The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary Part 23

GLa.s.s. Broken gla.s.s may be mended with the same cement as china, or if it be only cracked, it will be sufficient to moisten the part with the white of an egg, strewing it over with a little powdered lime, and instantly applying a piece of fine linen. Another cement for gla.s.s is prepared from two parts of litharge, one of quick lime, and one of flint gla.s.s, each separately and finely powdered, and the whole worked up into a paste with drying oil. This compound is very durable, and acquires a greater degree of hardness when immersed in water.

GLa.s.sES. These frail and expensive articles may be rendered less brittle, and better able to bear sudden changes of temperature, by first plunging them into cold water, then gradually heating the water till it boils, and suffering it to cool in the open air. Gla.s.ses of every description, used for the table, will afterwards bear boiling water suddenly poured into them, without breaking. When they have been tarnished by age or accident, their l.u.s.tre may be restored by strewing on them some fuller's earth, carefully powdered and cleared of sand and dirt, and then rubbing them gently with a linen cloth, or a little putty.

GLOVES. Leather gloves may be repaired, cleaned, and dyed of a fine yellow, by steeping a little saffron in boiling water for about twelve hours; and having lightly sewed up the tops of the gloves, to prevent the dye from staining the insides, wet them over with a sponge or soft brush dipped in the liquid. A teacupful will be sufficient for a single pair.

GLOUCESTER CHEESE. This article is made of milk immediately from the cow; and if it be too hot in the summer, a little skim milk or water is added to it, before the rennet is put in. As soon as the curd is come it is broken small, and cleared of the whey. The curd is set in the press for about a quarter of an hour, in order to extract the remainder of the liquid. It is then put into the cheese tub again, broken small, and scalded with water mixed with a little whey. When the curd is settled, the liquor is poured off; the curd is put into a vat, and worked up with a little salt when about half full. The vat is then filled up, and the whole is turned two or three times in it, the edges being pared, and the middle rounded up at each turning. At length, the curd being put into a cloth, it is placed in the press, then laid on the shelves, and turned every day till it becomes sufficiently firm to bear was.h.i.+ng.

GLOUCESTER JELLY. Take rice, sago, pearl barley, hartshorn shavings, and eringo root, each one ounce. Simmer with three pints of water till reduced to one, and then strain it. When cold it will be a jelly; of which give, dissolved in wine, milk, or broth, in change with other nourishment.

GNATS. The stings of these troublesome insects are generally attended with a painful swelling. One of the most effectual remedies consists of an equal mixture of turpentine and sweet oil, which should immediately be applied to the wounded part, and it will afford relief in a little time. Olive oil alone, unsalted b.u.t.ter, or fresh lard, if rubbed on without delay, will also be found to answer the same purpose. They may be destroyed by fumigation, the same as for flies.

GOLD. To clean gold, and restore its l.u.s.tre, dissolve a little sal ammoniac in common wine. Boil the gold in it, and it will soon recover its brilliance. To clean gold or silver lace, sew it up in a linen cloth, and boil it with two ounces of soap in a pint of water: afterwards wash the lace in clear water. When the lace happens to be tarnished, the best liquor for restoring its l.u.s.tre is spirits of wine, which should be warmed before it is applied. This application will also preserve the colour of silk or embroidery.

GOLD RINGS. If a ring sticks tight on the finger, and cannot easily be removed, touch it with mercury, and it will become so brittle that a slight blow will break it.

GOOSE FEATHERS. These being deemed particularly valuable, the birds in some counties are plucked four or five times in a year. The first operation is performed in the spring for feathers and quills, and is repeated for feathers only, between that period and Michaelmas. Though the plucking of geese appears to be a barbarous custom, yet experience has proved, that if carefully done, the birds thrive better, and are more healthy, when stripped of their feathers, than if they were left to drop them by moulting. Geese intended for breeding in farm yards, and which are called old geese, may be plucked three times a year, at an interval of seven weeks, but not oftener. Every one should be thirteen or fourteen weeks old before they are subject to this operation, or they are liable to perish in cold summers; and if intended for the table, they would become poor and lose their quality, were they stripped of their feathers at an earlier period.

GOOSE PIE. Quarter a goose, season it well, put it in a baking dish, and lay pieces of b.u.t.ter over it. Put on a raised crust, and bake it in a moderate oven. To make a richer pie, forcemeat may be added, and slices of tongue. Duck pie is made in the same manner.

GOOSE SAUCE. Put into melted b.u.t.ter a spoonful of sorrel juice, a little sugar, and some scalded gooseberries. Pour it into boats, and send it hot to table.

GOOSEBERRY FOOL. Put the fruit into a stone jar, with some good Lisbon sugar. Set the jar on a stove, or in a saucepan of water over the fire: if the former, a large spoonful of water should be added to the fruit.

When it is done enough to pulp, press it through a cullender. Have ready a sufficient quant.i.ty of new milk, and a tea-cupful of raw cream, boiled together, or an egg instead of the latter. When cold, sweeten it pretty well with fine Lisbon sugar, and mix the pulp with it by degrees.

GOOSEBERRY HOPS. Gather the largest green gooseberries of the walnut kind, and slit the tops into four quarters, leaving the stalk end whole.

Pick out the seeds, and with a strong needle and thread fasten five or six together, by running the thread through the bottoms, till they are of the size of a hop. Lay vine leaves at the bottom of a tin preserving-pan, cover them with the hops, then a layer of leaves, and so on: lay a good many on the top, and fill the pan with water. Stop it down so close that no steam can escape, set it by a slow fire till scalding hot, and then take it off to cool. Repeat the operation till the gooseberries, on being opened, are found to be of a good green. Then drain them on sieves, and make a thin syrup of a pound of sugar to a pint of water, well boiled and skimmed. When the syrup is half cold, put in the fruit; give it a boil up, and repeat it thrice. Gooseberry hops look well and eat best dried, and in this case they may be set to dry in a week. But if to be kept moist, make a syrup in the above proportions, adding a slice of ginger in the boiling. When skimmed and clear, give the gooseberries one boil, and pour the syrup cold over them. If found too sour, a little sugar may be added, before the hops that are for drying receive their last boil. The extra syrup will serve for pies, or go towards other sweetmeats.

GOOSEBERRY JAM. Gather some ripe gooseberries, of the clear white or green sort, pick them clean and weigh them. Allow three quarters of a pound of lump sugar to a pound of fruit, and half a pint of water. Boil and skim the sugar and water, then put in the fruit, and boil it gently till it is quite clear. Break the gooseberries into jam, and put into small pots.--Another. Gather some ripe gooseberries in dry weather, of the red hairy sort, and pick off the heads and tails. Put twelve pounds of them into a preserving pan, with a pint of currant juice, drawn as for jelly. Boil them pretty quick, and beat them with a spoon; when they begin to break, add six pounds of white Lisbon sugar, and simmer them slowly to a jam. They require long boiling, or they will not keep; but they make an excellent jam for tarts and puffs. When the jam is put into jars, examine it after two or three days; and if the syrup and fruit separate, the whole must be boiled again. In making white gooseberry jam, clarified sugar should be used; and in all cases great care must be taken to prevent the fruit from burning to the bottom of the pan.

GOOSEBERRY PUDDING. Stew some gooseberries in a jar over a hot hearth, or in a saucepan of water, till reduced to a pulp. Take a pint of the juice pressed through a coa.r.s.e sieve, and mix it with three eggs beaten and strained. Add an ounce and a half of b.u.t.ter, sweeten it well, put a crust round the dish, and bake it. A few crumbs of roll should be mixed with the above to give it a little consistence, or four ounces of Naples biscuits.

GOOSEBERRY TRIFLE. Scald as much fruit as when pulped through a sieve, will cover the bottom of a dish intended to be used. Mix with it the rind of half a lemon grated fine, sweetened with sugar. Put any quant.i.ty of common custard over it, and a whip on the top, as for other trifles.

GOOSEBERRY VINEGAR. Boil some spring water; and when cold, put to every three quarts, a quart of bruised gooseberries in a large tub. Let them remain two or three days, stirring often; then strain through a hair bag, and to each gallon of liquor add a pound of the coa.r.s.est sugar. Put it into a barrel, with yeast spread upon a toast, and cover the bung hole with a piece of slate. The greater the quant.i.ty of sugar and fruit, the stronger the vinegar.

GOOSEBERRY WINE. When the weather is dry, gather gooseberries about the time they are half ripe. Pick them clean as much as a peck into a convenient vessel, and bruise them with a piece of wood, taking as much care as possible to keep the seeds whole. Now having put the pulp into a canvas bag, press out all the juice; and to every gallon of the gooseberries, add about three pounds of fine loaf sugar. Mix the whole together by stirring it with a stick, and as soon as the sugar is quite dissolved, pour it into a cask which will exactly hold it. If the quant.i.ty be about eight or nine gallons, let it stand a fortnight: if twenty gallons, forty days, and so on in proportion. Set it in a cool place; and after standing the proper time, draw it off from the lees.

Put it into another clean vessel of equal size, or into the same, after pouring out the lees and making it clean. Let a cask of ten or twelve gallons stand for about three months, and twenty gallons for five months, after which it will be fit for bottling off.

GOOSEBERRIES PRESERVED. Gather some dry gooseberries of the hairy sort, before the seeds become large, and take care not to cut them in taking off the stalks and buds. If gathered in the damp, or the gooseberry skins are the least broken in the preparation, the fruit will mould.

Fill some jars or wide-mouthed bottles, put the corks loosely in, and set the bottles up to the neck in a kettle of water. When the fruit looks scalded, take them out; and when perfectly cold, cork them down close, and rosin the top. Dig a trench sufficiently deep to receive all the bottles, and cover them with the earth a foot and a half. When a frost comes on, a little fresh litter from the stable will prevent the ground from hardening, so that the fruit may more easily be dug up.--Green gooseberries may also be preserved for winter use, without bedding them in the earth. Scald them as above, and when cold, fill the bottles up with cold water. Cork and rosin them down, and keep them in a dry place.--Another way. Having prepared the gooseberries as above, prepare a kettle of boiling water, and put into it as much roche alum as will harden the water, or give it a little roughness when dissolved: but if there be too much it will spoil the fruit. Cover the bottom of a large sieve with gooseberries, without laying one upon another; and hold the sieve in the water till the fruit begins to look scalded on the outside. Turn them gently out of the sieve on a cloth on the dresser, cover them with another cloth, putting some more to be scalded, till the whole are finished. Observe not to put one quant.i.ty upon another, or they will become too soft. The next day pick out any bad or broken ones, bottle the rest, and fill up the bottles with the alum water in which they were scalded. If the water be left in the kettle, or in a glazed pan, it will spoil; it must therefore be quickly put into the bottles.

Gooseberries prepared in this way, and stopped down close, will make as fine tarts as when fresh from the trees.--Another way. In dry weather pick some full grown but unripe gooseberries, top and tail them, and put them into wide-mouthed bottles. Stop them lightly with new velvet corks, put them into the oven after the bread is drawn, and let them stand till they are shrunk one fourth. Take them out of the oven, fasten the corks in tight, cut off the tops, and rosin them down close. Set them in a dry place; and if well secured from the air, they will keep the year round.

Currants and damsons may be preserved in the same way.

GOOSEGRa.s.s OINTMENT. Melt some hog's lard, add as much clivers or goosegra.s.s as the lard will moisten, and boil them together over a slow fire. Keep the mixture stirring till it becomes a little brown, and then strain it through a cloth. When cold, take the ointment from the water, and put it up in gallipots.

GOUT. Gouty patients are required to abstain from all fermented and spirituous liquors, and to use wine very moderately; carefully to avoid all fat, rancid, and salted provisions, and high seasoned dishes of every description. The constant use of barley bread is recommended, with large doses of powdered ginger boiled in milk for breakfast. Absorbent powders of two scruples of magnesia, and three or four grains each of rhubarb and purified kali, should be taken during the intervals of gouty fits, and repeated every other morning for several weeks. The feet should be kept warm, sinapisms frequently applied to them, and the part affected should be covered with flannel.

GOUT CORDIAL. Take four pounds of sun raisins sliced and stoned, two ounces of senna, one ounce of fennel seed, one of coriander, half an ounce of cochineal, half an ounce of saffron, half an ounce of stick liquorice, and half a pound of rhubarb: infuse them all in two gallons of brandy, and let it stand for ten days. Stir it occasionally, then strain it off, and bottle it. Take a small wine-gla.s.s full, when the gout is in the head or stomach; and if the pain be not removed, take two large spoonfuls more.--Or take six drams of opium, half an ounce of soap of tartar, half an ounce of castile soap, one dram of grated nutmeg, three drams of camphor, two scruples of saffron, and nine ounces of sweet spirit of sal-ammoniac. Put them all into a wine flask in a sand-heat for ten days, shaking it occasionally till the last day or two: then pour it off clear, and keep it stopped up close for use. Take thirty or forty drops in a gla.s.s of peppermint two hours after eating; it may also be taken two or three times in the day or night if required.

GRANARIES. These depositaries are very liable to be infested with weasels, and various kinds of insects. To prevent their depredations, the floors of granaries should be laid with poplars of Lombardy.

GRAPES. To preserve this valuable fruit, prepare a cask or barrel, by carefully closing up its crevices to prevent access of the external air.

Place a layer of bran, which has been well dried in an oven; upon this place a layer of bunches of grapes, well cleaned, and gathered in the afternoon of a dry day, before they are perfectly ripe. Proceed then with alternate layers of bran and grapes till the barrel is full, taking care that the bunches of grapes do not touch each other, and to let the last layer be of bran; then close the barrel so that the air may not be able to penetrate. Grapes thus packed will keep for a twelvemonth. To restore their freshness, cut the end of each bunch, and put that of white grapes into white wine, and that of black grapes into red wine, as flowers are put into water to keep them fresh. It is customary in France to pack grapes for the London market in saw dust, but it must be carefully dried with a gentle heat, or the turpentine and other odours of the wood will not fail to injure the fruit. Oak saw dust will answer the purpose best.

GRAPE WINE. To every gallon of ripe grapes put a gallon of soft water, bruise the grapes, let them stand a week without stirring, and draw the liquor off fine. To every gallon of liquor allow three pounds of lump sugar, put the whole into a vessel, but do not stop it till it has done hissing; then stop it close, and in six months it will be fit for bottling.--A better wine, though smaller in quant.i.ty, will be made by leaving out the water, and diminis.h.i.+ng the quant.i.ty of sugar. Water is necessary only where the juice is so scanty, or so thick, as in cowslip, balm, or black currant wine, that it could not be used without it.

GRAVEL. The gout or rheumatism has a tendency to produce this disorder; it is also promoted by the use of sour liquor, indigestible food, especially cheese, and by a sedentary life. Perspiration should be a.s.sisted by gentle means, particularly by rubbing with a warm flannel; the diet regulated by the strictest temperance, and moderate exercise is not to be neglected. For medicine, take the juice of a horseradish, made into a thin syrup by mixing it with sugar; a spoonful or two to be taken every three or four hours.

GRAVEL WALKS. To preserve garden walks from moss and weeds, water them frequently with brine, or salt and water, both in the spring and in autumn. Worms may be destroyed by an infusion of walnut-tree leaves, or by pouring into the holes a ley made of wood ashes and lime. If fruit trees are sprinkled with it, the ravages of insects will be greatly prevented.

GRAVIES. A few general observations are necessary on the subject of soups and gravies. When there is any fear of gravy meat being spoiled before it be wanted, it should be well seasoned, and lightly fried, in order to its keeping a day or two longer; but the gravy is best when the juices are fresh. When soups or gravies are to be put by, let them be changed every day into fresh scalded pans. Whatever liquor has vegetables boiled in it, is apt to turn sour much sooner than the juices of meat, and gravy should never be kept in any kind of metal. When fat remains on any soup, a tea-cupful of flour and water mixed quite smooth, and boiled in, will take it off. If richness or greater consistence be required, a good lump of b.u.t.ter mixed with flour, and boiled in the soup or gravy, will impart either of these qualities. Long boiling is necessary to obtain the full flavour; and gravies and soups are best made the day before they are wanted. They are also much better when the meat is laid in the bottom of the pan, and stewed with herbs, roots, and b.u.t.ter, than when water is put to the meat at first; and the gravy that is drawn from the meat, should almost be dried up before the water is added. The sediment of gravies that have stood to be cold, should not be used in cooking. When onions are strong, boil a turnip with them, if for sauce; and this will make them mild and pleasant. If soups or gravies are too weak, do not cover them in boiling, that the watery particles may evaporate. A clear jelly of cow heels is very useful to keep in the house, being a great improvement to soups and gravies. Truffles and morels thicken soups and sauces, and give them a fine flavour. The way is to wash half an ounce of each carefully, then simmer them a few minutes in water, and add them with the liquor to boil in the sauce till quite tender. As to the materials of which gravy is to be made, beef skirts will make as good as any other meat. Beef kidney, or milt, cut into small pieces, will answer the purpose very well; and so will the shank end of mutton that has been dressed, if much be wanted. The shank bones of mutton, if well soaked and cleaned, are a great improvement to the richness of the gravy. Taragon gives the flavour of French cookery, and in high gravies it is a great improvement; but it should be added only a short time before serving. To draw gravy that will keep for a week, cut some lean beef thin, put it into a fryingpan without any b.u.t.ter, cover it up, and set it on the fire, taking care that it does not burn. Keep it on the fire till all the gravy that comes out of the meat is absorbed, then add as much water as will cover the meat, and keep it stewing. Put in some herbs, onions, spice, and a piece of lean ham. Let it simmer till it is quite rich, and keep it in a cool place; but do not remove the fat till the gravy is to be used.

GRAVY FOR FOWL. When there is no meat to make gravy of, wash the feet of the fowl nicely, and cut them and the neck small. Simmer them with a little bread browned, a slice of onion, a sprig of parsley and thyme, some salt and pepper, and the liver and gizzard, in a quarter of a pint of water, till half wasted. Take out the liver, bruise it, and strain the liquor to it. Then thicken it with flour and b.u.t.ter, and a tea-spoonful of mushroom ketchup will make the gravy very good.

GRAVY FOR WILD FOWL. Set on a saucepan with half a pint of veal gravy, adding half a dozen leaves of basil, a small onion, and a roll of orange or lemon peel. Let it boil up for a few minutes, and strain it off. Put to the clear gravy the juice of a Seville orange, half a teaspoonful of salt, the same of pepper, and a gla.s.s of red wine. Shalot and cayenne may be added. This is an excellent sauce for all kinds of wild water-fowl, and should be sent up hot in a boat, as some persons like wild fowl very little done, and without any sauce. The common way of gas.h.i.+ng the breast, and squeezing in a lemon, cools and hardens the flesh, and compels every one to eat it that way, whether they approve of it or not.

GRAVY FOR MUTTON. To make mutton taste like venison, provide for it the following gravy. Pick a very stale woodc.o.c.k or snipe, and cut it to pieces, after having removed the bag from the entrails. Simmer it in some meat gravy, without seasoning; then strain it, and serve it with the mutton.