LIQUEURS.
To filter cordials, cover the bottom of a sieve with clean blotting paper. Pour the liquor into it (having set a vessel underneath to receive it), and let it drip through the paper and through the sieve.
Renew the paper frequently, and fasten it down with pins.
This process is slow, but it makes the liquor beautifully clear.
NOYAU.
Take six ounces of peach kernels, and one ounce of bitter almonds. Break them slightly. Put them into a jug with three pints of white French brandy. Let them infuse three weeks; shaking the jug every day. Then drain the liquor from the kernels, and strain it through a linen bag.
Melt three quarters of a pound of the best loaf-sugar in a pint of rose-water. Mix it with the liquor, and filter it through a sieve, the bottom of which is to be covered on the inside with blotting paper. Let the vessel which is placed underneath to receive the liquor be entirely white, that you may be the better enabled to judge of its clearness. If it is not clear the first time, repeat the filtering. Then bottle it for use.
RASPBERRY CORDIAL.
Take a quart of raspberry-juice, and half a pint of cherry-juice, the fruit having been squeezed in a linen bag after the cherries have been stoned. Mix the juices together, and dissolve in them two pounds of loaf-sugar. Then add two quarts of French brandy; put it into a jug, and let it rest five weeks. Afterwards strain it, and bottle it for use.
ROSE CORDIAL.
Take a pound of the leaves of full-blown red roses. Put them into a quart of lukewarm water, and let them infuse for two days, in a covered vessel. Then squeeze them through a linen bag, to press out all the liquid, and take as much white brandy as you have of the decoction of roses. To a pint of the infusion add half a pound of loaf-sugar, and a very small quant.i.ty of coriander and cinnamon. Put it into a jug, and let it set for two weeks. Then filter it through blotting paper, and put it into bottles.
QUINCE CORDIAL.
Pare your quinces, and sc.r.a.pe them to the core. Put all the sc.r.a.pings into a tureen, and see that there are no seeds among them. Let the sc.r.a.pings remain covered in the tureen for two days. Then put them into a linen bag, and squeeze out all the juice. Measure it, and mix it with an equal quant.i.ty of white brandy. To each pint of the mixture add half a pound of loaf-sugar, and a little cinnamon and cloves. Put it into a jug, and let it infuse for two months. Then filter it through blotting paper, and bottle it. This cordial improves by age, and is excellent.
LEMON CORDIAL.
Pare off very thin the yellow rind of some fine lemons. Cut the lemons in half, and squeeze out all the juice. To each pint of the juice, allow half a pound of loaf-sugar. Mix the juice, the peel, and the sugar together; cover it, and let it set twenty-four hours. Then mix it with an equal quant.i.ty of white brandy, put it into a jug, and let it set a month. Then strain it through a linen bag; and afterwards filter it through blotting paper, before you bottle it.
PART THE EIGHTH.
MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS.
FRENCH COFFEE.
Let the coffee be roasted immediately before you want to use it, as it loses much of its strength by keeping. Its color, when done, should be a fine bright brown; but by no means allow it to scorch. A cylindrical coffee-roaster that can be turned by a handle, and sets before the fire, is far preferable to a pot or a pan. Grind the coffee while warm.
If you intend to make half a dozen cups of coffee for drinking, measure six cups of water of the same size, and put the water into the coffee-pot. Set it on hot coals, and when the water boils, put in two or three chips of isingla.s.s, or the white of an egg. Then throw in six large tea-spoonfuls of ground coffee. Stir it several times while boiling, and set it several times back from the fire to diminish the boiling gradually. When it has boiled sufficiently, remove it entirely from the coals, pour in a cup of cold water, and then put it in a corner and let it settle for half an hour. Afterwards pour it off from the grounds into another pot (which must first be scalded), and set it close to the fire, but do not let it boil again.
If you intend to serve it up with hot cream, you must make the coffee stronger. While the coffee is clearing, boil your cream or milk, and pour some of it hot into each cup of coffee.
COFFEE WITHOUT BOILING.
Coffee made without boiling is much stronger, more economical, and less troublesome than the usual way; but it requires a pot of a particular construction. The best sort of pot for this purpose is called in French a Grecque (Greek). It must be made of the best block-tin, and of a tall cylindrical shape, with the spout very near the bottom. The receptacle for the coffee-powder fits into the upper part of the coffee-pot, and must be taken out when washed. The bottom of this receiver is pierced with very small holes, and there are two other strainers, made of movable plates of tin, also covered with fine holes. These two strainers fit into the receiver. The powdered coffee is to be placed between them, so that it may filter through the lower strainer, and also through the holes at the bottom of the receiver. Having scalded the pot, put the coffee into the receiver between the two movable strainers, and pour in some water which must be boiling hard at the time. The coffee will then drain through into the lower part of the pot where the spout is, and will clear itself in pa.s.sing through the holes. Shut down the lid, place the pot near the fire, and the coffee will be ready for use as soon as it has done draining through.
Allow a large tea-spoonful of the powder for each cup that you intend to have.
This mode of preparing coffee is very expeditious, and requires neither isingla.s.s nor white of egg.
CHOCOLATE.
Never boil chocolate in milk, as that spoils the flavor; and do not sc.r.a.pe it, but merely cut it into pieces. To an ounce of chocolate allow a cup of boiling water.
Having first scalded the pot, put in the chocolate, pour the water on it, and boil it till one third has evaporated. Then supply that third with cream or milk, and take it immediately from the fire.
You need not stir it more than two or three times.
FINE LEMONADE.
Allow a whole lemon and four or five lumps of loaf-sugar to half a pint of cold water. Roll the lemons hard on a table to make them more juicy.
Cut them in half, and squeeze them over the sugar. Then pour on the water, and stir till the sugar is dissolved. Take out whatever seeds may have fallen in. In warm weather, put a lump of ice into each gla.s.s.
PUNCH.
Take three large lemons, and roll them very hard on the table to make them more juicy. Then pare them as thin as possible. Cut out the pulp, and throw away the seeds and the white part of the rind. Put the yellow rind and the pulp into a pint of boiling water; set it on the fire, and let it boil two or three minutes. Take it off, and throw in a tea-spoonful of raw green tea of the best sort, and let it infuse about five minutes. Then strain it through linen. Stir into it three quarters of a pound of loaf-sugar, and a pint of brandy, or any other suitable liquor. Set it again over the fire, and when it is just ready to boil, remove it, and pour it into a china bowl or pitcher.
CONVENIENT LEMONADE.
Take four ounces of powdered tartaric acid, and two drachms of essential oil of lemon. Mix them together, and keep them in a well-corked phial. A table-spoonful mixed with sugar and water, will make six or eight gla.s.ses of lemonade.
It will keep about a month, but not longer, as it will then lose its strength.
FRENCH MUSTARD.
Put on a plate an ounce of the very best mustard powder, with a salt-spoon of salt, a few leaves of tarragon, and a clove of garlic minced fine. Pour on by degrees sufficient vinegar to dilute it to the proper consistence (about a wine-gla.s.sful), and mix it well with a wooden spoon. Do not use it in less than twenty-four hours after it is mixed.
POTATO FLOUR.