Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches Part 54

RASPBERRY CORDIAL.

May be made in the above manner.

QUINCE CORDIAL.

Take the finest and ripest quinces you can procure, wipe them clean, and cut out all the defective parts. Then grate them into a tureen or some other large vessel, leaving out the seeds and cores. Let the grated pulp remain covered in the tureen for twenty-four hours. Then, squeeze it through a jelly-bag or cloth.

To six quarts of the juice allow a quart of cold water, three pounds of loaf-sugar, (broken up,) and a quart of white brandy.

Mix the whole well together, and put it into a stone jar. Have ready three very small flannel or thick muslin bags, (not larger than two inches square,) fill one with grated nutmeg, another with powdered mace, and the third with powdered cloves; and pat them, into the jar that the spice may flavour the liquor without mixing with it. Leave the jar uncorked for a few days; reserving some of the liquor to replace that which may flow over in the fermentation. Whenever it has done working, bottle it off, but do not use it for six months. If not sufficiently bright and clear, filter it through fine muslin, pinned round the bottom of a sieve, or through a white blotting paper fastened in the same manner.

PEACH CORDIAL.

Take the ripest and most juicy free-stone peaches you can procure.

Cut them from the stones, and quarter them without paring. Crack the stones, and extract the kernels, which must be blanched and slightly pounded. Put the peaches into a large stone jar in layers, alternately with layers of the kernels, and of powdered loaf-sugar. When the jar is three parts full of the peaches, kernels, and sugar, fill it up with white brandy. Set the Jar in a large pan, and leave it uncovered for three or four days, in case of its fermenting and flowing over at the top. Fill up what is thus wasted with more brandy, and then close the jar tightly. Let it stand, five or six months; then filter it, and bottle it for use.

Cherry, apricot, and plum cordial may be made in the above manner; adding always the kernels.

ANNISEED CORDIAL.

Melt a pound of loaf-sugar in two quarts of water. Mix it with two quarts of white brandy, and add a table-spoonful of oil of anniseed. Let it stand a week; then filter it through, white blotting paper, and bottle it for use.

Clove or Cinnamon Cordial may be made in the same manner, by mixing sugar, water and brandy, and adding oil of cinnamon or oil of cloves. You may colour any of these cordials red by stirring in a little powdered cochineal that has been dissolved in a small quant.i.ty of brandy.

ROSE BRANDY.

Nearly fill a china or gla.s.s jar with freshly-gathered rose leaves, and pour in sufficient French white brandy to fill it quite up; and then cover it closely. Next day put the whole into a strainer, and having squeezed and pressed the rose leaves and drained off the liquid, throw away the leaves, put fresh ones into the jar, and return the brandy to it. Repeat this every day while roses are in season, (taking care to keep the jar well covered,) and you will find the liquid much better than rose water for flavouring cakes and puddings.

LEMON BRANDY.

When you use lemons for punch or lemonade, do not throw away the peels, but cut them in small pieces, and put them into a gla.s.s jar or bottle of brandy. You will find this brandy useful for many purposes.

In the same way keep for use the kernels of peach and plum stones, pounding them slightly before you put them into the brandy.

NOYAU.

Blanch and break up a pound of sh.e.l.led bitter almonds or peach kernels. Mix with them the grated rinds of three large lemons, half a pint of clarified honey that has been boiled and skimmed, and three pounds of the best double-refined loaf-sugar. Put these ingredients into a jar or demijohn; pour in four quarts of the best white brandy or proof spirit; stop the vessel, and let it stand three months, shaking it every day for the first month. Then filter it, dilute it with rose water to your taste, (you may allow a quart of rose water to each quart of the liquor,) and bottle it for use.

This and any other cordial may be coloured red by mixing with it (after it is filtered) cochineal, powdered, dissolved in a little white brandy, and strained through fine muslin.

RATAFIA.

Pound in a mortar, and mix together a pound of sh.e.l.led bitter almonds, an ounce of nutmegs, a pound of fine loaf-sugar, and one grain (apothecaries' weight) of ambergris. Infuse these ingredients for a week in a gallon of white brandy or proof spirit. Then filter it, and bottle it for use.

CAPILLAIRE.

Powder eight pounds of loaf-sugar, and wet it with three pints of water and three eggs well beaten with their sh.e.l.ls. Stir the whole ma.s.s very hard, and boil it twice over, skimming it well. Then strain it, and stir in two wine gla.s.ses of orange flower water.

Bottle it, and use it for a summer draught, mixed with a little lemon juice and water; or you may sweeten punch with it.

ORGEAT.

To make orgeat paste, blanch, mix together, and pound in a mortar till perfectly smooth, three quarters of a pound of sh.e.l.led sweet almonds, and one quarter of a pound of sh.e.l.led bitter almonds; adding frequently a little orange flower or rose water, to keep them from oiling; and mixing with them, as you proceed, a pound of fine loaf-sugar that has been previously powdered by itself. When the whole is thoroughly incorporated to a stiff paste, put it into little pots and close them well. It will keep five or six months, and, when you wish to use it for a beverage, allow a piece of orgeat about the size of an egg to each half pint or tumbler of water. Having well stirred it, strain the mixture through a napkin.

To make liquid orgeat for present use; blanch and pound in a mortar, with rose water, a quarter of a pound of sweet and an ounce and a half of bitter almonds. Then sweeten three pints of rich milk with half a pound of loaf-sugar, and stir the almonds gradually into it. Boil it over hot coals; and as soon as it comes to a boil, take it off and stir it frequently till it gets cold.

Then strain it, add a gla.s.s of brandy, and put it into decanters.

When you pour it out for drinking dilute it with water.

LEMONADE.

Take fine ripe lemons, and roll them under your hand on the table to increase the quant.i.ty of juice. Then cut and squeeze them into a pitcher, and mix the juice with loaf-sugar and cold water. To half a pint of lemon juice you may allow a pint and a half of water; and ten or twelve moderate sized lumps of sugar. Send it round in little gla.s.ses with handles.

To make a tumbler of _very good_ lemonade, allow the juice of one lemon and four or five lumps of sugar, filling up the gla.s.s with water. In summer use ice water.

ORANGEADE.

Is made of oranges, in the same proportion as lemonade. It is very fine when frozen.

PUNCH.

Roll twelve fine lemons under your hand on the table; then pare off the yellow rind very thin, and boil it in a gallon of water till all the flavour is drawn out. Break up into a large bowl, two pounds of loaf-sugar, and squeeze the lemons over it. When the water has boiled sufficiently, strain it from the lemon-peel, and mix it with the lemon juice and sugar. Stir in a quart of rum or of the best whiskey.

Two scruples of flowers of benjamin, steeped in a quart of rum, will make an infusion which much resembles the arrack of the East Indies. It should be kept in a bottle, and a little of it will be found to impart a very fine and fragrant flavour to punch made in the usual manner.

FROZEN PUNCH.

Is made as above, omitting one half of the rum or whiskey. Put it into an ice-cream freezer, shaking or stirring it all the time, when it is frozen, send it round immediately, in small gla.s.ses with a tea-spoon for each.

ROMAN PUNCH.

Grate the yellow rinds of twelve lemons and two oranges upon two pounds of loaf-sugar. Squeeze on the juice of the lemons and oranges; cover it, and let it stand till next day. Then strain it through a sieve, add a bottle of champagne, and the whites of eight eggs beaten to a froth. You may freeze it or not.

MILK PUNCH.

What is commonly called milk punch, is a mixture of brandy or rum, sugar, milk and nutmeg, with-without either lemon juice or water.

It is taken cold with a lump of ice in each tumbler.