Chapter XV: Part 15

OIL OF FLOWERS.--A French process for obtaining essential oils from flowers or herbs has been described as follows:--Take carded cotton, or split wadding, and steep it in some pure Florence oil, such as is quite clear and has no smell. Then place a layer of this cotton in the bottom of a deep china dish, or in an earthen pipkin. Cover it with a thick layer of fresh rose leaves, or the leaves of sweet pink, jasmine, wall-flower, tuberose, magnolia blossoms, or any other odoriferous flower or plant from which you wish to obtain the perfume. Spread over the flower-leaves another layer of cotton that has been steeped in oil. Afterwards a second layer of flowers, and repeat them alternately till the vessel is quite full. Cover it closely, and let it stand in the sun for a week. Then throw away the flower-leaves, carefully press out the oil from the cotton, and put it into a small bottle for use. The oil will be found to have imbibed the odour of the flowers.

Keep the scented cotton to perfume your clothes-drawers.

BALM OF GILEAD OIL.--Put loosely into a bottle as many balm of Gilead flowers as will come up to a third part of its height; then nearly fill up the bottle with sweet oil, which should be of the best quality. Let it infuse (shaking it occasionally) for several days, and it will then be fit for use. It is considered a good remedy for bruises of the skin; also for cuts, burns, and scalds that are not very bad, and should be applied immediately by wetting a soft rag with it; renewing it frequently.

LIP SALVE.--Put into a wide-mouthed bottle four ounces of the best olive oil, with one ounce of the small parts of alkanet root. Stop up the bottle, and set it in the sun, (shaking it often,) till you find the liquid of a beautiful crimson. Then strain off the oil very clear from the alkanet root, put it into an earthen pipkin, and add to it an ounce of white wax, and an ounce and a half of the best mutton suet, which has been previously clarified, or boiled and skimmed. Set the mixture on the embers of coals, and melt it slowly: stirring it well. After it has simmered slowly for a little while, take it off; and while still hot, mix with it a few drops of oil of roses, or of oil of neroli, or tincture of musk.

COLD CREAM.--Cut up a shilling cake of white wax; put it into a clean sauce-pan with an ounce of oil of sweet almonds, and two large table-spoonfuls of lard. Boil and stir it well. When you take it off the fire, beat in an ounce of orange-flower, or rose-water. Put it up in gallicups with covers.

SOFT POMATUM.--Soak half a pound of fresh lard and a quarter of a pound of beef marrow in water for two or three days; squeezing and pressing it every day, and changing the water. Afterwards drain off the water, and put the lard and marrow into a sieve to dry. Then transfer it to a jar, and set the jar into a pot of boiling water. When the mixture is melted, put it into a basin, and beat it with two spoonfuls of brandy. Then drain off the brandy, perfume the pomatum by mixing with it any scented essence that you please, and tie it up in gallipots.

COSMETIC PASTE.--Take a quarter of a pound of Castile soap, and cut it into small pieces. Then put it into a tin or porcelain sauce-pan, with just water enough to moisten it well, and set it on hot coals. Let it simmer till it is entirely dissolved; stirring it till it becomes a smooth paste, and thickening it with Indian meal, (which even in a raw state is excellent for the hands.) Then take it from the fire, and when cool scent it with rose-water, or with any fragrant essence you please. Beat and stir it hard with a silver spoon, and when it is thoroughly mixed put it into little pots with covers.

ACID SALT.--This is the composition commonly, but erroneously called salt of lemon, and is excellent for removing ink and other stains from the hands, and for taking ink spots out of white clothes. Pound together in a marble mortar an ounce of salt of sorrel, and an ounce of the best cream of tartar, mixing them thoroughly. Then put it in little wooden boxes or covered gallipots, and rub it on your hands when they are stained, washing them in cold water, and using the acid salt instead of soap; a very small quantity will immediately remove the stain. In applying it to linen or muslin that is spotted with ink or fruit juice, hold the stained part tightly stretched over a cup or bowl of boiling water. Then with your finger rub on the acid salt till the stain disappears. It must always be done before the article is washed.

This mixture costs about twenty-five cents, and the above quantity (if kept dry) will be sufficient, for a year or more.

Ink stains may frequently be taken out of white clothes by rubbing on (before they go to the wash) some bits of cold tallow picked from the bottom of a mould candle. Leave the tallow sticking on in a lump, and when the article comes from the wash, it will generally be found that the spot has disappeared. This experiment is so easy and so generally successful that it is always worth trying. When it fails, it is in consequence of some peculiarity in the composition of the ink.

SWEET JARS.--Take a china jar, and put into it three handfuls of fresh damask rose-leaves; three of sweet pinks, three of wall-flowers, and stock gilly-flowers, and equal proportions of any other fragrant flowers that you can procure. Place them in layers; strewing powdered orris-root thickly between each layer.

You may fill another jar with equal quantities of lavender, knotted marjoram, rosemary, lemon-thyme, balm of Gilead, lemon-peel, and smaller quantities of laurel leaves and mint; and some sliced orris-root. You may mix with the herbs, (which must all be chopped,) powdered cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg; strewing powdered orris-root between the layers.

Flowers, herbs, and spice may all be mixed in the same jar; adding always some orris root. Every thing that is put in should be perfectly free from damp.

The jar should be kept closely covered, except when the cover is occasionally removed for the purpose of diffusing the scent through the room.

SCENTED BAGS.--Take a quarter of a pound of coriander seeds, a quarter of a pound of orris root, a quarter of a pound of aromatic calamus, a quarter of a pound of damask rose leaves, two ounces of lavender blossoms, half an ounce of mace, half an ounce of cinnamon, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, and two drachms of musk-powder. Beat them all separately in a mortar, and then mix them well together. Make small silk or satin bags; fill each with a portion of the mixture, and sew them closely all round. Lay them among your clothes in the drawers.

VIOLET PERFUME.--Drop twelve drops of genuine oil of rhodium on a lump of loaf-sugar. Then pound the sugar in a marble mortar with two ounces of orris root powder. This will afford an excellent imitation of the scent of violets. If you add more oil of rhodium, it will produce a rose perfume. Sew up the powder in little silk bags, or keep it in a tight box.

DURABLE INK.--Take, when empty, one of the little bottles that has contained indelible ink, such as is sold in cases, and wash and rinse it clean. Put into it two inches of lunar caustic; fill it up with soft water and cork it tightly. This is the marking ink.

Prepare the larger bottle that has contained the liquid used for the first wash, by making it quite clean. Take a large tea-spoonful of salt of tartar, and a lump of gum arabic the size of a hickory nut. Put them into the wash bottle, and fill it up with clear rain water. Cork both bottles tightly, and set them three days in the sun. Always put them in the sun before using it.

Linen cannot be marked well with durable ink unless the weather is clear and dry. Dip a camel's hair pencil in the large bottle that contains the gum liquid, and wash over with it a small space on a corner of the linen, about large enough to contain the name. Dry it in the sun, and let it alone till next day. Then take a very good pen, and with the ink from the smallest bottle, write the name you intend, on the place that has been prepared by the first liquid. This also must be dried in the sun. See that the bottles are always well corked, and keep them in a covered box.

After the linen is dried, iron it before you write on it.

ANOTHER DURABLE INK.--For the marking liquid--rub together in a small mortar five scruples of lunar caustic with one drachm of gum arabic, one scruple of sap-green and one ounce of rain water. Keep the bottle three days in the sun.

For wetting the linen--mix together a quarter of an ounce of salt of soda, a heaped table-spoonful of powdered gum arabic, and two ounces of hot water.

TO KEEP PEARL-ASH.--Take three ounces of pearl-ash, and put it into a clean black bottle with a pint and a half (not more) of soft water. The proportion is an ounce of pearl-ash to half a pint of water. Cork it very tightly, shake it, and it will be fit for use as soon as all the pearl-ash is dissolved. A table-spoonful of this liquid is equal to a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in the lump or powder. Keeping it ready dissolved will be found very convenient.

ALMOND PASTE.--Blanch half a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and a quarter of a pound of bitter ones, and beat them in a mortar to a smooth paste--adding by degrees a jill of rose or orange-flower water. Then beat in, gradually, half a pound of clear strained honey. When the whole is well incorporated, put it into gallipots, pouring on the top of each some orange-flower or rose-water. Keep it closely covered.

This is a celebrated cosmetic for the hands.

MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.

MINCED OYSTERS.--Take fifty fine large oysters, and mince them raw. Chop also four or five small pickled cucumbers, and a bunch of parsley. Grate about two tea-cupfuls of stale bread-crumbs, and beat up the yolks of four eggs. Mix the whole together in a thick batter, seasoning it with cayenne and powdered mace; and with a little salt if the oysters are fresh. Have ready a pound of lard, and melt in the frying-pan enough of it to fry the oysters well. If the lard is in too small a quantity they will be flat and tough. When the lard is boiling hot in the pan, put in about a table-spoonful at a time of the oyster-mixture, and fry it in the form of small fritters; turning them so as to brown on both sides. Serve them up hot, and eat them with small bread rolls.

STEWED BLACK FISH.--Flour a deep dish, and lay in the bottom a piece of butter rolled in flour. Then sprinkle it with a mixture of parsley, sweet marjoram, and green onion; all chopped fine. Take your black fish and rub it inside and outside with a mixture of cayenne, salt, and powdered cloves and mace. Place skewers across the dish, and lay the fish upon them. Then pour in a little wine, and sufficient water to stew the fish. Set the dish in a moderate oven, and let it cook slowly for an hour.

Shad or rock fish may be dressed in the same manner.

FRIED SMELTS.--These little fish are considered extremely fine. Before they are cooked, cut off the heads and tails. Sprinkle the smelts with flour, and have ready in a frying pan over the fire plenty of fresh lard or butter. When it boils, put in the fish and fry them.

BROILED SWEETBREADS.--Split open and skewer the sweetbreads; season them with pepper and salt, and with powdered mace. Broil them on a gridiron till thoroughly done. While they are broiling, prepare some melted butter seasoned with mace and a little white wine, or mushroom catchup; and have ready some toast with the crust cut off. Lay the toast in the bottom of a dish; place the sweetbreads upon it, and pour over them the drawn butter.

PICKLED EGGS.--Boil twelve eggs quite hard, and lay them in cold water; having peeled off the shells. Then put them whole into a stone jar, with a quarter of an ounce of whole mace, and the same quantity of cloves; a sliced nutmeg; a table-spoonful of whole pepper; a small bit of ginger; and a peach leaf. Fill up the jar with boiling vinegar; cover it closely that the eggs may cool slowly. When they are cold, tie up the jar; covering the cork with leather. After it has stood three days pour off the pickle, boil it up again, and return it boiling hot to the eggs and spice. They will be fit for use in a fortnight.

GUMBO SOUP.--Take four pounds of the lean of a fresh round of beef and cut the meat into small pieces, avoiding carefully all the fat. Season the meat with a little pepper and salt, and put it on to boil with three quarts and a pint of water (not more.) Boil it slowly and skim it well. When no more scum rises, put in half a peck of ochras, peeled and sliced, and half a peck of tomatas cut in quarters. Boil it slowly till the ochras and tomatas are entirely dissolved, and the meat all to rags. Then strain it through a cullender, and send it to table with slices of dry toast. This soup cannot be made in less than seven or eight hours. If you dine at two you must put on the meat to boil at six or seven in the morning. It should be as thick as a jelly.

SHREWSBURY CAKES.--Rub three quarters of a pound of butter into two pounds of sifted flour, and mix in half a pound of powdered sugar, and half a pound of currants, washed and dried. Wet it to a stiff paste with rich milk. Roll it out, and cut it into cakes. Lay them on buttered baking sheets, and put them into a moderate oven.

RICE FLUMMERY.--To two quarts of milk allow half a pound of ground rice. Take out one pint of the milk, and mix the rice gradually with it into a batter; making it quite smooth and free from lumps. Put the three pints of milk into a skillet, (with a bunch of peach leaves or a few peach-kernels,) and let it come to a boil. Then while it is still boiling, stir in by degrees the rice batter, taking care not to have it lumpy; add sugar, mace, and rose brandy to your taste; or you may flavour it with the juice of a large lemon. When it has boiled sufficiently, and is quite thick, strain it, and put it into a mould to congeal. Make a rich boiled custard, (flavoured in the same manner,) and send it to table in a pitcher, to eat with the flummery. Both should be cold. If you mould it in tea-cups, turn it out on a deep dish, and pour the custard round it.

APPLE BUTTER WITHOUT CIDER--Mix together ten gallons of water, and ten gallons of the best West India molasses. Put it into a large kettle over a good fire; let it come to a hard boil, and skim it as long as any scum continues to rise. Then take out half the liquid, and put it into a tub. Have ready eight bushels of fine sound apples, pared, cored and quartered. Throw them gradually into the liquid that is still boiling on the fire. Let it continue to boil hard, and as it thickens, add by degrees the other half of the molasses and water, (that which has been put into the tub.) Stir it frequently to prevent its scorching, and to make it of equal consistence throughout. Boil it ten or twelve hours, continuing to stir it. At night take it out of the kettle, and set it in tubs to cool; covering it carefully. Wash out the kettle and wipe it very dry.

Next morning boil the apple butter six or eight hours longer; it should boil eighteen hours altogether. Then an hour before you take it finally out, stir in a pound of mixed spice cloves, mace, cinnamon, and nutmeg, all finely powdered. When entirely done, put up the apple butter in stone or earthen jars. It will keep a year or more.

It can, of course, be made in a smaller quantity than that given in the above receipt; and also at any time in the winter; fresh cider not being an ingredient, as in the most usual way of making apple butter.

AN APPLE POT PIE.--Make a paste, allowing a pound of butter, or of chopped suet to two pounds and a quarter of flour. Have ready a sufficient quantity of fine juicy acid apples, pared, cored, and sliced. Mix with them brown sugar enough to sweeten them, a few cloves, and some slips of lemon-peel. Butter the sides of an iron pot, and line them with paste. Then put in the apples, interspersing them with thin squares of paste, and add a very little water. Cover the whole with a thick lid of paste, cutting a slit in the centre for the water to bubble up, and let it boil two hours. When done, serve it up on a large dish, and eat it with butter and sugar.

PUDDING CATCHUP.--Mix together half a pint of noyau; a pint of sherry or other white wine; the yellow peel of four lemons, pared thin; and half an ounce of mace. Put the whole into a large bottle, and let it stand for two or three weeks. Then strain it, and add half a pint of capillaire or strong sugar syrup; or of Curaçoa. Bottle it, and it will keep two or three years. It may be used for various sweet dishes, but chiefly for pudding-sauce mixed with melted butter.

CURAÇOA.--Grate as much fresh orange-peel as will make two ounces when done; the peel of fresh shaddock will be still better. Mix it with a pint of orange juice. Put it into a quart of the strongest and clearest rectified spirit; shake it, let it infuse for a fortnight, and strain it. Then make a syrup by dissolving a pound of the best loaf-sugar in a pint of cold water, adding to it the beaten white of an egg, and boiling and skimming it till the scum ceases to rise. Mix the syrup with the strained liquor. Let it stand till next day, and then filter it through white blotting paper fastened to the bottom of a sieve. Curaçoa is a great improvement to punch; also a table-spoonful of it in a tumbler of water makes a very refreshing summer drink.

PATENT YEAST.--Boil half a pound of fresh hops in four quarts of water, till the liquid is reduced to two quarts. Strain it, and mix in sufficient wheat flour to make a thin batter; adding half a pint of strong fresh yeast, (brewer's yeast, if it can be procured.) When it is done fermenting, pour it into a pan, and stir in sufficient Indian meal to make a moderately stiff dough. Cover it, and set it in a warm place to rise. When it has become very light, roll it out into a thick sheet, and cut it into little cakes. Spread them out on a dish, and let them dry gradually in a cool place where there is no sun. Turn them five or six times a day while drying; and when they are quite dry, put them into paper bags, and keep them in a jar or box closely covered, in a place that is not in the least damp.

When you want the yeast for use, dissolve in a little warm water one or more of the cakes, (in proportion to the quantity of bread you intend making,) and when it is quite dissolved, stir it hard, thicken it with a little flour, cover it, and place it near the fire to rise before you use it. Then mix it with the flour in the usual manner of preparing bread.

This is a very convenient way of preserving yeast through the summer, or of conveying it to a distance.

TO DRY HERBS.--By drying herbs with artificial heat as quickly as possible, you preserve their scent and flavour much better than when they are dried slowly by exposing them to the sun and air; a process by which a large portion of their strength evaporates. All sorts of herbs are in the greatest perfection just before they begin to flower. Gather them on a dry day, and place them in an oven, which must not be hot enough to discolour, scorch, or burn them. When they are quite dry, take them out, and replace them with others. Pick the leaves from the stems, (which may be thrown away,) and put them into bottles or jars; cork them tightly, and keep them in a dry place. Those that are used in cookery should be kept in a kitchen closet.

PEACH KERNELS.--When peaches are in season, have in a convenient place an old basket or something of the sort, in which all the peach stones can be saved; they are too useful to be thrown away. Then have them carefully cracked, so as to extract the kernels whole if possible. Spread them out on a dish for one day. Then put them into a box or jar, and keep them to use as bitter almonds; for which they are an excellent substitute in flavouring custards, creams and cakes. Plum stones are worth saving in the same manner.

LEMON-PEEL.--Never throw away the rind of a lemon. Keep a wide-mouthed bottle half full of brandy, and put into it (cut in pieces) all the lemon-rind that you do not immediately want. As the white part of the rind is of no use, it will be best to pare off the yellow very thin, and put that alone into the brandy, which will thus imbibe a very fine lemon flavour, and may be used for many nice purposes.

TO KEEP TOMATAS.--Take fine ripe tomatas, and wipe them dry, taking care not to break the skin. Put them into a stone jar with cold vinegar, adding a small thin muslin bag filled with mace, whole cloves, and whole peppers. Then cork the jar tightly with a cork that has been dipped in melted rosin, and put it away in a dry place. Tomatas pickled in this manner keep perfectly well and retain their colour. For this purpose use the small round button tomatas.

Morella cherries may be pickled thus, in cold vinegar.

ADDITIONAL RECEIPTS.

FRENCH GREEN PEA SOUP.--This soup is made without meat. Put into a soup-pot four quarts of shelled green peas, two large onions sliced, a handful of leaves of sweet marjoram shred from the stalks, or a handful of sweet basil; or a mixed handful of both--also, if you like it, a handful of green mint. Add four quarts of water, and boil the whole slowly till all the peas are entirely to pieces. Then take off the pot, and mash the peas well against its sides to extract from them all their flavour. Afterward strain off the liquid into a clean pot, and add to it a tea-cup full of the juice of spinach, which you must prepare, while the soup is boiling, by pounding some spinach in a mortar. This will give the soup a fine green colour. Then put in a quarter of a pound of the best fresh butter rolled whole in flour; and add a pint and a half more of shelled young peas. If you wish the soup very thick, you may allow a quart of the additional peas. Season it with a very little salt and cayenne; put it again over the fire, and boil it till the last peas are quite soft, but not till they go to pieces.

Have ready in a tureen two or three slices of toasted bread cut into small squares or dice, and pour the soup on it.

This soup, if properly made, will be found excellent, notwithstanding the absence of meat. It is convenient for fast days; and in the country, where vegetables can be obtained from the garden, the expense will be very trifling.

What is left may be warmed for the next day.

GIBLET SOUP.--Take three pounds of shin of beef or of neck of mutton. Cut off the meat and break the bones. Then put the meat with the bones into a soup-pot, with a tea-spoonful of salt, and three quarts of water. Add a bunch of sweet marjoram, one of sweet basil, and a quarter of an ounce of black pepper-corns, all tied in a thin muslin rag; a sliced onion, and six or eight turnips and carrots, cut small. Let the whole boil slowly for two or three hours, skimming it well. In the mean time, have ready two sets of goose-giblets, or four of duck. They must be scalded, and well washed in warm water. Cut off the bills, and split the heads; and cut the necks and gizzards into mouthfuls. Having taken the meat and bones out of the soup, put in the giblets, with a head of celery chopped. Boil it slowly an hour and a half, or more, taking care to skim it. Make a thickening of an ounce and a half of butter, and a large table-spoonful of flour, mixed together with a little of the soup. Then stir it into the pot, adding a large table-spoonful of mushroom catchup, and some small force-meat balls, or little dumplings. Boil the soup half an hour longer. Then send it to table with the giblets in the tureen.

GUMBO.--Take an equal quantity of young tender ochras and of ripe tomatas, (for instance, a quarter of a peck of each.) Chop the ochras fine, and scald and peel the tomatas. Put them into a stew-pan without any water. Add a lump of butter, and a very little salt and pepper; and, if you choose, an onion minced fine. Let it stew steadily for an hour. Then strain it, and send it to table as soup in a tureen. It should be like a jelly, and is a favourite New Orleans dish. Eat dry toast with it. This gumbo is for fast days.

HAM OMELET.--Take six ounces of cold boiled ham, and mince it very fine, adding a little pepper. Beat separately the whites and yolks of six eggs, and then mix them together; add to them gradually the minced ham. Beat the whole very hard, and do not let it stand a moment after it is thoroughly mixed. Have ready some boiling lard in a frying-pan, and put in the omelet immediately. Fry it about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. When done, put it on a hot dish, trim off the edges, and fold it over in a half moon. Send it to table hot, and covered. It is eaten at breakfast.

If you wish a soft omelet, (not to fold over,) fry it a shorter time, and serve it in a deep dish, to be helped with a spoon.

A similar omelet may be made of the lean of a cold smoked tongue.

BATTER PUDDING.--Take a quart of milk, and stir into it gradually eight large table-spoonfuls of flour, carefully pressing out all the lumps with the back of the spoon. Beat eight eggs very light, and add them by degrees to the milk and flour. Then stir the whole very well together.

Dip your pudding-cloth into boiling water, and then dredge it with flour. Pour in the pudding, and tie it tightly, leaving room for it to swell. Put it into a pot full of boiling water, and boil it hard for two hours. Keep it in the pot till it is time to send it to table. Serve it up with wine-sauce, butter and sugar, or molasses and cold butter.

PEACH MANGOES.--Take free-stone peaches of the largest size, (when they are full grown, but not quite ripe,) and lay them in salt and water for two days, covered with a board to keep them down. Then take them out, wipe them dry, cut them open, and extract the stones. Mix together, to your taste, minced garlic, scraped horse-radish, bruised mustard seed, and cloves; and a little ginger-root soaked in water to soften, and then sliced. Fill the cavity of the peaches with this mixture. Then tie them round with pack-thread, and put them into a stone jar till it is two-thirds full. Strew among them some whole cloves, broken cinnamon, and a little cochineal. Season some cold vinegar, (allowing to each quart a jill of fresh made mustard, and a little ginger, and nutmeg,) and having mixed this pickle well, fill up the jar with it.

BROILED TOMATAS.--Take large ripe tomatas; wipe them, and split them in half. Broil them on a gridiron till brown, turning them when half done. Have ready in a dish some butter seasoned with a little pepper. When the tomatas are well broiled, put them into the dish, and press each a little with the back of a spoon, so that the juice may run into the butter and mix with it. This is to make the gravy. Send them to table hot.

Tomatas are very good sliced, and fried in butter.

PRESERVED TOMATAS.--Take large fine tomatas, (not too ripe,) and scald them to make the skins come off easily. Weigh them, and to each pound allow a pound of the best white sugar, and the grated peel of half a lemon. Put all together into a preserving kettle, and having boiled it slowly for three hours, (skimming it carefully,) add the juice of the lemons, and boil it an hour longer. Then put the whole into jars, and when cool cover and tie them up closely. This is a cheap and excellent sweetmeat; but the lemon must on no account be omitted. It may be improved by boiling a little ginger with the other ingredients.

TOMATA HONEY.--To each pound of tomatas, allow the grated peel of a lemon and six fresh peach-leaves. Boil them slowly till they are all to pieces; then squeeze and strain them through a bag. To each pint of liquid allow a pound of loaf-sugar, and the juice of one lemon. Boil them together half an hour, or till they become a thick jelly. Then put it into glasses, and lay double tissue paper closely over the top. It will be scarcely distinguishable from real honey.

PRESERVED CUCUMBERS.--Your cucumbers should be well shaped, and all of the same size. Spread the bottom and sides of a preserving kettle with a thick layer of vine leaves. Then put in the cucumbers with a little alum broken small. Cover them thickly with vine leaves, and then with a dish. Fill up the kettle with water, and let them hang over a slow fire till next morning, but do not allow the water to boil. Next day, take them out, cool them, and repeat the process with fresh vine leaves, till the cucumbers are a fine green. When cold drain them, cut a small piece out of the flat side, and extract the seeds. Wipe the cucumbers in a dry cloth, and season the inside with a mixture of bruised mace and grated lemon-peel. Tie on with a pack-thread the bit that was cut out.

Weigh them, and to every pound of cucumbers allow a pound of loaf-sugar. Put the sugar into a preserving kettle, a half pint of water to each pound, and the beaten white of an egg to every two pounds. Boil and skim the sugar till quite clear, adding sliced ginger and lemon parings to your taste. When cool, pour it over the cucumbers, and let them lie in it two days, keeping them covered with a plate, and a weight on it to press it down. Then boil up the syrup again, adding one-half as much sugar, &c. as you had at first; and at the last the juice and grated peel of two lemons for every six cucumbers. The lemon must boil in the syrup but ten minutes. Then strain the syrup all over the cucumbers, and put them up in glass jars.

If they are not quite clear, boil them in a third syrup. Small green melons may be preserved in this manner.

APPLE RICE PUDDING.--Wash half a pint of rice, and boil it till soft and dry. Pare, core, and cut up six large juicy apples, and stew them in as little water as possible. When they are quite tender, take them out, and mash them with six table-spoonfuls of brown sugar. When the apples and rice are both cold, mix them together. Have ready five eggs beaten very light, and add them gradually to the other ingredients, with five or six drops of essence of lemon, and a grated nutmeg. Or you may substitute for the essence, the grated peel and the juice of one large lemon. Beat the whole very hard after it is all mixed; tie it tightly in a cloth, (leaving but a very small space for it to swell,) and stopping up the tying place with a lump of flour moistened to paste with water. Put it into a pot of boiling water, and boil it fast for half an hour. Send it to table hot, and eat it with sweetened cream, or with beaten butter and sugar.

BAKED APPLE DUMPLINGS.--Take large, fine, juicy apples, and pare and core them, leaving them as whole as possible. Put them into a kettle with sufficient water to cover them, and let them parboil a quarter of an hour. Then take them out, and drain them on a sieve. Prepare a paste in the proportion of a pound of butter to two pounds of flour, as for plain pies. Roll it out into a sheet, and cut it into equal portions according to your number of apples. Place an apple on each, and fill up the hole from whence the core was extracted with brown sugar moistened with lemon-juice, or with any sort of marmalade. Then cover the apple with the paste, closing it neatly. Place the dumplings side by side in buttered square pans, (not so as to touch,) and bake them of a light brown. Serve them warm or cool, and eat them with cream sauce.

They will be found very good.

INDIAN LOAF CAKE.--Mix a tea-cup full of powdered white sugar with a quart of rich milk, and cut up in the milk two ounces of butter, adding a salt-spoonful of salt. Put this mixture into a covered pan or skillet, and set it on coals till it is scalding hot. Then take it off, and scald with it as much yellow Indian meal (previously sifted) as will make it of the consistence of thick boiled mush. Beat the whole very hard for a quarter of an hour, and then set it away to cool.

While it is cooling, beat three eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the mixture when it is about as warm as new milk. Add a tea-cup full of good strong yeast, and beat the whole another quarter of an hour--for much of the goodness of this cake depends on its being long and well beaten. Then have ready a turban mould or earthen pan with a pipe in the centre, (to diffuse the heat through the middle of the cake.) The pan must be very well buttered, as Indian meal is apt to stick. Put in the mixture, cover it, and set it in a warm place to rise. It should be light in about four hours. Then bake it two hours in a moderate oven. When done, turn it out with the broad surface downwards, and send it to table hot and whole. Cut it into slices, and eat it with butter.

This will be found an excellent cake. If wanted for breakfast, mix it, and set it to rise the night before. If properly made, standing all night will not injure it. Like all Indian cakes, (of which this is one of the best,) it should be eaten warm. It will be much improved by adding to the mixture, a salt-spoon of pearl-ash, or sal-aratus, dissolved in a little water.

PLAIN CIDER CAKE.--Sift into a large pan a pound and a half of flour, and rub into it half a pound of butter. Mix in three-quarters of a pound of powdered white sugar, and melt a small tea-spoonful of sal-aratus or pearl-ash in a pint of the best cider. Pour the cider into the other ingredients while it is foaming, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready a buttered square pan, put in the mixture, and set it immediately in a rather brisk oven. Bake it an hour or more, according to its thickness. This is a tea cake, and should be eaten fresh. Cut it into squares, split and butter them.

TENNESSEE MUFFINS.--Sift three pints of yellow Indian meal, and put one-half into a pan and scald it. Add a good piece of butter. Beat six eggs, whites and yolks separately. The yolks must be beaten till they become very thick and smooth, and the whites till they are a stiff froth that stands alone. When the scalded meal is cold, mix it into a batter with the beaten yolk of egg, the remainder of the meal, a salt-spoonful of salt, and, if necessary, a little water. The batter must be quite thick. At the last, stir in, lightly and slowly, the beaten white of egg. Grease your muffin rings, and set them in an oven of the proper heat; put in the batter immediately, as standing will injure it.

Send them to table hot; pull them open, and eat them with butter.

HOE CAKE.--Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth, and sift into a pan a quart of wheat flour, adding a salt-spoon of salt. Make a hole in the middle, and mix in the white of egg so as to form a thick batter, and then add two table-spoonfuls of the best fresh yeast. Cover it, and let it stand all night. In the morning, take a hoe-iron (such as are made purposely for cakes) and prop it before the fire till it is well heated. Then flour a tea-saucer, and filling it with batter, shake it about, and clap it to the hoe, (which must be previously greased,) and the batter will adhere till it is baked. Repeat this with each cake. Keep them hot, and eat them with butter.

MILK TOAST.--Boil a pint of rich milk, and then take it off, and stir into it a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, mixed with a small table-spoonful of flour. Then let it again come to a boil. Have ready two deep plates with half a dozen slices of toast in each. Pour the milk over them hot, and keep them covered till they go to table. Milk toast is generally eaten at breakfast.

POTATO YEAST.--Pare half a dozen middle-sized potatoes, and boil them in a quart of soft water, mixed with a handful of hops, till quite soft. Then mash the potatoes smooth, not leaving in a single lump. Mix with them a handful of wheat flour. Set a sieve over the pan in which you have the flour and mashed potatoes, and strain into them the hop-water in which they were boiled. Then stir the mixture very hard, and afterwards pass it through a cullender to clear it of lumps. Let it stand till it is nearly cold. Then stir in four table-spoonfuls of strong yeast, and let it stand to ferment. When the foam has sunk down in the middle, (which will not be for several hours,) it is done working. Then put it into a stone jug and cork it. Set it in a cool place.

This yeast will be found extremely good for raising home-made bread.

Yeast when it becomes sour may be made fit to use by stirring into it a little sal-eratus, or pearl-ash, allowing a small tea-spoonful to a pint of yeast. This will remove the acidity, and improve the bread in lightness. The pearl-ash must be previously melted in a little lukewarm water.

CREAM CHEESE.--The cheese so called, of which numbers are brought to Philadelphia market, is not made entirely of cream, but of milk warm from the cow, (and therefore unskimmed,) mixed with cream of last night. To a small tub of fresh morning's milk, add the cream skimmed from an equal quantity of last evening's milk. Mix the cream and the new milk together, and warm them to about blood-heat or 100 degrees of the thermometer. Have ready a cup of water in which has been soaking, since last night, a piece of rennet, (the salt wiped off,) about the length and breadth of two fingers. Stir the rennet-water into the vessel of mixed milk and cream, and set it in a warm place till the curd has completely formed. Then, with a knife, cut the curd into squares. Next, take a large, thin, straining-cloth, and press it down on the curd so as to make the whey rise up through it. As the whey rises, dip it off with a saucer or skimming dish. When the whey is nearly all out, put the curd into the cloth, and squeeze and press it with your hands till it becomes dry. Next, crumble the curd very fine with your hands, and then salt it to your taste. Then wash the straining-cloth clean, and lay it in the cheese-hoop (a bottomless vessel, about the size of a dinner-plate, perforated with small gimlet-holes) put the crumbled curd into the cloth, and then fold the rest of the cloth closely over it. The cheese-hoop should be set on a clean wooden bench or table. Place on it its round wooden cover, so as to fit exactly; and lay on the top two bricks or a heavy stone. After it has stood six hours in the hoop or mould, turn it, and let it stand six hours longer.

When you take out the cheese, rub it all over with a little fresh butter. Set it in a dark, dry place, turning it every day, and in four or five days it will be fit for use. When once cut, it should be eaten immediately, if the weather is warm. But while uncut, it may keep a week in a cold place, provided it is turned several times a-day.

ALMOND BREAD.--Blanch, and pound in a mortar, half a pound of shelled sweet almonds till they are a smooth paste, adding rose-water as you pound them. They should be done the day before they are wanted. Prepare a pound of loaf-sugar finely powdered, a tea-spoonful of mixed spice, (mace, nutmeg, and cinnamon,) and three-quarters of a pound of sifted flour. Take fourteen eggs, and separate the whites from the yolks. Leave out seven of the whites, and beat the other seven to a stiff froth. Beat the yolks till very thick and smooth, and then beat the sugar gradually into them, adding the spice. Next stir in the white of egg, then the flour, and lastly the almonds. Add the juice of a large lemon.

Put the mixture into a square tin pan, (well buttered,) or into a copper or tin turban-mould, and set it immediately in a brisk oven. Ice it when cool. It is best if eaten fresh.

You may add a few bitter almonds to the sweet ones.

CUSTARD CAKES.--Mix together a pound of sifted flour and a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Divide into four a pound of fresh butter; mix one-fourth of it with the flour, and make it into a dough. Then roll it out, and put in the three remaining divisions of the butter at three more rollings. Set the paste in a cool place till the custard is ready.

For the custard, beat very light the yolk only of eight eggs, and then stir them gradually into a pint of rich cream, adding three ounces of powdered white sugar, a grated nutmeg, and ratafia, peach-water, or essence of lemon, to your taste. Put the mixture into a deep dish; set it in an iron baking pan or a Dutch oven half full of boiling water, and bake it a quarter of an hour. Then put it to cool.

In the mean time roll out the paste into a thin sheet; cut it into little round cakes about the size of a dollar, and bake them on flat tins. When they are done, spread some of the cakes thickly with the custard, and lay others on the top of them, making them fit closely in the manner of lids.

You may bake the paste in patty-pans like shells, and put in the custard after they come out of the oven. If the custard is baked in the paste, it will be clammy and heavy at the bottom.

You may flavour the custard with vanilla.

HONEY GINGER CAKE.--Rub together a pound of sifted flour and three-quarters of a pound of fresh butter. Mix in, a tea-cup of fine brown sugar, two large table-spoonfuls of strong ginger, and (if you like them) two table-spoonfuls of carraway seeds. Having beaten five eggs, add them to the mixture alternately with a pint of strained honey; stirring in towards the last a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash, that has been melted in a very little vinegar.

Having beaten or stirred the mixture long enough to make it perfectly light, transfer it to a square iron or block-tin pan, (which must be well buttered,) put it into a moderate oven, and bake it an hour or more, in proportion to its thickness.

When cool, cut it into squares. It is best if eaten fresh, but it will keep very well a week.

ROCK CAKE.--Blanch three-quarters of a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and bruise them fine in a mortar, but not to a smooth paste as for maccaroons. Add, as you pound them, a little rose-water. Beat to a stiff froth the whites of four eggs, and then beat in gradually a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Add the juice of a lemon. Then mix in the pounded almonds. Flour your hands, and make the mixture into little cones or pointed cakes. Spread sheets of damp, thin, white paper on buttered sheets of tin, and put the rock cakes on it, rather far apart. Sprinkle each with powdered loaf-sugar. Bake them of a pale brown, in a brisk oven. They will be done in a few minutes.

When cold, take them off the papers.

FROZEN CUSTARD.--Slice a vanilla bean, and boil it slowly in half a pint of milk, till all the strength is extracted and the milk highly flavoured with the vanilla. Then strain it, and set it aside. Mix a quart of cream and a pint of milk, or, if you cannot procure cream, take three pints of rich milk, and put them into a skillet or sauce-pan. Set it on hot coals, and boil it. When it has come to a boil, mix a table-spoonful of flour in three table-spoonfuls of milk, and stir it into the boiling liquid. Afterwards add six eggs, (which have been beaten up with two table-spoonfuls of milk,) pouring them slowly into the mixture. Take care to stir it all the time it is boiling. Five minutes after, stir in gradually half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and then the decoction of vanilla. Having stirred it hard a few moments, take it off the fire, and set it to cool. When quite cold, put it into a mould and freeze it, as you would ice-cream, for which it frequently passes.

You may flavour it with the juice of two large lemons, stirred in just before you take it from the fire, or with a quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds, blanched, pounded in a mortar with rose-water, and then boiled in half a pint of milk, till the flavour is extracted. Then use the milk only.

CHERRY CORDIAL.--Take a bushel of fine ripe cherries, either red or black, or mixed; stone them, put them into a clean wooden vessel, and mash them with a mallet or beetle. Then boil them about ten minutes, and strain the juice. To each quart of juice allow a quart of water, a pound of sugar, and a quart of brandy. Boil in the water (before you mix it with the juice) two ounces of cloves, and four ounces of cinnamon; then strain out the spice. Put the mixture into a stone jug, or a demijohn, and cork it tightly. Bottle it in two or three months.

COMMON ICE CREAM.--Split into pieces a vanilla bean, and boil it in a very little milk till the flavour is well extracted; then strain it. Mix two table-spoonfuls of arrow-root powder, or the same quantity of fine powdered starch with just sufficient cold milk to make it a thin paste; rubbing it till quite smooth. Mix together a pint of cream and a pint of rich milk; and afterwards stir in the preparation of arrow-root, and the milk in which the vanilla has been boiled. Beat it very hard, stir in half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, beating it very hard again. Then strain it, and put it into a freezer placed in a tub that has a hole in the bottom to let out the water; and surround the freezer on all sides with ice broken finely, and mixed with coarse salt. Beat the cream hard for half an hour. Then let it rest; occasionally taking off the cover, and scraping down with a long spoon the cream that sticks to the sides. When it is well frozen, transfer it to a mould; surround it with fresh salt and ice, and then freeze it over again. If you wish to flavour it with lemon instead of vanilla, take a large lump of the sugar before you powder it, and rub it on the outside of a large lemon till the yellow is all rubbed off upon the sugar. Then, when the sugar is all powdered, mix with it the juice of two large lemons.

For strawberry ice cream, mix with the powdered sugar the juice of a quart of ripe strawberries squeezed through a linen bag.

PINK CHAMPAGNE JELLY.--Beat up the white of an egg to a stiff froth, and then stir it hard into three wine-glasses of filtered water. Put twelve ounces of the best double-refined loaf-sugar (powdered fine and sifted) into a skillet lined with porcelain. Pour on it the white of egg and water, and stir it till dissolved. Then add twelve grains of cochineal powder. Set it over a moderate fire, and boil it and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. Then strain it through a very fine sieve. Have ready an ounce and a half of isinglass that has been boiled in a little water till quite dissolved. Strain it, and while the boiled sugar is lukewarm mix it with the isinglass, adding a pint of pink champagne and the juice of a large lemon. Run it through a linen bag into a mould. When it has congealed so as to be quite firm, wrap a wet cloth round the outside of the mould, and turn out the jelly into a glass dish; or serve it broken up, in jelly glasses, or glass cups.

Jelly may be made in a similar manner of Madeira, marasquin, or noyau.

A CHARLOTTE RUSSE.--Boil in half a pint of milk a split vanilla bean, till all the flavour is extracted. Then strain the milk, and when it is cold stir into it the yolks of four beaten eggs, and a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Simmer this custard five minutes over hot coals, but do not let it come to a boil. Then set it away to cool. Having boiled an ounce of the best Russian isinglass in a pint of water till it is entirely dissolved and the water reduced to one-half, strain it into the custard, stir it hard, and set it aside to get quite cold.

Whip to a stiff froth a quart of rich cream, taking it off in spoonfuls as you do it, and putting it to drain on an inverted sieve. When the custard is quite cold, (but not yet set or congealing,) stir the whipt cream gradually into it.