The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary Part 6

BOILED BEEF. When the water boils put in the meat, whether beef or mutton, and take off the sc.u.m as it rises. If the sc.u.m be suffered to sink, it will stick to the meat, and spoil its colour. Turnips, greens, potatoes, or carrots with the beef, and caper sauce with the mutton.

BOILED CUSTARD. Set a pint of cream over a slow fire, adding two ounces of sugar, and the rind of a lemon. Take it off the fire as soon as it begins to simmer; as the cream cools, add by degrees the yolks of eight eggs well beaten, with a spoonful of orange water. Stir it carefully over a slow fire till it almost boils, and strain it quickly through a piece of thin muslin. Put it into cups, and serve it up cold.

BOILED DUCK. Choose a fine fat duck, salt it two days, and boil it slowly in a cloth. Serve it with onion sauce, but melt the b.u.t.ter with milk instead of water.

BOILED EELS. The small ones are best, provided they are bright, and of a good colour. After they are skinned, boil them in a small quant.i.ty of water, with a quant.i.ty of parsley, which with the liquor should be sent to table with them. Serve chopped parsley and b.u.t.ter for sauce.

BOILED FOWL. For boiling, choose those that are not black-legged. Pick them nicely, singe, wash, and truss them. Flour them, and put them into boiling water: half an hour will be sufficient for one of middling size.

Serve with parsley and b.u.t.ter; oyster, lemon, liver, or celery sauce. If for dinner, ham, tongue or bacon is usually served with them, and also greens.--When cooked with rice, stew the fowl very slowly in some clear mutton broth well skimmed, and seasoned with onion, mace, pepper and salt. About half an hour before it is ready, put in a quarter of a pint of rice well washed and soaked. Simmer it till it is quite tender, strain it from the broth, and put the rice on a sieve before the fire.

Keep the fowl hot, lay it in the middle of the dish, and the rice round it without the broth. The broth will be nice by itself, but the less liquor the fowl is done with the better. Gravy, or parsley and b.u.t.ter, for sauce.

BOILED HAM. Soak the ham in cold water the night before it is to be dressed, sc.r.a.pe it clean, and put it into the boiler with cold water.

Skim the liquor while boiling; let it not boil fast, but simmer only, and add a little cold water occasionally for this purpose. When the ham is done, take it up, pull off the skin carefully, and grate a crust of bread over it so as to cover it tolerably thick. Set it before the fire, or put it into the oven till the bread is crisp; garnish it with carrots, or any thing that is in season. A ham of twenty pounds will require five hours boiling, and others in proportion.

BOILED LEG OF PORK. Salt it eight or ten days; and when it is to be dressed, weigh it. Let it lie half an hour in cold water to make it white: allow a quarter of an hour for every pound, and half an hour over, from the time it boils up. Skim it as soon as it boils, and frequently after. Allow plenty of water, and save some of it for peas-soup. The leg should be small, and of a fine grain; and if boiled in a floured cloth, it will improve the colour and appearance. Serve it with peas-pudding and turnips.

BOILED SALMON. Clean it carefully, boil it gently, and take it out of the water as soon as done. Let the water be warm, if the fish be split: if underdone, it is very unwholesome. Serve with shrimp or anchovy sauce.

BOILED TURBOT. The turbot kettle must be of a proper size, and in good order. Set the fish in cold water sufficient to cover it completely, throw a handful of salt and a gla.s.s of vinegar into it, and let it gradually boil. Be very careful that no blacks fall into it; but skim it well, and preserve the beautiful colour of the fish. Serve it garnished with a complete fringe of curled parsley, lemon and horse-radish. The sauce must be the finest lobster, anchovy and b.u.t.ter, and plain b.u.t.ter, served plentifully in separate tureens.--If necessary, turbot will keep two or three days, and be in as high perfection as at first, if lightly rubbed over with salt, and carefully hung in a cold place.

BOILED TURKEY. A turkey will neither boil white nor eat tender, unless it has been killed three or four days. Pick it clean, draw it at the rump, cut off the legs, stick the end of the thighs into the body, and tie them fast. Flour the turkey, put it into the water while cold, let it boil gently half an hour or more, take off the sc.u.m, and cover the kettle close. Make the stuffing of grated bread and lemon peel, four ounces of shred suet, a few chopped oysters, two eggs, and a little cream. Fill the craw with stuffing, and make the rest into b.a.l.l.s, which are to be boiled and laid round the dish. The stuffing may be made without oysters; or force-meat or sausage may be used, mixed with crumbs of bread and yolks of eggs. Celery sauce or white sauce is very proper.

BOILED VEAL. Dredge it with flour, tie it up in a cloth, and put it in when the water boils. A knuckle requires more boiling in proportion to its weight, than any other joint, to render the gristle soft and tender.

Parsley and b.u.t.ter, bacon and greens, are commonly eaten with it.

BOILERS. Copper boilers and saucepans are apt to become leaky, when they have been joined or mended, or from bruises, which sometimes render them unfit for use. In this case a cement of pounded quicklime, mixed with ox's blood, applied fresh to the injured part, will be of great advantage, and very durable. A valuable cement for such purposes may also be made of equal parts of vinegar and milk mixed together so as to produce a curd: the whey is then put to the whites of four or five eggs after they have been well beaten, and the whole reduced to a thick paste by the addition of some quicklime finely sifted. This composition applied to cracks or fissures of any kind, and properly dried, will resist the effects of fire and water.

BOLOGNA SAUSAGES. Cut into small pieces four pounds of lean beef, and add to it a pound of diced suet, with the same quant.i.ty of diced bacon.

Season with allspice, pepper, bay salt, saltpetre, and a little powder of bay leaves. Mix the whole together, tie the meat up in skins about the thickness of the wrist, dry the sausages in the same manner as tongues, and eat them without boiling.

BOLOGNA SOUP. Bind close with packthread, fifteen pounds of brisket of beef, and put it into a pot with water sufficient to cover it. Then add three large carrots, some good turnips, four onions, a bunch of sweet herbs, and half a white cabbage sliced and fried in b.u.t.ter. The pot must be well sc.u.mmed before the herbs are put in. It must boil very slowly for five or six hours; and when half boiled, prepare three or four pounds of loin of mutton, with all the fat taken off, and put it into the pot. Flavour the soup with whole pepper, and a head of celery; and to make it of a good colour, draw the gravy from a pound of lean beef over a slow fire, and add a ladleful to the soup, first carefully taking off all the fat. Having cut and dried the crust of a French roll, lay it in a stewpan with a little soup; and after stewing it over a slow fire, place it with a slice in the soup tureen. The beef must be untied, and served up with chopped parsley strewed over it; accompanied also with gravy sauce, a few capers, and some chopped carrots, thickened with the yolk of an egg. Add a little seasoning to the soup.

BOOTS. Persons who travel much, or are often exposed to the weather, must be sensible of the importance of being provided with boots that will resist the wet. The following is a composition for preserving leather, the good effects of which are sufficiently ascertained. One pint of drying oil, two ounces of yellow wax, two ounces of spirit of turpentine, and half an ounce of Burgundy pitch, should be carefully melted together over a slow fire. With this mixture, new shoes and boots are to be rubbed in the sun, or at some distance from the fire, with a sponge or brush. The operation is to be repeated as often as they become dry, and until they are fully saturated. In this manner the leather becomes impervious to the wet: the boots or shoes last much longer than those of common leather, acquire such softness and pliability that they never shrivel or grow hard, and in that state are the most effectual preservation against wet and cold. It is necessary to observe, however, that boots or shoes thus prepared ought not to be worn till they become perfectly dry and flexible: otherwise the leather will be too soft, and the boots unserviceable.

BOOT TOPS. Many of the compositions sold for the purpose of cleaning and restoring the colour of boot tops, are not found to answer, and are often injurious to the leather. A safe and easy preparation is made of a quart of boiled milk, which, when cold, is to be mixed with an ounce of the oil of vitriol, and an ounce of the spirit of salts, shaken well together. An ounce of red lavender is then to be added, and the liquid applied to the leather with a sponge. Or, mix a dram of oxymuriate of potash with two ounces of distilled water; and when the salt is dissolved, add two ounces of muriatic acid. Shake together in another vial, three ounces of rectified spirits of wine, with half an ounce of the essential oil of lemon, and unite the contents of the two vials, keeping the liquid closely corked for use. It is to be applied with a clean sponge, and dried gently; after which the tops may be polished with a proper brush, so as to appear like new leather. This mixture will readily take out grease, or any kind of spots, from leather or parchment.

BOTTLES. The common practice of cleaning gla.s.s bottles with shot is highly improper; for if through inattention any of it should remain, when the bottles are again filled with wine or cider, the lead will be dissolved, and the liquor impregnated with its pernicious qualities. A few ounces of potash dissolved in water will answer the purpose much better, and clean a great number of bottles. If any impurity adhere to the sides, a few pieces of blotting paper put into the bottle, and shaken with the water, will very soon remove it. Another way is to roll up some pieces of blotting paper, steep them in soap and water, then put them into bottles or decanters with a little warm water, and shake them well for a few minutes: after this they will only require to be rinsed and dried.

BOTTLING LIQUORS. Here the first thing to be attended to is, to see that the bottles be perfectly clean and dry; if wet, they will spoil the liquor, and make it turn mouldy. Then, though the bottles should be clean and dry, yet if the corks be not new and sound, the liquor will be damaged; for if the air can by any means penetrate, the liquor will grow flat, and never rise. As soon as a cask of liquor begins to grow vapid, and to lose its briskness, while it is on the tap, it should be drawn off immediately into bottles; and in order to quicken it, put a piece of loaf sugar into every bottle, about the size of a walnut. To forward the ripening, wrap the bottles in hay, and set them in a warm place; straw will not answer the purpose. When ale is to be bottled, it will be an improvement to add a little rice, a few raisins, or a tea-spoonful of moist sugar to each bottle. In the summer time, if table beer is bottled as soon as it has done working, it will soon become brisk, and make a very pleasant and refres.h.i.+ng drink.

BOTTLED CURRANTS. See that the bottles be perfectly clean and dry, and let the fruit be gathered quite ripe, and when the weather is dry. The currants should be cut from the large stalks, with the smallest bit of stalk to each, and care taken not to wound the fruit, that none of the moisture may escape. It would be best indeed to cut them under the trees, and let them drop gently into the bottles. Stop up the bottles with cork and rosin, and trench them in the garden with the neck downwards: sticks should be placed opposite to where each sort of fruit begins. Cherries and damsons may be kept in the same way.

BOTTLED GOOSEBERRIES. Pick some smooth gooseberries before they are quite full grown, put them into gooseberry bottles lightly corked, and set them up to their necks in a copper of cold water. Put a little hay round the bottles to prevent their breaking, make a fire under them, and let the heat increase gradually; let them simmer ten minutes, but not boil. Take out the fire, and let them remain in the copper till cold.

Then take them out, dry the bottles, rosin down the corks close, and set them in dry saw-dust with their necks downward.

BRAISING. To braise any kind of meat, put it into a stewpan, and cover it with fat bacon. Then add six or eight onions, a bundle of herbs, carrots, celery, any bones or tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of meat or fowls, and some stock. The bacon must be covered with white paper, and the lid of the pan must be kept close. Set it on a slow stove; and according to what the meat is, it will require two or three hours. The meat is then to be taken out, the gravy nicely skimmed, and set on to boil very quick till it is thick. The meat is to be kept hot; and if larded, put into the oven for a few minutes. Then put the jelly over it, which is called glazing, and is used for ham, tongue, and various made-dishes. White wine is added to some glazing. The glaze should be of beautiful clear yellow brown, and it is best put on with a nice brush.

BRAISED CHICKENS. Bone them, and fill them with forcemeat. Lay the bones and any other poultry tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs into a stewpan, and the chickens on them. Put to them a few onions, a handful of herbs, three blades of mace, a pint of stock, and a gla.s.s or two of sherry. Cover the chickens with slices of bacon, and then white paper; cover the whole close, and put them on a slow stove for two hours. Then take them up, strain the braise, and skim off the fat carefully: set it on to boil very quick to a glaze, and lay it over the chicken with a brush. Before glazing, put the chicken into an oven for a few minutes, to give it a colour. Serve with a brown frica.s.see of mushrooms.

BRAISED MUTTON. Take off the chump end of a loin of mutton, cover it with b.u.t.tered paper, and then with paste, as for venison. Roast it two hours, but let it not be browned. Have ready some French beans boiled, and drained on a sieve; and while you are glazing the mutton, give the beans one heat-up in gravy, and lay them on the dish with the meat over them.

BRAISED VEAL. Lard the best end of a neck of veal with bacon rolled in chopped parsley, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Put it into a t.o.s.s.e.r, and cover it with water. Add the scrag end of the neck, a little lean bacon or ham, an onion, two carrots, two heads of celery, and a gla.s.s of Madeira. Stew it quickly for two hours, or till it is tender, but not too much. Strain off the liquor: mix a little flour and b.u.t.ter in a stewpan till brown, and lay the veal in this, the upperside to the bottom of the pan. Let it be over the fire till it gets coloured: then lay it into the dish, stir some of the liquor in and boil it up, skim it nicely, and squeeze orange and lemon juice into it.

BRANDY CREAM. Boil two dozen of blanched almonds, and pounded bitter almonds, in a little milk. When cold, add to it the yolks of five eggs beating well in cream; sweeten, and put to it two gla.s.ses of good brandy. After it is well mixed, pour to it a quart of thin cream; set it over the fire, but not to boil. Stir it one way till it thickens, then pour into cups or low gla.s.ses, and when cold it will be ready. A ratafia drop may be added to each cup; and if intended to keep, the cream must be previously scalded.

BRANDY PUDDING. Line a mould with jar-raisins stoned, or dried cherries, then with thin slices of French roll; next to which put ratafias, or macaroons; then the fruit, rolls and cakes in succession, till the mould is full, sprinkling in at times two gla.s.ses of brandy. Beat four eggs, add a pint of milk or cream lightly sweetened, half a nutmeg, and the rind of half a lemon finely grated. Let the liquid sink into the solid part; then flour a cloth, tie it tight over, and boil one hour; keep the mould the right side up. Serve with pudding sauce.

BRa.s.s. Culinary vessels made of this metal, are constantly in danger of contracting verdigris. To prevent this, instead of wiping them dry in the usual manner, let them be frequently immersed in water, and they will be preserved safe and clean.

BRAWN. Young brawn is to be preferred, the h.o.r.n.y part of which will feel moderately tender, and the flavour will be better; the rind of old brawn will be hard. For Mock Brawn, boil a pair of neat's feet very tender; take the meat off, and have ready a belly-piece of salt pork, which has been in pickle for a week. Boil this almost enough, take out the bones if there be any, and roll the feet and the pork together. Bind it tight together with a strong cloth and coa.r.s.e tape, boil it quite tender, and hang it up in the cloth till cold. Keep it afterwards in souse till it is wanted.

BREAD. Two very important reasons urge the propriety and necessity of using home-baked bread, in preference to baker's bread, wherever it can be done with tolerable convenience; these are, its superior quality, and its cheapness. A bushel of wheat, weighing sixty pounds, will make sixty-five pounds of household bread, after the bran has been taken out; and if the pollard be separated also, to make a finer article, a bushel of ground wheat will then make fifty-eight pounds of fine white bread, free from any foreign mixture, leaving from ten to fifteen pounds of bran and pollard, which may be applied to useful purposes. The calculation then will be easy, and the difference between purchasing and making bread will be seen at once. A bushel of ground wheat weighing sixty pounds will produce thirteen quartern loaves and a half of fine bread, after the bran and pollard have been taken out; add to the price of the wheat, nine-pence a bushel for grinding, three-pence for yeast, four-pence for salt and the expence of baking; and from this deduct six-pence at least for the value of the bran and pollard, and it gives the price of the quartern loaves made and baked at home. In general it will be found that there is a saving of one third of the expense, if the business be properly conducted. Then the wholesome and nutricious quality of the bread is incomparably superior; there is no addition of alum, ground potatoes, whiting, or any other ingredient to give weight or colour to the bread, as is too often the case with baker's bread; but all is nutricious, sound, and good. But supposing their bread to be equal in quality, there is still a considerable saving in the course of a year, especially in a large family; and if household bread be made instead of fine bread, every bushel of good heavy wheat will produce nearly fifteen quartern loaves. Besides this, rye, and even a little barley mixed with the wheat, will make very good bread, and render it cheaper still. Rye will add a sweetness to the bread, and make it cut firmer, so as to prevent the waste of crumbs, and is unquestionably an article of good economy. The addition of potatoes is by no means to be approved, though so often recommended; any of the grains already mentioned have in them ten times the nutrition of potatoes, and in the end will be found to be much cheaper. Making bread with skim milk, instead of water, where it can be done, is highly advantageous, and will produce a much better article than can be purchased at a baker's shop.--On the subject of making bread, little need be said, as every common maid-servant is or ought to be well acquainted with this necessary part of household work, or she is good for nothing. To make good bread however, the flour should be kept four or five weeks before it is baked. Then put half a bushel of it into a kneading trough, mix with it between four and five quarts of warm water or skim milk, and a pint and a half of good yeast, and stir it well together with the hand till it become tough. Let it rise before the fire, about an hour and a half, or less if it rise fast; then, before it falls, add four quarts more of warm water, and half a pound of salt. Work it well, and cover it with a cloth. Put the fire into the oven; and by the time it is heated, the dough will be ready. Make the loaves about five pounds each, sweep out the oven very clean and quick, and put in the bread; shut it up close, and two hours and a half will bake it. In summer the water should be milk warm, in winter a little more, and in frosty weather as hot as the hand will bear, but not scalding, or the whole will be spoiled.

Bread is better baked without tins, which gives to the crust an unnatural degree of hardness.--Those who are under the necessity of purchasing baker's bread, for want of other convenience, may detect the adulteration of alum by macerating a small piece of the crumb of new-baked bread in cold water, sufficient to dissolve it; and the taste of the alum, if it has been used, will acquire a sweet astringency. Or a heated knife may be thrust into a loaf before it has grown cold; and if it be free from that ingredient, scarcely any alteration will be visible on the blade; but, in the contrary case, its surface, after being allowed to cool, will appear slightly covered with an aluminous incrustation.

BREAD CAKE. To make a common bread cake, separate from the dough, when making white bread, as much as is sufficient for a quartern loaf, and knead well into it two ounces of b.u.t.ter, two of Lisbon sugar, and eight of currants. Warm the b.u.t.ter in a tea-cupful of good milk. By adding another ounce of b.u.t.ter or sugar, or an egg or two, the cake may be improved, especially by putting in a tea-cupful of raw cream. It is best to bake it in a pan, rather than as a loaf, the outside being less hard.

BREAD CHEESECAKES. Slice a penny white loaf as thin as possible, pour over it a pint of boiling cream, and let it stand two hours. Beat up eight eggs, half a pound of b.u.t.ter, and a grated nutmeg. Put in half a pound of currants, well washed and dried, and a spoonful of brandy or white wine. Bake them in pattipans, or raised crusts.