The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory Part 86

_Raspberry Vinegar._ No. 2.

Take two pounds of sugar; dissolve it in a pint of water; then clarify, and let it boil till it is a thick syrup. Take the same quant.i.ty of raspberries, or currants, but not too ripe, and pour over them a quarter of a pint of vinegar, in which they must steep for twenty-four hours.

Pour the fruit and vinegar into the syrup, taking care not to bruise the fruit; then give it one boil, strain it, and cork it up close in bottles. The fruit must be carefully picked and cleaned, observing not to use any that is in the least decayed. To the syrup of currants a few raspberries may be added, to heighten the flavour. An earthen pipkin is the best to boil in.

_Raspberry Vinegar._ No. 3.

Fill a jug with raspberries; add as much of the best vinegar as the jug will hold; let the fruit steep ten or twelve days; then strain the liquor through a fine sieve, without squeezing the raspberries; put three pounds of lump sugar to a quart of juice, and skim it.

_Walnuts, black._ No. 1.

Take large full grown walnuts before they are hard; lay them in salt and water for two days: then s.h.i.+ft them into fresh water, and let them lie two days longer; change them again, and let them lie two days longer; take them out, and put them in your pickle pot; when the pot is half full, put in some shalots, and a head of garlic. To a hundred of walnuts add half an ounce of allspice, half an ounce of black pepper, six bay-leaves, and a stick of horseradish. Then fill your pots, and pour boiling vinegar over them; cover them with a plate, and when cold tie them down.

Before you put the nuts into salt and water, p.r.i.c.k them well with a pin.

_Walnuts._ No. 2.

About midsummer take your walnuts, run a knitting-needle through them, and lay them in vinegar and salt, sufficiently strong to bear an egg.

Let them remain in this pickle for three weeks; then make some fresh pickle; s.h.i.+ft them into it, and let them lie three weeks longer; take them out, and wipe them with a clean cloth; and tie up every nut in a clean vine-leaf. Put them into fresh vinegar, seasoned with salt, mace, mustard, garlic, and horseradish; and to a hundred nuts put one ounce of ginger, one ounce of pepper, and of cloves and mace a quarter of an ounce each, two small nutmegs, and half a pint of mustard seed. All the pickles to be done in raw vinegar (that is, not boiled). It is always recommended to have the largest double nuts, being the best to pickle.

_Walnuts._ No. 3.

Take the large French nuts, wipe them clean, and wrap each in a vine-leaf; put them into a weak brine of salt and water for a fortnight, changing it every day, and lay a slate upon them, to keep them always under, or they will turn black. Drain them, and make a stronger brine, that will bear an egg; let them lie in that a fortnight longer; then drain and wipe them very dry, and wrap them in fresh vine-leaves; put them in jars, and pour on them double-distilled vinegar, which must not be boiled. To six or eight hundred nuts put two pounds of shalots, one of garlic, and one of rocambole; a piece of a.s.safotida, of the size of a pea, tied up in a bit of muslin, and put into each jar, of white, black, and long pepper, one pound each, half a pound of mace, a quarter of a pound of nutmegs, two ounces of cinnamon, two ounces of cloves, two pounds of allspice, one pound of ginger, two pounds of mustard-seed, some bay-leaves, and horseradish. The mustard-seed and spice must be a little bruised. Mix all these ingredients together, and put in a layer of nuts and then a layer of this mixture; put the a.s.safotida in the middle; and as the pickle wastes take care to keep the jar filled up with vinegar.

_Walnuts._ No. 4.

Take a hundred walnuts, at the beginning of July, before they are sh.e.l.led; just scald them, that the skin may rub off, then put them into salt and water, for nine or ten days; s.h.i.+ft them every day, and keep them covered from the air: dry them; make your pickle of two quarts of white wine vinegar, long pepper, black pepper, and ginger, of each half an ounce; beat the spice; add a large spoonful of mustard-seed; strew this between every layer of nuts. Pour liquor, boiling hot, upon them, three or four times, or more, if required. Be sure to keep them tied down close.

_Walnuts._ No. 5.

Put into a stone jar one hundred large double nuts. Take one ounce of Jamaica and four ounces of black pepper, two of ginger, one of cloves, and a pint of mustard-seed; bruise these, and boil them, with a head or two of garlic and four handfuls of salt, in a sufficient quant.i.ty of vinegar to cover the nuts. When cold, put it to them, and let them stand two days. Then boil up the pickle, pour it over the nuts, and tie them down close. Repeat this process for three days.

_Walnuts, green._

Wipe and wrap them one by one in a vine-leaf: boil crab verjuice, and pour it boiling hot over the walnuts, tying them down close for fourteen days; then take them out of the leaves and liquor, wrap them in fresh leaves, and put them in your pots. Over every layer of walnuts, strew pepper, mace, cloves, a little ginger, mustard seed, and garlic. Make the pickle of the best white wine vinegar, boiling in the pickle the same sort of spices, with the addition of horseradish, and pour it boiling hot upon the walnuts. Tie them close down; they will be ready to eat in a month, and will keep for three or four years.

_Walnut Ketchup._

To three pints of the best white wine vinegar put nine Seville oranges peeled, and let them remain four months. Pound or bruise two hundred walnuts, just before they are fit for pickling; squeeze out two quarts of juice, and put it to the vinegar. Tie a quarter of a pound of mace, the same of cloves, and a quarter of a pound of shalot, in a muslin rag or bag; put this into the liquor; in about three weeks boil it gently till reduced one half, and when quite cold bottle it.

_Another._

Cut in slices about one hundred of the largest walnuts for pickling; cut through the middle a quarter of a pound of shalots, and beat them fine in a mortar, adding a pint and a half of the best vinegar and half a pound of salt. Let them remain a week in an earthen vessel, stirring them every day. Press them through a flannel bag; add a quarter of a pound of anchovies; boil up the liquor, sc.u.m it, and run it through a flannel bag. Put into it two sliced nutmegs, whole pepper, and mace, and bottle it when cold.

WINES, CORDIALS, LIQUEURS, &c.

_Ale, to drink in a week._

Tun it into a vessel which will hold eight gallons, and, when it has done working and is ready to bottle, put in some ginger sliced, an orange stuck full of cloves, and cut here and there with a knife, and a pound and a half of sugar. With a stick stir it well together, and it will work afresh. When it has done working, bottle it: cork the bottles well; set them bottom upwards; and the ale will be fit to drink in a week.

_Very rare Ale._

When your ale is tunned into a vessel that will hold eight or nine gallons, and has done working, and is ready to be stopped up, take a pound and a half of raisins of the best quality, stoned and cut into pieces, and two large oranges. Pulp and pare them. Slice it thin; add the rind of one lemon, a dozen cloves, and one ounce of coriander seeds bruised: put all these in a bag, hang them in the vessel, and stop it up close. Fill the bottles but a little above the neck, to leave room for the liquor to play; and put into every one a large lump of fine sugar.

Stop the bottles close, and let the ale stand a month before you drink it.

_Orange Ale._

Boil twenty gallons of spring water for a quarter of an hour; when cool, put it into a tub over a bushel of malt, and let it stand one hour. Pour it from the malt, put to it a handful of wheat bran, boil it very fast for another hour; then strain and put it into a clean tub. When cold, pour it off clear from the sediment; put yest to it, and let it work like all other ales. When it has worked enough, put it into the cask.

Then take the rind and juice of twenty Seville oranges, but no seeds; cut them thin and small, put them into a mortar, and beat them as fine as possible, with two pounds of fine lump sugar; put them into a ten-gallon cask, with ten gallons of ale. Keep filling up your cask again with ale, till it has done working; then stop it up close. When it has stood eight days, tap it for drink; if you bottle it, let it stand till it is clear before you bottle it, otherwise the bottles may burst.

_Aqua Mirabilis, a very fine Cordial._

Three pints of sack, three pints of Madeira, one quart of spirit of wine, one quart of juice of celandine leaves, of melilot flowers, cardamom seeds, cubebs, galingale, nutmeg, cloves, mace, ginger, two drachms of each; bruise them thoroughly in a mortar, and mix them with the wine and spirits. Let it stand all night in the still, closely stopped with rye paste; next morning make a slow fire in the still, and while it is distilling keep a wet cloth about the neck of the still. Put so much white sugar-candy as you think fit into the gla.s.s where it drops.

_Bitters._

One drachm of cardamom seed, two scruples of saffron, three ounces of green root, two scruples of cochineal, and four ounces of orange-peel.

Put these ingredients into a large bottle, and fill it with the very best French brandy, so that they are well covered; after it has stood for three days, take out the liquor, and put it into another large bottle; fill up the first before, and let it stand four or five days; then once more take out the liquor and fill up again, letting it stand ten or twelve days. Then take it out again, put it all together, and it will be fit for use.

_Another way._

Ginger and cardamom seed, of each three pennyworth, saffron, orange-peel, and cochineal, of each two pennyworth, put into one gallon of brandy.

_Cherry Brandy._

Four pounds of morella cherries, two quarts of brandy, and twelve cloves, to be sweetened with syrup of ginger made in the following manner: one ounce and a half of ginger boiled in a quart of water, till reduced to half a pint; then dissolve in it one pound and a half of sugar, and add it to the brandy. It will be fit for use by Christmas.

After the cordial is made, you can make a most delightful sweetmeat with the cherries, by dipping them into syrup, and drying them in a cool oven.