Enquire Within Upon Everything Part 171

_Receipt for obtaining good servants_.--Let them observe in your conduct to others just the qualities and virtues that you would desire they should possess and practise as respects you. Be uniformly kind and gentle. If you reprove, do so with reason and with good temper. Be respectable, and you will be respected by them. Be kind, and you will meet kindness from them. Consider their interests, and they will consider yours. A friend in a servant is no contemptible thing. Be to every servant a friend; and heartless, indeed, will be the servant who does not warm in love to you.

2203. Oyster Ketchup.

Take some fresh oysters; wash them in their own liquor, strain it, pound them in a marble mortar; to a pint of oysters add a pint of sherry; boil them up, and add an ounce of salt, two drachms of pounded mace, and one of cayenne; let it just boil up again, skim it, and rub it through a sieve; and when cold, bottle it, cork well, and seal it down.

2204. Walnut Ketchup.

Take two sieves of green walnut sh.e.l.ls, put them into a tub, mix them up well with from two to three pounds of common salt, let them stand for six days, frequently beating and mas.h.i.+ng them. By this time the sh.e.l.ls become soft and pulpy, then by banking the ma.s.s up on one side of the tub, and at the same time raising the tub on that side, the liquor will drain clear off to the other; then take that liquor out: the mas.h.i.+ng and banking-up may be repeated as often as liquor is found. The quant.i.ty obtained will be about six quarts. When done, let it be simmered in an iron boiler as long as any sc.u.m arises; then bruise a quarter of a pound of ginger, a quarter of a pound of allspice, two ounces of long pepper, and two ounces of cloves. Let it slowly boil for half an hour with the above ingredients; when bottled, let an equal quant.i.ty of the spice go into each bottle. Before corking, let the bottles be filled quite up: cork them tight, seal them over, and put them into a cool and dry place for one year before they are used.

2205. Essence of Mushrooms.

This delicate relish is made by sprinkling a little salt over either flap or b.u.t.ton mushrooms: three hours after, mash them,--next day, strain off the liquor that will flow from them, put it into a stewpan, and boil it till it is reduced one half. It will not keep long, but is preferable to any of the ketchups containing spice, &c., to preserve them, which overpowers the flavour of the mushrooms. An artificial mushroom bed will supply these all the year round.

2206. Essence of Celery.

This is prepared by soaking for a fortnight half an ounce of the seeds of celery in a quarter of a pint of brandy. A few drops will flavour a pint of soup or broth equal to a head of celery.

2207. Tincture of Allspice

Bruised allspice, one ounce and a half; brandy, a pint. Steep for a fortnight, occasionally shaking, then pour off the clear liquor. This is excellent for many of the uses of allspice, such as making bishop, mulling wine, flavouring gravies, potted meats, &c.

2208. Horseradish Vinegar.

Pour a quart of best vinegar on three ounces of sc.r.a.ped horseradish, an ounce of minced shalot, and one drachm of cayenne; let it stand a week, and you will have an excellent relish for cold beef, salads, &c., costing but little. Horseradish is in the highest perfection about November.

2209. Mint Vinegar.

Put into a wide-mouthed bottle, fresh nice clean mint leaves enough to fill it loosely; then fill up the bottle with good vinegar; and after it has been corked close for two or three weeks, pour it off clear into another bottle, and keep well corked for use. Serve with lamb when mint cannot be obtained.

2210. Cress Vinegar.

Dry and pound half an ounce of _cress seed_ (such as is sown in the garden with mustard), pour upon it a quart of the best vinegar, let it steep for ten days, shaking it up every day. This is very strongly flavoured with cress, and is useful for salads, and as a sauce for cold meats, &c. Celery vinegar may be made in the same manner.

2011. Cheap and Good Vinegar.

To eight gallons of clear rain water, add three quarts of mola.s.ses; turn the mixture into a clean, tight cask, shake it well two or three times, and add three spoonfuls of good yeast; place the cask in a warm place, and in ten or fifteen days add a sheet of common wrapping paper, smeared with mola.s.ses, and torn into narrow strips, and you will have good vinegar. The paper is necessary to form the "mother,"

or life of the vinegar.

[LITTLE BOATS MUST KEEP NEAR THE Sh.o.r.e.]

2212. Cayenne Pepper.

Dr. Kitchiner says (in his excellent book, "The Cook's Oracle" [1]):

"We advise all who are fond of cayenne not to think it too much trouble to make it of English chilis,--there is no other way of being sure it is genuine,--and they will obtain a pepper of much finer flavour, without half the heat of the foreign. A hundred large chilis, costing only two s.h.i.+llings, will produce you about two ounces of cayenne,--so it is as cheap as the commonest cayenne. Four hundred chilis, when the stems were taken off, weighed half a pound; and when dried produced a quarter of a pound of cayenne pepper. The following is the way to make it:--Take away the stalks, and put the pods into a cullender; set them before the fire,--they will take full twelve hours to dry;--then put them into a mortar, with one-fourth their weight of salt, and pound them and rub them till they are as _fine as possible_, and put them into a well-stoppered bottle."

[Footnote 1: London: Houlston & Sons.]

2213. Peas Powder.

Pound in a marble mortar half an ounce each of dried mint and sage, a drachm of celery seed, and a quarter of a drachm of cayenne pepper; rub them together through a fine sieve, this gives a very savoury relish to pea soup and even to gruel. A drachm of allspice, or black pepper, may be pounded with the above as an addition, or instead of the cayenne.

2214. Horseradish Powder.

The time to make this is during November and December: slice the radish the thickness of a s.h.i.+lling, and lay it to dry very gradually in a Dutch oven (a strong heat soon evaporates its flavour); when dry enough, pound it and bottle it.

2215. Curry Powder (1).

(a genuine Indian receipt).--Turmeric, coriander, black pepper, four ounces each; fenugreek, three ounces; ginger, two ounces; c.u.mmin seed, ground rice, one ounce each; cayenne pepper, cardamums, half an ounce each.

2216. Another Curry Powder (2).

Coriander, twelve ounces; black pepper, six ounces; turmeric, four ounces and three-quarters; c.u.mmin seed, three ounces; cayenne, one ounce and a half; ground rice, one ounce; cardamums, half an ounce; cloves, quarter of an ounce.--It is best to have the above receipts prepared at a chemist's.

2217. Another Curry Powder (3).

Take two ounces of turmeric, six ounces of coriander seed, half an ounce of powdered ginger, two drachms of cinnamon, six drachms of cayenne pepper, four drachms of black pepper, one drachm of mace and cloves, powdered fine, two drachms of pimento, four drachms of nutmeg, and an ounce and a half of fennel seed; powder finely, mix, dry, and bottle for use.

2218. Another Curry Powder (4).

Take of coriander seed and turmeric, each six drachms; black pepper, four drachms; fennel seed and powdered ginger, each two drachms; cayenne pepper, half a drachm: powder finely, mix, dry, and bottle for use.

2219. True Indian Curry Powder (5).

Turmeric, four ounces; coriander seeds, eleven ounces; cayenne, half an ounce; black pepper, five ounces; pimento, two ounces; cloves, half an ounce; cinnamon, three ounces; ginger, two ounces; c.u.mmin seed, three ounces; shalots, one ounce. All these ingredients should be of a fine quality, and recently ground or powdered.

2220. Oyster Powder.

Open the oysters carefully, so as not to cut them, except in dividing the gristle which adheres to the sh.e.l.ls. Put them into a mortar, and when you have got as many as you can conveniently pound at once, add salt in the proportion of about two drachms to a dozen oysters; pound them, and rub them through the back of a hair sieve, dry them thoroughly, and put them into the mortar again, with as much flour as will convert them into a paste; roll this paste out several times, and lastly, flour it, and roll it out the thickness of half a crown, and cut it into pieces about one inch square; lay them in a Dutch oven, where they will dry so gently as not to get burned; turn them every half hour, and when they begin to dry, crumble them. They will take about four hours to dry. Pound them, sift them, and put them into dry bottles; cork and seal them.