Part 18

NECTAR.--Take a pound of the best raisins, seeded and chopped; four lemons, sliced thin, and the yellow rind pared off from two other lemons; and two pounds of powdered loaf-sugar. Put into a porcelain preserving-kettle two gallons of water. Set it over the fire, and boil it half an hour. Then, while the water is boiling hard, put in the raisins, lemons, and sugar; and continue the boiling for ten minutes. Pour the mixture into a vessel with a close cover, and let it stand four days; stirring it twice a-day. Then strain it through a linen bag, and bottle it. It will be fit for use in a fortnight. Drink it from wine-glasses, with a small bit of ice in each.

MINT JULEP.--Put into the bottom of a tumbler, about a dozen sprigs of young and tender mint. Upon them place a large tea-spoonful of fine white sugar; and then pour on peach-brandy, so as to reach nearly one-third the height of the tumbler. Fill up with ice, pounded fine; and lay on the top a thin slice of pine-apple, cut across into four pieces. As an ornament, stick into the centre a handsome cluster of mint-sprigs, so as to rise far above the edge of the tumbler. It will be the better for standing awhile, in a vessel of finely-broken ice.

VANILLA SYRUP.--Put four or five vanilla beans into a very small, clean sauce-pan, with half a pint of boiling water. Set it over the fire, (closely covered,) and boil it, till the flavour of the vanilla is thoroughly extracted, and the water tastes of it very strongly. Then take out the vanilla, and strain the liquid. Break up three pounds of the best double-refined loaf-sugar, and put it into a preserving-kettle, with a quart of hot water. When thoroughly melted, set it on the fire, and boil and skim it well; till the whole is reduced to nearly a quart. Then stir in the vanilla liquid, and let it boil five or six minutes longer. After taking it from the fire, pour it into a pitcher, till it is cool enough to transfer to small bottles. Then cork it tightly, and seal the corks.

It will be found excellent for flavouring custards, creams, &c., or to mix with ice-water, for a summer beverage.

The extract will be stronger if the vanilla beans are split and cut into pieces before boiling, and tied up in a very thin muslin bag.

ORANGE MILK.--Take two dozen large ripe oranges. Cut them in two; remove the seeds; and squeeze the juice into a very large and clean _stone_ jar. Never use earthen-ware, to hold any thing acid, as the lead glazing may produce the most deleterious effects. Have ready four pounds of the finest loaf-sugar, dissolved in a gallon of the best rum or brandy. Pour it into the jar that contains the orange-juice; stir the mixture well; and add the yellow rind of the oranges, cut into little slips. Cover the jar, and let it stand four days; stirring it frequently. Then take a gallon of new, unskimmed milk, (the morning’s milk of that day,) boil it, and, when it has come to a hard boil, pour it, hot, into the mixture. Cover it closely, and let it stand till it gets quite cold. Then strain it into another vessel, through a linen jelly-bag. Bottle it immediately, and seal the corks. It improves by keeping, and will continue good for many years.

To use it, mix a sufficient quantity, in a tumbler, with ice-water; or take it, undiluted, in a small cordial glass.

ORANGE SYRUP.--Take large fine ripe oranges, with smooth thin rinds, and roll each orange under your hand upon the table to increase the juice. Set a very clean sieve upon a large bowl, and cut the oranges over it; first halving them, and then notching each half to let out as much juice as possible when squeezing them. Press them with all your strength in a wooden squeezer, letting the juice drain through the sieve into the bowl. To each pint of juice allow a pound and a half (a quart and a pint) of the best double-refined loaf-sugar broken up. Put the sugar into a preserving-kettle; pour the juice upon it; cover it, and let it stand till all the sugar is quite soft, and can be easily mixed with the juice. Next set the kettle over a moderate fire that has no blaze or smoke, and boil it slowly; skimming it carefully till the scum ceases to rise. Then take it off, remove the syrup from the kettle, and when it is milk-warm, put it into very clean bottles, (new ones will be best,) cork them tightly, and seal the corks. Keep it in a dry, cool place. It is very fine for flavouring cakes, puddings, sweet sauces, &c. Or for mixing with ice-water as a pleasant beverage. Also for ice-cream or water-ice, when oranges are not to be had. Or for mixing with powdered sugar to make the confection called orange-drops. Some persons, to increase the strength of orange syrup, add the yellow rind of the oranges grated on lumps of the sugar. This will do very well if the syrup is to be used up soon. But by long keeping, the peel will give it a very disagreeable taste and odour, resembling turpentine; unfitting it for all purposes.

Lemon syrup may be made as above. To _this_ the addition of the yellow rind of the lemons grated on sugar will be an improvement; as lemon rind never acquires a turpentine taste.

IMITATION LEMON SYRUP.--Break up twelve pounds of the best double-refined loaf-sugar. Put it into a preserving-kettle, and pour on it a gallon of very clear soft water. When it has dissolved set it over a moderate fire, and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. Then take it off, and stir in immediately, while the syrup is hot, six large tea-spoonfuls of the best oil of lemon, and a quarter of an ounce of tartaric acid. When cold, bottle the liquid, and cork it tightly. The bottles for this purpose should either be quite new, or such as have been used before for lemon syrup. Mixed with ice-water it is a wholesome and refreshing beverage, and if you stir into a half tumbler of the mixture a half tea-spoonful, or more, of carbonate of soda, it will foam up, and be just like the soda-water you buy in the shops at six cents per glass.

The above is the lemon syrup generally used for this purpose by the druggists and confectioners.

CARBONATED SYRUP WATER.--Put into a tumbler lemon, raspberry, strawberry, pine-apple, or any other _acid_ syrup, sufficient in quantity to flavour the beverage very highly. Then pour in _very cold ice-water_ till the glass is half full. Add _half_ a tea-spoonful of bi-carbonate of soda, (to be obtained at the druggists’,) and stir it well in with a tea-spoon. It will foam up to the top immediately, and must be drank during the effervescence.

By keeping the syrup, and the carbonate of soda in the house, and mixing them as above with ice-water, you can at any time have a glass of this very pleasant drink; precisely similar to that which you get at the shops. The cost will be infinitely less.

FINE RASPBERRY CORDIAL.--Fill a large stone jar with ripe raspberries. Cover the jar closely, and let it stand in a corner of the hearth near the fire, or on the top of a stove, till the fruit is heated so as to break. Then put the raspberries into a linen bag, and squeeze the juice into a pan beneath. Measure the juice, and to every quart allow a pound of loaf-sugar, broken very small. Do not use the white sugar that is sold ready-powdered; it is generally so adulterated with pulverized starch, as to be unfit for any thing that is to be set away for keeping. Put the juice and sugar (well mixed) into a preserving-kettle. Give it a boil, and skim it well. When it has come to a boil, and the scum has ceased to appear, take off the kettle; measure the liquid; and pour it carefully into a large vessel; allowing an equal quantity of the best French brandy. Stir it well, and when cold, put it into a demijohn, or a large stone jug, and cork it tightly. Let it stand undisturbed a fortnight; then, if it is not perfectly clear, filter it through blotting-paper pinned inside the bottom of a sieve. Bottle it, and seal the corks. Instead of brandy, you may use the best Jamaica spirits.

Currant or cherry cordial may be made in the above manner: first stoning all the cherries, which should be fully ripe, and of the largest and best kind; either red or black, or a mixture of both. The flavour will be much improved by cracking the stones, and putting them into the demijohn before you pour on the liquid.

Peach cordial, also, may be made as above. The peaches should be fine, ripe, juicy free-stones; cut in pieces, and the stones removed. Afterwards, crack the stones, and put the kernels (broken up) into the bottom of the demijohn, to infuse with the liquid.

FINE RASPBERRY VINEGAR.--Put a sufficient quantity of ripe raspberries into a large wooden or stone vessel, and pour on as much of the best _genuine_ white wine vinegar as will cover them well. Cover the vessel, and let it stand undisturbed during twenty-four hours; or longer, if the juice is not entirely extracted; when it is, the raspberries will look whitish and shrunk. You must, on no account, bruise or stir them. Then strain the whole liquid through a large hair sieve placed over a broad stone pan. Let the juice run through of itself, without any mashing or squeezing. The least pressing will cause the liquid, when finished, to look cloudy and dull. Have ready, in another vessel, the same quantity of fresh raspberries that you put in at first; and pour the strained liquid over them. Cover it, and let it again stand undisturbed for twenty-four hours or more. Then again pass it through a sieve, without any squeezing. A third time pour the liquid over the original quantity of fresh raspberries in another vessel, and let it stand untouched during twenty-four hours. Afterwards measure the liquid, and to every pint allow a pound of the best double-refined loaf-sugar, broken small. Put the whole into a large preserving-kettle, and boil and skim it about twenty minutes. Then pour it into a clean stone vessel, and set it to cool. Cover it, and let it stand all night. Next day, transfer it to bottles, which must be perfectly dry and clean. Cork them closely, and seal the corks. It will keep for years if made exactly according to the above directions.

To use it as a beverage, put a large wine-glass of the raspberry vinegar into a tumbler, and fill it up with ice-water. Mixed with hot water, and drank as warm as possible immediately on going to bed, it is an excellent palliative for a cold; and, by producing a perspiration, will sometimes effect a cure.

FRENCH RASPBERRY VINEGAR.--Take a sufficiency of fine ripe raspberries. Put them into a deep pan, and mash them with a wooden beetle. Then pour them, with all their juice, into a large linen bag, and squeeze and press out the liquid into a vessel beneath. Measure it; and to each quart of the raspberry-juice allow a pound of powdered white sugar, and a pint of the best cider vinegar. First mix together the juice and the vinegar, and give them a boil in a preserving-kettle. When they have boiled well, add gradually the sugar, with a beaten white of egg to every two pounds; and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. When done, put it into clean bottles, and cork them tightly. It is a very pleasant and cooling beverage in warm weather, and for invalids who are feverish. To use it, pour out half a tumbler of raspberry vinegar, and fill it up with ice-water.

It is a good palliative for a cold, mixed with hot water, and taken as hot as possible immediately on going to bed, so as to produce perspiration.

GOOD VINEGAR.--Take five gallons of soft, clear water, two quarts of whisky, two quarts of the best West India molasses, and half a pint of the best fresh yeast. Lay a sheet of white foolscap paper at the bottom of a very clean keg, and pour in the mixture. Place it in the sun the first warm weather at the close of May, or beginning of June. In six weeks it will be fit for use. Put in the bung loosely, and do not stop it tight till the fermentation is over. If you make it in winter, keep it in a place where there is a stove or furnace.

Much of the vinegar that is offered for sale is excessively and disagreeably sharp; overpowering the taste of every thing with which it is combined. This vinegar is deleterious in its effects, and should never be used; it is made entirely of drugs. Oysters and pickled vegetables have been entirely destroyed or eaten up by it in a few hours, so that nothing was left but a whitish liquid. To avoid all risk from the unwholesome vinegar offered for sale, families would do well to make their own. A keg of hard cider kept in a warm kitchen in winter, and exposed to the hot sun in summer, will become excellent vinegar.

COMMON MOLASSES VINEGAR.--Mix together a gallon of West India molasses, and four gallons of lukewarm water. Pour it into a clean five-gallon cask, and place it in the chimney-corner; standing the cask on end, and leaving the bung out. To give it, occasionally, some additional heat, set the cask in the mouth of the oven on baking-days, after the bread is drawn, and let it remain while the oven continues warm. In three months it will be excellent and wholesome vinegar, at a very trifling cost,--only that of the gallon of molasses. When the liquid is sufficiently acid, stop the bung-hole closely, and remove the cask to a cool place. In summer, you may make this vinegar by letting the cask stand three or four months exposed to the hot sun; taking care to cover the bung-hole in damp or rainy weather.

APPLE-WATER.--Take three large, juicy pippin apples; pare, core, and cut them into very thin slices. Put them into a pitcher, (the yellow rind of a lemon, pared thin, will be an improvement,) and pour on a pint of boiling water. Cover the pitcher closely, and let it stand four hours. Then pour the liquid into a glass, and sweeten it with loaf-sugar.

This is a cooling drink in a fever.

TOAST-WATER.--Take _thin_ slices of wheat bread, and toast it very brown on both sides, but do not let it burn or blacken. Put the toast into a pitcher that has straining holes at the spout, and pour over it, from a tea-kettle, as much boiling water as you wish to make into drink. The water must be actually boiling at the time. Cover the pitcher, and let it stand till the water is cold. Then pour it off into a decanter. Made in this way, toast-water is very wholesome and refreshing, and is frequently drank at table by persons in health, as well as by invalids.

AN EXCELLENT WAY OF MAKING COFFEE.--For this purpose you should have a percolator, or coffee-pot with strainers inside. The coffee will be much stronger and better, if roasted and ground just before it is put in the pot. There are no coffee-roasters so good as those of sheet-iron, made somewhat in the form of a large long candle-box; standing before the fire on feet; and turned round by a handle, so as to give all the coffee that is inside an equal chance of heat. When about half done, put among the coffee a piece of fresh butter. It should be roasted evenly throughout, of a fine brown colour, and not allowed to blacken or burn. Grind it while warm; and put into the percolator a sufficient quantity of coffee, placing it _between_ the two strainers. Then (having stopped up the spout) pour into the upper strainer a due proportion of _cold_ water; allowing a quart of water to half a pint or more of ground coffee. Cold water is now found to make a stronger infusion than hot water, as there is less evaporation, and none of the strength of the coffee is carried off in steam. As soon as the water is all in, put on the lid closely, and set away the pot. It is well to put the coffee to infuse over night, if wanted for breakfast; and in the morning, if required for evening. But, when necessary, it may be done in a much shorter time. A little before the coffee is to go to table, lift off the upper half of the percolator, (the part that contains the strainers,) transfer the lid to the lower part; set the pot over the fire, and give it one boil up--not more. As soon as it has come to a boil it is ready for drinking; being already strained, and drawn. It will be found clear, strong, and in all respects superior to that prepared in any other manner. A short boil is sufficient to take off all taste of rawness. Long boiling weakens coffee, and frequently turns it sour.

The above method will, we are confident, be highly approved on trial. Also, it saves the expense of isinglass, white of egg, and other articles generally used in clearing coffee. Percolators for making coffee in this manner, can be obtained of all sizes at the large tin manufactory of Messrs. Williams & Co., 276 Market street, between Seventh and Eighth streets, Philadelphia.

A china or metal coffee-pot should always be scalded twice before coffee is transferred to it, from the vessel in which it has been made.

COCOA.--The cocoa which is put up solid in close packages, and usually sold at a shilling a paper, is far superior to the chocolate that is manufactured into squares or cakes, and which is too frequently adulterated with lard and meal. Baker’s prepared cocoa is excellent. When you intend having it for drinking, shave down, or cut fine a sufficient quantity of the cocoa; allowing about half the contents of a paper to a quart of water, if you wish it very strong, and three pints of water for moderate strength. Then put the cocoa into a clean sauce-pan or a tin pot with a spout. Measure the water from a kettle that is boiling hard at the time; and when you have the proper quantity pour it scalding hot on the cocoa. Cover it closely; place it over the fire; and let it boil till it is all dissolved into the same consistence, and quite smooth, and free from the smallest lumps. While boiling, you must several times take off the lid, and with a spoon stir the cocoa down to the bottom. Then transfer it to your chocolate pot, which must be twice scalded with boiling water. Send it to table as hot as possible, adding milk and sugar to the cups when poured out. Eat with it dry toast; _unbuttered_ rolls; milk-biscuit; or sponge-cake.

TO KEEP ORANGE-JUICE.--The oranges must be large and ripe. To increase the quantity of juice, roll each orange under your hand on a table, or with your foot upon a clean hearth-stone. Then cut them in half, and score each half with four deep notches, so that when squeezed the juice may run out more freely. Squeeze them through a strainer into a large bowl. To each pint of juice allow a pound of the best loaf-sugar, broken small. Cover the bowl, and let it stand undisturbed all night. In the morning remove all the scum that has risen to the surface, and pour the liquid through a funnel into clean, well-dried pint bottles; into each of which you have previously put a table-spoonful of the best white brandy. Cork each bottle tightly, and tie down a thin wet leather closely over each cork. Keep the bottles in a dry place. You will find this preparation excellent for flavouring, when fresh oranges are not to be had.

Lemon-juice may be kept in the same manner, for flavouring or for punch.

TO PRESERVE LEMON-JUICE FOR A VOYAGE.--Select only the best and freshest lemons. One that is in the least tainted will spoil the whole. Roll every lemon under your hand upon a table to increase the juice. Then squeeze them well through a strainer. To every quart of juice add an ounce of cream of tartar. Let it stand three days, (stirring it frequently,) and then filter it through thin muslin pinned tightly on the bottom of a sieve. Put it into pint-bottles; filling up the neck of each bottle with a little of the best olive oil. The corks must be put in very tightly, and then sealed. When you open a bottle, avoid shaking it; and carefully pour off the olive oil that is on the top of the lemon-juice.

FINE MEAD.--Beat to a strong froth the whites of three eggs, and mix them with six gallons of water; sixteen quarts of strained honey; and the yellow rind of two dozen large lemons, pared very thin. Boil all together, during three-quarters of an hour; skimming it well. Then put it into a tub; and when lukewarm, add three table-spoonfuls of the best fresh yeast. Cover it, and leave it to ferment. When it has done working, transfer it to a barrel, with the lemon-peel in the bottom. Let it stand six months. Then bottle it.

TO KEEP CIDER SWEET.--When barreling the cider, put into each barrel or keg a jill (eight large table-spoonfuls) of white mustard-seed. This will retard its becoming hard or sour.

TO MAKE BOTTLED CIDER VERY BRISK.--When you are bottling the cider, put a large raisin into the bottom of each bottle before you pour in the cider. Then cork it tightly.

In bottling spruce or molasses beer put in also a raisin.

TO KEEP ORANGES AND LEMONS.--Take a sufficiency of fine sand, and make it very dry by exposing it to the heat of the sun or the fire, stirring it frequently. Afterwards let it become quite cold, and then put a quantity of it in a close box or barrel. Bury your oranges (which must all be perfectly good) in this sand; placing them so as not to touch each other, and with the stem-end downwards. At the top put a thick layer of sand quite two inches deep. Cover the box closely, and keep it in a cool place.

TO KEEP GRAPES.--See that there are no imperfect grapes on any of the bunches. They must not be too ripe. Put in the bottom of a keg a layer of bran that has been dried in the sun, or in an oven, and afterwards become quite cold. Upon the bran, place a layer of grapes with bran between the bunches so that they may not touch each other. Proceed thus with alternate layers of bran and grapes till the keg is full; seeing that the last is a thick layer of bran. Then close the keg, nailing on the head so that no air can penetrate.

Grapes may also be packed in fine wood-ashes that has been well sifted.

TO KEEP APPLES.--Wipe every apple dry with a cloth, and see that no blemished ones are left among them. Have ready a very dry tight barrel, and cover the bottom with dry pebbles. These will attract the damp of the apples. Then put in the fruit; head up the barrel; and plaster the seams with mortar, taking care to have a thick rim of mortar all round the top. Let the barrel remain undisturbed in the same place till you want the apples for use. Pippins, bell-flowers, or other apples of the best sorts, may be kept in this way till July.

TO KEEP CARROTS, PARSNIPS, BEETS, AND SWEET POTATOES.--These should all be housed before the first frost. Range them side by side, and bury them in dry sand; a bed of sand at the bottom; another between each layer of the vegetables, and a thick sand covering for the whole. When wanted for use, begin at one end, and draw them out in regular order, and not out of the middle till you come to it.

TO KEEP FRESH BUTTER FOR FRYING, STEWING, &c.--Take several pounds of the _very best_ fresh butter. Cut it up in a large tin sauce-pan, or in any clean cooking vessel lined with tin. Set it over the fire, and boil and skim it during half an hour. Then pour it off, carefully, through a funnel into a stone jar, and cover it closely with a bladder or leather tied down over the lid. The butter having thus been separated from the salt and sediment, (which will be found remaining at the bottom of the boiling-vessel,) if kept closely covered and set in a cool place, will continue good for a year, and be found excellent for frying, and stewing, and other culinary purposes. Prepare it thus in May or June, and you may use it in winter, if living in a place where fresh butter is not to be obtained in cold weather. Try it.