Part 32 (1/2)

Cut the cabbage into shavings as for cold slaw; (red cabbage is best;) and put it into a deep earthen dish. Cover it closely, and set it on the top of a stove, or in a slack oven for half an hour till it is warm all through; but do not let it get so heated as to boil. Then make a mixture as for cold slaw, of a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter, half a pint of water, a little salt and cayenne, and add to it a clove of garlic minced fine. Boil this mixture in a sauce-pan, and pour it hot over the warm cabbage. Send it to table immediately.

This is a French method of dressing cabbage.

EAST INDIA PICKLE.

This is a mixture of various things pickled together, and put into the same jar.

Have ready a small white cabbage, sliced, and the stalk removed; a cauliflower cut into neat branches, leaving out the large stalk; sliced cuc.u.mbers; sliced carrots; sliced beets, (all nicked round the edges;) b.u.t.ton-onions; string-beans; radish pods; barberries; cherries; green grapes; nasturtians; capsic.u.ms; bell-peppers, &c.

Sprinkle all these things with salt, put them promiscuously into a large earthen pan, and pour scalding salt and water over them. Let them lie in the brine for four days, turning them all over every day. Then take them out, wash each thing separately in vinegar, and wipe them carefully in a cloth. Afterwards lay them on sieves before the fire and dry them thoroughly.

For the pickle liquor.--To every two quarts of the best vinegar, put an ounce and a half of white ginger root, sc.r.a.ped and sliced; the same of long pepper; two ounces of peeled shalots, or little b.u.t.ton-onions, cut in pieces; half an ounce of peeled garlic; an ounce of-turmeric; and two ounces of mustard seed bruised, or of mustard powder. Let all these ingredients, mixed with the vinegar, infuse in a close jar for a week, setting in a warm place, or by the fire. Then (after the vegetables have been properly prepared, and dried from the brine) put them all into one large stone jar, or into smaller jars, and strain the pickle over them. The liquid must be in a large quant.i.ty, so as to keep the vegetables well covered with it, or they will spoil. Put a table-spoonful of sweet oil on the top of each jar, and secure them well with a large cork and a leather.

If you find that after awhile the vegetables have absorbed the liquor, so that there is danger of their not having a sufficiency, prepare some more seasoned vinegar and pour it over them.

East India pickle is very convenient, and will keep two years. As different vegetables come into season, you can prepare them with the salt and water process, and add them to the things already in the jar. You may put small mangoes into this pickle; also plums, peaches and apricots.

TO PICKLE OYSTERS FOR KEEPING.

For this purpose take none but the finest and largest oysters.

After they are opened, separate them from their liquor, and put them into a bucket or a large pan, and pour boiling water upon them to take out the slime. Stir them about in it, and then take them out, and rinse them well in cold water. Then put them into a large kettle with fresh water, barely enough to cover them, (mixing with it a table-spoonful of salt to every hundred oysters,) and give them a boil up, just sufficient to plump them.

Take them, out, spread them on large dishes or on a clean table, and cover them with a cloth. Take the liquor of the oysters, and with every pint of it mix a quart of the best vinegar, a table-spoonful of salt, a table-spoonful of whole cloves, the same of whole black pepper, and a tea-spoonful of whole mace. Put the liquid over the fire in a kettle, and when it boils throw in the oysters, and let them remain in it five minutes. Then take the whole off the fire, stir it up well, and let it stand to get quite cold. Afterwards (if you have a large quant.i.ty) put it into a keg, which must first be well scalded, (a new keg is best,) and fill it as full as it can hold. Do not put a weight on the oysters to keep them down in the liquor, as it will crush them to pieces if the keg should be moved or conveyed to a distance. If you have not enough to fill a keg, put them into stone jars when they are perfectly cold, and cover them securely.

SWEETMEATS.

GENERAL REMARKS.

The introduction of iron ware lined with porcelain has fortunately almost superseded the use of bra.s.s or bell-metal kettles for boiling sweetmeats; a practice by which the articles prepared in those pernicious utensils were always more or less imbued with the deleterious qualities of the verdigris that is produced in them by the action of acids.

Charcoal furnaces will be found very convenient for preserving; the kettles being set on the top. They can be used in the open air. Sweetmeats should be boiled rather quickly, that the watery particles may exhale at once, without being subjected to so long a process as to spoil the colour and diminish the flavour of the fruit. But on the other hand, if boiled too short a time they will not keep so well.

If you wish your sweetmeats to look bright and clear, use only the very best loaf-sugar. Fruit may be preserved for family use and for common purposes, in sugar of inferior quality, but it will never have a good appearance, and it is also more liable to spoil.

If too small a proportion of sugar is allowed to the fruit, it will _certainly_ not keep well. When this experiment is tried it is generally found to be false economy; as sweetmeats, when they begin to spoil, can only be recovered and made eatable by boiling them over again with additional sugar; and even then, they are never so good as if done properly at first. If jellies have not sufficient sugar, they do not congeal, but will remain liquid.

Jelly bags should be made of white flannel. It is well to have a wooden stand or frame like a towel horse, to which the bag can be tied while it is dripping. The bag should first be dipped in hot water, for if dry it will absorb too much of the juice. After the liquor is all in, close the top of the bag, that none of the flavour may evaporate.

In putting away sweetmeats, it is best to place them in small jars, as the more frequently they are exposed to the air by opening the more danger there is of their spoiling. The best vessels for this purpose are white queen's-ware pots, or gla.s.s jars. For jellies, jams, and for small fruit, common gla.s.s tumblers are very convenient, and may be covered simply with double tissue-paper, cut exactly to fit the inside of the top of the gla.s.s, laid lightly on the sweetmeat, and pressed down all round with the finger. This covering, if closely and nicely fitted, will be found to keep them perfectly well, and as it adheres so closely as to form a complete coat over the top, it is better for jellies or jams than writing-paper dipped in brandy, which is always somewhat shrivelled by the liquor with which it has been saturated.

If you find that your sweetmeats have become dry and candied, you may liquefy them again by setting the jars in water and making it boil round them.

In preserving fruit whole, it is best to put it first in a thin syrup. If boiled in a thick syrup at the beginning, the juice will be drawn out so as to shrink the fruit.

It is better to boil it but a short time at once, and then to take it out and let it get cold, afterwards returning it to the syrup, than to keep it boiling; too long at a time, which will cause it to break and lose its shape.

Preserving kettles should be rather broad than deep, for the fruit cannot be done equally if it is too much heaped. They should all have covers belonging to them, to put on after the sc.u.m has done rising that the flavour of the fruit may be kept in with the steam.

A perforated skimmer pierced all through with holes is a very necessary utensil in making sweetmeats.