Chapter XVIII: Preface (17)

HERB TEAS.--Have one or more china or white-ware pots for the purpose of making herb teas; and see that, after using, they are well washed, well scalded and dried, and set open in the sun till wanted again. The herbs, whether green or dried, should be of excellent quality, and picked very clean from dust and stems. Having well-scalded the pot, take the allotted quantity of the herb and put it in; then pour on the water, which must be actually boiling at the time, and press the herbs down at the bottom with a silver spoon. Then put on the lid closely, and immediately stop up the spout with a small cork, or a wad of soft white paper rolled tightly. This is to keep in the steam, and prevent the strength of the herb from escaping. When sufficiently boiled, pour into a pitcher with a lid, and through a strainer, as much of the tea as is wanted. Strainers of block tin, with a handle and _very fine_ close holes, are excellent for this and other purposes.

_Herb Candies._--Hoarhound candy, and many others, may be made of a strong decoction or tea of the herb, thickened with loaf sugar, and boiled, skimmed, and stirred till very thick and stiff. Then pour it smoothly into a square tin pan and set it in a cool place to congeal. While still soft, mark it in even squares with a knife. When quite cold and hard, loosen it from the pan with a knife, and take it out. It is good for coughs.

Peppermint candy is made in the same way, and is used for flatulence.

GRUEL.--Gruels, for patients who are unable to take any thing more substantial, may be made of ground rice flour, arrow root, indian meal, oatmeal grits, or farina. Mix to a paste, with water, two large table-spoonfuls of any of the above articles; then stir the paste, gradually, into a pint of water boiling on the fire, making it very smooth and pressing out all the lumps. To prevent it boiling over, when it has risen nearly to the top of the pan, remove it from the fire. Sweeten it while hot, and, if permitted, add a little white wine with nutmeg, and a small bit of fresh butter.

_Toast and Water._--Cut a large slice or two of the best wheat bread; pare off all the crust; and with a long-handled toasting fork toast it evenly on both sides, not allowing it to blacken or burn in any part. While hot from the fire, plunge the toast immediately into a quart pitcher of clear cold water. Cover the pitcher instantly, and let it infuse for half an hour or more, without leaving off the cover. When done, it should be of a very pale brown color.

JELLY WATER.--Stir a table-spoonful of currant jelly into a half pint tumbler of ice water, if the patient is feverish. The jelly may be of other fruit, and if not sweet enough add some loaf sugar. The juice of any ripe fruit, made sweet and mixed with cold water, is a good substitute when sweetmeats are not at hand. Warm drinks are now seldom used, but to promote perspiration and carry off a cold. Tamarinds are in themselves very cooling and pleasant, and make an agreeable drink infused in water, either warm or cold.

CARRAGEEN BLANCMANGE.--Carrageen is a species of sea moss which becomes glutinous when boiled, and is considered remarkably nutritious and strengthening. It can also be rendered very palatable. It is found abundantly on some parts of our sea-coast, and may be obtained of the best druggists, very nicely cleaned and pressed. To a small loose handful of carrageen allow a small quart of rich unskimmed milk, half a pound of powdered white sugar, a stick of the best cinnamon broken-up, six or seven blades of mace, and half a nutmeg, powdered. Having washed the carrageen through two or three cold waters, and shaken it out to remove the drops that hang about it, put it to a pint and a half of the cold milk. Boil it half an hour in a covered porcelain kettle. Then take it out, for if it boils too long the carrageen will taste too strongly. In another vessel boil the remaining half pint of milk with the spices, till very highly flavored. Then strain it into the carrageen milk, and stir in, gradually, the half pound of powdered loaf sugar. Set the porcelain kettle again over the fire, and let it boil fast for five minutes longer. Then strain it into moulds or bowls previously wet with cold water; and when it has well congealed, turn it out, and serve it up with sweetened cream, flavored with rose-water or peach-water. If for an invalid, who is not allowed spices, flavor it with rose-water only, stirred in after the blancmange has been taken from the fire.

FARINA BLANCMANGE.--From a quart of rich milk take out half a pint. Put the half pint into a small sauce-pan, and add (if permitted) sufficient mace, nutmeg, and cinnamon to flavor it well; the spices being tied up in a very thin muslin bag. Then add the flavored milk to the remainder, having stirred in two heaped table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar. Set it over the fire in a porcelain kettle, and when it has come to a boil sprinkle in, gradually, four large heaping table-spoonfuls of farina, stirring it well. Keep it boiling a quarter of an hour after all the farina is in. When done, strain it into blancmange moulds, and set it on ice to congeal. If for an invalid not allowed spice, boil it plain, and when taken from the fire stir in a wine-glass of rose-water. If rose-water is boiled with it from the beginning, the strength and flavor will evaporate.

_Farina Flummery._--Mix with a small pint of water a large pint of the juice of ripe currants, or strawberries, or of stewed cranberries in winter, made very sweet with white sugar. Boil the water and juice together, and stir in gradually a quarter pound of farina, and then boil it fifteen minutes longer. Afterwards transfer it to moulds, and set it on ice till congealed.

_Farina Gruel._--Have some water boiling on the fire, and when it boils fast, sprinkle in sufficient farina to make it moderately thick. Then sweeten it with white sugar. If permitted, stir in some white wine, and nutmeg grated.

BEEF TEA.--Take a pound of fine fresh beefsteak cut from the round, without any fat. Chop it into small bits, and season it with a level salt-spoon of salt. Put it into a wide-mouthed bottle, cork it closely, and set it into a kettle of cold water, which must reach to the neck of the bottle. Let it boil steadily for three hours, by which time the essence will be all extracted from the beef. Then remove the cork, and strain the liquid into a bowl, and skim it. It can be made still more conveniently in a _bain-marie_ or double kettle; an article useful for many purposes, particular in cookery for an invalid. Mutton or veal tea are made in the same manner. Also chicken tea, or essence of any sort of poultry or game.

_Chicken Panada._--Having skinned and cut up a fine full-grown chicken, take the white meat from the breast and wings, and mince it small for panada. The dark meat will do for chicken tea. Add to the panada a slice of wheat bread crumbled and mixed in, and boil it in a _bain-marie_ with the water outside; seasoning it (if permitted) with powdered mace or nutmeg.

_Sweet Panada._--Mix with a pint of water a glass of madeira or sherry; a heaped table-spoonful of powdered loaf sugar, half the yellow rind of a lemon grated, and half the juice; and a half tea-spoonful of powdered nutmeg or mace. Set the mixture over the fire, and as soon as it boils add crumbled milk biscuit, or a rusk. Then give it another boil up.

BARLEY WATER.--Having washed clean two ounces of pearl barley, put it into a sauce-pan with a quart of water, the grated rind and the juice of a lemon, and two ounces of seeded raisins. Boil it slowly till the liquid is reduced one half. Then strain it, and sweeten it, while warm, with loaf sugar.

_Gum Arabic Water._--Take an ounce of the best and cleanest gum arabic. Put it into a pitcher, and pour on a pint of boiling water, and stir while dissolving. When cool, squeeze in (if permitted) the juice of a lemon, and add loaf sugar enough to make it pleasantly sweet. Gum arabic water, alone, is sometimes given to a patient, whom it is expedient to keep very low as a preventive to inflammation.

_Tamarind Water._--This is a pleasant and cooling drink in fevers, allowing half a pint of cold water to as many tamarinds as you can take up with a table-spoon. Cover it, and let it stand for a few minutes.

_Apple Water._--Take four fine large juicy apples, (pippins or bellflowers,) core and pare them, and bake them side by side in a tin pan. When well done and quite soft all through, put them into a pitcher and fill up with warm water. Simmer them over the fire, and when quite soft mash them; and, if necessary, add more water till they become a thick liquid that can be drank. Sweeten well with loaf sugar, and if permitted, add some lemon juice or rose-water. Drink it cool.

_Egg Wine._--Break a nice fresh egg into a tumbler, and beat it till smooth and thick. Add a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered loaf sugar, and stir in a glass of the best port wine. This, when permitted, is very strengthening and cheering for an invalid, to take about the hour of noon or earlier. When wine is not allowed, you may beat the egg into a glass of new unskimmed milk.

WHEY.--Milk can be converted into a curd by the infusion of rennet water, white wine, lemon juice, tamarind juice, or vinegar, stirred into good milk, covered and set in a warm place till the curd has formed, and has separated from the whey which remains beneath it. Take off the curd carefully, breaking it as little as possible, and put it into a deep dish. Pour the whey into a pitcher. It should look clear, and greenish rather than white, and have none of the milk curd remaining about it. Set the pitcher on ice. It is an excellent drink in fevers. When approved, the curd may be eaten in a saucer with sugar. For rennet whey, cut a piece of dried rennet about two inches square, and wipe all the salt from the outside, but do not wash it. Soak the bit of rennet for several hours (or all night) in a small tea-cup of lukewarm water. Then pour the rennet water into the milk. For wine whey, boil a jill of sherry in a pint of milk, without stirring it.

TAPIOCA.--Having washed in cold water three heaped table-spoonfuls of tapioca; drain it, put it into a clean quart bowl, pour on water enough to cover it well, and soak it four hours. Then pour on as much more water, transfer the whole to a porcelain skillet, in the bottom of which you have laid the yellow peel of a fresh lemon, pared so thin as to be transparent, and boil the tapioca gently till it looks quite clear. Then take out the lemon peel, and stir in sufficient loaf sugar to make it very sweet. If approved, flavor it with some madeira or sherry, and some grated nutmeg. Tapioca may be boiled in plain milk, with no seasoning but the sugar to sweeten it.

_Sago._--Pick and wash clean, in two cold waters, a half pint of sago. Put it into a porcelain skillet, with the yellow rind of a lemon pared transparent. Pour on it a quart of water, and let it all soak for two hours. Then set it over the fire, and boil it, gently, till the lemon is all to pieces and nearly dissolved, and the sago looks clear. Take out the lemon peel, and stir in, if permitted, some sherry wine, sugar, and grated nutmeg, and give it another boil.

If the above seasoning is not allowed, boil the sago in milk only, or water only, till the liquid becomes thick and like a jelly.

_Sago Pudding for an invalid._--Boil three table-spoonfuls of _soaked_ sago in a pint of milk till quite soft. Add gradually three ounces of white sugar, and set it away to cool. Beat three eggs till thick and smooth, and stir them by degrees into the sago and milk. Grate in some nutmeg, and bake the pudding in a deep dish. Tapioca pudding is made in the same manner.

SWEETBREADS FOR INVALIDS.--Cut open two fine fresh sweetbreads, and lay them in warm water till all the blood is discharged. Then transfer them to a pan of cold water to blanch or whiten. Stew them in the strained liquid of fresh oysters, till quite tender. When done, take out the sweetbreads, remove the gristle or pipe, and serve them up warm, having laid in the bottom of the dish a slice of nice toast that has been dipped for a minute in hot water. If permitted, the oysters may be cooked with the sweetbread, first removing the hard part.

STEWED SMELTS.--Smelts are considered a delicate and nutritious fish for invalids. They are in season in winter, and early in the spring. Choose them as large as you can find them. Having drawn and cleaned them, cut off their heads and tails. Put sufficient water to cover them in a small stew-pan, adding a very little powdered white sugar, and a few small sprigs of parsley, or sweet marjoram. When the water boils lay in the fish, and simmer them five minutes. Then stir in a very little arrow root, mixed with a few drops of cold water, and let it stew ten minutes longer. Serve up the stew in a small deep dish with a cover, and eat with it some very light bread-roll. It will be a pleasant change from the usual broths and infusions prepared for the sick.

_A Molasses Supper._--Make a thick slice of very nice toast, evenly browned on both sides, but not the least burnt. Lay it in a pint bowl, and pour over it a small half pint of the best _West India_ molasses, having stirred into the molasses a heaped table-spoonful of ground ginger. Mix the molasses with half a pint of hot water, and pour the whole over the toast. Cover it with a plate for a few minutes, and eat it while warm, previous to going to bed. This is a wholesome strengthening palatable supper for an invalid, (as we know by experience) and may be continued as long as the patient continues to like it. It is always a good winter supper for children. The ginger must on no account be omitted. If the molasses has turned a little sour, stir in a salt-spoonful of soda.

To prevent a jug of molasses from running over when kept in a warm place, pour out a little into another vessel, and leave the molasses jug uncorked for two days. Then cork it tightly.

MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.

TEA.--No metal (not even silver,) is good for tea-pots. All tea should be made in china or queensware. Wedgewood (whether black or white) imbibes much of the essence of the tea, and from constant use soon becomes unpleasant. Britannia ware is exceedingly unwholesome for any sort of cooking, as one fourth of the composition is copper. Block tin for a common tea-pot is less objectionable, and much cheaper. All tea-pots should, after using, be thoroughly emptied of the old leaves, and washed very clean in warm water, and set open in the sun and air for several hours. To make good tea, the tea itself, whether black or green, must be of excellent quality. There is no economy in buying that which is low-priced. Green tea, if fresh and good, and not adulterated will look green in the cup, and have a fragrant odor. If it draws red, or brown, or blackish, it is old or mixed with something wrong. Begin to make your tea about a quarter of an hour before it is wanted. Scald the tea-pot (twice over) with boiling water. Then put in the tea, allowing three heaping table-spoonfuls to each person, and a pint of water, actually boiling, when put in. Cover it closely with the lid, and set it by the fire for ten or fifteen minutes to infuse. After the first cups have gone round, put some fresh tea into the pot, and pour on it some more boiling water, that the second cups may be as strong as the first, having time to infuse. Weak tea for company is very mean. For those that like it so, have a small pot of water on the server. If the water is not boiling fast when poured on the tea, and is beginning to cool, the tea will be flat and insipid, and the leaves will float on the surface of the cups. There is then no remedy but to make some fresh.

COFFEE.--To drink coffee in perfection, a sufficient quantity for breakfast should be roasted every morning, and ground hot, as it loses much of its strength by keeping even for a few hours. The best coffee roasters are iron cylinders, (standing on feet) with a door in one side, and a handle that turns the cylinder round towards the fire or from it, that the coffee may be equally done throughout. It must be roasted a bright brown color, and on no account black or burnt. When about half done, put in bits of fresh butter, allowing a table-spoonful to a pound of coffee. Previous to roasting pick the coffee carefully, throwing away the defective grains, and the stones or sand. Coffee should be ground while warm in a mill kept solely for that purpose, and fastened up against the kitchen wall.

For boiled coffee allow four ounces of ground coffee (or a quarter of a pound) to a quart of water. When the water boils, stir in the coffee. Give it one hard boil up. Then set it farther from the fire, and simmer it for ten minutes, adding the white of an egg, (including the egg shell,) or a small strip of isinglass. Pour out a large cup of the coffee, and then (holding it high above the coffee-pot,) pour it back again. Repeat this till wanted, and then set the coffee-pot beside the fire, (but not over it.) For company, allow six ounces of coffee to a quart of water. Keep the lid always on, but if when boiling hard it rises and seems inclined to run over, remove it instantly from the fire and set it back. Cream is indispensable to first-rate coffee; if not to be obtained sweet, substitute rich milk boiling hot. On no consideration fill up the coffee-pot with water. A percolator (to be had at the best tin stores) makes excellent coffee without boiling, if properly managed.

CHOCOLATE.--There is no plain chocolate better than Baker's prepared cacao, and none has so much of the true chocolate flavor. The foreign chocolate is generally mixed with sugar, spice, and milk. It cannot be made thick and strong, and therefore to many tastes is not agreeable. To make a pint (or two large cupfuls of chocolate,) scrape down two ounces on a plate, and moisten the chocolate with a jill of water, rubbing it on the plate till quite smooth. Then boil it five minutes, and add a small pint of water. When it has been well stirred with a wooden spoon, and has come again to a boil, serve it as hot as possible, accompanied by a saucer of fine loaf sugar, and a small jug of rich hot cream and a plate of nice dry toast, or some milk biscuits or sponge cake. Milled chocolate is made with rich unskimmed milk instead of water. The chocolate mill is a deep pot, belonging to which is a stick with a broad wheel-shaped bottom, the other end coming up through a hole in the lid. Take this between your hands, and turn it round fast till the chocolate is finely frothed. Then transfer it to large cups. Chocolate, after it becomes cold, is unfit to drink. But if made with milk, you can convert what is left into a custard or pudding, with the addition of more sugar and some beaten egg. The low-priced chocolate is both unpalatable and unwholesome, being adulterated with animal fat or lard, and made with _old_ cacao beans.

MILK TOAST.--To a pint of nice rich milk allow a quarter of a pound of excellent _fresh_ butter. Boil the milk, and as soon as it boils take it off, and stir in the butter cut into pieces. When the butter has melted, give it another boil up Have ready a deep plate with four rather thick slices of bread, nicely and evenly toasted on both sides. Pour the milk hot over the toast, and keep it covered till it goes to the breakfast table. Send a spoon with it. Bread should always be toasted by a long-handled fork, such as are made for the purpose. They cost but twenty-five cents, and no kitchen should be without one.

BUTTERED TOAST.--Cut even slices of bread all of the same thickness, and pare off the whole of the crust. With a long-handled toasting fork toast it evenly on both sides, taking care that no part of it is burnt or blackened. Butter the slices hot, as you take them off the fork, (using none but nice fresh butter) and lay them evenly on a heated plate. Cover them till they go to table.

All toast prepared for cookery, (to lay in the bottom of dishes,) should have the crust pared off, and be dipped in hot water after toasting.

RASPBERRY VINEGAR.--Take a gallon of fine ripe raspberries. Put them into a large deep earthen pan, and mash them well with a wooden beetle. Then pour them with all their juice into a large and very clean linen bag, and squeeze and press out their liquid into a vessel beneath. Measure it, and to each pint of juice allow half a pint of the best and clearest cider vinegar, and half a pound of fine loaf sugar, powdered. First mix the juice and the vinegar, and give them a boil in a porcelain kettle. Then stir in the sugar, gradually, adding to every two pounds of sugar a beaten white of egg. Boil and skim till the scum ceases to rise. When it is done, bottle it cold, cork it tightly, and seal the corks. To use it, pour out half a tumbler of raspberry vinegar, and fill up with ice water. It is a pleasant and cooling beverage in warm weather, and for invalids who are feverish. Mixed with hot water, and taken at bed-time, it is good for a cold.

_Strawberry Vinegar_--Is made in the above manner, carefully hulling them. The strawberries must be of the finest kind, and fully ripe. These vinegars are made with much less trouble than the usual way; and are quite as good, if not better.

MACARONI.--In buying macaroni, choose that of a large pipe; see that it is clean and white and that it has not been touched by insects. Half a pound makes one dish. If _soaked_ before boiling it is apt to dissolve or go to pieces, but wash and drain it through cold water in a sieve. Have over the fire a large pan of boiling water, in which has been melted a piece of fresh butter the size of an egg. If boiled steadily, it will be quite tender in less than an hour; but do not boil it so long that the pipes break up and lose their shape. Having drained it well through a clean sieve, transfer it to a deep dish, dividing it into four layers, having first cut it into even lengths of two or three inches. Between the layers place on it seasoning of grated cheese of the very best quality, and bits of fresh butter, with some powdered mace. On the top layer, add to the covering of cheese and butter sufficient bread-crumbs to form a slight crust all over the surface. Brown it with a salamander or a red hot shovel. Or (omitting the cheese) you may dress it with rich gravy of roast meat.

_For Sweet Macaroni._--Having boiled it in milk instead of water, drain it, and mix with it powdered mace and nutmeg, with butter, sugar, and rose or peach-water. Macaroni (like vermicelli) has in itself no taste, but is only made palatable by the manner of dressing it. Good soup is rather weakened than improved by the addition of macaroni.

COMMON OMELET.--Beat five eggs till very light and thick. Stir gradually into the pan of eggs four table-spoonfuls of sifted flour. Thin the batter with a large tea-cup of milk. Take a yeast powder; dissolve the soda (from the blue paper) in a small quantity of tepid or lukewarm water, and stir it into the batter. In another cup melt the tartaric acid, (from the white paper;) stir that into the mixture, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready in a frying-pan a large portion of lard, boiling hot. Put in the omelet mixture, and fry it well. When one side is done turn it, and fry the other. To flavor this omelet, mix gradually into the batter either grated ham or smoked tongue; minced oysters; minced onion; mixed with sweet marjoram, or else some mushrooms chopped very fine.

_For a Sweet Omelet_, add to the above batter powdered sugar, nutmeg, mace, and powdered cinnamon.

The custom is now to dish omelets without folding them over, it being found that folding renders them heavy. Spread them out at full length on a very hot dish. The batter for omelets should always be made in sufficient quantity to allow them very thick.

There is no use in attempting to flavor an omelet, or any thing else, with marmalade or lemon, if you put in soda. The alkalies destroy the taste of every sort of fruit.

A PLAIN POTATO PUDDING.--Having pared a pound of fine large potatos, put them into a pot, cover them well with cold water, and boil them gently till tender all through. When done, lay each potato (one at a time,) in a clean warm napkin, and press and wring it till all the moisture is squeezed out, and the potato becomes a round, dry lump. Mince as fine as possible a quarter of a pound of fresh beef suet, (divested of skin, and strings.) Crumble the potato, and mix it well with the suet, adding a small salt-spoon of salt. Add sufficient milk to make a thick batter, and beat it well. Dip a strong square cloth in hot water, shake it out, and dredge it well with flour. Tie the pudding in, leaving room for it to swell, and put it into a large pot of hot water and boil it steady for an hour. This is a good and economical family pudding.

ELLEN CLARK'S PUDDING.--Slice, rather thick, some fresh bread. Pare off all the crust. Butter the bread on both sides, and lay it in a deep dish. Fill up with molasses very profusely, having first seasoned the molasses with ginger, ground cinnamon, and powdered mace or nutmeg. It will be much improved by adding the grated yellow rind and the juice of a large lemon or orange. Bake it till brown all over the top, and till the bread and butter has absorbed the molasses; taking care not to let it burn.

ARROW-ROOT BISCUIT.--Mix in a pan half a pint of arrow-root, and half a pint of sifted wheat flour. Cut up a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and rub it into the pan of flour, crumbling the bits of butter so small as to be scarcely visible. Mix a quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar, and wet it with a beaten egg. Add gradually a very little cream, just enough to make it into a stiff dough. Flavor it with the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon, and half a nutmeg grated. Roll out the dough into thin sheets, and cut it out into biscuits with the edge of a tumbler. Prick every biscuit all over with a fork. Lay them in square pans slightly floured, and bake them immediately. They will be improved by adding (at the last of the mixture) a table-spoonful of the best rose-water. If rose-water is put into cakes _early_ in the mixing, much of its strength will evaporate before baking. It should always be deferred to the last. These are very nice tea biscuits.

ONTARIO CAKE.--Take a pint and a half (or three large breakfast cups,) of sifted flour, and the same quantity of powdered white sugar, and half a pint of milk; a quarter of a pint or half a cup of the best fresh butter, and the grated yellow rind and juice of a large lemon. Have ready four well-beaten eggs, and two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast.

Cut up the butter into the pan of flour. Add the milk and sugar gradually, and then the beaten egg, and then the lemon; next the yeast. Stir the whole very well, and set it to rise in a buttered pan. Place it near the fire, and cover it with a clean flannel or a double cloth. When it has risen and is quite light, and is cracked all over the surface, transfer it to a square baking pan, put it immediately into the oven, and bake it well. When cool, either ice it or sift white sugar over it, and cut it into squares. Or, you may bake it in a round loaf, or in small round cakes.

NEW-YEAR'S CAKE.--Stir together a pound of nice fresh butter, and a pound of powdered white sugar, till they become a light thick cream. Then stir in, gradually, three pounds of sifted flour. Add, by degrees, a tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in a small tea-cup of milk, and then a half salt-spoonful of tartaric acid, melted in a large table-spoonful of warm water. Then mix in, gradually, three table-spoonfuls of fine carraway seeds. Roll out the dough into sheets half an inch thick, and cut it with a jagging iron into oval or oblong cakes, pricked with a fork. Bake them immediately in shallow iron pans, slightly greased with fresh butter. The bakers in New York ornament these cakes, with devices or pictures raised by a wooden stamp. They are good plain cakes for children.

GOOD YEAST.--Take two handfuls of hops. The best hops have a fresh light green color, and a pleasant, lively smell. Pour on them two quarts of boiling water, and let them boil five minutes after they have come to a boil; not longer, for it makes them bitter. Then strain the liquid into a pan, and add a table-spoonful of brown sugar and one of salt. When lukewarm, stir in flour enough to make a thick batter. Add a jill and a half of fresh baker's yeast. Set it in a warm place till it begins to ferment; then keep it in the cellar well corked.

This yeast will continue good two weeks. When you open the jug to take out some yeast, put in always a table-spoonful of flour before you cork it up again.

A stone jug or pitcher is a good vessel for yeast. Wash it very clean in hot water, always before you put in fresh yeast, and then rinse the jug with water in which a spoonful of pearlash has been melted, letting the pearlash water remain in it five or six minutes, and shaking it round hard. Then rinse it with plain cold water.

All vessels that have contained acids should have pearlash or soda in the rinsing water, and then be finished with plain water.

Never clean a bottle by rinsing it with shot. The lead is poisonous, and has caused death. Some bits of raw potato chopped, and put in the water, will clean the inside of bottles or jugs, and brighten decanters.

YEAST POWDERS.--Get two ounces of bicarbonate of soda, and one ounce of tartaric acid. Divide the soda into equal portions, about a level tea-spoonful in each, and the tartaric acid into level salt-spoonfuls. By _level_ we mean that the article is not to be heaped in the least, not rising above the edge of the spoon. Cut some papers of regular and sufficient size, and fold them nicely. Put the soda into white papers, and the tartaric acid into blue papers. Place an equal number of each in a little square or oblong box, standing up the papers on their folded edges. Dissolve them in two separate cups, in as much tepid water as will cover the powder. They must be entirely melted before using. Stir in the soda at the beginning, and the tartaric acid at the conclusion of the batter or cake mixture.

We do not approve of the introduction of these substances into cakes. They give a sort of factitious lightness very different from that honestly produced by a liberal allowance of egg and butter, genuine yeast, and good beating and stirring--but they destroy the taste of the seasoning, and are certain destruction to the taste of lemon, orange, strawberry, pine-apple, and every kind of fruit flavoring. The justly celebrated Mrs. Goodfellow never used any of them in her school, and the articles made there by her pupils, (of whom the author was one) were such as no money can purchase in the present times. Any confectioner who would _faithfully_ revive them could make a fortune by doing so.

The present introduction of hartshorn into bread and cakes is an abomination, rendering the articles equally unpalatable and unwholesome. Cannot the use of hartshorn in food be put down? Which of our _American_ doctors will write a book on "culinary poisons."

VINEGAR.--Mix together in a clean keg three gallons of clear rain water, (that has been caught in a clean tub without running over the roof of a house,) one quart of _West India_ molasses, and one pint of baker's yeast. Cover it, and set it in a warm place where it will be exposed to the summer sun. Remember to shake the cask every day. In three months it will be excellent vinegar. Then transfer it to stone jugs, and keep it closely corked. Begin it in May.

So much of the vinegar sold in stores is concocted of pernicious drugs, that we recommend all families to make their own, or to buy it from a cider farmer. Good cider, set in the sun, will after a while become good vinegar.

What is shamefully called the best white wine vinegar is frequently a slow poison, as may be known by its action upon oysters, pickles, &c. It is quite clear and well to look at. Its taste is very sharp and pungent, as to overpower and render every thing that is with it painfully sour, and it has a singular and disagreeable smell when boiling. Oysters cooked with this vinegar go immediately into rags, and are soon entirely eaten up, or dissolved into a thin whitish liquid, fit for nothing but to throw away.

Pickles the same. A punishment should be provided by law for persons who manufacture and sell these deleterious compounds, of which we have now so many, that it would indeed be well if we could make at home, as far as possible, every thing we eat and drink.

PINK CHAMPAGNE--(_Domestic._)--Pick from the stems three quarts of fine ripe red currants, and mix with them three quarts of ripe white currants. Bruise them all. Put nine pounds of loaf sugar to melt in three gallons of very clear soft water. Boil the water and sugar together for half an hour, skimming carefully, and pour the liquid boiling hot over the currants. When it is nearly cold, add a small tea-cupful of excellent strong fresh yeast. Let it ferment for two days, and then strain it into a small cask through a very clean hair sieve. Put into the cask half an ounce of finely-chipped isinglass. Have rather more liquor than will fill the cask at first, and keep it to fill up as it works over. In about a fortnight bung it up. Let it remain in the cask till April. Then transfer it to bottles, (putting into each a lump of double-refined loaf sugar,) and letting them remain one day uncorked. Then cork and wire them. They must stand upright in the cellar; but when likely to be wanted, lay a few of them on their sides for a week.

SHERRY COBBLER.--Lay in the bottom of a large tumbler, two table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar, and squeeze over it (through a strainer) the juice of a large lemon that has been softened by rolling under your hand. Then half fill the tumbler with ice, broken very small. Add a large glass of very good sherry wine. Take another tumbler, and pour the liquid back and forward from glass to glass, till completely mixed without stirring. Sip it through a clean straw, or one of the tubes made on purpose.

MINT JULEP.--Cut two or three round slices from a fine ripe pine-apple that has been pared; and take out the core or hard part from the centre of each slice. A still better way is to split down the pine-apple into four pieces, and grate two of the quarters with a coarse grater, standing it upright while doing so. Put it into a large tumbler, and cover the fruit with two or three heaped table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar. Add a large glass of the best brandy, and pour on cold water till the tumbler is two-thirds full. Then put in a thick layer of finely broken ice, till it almost reaches the top. Finish by sticking in a full bunch of fresh green mint in handsome sprigs, that rise far above one side of the tumbler; and at the other side place a clean straw, or one of the tubes used for the same purpose.

CAROLINA PUNCH.--Mix together a tumbler of peach brandy and a tumbler of water, the juice of two lemons, the yellow rinds of four, pared to transparent thinness, and four large juicy free-stone peaches cut in half, and the kernels of their stones blanched and broken up. If you cannot obtain peaches, quarter and grate down a ripe pine-apple. Let all these ingredients infuse with a quart of Jamaica spirits in a bowl for two days before the punch is wanted. Keep it carefully covered with a cloth. Then pour on sufficient cold water to make the punch of the desired strength; and strain the liquid into another bowl, and put in a large lump of ice. Serve it out in small glasses.

NECTAR.--Take two pounds of _the best_ raisins, seeded and chopped; the grated yellow rind and the juice of four fine lemons, and two pounds of loaf sugar, powdered. Put the sugar into a large porcelain kettle, and melt it in a gallon of water. Boil and skim it for half an hour, and while it is boiling hard, put in by degrees the raisins and lemons. Continue the boiling about ten minutes. Put the mixture into a stoneware crock, and cover it closely. Let it stand three days, stirring it down to the bottom twice every day. Then strain it through a linen bag, and bottle it, sealing the corks. It will be fit for use in a fortnight. Take it in wine-glasses, with a bit of ice in each. This is a nice temperance drink.

CHOCOLATE CARAMEL.--Take half a pint of rich milk, and put it to boil in a porcelain kettle; scrape down a square and a half of Baker's chocolate, put it into a very clean tin cup, and set on the top of a stove till it becomes soft. Let the milk boil up _twice_. Then add, gradually, the chocolate, and stir both over the fire till thoroughly mixed and free from lumps. Stir in a half pint of the best white sugar powdered, and half a jill (or four large table-spoonfuls,) of molasses. Let the whole boil fast and constantly (so as to bubble,) for at least one hour or more, till it is nearly as stiff as good mush. When all is done add a small tea-spoonful of essence of vanilla, and transfer the mixture to shallow tin pans, slightly greased with very nice sweet oil. Set it on ice, or in a very cool place, and while yet soft mark it deeply in squares with a very sharp knife. When quite hard, cut the squares apart. If it does not harden well it has not been boiled long enough, or fast enough.

EGGS TO BOIL.--The water must be boiling fast when the eggs are put in. First wipe them clean all over, with a wet cloth. It is true that the shells are never eaten, but still, if brought to table dirty and discolored, they look slovenly, disgusting, and vulgar, such as are never seen in good houses. Put them into water that is boiling fast; and if desired very soft, four minutes will be sufficient. Six or eight minutes will barely set the whites and yolks, and ten or twelve minutes (in water that is really boiling,) will render them hard enough for salad. In the egg-boilers that are set on the table no egg will ever boil hard, as the water cools too soon. A _stale_ egg never boils hard.

Except in the spring, and late in the winter, there is often much difficulty in obtaining good eggs, unless you have fowls of your own. If an egg is really fresh, when held up against the light, the yolk looks round and compact and the white clear and transparent; you may then trust it. But if the yolk is thick, broken, and mixed among the white, and the white is cloudy and muddled, it is certainly bad, and should be thrown away. When tried in a pan of cold water the freshest will sink, and the stale ones float on the surface. It requires strong brine to bear up a good egg. Eggs may be preserved for keeping a few months, by putting every one in fast boiling water for _one minute_. Then grease them all over the outside with good melted fat, and wedge down close together (layer above layer,) in a box of powdered charcoal. This preserves them for a sea voyage of several weeks. The charcoal box must be kept closely covered, and closed immediately whenever opened. Pack the eggs with the small end downwards.

POACHED EGGS.--See that the eggs are quite fresh. Pour from a kettle of boiling water enough to fill a broad shallow stew-pan. Break the eggs into a saucer, (one at a time,) slip them carefully into the hot water, and let them stand in it till the whites are set. Then put the pan over a moderate fire; and, as soon as the water boils again, the eggs are ready. The whites should be firm, and the yolks should appear in the centre looking yellow through a thin transparent coating of the white. Take them out carefully (one by one,) with an egg-slice. Have ready, for each egg, a nice slice of toast of a light brown or yellow all over. Trim off all the crust, and dip the toast for a minute in hot water. Then butter it _slightly_ with fresh butter. Trim off neatly the ragged and discolored white from the edge of each egg. Lay a poached egg in the middle of every toast, and serve them up warm.

Instead of toast, you may lay beneath every egg a thin slice of ham, that has been soaked, and nicely broiled and trimmed. Or, large thin slices from the breast of a cold roast turkey, or cold fillet of roast pork or veal. These are nice breakfast dishes.

_Scrambled Eggs._--Make a mixture as for an omelet, but instead of frying put it into a sauce-pan, and when it has boiled five minutes take it off, and chop and mix all the ingredients into confusion. Serve it up hot in a deep dish. It is eaten at breakfast, and is by many preferred to a fried omelet. You may season it with grated ham, tongue, or sweet herbs.

EGG-NOGG.--Beat, till very light and thick, the yolks only of six eggs. Stir the eggs, gradually, into a quart of rich unskimmed milk, and add half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, a half pint of brandy, and a grated nutmeg. Next beat three whites of the eggs by themselves, and stir them quickly into the mixture. Divide it into two pitchers, and pour it back and forward from one pitcher to the other till it has a fine froth. Then serve it in a large china bowl, with a silver ladle in it, and distribute it in glasses with handles.

_To Beat Eggs._--For beating eggs have a broad shallow earthen pan. If beaten in tin, the coldness of the metal retards their lightness; for the same reason, hickory rods are better than tin wire. Beat with a short quick stroke, holding the egg rods in your right hand close to your side, and do not exert your elbow, or use your arm violently with a hard sweeping stroke; of this there is no necessity. If beaten in a proper manner, (moving your hand _only_ at the wrist) the eggs will be light long before you are fatigued. But you must continue beating till after the froth has subsided, and the pan of eggs presents a smooth thick surface, like a nice boiled custard. White of egg is done if it stands stiff alone, and will not fall from the beater when held upon it.

Butter and sugar should always be stirred with a strong hickory spaddle, which resembles a short mush stick, rather broad and flattened at one end.

BRAN MUFFINS.--Take three quarts of bran, (unbolted wheat flour) and sift it into a large pan. Warm three half pints of rich milk, mixing with it half a common tumbler of _West India_ molasses. Cut up in the warm milk and molasses two ounces or two large heaped table-spoonfuls of fresh butter, and stir it about till well mixed all through. Then stir all the liquid into the flour. Beat in a shallow pan three eggs till very thick and light, and then stir them gradually into the pan of flour, &c. Lastly, add two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast. Cover the mixture and set it to rise. When risen very light heat a griddle on the oven of a stove, set muffin rings upon it, fill the rings nearly to the top, and bake the muffins. Send them to table hot, pull them open with your fingers, and butter them. They will be much liked if properly made and baked.

COTTAGE CHEESE.--This is a good way of using up a pan of milk that is found to be turning sour. Or you may turn it, on purpose, by stirring in a spoonful of cider vinegar. Having covered it, set it in a warm place till it becomes a curd. Then pour off the liquid, and tie up the curd in a clean linen bag with a pointed end, and set a bowl under it to catch the droppings; but do not squeeze it. After it has drained ten or twelve hours, transfer the curd to a deep dish, enrich it with some cream, and press and chop it with a large spoon till it is a soft mass; adding, as you proceed, an ounce or more of nice fresh butter. Then set it on ice till tea-time.

FRENCH HAM PIE.--Having soaked, boiled, and skinned a small ham of the best quality, and taken out the bone, trim it into a handsome oval shape. Of the trimmings make a rich gravy by stewing them in a sauce-pan with a little water, and four pigs feet, (split up.) Have ready a plentiful sufficiency of nice forcemeat made of cold roast chicken or veal, minced suet, and grated bread-crumbs, butter, minced sweet marjoram or tarragon, and some hard-boiled yolk of egg crumbled. Have ready, prepared, a very nice puff paste; line with it the bottom and sides of a large deep dish, and lay in it the oval ham, filling up at the corners and all round with the forcemeat, and spreading a layer of it on the top. Pour on gravy to moisten the whole, and put on the paste intended for the lid. Notch the edges handsomely, and stick a flower or tulip of paste in the cross slit at the top, and place a wreath of paste leaves all round. Bake it light brown, and eat it warm or cold. It is a fine dish for a dinner or supper party, or for a handsome luncheon or breakfast.

_A Tongue Pie_--Is made in a similar manner of a boiled smoked tongue, peeled and trimmed, and filled in with forcemeat. For a large company have _two_ tongue pies, as it will be much liked, if made as above.

FIG PUDDING.--Take a pint of very ripe figs, (peeled,) cut them up and mash them smooth with the grated yellow rind of a large ripe lemon or orange, and the juice of two. Mix together a large spoonful of fresh butter, and two table-spoonfuls of sugar, and stir the whole very hard. Bake it in a deep dish, and eat it fresh, but not warm. Grate sugar over the surface. When _ripe_ figs can be obtained, this pudding is much liked.

POKE PLANT.--Early in the spring, the young green stalks of the pokeberry plant, (when they are still mild and tender, and have not yet acquired a reddish tinge or a strong unpleasant taste,) are generally much liked as a vegetable, and are by many persons considered equal to asparagus. They are brought in bundles to Philadelphia market. Wash and drain them, and put them on to boil in a pot of cold water. When _quite tender_ all through they are done. Dish them in the manner of asparagus, laid on a toast dipped for a minute in hot water, and then buttered.

You may pour a very little drawn or melted butter over the poke.

RHUBARB TARTS.--Take large fresh stalks of the rapontica plant, such as are full-grown and reddish. Peel off the thin skin, and cut them into bits all of the same size, either one inch or two inches long. Wash them in cold water through a cullender, (but do not drain them much,) and put them into a stew-pan without any more water. Mix with them plenty of good sugar, in the proportion of half a pound of sugar to a pint of cut-up rhubarb stalks. Cover it, and stew it slowly till quite soft. Then mash it into a smooth mass. Have some puff-paste shells baked empty; and when cool, fill them to the top, and grate nutmeg and powdered sugar thickly over them. The juice and grated yellow rind of a lemon (added when the rhubarb is half stewed,) will be a pleasant flavoring. This is sometimes called "spring-fruit" and "pie-plant." It comes earlier, but is by no means so good as gooseberries. We do not think it worth preserving, or making into a sweetmeat.

VOL-AU-VENT.--Have ready a large quantity of the best and lightest puff paste. Roll it an inch thick, and then cut it neatly into shapes, either square or circular. Bake every one separately on a flat tin pan, cutting a round hole in the centre of each, and fitting in pieces of stale bread to keep the holes open while baking. The cakes of paste should diminish in size as they ascend to the top, but the holes should all be of exactly the same dimensions. The lower cake, which goes at the bottom, should be solid and not perforated at all. The small cake which finishes the top of the pyramid must also be left solid, for a lid. When all the cakes are baked and risen high, (as good puff-paste always does) take them carefully off the baking plates; remove the bread that has kept the centres open and in shape; brush over every cake, separately, with beaten white of egg, and pile one upon another nicely and evenly so as to form a pyramid. Have ready a very nice stew of oysters or game cut small, and cooked with cream, &c. Fill the pyramid with this, and then put on the top or lid, which may terminate in a flower of baked paste.

_A Sweet Vol-au-Vent_--May be filled with small preserves, or with ripe strawberries or raspberries, made very sweet. Vol-au-vents are for dinner, or supper parties. The paste should be peculiarly light. The name _Vol-au-vent_ signifies, in French, something that will fly away in the wind; which, however, it never does.