Chapter 10

Make a bowl of punch according to the directions for brandy punch, only a _little_ stronger. To every pint of punch add an ounce of gelatine dissolved in half a pint of water; pour this into the punch while quite hot, and then fill your moulds, taking care not to disturb it until the jelly is completely set. This preparation is a very agreeable refreshment, but should be used in moderation. The strength of the punch is so artfully concealed by its admixture with the gelatine that many persons, particularly of the softer sex, have been tempted to partake so plentifully of it as to render them somewhat unfit for waltzing or quadrilling after supper.

ORANGE SALAD.

This somewhat inappropriately-named dish is made by removing the rind and cutting the fruit in slices crosswise and adding equal quantities of brandy and Madeira, in proportion to the quantity of fruit thus dressed, strewing a liberal allowance of finely-powdered sugar over all.

CRANBERRY JELLY.

Put two quarts of cranberries into a large earthen pipkin, and cover them with water; place them on a moderate fire, and boil them until they are reduced to a soft pulp; then strain and press them through a hair sieve into an earthen or stone ware pan, and for each pint of liquid pulp allow one pound of pulverized sugar; mix the pulp and sugar together in a bright copper basin and boil, stirring constantly for ten or fifteen minutes, or until the mixture begins to coagulate upon the spatula; then remove it from the fire and fill your moulds; let them stand in a cool place to set. When wanted for use, turn it out of the mould in the same manner as other jellies.

JOVE'S NECTAR.

For three gallons, peel the yellow rind from one and a half dozen fresh lemons, very thin, and steep the peelings for forty-eight hours in a gallon of brandy; then add the juice of the lemons, with five quarts of water, three pounds of loaf sugar, and two nutmegs grated; stir it till the sugar is completely dissolved, then pour in three quarts of new milk, _boiling hot_, and let it stand two hours, after which run it through a jelly bag till it is fine. This is fit for immediate use, but may be kept for years in bottles, and will be improved by age.

PLUM, OR BLACK CAKE.

For this Christmas luxury take one pound of butter and one pound of pulverized sugar; beat them together to a cream, stir in one dozen eggs beaten to a froth, beat well together, and add one pound of sifted flour; continue the beating for ten minutes, then add and stir in three pounds of stoned raisins, three pounds of Zante currants, washed, cleaned, and dried, a pound and a half of citron sliced and cut into small pieces, three grated nutmegs, quarter of an ounce of powdered mace, half an ounce of powdered cinnamon, and half a teaspoonful of ground cloves; mix all well together; bake in a well-buttered pan in a slow oven for four hours and a half.

BLACK CAKE (PARKINSON'S OWN).

"If you have lips, prepare to smack them now." --_Shakspeare, slightly altered._

Take one and a half pounds of the best butter, and the same weight of pulverized sugar; beat them together to a cream; stir into this two dozen eggs, beaten to a froth; add one gill of old Jamaica rum; then add one and a half pounds of sifted flour. Stir and beat all well together, and add two pounds of finest bloom raisins, stoned; two pounds of Zante currants, washed, cleaned, and dried; one pound of preserved citron, sliced thinly and cut into small pieces; one pound of preserved French cherries, in halves; one pound of green gages, and one pound of preserved apricots, stoned and cut into small pieces; half a pound of preserved orange and lemon peel, mixed, and cut into small pieces; three grated nutmegs, half an ounce of ground mace, half an ounce of powdered cinnamon, and a quarter ounce of ground cloves. Mix all the ingredients well together, and bake in a well-buttered mould or pan, in a _slow oven_, for five and a half hours.

This cake is vastly improved by age. Those intended for the Christmas festivities should be made at or about the first of October; then put the cake into a round tin box, half an inch larger in diameter than the cake; then pour over it a bottle of the best brandy mixed with half a pint of pure lemon, raspberry, strawberry, or simple sirup, and one or more bottles of champagne. Now put on the lid of the box, and have it carefully soldered on, so as to make all perfectly air-tight. Put it away in your store-room, and let stand till Christmas, only reversing the box occasionally, in order that the liquors may permeate the cake thoroughly.

This heroic treatment causes the ingredients to amalgamate, and the flavors to harmonize and blend more freely; and when, on Christmas day, you bring out this hermit, after doing a three months' penance in a dark cell, it will come out rich, succulent, and unctuous; you will not only have a luxury, "fit to set before a king," or before the Empress of India, but fit to crown a feast of the very gods themselves, on high Olympus' top.

POTATOES (PARKINSON STYLE).

Take two or three fine white potatoes, raw; peel and chop them up _very, very fine_. Then chop up just as fine the breast of a good-sized boiled fowl; they should be chopped as fine as unboiled rice; mix the meat and the potatoes together, and dust a _very little_ flour over them and a pinch or two of salt. Now put an ounce or so of the best butter into a frying pan, and when it is hot, put in the mixture, and stir constantly with a wooden spatula until they are fried to a nice golden color, then immediately serve on a hot plate.

Cold boiled ham grated fine, or boiled beef tongue chopped very fine, may be used instead of chicken, omitting the salt. A dozen or two of prime oysters, parboiled, drained, and chopped fine, mixed with the potatoes prepared as above, and fried, makes a most delicious lunch or supper dish. Try any of the above styles, and say no, if you can.

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THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY COMET.

Professor Hind, of the British Nautical Almanac Office, recently sent an interesting letter to the London _Times_ on the comet depicted in that famous piece of embroidery known as the Bayeux Tapestry. Probably no one of the great comets recorded in history has occasioned a more profound impression upon mankind in the superstitious ages than the celebrated body which appeared in the spring of the year 1066, and was regarded as the precursor of the invasion of England by William the Norman. As Pingre, the eminent cometographer, remarks, it forms the subject of an infinite number of relations in the European chronicles. The comet was first seen in China on April 2, 1066. It appeared in England about Easter Sunday, April 16, and disappeared about June 8. Professor Hind finds in ancient British and Chinese records abundant grounds for believing that this visitant was only an earlier appearance of Halley's great comet, and he traces back the appearances of this comet at its several perihelion passages to B.C. 12. The last appearance of Halley's comet was in 1835, and according to Pontecoulant's calculations, its next perihelion passage will take place May 24, 1910.

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LACK OF SUN LIGHT.

Some interesting information as to the way in which the human system is affected under the peculiar conditions of work in mines has been furnished by M. Fabre, from experiences connected with the coal mines of France. He finds that the deprivation of solar light causes a diminution in the pigment of the skin, and absence of sunburning, but there is no globular anæmia--that is, diminution in the number of globules in the blood. Internal maladies seem to be more rare. While there is no essential anæmia in the miners, the blood globules are often found smaller and paler than in normal conditions of life, this being due to respiration of noxious gases, especially where ventilation is difficult. The men who breathe too much the gases liberated on explosion of powder or dynamite suffer more than other miners from affections of the larynx, the bronchia, and the stomach. Ventilation sometimes works injury by its cooling effect.

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SYNTHETIC EXPERIMENTS ON THE ARTIFICIAL REPRODUCTION OF METEORITES.

By means of igneous fusion the authors have succeeded in reproducing two types of crystalline associations, which, in their mineralogical composition and the principal features of their structure, are analogous, if not identical with certain oligosideric meteorites. The only notable difference results from the habitual brecchoid state of the meteorites, which contrasts with state of quiet solidification of the artificial compounds.--_F. Fouqué and Michel Lévy._

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