Part 96 (1/2)
LEMONADE.
Three lemons to a pint of water makes strong lemonade; sweeten to your taste.
STRAWBERRY WATER.
Take one cupful of ripe hulled berries; crush with a wooden spoon, mixing with the ma.s.s a quarter of a pound of pulverized sugar and half a pint of cold water. Pour the mixture into a fine sieve, rub through and filter till clear; add the strained juice, of one lemon and one and a half pints of cold water, mix thoroughly and set in ice chest till wanted.
This makes a nice, cool drink on a warm day and easily to be made in strawberry season.
STRAWBERRY AND RASPBERRY SYRUP.
Mash the fresh fruit, express the juice and to each quart add three and a half pounds of granulated sugar. The juice, heated to 180 Fahrenheit, and strained or filtered previous to dissolving the sugar, will keep for an indefinite time, canned hot in gla.s.s jars.
The juice of soft fruits is best when allowed to drop therefrom by its own weight; lightly mash the fruit and then suspend in a cloth, allowing the juice to drop in a vessel beneath. Many housekeepers, after the bottles and jars are thoroughly washed and dried, smoke them with sulphur in this way: Take a piece of wire and bend it around a small piece of brimstone the size of a bean; set the brimstone on fire, put it in the jar or bottle, bending the other end over the mouth of the vessel, and cover with a cork; after the brimstone has burned away, fill the vessel with the syrup or preserves and cover tightly. There is no sulphurous taste left by the process.
KOUMISS.
Koumiss is prepared by dissolving four ounces of white sugar in one gallon of skimmed milk, and placing in bottles of the capacity of one quart; add two ounces of baker's yeast or a cake of compressed yeast to each bottle. Cork and tie securely, set in a warm place until fermentation is well under way, and lay the bottles on their sides in a cool cellar. In three days, fermentation will have progressed sufficiently to permit the koumiss to be in good condition.
PINEAPPLE VINEGAR.
Cover sliced pineapples with pure cider vinegar; let them stand three or four days, then mash and strain through a cloth as long as it runs clear; to every three quarts of juice add five pounds of sugar.
Boil it altogether about ten minutes, skim carefully until nothing rises to the surface, take from the fire; when cool, bottle it.
Blackberries and raspberries, and, in fact, any kind of highly flavored fruit, is fine; a tablespoonful in a gla.s.s of ice-cold water, to drink in warm weather.
RASPBERRY VINEGAR. No. 1.
Put a quart of raspberries into a suitable dish, pour over them a quart of good vinegar, let it stand twenty-four hours, then strain through a flannel bag and pour this liquor on another quart of berries; do this for three or four days successively and strain it; make it very sweet with loaf sugar; bottle and seal it.
RASPBERRY VINEGAR. NO. 2.
Turn over a quart or ripe raspberries, mashed, a quart of good cider vinegar, add one pound of white sugar, mix well, then let stand in the sun four hours. Strain it, squeeze out the juice and put in a pint of good brandy. Seal it up in bottles, air-tight, and lay them on their sides in the cellar; cover them with sawdust. When used, pour two tablespoonfuls to a tumblerful of ice-water. Fine.
HOME-MADE TABLE VINEGAR.
Put in an open cask four gallons of warm rain-water, one gallon of common mola.s.ses and two quarts of yeast; cover the top with thin muslin and leave it in the sun, covering it up at night and when it rains. In three or four weeks it will be good vinegar. If cider can be used in place of rain-water the vinegar will make much sooner--will not take over a week to make a very sharp vinegar. Excellent for pickling purposes.
VERY STRONG TABLE VINEGAR.
Take two gallons of good cider and thoroughly mix it with two pounds of new honey, pour into your cask or bottle and let it stand from four to six months, when you will have vinegar so strong that it cannot be used at table without diluting with water. It is the best ever procured for pickling purposes.
PINEAPPLE-ADE.