The American Housewife Part 20

Rinse four ounces of sago thoroughly, then soak it in cold water half an hour--turn off the water, and put to it a pint and a half of fresh cold water. Let it soak in it half an hour, then set it where it will boil slowly, stirring it constantly--boil with it a stick of cinnamon. When of a thick consistency, add a gla.s.s of wine, and white sugar to the taste. Let it boil five minutes, then turn it into cups.

378. _Tapioca Jelly._

Take four table-spoonsful of tapioca--rinse it thoroughly, then soak it five hours, in cold water enough to cover it. Set a pint of cold water on the fire--when it boils, mash and stir up the tapioca that is in water, and mix it with the boiling water. Let the whole simmer gently, with a stick of cinnamon or mace. When thick and clear, mix a couple of table-spoonsful of white sugar, with half a table-spoonful of lemon-juice, and half a gla.s.s of white wine--stir it into the jelly--if not sweet enough, add more sugar, and turn the jelly into cups.

MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS RELATIVE TO HOUSEWIFERY.

379. _To renew Old Bread and Cake._

Fill a bread steamer about half full of water, and lay the dry bread on it, and set it on the fire, where it will steam the bread from half to three-quarters of an hour; then wrap the bread in a towel, and let it remain till dry. In this way, bread that is old and dry may be made moist and good. Where a steamer cannot be procured, soak the bread in cold water till it has absorbed sufficient water to be moist inside--then put it in a bake pan, without any cover, and heat it very hot. If broken pieces of bread are put in the oven, five or six hours after baking, and rusked, they will keep good a long time. Sour heavy bread, treated in this manner, will make very decent cakes and puddings, provided there is enough saleratus used in making them to correct the acidity of the bread. Rich cake, that has wine or brandy in it, will remain good in cold weather several months, if it is kept in a cool, dry place. The day in which it is to be eaten, put it in a cake pan, and set it in a bake pan that has half a pint of water in it--set on the bake-pan cover, and let the cake bake till it is heated very hot. Let it get cold before cutting it.

380. _To preserve Cheese from Insects._

Cover the cheese, while whole, with a paste made of wheat flour; then wrap a cloth round it, and cover it with the paste. Keep the cheese in a cool, dry place. Cheese that has skippers in it, if kept till cold weather, will be freed from them.

381. _To pot Cheese._

Cheese that has begun to mould, can be kept from becoming any more so, by being treated in the following manner: Cut off the mouldy part, and if the cheese is dry, grate it--if not, pound it fine in a mortar, together with the crust. To each pound of it, when fine, put a table-spoonful of brandy--mix it in well with the cheese, then press it down tight, in a clean stone pot, and lay a paper wet in brandy on the top of it. Cover the pot up tight, and keep it in a cool, dry place.

This is also a good way to treat dry pieces of cheese. Potted cheese is best when a year old. It will keep several years, without any danger of its breeding insects.

382. _To pot b.u.t.ter for winter use._

Mix a large spoonful of salt, a table-spoonful of powdered white-sugar, and one of saltpetre. Work this quant.i.ty into six pounds of fresh-made b.u.t.ter. Put the b.u.t.ter into a stone pot, that is thoroughly cleansed.

When you have finished putting down your b.u.t.ter, cover it with a layer of salt, and let it remain covered until cold weather.

383. _To make Salt b.u.t.ter Fresh._

When b.u.t.ter has too much salt in it, put to each pound of it a quart of fresh milk, and churn it an hour; then treat it like fresh b.u.t.ter, working in the usual quant.i.ty of salt. A little white sugar worked in, improves it. This is said to be equal to fresh b.u.t.ter. Salt may be taken out of a small quant.i.ty of fresh b.u.t.ter, by working it over, in clear fresh water, changing the water a number of times.

384. _To extract Rancidity from b.u.t.ter._

Take a small quant.i.ty, that is wanted for immediate use. For a pound of the b.u.t.ter, dissolve a couple of tea-spoonsful of saleratus in a quart of boiling water, put in the b.u.t.ter, mix it well with the saleratus water, and let it remain till cold, then take it off carefully, and work a tea-spoonful of salt into it. b.u.t.ter treated in this manner answers very well to use in cooking.

385. _To preserve Cream for Sea Voyages._

Take rich, fresh cream, and mix it with half of its weight of white powdered sugar. When well mixed in, put it in bottles, and cork them tight. When used for tea or coffee, it will make them sufficiently sweet without any additional sugar.

386. _Subst.i.tute for Cream in Coffee._

Beat the white of an egg to a froth--put to it a small lump of b.u.t.ter, and turn the coffee to it gradually, so that it may not curdle. It is difficult to distinguish the taste from fresh cream.

387. _To keep Eggs several months._

It is a good plan to buy eggs for family use when cheap, and preserve them in the following manner: Mix half a pint of unslaked lime with the same quant.i.ty of salt, a couple of gallons of water. The water should be turned on boiling hot. When cold, put in the eggs, which should be perfectly fresh, and care should be taken not to crack any of them--if cracked, they will spoil directly. The eggs should be entirely covered with the lime-water, and kept in a stone pot, and the pot set in a cool place. If the above directions are strictly attended to, the eggs will keep good five months. The lime-water should not be so strong as to eat the sh.e.l.l, and all the eggs should be perfectly fresh when put in, as one bad one will spoil the whole.

388. _To melt Fat for Shortening._

The fat of all kinds of meat, excepting that of ham and mutton, makes good shortening. Roast meat drippings, and the liquor in which meat is boiled, should stand until cold, to have the fat congeal, so that it can be taken off easily. When taken up, sc.r.a.pe off the sediment which adheres to the under side of the fat, cut the fat into small pieces, together with any sc.r.a.ps of fat from broiled meat that you may happen to have. Melt the fat slowly, then strain it, and let it remain till cold.

When formed into a hard cake, take it up--if any sediment adheres to the under side, sc.r.a.pe it off. Melt the fat again--when partly cooled, sprinkle in salt, in the proportion of a tea-spoonful to a pound of the shortening. The dregs of the fat are good for soap grease. This shortening answers all the various purposes of lard very well, excepting in the hottest weather. The fat of cooked meat should not be suffered to remain more than a week in winter, and three days in summer, without being melted. Ham fat, if boiled in fresh water, and then clarified, answers very well to fry in. Mutton fat, if melted into hard cakes, will fetch a good price at the tallow-chandler's. The leaves, and thin pieces of pork, should be used for lard. Cut them in small bits, and melt them slowly; then strain them through a cullender, with a thick cloth laid in it. As soon as the fat cools and thickens, sprinkle in salt, in the proportion of a tea-cup full to twenty weight of the lard. Stir it in well, then set the pot that contains it in a cool place. Some people have an idea that the pork sc.r.a.ps must be on the fire until they become brown, in order to have the lard kept sweet the year round, but it is not necessary, if salt is mixed with it.

389. _To keep Vegetables through the Winter._

Succulent vegetables are preserved best in a cool, shady place, that is damp. Turnips, Irish potatoes, and similar vegetables, should be protected from the air and frost by being buried up in sand, and in very severe cold weather covered over with a linen cloth. It is said that the dust of charcoal, sprinkled over potatoes, will keep them from sprouting. I have also heard it said, that Carolina potatoes may be kept a number of months, if treated in the following manner: Take those that are large, and perfectly free from decay--pack them in boxes of dry sand, and set the boxes in a place exposed to the influence of smoke, and inaccessible to frost.

390. _To preserve Herbs._

All kinds of herbs should be gathered on a dry day, just before, or while in blossom. Tie them in bundles, and suspend them in a dry, airy place, with the blossoms downwards. When perfectly dry, wrap the medicinal ones in paper and keep them from the air. Pick off the leaves of those which are to be used in cooking, pound and sift them fine, and keep the powder in bottles, corked up tight.

391. _To preserve various kinds of Fruit through the Winter._

Apples can be kept till June, by taking only those that are hard and sound, wiping them dry, then packing them in tight barrels, with a layer of bran to each layer of apples. Envelope the barrel in a linen cloth, to protect it from frost, and keep it in a cool place, but not so cold as to freeze the apples. It is said that mortar, laid over the top of a barrel of apples, is a good thing to preserve them, as it draws the air from them, which is the princ.i.p.al cause of their decaying. Care should be taken not to have it come in contact with the apples. To preserve oranges and lemons several months, take those that are perfectly fresh, and wrap each one in soft paper; put them in gla.s.s jars, or a very tight box, with white sand, that has been previously dried in an oven a few hours, after it has been baked in. The sand should be strewed thick over each one of the oranges, as they are laid in the jar, and the whole covered with a thick layer of it. Close the jar up tight, and keep it in a cool dry place, but not so cool as to freeze the fruit. To preserve grapes, gather them on a dry day, when they are not quite dead ripe, and pick those that are not fair off from the stems. Lay the bunches of grapes in a gla.s.s jar, and sprinkle around each of them a thick layer of dry bran, so that they will not touch each other. Have a thick layer of bran on the top, and cork and seal the jar very tight, so that the air may be entirely excluded. Whenever they are to be eaten, restore them to their freshness by cutting off a small piece from the end of the stalks, and immerse the stalks of each bunch in sweet wine for a few minutes.

The stalks will imbibe the wine, and make the grapes fresh and juicy.

Various kinds of fruit, taken when green, such as grapes, gooseberries, currants, and plums, can be kept through the winter, by being treated in the following manner: Fill junk bottles with them, and set them in an oven six or seven hours, after having baked in it. Let them remain till they begin to shrink, then take the fruit from one bottle to fill the others quite full. Cork and seal up the bottles. Whenever you wish to make pies of them, put the quant.i.ty you wish to use into a tin pan, turn on boiling water sufficient to cover them, and stew them in it till soft, then sweeten, and make them into pies. Ripe blackberries and whortleberries, to be kept long, should be dried perfectly in the sun, then tied up in bags that are thick enough to exclude the air. When used for pies, treat them in the same manner as the green fruit. Ripe currants, dried on the stalks, then picked off, and put in bags, will keep nice for pies during the winter. They also make a fine tea for persons that have a fever, particularly the hectic fever--it is also an excellent thing to counteract the effects of opium.

392. _To keep Pickles and Sweetmeats._

Pickles should be kept in unglazed earthen jars, or wooden kegs.

Sweetmeats keep best in gla.s.s jars; unglazed stone pots answer very well for common fruit. A paper wet in brandy, or proof spirit, and laid on the preserved fruit, tends to keep it from fermenting. Both pickles and sweetmeats should be watched, to see that they do not ferment, particularly when the weather is warm. Whenever they ferment, turn off the vinegar or syrup, scald and turn it back while hot. When pickles grow soft, it is owing to the vinegar being too weak. To strengthen it, heat it scalding hot, turn it back on the pickles, and when lukewarm, put in a little alum, and a brown paper, wet in mola.s.ses. If it does not grow sharp in the course of three weeks it is past recovery, and should be thrown away, and fresh vinegar turned on, scalding hot, to the pickles.

393. _Cautions relative to the use of Bra.s.s and Copper Cooking Utensils._

Cleanliness has been aptly styled the cardinal virtue of cooks. Food is more healthy, as well as palatable, cooked in a cleanly manner. Many lives have been lost in consequence of carelessness in using bra.s.s, copper, and glazed earthen cooking utensils. The two first should be thoroughly cleansed with salt and hot vinegar before cooking in them, and no oily or acid substance, after being cooked, should be allowed to cool or remain in any of them.

394. _Durable Ink for Marking Linen._

Dissolve a couple of drachms of lunar caustic, and half an ounce of gum arabic, in a gill of rain water. Dip whatever is to be marked in strong pearl-ash water. When perfectly dry, iron it very smooth; the pearl-ash water turns it a dark color, but was.h.i.+ng will efface it. After marking the linen, put it near a fire, or in the sun, to dry. Red ink, for marking linen, is made by mixing and reducing to a fine powder half an ounce of vermilion, a drachm of the salt of steel, and linseed oil to render it of the consistency of black durable ink.

395. _Black Ball._