Part 9

It may be well to mention that in damp houses, none of the fruits preserved without boiling keep as well as those which are boiled. I have known a very few instances in which persons who were skilful in all these things did not succeed in preserving fruits in this way.

The water in which quinces are boiled should be saved. Boil the parings in it for a short time, if you intend to make a jelly, as long boiling them will make the water less clear. If you do not make jelly, boil the parings a good while, then strain off the water, and when it is cold bottle it. It will keep without the addition of sugar two or three weeks, and will give a fine flavor to apple-pies or sauce. There is so much richness in the parings of quinces that they should never be thrown away without being boiled. The fruit should therefore be washed and wiped before it is pared, and all defective parts removed.

[The pear quince, though it becomes hard when preserved, and therefore is not as good for that purpose as the orange quince, is very rich, and makes fine marmalade.]

=Marmalade.=

Wash and wipe the quinces, and take out any dark spots there may be on the skins. Cut them up without paring, cores and all; cover them with water in the preserving kettle, and boil them until they are soft enough to be rubbed through a coarse hair sieve. Then weigh equal quantities of pulp and refined sugar, and boil the mixture an hour, stirring it steadily.

Made with nice brown sugar, it is very good, though not quite as handsome. When brown sugar is used it should be stirred an hour and a half.

Put it into moulds or deep plates, and when it is cold put a paper over it, pasted at the edges, and brushed with white of egg. Marmalade can be kept for almost any length of time.

=Strawberries.=

Take large strawberries not extremely ripe; weigh equal quantities of fruit and best sugar; lay the fruit in a dish, and sprinkle half the sugar over it; shake the dish a little, that the sugar may touch all the fruit. Next day make a syrup of the remainder of the sugar and the juice which you can pour off from the fruit in the pan, and as it boils lay in the strawberries, and boil them gently twenty minutes or half an hour.

=Another.=

Weigh equal quantities of fruit and sugar, and put them together over night. The next day boil the strawberries long enough to scald without shrinking them,--six or eight minutes after they commence boiling. Then skim them out, and boil away the syrup half an hour; then pour it, hot, upon the strawberries.

=Apple Jam (which will keep for years).=

Weigh equal quantities of brown sugar and good sour apples. Pare and core them, and chop them fine. Make a syrup of the sugar, and clarify it very thoroughly; then add the apples, the grated peel of two or three lemons, and a few pieces of white ginger. Boil it till the apple looks clear and yellow. This resembles foreign sweetmeats. The ginger is essential to its peculiar excellence.

=Pine-Apple Jam.=

Grate sound but ripe pine-apples, and to a pound put three quarters of a pound of loaf sugar. Make a syrup and boil the grated pine-apple in it fifteen minutes.

=Grape Jam.=

Boil grapes very soft, and strain them through a sieve. Weigh the pulp thus obtained, and put a pound of crushed sugar to a pound of pulp. Boil it twenty minutes, stirring it often. The common wild grape is much the best for this use.

=Quince Jam.=

Weigh twelve ounces of brown sugar to one pound of quince. Boil the fruit in as little water as will do, until it is sufficiently soft to break easily; then pour off all the water and mash it with a spoon until entirely broken; put in the sugar, and boil twenty minutes, stirring it very often.

=Another.=

Chop a pound of quince (not boiled) in a pound of best sugar. When chopped fine, boil it twenty minutes. If you have some of the water in which quinces have been boiled, put in a gill; if you have not this, use pure water. This is very good, but not as easily digested as the other.

=Raspberry Jam.=

Pick the fruit over very carefully, as it is more apt than any other to be infested with worms. Weigh equal quantities of fruit and sugar; put the fruit into the kettle, or preserving pan, break it with a ladle, and stir continually. Let it boil quickly four or five minutes, then add the sugar, and simmer slowly a little while. The fruit, preserved in this way, retains its fresh taste much better than if the sugar is added at first. It is scarcely inferior to raspberries gathered from the vines. Some persons prefer to add currants or currant juice. A quart of currant juice to four quarts of raspberries is a good proportion. Boil it up, and put the fruit into it. If you wish to add currants, take fresh, ripe ones, a quart to three quarts of raspberries.

=Strawberry Jam.=

Put three pounds of sugar to two quarts of strawberries. Sprinkle the sugar upon the fruit, and let it stand an hour or two; then boil it twenty minutes, and meantime bruise the fruit with a spoon or ladle.

=Apple Jelly.=

Take any juicy, sour apples; wash and wipe them very clean, and cut them up without paring or taking out the cores. Put them into an earthen jar or baking pan with a very little water, and cover it with a paste of bread dough, rolled thin; (this keeps in the steam more effectually than a plate or lid). Put it in the oven after the bread is baked, and let it remain several hours. Then pour the whole into a linen bag, suspended in such a manner that it can be left to drip for some time. Put a pound of sugar to a pint of syrup; add any thing which is preferred, to flavor it. Boil ten minutes.

=Another.=

Take good sour apples, wash and wipe them, cut out any black spots upon the skin, and cut them up without paring or coring. Much of the richness of the apple is in the skin and core. Boil them in water enough to cover them, and when they become very soft, put the whole into a coarse linen bag, and suspend it between two chairs, with a pan under it, and leave it until it ceases to drip. Then press it a very little. Allow a pound of fine sugar to a pint of apple-syrup. If you choose, add the juice of a lemon to every quart of syrup. Boil up the apple-syrup, and skim it; heat the sugar in a dish in the stove oven, and add it as the syrup boils up, after being skimmed. Boil it gently twenty minutes or half an hour. Put it up in cups, tumblers, or moulds.

=Crab-Apple Jelly.=

Boil the fruit in water enough to cover it, until it is perfectly soft; then proceed just as directed in the last receipt.

=Barberry Jelly.=

This is made by boiling the fruit until the water is very strongly flavored with it; then put a pound of best sugar to a pint of juice. It should boil a little longer than currant or quince jelly.

=Cranberry Jelly.=

Wash and pick over the fruit carefully, and boil it till very soft in water enough to cover it. Then strain it through a hair sieve, and weigh equal quantities of the pulp and fine sugar. Boil it gently, and with care that it does not burn, fifteen or twenty minutes.

=Currant Jelly.=

Pick over the fruit, but leave it on the stems. Put it into the preserving kettle, and break it with a ladle or spoon, and when it is hot, squeeze it in a coarse linen bag until you can press out no more juice. Then weigh a pound of sugar to a pint of juice. Sift the sugar, and heat it as hot as possible without dissolving or burning; boil the juice five minutes very fast, and while boiling add the hot sugar, stir it well, and when it has boiled again five minutes, set it off. The time must be strictly observed. Jelly to eat with meat does very well made with brown sugar, but must boil longer.

=Another (without boiling).=

Squeeze the currants in a coarse linen cloth, without taking off the stems. Weigh the juice, and allow a pound for a pound. The sugar should be sifted, and stirred in with the hand until it feels smooth and well dissolved. Put it into glasses, and set them in the sun near a window for two or three days. Then cover as directed for preserves and jellies. This will taste like newly made currant jelly at the end of a year, if kept in a cool and dry place. It will not keep well in a damp house.

=Quince Jelly.=

Take the water in which quinces have been boiled for preserving and for marmalade, and boil the clean parings until they are soft. (See directions in the receipt for preserving quinces without boiling the syrup). Then strain the water while very hot through a flannel bag, and allow a pound of best sugar for every pint. Put the sugar on a dish into the stove oven to heat; boil up the quince water; if any scum rises, take it off, and then stir in the hot sugar, and boil it slowly, but steadily, twenty minutes, or half an hour. The time necessary will depend somewhat on the water being more or less strongly flavored with the fruit.

=To Preserve Fruit in Water.=

Pick the fruit when ripe, but not mellow; put it into strong glass bottles, with wide mouths; fill them with cold water, cork them and tie down the corks, or cover them with a piece of bladder wet in warm water, and tied over close; then set them into a flat-bottomed wash-boiler with a little hay under them, and cold water enough to come half-way up the sides of the bottles. Then heat the water gradually, and while that is doing melt some bees-wax and rosin, in equal quantities, and have it ready to use when the bottles are taken out of the boiler. This must be done as soon as the water in it _begins to boil_. Shut all the doors and windows before you do it, for a draught of air will break the bottles. Throw a cloth over them till they are a little cooled.

As soon as you can handle them at all, dip the necks of the bottles into the melted rosin and wax, so as to cover the whole _cork and bladder_, and make it secure against the entrance of any air. If, in two or three months, a coat of mould should form on the top of the water, that will do no harm; on the contrary it will help to exclude the air, and for two months more will not hurt the fruit.

When about to use the fruit, take off the mould carefully, so as not to break it, then pour out the fruit and the water into a stew-pan, add some sugar, and stew it as you would fresh fruit for immediate use, and it will have the same flavor.

All sorts of plums, cherries, gooseberries, apricots, and even peaches, may be so preserved.

BAKED AND STEWED FRUITS.

These are economical, excellent, and healthy; and it is well worth while for every family possessing only a plot of ground large enough for two trees, to set out a pear and sweet apple tree.

=Steamed Sweet Apples.=

Wash and wipe a pailful of sweet apples; put them into a porcelain kettle, with cold water enough to come half-way toward the top, cover them and boil them slowly as possible an hour. Then try them with a fork, and turn down the upper side of those which lie on the top. If they are considerably softened, scatter a coffee-cup of brown sugar over them, cover them close, and let them remain boiling another hour. Very large apples need half an hour more.

=Baked Sweet Apples.=

If they are of a good kind, they are very nice baked in an earthen dish, which is better than tin. If you cook them in a stove, there should be a little water in the pan, else the juice will burn and be lost. They are best done in a brick oven. Put them into a jar with no water or sugar, but cover them close, and bake five or six hours. A rich syrup will be found in the bottom of the jar, and the appearance and flavor of the apples will be very fine.

=Baked Sour Apples.=

These are best baked in a stove. They require only an hour. There should be a little water in the dish. Just before they are done, sprinkle a little brown sugar upon them, dip the syrup over them, and cover them close till wanted for the table. They are good done in this way to eat at breakfast or tea; and also at dinner, with any meat requiring apple sauce. Take out the cores before baking them if you choose.

=Baked Pears.=

The common early pears are very good put into a jar without paring, and with a teacup of molasses to every two quarts of pears. But little water is necessary. Bake them five or six hours in a brick oven; two in a range or stove. If you wish them more delicate, pare them, and put a teacup of sugar instead of molasses. The later and larger fall pears are very nice baked in a dish; but most kinds of heavy winter pears cannot be baked so as to be tender.

=Boiled Cider Apple-Sauce.=

Take apples, sweet and sour together, that will not keep long, and pare a large quantity. When finished, wash and put them into a large brass kettle, in which you have turned down an old dish or large plate, that will nearly cover the bottom; this is to prevent the apple from burning. After you have put in all the apples, pour in a quart of cider (boiled as directed in the receipt for boiled cider) to every pailful of apples. After it has boiled an hour or two, add molasses in the proportion of two quarts to every four pails of apples. If you have refuse quinces, a peck of them gives a fine flavor to a large kettle of apple-sauce. The best way to boil apple-sauce is to put the kettle over the fire at night, and let the apple become partly done before bed-time. When you leave it for the night, see that the fire lies in such a way, that all parts of the apple boil equally, and that no brands can fall.[9] Burn charcoal or peat if you have it, as either of these will make a steady fire, and may be left without danger from snapping. The chief things to be observed, are, that there is not too much fire, that it lies safely, and that it will afford a moderate heat several hours. In the morning the apple-sauce will be of a fine red color, and must then be put away in firkins or stone jars. _Never use potter's ware_ for this purpose.

[9] As the open fire-place is now seldom in use, these directions will not often be apropos. But where a range or coal stove is used, a large kettle of apple-sauce can, with care, be done well, on the top with the cover under it.

=Sweet Apple Marmalade.=

This is made by boiling sweet apples alone, in cider made of sweet apples, and boiled down so as to be very rich. The sauce is in this case strained warm through a very coarse sieve or riddle, and boiled again a little while; or it may be put into deep dishes and set into the oven after the bread is drawn.

=Coddled Apples.=

Take fair early apples, wipe them, lay them in a preserving kettle, and put to half a peck a coffee-cup of brown sugar, and half a pint of water. Cover them and boil them gently, until they are tender and penetrated with the sugar.

They may be done quite as well in a jar in the oven, but care must be taken that they are not cooked too much. Early apples will bake with a very moderate heat.

=Common Family Apple-Sauce.=

Let your stock of apples be picked over several times in the course of the winter, and all the defective ones taken out. Let the good parts of these be pared, and if not used for pies, be made into apple-sauce. Boil it in a preserving kettle. After it is tender, add a pint bowl of brown sugar, and boil it gently fifteen minutes longer. Towards spring, when apples become tasteless, a teaspoonful of tartaric acid, dissolved in a little water, should be added to a gallon of apple.

=Boiled Pears.=

These are eaten with roast meat instead of apple or cranberry sauce. Choose fair, smooth ones; put them into cold water and boil them whole, without paring and without sugar. It will take an hour, or an hour and a half, according to the size of the fruit.

=To Stew Dried Apples or Peaches.=

Wash them in two or three waters, and put them to soak in rather more water than will cover them, as they absorb a great deal. After soaking two hours, put them into a preserving kettle in the same water, and with a lemon or orange cut up; boil them till very tender; when they rise up in the kettle press them down with a skimmer or spoon, but do not stir them. When they are tender, add clean brown sugar, and boil fifteen or twenty minutes longer.

Dried apples are rendered tasteless by being strained or stirred so as to break them up; and they are also injured by soaking over night.

If they are to be used for pies, there should be more sugar added than for sauce, and a small piece of butter stirred in while they are hot. Nutmeg and clove are good spices for dried apple-pies.

Dried peaches are done in the same way, only the lemon and spice are omitted.

HOW TO SELECT AND TAKE CARE OF BEEF, MUTTON, LAMB, VEAL, AND PORK.

Ox beef is the best; next to this the flesh of an heifer; and both are in perfection during the first three months of the year. Choose that, the lean of which is red and of a fine grain, and the fat of which is white.[10] In cold weather, if you have a large family, it is good economy to buy a quarter. The hind quarter is considered best. Have the butcher cut it up. Pack the roasting pieces, which you do not want soon, in a barrel of snow, and set it where it will not melt. It is not necessary to freeze the meat first. The leg will furnish, besides a piece to cook alamode, two or three to smoke. The thin pieces at the end of the ribs are good corned, and the flank also; or it may be used for mince pies. The shank, although it has but little meat, is very good for some purposes. It should be cut up into several pieces and boiled four or five hours, no matter how long. There is a great deal of marrow and fat in it which, when cold, should be taken off and clarified for various uses. The meat is good used as is directed in the receipt for brawn, and the liquor makes excellent soup and gravies.

[10] The flesh of diseased cattle is sometimes sold in city markets. Therefore never buy beef the fat of which is very yellow, nor mutton and lamb unless the fat is white. Yellow fat indicates that the meat is of an unhealthy kind.

The best roasting pieces of beef are the sirloin, the second cut in the fore quarter, and the rump. If you buy a sirloin for a family of six or eight, get eight or ten pounds. Cut off the thin end in which there is no bone. It is very good corned, and not very good roasted. The roasting piece will still be large enough for the family dinner, and the corned piece will do for another day, with a pudding or another small dish of meat. The back part of the rump is a convenient and economical piece, especially for a small family. It is a long and rather narrow piece, weighing about ten pounds, and contains less fat and bone than any other, equally good, in the ox. The thickest end affords nice steaks, and next to them is a good roasting piece, and the thinnest end which contains the bone, is very good corned, or for a soup. The whole is an excellent piece for roasting, in case so large a one is needed.

The spring is the best season for mutton. That which is not very large is to be preferred. It should be of a good red and white, and fine grained. There is a great difference between mutton and lamb killed from a pasture, and that which has been driven a distance to market.

Lamb is best in July and August.

Veal is best in the spring. It should look white and be fat. The breast is particularly nice stuffed; the loin should be roasted. The leg is an economical piece, as you can take off cutlets from the large end, make broth of the shank, and stuff and roast the centre.

Roasting pieces of all kinds of ribbed meat, except beef, should be jointed by the butcher, else the carving will be extremely difficult.

Always provide a sharp knife for carving. The juices of meat are extracted by its being _haggled_. An invalid, speaking of the kindness of a neighbor in sending him some slices of corned beef, said, "They were cut with a _sharp_ knife." For the sake of economy, if for no other reason, carve smoothly, and only as much as is wanted at first. It is easy to cut more for replenishing plates; and meat is far better not to lie sliced in the dish. If no more is cut than is used, a handsome piece may often be reserved for the next day; whereas if all is cut up it cannot be so good, and some of it will certainly be wasted.

Ham and tongue should be sliced very thin.

Pork, to be the best, should not be more than a year old. The chine is the best roasting piece; the spare-ribs are very sweet food, but too rich to be healthy. The shoulder is good roasted, stuffed with bread and sage. If too large, half of it can be laid a week or two in brine, and will be good boiled, to eat cold. It is well for a small family, in November to buy half of a spring pig; this will furnish several nice pieces to roast, strips for salting, a ham and shoulder for smoking, and _leaf_ enough for a pot or two of lard, besides remnants for sausage meat.

In winter, all meat may be kept a long time; and, with the exception of pork, is much better for it; therefore it is easier to furnish a table without waste in winter than in summer. Meat will keep in an ice-house or a good refrigerator several days in hot weather; if you have neither, take your meat the moment it is brought in, wipe it dry if at all damp, and hang it in the cellar, sprinkling first a little pepper and salt over it, especially over the parts which flies are most apt to visit. In mutton and lamb, these are the tenderloin and the large end of the leg. The pepper and salt will also tend to preserve the meat from taint.

If you wish to keep it longer than two days, wrap it in a piece of cloth (no matter if it is very thin), and lay it in a charcoal bin, and throw a shovel of coal over it. A leg of mutton will keep several days wrapped in a cloth which has been dipped in vinegar, laid upon the ground of a dry cellar.

Meat that is to be salted for immediate use, should, if the weather is cool, be hung up a day or two first.[11] Where a large quantity of beef is to be salted, a different method is pursued. In winter, unless you wish to keep meat several weeks, place it where it will be cold without freezing. Mutton never looks as nice after being frozen hard; it has a dark, uninviting appearance.

[11] See directions for salting meat, page 162.

To thaw frozen meat, bring it over night into a warm room. If this has been forgotten, lay it, early in the morning, into cold water. If meat is put to roast, boil, or broil, before being entirely thawed, it will be tough. It is best to preserve fowls without freezing. They will keep very well packed in snow; the liver, &c., being taken out and laid by themselves in the snow, and the body filled with it.

Meat that has been kept perfectly clean, or a beef steak just cut off, should not be washed; but, generally, it is necessary to wash a roasting piece. Pork having the rind on, needs great care in washing and scraping, to make it fit to cook.

Trim off the superfluous fat from beef, mutton, and fresh pork before cooking it.

Tough steak is made more tender by being pounded with a rolling-pin; but some of the juice of the meat is lost by the operation.

STOCK FOR GRAVIES AND SOUPS.