PIG"S HARSLET. Wash and dry some liver, sweetbreads, and fat and lean bits of pork, beating the latter with a rolling-pin to make it tender.
Season with pepper, salt, sage, and a little onion shred fine. When mixed, put all into a cawl, and fasten it up tight with a needle and thread. Roast it on a hanging jack, or by a string. Serve with a sauce of port wine and water, and mustard, just boiled up, and put into the dish. Or serve it in slices with parsley for a fry.
PIG"S HEAD COLLARED. Scour the head and ears nicely, take off the hair and snout, and remove the eyes and the brain. Lay the head into water one night, then drain it, salt it extremely well with common salt and saltpetre, and let it lie five days. Boil it enough to take out the bones, then lay it on a dresser, turning the thick end of one side of the head towards the thin end of the other, to make the roll of equal size. Sprinkle it well with salt and white pepper, and roll it with the ears. The pig"s feet may also be placed round the outside when boned, or the thin parts of two cow heels, if approved. Put it in a cloth, bind it with a broad tape, and boil it till quite tender. Place a good weight upon it, and do not remove the covering till the meat is cold. If the collar is to be more like brawn, salt it longer, add a larger proportion of saltpetre, and put in also some pieces of lean pork. Then cover it with cow heel to make it look like the horn. This may be kept in a pickle of boiled salt and water, or out of pickle with vinegar: it will be found a very convenient article to have in the house. If likely to spoil, slice and fry it, either with or without batter.
PIG SAUCE. Take a tea-spoonful of white gravy, a small piece of anchovy, with the gravy from the roasting of the pig, and mix the brains with it when chopped. Add a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter, a little flour to thicken it, a slice of lemon, and a little salt. Shake it over the fire, and put it hot into the dish. Good sauce may also be made by putting some of the bread and sage, which has been roasted in the pig, into good beef gravy, and adding the brains to it.
PILAU. Stew a pound of rice in white gravy till it is tender. Half boil a well grown fowl, then lay it into a baking dish with some pepper and salt strewed over it. Lay truffles, morels, mushrooms, hard eggs, or forcemeat b.a.l.l.s, any or all of them round it at pleasure; put a little gravy into the dish, and spread the rice over the whole like a paste.
Bake it gently, till the fowl is done enough. If it seem dry, cut a hole carefully at the top, and pour in some white gravy, made pretty warm, before it is sent to table. Partridges or pheasants are very nice, dressed the same way.
PILCHARD PIE. Soak two or three salted pilchards for some hours, the day before they are to be dressed. Clean and skin the white part of some large leeks, scald them in milk and water, and put them in layers into a dish, with the pilchards. Cover the whole with a good plain crust. When the pie is taken out of the oven, lift up the side crust with a knife, and empty out all the liquor: then pour in half a pint of scalded cream.
PILE OINTMENT. Cut some green shoots of elder early in the spring, clear away the bark, and put two good handfuls into a quart of thick cream.
Boil it till it comes to an ointment, and as it rises take it off with a spoon, and be careful to prevent its burning. Strain the ointment through a fine cloth, and keep it for use.
PILES. If this complaint be occasioned by costiveness, proper attention must be paid to that circ.u.mstance; but if it originate from weakness, strong purgatives must be avoided. The part affected should be bathed twice a day with a sponge dipped in cold water, and the bowels regulated by the mildest laxatives. An electuary, consisting of one ounce of sulphur, and half an ounce of cream of tartar, mixed with a sufficient quant.i.ty of treacle, may be taken three or four times a day. The patient would also find relief by sitting over the steam of warm water. A useful liniment for this disorder may be made of two ounces of emollient ointment, and half an ounce of laudanum. Mix them with the yolk of an egg, and work them well together.
PILLS. Opening pills may be made of two drams of Castile soap, and two drams of succotrine aloes, mixed with a sufficient quant.i.ty of common syrup. Or when aloes will not agree with the patient, take two drams of the extract of jalap, two drams of vitriolated tartar, and as much syrup of ginger as will form them of a proper consistence for pills. Four or five of these pills will generally prove a sufficient purge; and for keeping the body gently open, one may be taken night and morning.--Composing pills may consist of ten grains of purified opium, and half a dram of Castile soap, beaten together, and formed into twenty parts. When a quieting draught will not sit upon the stomach, one or two of these pills may be taken to great advantage.--Pills for the jaundice may be made of one dram each of Castile soap, succotrine aloes, and rhubarb, mixed up with a sufficient quant.i.ty of syrup. Five or six of these pills taken twice a day, more or less, to keep the body open, with the a.s.sistance of a proper diet, will often effect a cure.
PIPERS. Boil or bake them with a pudding well seasoned. If baked, put a large cup of rich broth into the dish; and when done, boil up together for sauce, the broth, some essence of anchovy, and a squeeze of lemon.
PIPPIN PUDDING. Coddle six pippins in vine leaves covered with water, very gently, that the inside may be done without breaking the skins.
When soft, take off the skin, and with a tea-spoon take the pulp from the core. Press it through a cullender, add two spoonfuls of orange-flower water, three eggs beaten, a gla.s.s of raisin wine, a pint of scalding cream, sugar and nutmeg to taste. Lay a thin puff paste at the bottom and sides of the dish; shred some very thin lemon peel as fine as possible, and put it into the dish; likewise lemon, orange, and citron, in small slices, but not so thin as to dissolve in the baking.
PIPPIN TARTS. Pare two seville or china oranges quite thin, boil the peel tender and shred it fine. Pare and core twenty pippins, put them in a stewpan, with as little water as possible. When half done, add half a pound of sugar, the orange peel and juice, and boil all together till it is pretty thick. When cold, put it in a shallow dish, or pattipans lined with paste, to turn out, and be eaten cold.
PISTACHIO CREAM. Blanch four ounces of pistachio nuts, beat them fine with a little rose-water, and add the paste to a pint of cream. Sweeten it, let it just boil, and then put it into gla.s.ses.
PISTACHIO TART. Sh.e.l.l and peel half a pound of pistachio nuts, beat them very fine in a marble mortar, and work into them a piece of fresh b.u.t.ter. Add to this a quarter of a pint of cream, or of the juice of beet leaves, extracted by pounding them in a marble mortar, and then draining off the juice through a piece of muslin. Grate in two macarones, add the yolks of two eggs, a little salt, and sugar to the taste. Bake it lightly with a puff crust under it, and some little ornaments on the top. Sift some fine sugar over, before it is sent to table.
PLAICE. The following is an excellent way of dressing a large plaice, especially if there be a roe. Sprinkle it with salt, and keep it twenty four hours. Then wash, and wipe it dry, smear it over with egg, and cover it with crumbs of bread. Boil up some lard or fine dripping, with two large spoonfuls of vinegar; lay in the fish, and fry it of a fine colour. Drain off the fat, serve it with fried parsley laid round, and anchovy sauce. The fish may be dipped in vinegar, instead of putting vinegar in the pan.
PLAIN BREAD PUDDING. Prepare five ounces of bread crumbs, put them in a basin, pour three quarters of a pint of boiling milk over them, put a plate over the top to keep in the steam, and let it stand twenty minutes. Then beat it up quite smooth, with two ounces of sugar, and a little nutmeg. Break four eggs on a plate, leaving out one white, beat them well, and add them to the pudding. Stir it all well together, put it into a mould that has been well b.u.t.tered and floured, tie a cloth tight over it, and boil it an hour.
PLAIN CHEESECAKES. Three quarters of a pound of cheese curd, and a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter, beat together in a mortar. Add a quarter of a pound of fine bread soaked in milk, three eggs, six ounces of currants well washed and picked, sugar to the taste, a little candied orange peel, and a little sack. Bake them in a puff crust in a quick oven.
PLAIN FRITTERS. Grate a fine penny loaf into a pint of milk, beat it smooth, add the yolks of five eggs, three ounces of fine sugar, and a little nutmeg. Fry them in hog"s lard, and serve them up with melted b.u.t.ter and sugar.
PLAIN PEAS SOUP. The receipts too generally given for peas are so much crowded with ingredients, that they entirely overpower the flavour of the peas. Nothing more is necessary to plain good soup, than a quart of split peas, two heads of celery, and an onion. Boil all together in three quarts of broth or soft water; let them simmer gently on a trivet over a slow fire for three hours, and keep them stirring, to prevent burning at the bottom of the kettle. If the water boils away, and the soup gets too thick, add some boiling water to it. When the peas are well softened, work them through a coa.r.s.e sieve, and then through a tammis. Wash out the stewpan, return the soup into it, and give it a boil up; take off any sc.u.m that rises, and the soup is ready. Prepare some fried bread and dried mint, and send them up with it on two side dishes. This is an excellent family soup, produced with very little trouble or expense, the two quarts not exceeding the charge of one shilling. Half a dram of bruised celery seed, and a little sugar, added just before finishing the soup, will give it as much flavour as two heads of the fresh vegetable.
PLAIN RICE PUDDING. Wash and pick some rice, scatter among it some pimento finely powdered, but not too much. Tie up the rice in a cloth, and leave plenty of room for it to swell. Boil it in a good quant.i.ty of water for an hour or two, and serve it with b.u.t.ter and sugar, or milk.
Lemon peel may be added to the pudding, but it is very good without spice, and may be eaten with b.u.t.ter and salt.
PLANTING. In rendering swampy ground useful, nothing is so well adapted as planting it with birch or alder, which grows spontaneously on bogs and swamps, a kind of soil which otherwise would produce nothing but weeds and rushes. The wood of the alder is particularly useful for all kinds of machinery, for pipes, drains, and pump trees, as it possesses the peculiar quality of resisting injury from wet and weather. The bark is also highly valuable to black dyers, who purchase it at a good price; and it is much to be lamented that the properties of this useful tree are not duly appreciated.
PLANTATIONS. Young plantations are liable to great injury, by being barked in the winter season. To prevent this, take a quant.i.ty of grease, scent it with a little tar, and mix them well together. Brush it round the stems of young trees, as high at least as hares and rabbits can reach, and it will effectually prevent their being barked by these animals. Tar must not be used alone, for when exposed to the sun and air, it becomes hard and binding, and hinders the growth of the plantation. Grease will not have this effect, and the scent of the tar is highly obnoxious to hares and rabbits.
PLASTERS. Common plaster is made of six pints of olive oil, and two pounds and a half of litharge finely powdered. A smaller quant.i.ty may of course be made of equal proportions. Boil them together over a gentle fire, in about a gallon of water, and keep the ingredients constantly stirring. After they have boiled about three hours, a little of the salve may be taken out, and put into cold water. When of a proper consistence, the whole may be suffered to cool, and the water pressed out of it with the hands. This will serve as a basis for other plasters, and is generally applied in slight wounds and excoriations of the skin.
It keeps the part warm and supple, and defends it from the air, which is all that is necessary in such cases.--Adhesive plaster, which is princ.i.p.ally used for keeping on other dressings, consists of half a pound of common plaster, and a quarter of a pound of Burgundy pitch melted together.--Anodyne plaster is as follows. Melt an ounce of the adhesive, and when cooling, mix with it a dram of powdered opium, and the same of camphor, previously rubbing with a little oil. This plaster generally gives ease in acute pains, especially of the nervous kind.--Blistering plaster is made in a variety of ways, but seldom of a proper consistence. When compounded of oils, and other greasy substances, its effects are lessened, and it is apt to run, while pitch and rosin render it hard and inconvenient. The following will be found the best method. Take six ounces of venice turpentine, two ounces of yellow wax, three ounces of spanish flies finely powdered, and one ounce of the flour of mustard. Melt the wax, and while it is warm, add the turpentine to it, taking care not to evaporate it by too much heat.
After the turpentine and wax are sufficiently incorporated, sprinkle in the powders, and stir the ma.s.s till it is cold. When the blistering plaster is not at hand, mix with any soft ointment a sufficient quant.i.ty of powdered flies, or form them into a plaster with flour and vinegar.
PLATE. The best way to clean plate, is to boil an ounce of prepared hartshorn powder in a quart of water; and while on the fire, put in 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 it the same, till all is done. Then soak some clean rags in the water, and when dry they will serve to clean the plate. Cloths thus saturated with hartshorn powder, are also the best things for cleaning bra.s.s locks, and the finger plates of doors. When the plate is quite dry, it must be rubbed bright with soft leather. In many plate powders there is a mixture of quicksilver, which is very injurious; and among other disadvantages, it makes silver so brittle that it will break with a fall. In common cases, whitening, properly purified from sand, applied wet, and rubbed till dry, is one of the cheapest and best of all plate powders.
PLATING OF GLa.s.s. Pour some mercury on a tin foil, smoothly laid on a flat table, and rub it gently with a hare"s foot. It soon unites itself to the tin, which then becomes very splendid, or is what they call quickened. A plate of gla.s.s is then cautiously, pa.s.sed upon the tin leaf, in such a manner as to sweep off the redundant mercury, which is not incorporated with the tin. Leaden weights are then to be placed on the gla.s.s; and in a little time the quicksilvered tin foil adheres, so firmly to the gla.s.s, that the weights may be removed without any danger of its falling off. The gla.s.s thus coated is a common looking-gla.s.s.
About two ounces of mercury are sufficient for covering three square feet of gla.s.s.
PLOVERS. In purchasing plovers, choose those that feel hard at the vent, which shows they are fat. In other respects, choose them by the same marks as other fowl. When stale, the feet are harsh and dry. They will keep a long time. There are three sorts of these birds, the grey, the green, and the b.a.s.t.a.r.d plover, or lapwing. Green plovers are roasted in the same way as snipes and woodc.o.c.ks, without drawing, and are served on toast. The grey ones may be roasted, or stewed with gravy, herbs, and spice.
PLOVERS" EGGS. Boil them ten minutes, and serve them either hot or cold on a napkin. These make a nice and fashionable dish.
PLUM CAKE. This is such a favourite article in most families, and is made in so many different ways, that it will be necessary to give a variety of receipts, in order that a selection may be made agreeably to the taste of the reader, or the quality of the article to be preferred.--For a good common plum cake, mix five ounces of b.u.t.ter in three pounds of fine dry flour, and five ounces of the best moist sugar.
Add six ounces of currants, washed and dried, and some pimento finely powdered. Put three spoonfuls of yeast into a pint of new milk warmed, and mix it with the above into a light dough.--A cake of a better sort.
Mix thoroughly a quarter of a peck of fine flour well dried, with a pound of dry and sifted loaf sugar, three pounds of currants washed and very dry, half a pound of raisins stoned and chopped, a quarter of an ounce of mace and cloves, twenty peppercorns, a grated nutmeg, the peel of a lemon cut as fine as possible, and half a pound of almonds blanched and beaten with orange-flower water. Melt two pounds of b.u.t.ter in a pint and a quarter of cream, but not too hot; add a pint of sweet wine, a gla.s.s of brandy, the whites and yolks of twelve eggs beaten apart, and half a pint of good yeast. Strain this liquid by degrees into the dry ingredients, beating them together a full hour; then b.u.t.ter the hoop or pan, and bake it. When the batter is put into the pan, throw in plenty of citron, lemon, and orange candy. If the cake is to be iced, take half a pound of double refined sugar sifted, and put a little with the white of an egg; beat it well, and by degrees pour in the remainder. It must be whisked nearly an hour, with the addition of a little orange-flower water, but not too much. When the cake is done, pour the iceing over it, and return it to the oven for fifteen minutes. But if the oven be quite warm, keep it near the mouth, and the door open, lest the colour be spoiled.--Another. Dried flour, currants washed and picked, four pounds; sugar pounded and sifted, a pound and a half; six orange, lemon, and citron peels, cut in slices. These are to be mixed together. Beat ten eggs, yolks and whites separately. Melt a pound and a half of b.u.t.ter in a pint of cream; when cold, put to it half a pint of yeast, near half a pint of sweet wine, and the eggs. Then strain the liquid to the dry ingredients, beat them well, and add of cloves, mace, cinnamon, and nutmeg, half an ounce each. b.u.t.ter the pan, and put it into a quick oven. Three hours will bake it.--Another. Mix with a pound of well-dried flour, a pound of loaf sugar, and the eighth of an ounce of mace, well beaten. Beat up five eggs with half the whites, a gill of rose water, and a quarter of a pint of yeast, and strain them. Melt half a pound of b.u.t.ter in a quarter of a pint of cream, and when cool, mix all together.
Beat up the batter with a light hand, and set it to rise half an hour.
Before it is put into the oven, mix in a pound and a half of currants, well washed and dried, and bake it an hour and a quarter.--For a rich cake, take three pounds of well-dried flour, three pounds of fresh b.u.t.ter, a pound and a half of fine sugar dried and sifted, five pounds of currants carefully cleaned and dried, twenty-four eggs, three grated nutmegs, a little pounded mace and cloves, half a pound of almonds, a gla.s.s of sack, and a pound of citron or orange peel. Pound the almonds in rose water, work up the b.u.t.ter to a thin cream, put in the sugar, and work it well; then the yolks of the eggs, the spices, the almonds, and orange peel. Beat the whites of the eggs to a froth, and put them into the batter as it rises. Keep working it with the hand till the oven is ready, and the scorching subsided; put it into a hoop, but not full, and two hours will bake it. The almonds should be blanched in cold water.
This will make a large rich plum cake.--A small common cake may be made of a pound of dough, a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter, two eggs, a quarter of a pound of lump sugar, a quarter of a pound of currants, and a little nutmeg.--Another. Take a pound and a half of fine white dough, roll into it a pound of b.u.t.ter, as for pie crust, and set it by the fire. Beat up the yolks of four eggs, with half a pound of fine powdered sugar; pour it upon the ma.s.s, and work it well by the fire. Add half a pound of currants, well picked and washed, and send it to the oven. Half the quant.i.ty of sugar, eggs, and b.u.t.ter, will make a very pleasant cake.--Another. A pound and a half of well-dried flour, a pound of b.u.t.ter, a pound of sugar, and a pound of currants, picked and washed.
Beat up eight eggs, warm the b.u.t.ter, mix all together, and beat it up for an hour.--For little plum cakes, intended to keep for some time, dry a pound of fine flour, and mix it with six ounces of finely pounded sugar. Beat six ounces of b.u.t.ter to a cream, and add to three eggs well beaten, half a pound of currants nicely washed and dried, together with the sugar and flour. Beat all for some time, then dredge some flour on tin plates, and drop the batter on them the size of a walnut. If properly mixed, it will be a stiff paste. Bake in a brisk oven. To make a rich plum cake, take four pounds of flour well dried, mix with it a pound and a half of fine sugar powdered, a grated nutmeg, and an ounce of mace pounded fine. When they are well mixed, make a hole in the middle, and pour in fifteen eggs, but seven whites, well beaten, with a pint of good yeast, half a quarter of a pint of orange-flower water, and the same quant.i.ty of sack, or any other rich sweet wine. Then melt two pounds and a half of b.u.t.ter in a pint and a half of cream; and when it is about the warmth of new milk, pour it into the middle of the batter.
Throw a little of the flour over the liquids, but do not mix the whole together till it is ready to go into the oven. Let it stand before the fire an hour to rise, laying a cloth over it; then have ready six pounds of currants well washed, picked, and dried; a pound of citron and a pound of orange peel sliced, with a pound of blanched almonds, half cut in slices lengthways, and half finely pounded. Mix all well together, b.u.t.ter the tin well, and bake it two hours and a half. This will make a large cake.--Another, not quite so rich. Three pounds of flour well dried, half a pound of sugar, and half an ounce of spice, nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon, well pounded. Add ten eggs, but only half the whites, beaten with a pint of good yeast. Melt a pound of b.u.t.ter in a pint of cream, add it to the yeast, and let it stand an hour to rise before the fire. Then add three pounds of currants well washed, picked and dried.
b.u.t.ter the tin, and bake it an hour.--A common plum cake is made of three pounds and a half of flour, half a pound of sugar, a grated nutmeg, eight eggs, a gla.s.s of brandy, half a pint of yeast, a pound of b.u.t.ter melted in a pint and half of milk, put lukewarm to the other ingredients. Let it rise an hour before the fire, then mix it well together, add two pounds of currants carefully cleaned, b.u.t.ter the tin, and bake it.
PLUM JAM. Cut some ripe plums to pieces, put them into a preserving pan, bruise them with a spoon, warm them over the fire till they are soft, and press them through a cullender. Boil the jam an hour, stir it well, add six ounces of fine powdered sugar to every pound of jam, and take it off the fire to mix it. Then heat it ten minutes, put it into jars, and sift some fine sugar over it.