. The beating should be done with a heavy mallet that the stones may be crushed. Stir into the mashed fruit a pound and a quarter of granulated sugar; turn all into a stone crock, and stir in a quart of white whiskey. Leave thus for an hour; stir and pour into a demijohn. Cork and let it stand for a month, shaking hard each day; then let it alone for six weeks without shaking. Rack off, strain and bottle.

Wild cherry bounce

Bruise with a potato beetle five quarts of ripe, wild cherries, and stir into them four cupfuls of granulated sugar. Turn into a stone crock, cover, and set in the cellar for twenty-four hours. Now, add a quart and a cupful of brandy—stirring it in well. Let the mixture alone for six weeks—stirring every few days—before straining off the liquor through double cheese cloth. Bottle and seal. When ready for use, fill liquor glasses with crushed ice and pour the crimson cordial into them. It is an excellent tonic, and also good for a cough.

Homemade grape wine (No. 1)

Put the grapes, stems and all, into an open cask, and mash them. Cover your cask with cheese-cloth to prevent anything from falling in, as one crumb of bread will change the contents into vinegar. When the grapes have fermented, pass through a fruit press; turn the juice that has been extracted into a clean, close cask, and let it remain on its side for a month, when your wine will be ready to be bottled. By no means disturb the cask, or the wine will not be clear. Keep the wine in a dark, cool place, and lay the bottles containing it on their sides. When the grapes are fermenting, stir every day.

Grape wine (No. 2)

Crush out the juice of ripe grapes, after having picked them from the stems. A large quantity could be crushed in a cider press, but when only a few are to be used they can be mashed in a crock, or clean tub, with a potato beetle. Strain, then, through a bag, squeezing or pressing this so as to get all the juice possible. To each quart of the juice add half a pound of white sugar, and put away in a clean cask, or big jar to ferment. Cover the top, or the bung-hole, with a piece of netting. Let the juice and sugar ferment for three or four weeks, until it is clear and still. Pour it off the lees carefully, and bottle.

Matzoon

Take one and a half ounces of prepared matzoon, which you can get at drug stores, and one quart of fresh milk. Stir well and place in a pitcher at a temperature of from 70 to 90 degrees, for from nine to twelve hours, until it begins to thicken like junket; then beat it for ten minutes. Bottle in patent-stoppered bottles, and put on ice. Fresh matzoon may be made from that which you have prepared in this way. You have to buy but one bottle to start with. This quantity makes three bottles, not quite full, as it effervesces like koumiss.

Strawberry wine

Mash and strain six quarts of ripe strawberries. To every quart of juice add a quart of water and a pound of sugar. Stir well, and turn into a crock to ferment. When fermentation ceases, rack off carefully, bottle and seal.

Dandelion wine

Steep the dandelion flowers in boiling water for five minutes, and strain off the liquid, pressing the flowers hard. Sweeten to taste and add brandy in the proportion of a pint to every four gallons of liquid. Put in uncorked bottles and keep in a cool place until fermentation ceases. Draw off and rebottle.

Dandelion cordial

Four quarts of dandelion blossoms; four quarts of boiling water; four quarts of granulated sugar; three tablespoonfuls of compressed yeast; two lemons grated fine; one orange.

Let the blossoms and water stand together until lukewarm; mix and add the sugar, orange, lemons and yeast; strain, and put in a cold place for two days; then strain again. Put into a keg and let it work, without tight corking, until as clear as water.

Dandelion tea

Pour boiling water over the dandelion blossoms; let them stand at the side of the fire to steep, but not boil, for five minutes; then strain, pressing out all the juice. Sweeten to taste and drink very hot, or cold, in a glass filled with cracked ice.

Ginger beer

Boil six ounces of bruised ginger in six quarts of water for half an hour; then add five pounds of loaf sugar, a gill of lemon juice, a quarter-pound of honey, and seventeen quarts of cold water, and strain through a cloth. When it is cold put in an egg and two teaspoonfuls of essence of lemon. After standing three or four days it may be bottled.

Ginger wine

Four gallons of water and seven pounds of sugar. Boil half an hour, skimming well; let the liquor get cold. Then squeeze in the juice of two lemons. Have ready three pints of water in which the peel of two lemons and two ounces of white ginger root (pounded fine) have been boiled one hour and left to get cold. Mix with the syrup and add three pounds of halved Malaga raisins. Put all into a cask, shake well; close the cask and let it stand in the cellar for two months before racking it off and bottling it. A lump of unslaked lime as large as a pigeon’s egg put into the cask will prevent souring.

Mead

Beat to a stiff froth the whites of three eggs, and mix with six gallons of water, sixteen quarts of strained honey, and the yellow rind of two lemons, peeled very thin. Boil all together during three-quarters of an hour, skimming it well; put it into a tub and, when lukewarm, add three tablespoonfuls of the best fresh yeast. Cover, and leave it to ferment. When it has worked, transfer it to a barrel, with the lemon peel in the bottom. Let it stand six months, and bottle it.

Strawberry punch