Part 26

This receipt for making butter is according to the method in use at the best farm-houses in Pennsylvania, and if exactly followed will be found very good. The badness of butter is generally owing to carelessness or mismanagement; to keeping the cream too long without churning; to want of cleanliness in the utensils; to not taking the trouble to work it sufficiently; or to the practice of salting it so profusely as to render it unpleasant to the taste, and unfit for cakes or pastry. All these causes of bad butter are inexcusable, and can easily be avoided. Unless the cows have been allowed to feed where there are bitter weeds or garlic, the milk cannot naturally have any disagreeable taste, and therefore the fault of the butter must be the fault of the maker. Of course, the cream is much richer where the pasture is fine and luxuriant; and in winter, when the cows have only dry food, the butter must be consequently whiter and more insipid than in the grazing season. Still, if properly made, even winter butter cannot taste badly.

Many economical housekeepers always buy for cooking, butter of inferior quality. This is a foolish practice; as when it is bad, the taste will predominate through all attempts to disguise it, and render every thing unpalatable with which it is combined. As the use of butter is designed to improve and not to spoil the flavour of cookery, it is better to omit it altogether, and to substitute something else, unless you can procure that which is good. Lard, suet, beef-drippings, and sweet oil, may be used in the preparation of various dishes; and to eat with bread or warm cakes, honey, molasses, or stewed fruit, &c. are far superior to bad butter.

FOOTNOTES:

[L] A marble slab or table will be found of great advantage in working and making up butter.

CHEESE.

In making _good_ cheese, skim milk is never used. The milk should either be warm from the cow or heated to that temperature over the fire. When the rennet is put in, the heat of the milk should be from 90° to 96°. Three quarts of milk will yield, on an average, about a pound of cheese. In infusing the rennet, allow a quart of lukewarm water, and a table-spoonful of salt to a piece about half the size of your hand. The rennet must soak all night in the water before it can be fit for use. In the morning (after taking as much of it as you want) put the rennet water into a bottle and cork it tightly. It will keep the better for adding to it a wine glass of brandy If too large a proportion of rennet is mixed with the milk, the cheese will be tough and leathery.

To make a very good cheese, take three buckets of milk warm from the cow, and strain it immediately into a large tub or kettle. Stir into it half a tea-cupful of infusion of rennet or rennet-water; and having covered it, set it in a warm place for about half an hour, or till it becomes a firm curd. Cut the curd into squares with a large knife, or rather with a wooden slitting-dish, and let it stand about fifteen minutes. Then break it up fine with your hands, and let it stand a quarter of an hour longer. Then pour off from the top as much of the whey as you can; tie up the curd in a linen cloth or bag, and hang it up to drain out the remainder of the whey; setting a pan under it to catch the droppings. After all the whey is drained out, put the curd into the cheese-tray, and cut it again into slices; chop it coarse; put a cloth about it; place it in the cheese-hoop or mould, and set it in the screw press for half an hour, pressing it hard.[M] Then take it out; chop the curd very fine; add salt to your taste; and put it again into the cheese-hoop with a cloth about it, and press it again. You must always wet the cloth all over to prevent its sticking to the cheese, and tearing the surface. Let it remain in the press till next morning, when you must take it out and turn it; then wrap it in a clean wet cloth, and replace it in the press, where it must remain all day. On the following morning again take out the cheese; turn it, renew the cloth, and put it again into the press. Three days pressing will be sufficient.

When you finally take it out of the press, grease the cheese all over with lard, and put it on a clean shelf in a dry dark room, or in a wire safe. Wipe, grease, and turn it carefully every day. If you omit this a single day the cheese will spoil. Keep the shelf perfectly clean, and see that the cheese does not stick to it. When the cheese becomes firm, you may omit the greasing; but continue to rub it all over every day with a clean dry cloth. Continue this for five or six weeks; the cheese will then be fit to eat.

The best time for making cheese is when the pasture is in perfection.

You may enrich the colour of the cheese by a little anatto or arnotta; of which procure a small quantity from the druggist, powder it, tie it in a muslin rag, and hold it in the warm milk, (after it is strained,) pressing out the colouring matter with your fingers, as laundresses press their indigo or blue rag in the tub of water. Anatto is perfectly harmless.

After they begin to dry, (or ripen, as it is called,) it is the custom in some dairy-farms, to place the cheeses in the haystack, and keep them there among the hay for five or six weeks. This is said greatly to improve their consistence and flavour. Cheeses are sometimes ripened by putting them every day in fresh grass.

FOOTNOTES:

[M] If you are making cheese on a small scale, and have not a regular press, put the curd (after you have wrapped it in a cloth) into a small circular wooden box or tub with numerous hole's bored in the bottom; and with a lid that fits the inside exactly. Lay heavy weights on the lid in such a manner as to press evenly all over.

SAGE CHEESE.--Take some of the young top leaves of the sage plant, and pound them in a mortar till you have extracted the juice. Put the juice into a bowl, wipe out the mortar, put in some spinach leaves, and pound them till you have an equal quantity of spinach juice. Mix the two juices together, and stir them into the warm milk immediately after you have put in the rennet. You may use sage juice alone; but the spinach will greatly improve the colour; besides correcting the bitterness of the sage.

STILTON CHEESE.--Having strained the morning's milk, and skimmed the cream from the milk of the preceding evening, mix the cream and the new milk together while the latter is quite warm, and stir in the rennet-water. When the curd has formed, you must not break it up, (as is done with other cheese,) but take it out all at once with a wooden skimming dish, and place it on a sieve to drain gradually. While it is draining, keep pressing it gently till it becomes firm and dry. Then lay a clean cloth at the bottom of a wooden cheese-hoop or mould, which should have a few small holes bored in the bottom. The cloth must be large enough for the end to turn over the top again, after the curd is put in. Place it in the press for two hours; turn it, (putting a clean cloth under it,) and press it again for six or eight hours. Then turn it again, rub the cheese all over with salt, and return it to the press for fourteen hours. Should the edges of the cheese project, they must be pared off.

When you take it finally out of the press, bind it round tightly with a cloth, (which must be changed every day when you turn the cheese,) and set it on a shelf or board. Continue the cloths till the cheese is firm enough to support itself: rubbing or brushing the outside every day when you turn it. After the cloths are left off, continue to brush the cheese every day for two or three months; during which time it may be improved by keeping it covered all round, under and over, with grass, which must be renewed every day, and gathered when quite dry after the dew is off. Keep the cheese and the grass between two large plates.

A Stilton cheese is generally made of a small size, seldom larger in circumference than a dinner plate, and about four or five inches thick. They are usually put up for keeping, in cases of sheet lead, fitting them exactly. There is no cheese superior to them in richness and mildness.

Cream cheeses (as they are generally called) may be made in this manner. They are always eaten quite fresh, while the inside is still somewhat soft. They are made small, and are sent to table whole, cut across into triangular slices like a pie or cake. After they become fit to eat, they will keep good but a day or two, but they are considered while fresh very delicious.

COTTAGE CHEESE.--This is that preparation of milk vulgarly called Smear Case. Take a pan of milk that has just began to turn sour; cover it, and set it by the fire till it becomes a curd. Pour off the whey from the top, and tie up the curd in a pointed linen bag, and hang it up to drain; setting something under it to catch the droppings. Do not squeeze it. Let it drain all night, and in the morning put the curd into a pan, (adding some rich cream,) and work it very fine with a spoon, chopping and pressing it till about the consistence of a soft bread pudding. To a soup plate of the fine curd put a tea-spoonful of salt, and a piece of butter about the size of a walnut; mixing all thoroughly together. Having prepared the whole in this manner, put it into a stone or china vessel; cover it closely, and set it in a cold place till tea time.

You may make it of milk that is entirely sweet by forming the curd with rennet.

A WELSH RABBIT.--Toast some slices of bread, (having cut off the crust,) butter them, and keep them hot. Grate or shave down with a knife some fine mellow cheese: and, if it is not very rich, mix with it a few small bits of butter. Put it into a cheese-toaster, or into a skillet, and add to it a tea-spoonful of made mustard; a little cayenne pepper; and if you choose, a wine glass of fresh porter or of red wine. Stir the mixture over hot coals, till it is completely dissolved; and then brown it by holding over it a salamander, or a red-hot shovel. Lay the toast in the bottom and round the sides of a deep dish; put the melted cheese upon it, and serve it up as hot as possible, with dry toast in a separate plate; and accompanied by porter or ale.

This preparation of cheese is for a plain supper.

Dry cheese is frequently grated on little plates for the tea-table.

TO MAKE CHOCOLATE.

To each square of a chocolate cake allow three jills, or a chocolate cup and a half of boiling water. Scrape down the chocolate with a knife, and mix it first to a paste with a small quantity of the hot water; just enough to melt it in. Then put it into a block tin pot with the remainder of the water, set it on hot coals; cover it, and let it boil (stirring it twice) till the liquid is one third reduced. Supply that third with cream or rich milk; stir it again, and take it off the fire. Serve it up as hot as possible, with dry toast, or dry rusk. It chills immediately. If you wish it frothed, pour it into the cup, and twirl round in it the little wooden instrument called a chocolate mill, till you have covered the top with foam.

TO MAKE TEA.--In buying tea, it is best to get it by the box, of an importer, that you may be sure of having it fresh, and unmixed with any that is old and of inferior quality. The box should be kept in a very dry place. If green tea is good, it will look green in the cup when poured out. Black tea should be dark coloured and have a fragrant flowery smell. The best pots for making tea are those of china. Metal and Wedgwood tea-pots by frequent use will often communicate a disagreeable taste to the tea. This disadvantage may be remedied in Wedgwood ware, by occasionally boiling the tea-pots in a vessel of hot water.

In preparing to make tea, let the pot be twice scalded from the tea-kettle, which must be boiling hard at the moment the water is poured on the tea; otherwise it will be weak and insipid, even when a large quantity is put in. The best way is to have a chafing dish, with a kettle always boiling on it, in the room where the tea is made. It is a good rule to allow two heaping tea-spoonfuls of tea to a large cup-full of water, or two tea-spoonfuls for each grown person that is to drink tea, and one spoonful extra. The pot being twice scalded, put in the tea, and pour on the water about ten minutes before you want to fill the cups, that it may have time to draw or infuse. Have hot water in another pot, to weaken the cups of those that like it so. That the second course of cups may be as strong as the first, put some tea into a cup just before you sit down to table, pour on it a very little boiling water, (just enough to cover it,) set a saucer over it to keep in the steam, and let it infuse till you have filled all the first cups; then add it to that already in the tea-pot, and pour in a little boiling water from the kettle. Except that it is less convenient for a large family, a kettle on a chafing dish is better than an urn, as the water may be kept longer boiling.

In making black tea, use a larger quantity than of green, as it is of a much weaker nature. The best black teas in general use are pekoe and pouchong; the best green teas are imperial, young hyson, and gunpowder.

TO MAKE COFFEE--The manner in which coffee is roasted is of great importance to its flavour. If roasted too little, it will be weak and insipid; if too much, the taste will be bitter and unpleasant. To have it very good, it should be roasted immediately before it is made, doing no more than the quantity you want at that time. It loses much of its strength by keeping, even in twenty-four hours after roasting. It should on no consideration be ground till directly before it is made. Every family should be provided with a coffee roaster, which is an iron cylinder to stand before the fire, and is either turned by a handle, or wound up like a jack to go of itself. If roasted in an open pot or pan, much of the flavour evaporates in the process. Before the coffee is put into the roaster, it should be carefully examined and picked, lest there should be stones or bad grains among it. It should be roasted of a bright brown; and will be improved by putting among it a piece of butter when about half done.

Watch it carefully while roasting, looking at it frequently.

A coffee-mill affixed to the wall is far more convenient than one that must be held on the lap. It is best to grind the coffee while warm.

Allow half a pint of ground coffee to one quart of water. If the coffee is not freshly roasted, you should put in more. Put the water into the tin coffee-pot, and set it on hot coals; when it boils, put in the coffee, a spoonful at a time, (stirring it between each spoonful,) and add two or three chips of isinglass, or the white of an egg. Stir it frequently, till it has risen up to the top in boiling; then set it a little farther from the fire, and boil it gently for ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour; after which pour in a tea-cup of cold water, and put it in the corner to settle for ten minutes. Scald your silver or china pot, and transfer the coffee to it; carefully pouring it off from the grounds, so as not to disturb them.

If coffee is allowed to boil too long, it will lose much of its strength, and also become sour.

FRENCH COFFEE.--To make coffee without boiling, you must have a biggin, the best sort of which is what in France is called a Grecque. They are to be had of various sizes and prices at the tin stores. Coffee made in this manner is much less troublesome than when boiled, and requires no white of egg or isinglass to clear it. The coffee should be freshly roasted and ground. Allow two cupfuls of ground coffee to six cupfuls of boiling water. Having first scalded the biggin, (which should have strainers of perforated tin, and not of linen,) put in the coffee, and pour on the water, which should be boiling hard at the time. Shut down the lid, place the pot near the fire, and the coffee will be ready as soon as it has all drained through the coarse and fine strainers into the receiver below the spout. Scald your china or silver pot, and pour the coffee into it. But it is best to have a biggin in the form of an urn, in which the coffee can both be made and brought to table.

For what is called milk coffee,--boil the milk or cream separately; bring it to table in a covered vessel, and pour it hot into the coffee, the flavour of which will be impaired if the milk is boiled with it.

DOMESTIC LIQUORS ETC.

SPRUCE BEER.

Put into a large kettle, ten gallons of water, a quarter of a pound of hops, and a tea-cupful of ginger. Boil them together till all the hops sink to the bottom. Then dip out a bucket full of the liquor, and stir into it six quarts of molasses, and three ounces and a half of the essence of spruce. When all is dissolved, mix it with the liquor in the kettle; strain it through a hair sieve into a cask; and stir well into it half a pint of good strong yeast. Let it ferment a day or two; then bung up the cask, and you may bottle the beer the next day. It will be fit for use in a week.

For the essence of spruce, you may substitute two pounds of the outer sprigs of the spruce fir, boiled ten minutes in the liquor.

To make spruce beer for present use, and in a smaller quantity, boil a handful of hops in two gallons and a half of water, till they fall to the bottom. Then strain the water, and when it is lukewarm, stir into it a table-spoonful of ground white ginger; a pint of molasses; a table-spoonful of essence of spruce; and half a pint of yeast. Mix the whole well together in a stone jug, and let it ferment for a day and a half, or two days. Then put it into bottles, with three or four raisins in the bottom of each, to prevent any further fermentation. It will then be fit for immediate use.

GINGER BEER.--Break up a pound and a half of loaf-sugar, and mix with it three ounces of strong white ginger, and the grated peel of two lemons. Put these ingredients into a large stone jar, and pour over them two gallons of boiling water. When it becomes milkwarm strain it, and add the juice of the lemons and two large table-spoonfuls of strong yeast. Make this beer in the evening and let it stand all night. Next morning bottle it in little half pint stone bottles, tying down the corks with twine.

MOLASSES BEER.--To six quarts of water, add two quarts of West India molasses; half a pint of the best brewer's yeast; two table-spoonfuls of ground ginger; and one table-spoonful of cream of tartar. Stir all together. Let it stand twelve hours, and then bottle it, putting three or four raisins into each bottle.

It will be much improved by substituting the juice and grated peel of a large lemon, for one of the spoonfuls of ginger.

Molasses beer keeps good but two or three days.

SASSAFRAS BEER.--Have ready two gallons of soft water; one quart of wheat bran; a large handful of dried apples; half a pint of molasses; a small handful of hops; half a pint of strong fresh yeast, and a piece of sassafras root the size of an egg.

Put all the ingredients (except the molasses and yeast) at once into a large kettle. Boil it till the apples are quite soft. Put the molasses into a small clean tub or a large pan. Set a hair sieve over the vessel, and strain the mixture through it. Let it stand till it becomes only milkwarm, and then stir in the yeast. Put the liquor immediately into the keg or jugs, and let it stand uncorked to ferment. Fill the jugs quite full, that the liquor in fermenting may run over. Set them in a large tub. When you see that the fermentation or working has subsided, cork it, and it will be fit for use next day.

Two large table-spoonfuls of ginger stirred into the molasses will be found an improvement.

If the yeast is stirred in while the liquor is too warm, it will be likely to turn sour.

If the liquor is not put immediately into the jugs, it will not ferment well.

Keep it in a cold place. It will not in warm weather be good more than two days. It is only made for present use.

GOOSEBERRY WINE.

Allow three gallons of soft water (measured after it has boiled an hour) to six gallons of gooseberries, which must be full ripe. Top and tail the gooseberries; put them, a few at a time, into a wooden dish, and with a rolling-pin or beetle break and mash every one; transferring them, as they are done, into a large stone jar. Pour the boiling water upon the mashed gooseberries; cover the jar, and let them stand twelve hours. Then strain and measure the juice, and to each quart allow three-quarters of a pound of loaf-sugar; mix it with the liquid, and let it stand eight or nine hours to dissolve, stirring it several times.

Then pour it into a keg of proper size for containing it, and let it ferment at the bung-hole; filling it up as it works out with some of the liquor reserved for that purpose. As soon as it ceases to hiss, stop it close with a cloth wrapped round the bung. A pint of white brandy for every gallon of the gooseberry wine may be added on bunging it up. At the end of four or five months it will probably be fine enough to bottle off. It is best to bottle it in cold frosty weather. You may refine it by allowing to every gallon of wine the whites of two eggs, beaten to a froth, with a very small tea-spoonful of salt. When the white of egg, &c. is a stiff froth, take out a quart of the wine, and mix them well together. Then pour it into the cask, and in a few days it will be fine and clear. You may begin to use it any time after it is bottled. Put two or three raisins in the bottom of each bottle. They will tend to keep the wine from any farther fermentation.

Fine gooseberry wine has frequently passed for champagne. Keep the bottles in saw-dust, lying on their sides.

CURRANT WINE.--Take four gallons of ripe currants; strip them from the stalks into a great stone jar that has a cover to it, and mash them with a long thick stick. Let them stand twenty-four hours; then put the currants into a large linen bag; wash out the jar, set it under the bag, and squeeze the juice into it. Boil together two gallons and a half of water, and five pounds and a half of the best loaf-sugar, skimming it well. When the scum ceases to rise, mix the syrup with the currant juice. Let it stand a fortnight or three weeks to settle; and then transfer it to another vessel, taking care not to disturb the lees or dregs. If it is not quite clear and bright, refine it by mixing with a quart of the wine, (taken out for the purpose,) the whites of two eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and half an ounce of cream of tartar. Pour this gradually into the vessel. Let it stand ten days, and then bottle it off. Place the bottles in saw-dust, laying them on their sides. Take care that the saw-dust is not from pine wood. The wine will be fit to drink in a year, but is better when three or four years old.

You may add a little brandy to it when you make it; allowing a quart of brandy to six gallons of wine.

RASPBERRY WINE.--Put four gallons of ripe raspberries into a stone jar, and mash them with a round stick. Take four gallons of soft water, (measured after it has boiled an hour,) and strain it warm over the raspberries. Stir it well and let it stand twelve hours. Then strain it through a bag, and to every gallon of liquor put three pounds of loaf-sugar. Set it over a clear fire, and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. When it is cold bottle it. Open the bottles every day for a fortnight, closing them again in a few minutes. Then seal the corks, and lay the bottles on their sides in saw-dust, which must not be from pine wood.