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 isinglass, 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 passing 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 isinglass nor white of egg.
CHOCOLATE.
Never boil chocolate in milk, as that spoils the flavor; and do not scrape 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 glass.
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 glasses 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-glassful), and mix it well with a wooden spoon. Do not use it in less than twenty-four hours after it is mixed.
POTATO FLOUR.
Potato flour is excellent for sponge-cake, and other things which require extraordinary lightness. It is also good for young children, and for convalescent sick persons.
Take the best and most mealy potatoes; pare them, and wash them through several waters. Then rasp or grate them over a tureen half full of cold water. Continue to grate the potatoes till the lower half of the tureen is filled with the pulp, so that the water may rise to the top. The mealy part of the potatoes will sink to the bottom, while the remainder or the useless part will rise to the surface. When nothing more rises, pour off the water carefully, and dry the flour which you find at the bottom. When quite dry, pound it in a mortar to a fine powder, and sift it through a sieve.
Potato flour is much lighter than that of wheat.
COLD PICKLES.
Season some of the best vinegar with a little garlic, a little tarragon, and a little sweet-oil. Put it into a glass jar, and keep it well covered. You may throw into it the green seeds of nasturtians, morella cherries, little onions, small young carrots when but a finger long, radish pods, and various other things. Keep the jar well closed, and the pickles will be as good and keep as long as if they had been boiled.
Nasturtians and cherries will keep in plain vinegar without any seasoning.
CORNICHONS, OR FRENCH CUCUMBER PICKLES.
Take ten pounds of very small cucumbers. Brush them all over to clean them well, and cut off the stems. Put them into an earthen pan with two handfuls of salt. Let them rest twenty-four hours, and then drain them. When they are well drained, put them back into the same pan, and pour in a quantity of boiling hot white wine vinegar, sufficient to cover them. Then cover the pan carefully with a lid or dish, and let the cucumbers set in the vinegar twenty-four hours. They will then be yellow. Pour the vinegar from them, and cover them with vine-leaves. Boil the vinegar again, and when it boils throw it over the cucumbers, stirring them well.
When the vinegar is cold, pour it from the cucumbers, and boil it again. Then pour it over them, and proceed in this manner four or five times, till they become of a fine green. Keep them in the interval always covered with a layer of vine-leaves, fresh each time, and also with a cloth kept down by a large dish. This, by keeping in the steam, will assist them in greening.
Then drain them on a sieve, and put them into glass jars.
Afterwards, boil some fresh white wine vinegar, first mixing in it the following seasoning. To every quart of vinegar allow half an ounce of mace, half an ounce of sliced ginger, half an ounce of whole black pepper, six cloves, a few sprigs of tarragon, and half a clove of garlic.
Boil the vinegar with these ingredients for five minutes, and then pour it hot on the pickles. Tie them up carefully. They may be used in a week.
The generality of French pickles, are made in a manner similar to those of England and America.
FINE COLOGNE WATER.
Procure at an apothecary’s the following oils and have them all put into the same phial:—Oil of lemon, 2 drams; oil of rosemary, 2 drams; oil of lavender, 1 dram; oil of bergamot, 2 drams; oil of cinnamon, 10 drops; oil of cloves, 10 drops; oil of roses, 2 drops; tincture of musk, 8 drops.
Put 2 pint of highly rectified spirits of wine into a bottle, and pour the oils into it. Shake it hard for a few minutes, having corked it tightly. It will be fit for immediate use, but it improves by keeping.
If you wish it stronger, double the quantity of all the oils, but have only a pint of spirits of wine.
THE END.
Transcriber’sNote
The following typographical errors were corrected.
| Page | Error | Correction |
| v | Green Peas Soup ib | Green Peas Soup ib. |
| v | Garlic Butter ib | Garlic Butter ib. |
| vi | Hazlenut | Hazelnut |
| viii | French Cakes | French Paste |
| ix | Chocolate Drops ib | Chocolate Drops ib. |
| 16 | our pounds | four pounds |
| 21 | marmelade | marmalade |
| 31 | rolled in flour | rolled in flour, |
| 31 | en minutes | ten minutes |
| 32 | SIRLOIN OF BEEF | SIRLOIN OF BEEF. |
| 33 | hem round | them round |
| 34 | pen-knife, | pen-knife. |
| 67 | same manner | same manner. |
| 70 | of brandy | of brandy. |
| 73 | warm water | warm water. |
| 82 | Ham Omelet | Ham Omelet. |
| 92 | over its inside | over its inside. |
| 103 | sieve or cullender | sieve or cullender. |
| 110 | through the sieve, | through the sieve. |
The following words were inconsistently spelled or hyphenated.
bread-crumbs / breadcrumbs
sauce-pan / saucepan
sponge-cake / spunge-cake
spongy / spungy
sweet-herbs / sweet herbs
