Title: The New England Economical Housekeeper.
Title: The American Economical Housekeeper, and Family Receipt Book.
Author: Howland, Esther Allen
Publisher: Cincinnati: H. W. Derby & Co.
Publisher: Worcester: S. A. Howland.
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PRICE TWENTY FIVE CENTS.
THE
NEW ENGLAND
ECONOMICAL HOUSEKEEPER.
FAMILY RECEIPT BOOK.
WORCESTER
PUBLISHED BY S. A. HOWLAND
MAIN STREET
[GAP IN TEXT. Type: . Extent: line]
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STEAMED BROWN BREAD--One cup of Indian meal, two cups of rye, one cup of molasses, two cups of milk, half teaspoonful of soda, the same of salt. Stir well together and steam three hours, taking care that the water does not stop boiling. Add boiling water as the water boils away. If you wish it hot for breakfast, steam the day before, and in the morning set it in the oven for half an hour to form a good crust.
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[Illustration: An illustration of two women cooking in a kitchen. One woman is kneading dough and the other is working at a second counter. A basket of vegetables is on the floor and joints of meat hang from hooks on the walls. A fireplace is in the background with a kettle over the fire and a oil drum-shaped stove. There is a shelf over the fireplace and the clock above the shelf reads nine o'clock.]
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THE
AMERICAN
ECONOMICAL HOUSEKEEPER,
AND
FAMILY RECEIPT BOOK.
>
BY MRS. E. A. HOWLAND.
STEREOTYPE EDITION.
CINCINNATI:
PUBLISHED BY H. W. DERBY & CO.
1845.
View page [copyright statement]
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by
S. A. HOWLAND,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.
STEREOTYPED AT THE
BOSTON TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.
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PREFACE.
This work has been compiled with a careful regard to the most economical mode of preparing the various dishes for which directions have been given; and is particularly recommended to the attention of those who would cook well at a moderate expense. Many of the receipts are new, having been prepared, or furnished, expressly for this work. Selections have also been made from various works on this subject, such as have been proved to be good by use.
The Medicinal Department will be found to contain a select number of useful and tried remedies for the various ills and accidents that occur in almost every family. Although not intended as a substitute for the family physician, still, there are times when his attendance or advice cannot be had at the moment when most needed. It is then that the receipts in this department will be found to be of some service.
In conclusion, we would tender our thanks to those friends who have kindly furnished some of their choice and valuable receipts; and of those into whose hands our little work may come, we would bespeak a fair trial before passing judgment against it.
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ADVERTISEMENT
TO THE SECOND EDITION.
ENCOURAGED by the very favorable reception that our humble labors have met, in the rapid sale of the first edition, of fifteen hundred copies, in about fifteen weeks, and the demand still continuing, we have improved the time by endeavoring to make the present edition more worthy of patronage, if possible, than the first.
We have thoroughly revised the work by leaving out such receipts as were not of practical utility, have improved many that have been retained, and have added more than fifty new ones, which have been tried and proved to be good and economical. We have also improved the Medicinal Department, which we consider as valuable as any part of the book, by giving several additional articles.
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INDEX.
The figures in the Index refer to the number of the receipt, and NOT to the page.
No.
Apple Jelly..........................240
---Dumpling.....................133, 134
Beans, baked.........................265
Beef, a-la-mode......................192
---Steak, to broil...................218
--- ---- to roast....................194
Beer..........................267 to 269
Biscuit, Bread........................18
---Brown Bread........................17
---Butter.............................26
---Light..............................20
---Rice...............................21
---Rich Milk..........................25
---Tea................................19
Boiled Dish Meat.....................213
---Flank.............................222
Bread, Brown.......................4, 11
---Cream Tartar........................9
---Dyspepsia...........................5
---to prevent moulding................31
---Potato..............................2
---Rice................................6
---Ripe................................1
---Rye and Indian.....................12
---Sour Milk..........................13
---Sponge..............................8
---Wheat Meal..........................3
---Wisconsin...........................7
---Yeast..............................10
Broth...........................235, 236
Bunns.............................91, 92
Cakes, Bedford.......................103
---Buckwheat..........................75
---Caraway............................40
---Clove..............................65
---Composition........................69
---Cup............................32, 33
---Currant............................99
---Election...........................34
---Fruit........................100, 101
---Gillet............................107
---Ginger.............................97
---Graham............................105
---Griddle............................22
---Johnny.............................24
---Loaf.........................41 to 47
---Measure...........................202
---New Year's.........................95
---Plain.........................83, 106
---Plum...........................84, 85
---Raised.............................39
---Seed.........................88 to 90
---Short..............................23
Cakes, Shrewsbury.....................64
---Soft...............................68
---Sponge.......................35 to 38
---Tea...........................53, 104
---Temperance.....................86, 87
---Wedding......................48 to 50
Calf's Head and Pluck, to boil.......209
Chicken Broth........................236
Chowder.........................233, 234
Coffee, to make......................273
Cookies.........................93 to 95
Cranberry Tarts......................182
Currant Jelly........................259
Custard, Baked.......................180
---Cream.............................181
---Rice..............................179
---without Eggs......................178
Dinners for a Week...................274
Doughnuts.......................76 to 80
Ducks and Geese, to roast............214
Dumplings, Apple................133, 134
Eggs, to preserve....................260
Fish, to boil........................229
---to broil, salt Cod................231
---to fry............................238
Flank, boiled........................222
Flat-Jacks......................70 to 74
Frosting to Cake..................51, 52
Geese and Ducks, to roast............214
Ginger Beer..........................207
Gingerbread.....................54 to 61
Gravy Sauce..........................221
Grape Sirup..........................259
Gruel, Sago and Indian..........237, 238
Ham, to boil.........................200
Head and Pluck, Calf's...............209
Heating the Oven.....................185
Indian Gruel.........................238
Jumbles...............................67
Jelly from Apples....................246
Mackerel, to broil...................252
Mangoes..............................262
Mead, Sassafras......................255
Meat, to cure........................228
---baking............................187
---boiling...........................189
---broiling..........................188
---frying............................190
---to keep hot.......................203
---pressing..........................207
Mutton with Oysters..................220
---to roast..........................195
Oven, to heat........................135
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No.
Pancakes..........................81, 82
Peas, Green..........................254
Peaches, to keep dry.................240
---to keep fresh.....................239
Pickles..............................263
Peach Sauce..........................241
Pies, Apple.....................169, 170
---Carrot............................171
---Chicken...........................174
---Chicken Pot.......................175
---Custard...........................176
---Lemon.............................184
---Mince........................165, 166
---Mutton............................173
---Paste for.........................161
---Pork Apple........................163
---Pot Apple.........................162
---Pot...............................216
---Pumpkin......................167, 168
---Rhubarb...........................172
---R ice..............................177
---Veal..............................164
---Whortleberry......................183
Pig, to broil........................195
--to bake............................202
Pork, Leg of, to boil................264
---to broil..........................212
---to roast..........................192
Potatoes, cooking....................228
Potato Starch........................271
---Yeast..............................14
Preserves, Apples....................245
----Citrons..........................248
----Currants.........................238
----Grapes...........................249
----Peaches..........................242
----Pears............................237
----Quinces..........................247
----Raspberries......................243
----Tomatoes....................255, 256
----Whortleberries...................244
Pressing, Meat.......................207
Pudding, in Haste....................140
----Observations on..................109
----Apple............................149
----Baked Apple......................142
----Bread............................158
----Indian...........................152
----Rice........................119, 120
----Batter......................137, 138
----Bird's Nest......................135
----Boiled Apple.................114, 149
---- ---- Bread......................116
----Boston...........................115
Pudding, Bread..................112, 147
----Bread and Butter.................141
----Bunn.............................154
----Cracker Plum.....................113
----Flour............................148
----Fruit Rice.......................121
----Green Corn.......................128
----Ground Rice......................155
----Indian Hasty.....................160
----Little Citron....................157
----Plain............................155
----Plain Rice..................122, 146
----Plum boiled......................151
----Quaking Plum.....................135
----Quince...........................144
----Rice Flour.......................153
----Rice Milk........................145
----Sago......................129 to 132
----Sauce for...................110, 111
----Sunderland.......................139
----Tapioca..........................143
Rolls.................................15
---Short..............................16
Round of Beef........................205
Rusk.................................165
Sago Gruel...........................237
Sassafras Mead.......................265
Sausage Meat.........................223
Savory Meat..........................225
Shad, to broil.......................232
Soups...........................121, 208
Souse................................224
Starch..........................271, 272
Stuffing........................210, 211
Sirup from Grapes....................250
Tainted Beef.........................227
Thanksgiving Dinner...................75
Toast.............................27, 28
Tomato Figs..........................251
----Ketchup..........................252
----Omelet...........................254
----Preserve....................255, 256
----Sauce............................253
Tripe, to pickle.....................251
Turkey, roast........................212
----boiled...........................217
Veal, Leg of.........................199
---roast.............................193
---stewed............................215
Venison, roast.......................197
Wafers............................62, 63
Water, to purify.....................279
Wonders...............................66
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Medicinal Department.
Accidents by Fire...............282, 283
Asthma...............................276
Blackberry Jam.......................288
Bleeding at the Nose.................277
Bleeding, Remedy to stop.............278
Blow on the Head.....................279
Burns and Scalds.....................280
Burn, Salve for......................281
Cancer...............................290
Cancer and Sores.....................291
Canker and Sore Mouth................292
Castor Oil...........................309
Chapped Hands........................299
Chilblains...........................298
Colic................................289
Consumption..........................293
Corns................................295
Coughs...............................338
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No.
Cramp in the Stomach.................295
Croup................................294
Cuts.................................297
Deafness.............................305
Diarrhœa.......................302
Dropsy...............................303
Drowning.............................304
Dysentery............................301
Earache..............................311
Elderberry Sirup.....................308
Elixir Asthmatic.....................310
Elixir Pro...........................319
Eyes, Inflamed.......................306
Felons...............................312
Fevers...............................313
Figs and Senna.......................314
Fire Escape.....................284, 285
---to extinguish................286, 287
Gravel...............................315
Hair Restorative.....................316
Headache.............................320
Heartburn............................319
Hiccough.............................3 18
Hydrophobia..........................317
Indigestion, Remedy for..............321
Lip Salve............................322
Opodeldoc............................323
Pile Electuary.......................324
---Ointment..........................325
Poison...............................326
Rheumatism...........................328
Ringworm.............................329
Runround on the Finger...............327
Salve for Burns......................332
Sea Sickness.........................331
Sore Throat..........................330
Thoroughwort Sirup...................333
Toothache............................334
---Wash..............................335
Vomiting, to stop....................336
Warts................................337
Whooping Cough.......................339
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Miscellaneous.
Apples, to keep the Year round.......340
Ants, Red............................371
Bed of Husks, cheap, good............345
Blacking, for Shoes........341, 342, 343
Boots, Water-proof...................344
Butter, good, in Winter..............346
Cabbage, Red.........................350
Cement for China................363, 386
Cheese, to preserve from Insects.....383
Chloride of Lime.....................348
Cologne Water........................347
Corn, to preserve for boiling........349
Crust in Tea-Kettles.................387
Cucumber Plants, to preserve.........382
----to pickle........................389
Flies, to drive off..................359
---to prevent injuring Picture-Frames 373
---teasing Horses....................351
Fowls, to fatten.....................355
Frozen Pumps.........................389
Gates, to prevent creaking...........379
Glue, Portable.......................295
Good Rule............................397
Grease-Spots, a Liquid to remove.....396
Hint to Working Classes..............398
Horses, to break.....................380
---Scratches in......................354
---teased by Flies...................351
Ice, to remove from Door-Steps.......375
Ink, to make.........................359
---Spots, to remove..................353
---Spots on Floors...................388
Indelible Ink........................360
Iron Pots, to mend...................368
Jefferson's two Rules................320
Lamps, to prevent smoking............364
Lavender-Water.......................391
Linen, Mildew from...................393
Looking-Glasses, to clean............373
Molasses, boil it....................384
Mosquitoes...........................366
Oil, to extract from Board or Stone..394
Paint for a Barn.....................385
Pitch, Tar, &c., to take out.....362
Potatoes, to keep good...............381
----Watery...........................382
Pump, Frozen.........................369
Putty, Hard, to soften...............376
Rats, Bait for.......................357
---to destroy........................356
---to drive off......................358
Rose-Water...........................322
Smelling Salts.......................367
Soft Soap............................377
Stoves, cracked, to mend.............378
Tool Closet..........................400
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THE ECONOMICAL HOUSEKEEPER.
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1. Ripe Bread.
BREAD made of wheat flour, when taken out of the oven, is unprepared for the stomach. It should go through a change, or ripen, before it is eaten. Young persons, or persons in the enjoyment of vigorous health, may eat bread immediately after being baked, without any sensible injury from it; but weakly and aged persons cannot, and none can eat such, without doing harm to the digestive organs. Bread, after being baked, goes through a change similar to the change in newly-brewed beer, or newly-churned buttermilk, neither being healthy until after the change. During the change in bread, it sends off a large portion of carbon, or unhealthy gas, and imbibes a large portion of oxygen, or healthy gas. Bread has, according to the computation of physicians, one fifth more nutriment in it when ripe, than it has when just out of the oven. It not only has more nutriment, but imparts a much greater degree of cheerfulness. He that eats old ripe bread will have a much greater flow of animal spirits than he would were he to eat unripe bread. Bread, as before observed, discharges carbon, and imbibes oxygen. One thing, in connection with this thought, should be particularly noticed by all housewives. It is, to let the bread ripen where it can inhale the oxygen in a pure state. Bread will always taste of the air that surrounds it while ripening - hence it should ripen where the air is pure. It should never ripen in a cellar, nor in a close cupboard, nor in a bedroom. The noxious vapors of a cellar, or a cupboard, never should enter into and form a part of the bread we eat. Bread should be
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light, well baked, and properly ripened, before it should be eaten.
Bread that is several days old may be renewed, so as to have all the freshness and lightness of new bread, by simply putting it into a common steamer over a fire, and steaming it half or three quarters of an hour. The vessel under the steamer, containing the water, should not be more than half full; otherwise the water may boil up into the steamer, and wet the bread. After the bread is thus steamed, it should be taken out of the steamer, and wrapped loosely in a cloth, to dry and cool, and remain so a short time, when it will be ready to be cut and used. It will then be like cold, new bread.
Take a dozen and a half of good mealy
potatoes well boiled; peel them, and mash them fine while warm; add two quarts of
cold water, and then strain the mixture through a colander; add
flour enough to make a thick batter; then a pint of good
lively yeast; if the
yeast is sweet, no
saleratus is necessary; if sour, a very little
saleratus; let the sponge set, until it is well fermented. With this sponge you may make a large or a small quantity of bread by adding
flour and
water or
milk; if a small quantity, it may be put into the oven very soon; if the quantity be large, it must stand longer, or over night. Put in double the usual quantity of
salt, but no shortening. Let the dough stand in a place moderately warm, but not near the fire, unless it is to be baked immediately.
Milk or
water may be used, but
water is the best, for the sponge mixed with
water keeps sweet the longest. The bread will be very light, sweet, and wholesome, having in it neither acids nor alkalies, to neutralize each other. The greater the proportion of
potatoes, the lighter the bread will be; but if the proportion is very large, the bread will be so light as to dry up, if kept several days.
[Editorial note: The following note appears on the bottom of page fourteen in the original text.]
* All the receipts having a star prefixed to them, were prepared, or furnished, expressly for this work.
* Take two quarts of
wheat meal, half a cup of
molasses, a tea-cup full of
lively yeast; mix up with warm
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water; let it stand in a warm place an hour and a half; if necessary, add a little
saleratus; bake it an hour and a half.
* Put the
Indian meal in your bread-pan, sprinkle a little
salt among it, and wet it thoroughly with
scalding water. When it is cool, put in your
rye; add two gills of
lively yeast, and mix it with
water as stiff as you can knead it. Let it stand an hour and a half, in a cool place in summer, on the hearth in winter. It should be put into a very hot oven, and baked three or four hours.
* Three quarts
unbolted wheat meal; one quart
soft water, warm, but not hot; one gill of fresh
yeast; one gill of
molasses, or not, as may suit the taste. If you put this in the oven at the exact time when it is risen enough,
saleratus will not be necessary.
Boil a pint of
rice, soft; add a pint of
yeast; then, three quarts of
wheat flour; put it to rise in a tin or earthen vessel, until it has risen sufficiently; divide it into three parts; then bake it as other
bread, and you will have three large loaves.
Stir
Indian meal in
skim milk, to the consistency of pancake batter, about two quarts. Add two tea-spoonfuls of
molasses, one of
saleratus, two of
shortening, and two teacups of
wheat flour. Stir in the evening, bake in the morning, and eat while hot.
* Make a batter of
flour and
water, thickness of flat-jacks; put it in a tin pail, and set this pail in a kettle of
warm water, five or six hours, till it has risen; then mould it hard by adding more
flour, and make it into loaves in basins, and let it stand till it begins to crack open. It is now ready to be put into the oven, and will bake in from thirty to forty-five minutes.
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* One quart of
flour, two tea-spoonfuls of
cream tartar, one of
saleratus, two and a half cups of
milk; bake twenty minutes.
Three pints of
milk or
water to one cup of
yeast; stir in
flour enough to make it a little thicker than batter, rise it over night, mould it up, and let it stand till it rises, then bake it.
11. Brown Bread, made of Indian and Wheat Meal. |
* Take one quart of
Indian meal, and one quart of
wheat meal, one quart of
sour milk, half a tea-cupful
molasses, a heaping tea-spoonful of
saleratus, and a little
salt; stir it with a spoon, and bake it, in a tin or iron basin, about two hours.
12. Rye and Indian Bread. |
* Take about two quarts of
Indian meal, and scald it; then add as much
rye meal, a tea-cupful of
molasses, half a pint of
lively yeast; if the
yeast is sweet, no
saleratus is necessary; if sour, put in a little; let it stand from one to two hours, till it rises; then bake it about three hours.
Have ready your
flour, sweeten your
milk with a little
saleratus, add a little
salt, make it rather soft, and pour it into your pan, and bake it.
* Five large
potatoes boiled and mashed, three pints of
boiling water, flour enough to make it a little thicker than flat-jacks, and one cup of
yeast. This is enough to rise five loaves of bread, which may be mixed with water, or milk, and will rise enough while your oven is heating. Save out enough of this yeast for your next baking.
Warm an ounce of
butter in half a pint of
milk, then add a spoonful and a half of
yeast, and a little
salt. Put
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two pounds of
flour in a pan, and mix in the above ingredients. Let it rise an hour--or over night, in a cool place; knead it well, make into seven rolls, and bake them in a quick oven. Add half a tea-spoonful of
saleratus, just as you put the rolls into the baker.
Take about two pounds of
flour; add a piece of
butter half the size of an egg, a little
salt, two spoonfuls of
yeast, and mix it with
warm milk; make it into a light dough, and let it stand by the fire all night; should it sour, put in a little
saleratus. Bake them in a quick oven.
Two quarts of
Indian meal, a pint and a half of
rye, one cup of
flour, two spoonfuls of
yeast, and a table-spoonful of
molasses. It is well to add a little
saleratus to
yeast almost always, just as you put it into the article. Let it rise over night.
Three pounds of
flour, half a pint of
Indian meal sifted, a little
butter, two spoonfuls of
lively yeast; set it before the fire to rise over night; mix it with
warm water.
* Take one pint of
sour milk, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus, flour enough to knead up, a small piece of
lard or
butter, a little
salt; roll it out, and cut it into small biscuits.
Take two pounds of
flour, a pint of
buttermilk, half a tea-spoonful of
saleratus; put into the
buttermilk a small piece of
butter or
lard rubbed into the
flour; make it about the consistency of bread before baking.
Two pounds of
flour, a tea-cupful of
rice, well boiled, two spoonfuls of
yeast; mix it with
warm water; when risen enough, bake it.
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Rub three ounces of
butter into a pound of
flour with a little
salt, moisten it with
sweet buttermilk to make it into
paste, roll it out, and cut the cakes with the cover of your dredging-box, and put them upon a griddle to bake.
Rub in a very small bit of
shortening, or three table-spoonfuls of
cream, with the
flour; put a tea-spoonful of dissolved
saleratus into your
sour milk, and mix the cake pretty stiff, to bake quick.
24. Superior Johnny-Cake. |
* Take one quart of
milk, three
eggs, one tea-spoonful
saleratus, one teacup of
wheat flour, and
Indian meal sufficient to make a batter of the consistency of pancakes. Bake quick, in pans previously buttered, and eat it warm with
butter or
milk. The addition of
wheat flour will be found to be a great improvement in the art of making these cakes.
Two pounds of sifted
flour, eight ounces
butter, two
eggs, three gills of
milk, a gill and a half of
yeast. Cut the
butter into the
milk and warm it slightly, sift the
flour into a pan, and pour the
milk and
butter into it. Beat the
eggs and pour them in, also the
yeast; mix all well together with a knife. Flour your moulding-board, put the lump of dough on it, and knead it very hard. Then cut the dough in small pieces, and knead them into round balls; prick and set them in buttered pans to rise till light, probably about an hour, and bake them in a moderate oven.
Eight ounces of
butter, two pounds of
flour sifted, half a pint of
milk or
cold water, a salt spoonful of
salt. Cut up the
butter in the
flour and put the
salt to it, wet it to a stiff dough with the
milk or
water, mix it well with a knife. Throw some flour on the moulding-board, take the dough out of the pan, and knead it very well. Roll it out into a large, thick sheet, and beat it very hard on both
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sides with the rolling-pin. Beat it a long time, cut it out, with a tin or cup, into small, round, thick cakes. Beat each cake on both sides with the rolling-pin, prick them with a fork, put them in buttered pans, and bake them to a light brown in a slow oven.
* Put a lump of
butter in your spider, set it over the fire, and pour some
water from the tea-kettle; when the
butter is melted, put in some thickening, made of
flour, and
milk, and
water, and stir it all together; have your
bread, either brown or white, toasting, and immerse it all over in the toast. If your
bread is old and dry, dip it in
hot water before you put it in the toast.
* Is made in the same way, by using
cream instead of butter.
To have good yeast in summer is a desirable object with every housewife. She may have such, by the following simple process:--
Boil a single handful of hops (which every farmer can and ought to raise, to the extent of household wants) in two or three quarts of water; strain and thicken the liquor, when hot, with rye flour; then add two or three small yeast cakes, to set the mass. If this is done at evening, it will be fit for use early next morning. Reserve a pint of this yeast, which thicken with Indian meal, make into small cakes the size of crackers, and dry them in the shade for future use. In this way the yeast is always fresh and active. Yeast cakes kept a long time are apt to become rancid, and lose their virtues. The fresher the cakes, the better the yeast.
Boil one pound of good
flour, a quarter of a pound of
brown sugar, add a little
salt, in two gallons of
water, for one hour. When milk-warm, bottle it and cork it close, and it will be fit for use in twenty-four hours. One pint of the yeast will make eighteen lbs. of bread.
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31. To preserve Bread, or prevent it from moulding.
Bread that is kept in a damp place, or not used soon after a heavy rain, is apt to collect a kind of moss or mould. This can be easily prevented, by mixing a small quantity of arrow-root with the flour, before the dough is ready for the oven. It is also useful in preparing sea biscuit for long voyages.
One cup
butter, two cups
sugar, three cups
flour, and four
eggs, well beat together, and baked twenty minutes, in pans or cups.
* This same quantity, with currants or raisins added, makes a very good loaf cake.
* Four cups of
flour, two cups of
sugar, one cup of
butter, one cup of
cream, four
eggs, one
nutmeg, half a tea-spoonful of
saleratus, one cup of
raisins, and one of
currants.
Four pounds of
flour; three quarters of a pound of
butter; four
eggs; one pound of
sugar; half a pint of good
yeast; wet it with
milk, as soft as can be moulded on a board. Set it to rise over night in winter; in warm weather, three hours is usually enough for it to rise. Bake it about three quarters of an hour.
The weight of six eggs in
sugar, the weight of four eggs in
flour, a little
rose-water. The
whites and yolks of ten eggs should be beaten thoroughly and separately. The
eggs and
sugar should be well beaten together; but after the
flour is sprinkled, it should not be stirred a moment longer than is necessary to mix it well; it should be poured into the pan, and got into the oven with all possible expedition. Twenty minutes is about long enough to bake it.
* Four large
eggs, two cups of
flour, two cups of
sugar, even full; beat the two parts of the
eggs separate,
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the white to a froth, then beat them together, then stir in the
flour, and without delay put it into the oven.
37. Cheap Sponge Cake, No. 3. |
Four
eggs, three cups of
sugar, one cup of
milk, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus, flour enough to make it a good stiff batter, a little
salt and
spice, quick oven. Bake it twenty minutes.
38. Rice Flour Sponge Cake, No. 4. |
It is made like other sponge cake, except that you use three quarters of a pound of
rice flour, thirteen
eggs, leaving out four whites, and add a little
salt.
* Four pounds of
flour, half a pound of
butter, half a pound of
sugar, one pint of
new milk, one pint of
yeast; when risen, put it in the oven, and bake it till you can put a knitting needle in, and draw it out clean.
Take one pound of
flour, three quarters of a pound of
sugar, half a pound of
butter, a glass of
rose-water, four
eggs, and half a tea-cup of
caraway seed,--the materials well rubbed together, and beat up. Drop them from a spoon on tin sheets, and bake them twenty or thirty minutes, in rather a slow oven.
* Four pounds of
flour, two pounds of
sugar, one pint of
yeast, three
eggs, two
nutmegs, one pound of
raisins; rub half the
sugar and
butter when you mix it, let it rise, then rub the rest of the
butter and
sugar, and pour it into pans, and bake immediately.
* Three pounds of
flour, one pound and a half of
butter, one pound and a quarter of
sugar, one pound of
raisins, one pint of
yeast, ten
eggs; spice to your taste.
Two pounds of
flour, half a pound of
sugar, quarter of a pound of
butter, two
eggs, a gill of
sweet yeast, half
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an ounce of
cinnamon, a large spoonful of
rose-water; if it is not about as thin as good white bread dough, add a little
milk. Bake it about three quarters of an hour.
* Five
eggs, two large tea-cupfuls of
molasses, the same of
brown sugar rolled fine, the same of fresh
butter, one cup of
rich milk, five cups of
flour sifted; add powdered
allspice, cloves, and
ginger, to your liking. Cut up the
butter in the
milk, warm them slightly, warm also the
molasses, and stir it into the
milk and
butter, then stir in gradually the
sugar, and let it cool. Beat the
eggs very light, and stir them into the mixture alternately with the
flour; add the
ginger and other
spice, and stir the whole very hard. Add half a pound of
currants or
raisins, and bake it in a moderate oven.
45. Loaf Cake, very nice, No. 5. |
* One pound of
flour, three
eggs, one cup of
sugar, one of
butter, one pound of
raisins, half a pound of
currants, two tea-spoonfuls of
rose-water, nutmeg, one cup of
cream, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus.
46. Cheap Loaf Cake, No. 6. |
Two cups of
flour, one cup of
molasses, two
eggs well beat up, half a cup of
currants, half a cup of
raisins, half a tea-spoonful of
cloves, the same of
nutmegs, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus, half a cup of
butter.
47. Loaf Cream Cake, No. 7. |
* Twelve cups of
flour, seven cups of
sugar, six
eggs, one pint of
cream, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus; salt and
spice to suit your taste. This is enough for two loaves; put
raisins or
currants in one of them.
* Four pounds of
flour, four pounds of
sugar, three of
butter, forty
eggs, five pounds of stoned
raisins, three pounds of
currants, one ounce of
mace, half an ounce of
nutmeg, six tea-spoonfuls of
rose-water, four tea-spoonfuls of
cream of tartar, stirred in the
flour, two tea-spoonfuls of
saleratus well dissolved. Beat the
butter and
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sugar to a cream; beat the yolks and whites separate, add the
flour gradually, then the spice and
saleratus. Bake it two hours and a half.
* Four pounds of
flour, three pounds of
butter, three pounds of
sugar, four pounds of
currants, two pounds of
raisins, twenty-four
eggs, one ounce of
mace, and three
nutmegs. A little
molasses makes it dark-colored, which is desirable. Half a pound of
citron improves it. Bake it two and a half or three hours.
* Four pounds of
flour, three pounds of
butter, four pounds of
sugar, thirty
eggs, three and a half pounds of
currants, one pound of
citron, one ounce of
mace, a little
cinnamon, very little
cloves; make it into loaves of convenient size. Bake it two and a half or three hours.
51. Frosting for Cake, No. 1. |
* Beat the
whites of eggs to an entire froth, and to each egg add five tea-spoonfuls sifted
loaf sugar, gradually; beat it a great while. Put it on when your cake is hot or cold, as is most convenient. A little
lemon juice squeezed into the egg and
sugar, improves it. Spread it on with a knife, and smooth it over with a soft brush, like a shaving brush.
52. Frosting for Cake, No. 2. |
* Three and a half pounds of
loaf sugar, the
whites of twelve eggs, lemon juice, and a little
potato starch.
Three cups of
sugar, three
eggs, one cup of
butter, one cup of
milk, a spoonful of dissolved
saleratus, and four cups of
flour, well beat up. If it is so stiff that it will not stir easily, add a little more
milk.
Rub four and a half pounds of
flour with half a pound of
lard, and half a pound of
butter; a pint of
molasses, a gill of
milk, two table-spoonfuls of
ginger, a tea-spoonful
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of
saleratus, stirred together. All mixed, bake in shallow pans, twenty or thirty minutes.
55. Soft Gingerbread, No. 2. |
Six tea-cups of
flour, three of
molasses, one of
cream, one of
butter, one table-spoonful of
ginger, and one of
saleratus.
56. Family Gingerbread, No. 3. |
Four cups of
molasses, two cups of
boiling water, four tea-spoonfuls of
saleratus, a small piece of
melted butter; make it stiff with
flour; roll it thin, and bake in pans.
57. Sugar Gingerbread, No. 4. |
* Two pounds of
flour, one of
sugar, three quarters of a pound of
butter, two
eggs, half a tea-cup of
water, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus; ginger to your taste.
58. Soft Gingerbread, very nice, No. 5. |
Four tea-cups of
flour, two cups of
molasses, half a cup of
butter, two cups of
buttermilk, a cup of thick
cream, three
eggs, a table-spoonful of
ginger, and the same of
saleratus. Mix them all together with the exception of
buttermilk, in which the
saleratus must be dissolved, and then added to the rest. Bake in a quick oven.
59. Mrs. Green's Gingerbread, No. 6. |
One pound of
butter, one pound of
sugar, one cup of
milk, one large table-spoonful of
ginger, one large tea-spoonful of
saleratus; flour enough to roll well.
60. Hard Gingerbread, No. 7. |
* Four cups of
molasses, four large tea-spoonfuls of
saleratus, one tea-spoonful of
pulverized alum, dissolved in
hot water, a piece of
butter the size of an egg, two table-spoonfuls of
ginger; boil the
molasses and pour it boiling hot to the
flour; make it as hard as it can be rolled; roll very thin, and cut into squares.
* Take a tea-cupful of
molasses, a tea-spoonful of
saleratus, dissolved in half a cup of
boiling water, a tea-spoonful of
ginger, and
flour to make it hard enough to roll. Bake it five minutes.
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One pound of
flour, quarter of a pound of
butter, two
eggs beat, one glass of
quince preserve juice, and a
nutmeg.
* Two
eggs, two large spoonfuls of
sugar, one
nutmeg; flour enough to knead up hard; roll thin.
One pound of
flour, three quarters of a pound of
sugar, three quarters of a pound of
butter, four
eggs, one
nutmeg.
Three pounds of
flour, one of
butter, one of
sugar, three
eggs, two spoonfuls of
cloves; mix it with
molasses.
Two pounds of
flour, three quarters of a pound of
sugar, half a pound of
butter, nine
eggs, a little
mace and
rose-water.
Three pounds of
flour, two of
sugar, one of
butter, eight
eggs, with a little
caraway seed; and a little
milk, if the
eggs are not sufficient.
One pound and a half of
butter rubbed into two pounds of
flour; add one wine-glass of
preserve juice, one of
rose-water, two of
yeast, nutmeg, cinnamon, and
currants, and bake in little pans.
One pound of
flour, one of
sugar, half a pound of
butter, seven
eggs, and half a pint of
cream.
70. Common Flat-Jacks, No. 1. |
* One quart
sour milk, thicken it with
flour, two tea-spoonfuls of
saleratus, and a little
salt.
71. Indian Flat-Jacks, No. 2. |
Scald a quart of
Indian meal; when lukewarm, stir in half a pint of
flour, half a tea-cupful of
yeast, and a little
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salt; when light, fry them in just fat enough to prevent their sticking to the pan.
72. Indian Griddle Cakes, or Flat-Jacks, No. 3. |
One pint of
Indian meal, one cup of
flour, a little
salt and
ginger, a table-spoonful of
molasses, a tea-spoonful of
saleratus, sour milk enough to make a stiff batter. Bake or fry them on a griddle, or in a spider, like buck-wheat cakes.
73. Rice Flat-Jacks, No. 4. |
Boil some
rice thin; add a pint of
sour milk, then thicken it with
flour; add a little
salt and
saleratus.
74. Rice Griddle Cakes, No. 5. |
Boil one large cup of whole
rice quite soft in
milk, and while hot stir in a little
flour, rice flour, or
Indian meal; when cold, add two or three
eggs, and a little
salt. Bake it in small thin cakes on the griddle.
* Mix your
flour with
cold water; put in a cup of
yeast, and a little
salt; set it in a warm place, over night. If it should be sour, in the morning, put in a little
saleratus; fry them the same as flat-jacks; leave enough to rise the next mess.
* Two
eggs, one cup of
sugar, half a pint of
sour milk, a little
saleratus; salt and
spice to your taste; a small piece of
butter or
cream is better, if you have it; mix the articles together one hour before you fry the cakes; mould with
flour.
* Three cups of
sugar, three
eggs, one cup of
butter, one pint of
buttermilk, one cup of
cream, one
nutmeg, saleratus sufficient for the
buttermilk; mould with
flour.
One cup of
molasses, one of
sugar, one of
sour milk, a piece of
butter or
lard the size of an egg, two
eggs, a large tea-spoonful of
saleratus, a little
salt, flour enough to mould it stiff.
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One pound of
flour, quarter of a pound of
butter, quarter of a pound of
sugar, five
eggs, spice.
80. Economical Dough Nuts, No. 5. |
* One cup of
sweet milk, one cup of
sugar, one tea-spoonful
saleratus, flour enough to make it roll,
salt and
spice to suit your taste. Two or three
plums in each cake improve them.
81. Apple Pancakes, No. 1. |
* One pint of
sour milk, a tea-spoonful of
saleratus, a tea-cup of
fine Indian meal, a tea-cup of
molasses, three sweet
apples chopped fine and mixed in, and
flour enough to make it the right thickness to drop from a spoon. Have your fat boiling hot. Cook till they slip from the fork.
Half a pint of
milk, three spoonfuls of
sugar, one or two
eggs, a tea-spoonful of
dissolved saleratus spiced with
cinnamon or
cloves, a little
salt, and
rose-water. Flour should be stirred in till the spoon moves around with difficulty. Have the fat in your skillet boiling hot, drop them in with a spoon, and cook till thoroughly brown.
Three pounds of
flour, one of
sugar, one of
butter, half a pint of
yeast, three gills of
milk, three
eggs, spice, rose-water.
Mix together a pint of
lukewarm milk, two quarts of sifted
flour, a small tea-cup of
yeast. Set it where it will rise quick. When quite light, work in with the hand four beaten
eggs, a tea-spoonful of
salt, two of
cinnamon. Stir a pound of
sugar with three quarters of a pound of
butter; when white, work it into the cake; add another quart of sifted
flour, and beat the whole ten or fifteen minutes, and set it where it will rise again; when of a spongy lightness, put it into buttered cake-pans, and let them stand fifteen or twenty minutes before baking. Add, if you like, a pound and a half of
raisins, just before putting the cake in the pans.
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Five pounds of
flour, two of
sugar, three quarters of a pound of
lard, and the same quantity of
butter, one pint of
yeast, eight
eggs, one quart of
milk; roll the
sugar into the
flour; add the
raisins and
spice after the first rising.
86. Temperance Cake, No. 1. |
* Three
eggs, two cups of
sugar, one cup of
milk, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus, nutmeg, flour enough to make it pour into the pan; bake it about twenty minutes.
Allspice and
raisins, instead of nutmeg, make a good
plum cake.
87. Temperance Cake, No. 2. |
Two pounds of
flour, three fourths pound of
lard and
butter, one pound
powdered white sugar, one
nutmeg grated. After the
flour and
butter have been incorporated, lay the
sugar in, and pour upon it a small tea-spoonful of
saleratus dissolved. Have six
eggs well beaten, and with a spoon incorporate them well together, till it can be moulded with the hands. Roll it thin, cut with a tumbler, and bake in a few minutes, in a quick oven, without turning.
One tea-cup of
butter, two cups of
sugar rubbed into four cups of
flour; mix it with
milk hard enough to roll, half a tea-spoonful of
saleratus, and
seeds to your taste.
* Eight cups of
flour, three cups of
sugar, one cup of
butter, one cup of
cream, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus, one
egg; seeds to suit your taste.
* One cup of
cream, one of
sugar, one
egg, and
caraway seeds; mix and roll out.
Rub four ounces of
butter into two pounds of
flour, four ounces of
sugar, and a few
caraway seeds, if you like them. Put a spoonful or two of
cream into a cup of
yeast, and as much good
milk as will make the above into
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a light paste; set it to rise, bake it on tins before a quick fire.
* One cup of
butter, one of
sugar, half cup of
yeast, half a pint of
milk; make it stiff with
flour; add
allspice and
nutmeg.
Five cups of
flour, two of
sugar, one of
butter, one
egg, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus, and cut it with a tin into small cakes.
One cup of
butter, well mixed with two and a half cups of
sugar, three
eggs, one cup of
milk, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus, salt and
spice to your taste,
flour enough to mould it.
95. Christmas Cookies, No. 3. |
* Take one pound and a half of
flour, three quarters of a pound of
sugar, half a pound of
butter, half a cup of
milk, and two spoonfuls of
caraway seeds; melt the
butter before you put it in. It is rather difficult to knead, but it can be done. Roll it out and cut it in hearts and diamonds, and bake it on buttered tins.
A very good plain cake can be made without eggs. Take seven pounds of
flour, two and a half pounds of
sugar, two pounds of
butter, one pint of
water, and two tea-spoonfuls of
saleratus well dissolved. Roll it out thin, and bake it on tin sheets. It will keep good a long time.
* One cup and a half of
sugar, half a cup of
butter, two
eggs, a cup of
new milk, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus, one table-spoonful of
ginger, and
flour enough to make it hard; roll it thin, and cut it into rounds, or squares, as you choose. Bake quick.
* Boil a tea-cupful of
molasses, and add two spoonfuls of
butter, one spoonful of
ginger, and one tea-spoonful of
saleratus; stir the
flour in when it is hot, roll it thin, cut it in rounds. Bake quick.
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* One cup of
butter, two of
sugar, three
eggs, one cup of
water or
milk, half a tea-spoonful of
saleratus, a little grated
nutmeg, and a cup of
currants.
* Three pounds of
flour, three pounds of
sugar, three pounds of
butter, six pounds of
currants, three pounds of
raisins, two
eggs, one pound of
citron, one ounce of
mace, one ounce
cinnamon, one ounce
nutmegs, one gill
molasses; beat the
butter to a cream, then stir the
sugar with the
butter; beat the whites of the eggs to a froth, add the froth as it rises to the
sugar and
butter, then add the yolks, being beat well.
101. Cheap Fruit Cake, No. 2. |
* One pound of
sugar, one pound of
butter, six
eggs, one quart of
molasses, one pint of
cream, three and a half pounds of
flour, two tea-spoonfuls of
saleratus, one table-spoonful of ground
cloves, the same of
cinnamon, two
nutmegs, three pounds of
raisins. This quantity will make three loaves.
* Take one tea-cup of
butter, and stir it to a cream, two tea-cups of
sugar, then stir in four
eggs that have been beaten to a froth, a grated
nutmeg, and a pint of
flour; stir it till it is ready to bake. It is good baked in cups or pans.
* One pound of
flour, one of
sugar, one quarter pound of
butter, four
eggs, one tea-cup of
sweet or sour milk, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus, spice and
fruit to suit your taste.
* One pound of
flour, half pound of
butter, half pound of
sugar, two cups of
milk, one great spoonful of
ginger, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus; made stiff enough to roll and cut out with a tumbler. Bake in a quick oven.
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* Two tea-cups of
buttermilk, two tea-cups of
sugar, one
nutmeg, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus.
* Four cups of
flour, two cups of
sugar, two of
buttermilk, one table-spoonful of
butter, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus, nutmeg and
raisins to your liking.
* Take two tea-cups of
sugar, same of
butter, two
eggs, two tea-spoonfuls of
saleratus dissolved in half a cup of
milk, and
flour sufficient to work it into a mass.
* Half a pint of
milk, one tea-cup full of good
yeast, two
eggs; stir in
flour till it is as thick as pancakes; let it rise light, then add one tea-cup of
butter, half a cup of
sugar, one tea-spoonful of
saleratus, one
nutmeg; mix the
white of an egg with
molasses, and rub on just before and after baking.
>
109. Observations on making Puddings.
The outside of a boiled pudding often tastes disagreeably, which arises by the cloth not being nicely washed, and kept in a dry place. It should be dipped in boiling water, squeezed dry, and floured, when to be used. If bread, it should be tied loose; if batter, tight over. The water should boil quick when the pudding is put in; and it should be moved about for a minute, lest the ingredients should not mix. Batter pudding should be strained through a coarse sieve, when all is mixed; in others, the eggs separately. The pans and basins must be always buttered. A pan of cold water should be ready, and the pudding dipped in as soon as it comes out of the pot, and then it will not adhere to the cloth.
* One pint of
sugar, one table-spoonful of
vinegar, a piece of
butter the size of an egg; boil fifteen minutes; add one table-spoonful of
rose-water, a little
nutmeg; boil it, with the
sugar, in nearly a pint of
water, and a large table-spoonful of
flour.
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* Take equal quantities of
powdered sugar and
butter knead them together, make the mixture in a lump, and grate a
nutmeg on it.
* Take a quart of
milk, in which soak
crumbs of dry bread, or
cracker, till it is soft, and as thick as batter; add three
eggs, a little
sugar, and a little
saleratus; bake it about three quarters of an hour; serve up with
sauce.
113. Cracker Plum Pudding. |
* Split open your
crackers, and spread them thin with
butter; put a layer on the bottom of your pudding dish, cover them with
raisins, place them in layers till the dish is nearly full. Then take four
eggs and beat them well, and mix them with a quart of
milk, and pour it over the pudding; add a little
salt, and serve up with
sauce.
Plain cracker pudding
may be made in the same way, by omitting the plums.
114. Boiled Apple Pudding. |
Line a basin with
paste, tolerably thin, fill it with the
apples, and cover it with the
paste; tie a cloth over it, and boil it about an hour and a half, till the
apples are done soft.
Make a good common
paste. When you roll it out the last time, cut off the edges till you get it of a square shape. Have ready some
fruit, sweetened to your taste.
If
cranberries, gooseberries, or
dried peaches, they should be stewed.
If
apples, they should be stewed in a very little
water, drained, and seasoned with some kind of
spice to your liking.
If
currants, raspberries, or
blackberries, they should be mashed with
sugar, and put into the pudding raw. Spread the
fruit thick, all over the sheet of
paste, (which must not be rolled too thin.) When it is covered all over with the
fruit, roll it up, and close the dough at both ends and down the last side. Tie the pudding in a cloth, and boil it. Eat it hot with
sugar.
Some use
beef suet instead of butter for making the paste.
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116. Boiled Bread Pudding. |
Grate
white bread, pour
boiling milk over it, and cover it close. When soaked an hour or two, beat it fine, and mix it with two or three
eggs well beaten. Put it into a basin that will just hold it; tie a floured cloth over it, and put it in boiling water. Serve it up with nice
sauce.
Run your
stewed squash through a sieve; take four
eggs, one pint of
milk; sweeten it thoroughly; add a little
rose-water and
cinnamon. Make a good
paste, and pour the above ingredients into a deep pudding dish.
Mix by degrees a pint of
milk with a large spoonful of
flour, the
yolks of five eggs, and some grated
lemon. Butter a basin that will exactly hold it; pour the batter in, and tie a floured cloth over. Put it in
boiling water over the fire, and turn it about a few minutes, to prevent the
eggs from going to one side. Half an hour will boil it. Serve it with
sweet sauce.
119. Baked Rice Pudding, No. 1. |
Swell a coffee-cup of
rice, add a quart of
milk; sweeten it with
brown sugar, and bake it about an hour, or a little more, in a quick oven or baker.
120. Baked Rice Pudding, No. 2. |
* Two cups of
rice, two quarts of
milk, half a cup of
sugar, a large tea-spoonful of
salt; bake it two hours; serve it up with
butter.
Swell the
rice with
milk over the fire, then mix
fruit of any kind with it,--
currants, gooseberries, or quartered
apples; put one
egg in to bind the
rice; boil it well, and serve it with
sugar and
butter, beat together, with
nutmeg, or
mace.
Wash and pick your
rice, tie it in a cloth, leaving plenty of room for it to swell. Boil it an hour or more, as you
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prefer. When done, eat it with sweet sauce, or butter and sugar. Two
eggs put in while it is hot, well beaten, is an improvement.
123. Suet Pudding, No. 1. |
Chop a pound of
suet, mix with it a pound and a quarter of
flour, two
eggs beaten separately, a little
salt, and as little
milk as will make it. Boil it four hours. It eats well next day, cut in slices and broiled.
124. Suet Pudding, No. 2. |
* Sift your
meal, chop your
suet, and put it in the middle of the
meal; strew over a little
salt, then pour on
boiling water, and mix it very stiff; then soften it by putting in half a cup or more of
molasses. Wet your bag in
boiling water; put the pudding in and tie it up tight; have the
water boiling hot when you put it in; boil it an hour and a half.
125. Baked Suet Pudding, No. 3. |
* Put a quart of
milk over the fire; put your
suet in it, and a little
salt; when it boils, stir in your meal, and make it very stiff; then stir in a cup of
molasses, and thin it down with
milk; bake it three hours, or, if convenient, let it stand in the oven over night.
126. Plain Suet Pudding, No. 4. |
Sift two pounds of
flour into a pan, and add a salt-spoon of
salt. Mince very fine one pound of
beef suet, and rub it into a stiff dough with a little
cold water. Then roll it out an inch thick, or rather more. Cut it into dumplings with the edge of a tumbler. Put them into a pot of boiling water, and let them boil an hour and a half. Send them to the table hot, to eat with boiled loin of mutton, or with molasses after the meat is removed.
127. Suet Pudding, No. 5. |
Mince very fine as much
beef suet as will make two large table-spoonfuls. Grate two handfuls of
breadcrumbs; boil a quart of
milk, and pour it hot on the
bread. Cover it, and set it aside to steep for half an hour; then put it to cool. Beat eight
eggs very light; stir the
suet, and three table-spoonfuls of
flour alternately
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into the
bread and
milk, and add, by degrees, the
eggs. Lastly, stir in a table-spoonful of
powdered nutmeg and
cinnamon mixed. Pour it into a bag that has been dipped in
hot water and floured; tie it firmly; put it into a pot of boiling
hot water, and boil it two hours. Do not take it up till immediately before it is wanted, and send it to the table hot. Eat it with sauce, or with molasses.
Take one dozen and a half ears of
green corn, split the kernels lengthwise of the ear with a sharp knife, then with a case knife scrape the
corn from the cob, leaving the hulls on the cob; mix it with three to four quarts of
rich sweet milk; add four
eggs, well beat; two table-spoonfuls of
sugar; salt to the taste; bake it three hours. To be eaten hot, with butter.
129. Sago Pudding, No. 1. |
Boil a pint and a half of
new milk, with four spoonfuls of
sago, nicely washed and picked,
lemon-peel, cinnamon, and
nutmeg; sweeten to your taste; then mix four
eggs; put a
paste round the dish, and bake it slowly.
130. Sago Pudding, No. 2. |
Half a cup of
sago to one quart of
milk;
if the
white sago, bake it two or three hours--
if the
brown, stew, before adding the
milk; beat four
eggs, adding
salt; spice to your taste, and add more
milk, if quite thick with
sago. Bake it an hour.
131. Sago Pudding, No. 3. |
A large table-spoonful of
sago, boiled in one quart of
milk, the
peel of a lemon, a little
nutmeg, and four
eggs. Bake it about an hour and a half.
132. Bird's Nest Sago Pudding, No. 4. |
Soak half a pint of
sago in three pints of
water, stirring it occasionally, until it is uniformly swelled. Pare and core ten or twelve
apples; fill the holes in the centre, and put them, without piling them one over another, in a pudding dish, so that the
sago will just cover them. The
sago may then be poured on, and the pudding baked, until the
apples are soft.
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133. Apple Dumpling, No. 1. |
* Set your tin pail or kettle on the stove, put in a cup of
water, cut in four large
apples, one pint
sour milk, one large tea-spoonful
saleratus; mould your crust and spread it over the top; cover it tight; bake it one hour.
134. Apple Dumpling, No. 2. |
Select large, fair, pleasant sour, and mellow
apples; pare them, and take out the core with a small knife, and fill up the place with
sugar; prepare some
pie-crust, roll it out quite thick, and cut it into pieces just large enough to cover one
apple. Lay an
apple on each piece, and enclose them entirely; tie them up in a thick piece of cloth that has been well floured, put them in a pot of boiling water, and boil them one hour; if the boiling should stop, they will be heavy. Serve them up with
sweet sauce, or
butter and
sugar.
135. Bird's Nest Pudding. |
Put into three pints of
boiling milk, six
crackers pounded fine, and one cup of
raisins; when cool, add four
eggs well beaten, a little
sugar, and four good-sized
apples, pared, with the core carefully removed. To be baked, and eaten with warm sauce.
136. Quaking Plum Pudding, very nice. |
* Take slices of
light bread and spread them thin with
butter, and lay in the pudding dish layers of
bread and
raisins, within an inch of the top; then take five
eggs and beat them well, and mix them with a quart of
milk, and pour it over the pudding; add
salt and
spice to suit your taste; you may omit the
sugar, and serve it up with
sweet sauce. Bake it twenty or twenty-five minutes. Before you use the
raisins, boil them in a very little
water, and put it all in.
137. Batter Pudding, No. 1. |
One quart of
milk, three
eggs, one table-spoonful of
salt, flour enough to make a batter; beat the ingredients till free from lumps, and it will not rope; boil it one hour and a half; if the batter be quite thin, butter the bag.
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138. Batter Pudding, No. 2. |
* A pint of
milk, four
eggs, made thick with
flour, a little thicker than cream. Boil it one hour; serve it up with sauce made of
flour and
water, butter, sugar, a little
vinegar, or
tart, with
spice to your taste.
Eight spoonfuls of
flour, three
eggs, one pint of
milk; baked in cups about fifteen minutes; sweet sauce.
Chop your
suet, and put with
grated bread a few
currants, the
yolks of four eggs and the whites of two, some grated
lemon-peel, and
ginger. Mix and make it into little balls about the size and shape of an
egg, with a little
flour. Have ready a skillet of boiling water, and throw them in. Twenty minutes will boil them; they will rise to the top when done. Serve them up with
sweet sauce.
141. Bread and Butter Pudding. |
Slice
bread, spread with
butter, and lay it in a dish, with
currants between each layer; add sliced
citron, orange, or
lemon, if to be very nice. Pour over an unboiled custard of
milk, two or three
eggs, a few
pimentoes, and a very little
preserve, two hours, at least, before it is to be baked. A
paste round the edge makes all puddings look better, but is not necessary.
142. Baked Apple Pudding. |
Pare and quarter four large
apples; boil them tender, with the
rind of a lemon, in so little
water that, when done, none may remain; beat them quite fine in a mortar; crumb in a small roll, four ounces of
butter melted, four
eggs, the
juice of half a lemon, and
sugar to your taste; beat all together, and lay it in a dish with
paste to turn out. Bake it an hour and a half.
* Six table-spoonfuls of
tapioca, one quart of
milk, three
eggs, sugar and
spice to your taste; heat the
milk and
tapioca moderately; bake it one hour.
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Take six large ripe
quinces; pare them, and cut out all the blemishes. Then scrape them to a pulp, and mix the pulp with half a pint of
cream, and a half a pound of
powdered sugar, stirring them together very hard. Beat the
yolks of seven eggs, (omitting all the
whites except two,) and stir them gradually into the mixture, adding two wine-glasses of
rose-water. Stir the whole well together, and bake it in a buttered dish three quarters of an hour. Grate
sugar over it when cold.
Pick and wash half a pint of
rice, and boil it, in a quart of
water, till it is quite soft. Then drain it, and mix it with a quart of
rich milk. You may add half a pound of whole
raisins. Set it over hot coals, and stir it frequently till it boils. When it boils hard, stir in, alternately, two beaten
eggs and four large table-spoonfuls of
brown sugar.
Boil three cups of
rice in two quarts of
milk till soft, then add two quarts of
cold milk, eight
eggs beat light, a quarter pound of
butter, two
nutmegs, and
sugar to the taste.
Cut one loaf of
bread in fine pieces, sprinkle with a little
salt, boil two quarts of
milk and pour over; cover close until well soaked; mash it well; add six
eggs, one pound of
butter, some
cinnamon or
nutmeg; sweeten it; bake it, in a quick oven, one hour and a half.
Beat one dozen
eggs light; add two quarts of
milk, a little
salt, mix with
wheat flour to a batter, beat it well, pour into a bag, and boil four hours; two pounds of
currants added to it is a great improvement, but it is very good without.
Pare and stew three pints of
apples, mash them, add six
eggs, half a pound of
butter, sugar and
nutmeg, or grated
lemon-peel; bake on
short crust.
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150. Boiled Apple Pudding. |
Pare, core, and quarter, as many fine juicy
apples as will weigh two pounds when done. Strew among them a quarter of a pound of
brown sugar; add a grated
nutmeg, and the
juice and yellow peel of a large lemon. Prepare a paste of
suet and
flour, in the proportion of a pound of chopped
suet to two pounds of
flour. Roll it out of moderate thickness; lay the
apples in the centre, and close the paste nicely over them in the form of a large dumpling; tie it in a cloth and boil it three hours. Send it to the table hot, and eat it with cream sauce, or with butter and sugar.
151. Plum Pudding boiled. |
Three quarts of
flour, a little
salt, twelve
eggs, two pounds of
raisins, one pound of
beef suet chopped fine, one quart of
milk; put into a strong cloth floured; boil three hours. Eat with sauce.
152. Baked Indian Pudding. |
Scald four cups of
Indian meal with
boiling water; add two cups
molasses and
milk, (each,) half pound
raisins, a little
suet chopped fine, four
eggs, and some ground
cinnamon.
Boil one pint of
milk, mix two table-spoonfuls of
rice flour with a little
cold milk, stir it in while the
milk is boiling; afterwards add a small piece of
butter, four
eggs, one
nutmeg, one glass of
preserve juice, the
juice and peel of one lemon, and
sugar to your taste.
* For a large pudding, take a card of
bunns, separate them, and put them into a pudding-dish, and pour in a custard made of four or five
eggs, three pints of
milk, and half a cup of
sugar. Bake it one hour.
Boil half a pint of
milk with a bit of
cinnamon, four
eggs with the whites well beaten, the
rind of a lemon grated, half a pound of
suet chopped fine, as much
bread
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as will do. Pour your
milk on the
bread and
suet, keep mixing it till cold, then put in the
lemon-peel, eggs, a little
sugar, and some
nutmeg grated fine. It may be either baked or boiled.
156. Ground Rice Pudding. |
Boil four ounces of
ground rice in
water till it be soft, then beat the
yolks of four eggs, and put to them a pint of
cream, four ounces of
sugar, and the same of
butter; mix them all well together; you may either boil or bake it.
157. Little Citron Puddings. |
Take half a pint of
cream, one spoonful of
fine flour, two ounces of
sugar, a little
nutmeg; mix them all well together, with the
yolks of three eggs; put it in tea-cups, and stick in it two ounces of
citron cut very thin; bake them in a pretty quick oven.
158. Baked Bread Pudding. |
Take a stale loaf of
bread; cut off all the crust, and grate or rub the crumbs as fine as possible. Boil a quart of
rich milk, and pour it hot over the
bread; then stir in a quarter of a pound of
butter, and the same quantity of
sugar, with a glass of
rose-water. Or you may omit the latter, and substitute the grated
peel of a large lemon. Add a table-spoonful of mixed
cinnamon and
nutmeg powdered. Stir the whole very well, cover it, and set it away for half an hour; then let it cool. Beat seven or eight
eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture after it is cold. Then butter a deep dish, and bake the pudding an hour.
* One quart of
boiling water, one large tea-spoonful of
salt, made stiff with
wheatmeal--served up with cream or sweet sauce.
160. Indian Hasty Pudding. |
* Put in three pint of
water and a table-spoonful of
salt, and when it begins to boil, stir in about half enough
meal; after boiling awhile, stir in more meal, and boil awhile longer, then stir in a little more
meal, and boil it till it is thoroughly cooked.
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161. Common Paste for Pies. |
* Take a quantity of
flour proportioned to the number of pies you wish to make, then rub in some
lard and
salt, and stir it up with
cold water; then roll it out, and spread on some
lard, and scatter over some dry
flour; then double it together, and cut it in pieces, and roll it to the thickness you wish to use it.
162. Economical Pot Apple Pie. |
* Pare and slice your
apples, put them into a pot or iron basin, such as may suit your convenience, or the convenience of your stove; make your crust of a half pint of
sour milk, sweeten it with a little
molasses; add a little
allspice, lay it over the top of your
apple, leave an opening for the stem to pass through, put a little
water to your
apple, let it stew slowly three quarters of an hour; when done, take up your crust in one dish,
spice and sweeten your
apple in another, slice your crust, and cover it with your
apples; to be eaten with butter while warm.
* Make your
crust in the usual manner, spread it over a large deep plate, cut some slices of
fat pork very thin, also some slices of
apple; place a layer of
apples, and then of
pork, with a very little
allspice, and
pepper, sugar, between--three or four layers of each, with crust over the top. Bake one hour.
* Cut your
veal up in small pieces, boil it an hour, season it with
salt, and
pepper, and a small piece of
butter; mix your
flour with
sour milk, saleratus, and a small piece of
lard, and mould it for the crust; line the sides of a tin dish or basin with the crust, put the meat in, and fill up the basin with the gravy as full as you can handle it; shake some
flour in it, and cover it over with the crust, leaving a hole in the centre, for a vent. Bake from one and a half to two hours. If preferred,
cream tartar crust may be used. See
Cream Tartar Bread.
* Boil a piece of lean fresh
beef very tender; when cold, chop it very fine; then take three times the quantity
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of
apples, pared and cored, and chopped fine; mix the meat with it, and add
raisins, allspice, salt, sugar, cinnamon, and
molasses, to suit the taste; incorporate the articles well together, and it will improve by standing over night, if the weather is cool; a very little
ginger improves the flavor. Small pieces of
butter, sliced over the mince before laying on the top crust, will make them keep longer. A tea-cup of
grape sirup will give them a good flavor.
166. Wisconsin Mince Pies. |
Take the usual quantity of
meat, and substitute
beets for
apples; put in only one third the quantity of the latter; boil the
beets, pickle them in
vinegar twelve hours, chop them very fine, and add the
vinegar they were pickled in. Add one eighth of
grated bread, and
spice to suit your taste.
* Take out the seeds and pare the
pumpkin; stew, and strain it through a coarse sieve. Take two quarts of scalded
milk and eight
eggs, and stir your
pumpkin into it; sweeten it with
sugar or
molasses. Salt it, and season with
ginger, cinnamon, or grated
lemon-peel, to your taste. Bake with a bottom
crust.
Crackers, pounded fine, are a good substitute for eggs. Less eggs will do.
Boil and sift the
pumpkin, spread it out thin on tin plates, and dry hard in a warm oven. It will keep good the year round; when wanted for use, it may be soaked in milk.
* Peel the
apples, slice them thin, pour a little
molasses, and sprinkle some
sugar over them; grate on some
lemon-peel, or
nutmeg. If you wish to make them richer, put a little
butter on the top.
* Peel and stew the
apples, mash them fine with
sugar, a little
butter, and grated
nutmeg, or
lemon-peel; bake in
rich crust and quick oven, but not hot enough to scorch.
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* A very good pie may be made of
carrots in the same way that you make
pumpkin pies.
* Pull the
rhubarb from the root instead of cutting it; peel off the skin from the stalk, and cut it into small pieces; put them in the pie with plenty of
brown sugar; you can hardly put in too much. Cover the pie, and bake, like apple, in a deep plate.
Cut
steaks from a loin of mutton, beat them and remove some of the fat; season it well, and put a little
water at the bottom of the dish. Cover the whole with a pretty thick
paste, and bake it.
* Cut up your
chicken, parboil it, season it in the pot, take up the meat, put in a
flour thickening, and scald the gravy; make the crust of
sour milk made sweet with
saleratus, put in a piece of
butter or
lard the size of an egg;
cream is preferable to sour milk, if you have it. Take a large tin pan, line it with the crust, put in your meat, and pour in the gravy from the pot; make it nearly full, cover it over with crust, and leave a vent; bake it in a moderate oven two hours, or two and a half.
Wash and cut the
chicken into joints; boil them about twenty minutes; take them up, wash out your kettle, fry two or three slices of
fat salt pork, and put in the bottom of the kettle; then put in the
chicken, with about three pints of
water, a piece of
butter the size of an egg; sprinkle in a little
pepper, and cover over the top with a light crust. It will require one hour to cook.
* For a large pie, put in three
eggs, a heaping table-spoonful of
sugar, one pint and a half of
milk, a little
salt, and some
nutmeg grated on. For crust, use
common pastry.
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* Boil your
rice soft, put one
egg to each pie, one table-spoonful of
sugar, a little
salt and
nutmeg.
178. Custard without Eggs. |
One quart
new milk, four table-spoonfuls of
flour, two table-spoonfuls of
sugar, season with
nutmeg or
cinnamon, and add a little
salt. Set the
milk over the fire, and when it boils pour in the
flour, which should be previously stirred up in a little
cold milk. When it is thoroughly scalded, add the
sugar, spice, and
salt, and bake it either in
crust or cups.
Put into a pan over the fire three pints of
new milk; mix, in a little
cold milk, a tea-cupful of
ground rice; and when the
milk boils, pour in the
rice and let it scald thoroughly; then add half a cupful of
sugar and a little
salt, season with
cinnamon, and bake as above.
Two quarts of
milk, twelve
eggs, twelve ounces
sugar, four spoonfuls of
rose-water, one
nutmeg.
Eight
eggs beat and put into two quarts of
cream, sweetened to the taste, a
nutmeg, and a little
cinnamon.
Stew your
cranberries; when done, add same quantity of
sugar; make a
rich pastry, roll it thin, make small tarts.
* Make common
paste; line a deep plate with it, put in your
berries, cover them over thick with
sugar; a little
butter sliced on adds to the flavor; cover it over with the crust, and bake it an hour.
Very good pies may be made in the same way of
cherries, blackberries, or raspberries.
* Take one
lemon and a half, cut them up fine, one cup of
molasses, half a cup of
sugar, two
eggs; mix them
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together, prepare your plate, with a
crust in the bottom, put in half the materials, lay over a crust, then put in the rest of the materials, and cover the whole with another crust.
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185. Heating the Oven.
* For pies, cakes, and white bread, the heat of the oven should be such, that you can hold your hand and arm in while you count forty: for brown bread, meats, beans, Indian puddings, and pumpkin pies, it should be hotter, so that you can only hold it in while you count twenty.
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186. Roasting Meats.
The first preparation for roasting is to take care that the spit be properly cleansed with sand and water; nothing else. When it has been well scoured with this, dry it with a clean cloth. If spits are wiped clean as soon as the meat is drawn from them, and while they are hot, a very little cleaning will be required.
Make up the fire in time. Let it be proportioned to the dinner to be dressed, and about three or four inches longer at each end than the thing to be roasted, or the ends of the meat cannot be done nice and brown.
A cook must be as particular to proportion her fire to the business she has to do as a chemist: the degree of heat most desirable for dressing the different sorts of food ought to be attended to with the utmost precision.
Never put meat down to a burned-up fire, if you can possibly avoid it; but should the fire become fierce, place the spit at a considerable distance, and allow a little more time.
Preserve the fat by covering it with paper for this purpose, called "kitchen paper," and tie it on with a fine twine. Pins and skewers can by no means be allowed; they are so many taps to let out the gravy; besides, the paper often starts from them and catches fire, to the great injury of the meat.
If the thing to be roasted be thin and tender, the fire should be little and brisk. When you have a large joint to roast, make up a sound, strong fire, equally good in every part, or your meat cannot be equally roasted, nor have that uniform color which constitutes the beauty of good roasting.
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Half an hour before your meat is done, make some gravy, and just before you take it up, put it nearer the fire, to brown it. If you wish to froth it, paste it, and dredge it with flour carefully; you cannot do this delicacy nice without a very good light. The common fault seems to be, using too much flour. The meat should have a fine light varnish of froth, not the appearance of being covered with a paste. Those who are particular about the froth use butter instead of drippings.
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187. Baking Meats.
Baking is one of the cheapest and most convenient ways of dressing a dinner in small families; and I may say, that the oven is often the only kitchen a poor man has, if he wishes to enjoy a joint of meat.
I do not mean to deny the superior excellence of roasting to baking; but some joints, when baked, so nearly approach to the same when roasted, that I have known them to be carried to the table and eaten as such with great satisfaction.
Legs and loins of pork, legs of mutton, fillets of veal, and many other joints, will bake to great advantage, if the meat be good; I mean well-fed, rather inclined to be fat; if the meat be poor, no baking can give satisfaction.
A pig,
when prepared for baking, should have its ears and tail covered with buttered paper properly fastened on, and a bit of butter tied up in a piece of linen to baste the back with, otherwise it will be apt to blister. With a proper share of attention from the cook, I consider this way equal to a roasted one.
A goose
prepared the same as for roasting, taking care to have it on a stand, and when half done to turn the other side upwards.
A duck
the same.
A ham
(if not too old) put in soak for an hour, taken out and wiped, crust made sufficient to cover it all over, and baked in a moderately heated oven, cuts fuller of gravy, and of a finer flavor, than a boiled one.
I have been in the habit of baking small codfish, haddock, and mackerel,
with a dust of flour, and some bits of butter put on them;
eels,
when large and stuffed;
herrings and sprats,
in a brown pan, with vinegar and a little spice, and tied over with paper.
A rabbit,
prepared the same way as for roasting, with a few pieces of butter, and a
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little milk put into the dish, and basted several times, will be found nearly equal to roasting; or cut it up, season it properly, put it into a jar or pan, and cover it over, and bake it in a moderate oven for about three hours.
The time each of the above articles should take depends much upon the state of the oven, of which the cook must be the judge. The preparation of the articles, and the heating of the oven, should both be carried along together.
>
188. Broiling Meats.
Cleanliness is extremely essential in this mode of cookery.
Keep your gridiron quite clean between the bars, and bright on the top: when it is hot, wipe it well with a linen cloth just before you use it, rub the bars with clean mutton suet, to prevent the meat being marked by the gridiron.
Take care to prepare your fire in time, so that it may burn quite clear; a brisk, clear fire is indispensable, or you cannot give your meat that browning which constitutes the perfection of this mode of cookery, and gives a relish to food it cannot receive in any other way.
The chops or slices should be from half to three quarters of an inch in thickness; if thicker, they will be done too much on the outside before the inside is done enough.
Be diligently attentive to watch the moment that any thing is done: never hasten any thing that is broiling, lest you make smoke and spoil it.
Let the bars of the gridiron be all hot through, but yet not burning hot upon the surface; this is the perfect and fine condition of the gridiron.
Upright gridirons are the best, as they can be used at any fire without fear of smoke; and the gravy is preserved in the trough under them.
N. B. Broils must be brought to table as hot as possible; set a dish to heat when you put the chops on the gridiron, from whence to the mouth their progress must be as quick as possible.
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189. Boiling Meats.
This most simple of culinary processes is not often performed in perfection. It does not require quite so much
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nicety and attention as roasting. To skim the pot well, and keep it really boiling (the slower the better) all the while, to know how long is required for doing the joint, &c., and to take it up at the critical moment when it is done enough, comprehends almost the whole art and mystery. This, however, demands a patient and perpetual vigilance, of which few persons are capable.
The cook must take especial care that the water really boils all the while she is cooking, or she will be deceived in the time; and make up a sufficient fire at first to last all the time, without much mending or stirring. A frugal cook will manage with much less fire for boiling than she uses for roasting.
When the pot is coming to the boil, there will always, from the cleanest meat and the cleanest water, rise a scum to the top of it, proceeding partly from the water; this must be carefully taken off as soon as it rises.
On this depends the good appearance of all boiled things. When you have skimmed well, put in some cold water, which will throw up the rest of the scum.
The oftener it is skimmed, and the cleaner the top of the water is kept, the sweeter and the cleaner will be the meat.
If left alone, it soon boils down and sticks to the meat, which, instead of looking delicately white and nice, will have that coarse and filthy appearance we have too often to complain of, and the butcher and poulterer be blamed for the carelessness of the cook in not skimming her pot.
Many put in milk, to make what they boil look white; but this does more harm than good. Others wrap it up in a cloth; but these are needless precautions. If the scum be attentively removed, meat will have much more delicate color and finer flavor than it has when muffled up. This may give rather more trouble, but those who wish to excel in their art must only consider how the processes of it can be most perfectly performed. A cook who has a proper pride and pleasure in her business, will make this her maxim on all occasions.
It is desirable that meat for boiling be of an equal thickness, or, before thicker parts are done enough, the thinner will be done too much.
Put your meat into cold water, in proportions of about a quart of water to a pound of meat; it should be covered
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with water during the whole process of boiling, but not drowned in it; the less water, provided the meat be covered with it, the more savory will be the meat, and the better will be the broth.
The water should be heated gradually, according to the thickness, &c., of the article boiled. For instance, a leg of mutton of ten pounds' weight, should be placed over a moderate fire, which will gradually make the water hot, without causing it to boil for about forty minutes. If the water boils much sooner, the meat will be hardened, and shrink up, as if it was scorched. By keeping the water a certain time heating, without boiling, the fibres of the meat are dilated, and it yields a quantity of scum, which must be taken off as soon as it rises.
The old rule of fifteen minutes to a pound of meat, we think rather too little; the slower it boils, the tenderer, the plumper, and whiter it will be.
For those who choose their food thoroughly cooked, (which all will, who have any regard for their stomachs,) twenty minutes to a pound for fresh, and rather more for salted meat, will not be found too much for gentle simmering by the side of the fire, allowing more or less time, according to the thickness of the joint and the coldness of the weather; to know the state of which, let a thermometer be placed in the pantry; and when it falls below forty degrees, give rather more time in both roasting and boiling, always remembering, the slower it boils the better.
Without some practice it is difficult to teach any art; and cooks seem to suppose they must be right, if they put meat into a pot, and set it over the fire for a certain time, making no allowance whether it simmers without a bubble or boils at a gallop.
Fresh-killed meat will take much longer time, in boiling, than that which has been kept till it is what the butchers call ripe; and longer in cold than in warm weather; if it be frozen, it must be thawed before boiling as before roasting; if it be fresh killed, it will be tough and hard, if you stew it ever so gently. In cold weather, the night before the day you dress it, bring it into a place of which the temperature is not less than forty-five degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer.
The size of the boiling-pots should be adapted to what
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they are to contain; the larger the saucepan, the more room it takes upon the fire, and a larger quantity of water requires a proportionate increase of fire to boil it.
In small families we recommend block-tin saucepans, &c., as lightest and safest. If proper care be taken of them, and they are well cleaned, they are by far the cheapest--the purchase of a new tin saucepan being little more than the expense of tinning a copper one.
Let the covers of your boiling-pots fit close, not only to prevent unnecessary evaporation of the water, but to prevent the escape of the nutritive matter, which must then remain either in the meat or in the broth; and the smoke is prevented from insinuating itself under the edge of the lid, and so giving the meat a bad taste.
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190. Frying Meats.
Frying is often a convenient mode of cookery. It may be performed by a fire which will not do for roasting or boiling; and by the introduction of a pan between the meat and the fire, things get more equally dressed; good frying is, in fact, boiling in fat. To make sure that the pan is quite clean, rub a little fat over it, and then make it warm, and wipe it out with a clean cloth.
For general purposes, and especially for fish, pork fat is preferable to lard.
To know when the fat is of a proper heat, according to what you are to fry, is the real secret in frying.
To fry fish, potatoes, or any thing that is watery, your fire must be very clear, and the fat quite hot; which you may be pretty sure of, when it has done hissing, and is still. We cannot insist too strongly on this point; if the fat is not very hot, you cannot fry fish either to a good color, or firm and crisp.
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191. Soups.
To extract the strength from the meat, long and slow boiling is necessary; but care must be taken that the pot is never off the boil. All soups are better for being made the day before they are to be used, and they should then be strained into earthen pans. When soup has jellied in the pan, it should not be removed into another, as breaking it will occasion its becoming sour sooner than it
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would otherwise do: when in danger of not keeping, it should be boiled up.
When you roast a
loin, take a sharp penknife and cut the skin across, to make the crackling eat the better.--
Roast a leg of pork
thus: Take a knife and score it; stuff the knuckle part with
sage and
onion, chopped fine with
pepper and
salt; or, cut a hole under the twist, and put the
sage, &c., there, and skewer it up; or, it is very good without stuffing. Roast it crisp.
The
spring, or hand of pork,
if young, roasted like a pig, eats very well; otherwise, it is better boiled. To every pound allow a quarter of an hour: for example, a joint of twelve pounds' weight will require three hours, and so on. If it be a thin piece of that weight, two hours will roast it.
Be careful to roast
veal of a fine brown color; if a large joint, have a good fire; if small, a little, brisk fire.
If a
fillet or
loin, be sure to paper the fat, that you lose as little of that as possible: lay it at some distance from the fire till it is soaked, then lay it near the fire.
The
breast must be roasted with the caul on till it is done enough; skewer the
sweetbread on the back side of the
breast. When it is nigh done, take off the caul, baste it, and dredge it with a little
flour. Veal takes about the same time in roasting as pork.
Wash it, rub it over slightly with
salt, spit it, and roast it. A large piece will require two hours, a small piece from one hour to an hour and a half.
Prepare some
stuffing, the same as for a turkey, fill it full, and sew it up with a coarse thread;
flour it well over, and keep flouring till the eyes drop out, or you find the crackling hard. Be sure to save all the gravy that comes out of it, by setting basins or pans under the
pig in the dripping-pan, as soon as the gravy begins to run. When the
pig is done enough, stir the fire up; take a coarse
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cloth with a piece of
butter in it, and rub the
pig over till the crackling is crisp; then take it up. Lay it in a dish, and with a sharp knife cut off the head, then cut the
pig in two, before you draw out the spit. Cut the ears off the head, and lay them at each end; cut the under jaw in two, and lay the parts on each side: melt some good
butter, take the gravy you saved and put in it, boil it, pour it in the dish with the brains bruised fine, and some
sage mixed together, and then send it to the table. If just killed, a
pig will require an hour to roast; if killed the day before, an hour and a quarter; if a very large one, an hour and a half.
196. To roast Mutton and Lamb. |
In roasting
mutton, the loin, haunch, and saddle, must be done as beef; but all other parts of
mutton and
lamb must be roasted with a quick, clear fire; baste it when you lay it down; and just before you take it up, dredge it with a little
flour; but be sure not to use too much, for that takes away all the fine taste of the meat. A
leg of mutton of six pounds will take an hour at a quick fire; if frosty weather, an hour and a quarter: nine pounds, an hour and a half; a leg of twelve pounds will take two hours; if frosty, two hours and a half.
Spit a haunch of
venison, and butter well four sheets of paper, two of which put on the haunch. Then make a paste with
flour, butter, and
water; roll it out half as big as the haunch, and put it over the fat part; then put the other two sheets of paper on, and tie them with pack-thread; lay it to a brisk fire, and baste it well all the time of roasting. If a large haunch of twenty-four pounds, it will take three hours and a half, unless there is a very large fire; then three hours will do: smaller in proportion.
Choose a piece of thick
flank of a fine heifer or ox, cut into long slices; some
fat bacon, but quite free from yellow; let each bit be near an inch thick; dip them into
vinegar, and then into a seasoning ready prepared, of
salt, black pepper, allspice, and a
clove, all in a fine powder,
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with
parsley, chives, thyme, savory, and
knotted marjoram, shred as small as possible, and well mixed. With a sharp knife make holes deep enough to let in the larding, then rub the
beef over with the seasoning, and bind it up tight with tape. Set it in a well-tinned pot over a fire, or rather stove; three or four
onions must be fried brown and put to the
beef, with two or three
carrots, one
turnip, a head or two of
celery, and a small quantity of
water; let it simmer gently ten or twelve hours, or till extremely tender, turning the meat twice; to be cut in slices, and eaten cold.
199. To roast or bake a Leg of Veal. |
Let the fillet be cut large or small, as best suits the number of your company. Take out the bone, fill the space with fine
stuffing, and let it be skewered quite round; and place the large side uppermost. When half roasted, if not before, put a paper over the fat; and take care to allow a sufficient time, and put it a good distance from the fire, as the meat is very solid; serve with
melted butter poured over it.
Put a
ham in the boiler, whilst the water is cold; be careful that it boils slowly. A
ham of twenty pounds takes four hours and a half, larger and smaller in proportion. Keep the
water well skimmed. A green ham wants no soaking; but an old one must be soaked sixteen hours, in a large tub of
soft water.
Season with common
salt and
saltpetre, brown sugar, pepper, cloves, mace, and
allspice, in fine powder, for a fortnight; then take away the pickle, put the
tongue in a small pan, lay some
butter on it, cover it with
brown crust, and bake slowly, till so tender that a straw would go through it. To be eaten when cold. It will keep a week.
Lay it in a dish,
flour it all over well, and rub it over with
butter; butter the dish you lay it in, and put it in the oven. When it is done, draw it out to the oven's mouth and rub it over with a buttery cloth; then put it in the
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oven again till it is dry. Now take it out and lay it in a dish, cut it up, take a little
veal gravy, and having taken off the fat in the dish it was baked in, there will be some good gravy at the bottom; put that to it with a little piece of
butter rolled in
flour; boil it up, and put it in the dish with the brains and
sage in the belly. Some like a
pig brought whole to the table; then you are only to put what sauce you like in the dish.
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203. To keep Meat hot.
If the meat is done before the company is ready, set the dish over a pan of boiling water; cover a dish with a deep cover, so as not to touch the meat, and throw a cloth over all. Thus you may keep meat hot a long time, and it is better than over-roasting and spoiling it. The steam of the water keeps it hot, and does not draw the gravy out: whereas, if you set the dish of meat any time over coals, it will dry up all the gravy and spoil the meat.
204. To boil a Leg of Pork. |
Salt it eight or ten days; when it is to be dressed, weigh it; let it lie half an hour in
cold water to make it white; allow a quarter of an hour for every pound, and half an hour over from the time it boils; skim it as soon as it boils, and frequently after. Allow
water enough. Some boil it in a nice cloth, floured; which gives a very delicate look. It should be small and of a fine grain.
Should be carefully salted, and wet with the
pickle for eight or ten days. The bone should be cut out first, and the
beef skewered and tied up, to make it quite round. It may be stuffed with
parsley, if approved; in which case, the holes to admit the
parsley must be made with a sharp-pointed knife, and the
parsley coarsely cut and stuffed in tight. As soon as it boils it should be skimmed, and afterwards kept boiling very gently.
Mutton
may be prepared in the same way.
Put a
tongue, if soft, in a pot over night, and do not let it boil till about three hours before dinner; then boil
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till dinner time; if fresh out of the pickle, two hours and a half, and put it in when the water boils.
* All boiled meats intended to be eaten cold, as
beef, pork, mutton, &c., should be pressed between two boards, with a heavy weight.
* Take a
shin of beef, and cut it into short pieces, and boil it in three quarts of
water; add
pepper and
salt, and cut in two or three
onions. About half an hour before you take it up, stir in a pint-bowlful of
pounded crackers, moistened with
cold water.
Rice may be used, instead of crackers.
209. To boil a Calf's Head and Pluck. |
* Clean the
head very nicely, and soak it in
water till it looks very white. The
tongue and
heart need longer cooking than the rest. Boil these an hour and a half, the
head an hour and a quarter, and the
liver an hour; tie the
brains in a bag, and boil them one hour. Take up all at the same time; serve up the
brains with
pounded cracker, butter, pepper, vinegar, and
salt. To be eaten with
butter gravy.
* Quarter of a pound of clear
fat pork chopped fine, eight or ten
crackers pounded fine, one or two
eggs, one cup of
flour, one pint of
milk or
water, sage, pepper, and
salt, to suit your taste.
* Take
dry pieces of bread or crackers, chop them fine, put in a small piece of
butter or a little
cream, with
sage, pepper, and
salt, one
egg, and a small quantity of
flour, moistened with
milk.
* Let the
turkey be picked clean, and washed and wiped dry, inside and out. Have your
stuffing, No. 2, prepared, fill the crop and then the body full, sew it up,
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put it on a spit, and roast it, before a moderate fire, three hours. If more convenient, it is equally good when baked.
Serve up with cranberry or apple sauce, turnip sauce, squash, and a small Indian pudding; or dumplings boiled hard is a good substitute for bread.
*
Corned beef
should be boiled three hours,
pork
two hours.
Beets
need as much boiling as the beef in the winter; one hour will do in the summer, when they are more tender;
carrots, cabbage and turnips,
each an hour,
parsnips
forty-five minutes,
potatoes
twenty to thirty minutes.
214. To roast Geese and Ducks. |
Boiling water should be poured all over, and inside of a
goose or
duck, before you prepare them for cooking, to take out the strong oily taste. Let the fowl be picked clean, and wiped dry with a cloth, inside and out: fill the body and crop with
stuffing, No. 1 or 2. If you prefer not to stuff it, put an
onion inside; put it down to the fire, and roast it brown. It will take about two hours and a half.
* Cut your
meat in pieces, wash them clean, put them into the dinner-pot, add three pints of
water, put in one
onion, some
pepper and
salt, let it stew one hour; then add
potatoes sliced, and make a crust of
sour milk, or
cream tartar, and put in, and stew till the
potatoes are done, about half an hour; the crust may be made into biscuits.
Crumbs of any kind of fresh meat may be used in making a stew.
*
Scraps and crumbs of meat make a very good dinner, when made into soup. Put all your
crumbs of meat into the dinner-pot. Slice in two
onions, a
carrot; put in a little
salt and
pepper, and
water enough to cover it; then cover it over with a crust, made with
cream tartar. See
No. 9. Stew it one hour and a half, or two hours.
A flour thickening should be put in five minutes before you take it up. You may bake your potatoes, or slice them, and cook them with the meat.
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* Prepare and stuff the
turkey, the same as for roasting; boil it two hours, with a piece of
striped pork, a nice head of
cabbage, flat
turnips, and
potatoes. Serve up with
butter gravy.
218. To broil Beef-Steak. |
* Cut slices of
beef as thick as your hand, put each on the gridiron, and set it over a bed of live coals free from any smoke, and broil ten minutes; when done, take it up on a platter or deep plate, and put pieces of
butter over the meat; it should be broiled the last thing before the family sit down, and brought to the table hot; pour a very little
hot water over the meat.
* Cut your
pork in slices, pour on some
boiling water, let it drain, roll it in some
flour, and broil it brown.
220. To boil a Shoulder of Mutton with Oysters. |
Hang it some days, then
salt it well for two days, bone it, and sprinkle it with
pepper and a bit of
mace pounded; lay some
oysters over it, roll the meat up tight, and tie it. Stew it in a small quantity of
water, with an
onion and a few
pepper-corns, till quite tender. Have ready a little good
gravy, and some
oysters stewed in it; thicken this with
flour and
butter, and pour over the
mutton when the tape is taken off. The stew-pan should be kept close covered.
Beef of good quality, and roasted with care, affords the best sauce for the meat. Free it of the sediment and fat, add a little
salt and a little
flour, and boil it. A little
butter may be added to the
gravy. For gravy sauce, No. 2, see
Thanksgiving Dinner.
*
To eat cold.--Take a piece of a
flank of beef, six or eight inches wide, and as long as you can cut it; sprinkle
salt over it, and let it stand twenty-four hours; then prepare
stuffing, the same as for a turkey or chicken,
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and spread over it; then roll it up very tight, and tie a piece of cloth all over it, and boil it six hours; when you take it up, lay it between two boards to drain, and put a weight upon it, till it is cold. It will then cut up in beautiful slices.
* Take the piece of
pork designed for sausages, and chop it up, and if it is too fat, add a little
lean beef; season with
sage or
summer savory, salt, and
pepper; then fry a small piece, to see if it is seasoned right.
If you prefer not to stuff them into
skins, you may take pieces of cotton cloth, eight or nine inches wide, and two or three feet long, and sew the sides together, and one end; then wet it, stuff your meat in as solid as you can, and hang them up in a cool dry place. It will keep as well, or better than in the skins: when used, peal the cloth down no farther than you slice off.
* Take the
chops, ears, feet, and head of a hog; have them thoroughly cleaned, boil them till they are tender, then take them up; put them in a pickle made of
vinegar and
water, add a little
salt and a few
cracked cloves; roll them in
flour, and fry them brown; cover them over while frying, to prevent their snapping.
225. Savory Meat, or Head Cheese. |
*
To serve up in slices, on the tea-table.--Take a
hog's head, ears, and feet, and boil them till you can pick all the bones out; then season it with
salt, pepper, and a little
sage, or
summer savory; put it in a round dish, or cheese-hoop, in a cool place, and press it; when cool, it is ready for use.
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226. Curing Meat.
The difference between doing a thing right, and doing it wrong, is perhaps nowhere more obviously shown than in curing salted provisions. There are few people who do not relish a slice of nice ham or corned beef; and many a good housewife can speak of the various advantages, in the mysteries of cookery, which belong to well-cured, clear, pickled pork. It is a very easy matter to have all
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these things of good quality; yet it is too often the case that we find them put up or managed in so careless a manner, that they are actually unwholesome, or in such condition that they can only be eaten by persons of the strongest appetites.
HAMS.
--For every one hundred pounds of meat, take five pints of good molasses, (or five pounds of brown sugar,) five ounces of saltpetre, and eight pounds of rock salt--add three gallons of water, and boil the ingredients over a gentle fire, skimming off the froth or scum as it rises. Continue the boiling till the salt, &c., is dissolved. Have the hams, nicely cut and trimmed, packed in casks with the shank-end down, as the pickle will thus strike in better. When the pickle, prepared as above, is sufficiently cool, pour it over the hams. They may lie in pickle from two to six weeks, according to the size of the pieces of the state of the weather, more time being required in cold than in warm weather.
Beef or mutton hams,
intended for smoking and drying, may be cured according to this mode, and will be found excellent. Much of the goodness of hams depends on smoking. They should be hung at such a distance from the fire as not to be heated. They should be hung up with the shank-end downward, as this will prevent the escape of their juices by dripping. Small hams, wanted for immediate use, will answer with two weeks' smoking; but larger ones, and those wanted for keeping, should be smoked four weeks or more.
Different articles are used for smoking. Perhaps saw-dust from hard wood, where it can be conveniently had, is, on the whole, to be preferred. Corn-cobs are first rate, and are said by some to make the "sweetest" smoke of any thing. Chips of maple and hickory, or the small twigs and branches of those kinds of wood, do well.
Another mode which we have seen practised is to smoke the barrels or casks in which the hams are to be kept, and let them remain in pickle till wanted; only taking them out a sufficiently long time, before using, to allow them to drain properly. The barrels are smoked by being placed over small fires of chips, cobs, &c., for several hours. The essence of smoke which is thus imbibed by the barrel is imparted to the pickle, and thence to the meat.
BEEF.
--The best pieces for corning are the ribs and
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briskets. Pack the pieces in casks, giving a very slight sprinkling of salt between each piece. Then cover the meat with a pickle made by boiling together, in four gallons of water, eight pounds of salt, three pounds of brown sugar, three ounces saltpetre, one ounce saleratus, for one hundred pounds meat. Keep a heavy flat stone on the meat, that it may be well immersed in the pickle. Beef packed in this manner will keep a year, and will rather improve than grow worse.
Another mode, recommended by a gentleman of long experience in the packing of beef and pork, is the following: For one hundred pounds beef take four pounds brown sugar, four ounces saltpetre, and four quarts of fine Liverpool salt; mix all intimately together, and in packing, sprinkle it evenly over the meat. Add no pickle; the dissolving of the salt, &c., with the juices of the meat, will be sufficient. Keep the meat closely pressed together by a good weight. We are assured that this is the best mode of packing beef that is intended for keeping over the summer, and that the quality of the meat is unexceptionably fine.
CLEAR PORK.
--For this we prefer salt and water. After having divided the hog, take off the shoulders and hams, and all the lean meat; cut the sides crosswise into strips, four or five inches wide, and, after covering the bottom of the cask with salt, pack the strips in layers set edgewise as closely as possible round the cask, with plenty of salt between each layer. When the cask is full, and has settled for a day or two, put in cold water enough to fairly cover the pork. There is no danger of using too much salt for clear pork--no more will be taken up by the meat than is needed, and may be used in packing a new parcel.
It has recently been discovered that saleratus is a good substitute for saltpetre, in salting down meat.
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227. Tainted Beef.
Salted beef that has begun to taint may be restored to its original sweetness by taking it out of the pickle and packing it over again in layers of charcoal; after which a new and sweet pickle, with a little saltpetre added, should be poured on it. The charcoal, it is said, will take out all taste of taint in a week.
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Select the
potatoes you design for dinner the day previous; pare them, and throw them into
cold water, and let them stand three or four hours; then, at a proper time before dinner, put them into
boiling water; and when they have sufficiently boiled, turn off all the water, leave off the cover, and hang them over the fire to dry. When the steam has passed off, they will then be in the best possible condition for eating. By this mode,
potatoes even of a watery and inferior quality become mealy and good.
Another Way.--Put them in a pot or kettle without a lid, with water just sufficient to cover them. After the water has come nearly to boil, pour it off, and replace it with cold water, into which throw a good portion of salt. The cold water sends the heat from the surface to the heart, and makes the potatoes mealy. After they are boiled, and the water is poured off, let them stand on the fire ten or fifteen minutes, to dry.
To boil fresh
fish, lay it on a strainer, or sew up the
fish in a cloth, to prevent its breaking to pieces when you take it up. Put it into
cold water, skin side down; to six pounds
fish put in three or four spoonfuls of
salt, and a little
vinegar may be put in the
water, to make the
fish more firm; boil from fifteen to thirty minutes. Serve up with
butter gravy.
* The
fat from salt pork is best; have enough to cover the
fish, and it should be hot when the
fish is laid in; it should be rolled in
flour, or
Indian meal, before frying, and when done brown, take it up. Pour the gravy over the
fish.
231. To broil salt Cod Fish. |
* Put your
fish in soak over night; in the morning, let it drain and dry on the gridiron, front of the fire, a few minutes; grease your gridiron well, then broil your
fish thoroughly brown on both sides; then put it on a board,
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and beat it with a pestle, or hammer, till it becomes entirely soft; then pour on
boiling water, and after a minute drain it off.
If the fish is very salt, repeat the
boiling water two or three times, then pour over
sweet cream, or a little
butter.
If the fish is not very salt, you may omit the soaking over night.
232. To broil Shad, Mackerel, and Salmon. |
* Have the bars of the gridiron well greased with lard; lay your
fish on, flesh side down; when half done, turn it and finish, skin down; when done, pour over
sweet cream, if you have it, or spread over a little
butter.
* Cut some slices of
pork very thin, and fry it out dry in the dinner-pot; then put in a layer of
fish cut in slices, on the
pork and
fat, then a layer of
onions, and then
potatoes, all cut in thin slices; then
fish, onions, and
potatoes again, till your materials are all in, putting some
salt and
pepper on each layer of
onions; split some
crackers, and dip them in
water, and put them around the sides and over the top; put in
water enough to come up in sight; boil about half an hour, till the
potatoes are done; add half a pint of
milk, or a tea-cup of
sweet cream, five minutes before you take it up.
234. Chowder for Invalids. |
* Prepare your
fish and
potatoes in the same way as above, omitting the pork and onions; put in equal quantities of
milk and
water, a little
pepper, and
salt. Cream is preferable to milk, if you have it.
* Take from one to two pounds lean
beef, veal, or
mutton, and put in from three to four quarts of
water, and simmer it down to two thirds the quantity: add a little
rice an hour before it is done boiling. Skim the fat off when it is cold.
* May be prepared in the same way: boil till the meat is very tender.
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* Two table-spoonfuls of
sago to one pint of
cold water, and a little
salt; it will boil in a few minutes; when about done, add a little
milk. Sweet cream is better.
* One quart of
boiling water thickened with three table-spoonfuls of
Indian meal, one tea-spoonful of
salt; boil it and skim it till it is clear; add a little
loaf sugar and
nutmeg.
239. To keep Apricots, Peaches, Plums, &c., fresh all the Year. |
Beat well together equal quantities of
honey and
spring water: pour it into an earthen vessel, put in the
fruits all freshly gathered, and cover them up quite close. When the
fruit is taken out, wash it in
cold water, and it is fit for immediate use.
The following mode of drying
peaches is adopted by
Thomas Belanjee, of Egg Harbor, New Jersey:--
He has a small house with a stove in it, and drawers in the sides of the house, lathed at their bottoms. Each drawer will hold nearly half a bushel of peaches, which should be ripe, and not peeled, but cut in two and laid on the laths, with their skins downwards, so as to save the juice. On shoving the drawer in, they are soon dried by the hot air of the stove, and laid up. Peaches thus dried eat like raisins.
With a paring machine, which may be had for a dollar or two, apples or pears may be pared, and a sufficient quantity dried to keep a family in pies, and apple bread and milk, till apples come again. With a paring machine, one person can pare for fix or six cutters.
* Take one pint of
water, one cup of
sugar, wipe your
peaches clean, and boil them in the
water and
sugar; boil an hour. This is a delicious sauce or preserve, but will not keep good more than two or three days.
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Take ripe
freestone peaches; pare, stone, and quarter them. To six pounds of the cut
peaches allow three pounds of the best
brown sugar. Strew the
sugar among the
peaches, and set them away in a covered vessel. Next morning, put the whole into a preserving kettle, and boil it slowly about an hour and three quarters, or two hours, skimming it well.
243. Preserved Raspberries. |
Choose
raspberries not too ripe, take the weight of them in
sugar, wet the
sugar with a little
water, and put in the berries, let them boil softly, take care not to break them; when clear, take them up, boil the sirup until it be thick enough; then put them in again; do not put them away until cold.
244. To preserve Whortleberries, for Winter Use. |
Put the
berries in a bottle, then cork and seal it, place the bottle in a kettle of
cold water, and gradually let it boil. As soon as it boils, take it off and let it cool; then take the bottles out and put them away for winter use.
Gooseberries, plums, and currants,
may be preserved in the same manner.
* Take some pleasant
sour apples, pare them, take the core out at the bottom, and leave the stem in; make a sirup, of
white sugar and
water, to half cover the
apples; bake or boil them till they are just done through. Serve them up whole, with
loaf sugar and
cream.
They are pared and quartered, and the core completely removed, and put into a pot
without water, closely covered, and put in an oven or over the fire. When pretty well stewed, the juice is to be squeezed out through a cloth, to which a little
white of an egg is added, and then the
sugar. Skim it previous to boiling; then reduce it to a proper consistency, and an excellent jelly will be the product.
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* Pare and core your
quinces, take the cores and skins and boil them an hour, then strain the juice all out through a coarse cloth; boil your
quinces in this juice till they are tender, then take them out; add the weight of the
quinces in clean
sugar to the sirup, boil and skim it till it is clear; then put in your
quinces again, and boil them three hours, when they are done. Preserves should not be covered up till entirely cold. They should be set away in stone jars.
* Pare your
citrons and weigh them, then scald them with a piece of
alum in the
water the size of a large walnut to a pailful of
water, till you can pierce them with a straw: cut them in slices half an inch thick with a sharp knife, pick out the seeds, let all the pulp remain, put as much weight of
sugar as there is of
citron; let it stand over night, pour off the sirup, scald it; when sufficiently done, put in the
citron and simmer it half an hour; cool the
citron and sirup separate, add
mace and a sliced
lemon.
Some slice two or three
lemons to one
citron, and omit the mace.
Take a cask or barrel, inaccessible to the external air, and put into it a layer of
bran, dried in an oven, or of
ashes well dried and sifted. Upon this place a layer of
grapes well cleaned and gathered in the afternoon of a dry day, before they are perfectly ripe. Proceed thus with alternate layers of
bran and
grapes, till the barrel is full, taking care that the
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, which is an essential point.
Grapes thus packed will keep nine or even twelve months.
Dry sawdust may be used, if you have it.
* Fill a stone pot with ripe
grapes; pour in
molasses enough to cover them, set them in a cool place in a pan,
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as, in working, it may run over. It will be ready for use in a month. It is useful through the winter, for mince pies.
Take six pounds of
sugar to one peck (or sixteen pounds) of the fruit. Scald and remove the skin of the fruit in the usual way. Cook them over a fire, their own juice being sufficient without the addition of water, until the
sugar penetrates and they are clarified. They are then taken out, spread on dishes, flattened, and dried in the sun. A small quantity of the sirup should be occasionally sprinkled over them whilst drying; after which, pack them down in boxes, treating each layer with
powdered sugar. The sirup is afterwards concentrated and bottled for use. They keep well from year to year, and retain surprisingly their flavor, which is nearly that of the best quality of fresh figs. The pear-shaped or single
tomatoes answer the purpose best. Ordinary
brown sugar may be used, a large portion of which is retained in sirup.
* Take a gallon of skinned
tomatoes, four table-spoonfuls of
salt, four of
black pepper, and three of
mustard. Grind these articles fine, and simmer them slowly in sharp
vinegar, in a pewter basin, three or four hours, and then strain it through a wire sieve, and bottle close. It may be used in two weeks, but improves much by age. Use enough
vinegar to make half a gallon of liquor when the process is over.
253. Tomato Sauce, for present Use. |
* Pour
boiling water on the
tomatoes, take the skin off, cut them up in pieces, and cover them all over with
loaf sugar. No more should be prepared than you wish to use at once, as they will not keep good.
Skin and stew your
tomatoes, then beat up half a dozen new-laid
eggs, the yolk and white separate; when each is well beaten, mix them with the
tomato; put them in a pan, and heat them up, you have a fine omelet.
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255. Tomato Preserves, No. 1. |
* Take them when quite small and green, put them in cold
clarified sirup with an
orange, simmer gently over a slow fire two or three hours. Equal weight of
sugar and
tomatoes, and more than
water enough to cover the
tomatoes used for the sirup; boiled down quite thick.
256. Tomato Preserves, No. 2. |
* Pour
boiling water on the
tomatoes, and take the skins off; then add the weight of them in
sugar, and some sliced
lemons; take a cup of
ginger and tie it up in a bag loosely, and boil it in half a pint of
water; put this into the preserve, and boil the whole three hours, skimming off the froth as it rises. When cool, it is ready for use.
Take six pounds of
pears to four pounds of
sugar, boil the parings in as much
water as will cover them, strain it through a colander, lay some
pears in the bottom of your kettle, put in some
sugar, and so on, alternately; then pour the liquor off the pear-skins over, boil them until they begin to look transparent, then take them out, let the juice cool, and clarify it; put the
pears in again, and add some
ginger, prepared as in the above receipt; boil till done; let the liquor boil after taking them out, until it is reduced to a sirup.
258. Preserved Currants for Tarts. |
* Get your
currants when they are dry, and pick them; to every pound and a quarter of
currants put a pound of
sugar into a preserving pan with as much
juice of currants as will dissolve it; when it boils skim it, and put in your
currants, and boil them till they are clear; put them into a jar, lay paper over, tie them down, and keep them in a dry place.
259. To make Currant Jelly. |
Take the
juice of red currants, and
white sugar, equal quantities in weight. Stir it gently and smoothly for three hours, put it into glasses, and in three days it will concrete into a firm jelly.
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Take a keg or pail, cover the bottom with half an inch of
salt, and set your
eggs close together, on the small end; sprinkle them over with
salt so as to cover them entirely, and then put down another layer of
eggs, and cover with
salt, till your keg is full; cover it tight, and put it where they will not freeze, and they will keep fresh and good a year, or longer. The
eggs must be new and fresh when put down. If you take
eggs as soon as the hen has laid them, and smear the shells with
lard or
butter, they will keep as good as new-laid eggs for some time; but if you rub the shells with
butter at any time, it will keep them good for months, and will prevent their being hatched.
261. To prepare and pickle Tripe. |
* Rinse it thoroughly in three or four clean cold waters, then cut it in pieces about a quarter of a yard square, then throw it into
lukewarm water, and let it lie two hours. Have ready some
boiling lime-water strong enough to cleanse it. This may be ascertained by plunging a piece of the
tripe, on the prongs of a fork, into the kettle. Fasten the
tripe to a board, and scrape the meat, as you would skins for sausages. If the
lime-water is strong enough, it will be easily cleansed; if not, add more
lime. After this throw it into
cold water, and let it lie three or four days, changing the
water once or twice a day; then prepare a large kettle with
water, into which put a spoonful of
saleratus, and a handful of
salt, and let it boil till it is so soft that you can thrust a straw through it easily; then, if you wish to salt it, put it in
weak brine. If you wish to pickle it, put
cloves, allspice, and
vinegar, over it.
* Take
green muskmelons, and
squash peppers before they become red; take out the seeds and put them in
salt and water over night; then fill them with
onions chopped fine,
horseradish scraped fine,
mustard seed and
cloves; sew them up, and put them into
vinegar.
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* Throw them into some
salt and water for a few days, or a week, then take them out and rinse them, put them into a jar with
vinegar, let them stand a few weeks, then turn your
vinegar and
pickles into a brass kettle with some
alum, and let them scald slowly; don't let them come to a proper boil; they will then be green; add
onions, horseradish, mustard-seed, and
pepper, as you choose.
Oak leaves scattered among the pickles, and covered over the top, will prevent the necessity of ever scalding them.
* Should be young and fresh shelled; wash them clean; put them into fresh
water, just enough to cover them, and boil them till they take up nearly all the
water; then take them up and all the
water with them, and season them with
salt and
butter.
* Dissolve a lump of
saleratus as big as a walnut with your
beans before baking, and you will find them greatly improved.
Mix gradually, with two quarts of
boiling water, three and a half pounds of best
brown sugar, a pint and a half of good
molasses, and one fourth of a pound of
tartaric acid; stir it well, and when cool strain it into a large jug or pan, then mix in a quarter of an ounce of
essence of sassafras; transfer it to clean bottles, (it will fill about half a dozen,) cork it tightly, and keep it in a cool place. Have ready a box containing about one fourth of a pound
carbonate of soda, to use with it. To prepare a glass of it for drinking, pour a little of the mead into a tumbler, fill three-fourths full of
cold water, then stir in a small quantity of
soda, and it will foam to the top.
One cup of
ginger, one pint of
molasses, one pail and a half of
water, and a cup of
lively yeast. Most people scald the
ginger in half a pail of
water, and then fill it up with a pailful of cold; but in very hot weather, some
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people stir it up cold.
Yeast must not be put in till it is cold, or nearly cold. If not to be drank within twenty-four hours, it must be bottled as soon as it works.
268. Good, wholesome Small Beer. |
Take two ounces of
hops, and boil them, three or four hours, in three or four pailfuls of
water; and then scald two quarts of
molasses in the liquor, and turn it off into a clean half-barrel, boiling hot; then fill it up with
cold water; before it is quite full, put in your
yeast to work it; the next day you will have
agreeable, wholesome small beer, that will not fill with wind, as that which is brewed from malt or bran; and it will keep good till it is all drank out.
Take three gallons of
water, lukewarm, three half-pints of
molasses, a table-spoonful of
essence of spruce, and the same quantity of
sugar; mix all together, and add a gill of
yeast; let it stand over night, and bottle it in the morning. It will be ready to use in twenty-four hours.
270. Simple Remedy to purify Water. |
Pulverized alum possesses the property of purifying
water. A large spoonful stirred into a hogshead of
water will so purify it, that in a few hours it will be as fresh and clear as spring water. Four gallons may be purified by a tea-spoonful.
* Peel and grate a quantity of
potatoes; put the pulp into a coarse cloth between two boards, and press it into a dry cake; the juice thus pressed out of the potato must be mixed with an equal quantity of
water, and in an hour's time it will deposit a fine sediment, on which pour
boiling water, and your starch is ready for use.
272. Cold Starch for Linen. |
There is economy in stiffening the collars and wristbands of shirts with unboiled starch. Take as much of the best
raw starch as will fill half a common tumbler, or a half-pint cup. Fill it nearly up with very clear
cold water. Mix it well with a spoon, pressing out all
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the lumps, till you get it thoroughly dissolved. Next add a tea-spoonful of
salt, to prevent its sticking. Pour it into a broad earthen pan, and add gradually a pint of clear
cold water, and stir and mix it well. Do not boil it.
The shirts having been washed and dried, dip the wristbands into this starch, and then squeeze it out. Between each dipping, stir it up from the bottom with a spoon. Then sprinkle the shirts, and fold or roll them up, with the collars and wristbands folded evenly, inside. They will be ready to iron in an hour.
This quantity of cold starch is sufficient for the collars and wristbands of a dozen shirts. Ladies' collars may be done also with cold starch, if the muslin is not very thin.
* For a two-quart coffee-pot, put in a tea-cup of ground
coffee, a small piece of
fish-skin; fill the coffee-pot nearly full of
boiling water, boil it from three quarters to one hour, then fill it up, and let it settle ten minutes.
* Peas, roasted and ground, are an excellent subtitute for coffee, and you would hardly know which was best.
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274. A COURSE OF DINNERS FOR A WEEK.
* MONDAY. Tea, coffee, or cocoa, with mince meat, and bread and butter, in winter; bread and milk in summer.
TUESDAY. Boiled dish, with apple dumplings.
WEDNESDAY. Roasted or baked meat, with bread pudding.
THURSDAY. Broiled steak, or fresh fish, with baked rice pudding.
FRIDAY. Baked beans, with baked Indian pudding.
SATURDAY. Salt cod-fish boiled, with apple pie.
SUNDAY. Morning, hashed fish and coffee. Noon, bread and butter--cheese--pie--doughnuts.
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275. THANKSGIVING DINNER.
* ROAST TURKEY, stuffed.
A PAIR OF CHICKENS stuffed, and boiled, with cabbage and a piece of lean pork.
A CHICKEN PIE.
Potatoes; turnip sauce; squash; onions; gravy and gravy sauce; apple and cranberry sauce; oyster sauce; brown and white bread.
PLUM and PLAIN PUDDING, with sweet sauce.
MINCE, PUMPKIN, and APPLE PIES.
Cheese.
P.S. The chickens
are to be prepared in the same manner as you would to roast them; fill the bodies and crops full of stuffing, and sew them up close; boil them an hour and a half, or two hours.
For Turnip Sauce.
--Boil your turnips and mash them fine; add the same amount of mealy mashed potatoes; season with salt and pepper, moisten it with cream or butter.
Squash.
--Boil it, peel it, and squeeze it dry in a colander; mash it fine, season it with salt, pepper, and butter.
Onions.
--Boil them in milk and water, season them with salt, pepper, and butter.
Gravy Sauce.
--Boil the neck, wings, gizzard, liver, and heart of the fowls, till they are tender; put in a boiled onion, chop it all fine, then add two or three pounded crackers, a piece of butter, and a little flour thickening; season it with pepper and salt.
Cranberry Sauce.
--Wash and stew your cranberries in water; add almost their weight in clean sugar, just before you take them from the fire.
Oyster Sauce.
--Put your oysters into a stewpan, add a little milk and water, and let them boil; season with a little pepper and butter, and salt, if necessary.
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MEDICINAL DEPARTMENT.
When a person has an attack of this complaint, his feet should be immersed in warm
ley water, or strong
soap-suds. Some
herb tea, made of catnip or pennyroyal, may be given at the same time, which will excite gentle perspiration, and will generally afford relief.
Another remedy is to beat well three eggs, including the shells, and add to them one pint of vinegar; let it stew till all is dissolved, then add one pound of loaf sugar, or one pint of molasses. Dose,--half a wine-glassful, to be taken occasionally, at discretion.
The fumes of burning paper, saturated with saltpetre, have been known to give relief. It may be prepared by simply dipping in strong saltpetre water, and then dried. On the recurrence of a turn of the asthma, a piece may be burned in the room, or rolled up and smoked by the patient.
A spoonful of mustard-seed, mixed with molasses, taken several times a day, is good.
277. Bleeding at the Nose. |
Young persons of sanguine habits are very liable to this complaint. The internal surface of the nostrils is lined with a net-work of blood-vessels, and covered with only a thin tegument; and they are easily ruptured by any determination of more than ordinary blood to the head. Generally, bleeding does not continue long; but if it does, proper means should be taken to check it, by diverting the blood from the head; at such times the feet and hands will be found cold.
Remedies.--Soak the feet and hands in warm soap-suds, or water. Apply a cloth wrung out in cold water on the back of the neck, and on the cords behind the ears.
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Salted dried beef, grated fine with a nutmeg-grater, and two or three pinches snuffed up the nose, it is said, will stop almost any fit of bleeding.
Gum arabic, powdered fine and snuffed from your fingers, or blown into the nose through a quill, is good.
278. A Remedy to stop Blood. |
Soot, applied to a fresh cut or wound, will stop the blood, and abate the pain at the same time.
In case of a blow on the head, or a fall causing insensibility, use a
mustard paste on the back of the neck and pit of the stomach, and rub the body with
spirits. After the circulation is restored, bleeding is often necessary; but it is very dangerous to attempt it before.
Apply a poultice of
elm bark (the powdered if to be had) and
milk; spread it upon a piece of linen or muslin, and when ready, cover it with
sweet oil; let the poultice be changed as often as it gets dry. If the
elm bark is not at hand, scrape a
potato fine and apply it. In the absence of all other remedies, or while they are being got ready, apply
cold water, by wetting soft linen or muslin cloths, and change as often as they grow warm.
Another.--Put as much alum in a bottle of cold water as will dissolve, and keep it ready to apply immediately to a burn. Wet a cotton cloth in this solution, and lay it on the burn as soon as possible; when it becomes dry or warm, wet it again; it will ease the pain, and cure the burn in twenty-four hours, if applied before blisters are formed. The deepest burns have been cured in this way.
* Every family should have on hand, ready mixed, half a pint each linseed oil and lime water, ready for use in case of a burn or scald; the bottle to be shaken previous to the application, as the ingredients will separate; a piece of linen to be applied to the burn, and kept constantly saturated with the liniment.
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For a small burn, where the skin is not broke, spirits of turpentine may be used.
Poultice.
--Indian meal poultice, covered over with young hyson tea, softened with hot water, and laid over burns and frozen flesh, as hot as it can be borne, will relieve the pain in five minutes; if blisters have not arisen before, they will not after it is put on, and one poultice is generally sufficient to effect a cure.
Take a table-spoonful of
lard, half a table-spoonful of
spirits of turpentine, and a piece of
resin as big as a walnut, and simmer them together till they are well incorporated; when cool, keep it in a box. In case of a burn, warm this so that you can spread it over a piece of linen, and apply it to the burn.
If females and children must wear cotton and linen dresses and aprons in the winter, use the following precaution. The dresses, after being washed, should be dipped in strong
alum water, which will prevent them from blazing, if they should take fire.
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283. Directions, in Case of a Person's Clothes taking Fire.
If a child's or any person's clothes should happen to be set fire to, they ought never to open the door and rush out into the street, but to lie down immediately, and, if they can, to roll themselves in a rug, carpet, coat, cloak, or any other woollen article which may be near. If any other persons are present, they should assist in doing the same, as the readiest way of putting out the flame. The reason is plain. By running about through the air, you fan the flame, and make it blaze more fiercely; whereas the object should be to smother it. Do not drag the sufferer to a pump, or tear off the burnt clothes roughly; but, having extinguished the flames, remove the clothes as gently as possible, and then sprinkle flour over the burnt part of the body, the great object being to keep the air from it as much as possible. Medical direction should, of course, be procured as quick as possible.
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284. To escape from, or go into, a House on Fire.
Creep or crawl with your face near the floor, and although the room be full of smoke to suffocation, yet near the floor the air is pure, and may be breathed with safety. The best escape from upper windows is a knotted rope; but if a leap is unavoidable, then a bed should be thrown out first, or beds prepared for the purpose.
>
285. Fire-Escape.
In nurseries, and in other rooms where little children sleep, there ought to be provided one or more strong sacks, about three feet and a half in depth, and one and a half in diameter, kept open at the top with a thick wooden hoop, having a long rope fastened to it: into these sacks, should an unhappy accident require it, the children may be put, and let down. The person who manages the above, may descend by the same fire-escape fastened to the bedstead, or such other means as may be at hand.
>
286. To extinguish a recent Fire.
A mop and a pail of water are generally the most efficacious remedies; but if it has gained head, then keep out the air, and remove all ascending or perpendicular combustibles, up which the fire creeps and increases in force as it rises.
>
287. To extinguish Fire in Chimneys.
Put a wet blanket over the whole front of the fireplace, which soon stops the current of air, and extinguishes the flame.
* Take three pints of ripe
blackberries, and jam them with your hands fine; add their weight in
loaf sugar, stew them twenty minutes; set them away, with the mouth of the jar open, till they are cold. This is good for sore mouth, dysentery, and diarrhœa.
* For a person afflicted with the bilious colic, take the
bran of corn meal, make it into a pudding, sprinkle
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mustard over it, and apply it, as hot as can be borne, to the bowels. It is said this will give relief. Drink hot
peppermint water.
* Mix the
yolk of an egg with
fine salt, make it into a salve; spread it on a piece of soft leather, and apply it: change it every day, and a cure will soon be effected.
* Another Remedy.--Use strong potash, made of the ley of the ashes of red oak bark, boiled down to the consistence of molasses, and cover the cancer with it, and in about an hour afterwards cover the plaster with tar, which must be removed after a few days; and if protuberances appear in the wound, apply more potash to them, and the plaster again, until they all disappear, after which, heal the wound with any common salve. This treatment has been known to effect a perfect cure.
*
Indian Remedy.--Take the
roots of pitch-pine saplings, chop them up fine, and boil a three-pail-potful, until all the strength is exhausted--say twenty or thirty minutes; then strain off the liquor, and boil it down to one gallon.--Use it as a regular drink, till a cure is effected, in one or two months. It may be sweetened with
honey, molasses, or
loaf sugar.
This will cure
erysipelas, and other bad humors in the blood.
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292. Canker and Sore Mouth.
Black Currant Jelly.
--Pick your currants clean, mash them, stew them, and rub them through a sieve; add the same weight of loaf sugar, and simmer them over a slow fire thirty or thirty-five minutes. This is an excellent remedy for canker and sore mouth.
* Goldthread, made into a strong tea, thickened with cream, and made sweet with loaf sugar, and applied with a swab, made of a linen rag, tied on the end of a stick, is good for canker and sore mouth.
[Editorial note: Text amended to accommodate automated searching requirements. See page image for original text.]
"Completely to eradicate this disease," says a correspondent of the U.S. Gazette, "I will not positively say
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the following remedy is capable of doing; but I will venture to affirm that by a temperate mode of living--avoiding spirituous liquors wholly--wearing flannel next to the skin, and taking, every morning, half a pint of
new milk, mixed with a wine-glassful of the compressed
juice of green hoarhound, the complaint will not only be relieved, but the individual shall procure to himself a length of days beyond what its mildest form could give room to hope for.
"I am myself a living witness of the beneficial effects of this agreeable, and, though innocent, yet powerful application. Four weeks' use of the hoarhound and milk relieved the pains in my breast; gave me to breathe deep, long, and free; strengthened and harmonized my voice; and restored me to a better state of health than I had enjoyed for years."
Dr. Coteren, of Paris, recommends the inhaling of the gaseous perfume of chloride of lime, for disease of the lungs. It may be dissolved in soft water, then pour into it a little vinegar, and apply it to the nose so as to inhale freely the perfumes which the mixture will produce.
The attention of a young lady, apparently in the last stage of consumption, was called to the virtues of camomile, by observing from her window, early each morning, a dog belonging to the house, with scarcely any flesh on his bones, constantly go and lick the dew off a camomile bed in the garden, in doing which the animal was noticed to alter his appearance, to recover strength, and finally looked plump and well. The singularity of the circumstance was impressed strongly on the lady's mind, and induced her to try what effect might be produced from following the dog's example. She accordingly procured the dew from the same bed of camomile, drank a small quantity each morning, and after continuing it for some time, experienced some relief; her appetite became regular, she found a return of spirits, and in the end was completely cured.
* This disease is peculiar to children, and generally attacks them very suddenly in the night, by a very sharp,
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shrill cough, and quick, laborious breathing, attended with a peculiar whizzing noise. At the very first notice, active measures should be pursued. Let no time be lost in giving an emetic--immerse the feet in
warm water, and put a poultice of
yellow snuff, mixed with
goose oil, or
sweet oil, upon the stomach. Apply several thicknesses of flannel. wet in
hot water, over the throat, as hot as can be borne, and change as often as it cools. Put
onion poultices on the feet, after soaking them a little time; lose no time in sending for a physician.
* Soak the feet in
warm soap-suds, till the outer surface of the corn is quite soft; then wipe dry, and apply
caustic all over the corn; it will soon be dry; let them remain for several days till you can remove the black skin without difficulty; then apply more
caustic, and so continue till there is no corn left.
Use a salve made of equal parts of roasted onions and soft soap; apply it hot.
Or apply a sponge wet with a solution of pearlash.
* Wild turnip scraped and bound upon the corn, after the corn has been cut and made tender, will cure it in a short time.
Take a small piece of flannel which has not been washed, wrap or sew it round the corn and toe. One thickness will be sufficient. Wet the flannel where the corn is, night and morning, with fine sweet oil. Renew the flannel weekly, and at the same time pare the corn, which will very soon disappear.
296. Cramp in the Stomach. |
Friction should be immediately employed where the pain is, and continued until a degree of heat is produced, and the pain subsides. Should this fail of giving relief, administer half a tea-spoonful of
red pepper in half a tumbler of
water or
tea; also,
peppermint tea, or, as a substitute, any common
herb tea. Bathe the feet in
warm water, and apply a heated brick, covered with a cloth and wet with
vinegar, to the breast, as hot as can be borne.
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In case of a common cut, bind the lips of the wound together with a rag, and put nothing else on. If the cut be large, and so situated that it cannot be bound up, use sticking plaster cut in strips and laid obliquely across the cut. If necessary, take a stitch or two with a needle or thread on each lip of the wound, and draw the two sides together.
If an artery be cut,
it must be immediately tied up, or the person will bleed to death. The blood from an artery is of a bright-red color, and spirts out, in regular jets, at each beat of the heart. Take up the bleeding end of the artery, and hold it, or tie it up, till a surgeon arrives. When the artery cannot be found, and in all cases of bad cuts on any of the limbs, apply compression; when it can be done, tie a very tight bandage above the wound, if it be below the heart, and below, if the wound be above the heart. Put a stick into the band and twist it as tight as can be borne till surgical aid can be obtained.
* Take one part
muriatic acid, mingled with seven parts
water, with which the feet must be well rubbed for a night or two before going to bed, and perfect relief will be experienced. The application must of course be made before the skin breaks, and it will be found not only to allay the itching, but to prevent the further progress of the chilblains.
Another good remedy is to dip the feet every night and morning in cold water, withdrawing them in a minute or two, and drying them with a hard, coarse towel.
If the feet are frosted, put them in a pail of brine.
Wash your hands with
Castile soap; apply it with a flannel, and, if necessary, use a brush, in order to get the dirt from under and around the nails and fingers, till they are perfectly clean; then rinse them in a little clean
water, and, while they are wet,
rub them well all over with about half a tea-spoonful of good
honey; then
dry them well, with a clean, coarse towel. This should be done once or
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twice a day, and always before going to bed. After washing clean, apply
vinegar, and put on your gloves on going to bed.
To make it palatable to Children.--Take the quantity of
oil you propose for a dose, and boil it for a few minutes in an equal quantity of
milk, and sweeten it with a little
sugar; when cool, stir it, and give it to the child. The taste is quite pleasant--not disagreeable.
Take two wine-glasses each,
sweet oil, good
molasses, and
West India rum, and simmer them well together over a fire till it becomes the thickness of honey, so that the oil will not separate from the rest; while on the fire, keep it well stirred, and when taken off, continue the same till it is cold. A grown person should take a table-spoonful once an hour, till he finds the disease abating, then once in two hours, or as the judgment may suggest. Children to take in like manner, in proportion to their ages.
* Take one tea-spoonful rhubarb, pulverized; one do. peppermint leaves, pulverized; one do. saleratus; half pint boiling water: when cold, add a wine-glass of brandy, and sweeten with loaf sugar. Dose--half a wine-glassful once in two or three hours, till the disease is checked.
* Two ounces of fine salt in a pint of French brandy, and taken a tea-spoonful at a time two or three times a day, will soon give relief. This is also good for the rheumatism, dyspepsia, and indigestion.
* Boiled milk, thickened with flour, and taken in the first stages of dysentery, is in all common cases an invaluable remedy. Boiled milk without flour is too harsh. Omit all other food, while using this.
A table-spoonful of powdered charcoal, mixed with a little water, if taken in time, will check the dysentery.
Take the yolks of three eggs, two ounces of loaf sugar, one gill of brandy, and one nutmeg grated; the whole to
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be well mixed. A grown person to take a tea-spoonful every two or three hours; children less, according to age. This is said to be an excellent remedy for the dysentery.
Blackberry jam is also good.
To a wine-glass of
warm water add one table-spoonful of
vinegar, and one tea-spoonful of
fine salt. Take this at one dose, and if it does not afford relief in half an hour, repeat the dose. The second dose is almost sure to give entire relief.
This is said also to give relief in case of
bilious colic.
Another remedy, more adapted to children, is to parch half a pint of rice until it is perfectly brown, then boil it down as is usually done, and eat it slowly, and it will stop very bad diarrhœa in a few hours.
*
Thoroughwort sirup, and also a
tea made of mullein sage, or mountain cranberry, sweetened with
loaf sugar, will greatly relieve the dropsy.
Common dandelion is said to be very good. It may be eaten as a salad with the usual dressing; or the juice may be taken in the dose of half a wine-glassful, three times a day; or the leaves may be kept in the pocket, and frequently eaten in the course of the day. The afflicted will rest satisfied with the change of their feelings, which will be perceived after using the plant.
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304. Drowning.
The following directions are given by Valentine Mott, Surgeon-General of the American Shipwreck Society, in New York:--
To bring the Drowned to Life.--Immediately, as soon as the body is removed from the water, press the chest suddenly and forcibly downward and backward,andinstantly discontinue the pressure. Repeat this without interruption, until a pair of common bellows can be procured. When obtained, introduce the nozzle well upon the base of the
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tongue. Surround the mouth with a towel or handkerchief, and close it. Direct a bystander to press firmly upon the projecting part of the neck, (called Adam's apple,) and use the bellows actively. Then press upon the chest to expel the air from the lungs, to imitate natural breathing. Continue this at least an hour, unless signs of natural breathing come on.
Wrap the body in blankets, place it near a fire, and do every thing to preserve the natural warmth, as well as to impart an artificial heat, if possible. Every thing, however, is secondary to inflating the lungs.
[Illustration: A small illustration of a hand pointing to the right.]
Send for a medical man immediately.
Avoid all frictions until respiration shall be in some degree restored.
Take a strong glass bottle, and fill it nearly full of pure
clarified honey; insert the bottle into the centre of a loaf of
unbaked bread, first taking care to stop it tightly, and bake the whole thoroughly in an oven. Pour a small quantity of the
honey thus treated into your ears, and protect them from the action of the external air by the use of cotton.
Pour
boiling water on
elder flowers, and steep them; when cold, put three or four drops of
laudanum into a small glass of the
tea, and let the mixture run into the eyes several times a day. They will become strong in a few days.
307. Eye, to remove a Mote from. |
Take a horsehair, and form a loop by bending it round and bringing the ends together; then raise the eyelid, and insert the loop between the lid and the eyeball, then let the lids fall again, draw the hair out, and with it whatever may have got under the lid.
Take of the
juice of elderberry one quart; boil to one pint; strain, and add two pounds
double-refined sugar; again place it over the fire; as soon as it shall have boiled, remove it from the fire; and when cold, bottle it for
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use, taking care to have it well corked. Should you neglect to put in the above quantity of
sugar, there will be danger of its becoming mouldy. As a gentle purgative, this sirup is excellent medicine, of very pleasant taste, and is particularly serviceable for children who are difficult about taking medicine. The dose for an adult is a wine-glassful.
This is also good for
humors in the blood.
One ounce of
gum myrrh, one ounce of
canella alba, one ounce of
saffron, one quart of
brandy, one quart of
W. I. rum, or
alcohol, half an ounce of
saleratus; the more age this has, the better.
Take
opium, one drachm;
oil of anise, one drachm;
gum camphor, two thirds of a drachm;
extract of liquorice, one ounce; three gills of
alcohol, and three gills of
water: put the materials in a bottle with the
alcohol, and let it stand three days before adding the
water. Age improves this very much.
Soak the feet in
warm water; roast an
onion and put the heart of it into the ear as warm as can be borne; heat a brick, and wrap it up, and apply to the side of head. When the feet are taken from the water, bind
roasted onions on them.
Lard, or
sweet oil, dropped into the ear, as warm as it can be borne, is good.
Soak the part in
weak ley, (which can easily be made of a small piece of
potash,) as hot as you can bear it, for twenty or thirty minutes; shave down the skin on the part, but don't make it bleed; then take a piece of
clay, dry, pulverize and sift it, moisten it with strong
camphor to the consistency of poultice; apply it half an inch thick, and keep it moist with
camphor, as much as it will absorb, for a day or two. This is said to be a sure cure, without disfiguring the part affected.
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*
To prevent Infection.--Mix with a table-spoonful of
vinegar, powdered chalk enough to destroy the acid; let it settle; then turn off the
vinegar, and dry the
chalk perfectly: to purify a room, put in a few drops of
sulphuric acid: the fumes in using it, arising from the
chalk, should not be inhaled, nor the acid allowed to touch the garments or furniture.
The danger of infection will be much greater, to a person going directly from his own bed to the bedside of the patient, than to one who first takes the precaution of drinking, were it only a cup of coffee.
Dr. J.C. Smith, of London, gained a reward of 5000 pounds from parliament, for the following receipt, for the prevention of infection, from the typhus fever.
Take six drachms of powdered nitre (saltpetre) and six drachms of sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol); mix them in a tea-cup. By adding one drachm of the acid at a time, a copious discharge of nitrous acid gas will take place. The cup to be placed, during the preparation, on a list hearth, or a plate of heated iron, and the mixture stirred with a tobacco-pipe. This quantity is sufficient for a common-sized room: less will do for a small room. Avoid breathing the gas as it rises from the cup. No injury to the lungs will happen when the air of the room is impregnated with the gas; and it cannot be too widely known that it possesses the property of preventing infection from fever.
* One pound of best
figs, one ounce of
senna; the
senna to be pounded and made fine as possible; the
figs to be chopped fine; to be well incorporated together; a very little
molasses to be added, to make it of a right consistency. This is a very gentle cathartic. To be taken in pieces as large as a chestnut.
Lime-water, about a gill at a time, as a drink, and repeated often, is good in this disease. The warm bath
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should be used, and flannel wrung out of a
decoction of warm herbs should be kept on the bowels. Drink moderate draughts of
gum arabic warm. When the pain subsides, use
gentle physic.
A gentleman says he was relieved of this complaint, of a number of years' standing, by sweetening his tea with half honey and half sugar.
Take a large handful of smart-weed; make a decoction, and add one gill of gin, and take the whole in twelve hours. This has been known to discharge a table-spoonful of gravel-stones at a time.
It is stated, in the Medical Journal, that a gentleman whose head was quite bald, had his hair entirely restored by the use of
sulphate of copper, dissolved in
brandy and applied to his head.
Fine salt dissolved in water, and daily applied, it is said, will restore hair to the heads of those who, from fever or other causes, may have suffered its loss.
Take
oyster-shells, wash them clean, put them upon a bed of live coals, and keep them there till they are thoroughly calcined, or burnt; then reduce them to fine powder, and sift it through a fine sieve. Take three table-spoonfuls of this powder, or
lime, and add a sufficiency of
egg to give it the consistency of soft dough,--fry it in a little fresh
butter, or
olive oil. Let the patient eat this cake in the morning, and abstain from food or drink at least six hours. This dose repeated for three mornings in succession, is, in all cases, sufficient.
A gentleman states that he is acquainted with six persons who were bitten, from eight to fifteen years ago, by dogs who were abundantly proved to be mad, from the fact that animals bitten, immediately after died with every symptom of hydrophobia; but by the use of this remedy, the six individuals are yet in perfect health.
It is said that a man lying under the frightful tortures
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of hydrophobia was cured with some draughts of vinegar, given him, by mistake, instead of another potion.
This was afterwards tried upon a patient at the hospital, administering to him a pint of vinegar in the morning, another at noon, and a third at sunset, and the man was speedily and perfectly cured.
For the wound, take two table-spoonfuls of fresh chloride of lime in powder, mix it with half a pint of water, and with this keep the wound constantly bathed, and frequently renewed. It should be applied as soon as possible after the bite.
* A
camphor lozenge, or a little
camphor in
water, will stop a hiccough at once.
For heartburn take a tea-spoonful of
carbonate of soda, dissolved in
sweetened water.
Magnesia or
prepared chalk is also good.
* One quart of
cider, three table-spoonfuls of
white mustard seed, three of
burdock seed, a small
horseradish root, well steeped together. To be kept in a bottle well corked; dose, a wine-glassful two or three times a day.
* A ground mustard poultice, applied to the back of the neck, between the shoulders, is good.
* For an ordinary headache, take a shovelful of clean wood ashes; put them into clean cold water: when it has settled, drink the water: it may cause vomiting; if it does, the headache will be relieved the sooner.
321. Indigestion, Remedy for. |
Boil half a pint of
white wheat three hours in a quart of
water, or a little more if necessary. Drink half a pint of the liquid twice or three times a week.
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* Two table-spoonfuls of
sweet oil, a piece of
beeswax the size of a hazel-nut, melted over a lamp, in a piece of
letter-paper large enough to hold it.
Take an ounce of
gum camphor, half a drachm
oil of rosemary, half a drachm
oil of origanum, two ounces
Castile soap, cut small, and half a pint
spirits of wine. Boil all together for half an hour. When cool, bottle it for use. It is good for bruises, sprains, stiffness of the neck and shoulders, and rheumatic pains.
Take
cream of tartar, one ounce;
jalap pulverized, one ounce;
electuary of senna, two ounces;
flour of sulphur half an ounce;
nitrate of potash, half an ounce; add
molasses sufficient to make a pill, or thick mass; make into pills of common size, and take four night and morning. This is a sovereign remedy for blind or bleeding piles. Sometimes, when the tumors become very painful, and are attended with considerable inflammation, a poultice of
slippery elm bark and
milk will be found quite valuable and soothing.
* A tea made of goldthread, sweetened with honey or loaf sugar, and taken half a wine-glass before eating, is good.
Take
excrescences which form upon the leaves of the sumach, very finely powdered, an ounce; fresh
lard, six ounces. Blend them together thoroughly. This is beneficial in piles, and often affords surprising relief. It may be confined to the parts by means of a bandage and a piece of lint or folded rag.
Burdock leaves, applied all round the parts and back, are good.
If the parts are very sore or irritable, an injection is good, which may consist of an infusion of raspberry, witch-hazel,
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or sumach leaves, rendered somewhat mucilaginous with slippery elm. The liquid should always be strained, or the sediment will tend to aggravate the complaint.
Sweet oil, mixed with
warm milk and
water, drank until vomiting, is an antidote to poisons generally.
Ground mustard, mixed with warm water, will also produce vomiting.
327. Run-Round on the Finger. |
As soon as the swelling and inflammation begin, lay the finger flat on the table, and scratch the nail all over, first lengthways and then crossways, with the sharp point of scissors or penknife, so as to scratch up the whole surface of the nail, leaving it rough and white. This latter operation will not give the slightest pain, and we have never known it it fail of stopping the progress of the disease, all symptoms of which will disappear by the next day.
Take one quart of
spirits of wine, two ounces of
laudanum, one ounce
oil of amber, one ounce of
penny-royal, one ounce
spirits of hartshorn; mix the ingredients in a glass bottle. Bathe the parts affected two or three times a day, (rubbing in the liniment thoroughly with the hand,) and keep them covered with a flannel. Keep it well corked from the air, to prevent evaporation. This is excellent, also, for fresh cuts, sprains, and bruises.
Half an ounce of saltpetre dissolved in a pint of brandy, and taken one table-spoonful every day. This is said, by those who have tried the experiment, to be a most excellent antidote for that painful complaint.
Put some
tobacco with some
water, and boil it, and add some
vinegar and
strong ley to the liquor: wash the parts affected often.
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Mix a wine-glassful of good
calcined magnesia and
honey, to the consistence of paste or jelly, and take a spoonful once an hour through the day for a day or two. It is cooling, healing, and a very gentle cathartic.
External Remedy.
--Take a glass of olive or sweet oil, and half a glass of spirits of turpentine; mix them together, and rub the throat externally, wearing flannel round it at the same time. It proves most effectual when applied early.
* A slice of salt pork, covered over quite thick with red pepper, and bound on the throat on going to bed, will give relief.
For sea-sickness, drink copiously of strong
green tea as often as the stomach will bear it. It is simple, but effective.
332. Salve for Burns, Bruises, Cuts, &c. |
* Take
Burgundy pitch, mutton tallow, and
beeswax, each a piece the size of a walnut, and simmer in a tea-cupful of
sweet oil. When cold, put it in a box, and set it away for use.
* Make a strong tea of the
herb: to a quart of the
tea add a quart of
molasses; boil it down to a thick sirup: when cool, bottle it for use, and keep it in a cool place.
Mix
alum and common
salt in equal quantities, finely pulverized. Then wet some cotton, large enough to fill the cavity, which cover with
salt and
alum, and apply it. We have the authority of those who have tested it, to say it will prove a perfect remedy.
* Opium, dissolved in the oil of cloves, dropped on cotton, and applied to a tooth, will relieve a jumping toothache.
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The bark of wild poplar root steeped in water, and the liquid held in the mouth, it is said, will cure the toothache.
* For the ague,
boil some hops and bran, and make a stiff poultice; put it in a bag, wet the inside with spirit, and apply it as hot as it can be borne.
To four ounces of fresh prepared
lime-water add a drachm of
Peruvian bark; wash the teeth with this water before breakfast and after supper; it will effectually destroy the tartar, and remove the offensive smell from those which are decayed.
Take of good soft water one quart; juice of lemon, two ounces; burnt alum, six grains; common salt, six grains. Mix. Boil them a minute in a cup, then strain and bottle for use.
* Pound up
gum camphor, pour on
boiling water; sweeten it with
loaf sugar, and let the patient take a spoonful every ten minutes.
A drink made of
common pigweed is also said to be a good remedy;
also, a
mustard poultice applied to the pit of the stomach;
spearmint water sweetened a very little with
loaf sugar, and taken hot, is good.
Dissolve as much
common washing soda as the
water will take up--then wash the hands or warts with this for a minute or two, and allow them to dry without being wiped. This, repeated for two or three days, will gradually destroy the most irritable wart.
The bark of willow, burned to ashes, mixed with good vinegar, and applied to warts, it is said, will remove them.
For a cough, boil a tea-cup of
flaxseed in a quart of
water to a pint; add one gill of
molasses or
honey. Simmer
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ten minutes, and cool. Add a few drops of
lemon-juice. Take a wine-glass three times a day.
For hoarseness,
mix scraped horseradish with loaf sugar. After standing twenty-four hours, add water, boil to a sirup, and strain. One tea-spoonful every two hours.
In hard, unyielding coughs,
the following recipe will be useful: One gill of molasses, one gill new rum, two tea-spoonfuls of pulverized liquorice, and a piece of alum as large as a walnut.
This complaint is mostly confined to children, and will have a regular run. A little
saleratus, and occasionally a little
bloodroot, will be found greatly to alleviate the paroxysms.
* A gentleman, who has tried it, says that yellow pond-lily root, dried and pulverized, mixed with an equal quantity of honey, and taken a tea-spoonful at a time, several times in a day, will not only relieve the whooping-cough, but will cure it in a short time.
Take two wine-glasses of vinegar, two of honey, two of water, and one onion sliced. Simmer one hour. Dose--three tea-spoonfuls night and morning for a child eight years old.
External application
for the same: Sweet oil and brandy, simmered with one onion sliced, and anoint the spine, chest, and soles of the feet, night and morning.
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MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.
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340. To keep Apples for Winter Use.
Put them in casks or bins, in layers well covered with dry sand, each layer being covered. This preserves them from air, from moisture, and from frost; it prevents their perishing by their own perspiration, their moisture being absorbed by the sand; at the same time it preserves the flavor of the apples, and prevents their wilting. Pippins have been kept in this manner sound and fresh till mid-summer; and how much longer they would have kept is not known. Any kind of sand will answer, but it must be pefectly dry.
If apples are immersed in grain of any kind, they will keep good all the year round, and the grain will not in any way be the worse for it. This does not need any preparation or expense, as the apples may be put into a corn-bin, or into a tub, and the corn intended for food for horses or poultry may as well be stored in this way as any other.
341. Shoe-Blacking, No. 1. |
* Three ounces of
ivory black; two ounces of
brown sugar; half an ounce each of
oil of vitriol and
muriatic acid; one large spoonful of
sweet oil; one pint of good
vinegar. Mix the
ivory black, oil, sugar, and
vinegar, and then add the vitriol and acid mixed together.
342. Shoe-Blacking, No. 2. |
Take eight ounces of
ivory black, six ounces of
molasses, six table-spoonfuls of
sweet oil, and three of
oil of vitriol: mix all together with a quart of
vinegar, and bottle it. It will be ready for use in a week.
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343. Shoe-Blacking, No. 3. |
Take
elder-berries; mash them in a kettle of
water; place the kettle for a few days in the shade until the liquid ferments, then boil it for half a day, filling up with
water occasionally; set it aside to cool, then strain it through a coarse, thin cloth, then boil it down to the thickness of molasses, and it is fit for use. Put a small quantity on a brush with a feather, and rub the shoe until you bring it to a fine gloss.
Good
writing ink
may be made in the same way.
344. To make Boots water-proof. |
Put a pound of
tallow and half a pound of
resin into a pot on the fire; when melted and mixed, warm the boots, and apply the hot stuff with a painter's brush, until neither the sole nor upper-leather will suck in any more. If it is desired that the boots should immediately take a polish, dissolve an ounce of
beeswax in an ounce of
spirits of turpentine, to which add a tea-spoonful of
lamp-black. A day or two after the boots have been treated with
tallow and
resin, rub over them the wax in turpentine, but not before the fire. Thus the exterior will have a coat of wax alone, and shine like a mirror. Boots or shoes should be so large as to admit of wearing in them cork soles. Cork is so bad a conductor of heat that, with it in the boot, the feet are always warm on the coldest stone floor.
The
husks are gathered as soon as they are ripe, and on a clean, dry day. The outer
husks are rejected, and the softer, inner ones are collected and dried in the shade, and when dry, the hard ends, that were attached to the cob, are cut off. They are then drawn through a hatchel or comb, so as to cut them into narrow slips. These, enclosed in a sack, or formed into a mattress like prepared hair, will be found almost equal to the best moss or hair mattresses, and are so durable, that, with any ordinary care, they will last from five to ten years.
346. Good Butter in Winter. |
Before setting the
milk, pour a sufficient quantity of
boiling water into it to make it nearly as hot as it can be borne
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by the finger. Keep the cream from freezing, and when it is ready to churn, add the
juice of a middling-sized carrot to four quarts of
cream.
Yellow butter in winter is made by putting in the yolk of eggs near the termination of churning. This also makes very fine and sweet butter. It has hitherto "been kept a secret by many, but its great value required publicity."
Take two drachms of
oil of rosemary, two of the
oil of lemon, one of
lavender, ten of
cinnamon, one tea-spoonful of
rose-water. Pour on these one quart of
alcohol; put all in a glass bottle, and shake it up well; to have it very clear, put some cotton in a tunnel, and place a piece of clean tissue or printing paper over it, and strain the contents through it.
Another way.--One pint alcohol, sixty drops lavender, sixty of bergamot, sixty of essence of lemon, sixty of orange-water. To be cooked up, and well shaken. It is better for considerable age.
To correct the most impure and offensive atmosphere in a few moments, and to restore it to its purity, it is only necessary to procure one pound of
chloride of lime, which will cost but one shilling, put it into a bucket of
water, mix it up, and throw it into a receptacle of filth. A supply may be had at almost any of the apothecaries.
349. To preseve Corn for Boiling. |
Pluck the
corn when fit for eating, strip down the husk so as to remove the silk, and then replace it--pack it away in a barrel, and pour on a strong
pickle, such as used for meat, with a weight to keep it down, and you will have a good sea stock--parboiled and then boiled, to make it perfectly fresh and sweet as when taken from the salt.
350. To remove Flies from Rooms. |
Take half a tea-spoonful of
black pepper, in powder one tea-spoonful of
brown sugar, and one table-spoonful
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of
cream. Mix them well together, and place them in a room on a plate where the flies are troublesome, and they will soon disappear.
351. To prevent Horses being teased by Flies. |
Take two or three small handfuls of
walnut leaves, on which pour two or three quarts of
cold water; let it infuse one night, and pour the whole, next morning, into a kettle, and boil for quarter of an hour; when cold, it is fit for use. Moisten a sponge with it, and before the horse goes out of the stable, let those parts which are most irritable be smeared over with the liquor.
Pennyroyal, prepared in the same way, is equally good. Flies will not alight a moment on the spot to which this has been applied.
352. A cheap Method of preserving Cucumber Plants from the small Fly or Bug. |
Break off the
stocks of onions which have been set out in the spring, and stick down five or six of them in each hill of cucumbers, and the bug will immediately leave them. It would be well, after a few days, to renew them; but one application has frequently been found to be completely effectual.
353. To take the Ink out of Linen. |
Dip the spotted part in pure melted
tallow; then wash out the
tallow, and the ink will come out with it. This is said to be unfailing.
354. Scratches in Horses. |
Mix
white lead and
linseed oil in such proportions as will render the application convenient, and I never have known more than two or three applications necessary to effect a common cure.
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355. How to fatten Fowls.
Confine your fowls in a large airy enclosure, and feed them on broken Indian corn, Indian meal, or mush, with raw potatoes cut into small pieces, not larger than a filbert, placing within their reach a quantity of charcoal broken into small pieces. Boiled rice is also good.
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Corks, cut as thin as sixpences, roasted or stewed in
grease, and placed in their tracks; or
dried sponge in small pieces, fried or dipped in
honey, with a little
oil of rhodium; or
bird-lime, laid in their haunts, will stick to their fur and cause their departure.
If a live rat be caught, and well rubbed or brushed over with tar and train-oil, and afterwards put to escape in the holes of others, they will disappear.
Poisoning is a very dangerous and objectionable mode.
Mix a paste of
corn meal with
raw eggs, which is the best bait for a wire-trap: they will all get in, if there is room.
358. Rats, to drive them from your Premises. |
* Buy one pound of
chloride of lime, and scatter it dry into every rat-hole and place that they visit, in the cellar and other parts of the house, in and under the cellar-wall, and they will soon leave you. Don't put it on or very near any articles of family provisions.
359. To make good Black Ink. |
Ground logwood, one ounce;
nutgall, three ounces;
gum arabic, two ounces;
sulphate of iron, (
green copperas,) one ounce;
rain-water, two quarts. Boil the
water and wood together until the liquid is reduced one half; then add the
nutgalls coarsely bruised, and when nearly cold, the
sulphate of iron and
gum; stir it frequently for a few days, then let it settle; then pour it off, and cork it up close in a glass bottle.
Take six cents' worth of
lunar caustic, and having put it into an ounce phial full of
vinegar, and a very little
sap-green, cork it tight and hang it in the sun. In a couple of days, it will be fit for use.
To make the preparation for the above, take a lump of
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pearlash, of the size of a chestnut, and dissolve it in a gill of rain-water.
The part of the muslin to be written upon is to be wet with the preparation, and dried and glazed with a warm flat-iron; immediately after which, it is ready for marketing.
361. To keep up Sash Windows. |
This is performed by means of cork, in the simplest manner and with scarcely any expense. Bore three or four holes in the sides of the sash, into which insert common bottle corks, projecting about the sixteenth part of an inch. These will press against the window-frames, along the usual groove, and by their elasticity support the sash at any height which may be required.
362. To take out Pitch, Tar, Resin, Paint, &c. |
If any of these happen to get on a garment, either linen or woollen, pour a little
alcohol on the place, and let it soak in half an hour. Then rub it gently, and you will find the
alcohol soaked out the glutinous quality, so that it will easily crumble out.
363. A strong Cement for China or Glass. |
With a small camel-hair brush, rub the broken edges with a little
carriage-oil varnish; and if neatly put together, the fracture will hardly be perceptible, and when thoroughly dry will stand both fire and water.
364. To prevent Lamps from Smoking. |
Dip the wick-yarn in strong hot
vinegar, and dry it, before putting it in your lamp.
Boil slowly, for one hour, three pounds of very coarse
brown sugar in three gallons of
water; work it with a little
yeast, the same as you would beer; then put it into a cask, and expose it to the sun, with a piece of brown paper pasted over the bung-hole, and it will soon become fine vinegar, fit for pickling or any other purpose.
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Attach a piece of flannel or sponge to a thread, made fast to the top of bedstead; wet the flannel or sponge with
camphorated spirits, and the mosquitoes will leave the room.
Sub-carbonate of ammonia, eight parts. Put it in coarse powder into a bottle, and pour on it
oil of lavender, one part.
To repair cracks, &c., in iron pots or pans, mix some finely-sifted
lime with well-beaten
whites of eggs, till reduced to a paste; then add some
iron file dust, apply the composition to the injured part, and it will soon become hard and fit for use.
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369. Frozen Pumps.
* Nothing is more discouraging, in a cold winter morning, when the thermometer is ten or fifteen degrees below zero, than to find your pump-handle immovable, and be obliged to spend all the forenoon before you can water your cattle, or have any water from this source for family purposes. A careful housekeeper will always, in this weather, keep a pailful in a place where it will not freeze. If your pump is copper or any kind of metal, all you have to do is take your tea-kettle from the fire, pour some boiling water on the outside of the pump and pipe as far as it is frozen, and you will find immediate relief.
370. A brilliant Stucco Whitewash. |
Six quarts of clean
lime, slacked in
boiling water, two quarts of
salt, five gallons of
water; boil and skim; then add one pound of
copperas and three fourths pound of
saleratus gradually, and four quarts
sifted wood ashes; color to taste or fancy; applied while hot.
2d. Clean fresh-burnt lime, same as above; one fourth pound burnt alum, powdered; one pound sugar; three
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pints rice flour, made into a jelly; one pound clean glue, first dissolved; five gallons water.
This wash is applied, where particular neatness is required, with a painter's brush. It must be put on while warm, if upon the outside of the building--if within doors, cold. It will retain its brilliancy for many years. There is nothing of the kind that will compare with it. About one pint of this mixture will cover a square yard upon the outside of a house, if properly applied.
* To keep them away from your cupboards. Keep one pint of
tar, in two quarts of
water, in an earthen vessel in your closets, and you will not be troubled with little red ants. When first mixed, pour the
water on hot.
372. To raise the Surface of Velvet. |
Warm a flat-iron moderately; cover it with a wet cloth, and hold it under the velvet; the vapor arising from the heated cloth will raise the pile of the velvet with the assistance of a rush-whisk.
373. To clean Looking-Glasses. |
Take a newspaper, fold it small, dip it in a basin of clean
cold water. When thoroughly wet, squeeze it out as you do a sponge; then rub it pretty hard all over the surface of the glass, taking care that it is not so wet as to run down in streams; in fact, the paper must only be completely moistened, or damped, all through. Let it rest a few minutes, then go over the glass with a piece of fresh dry newspaper, till it looks clear and bright.
The insides of windows may be cleaned in the same way; also spectacle-glasses, lamp-glasses, &c.
374. To prevent Flies from Injuring Picture-Frames, Glasses, &c. |
Boil three or four
onions in a pint of
water; then with a gilding brush do over your glasses and frames, and the flies will not alight on the article so washed. This may be used without apprehension, as it will not do the least injury to the frames.
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388. To extract Ink from Floors. |
Scour the place with sand wet with
spirits of vitriol and
water.--When the ink is extracted, wash the floor with strong
pearlash water, and put the vitriol, labelled, where children cannot have access to it.
389. To pickle Cucumbers. |
Take two or three hundred, lay them on a dish,
salt them, and let them remain eight or nine hours; then drain them, and, laying them in a jar, pour boiling
vinegar upon them. Place them near the fire, covered with
vine-leaves. If they do not become sufficiently green, strain off the
vinegar, boil it, and gain pour it over them, covering with fresh leaves. Continue to do so till they become as green as you wish.
390. To pickle Red Cabbages. |
Slice them into a sieve, and sprinkle each layer with
salt. Let the whole drain three days, then add some sliced
beet-root, and place the whole in a jar, over which pour boiling
vinegar. The purple red
cabbage is the finest.
Mace, bruised ginger, whole pepper, and
cloves, may be boiled with the
vinegar, and will make a great improvement.
Take a quart of highly-rectified
spirits of wine, essential oil of lavender two ounces,
essence of ambergris five drachms; put it all into a bottle, and shake it till perfectly incorporated.
Or,--put two pounds of lavender-blossoms into half a gallon of water, and set them in a still over a slow fire; distil it off gently till the water is all exhausted; repeat the process a second time, then cork it closely down in bottles.
When the roses are in full blossom, pick the
leaves carefully off, and to every quart of
water put a peck of
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them. Put them in a cold still over a slow fire, and distil very gradually; then bottle the
water, let it stand in the bottle three days, and then cork it close.
393. To take out Mildew from Linen. |
Mix some
soft soap with
powdered starch, half as much
salt, and the
juice of a lemon; lay it on the part on both sides with a brush, then let it lie on the grass day and night till the stain comes out.
Iron-moulds
may be removed by the essential salt of lemons.
Many stains
may be removed by dipping the linen in sour buttermilk, and drying it in a hot sun then wash it in cold water. Repeat this three or four times.
Stains caused by acids
may be removed by tying some pearlash up in the stained part; then scrape some soap in some cold soft water, and boil the linen till the stain is gone.
394. To extract Oil from Boards or Stone. |
Make a strong
ley of pearlash, to which add as much
unslacked lime as it will take up; mix it well, let it settle, and then bottle it for use. When you use it, weaken it with
water, and scour the boards or stone, which should always be done quickly, or it will take out the color from the boards.
Take half a pound of fine
glue, boil and strain it clear; then boil two ounces if
isinglass; put it in a double glue-pot, with four ounces of fine
brown sugar, and boil it pretty thick; then pour it out into plates. When cold, cut them into small pieces for the pocket, and dry them. This is an excellent cement for paper, as it instantly dissolves in warm water, and fastens the paper very firmly.
396. To remove Grease-Spots. |
In a quart of
spring water dissolve two ounces of pure
pearlash, to which add two
lemons cut into small pieces. Mix this well, and keep it in a warm state two days, then strain it off, and keep it in a bottle closely stopped for use.
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To use it, pour a little upon the stained part; and the moment the spot disappears, wash the part in
cold water. This a most useful article to remove pitch, grease, &c.
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397. A good Rule.
Whenever you enter an apartment occupied by another individual, if the door is closed before you enter, close it after you. If, on the contrary, it stands invitingly open, let it remain so.
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398. A Hint to the Working Classes.
If a man, twenty-one years of age, begin to save a dollar a week, and put it to interest every year, he would have, at thirty-one years of age, six hundred and fifty dollars; at forty-one, one thousand six hundred and eighty; at sixty-one, six thousand one hundred and fifty; and at seventy-one, eleven thousand five hundred dollars. When we look at the sums, and when we think how much temptation and evil might be avoided in the very act of saving them, and how much good a man in humble circumstances might do for his family by these sums, we cannot help wondering that there are not more savers of one dollar a week.
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399. Jefferson's Two Rules.
Two rules of Jefferson are very applicable to the times:--"Never spend your money before you get it;" and "Never buy what you do not want because it is cheap."
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400. Family Tool Closet: by Miss Leslie.
Much inconvenience and considerable expense would be saved, if it was the universal custom to keep in every house a few tools for the purpose of performing at home what are called small jobs; instead of being always obliged to send for a mechanic, and pay him for executing little things that might be sufficiently well done by a man or boy belonging to the family provided that the proper instruments were at hand. The cost of these articles is very trifling, and the advantages of having them in the house, (particularly in the country,) are beyond
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all price. In a small private family, it may not be necessary to keep more than a few of these things; but those few are almost indispensable to comfort. For instance, there should be an axe, a saw, (a wood-saw also, where wood is burned,) a claw-hammer, a mallet, a gimblet, a screw-driver, a small plane, a carpet-fork or stretcher, one or two jack-knives, a pair of large scissors or shears, and a trowel. If there were two gimblets and two screw-drivers, (large and small,) it would be better still. Also, an assortment of hooks and nails of different sizes, from large spikes down to small tacks, not forgetting a portion of brass-headed nails, some large and some smaller. Screws, also, will be found very convenient. The nails and screws should be kept in a wooden box, with divisions or partitions to separate the various sorts, for it is very troublesome to have them mixed.
No house should be without glue, chalk, putty, paint, cord, twine, and wrapping-paper; and care should be taken that the supply is not suffered to run out, lest the deficiency might cause delay and inconveninece at a time when most wanted.
It is well to have, in the lower part of the house, a deep closet, appropriated entirely to tools and things of equal utility, for executing at once such little repairs as convenience may require, without the delay or expense of sending for an artisan. This closet should have only one large shelf, and that not more than three feet above the floor. Beneath the shelf may contain cakes of glue, pieces of chalk, hanks of manilla-grass cord, and balls of twine of different size and quality. There may be small shelves at the sides of the closet for glue-pots, paste-pots, and brushes; pots for black, white, green, and red paint, cans of painting oil, &c. On the wall above the large shelf let the tools be suspended, or laid across nails or hooks of proper size to support them. This is much better than to keep them in a box, where they may be injured by rubbing against each other, and the hand may be hurt by feeling among them to find the one that is wanted. When hung against the closet-wall, each tool may be seen at a glance. We have been shown an excellent and simple contrivance, for designating the exact places of these things. On the wall directly under the nails that support the tools, is
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drawn, with a small brush dipped in black paint or ink, an outline representation of the tool or intstrument appropriated to that particular place. For instance, under each saw is sketched the outline of a saw; under each gimlet is a sketch of a gimlet; under the screw-drivers are slight drawings of screw-drivers: so that when any tool is taken away for use, and afterwards brought back again, the exact spot to which it belongs may be found in a moment; and all confusion in putting them up, and finding them again, is this prevented. We highly recommend this plan.
Wrapping-paper may be piled on the floor under the large shelf. It can be bought very low, by the ream, at the wholesale paper stores; and each house should be supplied with it in several varieties. For instance, coarse brownish paper for common things. That denominated ironmonger's paper, which is strong, thick, and in large sheets, is useful for enclosing heavy articles. Nankeen paper is best for putting up nice parcels, such as books and things of fine quality. What is called shoe-paper (each ream containing a variety of colors, red, blue, white, and buff) is very useful also for wrapping nice articles, as it is soft, and not brittle. This paper is cheapest of all.
Old waste newspapers are unfit for wrapping any other articles other than glass, china, brass, and tin--things whose surfaces are so hard and polished that the printing-ink does not rub off on them--also can be easily washed. Waste newspapers had best be used for lighting fires, singeing poultry, and cleaning windows and mirrors. Waste written p