BEETLES. When these insects become troublesome in the house, put some small lumps of quick lime into the c.h.i.n.ks or holes of the wall from whence they issue, or scatter it on the ground. Or at night, lay a spoonful of treacle on a piece of wood, and float it in a pan of water: beetles are so fond of syrup, that they will be drowned in attempting to get at it. The common black beetle may also be extirpated by placing a hedgehog in the room, during the summer nights; or by laying a bundle of pea straw near their holes, and afterwards burning it when the beetles have crept into it.
BENTON CAKES. Mix a paste of flour, a little bit of b.u.t.ter, and milk.
Roll it as thin as possible, and bake on a backstone over the fire, or on a hot hearth. Another sort of Benton tea-cakes are made like biscuits, by rubbing into a pound of flour six ounces of b.u.t.ter, and three large spoonfuls of yeast. Work up the paste with a sufficient quant.i.ty of new milk, make it into biscuits, and p.r.i.c.k them with a clean fork. Or melt six or seven ounces of b.u.t.ter, with a sufficient quant.i.ty of new milk warmed to make seven pounds of flour into a stiff paste.
Roll it thin, and make it into biscuits.
BENTON SAUCE. Grate some horse-radish, or sc.r.a.pe it very fine. Add to it a little made mustard, some pounded white sugar, and four large spoonfuls of vinegar. Serve it up in a saucer: this is good with hot or cold roast beef.
BILLS OF FARE, or list of various articles in season in different months.
JANUARY.----_Poultry._ Game, pheasants, partridges, hares, rabbits, woodc.o.c.ks, snipes, turkeys, capons, pullets, fowls, chickens, tame pigeons.--_Fish._ Carp, tench, perch, eels, lampreys, crayfish, cod, soles, flounders, plaice, turbot, skate, thornback, sturgeon, smelts, whitings, crabs, lobsters, prawns, oysters.--_Vegetables._ Cabbage, savoys, coleworts, sprouts, brocoli, leeks, onions, beet, sorrel, chervil, endive, spinach, celery, garlic, potatoes, parsnips, turnips, shalots, lettuces, cresses, mustard, rape, salsify, herbs dry and green.--_Fruit._ Apples, pears, nuts, walnuts, medlars, grapes.
FEBRUARY, MARCH.----Meat, fowls and game, as in January, with the addition of ducklings and chickens.--_Fish._ As the last two months, except that cod is not thought so good, from February to July.--_Vegetables._ The same as the former months, with the addition of kidney beans.--_Fruit._ Apples, pears, forced strawberries.
APRIL, MAY, JUNE.----_Meat._ Beef, mutton, veal, lamb, venison in June.----_Poultry._ Pullets, fowls, chickens, ducklings, pigeons, rabbits, leverets.--_Fish._ Carp, tench, soles, smelts, eels, trout, turbot, lobsters, chub, salmon, herrings, crayfish, mackarel, crabs, prawns, shrimps.--_Vegetables._ As before, and in May, early potatoes, peas, radishes, kidney beans, carrots, turnips, early cabbages, cauliflowers, asparagus, artichokes, all sorts of forced sallads.--_Fruit._ In June, strawberries, cherries, melons, green apricots, gooseberries and currants for tarts. In July, cherries, strawberries, pears, melons, gooseberries, currants, apricots, grapes, nectarines, peaches; but most of these are forced.
JULY, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER.--Meat as before.--_Poultry._ Pullets, fowls, chickens, rabbits, pigeons, green geese, leverets, turkey poults, plovers, wheatears, and geese in September.--_Fish._ Cod, haddock, flounders, plaice, skate, thornback, mullets, pike, carp, eels, sh.e.l.lfish, except oysters; mackarel the first two months, but are not good in August.--_Vegetables._ Beans, peas, French beans, and various others.--_Fruit._ In July, strawberries, gooseberries, pineapples, plums, cherries, apricots, raspberries, melons, currants, damsons. In August and September, peaches, plums, filberts, figs, mulberries, cherries, apples, pears, nectarines, grapes, pines, melons, strawberries, medlars, quinces, morella cherries, damsons, and various plums.
OCTOBER.--Meat as before, and doe-venison.----_Poultry._ Game, pheasants, fowls, partridges, larks, hares, dotterels, wild ducks, teal, snipes, widgeon, grouse.--_Fish._ Dories, smelts, pike, perch, holibets, brills, carp, salmon trout, barbel, gudgeons, tench, sh.e.l.lfish.--_Vegetables._ As in January, French beans, runners, windsor beans.----_Fruit._ Peaches, pears, figs, bullace, grapes, apples, medlars, damsons, filberts, nuts, walnuts, quinces, services.
NOVEMBER.--_Meat._ Beef, mutton, veal, pork, house lamb, doe venison, poultry and game. Fish as the last month.--_Vegetables._ Carrots, turnips, parsnips, potatoes, skirrets, onions, leeks, shalots, cabbage, savoys, colewort, spinach, cardoons, cresses, endive, celery, lettuces, salad, herbs.--_Fruit._ Pears, apples, nuts, walnuts, bullace, chesnuts, medlars, grapes.
DECEMBER.--_Meat._ Beef, mutton, veal, house lamb, pork and venison.--_Poultry._ Game, turkeys, geese, pullets, pigeons, capons, fowls, chickens, rabbits, hares, snipes, woodc.o.c.ks, larks, pheasants, partridges, sea-fowls, guinea-fowls, wild ducks, teal, widgeon, dotterels, dunbirds, grouse.--_Fish._ Turbot, cod, holibets, soles, gurnets, sturgeon, carp, gudgeons, codlings, eels, dories, sh.e.l.lfish.--_Vegetables._ As in the last month; asparagus forced.--_Fruit._ As the last, except bullace.
BIRCH WINE. The season for obtaining the liquor from birch trees, is in the latter end of February or the beginning of March, before the leaves shoot out, and as the sap begins to rise. If the time be delayed, the juice will grow too thick to be drawn out. It should be as thin and clear as possible. The method of procuring the juice is by boring holes in the trunk of the tree, and fixing in facets made of elder; but care should be taken not to tap it in too many places at once, for fear of injuring the tree. If the tree is large, it may be bored in five or six places at once, and bottles are to be placed under the apertures to receive the sap. When four or five gallons have been extracted from different trees, cork the bottles very close, and wax them till the wine is to be made, which should be as soon as possible after the sap has been obtained. Boil the sap, and put four pounds of loaf sugar to every gallon, also the rind of a lemon cut thin; then boil it again for nearly an hour, skimming it well all the time. Into a cask that will contain it, put a lighted brimstone match, stop it up till the match is burnt out, and then pour the liquor into it as quickly as possible. When nearly cold, work it with a toast spread with yeast, and let it stand five or six days, stirring it two or three times a-day. Put the bung lightly in till it has done working; then close it down, and let it stand two or three months. The wine may then be bottled, and will be fit for use in about a week. It makes a rich and salutary cordial, and its virtues are much relied on in consumptive and s...o...b..tic cases.
BISCUIT CAKE. One pound of flour, five eggs well beaten and strained, eight ounces of sugar, a little rose or orange flower water. Beat the whole thoroughly, and bake it one hour.
BISCUITS. To make hard biscuits, warm two ounces of b.u.t.ter in as much skimmed milk as will make a pound of flour into a very stiff paste. Beat it with a rolling pin, and work it very smooth. Roll it thin, and cut it into round biscuits. p.r.i.c.k them full of holes with a fork, and about six minutes will bake them.--For plain and very crisp biscuits, make a pound of flour, the yolk of an egg, and some milk, into a very stiff paste.
Beat it well, and knead it quite smooth; roll the paste very thin, and cut it into biscuits. Bake them in a slow oven till quite dry and crisp.--To preserve biscuits for a long time sweet and good, no other art is necessary than packing them up in casks well caulked, and carefully lined with tin, so as to exclude the air. The biscuits should be laid as close as possible; and when it is necessary to open the cask, it must be speedily closed again with care. Sea bread may also be preserved on a long voyage, by being put into a bag which has been previously soaked in a quant.i.ty of liquid nitre, and dried. This has been found to preserve the biscuits from the fatal effects of the wevil, and other injurious insects, which are destructive to this necessary article of human sustenance.
BITTERS. Bruise an ounce of gentian root, and two drams of cardamom seeds together: add an ounce of lemon peel, and three drams of Seville orange peel. Pour on the ingredients a pint and half of boiling water, and let it stand an hour closely covered: then pour off the clear liquor, and a gla.s.s of it taken two or three times a day will be found an excellent bitter for the stomach.--Or slice an ounce of gentian root, and add half a dram of snakes" root bruised, half a dram of saffron, three quarters of a dram of cardamom seeds, and the same of cochineal bruised together, and the peel of three Seville oranges. Steep the ingredients in a pint of brandy fourteen days, shaking them together frequently; then strain the tincture through a piece of muslin, and a tea-spoonful in a gla.s.s of wine may be taken two or three times a day.
BLACK b.u.t.tER. Boil a pound of moist sugar with three pounds of gooseberries, currants, raspberries, and cherries, till reduced to half the quant.i.ty. Put it into pots covered with brandy paper, and it will be found a pleasant sweetmeat.
BLACK CAPS. Divide and core some fine large apples, put them in a shallow pan, strew white sugar over, and bake them. Boil a gla.s.s of wine, the same of water, and sweeten it for sauce. Or, take off a slice from the stalk end of some apples, and core without paring them. Mix with grated lemon, and a few cloves in fine powder, as much sugar as will sweeten them. Stuff the holes as close as possible with this, and turn the flat end down on a stewpan; set them on a very slow fire, with some raisin wine and water. Cover them close, and now and then baste them with the liquor: when done enough, black the tops with a salamander.
BLACK INK. Infuse in a gallon of rain or soft water, a pound of blue galls bruised, and keep it stirring for three weeks. Then add four ounces of green copperas, four ounces of logwood chips, six ounces of gum arabac, and a gla.s.s of brandy.--To make ink of a superior quality, and fit for immediate use, prepare the following ingredients. Four ounces of blue galls, two ounces of chipped logwood, two of sulphate of iron, one ounce and a half of gum arabac, half an ounce of sulphate of copper, and half an ounce of brown sugar. Boil the galls and logwood in six pints of spring or distilled water, until nearly three pints of water are evaporated, then strain it through a piece of flannel. Powder the salts in a mortar, dissolve the gum in a little warm water, then mix the whole together, and shake it frequently for two or three days; during which time expose it to the air, and it will become blacker.
Decant the liquor into stone bottles well corked, and it will be fit for use directly. Those who wish to avoid the trouble of such a process, will find an excellent subst.i.tute in Walkden"s Ink Powder ready prepared, with directions how to use it. If a cup of sweet wort be added to two papers of the powder, it will give it the brightness of j.a.pan ink.
BLACK LEAD. The best preparation for cleaning cast-iron stoves is made of black lead, mixed with a little common gin, or the dregs of port wine, and laid on the stove with a piece of linen rag. Then with a clean brush, not too hard, and dipped in some dried black lead powder, rub the stove till it comes to a beautiful brightness. This will produce a much finer black varnish on the cast-iron, than either boiling the black lead with small beer and soap, or mixing it with white of egg, as is commonly practised.
BLACK PAPER, for drawing patterns, may easily be made in the following manner. Mix and smooth some lamp-black and sweet oil, with a piece of flannel. Cover a sheet or two of large writing paper with this mixture, then dab the paper dry with a rag of fine linen, and prepare it for future use by putting the black side on another sheet of paper, and fastening the corners together with a small pin. When wanted to draw, lay the pattern on the back of the black paper, and go over it with the point of a steel pencil. The black paper will then leave the impression of the pattern on the under sheet, on which you must now draw it with ink. If you draw patterns on cloth or muslin, do it with a pen dipped in a bit of stone blue, a bit of sugar, and a little water, mixed smooth in a tea cup, in which it will be always ready for use.
BLACK PUDDINGS. The pig"s blood must be stirred with a little salt till it is cold. Put a full quart of it to a quart of whole grits, and let it stand all night. Soak the crumb of a quartern loaf in rather more than two quarts of new milk made hot. In the meantime prepare the guts by washing, turning and sc.r.a.ping, with salt and water, and changing the water several times. Chop fine a little winter savoury and thyme, a good quant.i.ty of pennyroyal, pepper and salt, a few cloves, some allspice, ginger and nutmeg. Mix these all together, with three pounds of beef suet, and six eggs well beaten and strained. Have ready some hog"s fat cut into large bits; and as the skins are filling with the pudding, put in the fat at intervals. Tie up in links only half filled, and boil in a large kettle, p.r.i.c.king them as they swell, or they will burst. When boiled, lay them between clean cloths till cold, and hang them up in the kitchen. When to be used, scald them a few minutes in water; wipe, and put them into a Dutch oven. If there be not skins enough, put the stuffing into basins, and boil it covered with floured cloths. Slice and fry it when used.--Another way is, to soak all night a quart of bruised grits in as much boiling-hot milk as will swell them, and leave half a pint of liquid. Chop a quant.i.ty of pennyroyal, savoury and thyme; add salt and pepper, and allspice finely powdered. Mix the above with a quart of the blood, prepared as before directed; clean the skins thoroughly, half fill them with the stuffing, put in as much of the leaf fat of the pig as will make it pretty rich, and boil as before directed.
A small quant.i.ty of leeks finely shred and well mixed, is a great improvement.--A superior article may be made as follows: boil a quart of half-grits in as much milk as will swell them to the utmost, drain them and add a quart of blood, a pint of rich cream, a pound of suet, some mace, nutmeg, allspice, and four cloves, all in fine powder. And two pounds of hog"s leaf cut into dice, two leeks, a handful of parsley, ten leaves of sage, a large handful of pennyroyal, and a sprig of thyme and knotted marjoram, all finely minced; eight eggs well beaten, half a pound of bread crumbs scalded in a pint of milk, with pepper and salt.
Soak and clean the skins in several waters, last of all in rose-water, and half fill them with the stuffing. Tie the skins in links, boil and p.r.i.c.k them with a clean fork, to prevent their breaking, and cover them with a clean cloth till cold.
BLACKBERRY JAM. Put some red, but not ripe, blackberries into a jar, and cover it up closely. Set the jar in a kettle or deep stewpan of water over the fire, as a water bath; and when it has simmered five or six hours, force the juice through a sieve. To every pint of juice, add two pounds of powdered loaf-sugar, boiling and sc.u.mming it in the same manner as for any other jam or jelly. This simple article is said to afford effectual relief in cases of stone or gravel: a tea-spoonful to be taken every night, and repeated in the morning, if necessary. A good jam may also be made of ripe blackberries, in a similar manner; and both, like other jams, should be kept in jars, closely tied over with brandy paper.
BLACKBERRY WINE. Pick and clean a quant.i.ty of ripe blackberries; to every quart of fruit, add a quart of cold water which has first been boiled. Bruise them well, and let the whole stand twenty-four hours, stirring it occasionally during that time. Express all the juice and run it through a sieve or jelly bag, on a pound and a half of sugar to each gallon of liquid. Stir it till thoroughly dissolved, put it in a well seasoned barrel, add a little dissolved isingla.s.s, and let it remain open till the next day; then bung it up. This makes a pleasant wine, which may be bottled off in about two months.
BLACKING for shoes is made of four ounces of ivory black, three ounces of the coa.r.s.est sugar, a table-spoonful of sweet oil, and a pint of small beer, gradually mixed together cold.
BLACKING b.a.l.l.s. Portable shoe-blacking, in the form of cakes or b.a.l.l.s, is made in the following manner. Take four ounces of mutton suet, one ounce of bees-wax, one of sweet oil, and a dram each of powdered sugar-candy and gum-arabac. Melt them well together over a slow fire; add a spoonful of turpentine, and lamp-black sufficient to give it a good black colour. While hot enough to run, make the composition into a ball, by pouring it into a tin mould; or let it stand till nearly cold, and then it may be moulded into any form by the hand.
BLADE-BONE OF PORK. Cut it from the bacon-hog, with a small quant.i.ty of meat upon it, and lay it on the gridiron. When nearly done pepper and salt it. Add a piece of b.u.t.ter, and a tea-spoonful of mustard; and serve it up quickly. This dish is much admired in Somersetshire. A blade-bone of mutton may be dressed in the same way.
BLAMANGE. Boil two ounces of isingla.s.s half an hour, in a pint and half of water, and strain off the cream. Sweeten it, and add some peach water, or a few bitter almonds; let it boil up once, and put it into what forms you please. Be sure to let the blamange settle before you turn it into the forms, or the blacks will remain at the bottom of them, and be on the top of the blamange when taken out of the moulds. If not to be very stiff, a little less isingla.s.s will do.--For Yellow Blamange, pour a pint of boiling water upon an ounce of isingla.s.s, and the peel of one lemon. When cold, sweeten with two ounces of fine sugar: add a quarter of a pint of white wine, the yolks of four eggs, and the juice of one lemon. Stir all together, and let it boil five minutes: strain through a bag, and put into cups.
BLANKETS, if not in constant use, are liable to be moth-eaten. To prevent this, they should be folded and laid under feather beds that are in use, and occasionally shaken. When soiled, they should be washed, not scoured: and well dried before they are laid by, or they will breed moths.
BLEACHING OF STRAW. This is generally done by the fumes of sulphur, in a place enclosed for that purpose: but to render the straw very white, and encrease its flexibility in platting, it should be dipped in a solution of oxygenated muriatic acid, saturated with potash. Oxygenated muriate of lime will also answer the purpose. To repair straw bonnets, they must be carefully ripped to pieces; the plat should be bleached with the above solution, and made up afresh.
BLUE INK. Dissolve an ounce of finely powdered verdigris, and half an ounce of cream of tartar, in three ounces of water. This will make a fine blue writing ink, which has the singular property of giving to an iron nail, immersed in it for twenty-four hours, a beautiful green colour.
BOARDED FLOORS will preserve a beautiful appearance, if treated in the following manner. After washing them very clean with soda and warm water, and a brush, wash them with a large sponge and clean water, observing that no spot be left untouched. Be careful to clean straight up and down, not crossing from board to board: then dry with clean cloths, rubbing hard up and down 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. If oil or grease have stained the floor, make a strong lye of pearl-ashes and soft water, and add as much unslaked lime as it will take up. Stir it together, and then let it settle a few minutes; bottle it, and stop it close. When used, lower it with a little water, and scour the part with it. If the liquor lie long on the boards, it will extract their colour; it must therefore be done with care and expedition. Stone work may be freed from stains in the same way.
BOCKINGS. Mix three ounces of buck-wheat flour with a tea-cupful of warm milk, and a spoonful of yeast. Let it rise before the fire about an hour; then mix four eggs well beaten, and as much milk as will make the batter the usual thickness for pancakes, and fry them in the same manner.
BOILING. Cleanliness here is of great consequence; and for this purpose all culinary vessels should be made of iron, or of other metals well tinned. The pernicious effects of copper or bra.s.s may be perceived by rubbing the hand round the inside of a pot or kettle made of either of those metals, and which has been scoured clean and fit for use; for though it may not discolour the hand, yet it will cause an offensive smell, and must in some degree affect every article which is put into it. If copper or bra.s.s be used, they should be well cleaned, and nothing suffered to remain in the vessels longer than is necessary for the purposes of cooking. In small families however, block-tin saucepans and boilers are much to be preferred, as lightest and safest. If proper care be taken of them, and they are well dried after being cleaned, they are also by far the cheapest; the purchase of a new tin saucepan being little more than the expense of tinning a copper one. Care should be taken to have the covers of boiling pots fit close, not only to prevent an unnecessary evaporation of the water, but that the smoke may not insinuate itself under the edge of the lid, and give the meat a bad taste. A trivet or fish drainer placed in the boiler to lay the meat on, and to raise it an inch and a half from the bottom, will prevent that side of it which comes next the bottom from being done too much, and the lower part of the meat will be as delicately done as any other. Instead of a trivet, four skewers stuck into the meat transversely will answer the purpose, or a soup plate whelmed the wrong side upwards. With good management it will take less fire for boiling than for roasting, but it should be kept to a regular pitch, so as to keep the pot gently boiling all the time. If it boils too fast, it will harden the meat, by extracting too much of the gravy; but if it be allowed to simmer only, or to boil gently, it will become rich and tender. The sc.u.m must be carefully taken off as soon as the water boils, or it will sink and discolour the meat. The oftener it is sc.u.mmed, and the cleaner the top of the water is kept, the cleaner will be the meat; and if a little cold water be occasionally thrown in, it will bring up the remainder of the sc.u.m to the surface. Neither mixing milk with the water nor wrapping up the meat in a cloth are necessary, if the sc.u.m be attentively removed; and the meat will have a more delicate colour, and a finer flavour, if boiled in clear water only. The general rule for boiling is to allow a quarter of an hour to a pound of meat; but if it be boiled gently or simmered only, which is by far the superior way, twenty minutes to the pound will scarcely be found too much. At the same time care must be taken to keep the pot constantly boiling, and not to suffer the meat to remain in after it is done enough, or it will become sodden, and lose its flavour. The quant.i.ty of water is regulated by the size of the meat; sufficient to cover it, but not to drown it; and the less water, the more savoury will the meat be, and the better the broth. It is usual to put all kinds of fresh meat into hot water, and salt meat into cold water; but if the meat has been salted only a short time it is better to put it in when the water boils, or it will draw out too much of the gravy. Lamb, veal, and pork require rather more boiling than other meat, to make them wholesome. The hind quarters of most animals require longer time to dress than the fore quarters, and all kinds of provision require more time in frosty weather than in summer. Large joints of beef and mutton are better a little underdone; they make the richer hash; but meat that is fresh slain will remain tough and hard, in whatever way it may be cooked. All meat should be washed clean before it is put into the boiler, but salt meat especially. A ham of twenty pounds will take four hours and a half in boiling, and others in proportion. A dried tongue, after being soaked, will take four hours boiling: a tongue out of pickle, from two hours and a half to three hours, or more if very large: it must be judged by its feeling quite tender. Boiling is in general the most economical mode of cooking, if care be taken to preserve the broth, and apply it to useful purposes.
BOILED BACON. Soak it, and take off the rind before boiling. A pound of bacon boiled without the skin will weigh an ounce heavier than a pound boiled with it. Fat bacon should be put into hot water, and lean into cold water, when it is to be dressed. Young bacon will boil in about three quarters of an hour. Grate some toasted bread over it, and set it near the fire to brown it a little, before it is sent to table.