Chapter IX: Front Matter (9)

Beat a fresh laid egg, and mix it with a quarter of a pint of new milk warmed, a large spoonful of capillaire, the same of rosewater, and a little nutmeg scraped. Do not warm after the egg is put in.

_Chocolate._

Those who use much of this article, will find the following mode of preparing both useful and economical.

Cut a cake of chocolate in very small bits; put a pint of water into the pot, and, when it boils, put in the above; mill it off the fire until quite melted, then on a gentle fire till it boil; pour it into a bason, and it will keep in a cool place eight or ten days, or more. When wanted put a spoonful or two into milk, boil it with sugar, and mill it well.

This, if not made thick, is a very good breakfast or supper.

_To make Coffee._

Put two ounces of fresh ground coffee of the best quality into a coffeepot, and pour eight coffee cups of boiling water on it; let it boil six minutes, pour out a cupful two or three times, and return it again; then put two or three isinglass chips into it, and pour one large spoonful of boiling water on it; boil it five minutes more, and set the pot by the fire to keep hot for ten minutes, and you will have coffee, of a beautiful clearness.

Fine cream should always be served with coffee, and either pounded sugarcandy or fine Lisbon sugar.

If for foreigners, or those who like it extremely strong, make only eight dishes from three ounces. If not fresh roasted, lay it before a fire until perfectly hot and dry; or you may put the smallest bit of fresh butter into a preserving pan of a small size, and, when hot throw the coffee in it, and toss it about until it be freshened.

_Coffee Milk._

Boil a dessert spoonful of ground coffee, in nearly a pint of milk, a quarter of an hour; then put into it a shaving or two of isinglass, and clear it. Let it boil a few minutes, and set it on the side of the fire to grow fine.

This is a very fine breakfast. It should be sweetened with real Lisbon sugar of a good quality.

_Ground Rice Milk._

Boil one spoonful of ground rice, rubbed down smooth, with three half pints of milk, a bit of cinnamon, lemonpeel, and nutmeg. Sweeten when nearly done.

_Tapioca jelly._

Choose the largest sort, pour cold water on to wash it two or three times, then soak it in fresh water five or six hours, and simmer it in the same until it become quite clear; then put lemonjuice, wine, and sugar. The peel should have been boiled in it. It thickens very much.

_Sago._

To prevent the earthy taste, soak it in cold water an hour; pour that off, and wash it well; then add more, and simmer gently till the berries are clear, with lemonpeel and spice, if approved. Add wine and sugar, and boil all up together.

_Sago Milk._

Cleanse as above, and boil it slowly and wholly with new milk. It swells so much that a small quantity will be sufficient for a quart, and when done it will be diminished to about a pint. It requires no sugar, or flavouring.

_Arrowroot jelly._

Of this beware of having the wrong sort; for it has been counterfeited with bad effect.

Mix a large spoonful of the powder with, a teacup of cold water, by degrees, and quite smooth. Put rather more than a pint of water over the fire, with some white sugar, scraped nutmeg, and a spoonful and a half of brandy, or two. The moment it boils, pour the powder and water in, stirring it well; and when it boils up it is done.

This is a very useful thing in a house; and in the above mode a sick person may be supplied with a fine supporting meal in a few minutes.

This and the following are particularly good in bowel complaints.

_A Flour Caudle._

Into five large spoonfuls of the purest water, rub smooth one dessertspoonful of fine flour. Set over the fire five spoonfuls of new milk, and put two bits of sugar into it; the moment it boils, pour into it, the flour and water, and stir it over a slow fire twenty minutes.

_A Rice Caudle._

Soak some Carolina rice in water an hour, strain it, and put two spoonfuls of the rice into a pint and a quarter of milk; simmer till it will pulp through a sieve, then put the pulp and milk into the saucepan, with a bruised clove and a bit of white sugar. Simmer ten minutes; if too thick, add a spoonful or two of milk, and serve with thin toast.

_Gloucester jelly._

Take rice, sago, pearlbarley, hartshorn shavings and eringoroot, each an ounce; simmer with two pints of water to one, and strain it. When cold it will be a jelly; of which give, dissolved in wine, milk, or broth, in change with other nourishment.

_Mulled wine._

Boil some spice in a little water till the flavour is gained, then add an equal quantity of port, some sugar and nutmeg; boil together, and serve with toast.

_Asses’ Milk_

Far surpasses any imitation of it that can be made. It should be milked into a glass that is kept warm by being in a bason of hot water.

The fixed air that it contains gives some people a pain in the stomach.

At first a teaspoonful of rum may be taken with it, but should only be put in the moment it is to be swallowed.

_Artificial Asses’ Milk._

Boil together a quart of water, a quart of new milk, an ounce of white sugarcandy, half an ounce of eringoroot, and half an ounce of conserve of roses, till half be wasted.

This is astringent; therefore proportion the doses to the effect.

_Another._

Mix two spoonfuls of boiling water, two of milk, and an egg well beaten; sweeten with pounded white sugarcandy.

This may be taken twice or thrice a day.

_Another._

Boil two ounces of hartshorn shavings, two ounces of pearlbarley, two ounces of candied eringoroot, and one dozen of snails that have been bruised, in two quarts of water to one. Mix with an equal quantity of new milk, when taken, twice a day.

_Buttermilk, with Bread or without._

It is most wholesome when sour, as being less likely to be heavy, but most agreeable when made of sweet cream.

_Dr. Boerhaave’s sweet Buttermilk._

Take the milk from the cow into a small churn, of about six shillings price; in about ten minutes begin churning, and continue till the flakes of butter swim about pretty thick, and the milk is discharged of all the greasy particles, and appears thin and blue. Strain it through a sieve, and drink it as frequently as possible.

It should form the whole of the patient’s drink, and the food should be biscuit and rusks, in every way and sort; ripe and dried fruits of various kinds, when a decline is apprehended.

Baked and dried fruits, raisins in particular, make excellent suppers for invalids, with biscuit or common cake.

_When the Stomach will not receive Meat._

On an extreme hot plate put two or three sippets of bread, and pour over them some gravy from beef, mutton, or veal, if there is no butter in the dish. Sprinkle a little salt over.

This is much lighter than meat, and conveys a great deal of nourishment in a small form.

Toast hard and dry a thin bit of bread, soak it in water, or port wine and water, take it out and sift a little sugar, and, if you like it, nutmeg.

Or pour boiling water over a captain’s biscuit, broken in pieces, and steam it down in a bason; when soft, add a little strong souchong tea, cream, and sugar, or wine, sugar, and nutmeg; or a teacupful of weak rum, or brandy and water, with sugar, just to give taste.

_Saloop._

Boil a little water, with wine, lemonpeel, and sugar, together; then mix with a small quantity of the powder, previously rubbed smooth, with a little cold water; stir it all together, and boil it a few minutes.

* * * * *

I promised a few hints, to enable every family to assist the poor of their neighborhood at a very trivial expense; and these may be varied or amended at the discretion of the mistress.

Where cows are kept, a jug of skimmed milk is a valuable present.

When the oven is hot, a large pudding may be baked, and given to a sick or young family; and thus made, the trouble is little: into a deep coarse pan put half a pound of rice, four ounces of coarse sugar or treacle, two quarts of milk, and two ounces of dripping, set it cold into the oven. It will take a good while, but be an excellent solid food.

A very good meal may be bestowed in a thing called Brewis, which is thus made: cut a very thick upper crust of bread and put it into the pot where salt beef is boiling and near ready; it will attract some of the fat, and, when swelled out, will be no unpalatable dish to those who rarely taste meat.

_A baked Soup._

Put a pound of any kind of meat cut in slices; two onions, two carrots, ditto; two ounces of rice, a pint of split peas, or whole ones if previously soaked, pepper and salt, into an earthen jug or pan, and pour one gallon of water. Cover it very close, and bake it with the bread.

The cook should be charged to save the boiling of every piece of meat, ham, tongue, &c. however salt: as it is easy to use only a part of that, and the rest of fresh water, and by the addition of more vegetables, the bones of the meat used in the family, the pieces of meat that come from table on the plates, and rice, Scotch barley or oatmeal, there will be some gallons of nutritious soup two or three times a week. The bits of meat should be only warmed in the soup, and remain whole; the bones, &c. boiled till they yield their nourishment. If the things are ready to put in the boiler as soon as the meat be served, it will save lighting fire and second cooking.

Turnips, carrots, leeks, potatoes, or any sort of vegetable that is at hand, should be used.

Should the soup be poor of meat, the long boiling of the bones and different vegetables, will afford better nourishment than the laborious poor can obtain; especially as they are rarely tolerable cooks, and have not fuel to do justice to what they buy. But in every family there is some superfluity; and if it be prepared with cleanliness and care, the benefit will be very great to the receiver, and the satisfaction no less to the giver.

I found, in the time of scarcity, ten or fifteen gallons of soup, could be dealt out weekly, at an expense not worth mentioning, though the vegetables were bought. If in the villages about London, abounding with opulent families, the quantity of ten gallons were made in ten gentlemen’s houses, there would be a hundred gallons of wholesome agreeable food given weekly for the supply of forty poor families, at the rate of two gallons and a half each.

What a relief to the labouring husband, instead of bread and cheese, to have a warm comfortable meal! To the sick, aged, and infant branches, how important an advantage.

It very rarely happens, that servants object to seconding the kindness of their superiors to the poor; but should the cook in any family think the adoption of this plan too troublesome, a gratuity at the end of the winter might repay her, if the love of her fellow creatures failed of doing it, a hundred fold. Did she readily enter into it, she would never wash away as useless the pease or grits of which soup or gruel had been made; broken potatoes, the green heads of celery, the necks and feet of fowls, and particularly the shanks of mutton, and various other articles, which in preparing dinner for the family are thrown aside.

Fish affords great nourishment, and that not by the part eaten only, but the bones, heads, and fins, which contain an isinglass. When the fish is served, let the cook put by some of the water, and stew in it the above, as likewise add the gravy that is in the dish, until she obtains all the goodness. If to be eaten by itself, when it makes a delightful broth, she should add a very small bit of onion, some pepper, and a little rice flour rubbed down smooth with it.

But strained it makes a delicious improvement to the meat soup, particularly for the sick; and when such are to be supplied, the milder parts of the spare bones and meat should be made for them, with little, if any of the liquor of the salt meats.

The fat should not be taken off the broth or soup, as the poor like it, and are nourished by it.

_The following is an excellent Soup for the weakly._

Put two cowheels and a breast of mutton into a large pan, with four ounces of rice, one onion, twenty Jamaica peppers, and twenty black, a turnip, a carrot, and four gallons of water. Cover with brown paper, and bake.

_Sago._

Put a teacupful of sago into a quart of water, and a bit of lemonpeel; when thickened, grate some ginger, and add half a pint of raisinwine, brown sugar, and two spoonfuls of Geneva. Boil all up together.

It is a most supporting thing for those whom disease has left very feeble.

_Caudle for the Sick and Lying in._

Set three quarts of water on the fire, mix smooth as much oatmeal as will thicken the whole with a pint of cold water; when boiling, pour the latter in, and twenty Jamaica peppers in fine powder; boil to a good middling thickness, then add sugar, half a pint of well fermented table beer, and a glass of gin. Boil all.

This mess twice, and once or twice of broth, will be of incalculable service.

There is not a better occasion for charitable commiseration than when a person is sick. A bit of meat or pudding sent unexpectedly has often been the means of recalling long lost appetite.

Nor are the indigent alone the grateful receivers; for in the highest houses a real good sick-cook is rarely met with; and many who possess all the goods of fortune, have attributed the first return of health to some _kitchen physic_.

USEFUL DIRECTIONS TO GIVE TO SERVANTS.

_To give to boards a beautiful appearance._

After washing them very nicely clean with soda and warm water, and a brush, wash them with a very large sponge and clean water. Both times observe to leave no spot untouched, and clean straight up and down not crossing from board to board; then dry with clean cloths, rubbing hard up and down in the same way.

The floors should not be often wetted, but very thoroughly when done; and once a week dry rubbed with hot sand, and a heavy brush, the right way of the boards.

The sides of stairs or passages on which are carpets, or floorcloth, should be washed with sponge instead of linen or flannel, and the edges will not be soiled. Different sponges should be kept for the two above uses; and those and the brushes should be well washed when done with, and kept in dry places.

_Floorcloths._

Should be chosen that are painted on a fine cloth, that is well covered with the colour, and the flowers on which do not rise much above the ground, as they wear out first. The durability of the cloth will depend much on these two particulars, but more especially on the time it has been painted, and the goodness of the colours. If they have not been allowed sufficient space for becoming thoroughly hardened, a very little use will injure them; and as they are very expensive articles, care in preserving them is necessary. It answers to keep them some time before they are used, either hung up in a dry barn where they will have air, or laid down in a spare room. When taken up for the winter, they should be rolled round a carpet roller, and observe not to crack the paint by turning the edges in too close.

Old carpets answer extremely well, painted and seasoned some months before laid down. If for passages, the width must be directed when they are sent to the manufactory, as they cut before painting.

_To clean Floorcloths._

Sweep, then wipe them with a flannel; and when all dust and spots are removed, rub with a waxed flannel, and then with a dry plain one; but use little wax, and rub only enough with the latter to give a little smoothness, or it may endanger falling.

Washing now and then with milk after the above sweeping, and dry rubbing them, give as beautiful a look, and they are less slippery.

_To take the black off the bright bars of polished Stoves in a few
minutes._

Rub them well with some of the following mixture on a bit of broadcloth; when the dirt is removed, wipe them clean, and polish with glass, not sandpaper.

_The mixture._

Boil slowly one pound of soft soap in two quarts of water to one. Of this jelly take three or four spoonfuls, and mix to a consistence with emery, No 3.

_To clean the back of the grate; the inner hearth; and of Castiron
Stoves, the fronts._

Boil about a quarter of a pound of the best black lead, with a pint of small beer, and a bit of soap the size of a walnut. When that is melted, dip a painter’s brush, and wet the grate, having first brushed off all the soot and dust; then take a hard brush, and rub it till of a beautiful brightness.

_Another way to clean Castiron, and black Hearths._

Mix black lead and whites of eggs beaten well together; dip a painter’s brush, and wet all over, then rub it bright with a hard brush.

_To preserve Irons from rust._

Melt fresh _mutton suet_, smear over the iron with it, while hot; then dust it well with unslacked lime pounded, and tied up in a muslin. Irons so prepared will keep many months. Use no oil for them at any time, except sallad oil; there being water in all other.

Fireirons should be kept wrapt in baize, in a dry place, when not used.

_To clean tin covers, and patent pewter Porterpots._

Get the finest whiting, which is only sold in large cakes, the small being mixed with sand, mix a little of it powdered, with the least drop of sweet oil, and rub well, and wipe clean; then dust some dry whiting in a muslin bag over, and rub bright with dry leather. The last is to prevent rust, which the cook must be careful to guard against by wiping dry, and putting by the fire when they come from the parlour; for if but once hung up without, the steam will rust the inside.

_To take rust out of Steel._

Cover the steel with sweet oil well rubbed on it, and in forty eight hours use unslacked lime finely powdered, and rub until all the rust disappears.

_To clean stone Stairs and Halls._

Boil a pound of pipe makers clay with a quart of water, a quart of small beer, and put in a bit of stone blue. Wash with this mixture, and when dry, rub the stones with flannel and a brush.

_To clear Paperhangings._

First blow off the dust with the bellows. Divide a white loaf of two days old into eight parts. Take the crust into your hand, and beginning at the top of the paper, wipe it downwards in the lightest manner with the crumb. Do not cross or go upwards. The dirt of the paper and the crumbs will fall together. Observe, you must not wipe above half a yard at a stroke, and after doing all the upper, part, go round again, beginning a little above where you left off. If you do not do it extremely lightly, you will make the dirt adhere to the paper.

It will look like new if properly done.

_To clean Paint._

Never use a cloth, but take off the dust with a little longhaired brush, after blowing off the loose parts with the bellows. With care, paint will look well for a length of time. When soiled, dip a sponge or a bit of flannel into soda and water, wash it off quickly, and dry immediately, or the strength of the soda will eat off the colour.

When wainscot requires scouring, it should be done from the top downwards, and the suds be prevented from running on the unclean part as much as possible, or marks will be made which will appear after the whole be finished. One person should dry with old linen as fast as the other has scoured off the dirt and washed the soda off.

_To clean Lookingglasses._

Remove the fly stains, and other soil, by a damp rag; then polish with woollen cloth and powder-blue.

_To preserve Gilding, and clean it._

It is not possible to prevent flies from staining the gilding without covering it; before which, blow off the light dust, and pass a feather or clean brush over it; then with strips of paper cover the frames of your glasses, and do not remove it till the flies are gone.

Linen takes off the gilding, and deadens its brightness; it should therefore never be used for wiping it.

Some means should be used to destroy the flies, as they injure furniture of every kind, and the paper likewise. Bottles hung about with sugar and vinegar, or beer, will attract them; or fly water put into the bottom of a saucer.

_To clean Plate._

Boil an ounce of prepared hartshorn powder in a quart of water. While on the fire, put into it as much plate as the vessel will hold; let it boil a little, then take it out, drain it over the saucepan, and dry it before the fire. Put in more, and serve the same, till you have done. Then put into the water some clean linen rags till all be soaked up. When dry, they will serve to clean the plate, and are the very best things to clean the brass locks and fingerplates of doors. When the plate is quite dry, it must be rubbed bright with leather.

This is a very nice mode.

_Note._ In many plate powders there is a mixture of quicksilver, which is very injurious; and, among other disadvantages, it makes silver so brittle, that from a fall it will break.

_To give a fine Colour to Mahogany._

Let the tables be washed perfectly clean with vinegar, having first taken out any ink stains there may be with spirits of salt; but it must be used with the greatest care, and only touch the part affected, and be instantly washed off. Use the following liquid: into a pint of cold drawn linseed oil, put four penny worth of alconet root, and two penny worth of rose pink, in an earthen vessel; let it remain all night, then stirring well, rub some of it all over the tables with a linen rag; when it has lain some time, rub it bright with linen cloths.

Eating tables should be covered with mat, oilcloth, or baize, to prevent staining, and be instantly rubbed when the dishes are taken off, while still warm.

_To dust Carpets and Floors._

Sprinkle tea leaves on them, then sweep carefully. The former should not be swept frequently with a whisk brush, as it wears them fast; but once a week, and the other times with the leaves and a hair brush.

_To clean Carpets._

Take up the carpet, let it be well beaten, then laid down, and brushed on both sides with a hand brush. Turn it the right side upwards, and scour it with oxgall, and soap and water, very clean, and dry it with linen cloths.

_To take Stains out of Marble._

Mix unslacked lime, in finest powder, with the stronger soap lye, pretty thick; and instantly, with a painter’s brush, lay it on the whole of the marble. In two months time wash it off perfectly clean; then have ready a fine thick lather of soft soap, boiled in soft water; dip a brush in it, and scour the marble with powder, not as common cleaning. This will, by very good rubbing, give a beautiful polish. Clear off the soap, and finish with a smooth hard brush till the end be effected.

_To clean Calico Furniture, when taken down for the Summer._

Shake off the loose dust, then lightly brush with a small longhaired furniture brush; after which wipe it closely with clean flannels, and rub it with dry bread.

If properly done, the curtains will look nearly as well as at first.

Fold in large parcels, and put carefully by.

While the furniture remains up, it should be preserved from the sun and air as much as possible, which injure delicate colours; and the dust may be blown off with bellows.

_To preserve Furs and Woollen from Moth._

Let the former be occasionally combed while in use, and the latter be brushed and shaken. When not wanted, dry them first, let them be cool, then mix among them bitter apples from the apothecary’s, in small muslin bags, sewing them in several folds of linen, carefully turned in at the edges.

INDEX.

A.

ALDER wine, 243
white, very much like Frontiniac, 243

_Ale_, to brew, 236
, very fine Welsh, 236
to refine, 238

_Almond_ cheesecakes, 186
cream, 169
puddings, 142
, baked, 155
, small, 157

_Amber_ pudding, a very fine one, 144

_Anchovies_, to keep them when the liquor dries, 118
sauce, 108
essence of 112
to make sprats taste like, 117

_Apples_, to prepare them for puffs, 176
dried, 175
dumplings, or pudding, 151
fool, 172
jelly to serve to table, 176
, another, 176

_Apple_ jelly, for preserved apricots, or any sort of sweetmeats, 196
pie, 180
pudding, baked, 144
water, 254
to scald codlins, 177
to keep codlins for
several months, 189
stewed goldenpippins, 175
red in jelly, 175

_Apricots_, in brandy, 195
to dry in half, 196
green, to preserve, 197
to preserve in jelly, 196
apple jelly for this purpose, 196
cheese, 194
pudding, an excellent one, 154

_Arrowroot_ jelly, 260

_Asses_ milk, 262
, artificial, 262
, another, 262
, another, 263

B.

_Bacon_, excellent, 69
the manner of curing Wiltshire, 64
fraise, 137

_Bamboo_, (English) to pickle, 120

_Barberries_, for tartlets, 201
drops, 202

_Barleywater_, 253
, common, 253

_Bean Pudding_, green, 154

_Bechamel_, 104

_Beef_, stewed rump of, 28
, stewed brisket, 29
, to salt red, which
is extremely good to eat fresh from the pickle, or to hang to dry, 30
, pressed, 31
, hunter’s, 31
, to dress the inside of a cold sirloin, 38
, fricassee of cold roast, 38
, to dress cold that has not been done enough, called beef olives, 38
, to dress, called Sanders, 39
, to dress, called Cecils, 39
, to salt for eating immediately, 27
alamode, 28
, broth, 250
, collared, 31

_Beef_, collop, 33
hashed, 40
heart, 42
minced, 39
olives, 38
palates, 34
cakes for sidedish of dressed meat, 34
potted, 35
, another way, 35
patties, or Podovies, 34
, Benton sauce for hot or cold roast, 107
round of, 40
, sauce Robart for rumps, 106
, a pickle for that will keep for years, 68
, tea, 250

_Beefsteaks_ and oyster sauce, 32
, sauce Robart for, 106
pie, 34
pudding, 33
pudding, baked, 34
, Staffordshire, 32
, Italian, 33

_Beer_, to refine, 238
(strong) to brew, 236
(table) excellent, 237

_Benton_ sauce, for hot or cold roast beef, 107
tea cakes, 220

_Birds_, a very economical way of potting, 78

_Biscuit_ cake, 222
, hard, 220

_Biscuit_, plain, and very crisp, 221
, of fruit, 204

_Black_ caps, 175
puddings, 65
another way, 66

_Blancmange_, or Blamange, 164

_Boards_, to give them a beautiful appearance, 269

_Bockings_, 182

_Boiling_ meat, observations on, 20, 21

_Brandy_ cream, 169
pudding, 155

_Bread_ cake, common, 217
pudding, boiled, 147
, another and richer, 147
puddings, little, 145
and butter pudding, 142
sauce, 110
brown pudding, 147
ice, 211
French, 229

_Brentford_ rolls, 227

BREWERY, HOME, 236 to 247

_Broth_, A quickmade, 252
, a clear one, that will keep long, 249
Others are under different names; as _Chicken_ broth, &c.

_Brown bread_ pudding, 147
ice, 211

_Browning_, to colour and flavour made dishes, 117

_Bubble and Squeak_, 42

_Bun_, a good plain one, 226
, richer ones, 226

_Burnt cream_, 170

_Butter_, to clarify for potted things, 78
, to melt, 107
, pudding, 148
with meat, 148
, orange, 131

_Buttermilk_, 233
, with bread or without, 263
, Dr. Boerhaave’s sweet, 263
, pudding, 155