Part 35

(_b_) Pare 18 lemons very thin, infuse the peel in 1 qt. rum, and keep closely covered. The next day squeeze the juice of the 18 lemons over 4 lb. white sugar, and keep this also closely covered. The third day mix the above ingredients together, and add 3 qt. more rum (or 1 qt. rum and 2 qt. best cognac, which is preferred by some), and 5 qt. water that has been boiled, but is cold when added, also 2 qt. boiling milk; stir the whole mixture for about 10 minutes, cover close, and let it stand for about 3 hours, until quite cold; strain through a flannel bag 2 or 3 times, till quite clear. In bottling, care should be taken that the corks fit tight, and it will keep 3 or 4 years.

(_c_) The following is a celebrated Cambridge recipe for milk punch:--Beat up 4 new-laid eggs in the bowl in which you intend sending the punch to table; then add the following ingredients (recollecting always to put in the noyeau first), ½ pint noyeau, of rum, and of brandy, and then ½ pint noyeau, rum, and brandy mixed in equal proportions. Have 2 qt. milk boiling, to which add ½ teacup sugar, and then pour it on to the spirit, putting a little nutmeg grated on the top.

_Molasses Beer._--1 lb. brown sugar, 1 oz. bruised ginger, 1 lb. molasses, ½ oz. hops. Boil for a few minutes with 3 qt. water; strain and add 5 qt. water and a spoonful of yeast; let this work all night, and bottle in the morning.

_Moselle Cup._--(_a_) To 1 bot. still or sparkling Moselle add 1 bot. soda-water, 1 glass sherry or brandy, 4 or 5 thin slices of pineapple, the peel of half a lemon cut very thin, and powdered sugar according to taste; let the whole stand about 1 hour, and before serving add some lumps of clear ice.

(_b_) As (_a_), except the pineapple, for which substitute 1 pint fresh strawberries, or 3 or 4 peaches or nectarines.

(_c_) As (_a_), but add, instead of fruit, some sprigs of woodruff. Woodruff is a herb much used on the Rhine for making May drink, its peculiar flavour being most powerful in May; it is to be found in forests in many parts of England also.

(_d_) When neither fruit nor woodruff can be obtained, add, instead of sherry or brandy, a glass or two of milk punch or essence of punch, and a little more of the lemon peel.

_Mulled Ale._--To 1 qt. strong ale add 1 large wineglass gin or whisky. Pour it into a clean saucepan, and put it on a brisk fire until it creams, adding at the same time brown sugar, grated ginger, and nutmeg to taste; add cold ale until the whole is lukewarm. Serve in a brown earthenware two-handled cup, adding a thick piece of toasted bread. The toasted bread is covered with brown sugar, and eaten with toasted cheese.

_Nectar._--Citric acid, 1 dr.; potash bicarbonate, 1 scr.; White sugar, 1 oz. Fill a soda-water bottle nearly full of water; drop in the potash and sugar, and finally the crystals of citric acid. Quickly cork the bottle and shake. The crystals being dissolved, the nectar is fit for use.

_Nettle Beer._--1 peck green nettles, 1 handful dandelion, 1 oz. ginger, 1 oz. yeast, 1 handful coltsfoot, 2 lb. brown sugar, 1 oz. cream tartar, 3 gal. boiling water. Infuse the herbs in the boiling water, and when cold strain the liquor. In it dissolve the cream of tartar and the sugar, adding the yeast and bruised ginger. Let the whole work about 12 hours, skim the liquor carefully, and put into champagne bottles. Close tightly with good corks softened in boiling water, and tie the corks down. After a few days the beer is ready for use.

_Nettle Wine._--Boil 25 lb. best loaf sugar with 10 gal. river or rain water, and the whites of 8 eggs well beaten, 1 hour, skimming well; pour the hot liquor upon 5 pecks young tops of nettles previously bruised a little, and cover the vessel close with cloths. When at a proper temperature work it with 8 tablespoonfuls of good yeast, stirring well 3 days; then strain the liquor into the cask upon 8 oz. cream of tartar, 4 lb. Malaga raisins stoned, the rinds of 8 lemons pared very thin, and 6 oz. white sugar candy broken; leave out the bung, keeping the cask quite full until fermentation has ceased. Add 3 pints white French brandy, stop up the cask securely, and keep it in a cool cellar 10 months; bottle it, wire and seal the corks, and in 6 months it will be excellent.

_Oatmeal Drink._--Mix ½ lb. oatmeal with 5 gal. cold water, boil it for ½ hour, and strain it through a rather coarse gravy strainer; add brown sugar to taste while hot. It is very much improved by the addition of ½ oz. citric acid or 1 oz. tartaric acid. The thinly-cut rind of 2 or 3 lemons or oranges may be boiled in it; or a still cheaper flavouring is to add, before boiling, a bit of cinnamon stick or a few cloves. To be served cold.

_Orange Wine._--The oranges must be perfectly ripe. Peel them and cut them in halves, crossways of the cells; squeeze into a tub. The press used must be so close that the seeds cannot pass into the must. Add 2 lb. white sugar to each gallon of sour orange juice, or 1 lb. each gallon of sweet orange juice, and 1 qt. water to each gallon of the mixed sugar and juice. Close fermentation is necessary. The resultant wine is amber-coloured, and tastes like dry hock, with the orange aroma. Vinegar can be made from the refuse, and extract from the peels.

_Oxford Grace Cup._--Extract juice from peeling of a lemon, and cut the remainder into thin slices; put it into a jug or bowl, and pour on it 1½ pints strong beer, and a bottle of sherry; grate a nutmeg into it; sweeten it to taste; stir till the sugar is dissolved, and then add 3 or 4 slices bread toasted brown. Let stand 2 hours and strain off.

_Oxford Mull._--Boil a small quantity of cinnamon, cloves, and mace in ½ pint water; pour into it a bottle of port wine, and when it is nearly boiling add 2 lemons thinly sliced; sweeten it to taste.

_Oxford Punch._--Extract the juice from the rind of 3 lemons by rubbing loaf sugar on them; the peeling of 2 Seville oranges and 2 lemons cut very thin, the juice of 4 Seville oranges and 10 lemons, 6 glasses of calves’-foot jelly in a liquid state: put into a jug and stir well together. Pour 2 qt. boiling water on the mixture, cover the jug closely, and place it near the fire for ¼ hour, then strain the liquid through a sieve into a punch-bowl or jug, sweeten it with a bottle of capillaire, and add ½ pint white wine, 1 pint French brandy, 1 pint Jamaica rum, and 1 bot. orange shrub. The mixture to be stirred as the spirits are poured in. If not sufficiently sweet, add loaf sugar, gradually, in small quantities, or a spoonful of capillaire. To be served hot or cold.

_Parsnip Wine._--May be made by infusing 5 or 6 lb. of the chopped stem in 1 gal. hot water till cold; strain, and add to each gallon of the infusion 3 or 4 lb. white sugar, 1 oz. cream of tartar, and about 2 to 5 per cent. brandy. When well made and strong, this wine is of rich and excellent quality, especially after fermentation.

_Parting Cup._--Put 2 or 3 slices of very brown toast in a bowl; grate over the same a little nutmeg; then pour in 1 qt. ale (mild preferable), and ⅔ bot. sherry; sweeten with syrup, and (immediately before drinking) add 1 bot. soda water; a little clove or cinnamon may be added, if approved of.

_Primrose Wine._--Pick the flowers of fresh-gathered primroses from the stalks, and put 3 pecks of them and 1 peck cowslip pips into a clean vessel; boil 30 lb. good loaf sugar with 2 oz. best ginger bruised, and 10 gal. of river or rain water, ¾ hour, skimming it well; then add the whites of 10 eggs well beaten, boiling and skimming until it is perfectly clear; pour this boiling hot upon the flowers, stir well 10 minutes, and cover the vessel up closely for 3 days, adding 6 lb. Smyrna raisins cut small, and stoned, the juice of 10 lemons, and their rinds pared off very thin; let them infuse, stirring well twice daily, and on the fourth day warm the liquor, and work it at the proper temperature with ½ pint good yeast; when it has fermented 3 days, strain well, and filter into the cask; cover the bung-hole with a tile, keep the cask full, and let it work out; when it has ceased fermenting, pour in 3 pints white French brandy and 1 oz. best isinglass dissolved in 1 qt. of the wine; stop up the cask, put sand on the bung, and keep it in a cool cellar 12 months; bottle it, and in 6 months more it will be ready.

_Punch._--(_a_) Take the juice and thin rind of 1 lemon, juice of 2 sweet oranges, taking out the pips; pour on these 3 pints boiling water; add ½ lb. loaf sugar, and when the sugar is dissolved, add ½ pint old Jamaica rum, and ½ pint cognac. Let stand for 6 hours, and bottle.

(_b_) Rub ¼ lb. white lump sugar over 1 large lemon until it has absorbed all the yellow part of the skin; then put the sugar into your bowl, add the juice of the same lemon, and mix well together. Pour over them 1 pint boiling water, stirring well together; then add ½ pint rum, ½ pint brandy, and ½ teaspoonful nutmeg; again mix well together, and it is ready to serve. Great care should be taken that the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.

(_c_) ½ pint rum, ½ pint brandy, ½ pint stout (made hot), 1 quartern of cloves, 1 quartern of shrub, 1 lemon sliced, and the juice of one, ¼ lb. loaf sugar, 1 qt. boiling water.

(_d_) 1 bot. rum, 1 of sherry, 1 pint brandy, the juice of 3 lemons and 3 Seville oranges, 1½ lb. lump sugar; rub the rinds of the lemon and oranges with some of the sugar; add 1 qt. new milk to these ingredients, not quite boiling. Let stand 24 hours covered close, strain through a jelly bag, and bottle close. It will keep many years.

_Raisin Wine._--Pick the raisins from their stalks, and put them into a tub with 1 gal. spring water (which has been boiled and allowed to cool) to every 8 lb. fruit; stir it thoroughly every day, then strain it into a cask, and leave it until the fermentation has ceased; add a bottle of brandy, bung up the barrel tight, and leave it for 12 months. Then strain it again into a clean cask. It may be bottled after standing 2 years.

_Rhenish Cup._--(_a_) Take with 1 bot. light hock about 1 doz. sprigs of woodruff, ¼ orange cut in small slices, and about 2 oz. powdered sugar. The herbs are to be removed after having been in the wine ½ hour or longer, according to taste. A bottle of sparkling wine, added to 4 or 5 bot. still hock, is a great improvement. A little ice is recommended.

(_b_) Instead of woodruff and orange, take to each bottle of hock about ½ pint highly flavoured strawberries. Sugar as above. The fruit to be taken with the wine after having been in it about 1 hour.

(_c_) Take some thin slices of pineapple instead of the strawberries.

(_d_) Take to each bottle of hock 2 highly flavoured peaches, peeled and cut in slices. Sugar as above.

_Rhubarb Wine._--(_a_) The rhubarb must be quite ripe; to 1 gal. rain-water, boiling, cut 8 lb. rhubarb into thin slices, put into pan or tub, cover close with a thick cloth or blanket, and stir 3 times a day for a week; then strain through a cloth, and add 4 lb. loaf sugar, the juice of 2 lemons and the rind of 1. To fine it, take 1 oz. isinglass and 1 pint of the liquor, and melt it over the fire; be sure you do not add it to the rest of the liquor till quite cold; then cask it. When the fermentation is over, bung it down. Bottle in March, and the following June it will be fit for use.

(_b_) To every 5 lb. rhubarb stalks, when sliced and bruised, put 1 gal. cold spring water; let stand 3 days, stir 2 or 3 times every day, then press and strain through a sieve, and to 1 gal. liquor put 30½ lb. loaf sugar, stir it well, and when melted barrel it; when it has done working, bung it up close, first suspending a muslin bag with isinglass from the bung into the barrel (say 2 oz. for 15 gal). In 6 months bottle it and wire the bottles; let them stand up for the first month, then lay 4 or 5 down lengthwise for a week, and if none burst all may be laid down. Should a large quantity be made it must remain longer in cask.

(_c_) Take 18 lb. rhubarb, cut it into small pieces, put them with 20 gal. soft water in a copper, and boil till soft; then strain through a sieve, add 5 or 6 handfuls balm, fresh or dried. To 1 gal. liquor put 3 lb. lump sugar and ½ lb. Malaga raisins, chopped; when lukewarm, put it into the barrel, and in 3 weeks stop it down. In 6 months, bottle. It will be fit to use in 3 months, or it will keep 20 years. You may make it pink colour by adding 1 pint damson juice.

(_d_) In the absence of a press to extract the juice, the stalks are boiled in a common stove boiler, using 2 qt. water to a boilerful of stalks. The stalks are very juicy, and after boiling require no pressing; they are merely left to drain; to 1 gal. juice add 2 lb. sugar, and place in a barrel to ferment; after fermenting, it should be corked tight.

(_e_) Cut up fruit into pieces, 2 in. long; to 1 gal. such add 1 gal. water and 3½ lb. loaf sugar. Fermentation will soon commence; stir up twice daily; when the pulp ceases to rise, wring out 1 qt. at a time in a piece of thin canvas; cork down in stone bottle or cask. Ease the cork for a minute twice daily the first week, as an after fret (fermentation) may occur. Good to drink in about 6 months. To please fancy you may add a little cut up dandelion root (fresh) or a handful of the leaves per gallon: but it must be all put together at commencement. Nearly all other fruits may be treated in the same way.

_Sarsaparilla Beer._--Take of compound syrup of sarsaparilla 1 pint; good pale ale 7 pints; use no yeast.

_Sham Champagne._--1 oz. tartaric acid, 1 oz. ginger root, 2½ gal. water, 1 good-sized lemon, 1½ lb. white sugar, 1 gill yeast. Slice lemon, bruise ginger, and mix all, except the yeast; boil the water and pour on, letting stand till cooled to blood heat. Add the yeast and stand in the sun one day. Bottle at night, tying the corks. In 2 days it may be used.

_Sherry Cobbler._--Procure some clean ice, slice it on an ice plane, or pound it with a hammer, putting the ice into a linen or paper bag; then half fill a tumbler with it, and add 1 or 2 glasses sherry, ½ tablespoonful lemon juice, and 1 spoonful powdered white sugar, more or less according to palate. Imbibe through a straw.

_Smoker’s Drink._--(_a_) In a large tumbler put a coffee-cup of hot (very strong) Mocha coffee, pure, a piece of sugar, according to taste (it ought not to be too sweet), a handsome dash of pure cognac; then fill up with pure cold water, and drink after stirring well up.

(_b_) Lemon and water, with or without sugar.

_Spruce Beer._--(_a_) Take 10 gal. boiling water, 10 lb. sugar, 4 oz. essence of spruce, mix, and when nearly cold add ½ pint yeast. Next day bottle, and tie down as ginger beer.

(_b_) 2 oz. hops, 10 gal. water, 2 oz. chip sassafras. Boil ½ hour, strain and add 7 lb. brown sugar. 1 oz. essence of ginger, 1 oz. essence of spruce, ½ oz. ground pimento. Put into a cask, and cool; add 1½ pints of yeast; let stand 24 hours, and bottle.

_Still Lemonade._--The juice of 3 lemons, the peel of 1, ¼ lb. lump sugar, and 1 qt. cold water. Mix, digest for 5 hours, and strain.

_Sulphuric Orangeade._--3 oz. dilute sulphuric acid, 3 oz. concentrated compound infusion of orange peel, 12 oz. simple syrup, and 4 gal. boiled filtered water. A wineglassful of this mixture is taken as a draught in as much boiled and filtered water as may be agreeable.

_Summer Drinks._--(_a_) Cold tea flavoured with sliced lemon and dashed with cognac. The tea should be properly made--not allowed to stand until it becomes rank, but boiling water should be poured on the leaves, allowed to stand 5 minutes, then poured into a jug with slices of lemon at the bottom. A wineglass of good brandy added when cool.

(_b_) Mix together 2 qt. best bottled cider--old, if possible--sweeten to taste, taking care that the sugar is perfectly melted. Add ½ nutmeg grated, a little powdered ginger, a glass of brandy, a glass of noyeau; cut a lemon into it in moderately thin slices, and let them remain there. Make it 2 hours before wanted, and stand in some ice.

(_c_) Sherry, 6 tablespoonfuls; brandy, 2 tablespoonfuls; sugar, 1½ oz.; 2 or 3 shreds of fresh lemon peel, cut very thin. This is the stock. It will be found convenient, when a quantity is required, to make a syrup of the sugar (1 oz. water to 2 oz. sugar), and to prepare the stock beforehand. The above quantity of stock should be added to 1 bot. claret and 1 bot. soda water. These should be kept in a cool place--a refrigerator, for instance--and only opened just before drinking. A lump of ice and a little borage are improvements; 2 bot. soda water instead of one can be used in summer.

(_d_) To 1½ pint good ale allow 1 bot. ginger beer. For this beverage the ginger beer must be in an effervescing state, and the beer not in the least turned or sour. Mix them together, and drink immediately.

(_e_) Get 3 pints water, 3 oz. tartaric acid, 3½ lb. lump sugar; mix and put to the fire to warm, not quite boil. While the above is getting hot, get the whites of 3 eggs and 4 teaspoonfuls wheaten flour, which well beat together, then mix by well stirring it with the water, acid, and sugar, then boil the whole 3 minutes. When cold, flavour with essence of lemon; bottle off. For use put a medium-sized spoonful of the liquor into a tumbler, fill up with water, and add a little soda carbonate; stir up and drink. A small quantity of brandy or sherry with the soda is a great improvement.

(_f_) Milk and whisky; quantity according to taste; the less spirit the better.

(_g_) Melt or dissolve by a gentle heat 1 oz. black currant jelly in ½ pint syrup; when cold add the same quantity of rum. In summer the above is best; for the winter months, do as follows: Pick fine dry black currants, put them into a stone jar, and then the jar into a saucepan of boiling water till the juice is extracted; strain, and to every pint add ½ lb. loaf sugar; give one boil and skim well; when cold add the same quantity of rum (or gin, if you prefer it), shake well, and bottle.

(_h_) 8 or 10 drops sulphuric acid added to a glass of water make a very wholesome subacid refreshing drink, having tonic properties, and well adapted to check the tendency to diarrhœa that exists during sultry weather.

(_i_) Mix 1 oz. essence of ginger and 1 oz. essence of cloves; put 20-30 drops into a tumbler of water. This renders even tepid water good.

_Syllabubs._--(_a_) Put 1 pint beer and 1 pint cider into a punchbowl, grate in a small nutmeg, and sweeten it to your taste. Put the bowl under a cow and milk in about 3 pints milk; wash and pick some currants, make them plump before the fire, and strew them over the syllabub. (_b_) Take 1 qt. cream, 3 gills white wine, the juice of 1 lemon and of 2 Seville oranges, add sugar to taste, beat it well, and fill up your glasses as the froth, rises. (_c_) Take ¼ lb. loaf sugar in one piece, and rub on it 2 lemons till you have got all the essence out of the rinds, then pour over the sugar 1 gill white wine, and when it is dissolved add the juice of the lemons and 1 pint cream, whip it well, or mill it with a chocolate mill. (_d_) Take ½ pint cream, ½ pint white wine, and the juice of a lemon, sweeten it to your taste with white sugar, put in a piece of the paring of the lemon and some powdered cinnamon, beat it well, and as it rises take up the froth with a spoon and lay it on a sieve to drain; fill your glasses half full with wine, sweeten it, and fill up with the whisked cream. (_e_) Put into a china bowl 1 pint port wine and 1 pint sherry, sugar to taste, milk the bowl nearly full, cover it with clotted cream, grate nutmeg over it.

_Toast and Water._--(_a_) Hold a small piece of bread before the fire until it is the colour of mahogany, but do not let it burn. Put it in a jug and pour boiling water upon it, cover it down close until cold. (_b_) The bread should be very slowly and thoroughly toasted, great care being taken to prevent its burning in the slightest degree; cold water should then be poured over it. It must stand some time before being used.

_Wassail Bowl._--Put into a bowl ½ lb. Lisbon sugar; pour on it 1 pint warm beer; grate a nutmeg and some ginger into it; add 4 glasses sherry and 5 additional pints beer; stir well; sweeten to taste; let stand covered up 2 or 3 hours; then put 3 or 4 slices bread (cut thin and toasted brown) into it. Sometimes a couple or three slices of lemon, and a few lumps of loaf sugar rubbed in the peeling of a lemon, are introduced.

_White Wine Negus._--Extract the juice from the peel of a lemon by rubbing loaf sugar on it, or cut the peel of a lemon very thin, and pound it in a mortar; cut 2 lemons into thin slices, add 4 glasses calves’-foot jelly in a liquid state, small quantities of cinnamon, mace, cloves, and allspice. Put the whole into a jug, pour 1 qt. boiling water upon it, cover the jug close, let stand ¼ hour, and then add 1 bot. boiling white wine; grate half a nutmeg into it, stir well together, sweeten to taste. In making port wine negus, omit the jelly. Negus is not confined to any particular sort of wine; if the jelly is omitted, it can be made with any or several sorts mixed together.

_Wines, British._--There are many persons who would rather buy their drinks than have the trouble and expense of making them. Such will be glad to know that Beaufoy’s British wines and non-alcoholic drinks are to be recommended before all others.

_THE PANTRY._

=Bread.=--Household bread may be made with brewers’ yeast (barm) or with German yeast.

(_a_) _With Brewers’ Yeast._--Take a small quantity--say 2 lb. flour. This should be perfectly dry, or the dough will not rise well. Put it into a bowl--a brown earthenware one glazed on the inside is best--which should also be perfectly dry, and in the winter slightly warmed. Stir in 1 teaspoonful salt, then make a hole about 1½ in. in depth in the centre of the flour. Have ready 1½ tablespoonful fresh brewers’ yeast, mixed in 1 teaspoonful warm--not _hot_--water; pour this into the hole, and stir a handful of flour lightly into it with a wooden spoon. Then cover with flour again, lightly. Lay a thick cloth over the pan, taking care that it does not press on the flour, and stand it in a warm corner. When the flour at the top of the yeast begins to crack, and the “sponge”--i.e., fermented dough--runs through, which, if the yeast be perfectly fresh and good, it will do in about ½ hour; it is then fit to knead. Now the potatoes may be added, but they must first be finely mashed. A jug of warm water must be ready, and a small quantity at a time poured into a pan; this should be thoroughly mixed with the other ingredients--_not_ with a spoon this time, but the hand. Continue pouring in water and mixing till the mass is perfectly free from lumps, and about the consistency of pastry for pies or puddings. Then turn it out of the pan on to a well-floured pastry board, and roll to and fro for about 3 minutes. Put it back into the pan, again covered with a thick cloth, and leave to rise. Another ½ hour or so will find it fit for the oven. This can easily be ascertained by pulling the dough slightly apart; if it be close and heavy, it must remain a while longer; but if it looks spongy and rises again quickly after the pressure is removed, it is ready for the baking. If tins are to be used, they should be warmed, and a very little butter or dripping should be rubbed over the bottom and sides, to prevent the dough sticking. Many people prefer “cottage” or “batch” loaves as they are called in some countries, made something in the shape of a brioche cake; but a tyro in the art will find it safest to trust to the tins till she has by practice become light-fingered enough to manipulate the dough easily and quickly; for it must be borne in mind that dough, like pastry, becomes heavy by rough or too frequent handling. (Bessie Tremaine.)