 To every pound of finely pounded life-sugar allow one pound of sweet almonds, the whites of four eggs, a little rose water, mode. Blanch the almonds and pound them a few at a time in a mortar to a paste, adding a little rose water to facilitate the operation. Whisk the whites of the eggs to a strong froth, mix them with the pounded almonds, stir in the sugar and beat altogether. When the cake is sufficiently baked, lay on the almond icing and put it into the oven to dry. Before laying this preparation on the cake, great care must be taken that it is nice and smooth, which is easily accomplished by well-beating the mixture. Sugar icing for cakes. 1736. Ingredients. To every pound of loavesugar allow the whites of four eggs, one ounce of fine starch. Mode. Beat the eggs to a strong froth and gradually sift in the sugar, which should be reduced to the finest possible powder, and gradually add the starch, also finely powdered. Beat the mixture well until the sugar is smooth, then with a spoon or broad knife lay the icing equally over the cakes. These should then be placed in a very cool oven, and the icing allowed to dry and harden, but not to colour. The icing may be coloured with strawberry or current juice, or with prepared cocconeal. If it be put on the cakes as soon as they are withdrawn from the oven, it will become firm and hard by the time the cakes are cold. On very rich cakes, such as wedding christening cakes etc, a layer of almond icing, number 1735, is usually spread over the top, and over that, the white icing, as described. All iced cakes should be kept in a very dry place. Biscuit powder generally used for infants food, 1737. This powder may be purchased in tin canisters and may also be prepared at home. Dry the biscuits well in a slow oven, roll them and grind them with a rolling pin on a clean board until they are reduced to powder. Sift it through a close hair sieve, and it is fit for use. It should be kept in well covered tins and in a dry place. Arrowroot biscuits or drops, 1738. Ingredients. Half a pound of butter, six eggs, half a pound of flour, six ounces of arrowroot, half a pound of pounded loaf sugar. Mode. Beat the butter to a cream, whisk the eggs to a strong froth, add them to the butter, stir in the flour a little at a time, and beat the mixture well. Break down all the lumps from the arrowroot and add that with the sugar to the other ingredients. Mix all well together, drop the dough on a buttered tin in pieces the size of a shilling, and bake the biscuits about quarter of an hour in a slow oven. Time and quarter of an hour, average cost two shilling six pence, sufficient to make from three to four dozen biscuits, seasonable at any time. Nice breakfast cakes, 1739. Ingredients. One pound of flour, half a teaspoon full of tartaric acid, half a teaspoon full of salt, half a teaspoon full of carbonate of soda, one and a half breakfast cup full of milk, one ounce of sifted loaf sugar, two eggs. Mode. These cakes are made in the same manner as the soda bread, number 1722, with the addition of eggs and sugar. Mix the flour, tartaric acid, and salt well together, taking care that the two latter ingredients are reduced to the finest powder and stir in the sifted sugar, which should also be very fine. Dissolve the soda in the milk, add the eggs, which should be well whisked, and with this liquid work the flour etc into a light dough. Divide it into small cakes, put them into the oven immediately, and bake for about 20 minutes. Time, 20 minutes. Coconut biscuits or cakes, 1740. Ingredients. Ten ounces of sifted sugar, three eggs, six ounces of grated coconut. Mode. Whisk the eggs until they are very light, add the sugar gradually, then stir in the coconut. Roll a tablespoon full of the paste at a time in your hands in the form of a pyramid. Place the pyramids on paper, put the paper on tins, and bake the biscuits in rather a cool oven until they are just coloured a light brown. Time about a quarter of an hour, seasonable at any time. Crisp biscuits, 1741. Ingredients. One pound of flour, the yolk of one egg, milk. Mode. Mix the flour and the yolk of the egg with sufficient milk to make the whole into a very stiff paste, beat it well and knead it until it is perfectly smooth. Roll the paste out very thin, with a round cutter shape into small biscuits, and bake them a nice brown in a slow oven from 12 to 18 minutes. Time, 12 to 18 minutes, average cost four pence, seasonable at any time. Dessert biscuits, which may be flavoured with ground ginger, cinnamon etc etc. 1742. Ingredients. One pound of flour, half a pound of butter, half a pound of sifted sugar, the yolks of six eggs, flavouring to taste. Mode. Put the butter into a basin, warm it but do not allow it to boil, then with the hand beat it to a cream. Add the flour by degrees, then the sugar and flavouring, and moisten the whole with the yolks of the eggs, which should previously be well beaten. When all the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated, drop the mixture from a spoon onto a buttered paper, leaving a distance between each cake as they spread as soon as they begin to get warm. Bake in rather a slow oven from 12 to 18 minutes, and do not let the biscuits acquire too much colour. In making the above quantity, half may be flavoured with ground ginger, and the other half with essence of lemon or currants to make a variety. With whatever the preparation is flavoured, so are the biscuits called, and an endless variety may be made in this manner. Time, 12 to 18 minutes, or rather longer in a very slow oven. Average cost one shilling six pence, sufficient to make from three to four dozen cakes, seasonable at any time. Lemon biscuits. 1743. Ingredients. One and a quarter pound of flour, three quarters of a pound of loaf sugar, six ounces of fresh butter, four eggs, one ounce of lemon peel, two dessert spoonfuls of lemon juice. Mode. Rub the flour into the butter, stir in the pounded sugar, and very finely minced lemon peel, and when these ingredients are thoroughly mixed, add the eggs, which should be previously well whisked, and the lemon juice. Beat the mixture well for a minute or two, then drop it from a spoon onto a buttered tin, about two inches apart as the cakes will spread when they get warm. Place the tin in the oven and bake the cakes of a pale brown from 15 to 20 minutes. Time 15 to 20 minutes, average cost one shilling six pence, seasonable at any time. Macaroons. 1744. Ingredients. Half a pound of sweet almonds, half a pound of sifted loaf sugar, the whites of three eggs, wafer paper. Mode. Blanch skin and dry the almonds, and pound them well with a little orange flower water or plain water, then add to them the sifted sugar and the whites of the eggs, which should be beaten to a stiff froth, and mix all the ingredients well together. When the paste looks soft, drop it at equal distances from a biscuit syringe onto sheets of wafer paper. Put a strip of almond on the top of each, strew some sugar over, and bake the macaroons in rather a slow oven of a light brown colour when hardened set, they are done, and must not be allowed to get very brown, as that would spoil their appearance. If the cakes when baked appear heavy, add a little more white of egg, but let this always be well whisked before it is added to the other ingredients. We have given a recipe for making these cakes, but we think it almost or quite as economical to purchase such articles as these at a good confectioners. Time from 15 to 20 minutes in a slow oven, average cost one shilling eight pence per pound. Retafias. 1745. Ingredients. Half a pound of sweet almonds, quarter of a pound of bitter ones, three quarters of a pound of sifted loaf sugar, the whites of four eggs. Mode. Blanch skin and dry the almonds and pound them in a mortar with the white of an egg, stir in the sugar, and gradually add the remaining whites of eggs, taking care that they are very thoroughly whisked. Drop the mixture through a small biscuit syringe onto cartridge paper, and bake the cakes from 10 to 12 minutes in rather a quicker oven than for macaroons. A very small quantity should be dropped on the paper to form one cake, as when baked the ratafias should be about the size of a large button. Time, 10 to 12 minutes, average cost one shilling eight pence per pound. Rice biscuits or cakes. 1746. Ingredients. To every half a pound of rice flour, allow quarter of a pound of pounded lump sugar, quarter of a pound of butter, two eggs. Mode. Beat the butter to a cream, stir in the rice flour and pounded sugar, and moisten the whole with the eggs, which should be previously well beaten. Roll out the paste, shape it with a round paste cutter into small cakes, and bake them from 12 to 18 minutes in a very slow oven. Time, 12 to 18 minutes, average cost nine pence. Sufficient to make about 18 cakes, seasonable at any time. Ground rice or rice flour is used for making several kinds of cakes, also for thickening soups, and for mixing with wheat and flour in producing manna-crupe. The Americans make rice bread and prepare the flour for it in the following manner. When the rice is thoroughly cleansed, the water is drawn off, and the rice, while damp, bruised in a mortar. It is then dried and passed through a hair sieve. Rock biscuits. 1747. Ingredients. Six eggs, one pound of sifted sugar, half a pound of flour, a few currants. Mode. Break the eggs into a basin, beat them well until very light, add the pounded sugar, and when this is well mixed with the eggs, dredge in the flour gradually and add the currants. Mix all well together and put the dough with a fork on the tins, making it look as rough as possible. Bake the cakes in a moderate oven from 20 minutes to half an hour. When they are done, allow them to get cool and store them away in a tin canister in a dry place. Time, 20 minutes to half an hour, average cost one shilling two pence, seasonable at any time. Savoy biscuits or cakes. 1748. Ingredients. Four eggs, six ounces of pounded sugar, the rind of one lemon, six ounces of flour. Mode. Break the eggs into a basin, separating the whites from the yolks, beat the yolks well, mix with them the pounded sugar and grated lemon rind, and beat these ingredients together for a quarter of an hour. Then dredge in the flour gradually and when the whites of the eggs have been whisked to a solid froth, stir them to the flour, etc. Beat the mixture well for another five minutes, then draw it along in strips upon thick cartridge paper to the proper size of the biscuit, and bake them in rather a hot oven, but let them be carefully watched as they are soon done, and a few seconds over the proper time will scorch and spoil them. These biscuits or ladies fingers as they are called are used for making Charlotte Russes and for a variety of fancy sweet dishes. Time, five to eight minutes in a quick oven, average cost one shilling eight pence per pound or half pence each. Seed biscuits, one seven four nine, ingredients. One pound of flour, quarter of a pound of sifted sugar, quarter pound of butter, half ounce of caraway seeds, three eggs. Mode. Beat the butter to a cream, stir in the flour, sugar and caraway seeds, and when these ingredients are well mixed, add the eggs which should be well whisked. Roll out the paste with a round cutter, shape out the biscuits, and bake them in a moderate oven from ten to fifteen minutes. The tops of the biscuits may be brushed over with a little milk or the white of an egg and then a little sugar strewn over. Time, ten to fifteen minutes, average cost one shilling, sufficient to make three dozen biscuits seasonable at any time. Simple hard biscuits, one seven five zero, ingredients. To every pound of flour allow two ounces of butter, about half a pint of skimmed milk. Mode. Warm the butter in the milk until the former is dissolved and then mix it with the flour into a very stiff paste. Beat it with a rolling pin until the dough looks perfectly smooth. Roll it out thin, cut it with the top of a glass into round biscuits, prick them well, and bake them from six to ten minutes. The above is the proportion of milk which we think would convert the flour into a stiff paste, but should it be found too much, an extra spoonful or two of flour must be put in. These biscuits are very nice for the cheese course. Time six to ten minutes, seasonable at any time. Soda biscuits, one seven five one, ingredients. One pound of flour, half a pound of pounded loaf sugar, quarter a pound of fresh butter, two eggs, one small teaspoon full of carbonate of soda. Mode. Put the flour which should be perfectly dry into a basin. Rub in the butter, add the sugar, and mix these ingredients well together. Whisk the eggs, stir them into the mixture, and beat it well until everything is well incorporated. Quickly stir in the soda, roll the paste out until it is about half an inch thick, cut it into small round cakes with a tin cutter, and bake them from 12 to 18 minutes in rather a brisk oven. After the soda is added, great expedition is necessary in rolling and cutting out the paste and in putting the biscuits immediately into the oven or they will be heavy. Time 12 to 18 minutes, average cost one shilling. Sufficient to make about three dozen cakes, seasonable at any time. Almond cake, one seven five two, ingredients. Half a pound of sweet almonds, one ounce of bitter almonds, six eggs, eight tablespoon fulls of sifted sugar, five tablespoon fulls of fine flour, the grated rind of one lemon, three ounces of butter. Mode. Blanch and pound the almonds to a paste, separate the whites from the yolks of the eggs, beat the latter and add them to the almonds. Stir in the sugar, flour and lemon rind, add the butter which should be beaten to a cream and when all these ingredients are well mixed put in the whites of the eggs which should be whisked to a stiff froth. Butter a cake mold, put in the mixture and bake in a good oven from one and a quarter to one and three-quarter hours. Time one and a quarter to one and three-quarter hours, average cost one shilling, seasonable at any time. Rich bride or christening cake, one seven five three, ingredients. Five pounds of the finest flour, three pounds of fresh butter, five pounds of currants, two pounds of sifted loaf sugar, two nutmegs, a quarter of an ounce of mace, half quarter of an ounce of cloves, 16 eggs, one pound of sweet almonds, half a pound of candied citron, half a pound each of candied orange and lemon peel, one gill of wine, one gill of brandy. Mode. Let the flour be as fine as possible and well dried and sifted, the currants washed, picked and dried before the fire, the sugar well pounded and sifted, the nutmegs grated, the spices pounded, the eggs thoroughly whisked, whites and yolks separately, the almonds pounded with a little orange flour water and the candied peel cut in neat slices. When all these ingredients are prepared, mix them in the following manner. Begin working the butter with the hand till it becomes of a cream-like consistency. Stir in the sugar and when the whites of the eggs are whisked to a solid froth, mix them with the butter and sugar. Next, well beat up the yolks for 10 minutes and adding them to the flour, nutmegs, mace and cloves, continue beating the whole together for half hour or longer till wanted for the oven. Then mix in lightly the currants, almonds and candied peel with the wine and brandy and having lined a hoop with buttered paper, fill it with the mixture and bake the cake in a tolerably quick oven, taking care however not to burn it. To prevent this, the top of it may be covered with a sheet of paper. To ascertain whether the cake is done, plunge a clean knife into the middle of it, withdraw it directly and if the blade is not sticky and looks bright, the cake is sufficiently baked. These cakes are usually spread with a thick layer of almond icing and over that another layer of sugar icing and afterwards ornamented. In baking a large cake like this, great attention must be paid to the heat of the oven. It should not be too fierce but have a good soaking heat. Time, five to six hours, average cost two shillings per pound. Christmas cake, one seven five four, ingredients. Five teacups full of flour, one teacup full of melted butter, one teacup full of cream, one teacup full of treacle, one teacup full of moist sugar, two eggs, half an ounce of powdered ginger, half a pound of raisins, one teaspoon full of carbonate of soda, one tablespoon full of vinegar. Mode. Make the butter sufficiently warm to melted but do not allow it to oil. Put the flour into a basin, add it to the sugar, ginger and raisins which should be stoned and cut into small pieces. When these dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed, stir in the butter, cream, treacle and well whisked eggs and beat the mixture for a few minutes. Dissolve the soda in the vinegar, add it to the dough and be particular that these latter ingredients are well incorporated with the others. Put the cake into a buttered mould or tin, place it in a moderate oven immediately and bake it from one and three-quarter to two and a quarter hours. Time, one and three-quarter to two and a quarter hours, average cost one shilling sixpence. Common cake, suitable for sending to children at school. One seven five five, ingredients. Two pounds of flour, four ounces of butter or clarified dripping, half an ounce of caraway seeds, quarter of an ounce of all spice, half a pound of pounded sugar, one pound of currants, one pint of milk, three tablespoons of fresh yeast. Mode, rub the butter lightly into the flour, add all the dry ingredients and mix these well together. Make the milk warm but not hot, stir in the yeast and with this liquid make the hole into a light dough. Need it well and line the cake tins with strips of buttered paper. This paper should be about six inches higher than the top of the tin. Put in the dough, stand it in a warm place to rise for more than an hour, then bake the cakes in a well heated oven. If this quantity be divided in two they will take from one and a half to two hours baking. Time, one and three-quarter to two and a quarter hours, average cost one shilling ninepence, sufficient to make two moderate sized cakes. Economical cake, one seven five six, ingredients. One pound of flour, quarter a pound of sugar, quarter of pound of butter or lard, half a pound of currants, one teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, the whites of four eggs, half a pint of milk. Mode. In making many sweet dishes the whites of eggs are not required and if well beaten and added to the above ingredients make an excellent cake with or without currants. Beat the butter to a cream, well whisk the whites of the eggs and stir all the ingredients together but the soda which must not be added until all is well mixed and the cake is ready to be put into the oven. When the mixture has been well beaten stir in the soda, put the cake into a buttered mold and bake it in a moderate oven for one and a half hours. Time, one and a half hours, average cost one shilling three pints. A nice useful cake. One seven five seven, ingredients. Quarter a pound of butter, six ounces of currants, quarter a pound of sugar, one pound of dried flour, two teaspoonsfuls of baking powder, three eggs, one tea cup full of milk, two ounces of sweet almonds, one ounce of candied peel. Mode. Beat the butter to a cream, wash, pick and dry the currants, whisk the eggs, blanch and chop the almonds and cut the peel into neat slices. When all these are ready, mix the dry ingredients together, then add the butter, milk and eggs and beat the mixture well for a few minutes. Put the cake into a buttered mold or tin and bake it for rather more than one and a half hours. The currants and candied peel may be omitted and a little lemon or almond flavouring substituted for them made in this manner the cake will be found very good. Time, rather more than one and a half hours, average cost one shilling nine pence. Honey cake. One seven five eight, ingredients. Half a breakfast cup full of sugar, one breakfast cup full of rich sour cream, two breakfast cup fulls of flour, half a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, honey to taste. Mode. Mix the sugar and cream together, dredge in the flour with as much honey as will flavour the mixture nicely. Stir it well that all the ingredients may be thoroughly mixed, add the carbonate of soda and beat the cake well for another five minutes. Put it into a buttered tin, bake it from half to three quarters of an hour and let it be eaten warm. Time, half to three quarters of an hour, average cost eight pence, sufficient for three to four persons, seasonable at any time. Rich sweetmeat gingerbread nuts, one seven five nine, ingredients. One pound of treacle, quarter a pound of clarified butter, one pound of coarse brown sugar, two ounces of ground ginger, one ounce of candied orange peel, one ounce of candied angelica, half an ounce of candied lemon peel, half an ounce of coriander seeds, half an ounce of caraway seeds, one egg, flour. Mode. Put the treacle into a basin and pour over it the butter, melted so as not to oil, the sugar and ginger. Stir these ingredients well together and whilst mixing, add the candied peel which should be cut into very small pieces but not bruised, and the caraway and coriander seeds which should be pounded. Having mixed all thoroughly together, break in an egg and work the whole up with as much fine flour as may be necessary to form a paste. Make this into nuts of any size, put them on a tin plate and bake in a slow oven from a quarter to half an hour. Time, quarter to half an hour, average cost from one shilling to one shilling four pence per pound, seasonable at any time. Thick gingerbread, one seven six oh, ingredients. One pound of treacle, quarter pound of butter, quarter pound of coarse brown sugar, one and a half pounds of flour, one ounce of ginger, half ounce of ground allspice, one teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, quarter pint of warm milk, three eggs. Mode. Put the flour into a basin with the sugar, ginger and allspice, mix these together, warm the butter and add it with the treacle to the other ingredients. Stir well, make the milk just warm, dissolve the carbonate of soda in it, and mix the whole into a nice smooth dough with the eggs, which should be previously well whisked. Pour the mixture into a buttered tin and bake it from three quarters to one hour, or longer, should the gingerbread be very thick. Just before it is done, brush the top over with the yolk of an egg, beaten up with a little milk, and put it back in the oven to finish baking. Time, three quarters to one hour, average cost one shilling per square, seasonable at any time. Sunderland gingerbread nuts, an excellent recipe. One seven six one, ingredients. One and three quarter pounds of treacle, one pound of moist sugar, one pound of butter, two and three quarter pounds of flour, one and a half ounces of ground ginger, one and a half ounces of allspice, one and a half ounces of coriander seeds. Mode. Let the allspice, coriander seeds, and ginger be freshly ground, put them into a basin with the flour and sugar, and mix these ingredients well together. Warm the treacle and butter together, then with a spoon work it into the flour, etc., until the whole forms a nice, smooth paste. Drop the mixture from the spoon onto a piece of buttered paper, and bake in rather a slow oven, from twenty minutes to half an hour. A little candy lemon peel mixed with the above is an improvement, and a great authority in culinary matters suggests the addition of a little cayenne pepper in gingerbread. Whether it be advisable to use this latter ingredient or not, we leave our readers to decide. Time twenty minutes to half an hour, average cost one shilling to one shilling four pence per pound, seasonable at any time. White gingerbread, one seven six two, ingredients. One pound of flour, half a pound of butter, half a pound of loaf sugar, the rind of one lemon, one ounce of ground ginger, one nutmeg grated, half a teaspoon full of carbonate of soda, one gill of milk. Mode. Rub the butter into the flour, add the sugar, which should be finely pounded and sifted, and the minced lemon rind, ginger and nutmeg. Mix these well together, make the milk just warm, stir in the soda, and work the whole into a nice smooth paste. Roll it out, cut it into cakes, and bake in a moderate oven from fifteen to twenty minutes. Time fifteen to twenty minutes, average cost one shilling three pence, seasonable at any time. Good holiday cake, one seven six three, ingredients. One and a half pence worth of borax German baking powder, two pounds of flour, six ounces of butter, a quarter pound of lard, one pound of currants, half a pound of stoned and cut raisins, quarter pound of mixed candied peel, half a pound of moist sugar, three eggs, three quarters of a pint of cold milk. Mode. Mix the baking powder with the flour, then rub in the butter and lard. Have ready the currants washed, picked and dried, the raisins stoned and cut into small pieces, not chopped, and the peel cut into neat slices. Add these with the sugar to the flour, etc., and mix all the dry ingredients well together. Whisk the eggs, stir to them the milk, and with this liquid, moisten the cake. Beat it up well that all may be very thoroughly mixed, line a cake tin with buttered paper, put in the cake, and bake it from two and a quarter to two and three quarter hours in a good oven. To ascertain when it is done, plunge a clean knife into the middle of it, and if, on withdrawing it, the knife looks clean and not sticky, the cake is done. To prevent it burning on top, a piece of clean paper may be put over whilst the cake is soaking or being thoroughly cooked in the middle. A steamer, such as used for steaming potatoes, makes a very good cake tin if it be lined at the bottom and side with buttered paper. Time, two and a quarter to two and three quarter hours. Average cost, two shilling sixpence, seasonable at any time. Three quarters of a pound of pounded loaf sugar, one lemon, three quarters of a pound of flour. Mode. Separate the whites from the yolks of the eggs, whisk the former to a stiff froth. Add the orange flour water, the sugar, grated lemon rind, and mix these ingredients well together. Then beat the yolks of the eggs, and add them with the lemon juice to the whites, etc. Dredge in the flour gradually, keep beating the mixture well, put it into a buttered mold, and bake the cake about an hour or rather longer. The addition of a little butter, beaten to a cream we think would improve this cake. Time, about one hour, average cost, one shilling fourpence, seasonable at any time. Luncheon cake, one seven six five, ingredients. Half a pound of butter, one pound of flour, half an ounce of caraway seeds, quarter of a pound of currants, six ounces of moist sugar, one ounce of candied peel, three eggs, half a pint of milk, one small teaspoon full of carbonate of soda. Mode. Rub the butter into the flour until it is quite fine. Add the caraway seeds, currants, which should be nicely washed, picked and dried, sugar and candied peel cut into thin slices. Mix these well together and moisten with the eggs, which should be well whisked. Boil the milk and add to it whilst boiling the carbonate of soda, which must be well stirred into it, and with the milk mix the other ingredients. Butter a tin, pour the cake into it and bake it in a moderate oven from three quarters to one hour. Time, three quarters to one hour, average cost, one shilling eight pence, seasonable at any time. Carbonate of soda. Soda was called the mineral alkali because it was originally dug up out of the ground in Africa and other countries. This state of carbonate of soda is called natron, but carbonate of soda is likewise procured from the combustion of marine plants or such as grow on the seashore. Pure carbonate of soda is employed for making effervescing drafts with lemon juice, citric acid or tartaric acid. The chief constituent of soda, the alkali, has been used in France from time immemorial in the manufacture of soap and glass to chemical productions which employ and keep in circulation an immense amount of capital. A small pinch of carbonate of soda will give an extraordinary likeness to puff pastes and introduced into the teapot will extract the full strength of the tea, but its qualities have a powerful effect upon delicate constitutions and it is not to be used unconsciously in any preparation. A nice plain cake. One seven six six. Ingredients. One pound of flour, one teaspoon full of borax baking powder, a quarter of a pound of good dripping, one tea cup full of moist sugar, three eggs, one breakfast cup full of milk, one ounce of caraway seeds, half a pound of currants. Mode. Put the flour and baking powder into a basin, stir these together, then rub in the dripping. Add the sugar, caraway seeds and currants, whisk the eggs with the milk, and beat all together very thoroughly until the ingredients are well mixed. Butter it in, put in the cake, and bake it from one and a half to two hours. Let the dripping be quite clean before using. To ensure this, it is a good plan to clarify it. Beef dripping is better than any other for cakes etc. As mutton dripping frequently has a very unpleasant flavour which would be imparted to the preparation. Time one and a half to two hours, average cost one shilling, seasonable at any time. A nice plain cake for children. One seven six seven. Ingredients. One quarter of dough, quarter of a pound of moist sugar, quarter of a pound of butter or good beef dripping, quarter of a pint of warm milk, half a grated nutmeg or half ounce of caraway seeds. Mode. If you are not in the habit of making bread at home, procure the dough from the bakers, and as soon as it comes in, put it into a basin near the fire. Cover the basin with a thick cloth and let the dough remain a little while to rise. In the meantime, beat the butter to a cream and make the milk warm. And when the dough has risen, mix with it thoroughly all the above ingredients and knead the cake well for a few minutes. Butter some cake tins, half fill them, and stand them in a warm place to allow the dough to rise again. When the tins are three parts full, put the cakes into a good oven and bake them from one and three-quarter to two hours. A few currants might be substituted for the caraway seeds when the flavour of the latter is disliked. Time, one and three-quarter to two hours, average cost one shilling tuppence, seasonable at any time. Common plum cake, one seven six eight. Ingredients. Three pounds of flour, six ounces of butter or good dripping, six ounces of moist sugar, six ounces of currants, four ounces of pounded allspice, two tablespoonfuls of fresh yeast, one pint of new milk. Mode. Rub the butter into the flour, add the sugar, currants and allspice, warm the milk, stir to it the yeast, and mix the whole into a dough. Need it well and put it into six buttered tins. Place them near the fire for nearly an hour for the dough to rise, then bake the cakes in a good oven from one to one and a quarter hours. To ascertain when they are done, plunge a clean knife into the middle, and if on withdrawal it comes out clean, the cakes are done. Time, one to one and a quarter hours, average cost one shilling eight pence, sufficient to make six small cakes. A nice plum cake, one seven six nine. Ingredients. One pound of flour, quarter of a pound of butter, half a pound of sugar, half a pound of currants, two ounces of candied lemon peel, half a pint of milk, one teaspoonful of ammonia or carbonate of soda. Mode. Put the flour into a basin with the sugar, currants, and sliced candied peel. Beat the butter to a cream, and mix all these ingredients together with the milk. Stir the ammonia into two tablespoons of milk, and add it to the dough, and beat the whole well until everything is thoroughly mixed. Put the dough into a buttered tin, and bake the cake from one and a half to two hours. Time, one and a half to two hours, average cost one shilling three pence, seasonable at any time. Pound cake, one seven seven zero. Ingredients. One pound of butter, one and a quarter pound of flour, one pound of pounded loaf sugar, one pound of currants, nine eggs, two ounces of candied peel, half an ounce of sweet almonds, when liked a little pounded mace. Mode. Work the butter to a cream, dredge in the flour, add the sugar, currants, candied peel which should be cut into neat slices, and the almonds which should be blanched and chopped, and mix all these well together. Whisk the eggs, and let them be thoroughly blended with the dry ingredients. Beat the cake well for twenty minutes, and put it into a round tin, lined at the bottom and sides with a strip of white buttered paper. Bake it from one and a half to two hours, and let the oven be well heated when the cake is first put in, as if this is not the case the currants will all sink to the bottom of it. To make this preparation light, the yolks and whites of the eggs should be beaten separately, and added separately to the other ingredients. A glass of wine is sometimes added to the mixture, but this is scarcely necessary, as the cake will be found quite rich enough without it. Time one and a half to two hours, average cost, three shilling sixpence, sufficient, the above quantity divided in two will make two nice sized cakes, seasonable at any time. A pevini cake, one seven seven one. Ingredients. Half a pound of flour, half a pound of ground rice, half a pound of raisins, stoned and cut into small pieces, quarter a pound of currants, quarter a pound of butter, two ounces of sweet almonds, quarter a pound of sifted loaf sugar, half a nutmeg grated, one pint of milk, one teaspoon full of carbonate of soda. Mode. Stone and cut the raisins into small pieces, wash, pick and dry the currants, melt the butter to a cream but without oiling it, blanch and chop the almonds and grate the nutmeg. When all these ingredients are thus prepared, mix them well together, make the milk warm, stir in the soda and with this liquid make the whole into a paste. Butter a mould, rather more than half fill it with the dough and bake the cake in a moderate oven from one and a half to two hours or less time should it be made into two cakes. Time one and a half to two hours, average cost, one shilling eight pence, seasonable at any time. Rice cake, one seven seven two. Ingredients. Half a pound of ground rice, half a pound of flour, half a pound of loaf sugar, nine eggs, twenty drops of essence of lemon or the rind of one lemon, quarter a pound of butter. Mode. Separate the whites from the yolks of the eggs, whisk them both well and add to the latter the butter beaten to a cream. Stir in the flour, rice and lemon, if the rind is used it must be very finely minced and beat the mixture well. Then add the whites of the eggs, beat the cake again for some time, put it into a buttered mould or tin and bake it for nearly one and a half hours. It may be flavoured with essence of almond when this is preferred. Time nearly one and a half hours, average cost, one shilling six pence, seasonable at any time. Queen cakes, one seven seven three. Ingredients. One pound of flour, half a pound of butter, half a pound of pounded loaf sugar, three eggs, one tea cup full of cream, half a pound of currants, one teaspoon full of carbonate of soda, essence of lemon or almonds to taste. Mode. Work the butter to a cream, dredge in the flour, add the sugar and currants and mix the ingredients well together. Whisk the eggs, mix them with the cream and flavouring and stir these to the flour. Add the carbonate of soda, beat the paste well for ten minutes, put it into small buttered pans and bake the cake from quarter to half an hour. Grated lemon rind may be substituted for the lemon and almond flavouring which will make the cakes equally nice. Time quarter to half an hour, average cost, one shilling nine pence, seasonable at any time. Salsa cake for tea, one seven seven four. Ingredients. Quarter a pound of flour, quarter a pound of toulomois, quarter a pound of pounded white sugar, quarter a pound of butter, two eggs, one ounce of candied orange or lemon peel. Mode. Mix the flour and toulomois together, add the sugar, the candied peel cut into thin slices, the butter beaten to a cream and the eggs well whisked. Beat the mixture for ten minutes, put it into a buttered cake tin or mould or if this is not obtainable a soup plate answers the purpose lined with a piece of buttered paper. Bake the cake in a moderate oven from one to one and a quarter hours and when cold put it away in a covered canister. It will remain good some weeks even if it be cut into slices. Time one to one and a quarter hours, average cost one shilling, seasonable at any time. Common seed cake, one seven seven five. Ingredients. Half a quarter of dough, quarter a pound of good dripping, six ounces of moist sugar, half an ounce of caraway seeds, one egg. Mode. If the dough is sent in from the bakers, put it in a basin covered with a cloth and set it in a warm place to rise. Then with a wooden spoon beat the dripping to a liquid, add it with the other ingredients to the dough and beat it until everything is very thoroughly mixed. Put it into a buttered tin and bake the cake for rather more than two hours. Time rather more than two hours, average cost eight pence, seasonable at any time. A very good seed cake, one seven seven six. Ingredients. One pound of butter, six eggs, three quarter pounds of sifted sugar, pounded mace and grated nutmeg to taste. One pound of flour, three quarter an ounce of caraway seeds, one wine glass full of brandy. Mode. Beat the butter to a cream, dredge in the flour, add the sugar, mace, nutmeg and caraway seeds and mix these ingredients well together. Whisk the eggs, stir to them the brandy and beat the cake again for ten minutes. Put it into a tin lined with buttered paper and bake it from one and a half to two hours. This cake would be equally nice made with currants and omitting the caraway seeds. Time one and a half to two hours, average cost two shilling six pence, seasonable at any time. Bread making in Spain. The bread in the south of Spain is delicious. It is white as snow, close as cake and yet very light. The flavour is most admirable for the wheat is good and pure and the bread well needed. The way they make this bread is as follows. From large round panniers filled with wheat they take out a handful at a time sorting it most carefully and expeditiously and throwing every defective grain into another basket. This done the wheat is ground between two circular stones as it was ground in Egypt two thousand years ago, see number one one seven. The requisite rotary motion being given by a blindfolded mule which paces round and round with untiring patients a bell being attached to his neck which as long as he is in movement tinkles on and when it stops he is urged to his duty by the shout of Aremula from someone within hearing. When ground the wheat is sifted through three the last of these being so fine that only the pure flour can pass through it. This is of a pale apricot colour. The bread is made in the evening. It is mixed with only sufficient water with a little salt in it to make it into dough. A very small quantity of leaven or fermenting mixture is added. The scripture says a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump but in England to avoid the trouble of kneading many put as much leaven or yeast in one batch of household bread as in Spain would last them a week for the six or eight donkey loads of bread they send every night from their oven. The dough made it is put into sacks and carried on the donkey's backs to the oven in the centre of the village so as to bake it immediately it is needed. On arriving there the dough is divided into portions weighing three pounds each. Two long narrow wooden tables on trestles are then placed down the room and now a curious sight may be seen. About twenty men, bakers, come in and range themselves on one side of the tables. A lump of dough is handed to the nearest which he commences kneading and knocking about with all his might for about three or four minutes and then passes it on to his neighbour who does the same and so on successively until all have kneaded it when it becomes as soft as new putty and ready for the oven. Of course as soon as the first baker has handed the first lump to his neighbour another is given to him and so on till the whole quantity of dough is successfully kneaded by them all. The baker's wives and daughters shape the loaves for the oven and some of them are very small and they are baked immediately. The ovens are very large and not heated by fires under them but a quantity of twigs of the herbs of sweet marjoram and thyme which cover the hills in great profusion are put in the oven and ignited. They heat the oven to any extent required and as the bread gets baked the oven gets gradually colder so the bread is never burned. They need the bread in Spain with such force that the palm of the hand and the second joints of the fingers of the bakers are covered with corns and it so affects the chest that they cannot work more than two hours at a time. Snow cake. 1777. Ingredients. Half a pound of toulomoy, quarter a pound of white pounded sugar, quarter a pound of fresh or washed salt butter, one egg, the juice of one lemon. Mode. Beat the butter to a cream then add the egg previously well beaten and then the other ingredients. If the mixture is not light add another egg and beat for quarter of an hour until it turns white and light. Line a flat tin with raised edges with a sheet of buttered paper. Pour in the cake and put it into the oven. It must be rather slow and the cake not allowed to brown at all. If the oven is properly heated one to one and a quarter hours will be found long enough to bake it. Let it cool a few minutes then with a clean sharp knife cut it into small square pieces which should be gently removed to a large flat dish to cool before putting away. This will keep for several weeks. Time one to one and a quarter hours, average cost one shilling three pints seasonable at any time. Snow cake. A genuine scotch recipe. 1778. Ingredients. One pound of arrow root, half a pound of pounded white sugar, half a pound of butter, the whites of six eggs flavouring to taste of essence of almonds or vanilla or lemon. Mode. Beat the butter to a cream, stir in the sugar and arrow root gradually at the same time beating the mixture. Whisk the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth. Add them to the other ingredients and beat well for twenty minutes. Put in whichever of the above flavourings may be preferred. Pour the cake into a buttered mould or tin and bake it in a moderate oven from one to one and a half hours. Time one to one and a half hours, average cost with the best Bermuda arrow root four shilling six pints with St Vincent Ditto two shilling nine pints. Sufficient to make a moderate sized cake, seasonable at any time. Scrap cakes. 1779. Ingredients. Two pounds of leaf or the inside fat of a pig, one and a half pounds of flour, quarter pound of moist sugar, half a pound of currants, one ounce of candied lemon peel ground allspice to taste. Mode. Cut the leaf or fleed as it is sometimes called into small pieces. Put it into a large dish which place in a quick oven, be careful that it does not burn and in a short time it will be reduced to oil with the small pieces of leaf floating on the surface and it is of these that the cakes should be made. Gather all the scraps together, put them into a basin with the flour and rub them well together. Add the currants, sugar, candied peel, cut into thin slices and the ground allspice. When all these ingredients are well mixed, moisten with sufficient cold water to make the whole into a nice paste, roll it out thin, cut it into shapes and bake the cakes in a quick oven from 15 to 20 minutes. These are very economical and wholesome cakes for children and the lard melted at home produced from the fleed is generally better than that you purchase. To prevent the lard from burning and to ensure it's being a good colour, it is better to melt it in a jar placed in a saucepan of boiling water. By doing it in this manner there will be no chance of its discolouring. Time 15 to 20 minutes, sufficient to make 3 or 4 dozen cakes seasonable from September to March. Wheat is liable to several diseases which affect the flour made from it and render it unfit for good bread. The principle of these are the blight, mildew and smut which are occasioned by microscopic fungi which sow themselves and grow upon the stems and ears, destroying the nutritive principles and introducing matter of a deleterious kind. The farmer is at the utmost pains to keep away these intruders. Wheat as well as all kinds of corn is also very liable to be injured by being stacked before it is quite dry in which case it will heat and become musty in the ricks. In wet harvests it is sometimes impossible to get it sufficiently dried and a great deal of corn is thus often spoiled. It is generally reckoned that the sweetest bread is made from wheat threshed out before it is stacked which shows the importance of studying the best modes of preserving it. The erudite are not agreed as to the aboriginal country of corn. Some say it is Egypt, others Tartary and the learned Bailey as well as the travel of Pallas affirms that it grows spontaneously in Siberia. Be that as it made, the Phocians brought it to Marseille before the Romans had penetrated into Gaul. The Gauls ate the corn cooked or bruised in a mortar they did not know for a long time how to make fermented bread. Scotch shortbread 1780, ingredients, two pounds of flour, one pound of butter, quarter a pound of pounded loaf sugar, half an ounce of caraway seeds, one ounce of sweet almonds, a few strips of candied orange peel. Mode. Beat the butter to a cream, gradually dredge in the flour and add the sugar, caraway seeds and sweet almonds which should be blanched and cut into small pieces. Work the paste until it is quite smooth and divide it into six pieces. Put each cake on a separate piece of paper, roll the paste out square to the thickness of about an inch and pinch it upon all sides. Prick it well and ornament with one or two strips of candied orange peel. Put the cakes into a good oven and bake them from 25 to 30 minutes. Time, 25 to 30 minutes, average cost for this quantity two shillings, sufficient to make six cakes seasonable at any time. Note where the flavour of the caraway seeds is disliked omit them and add rather a larger proportion of candied peel. Soda cake, 1781, ingredients, quarter a pound of butter, one pound of flour, half a pound of currants, half a pound of moist sugar, one tea cup full of milk, three eggs, one teaspoonful of carbonate of soda. Mode. Rub the butter into the flour, add the currants and sugar and mix these ingredients well together. Whisk the eggs well, stir them to the flour etc with the milk in which the soda should be previously dissolved and beat the whole up together with a wooden spoon or beater. Divide the dough into two pieces, put them into buttered moulds or cake tins and bake in a moderate oven for nearly an hour. The mixture must be extremely well beaten up and not allowed to stand after the soda is added to it but must be placed in the oven immediately. Great care must also be taken that the cakes are quite done through which may be ascertained by thrusting a knife into the middle of them. If the blade looks bright when withdrawn they are done. If the tops acquire too much colour before the inside is sufficiently baked cover them over with a piece of clean white paper to prevent them from burning. Time one hour, average cost one shilling sixpence, sufficient to make two small cakes seasonable at any time. Savoy cake, 1782, ingredients, the weight of four eggs in pounded loaf sugar, the weight of seven in flour, a little grated lemon rind or essence of almonds or orange flour water. Mode, break the seven eggs putting the yolks into one basin and the whites into another. Whisk the former and mix with them the sugar, the grated lemon rind or any other flavouring to taste. Beat them well together and add the whites of the eggs whisked to a froth. Put in the flour by degrees continuing to beat the mixture for a quarter of an hour, butter a mould, pour in the cake and bake it from one and a quarter to one and a half hours. This is a very nice cake for dessert and may be iced for a supper table or cut into slices and spread with jam which converts it into sandwiches. Time one and a quarter to one and a half hours, average cost one shilling, sufficient for one cake, seasonable at any time. Spongebake one, 1783, ingredients, the weight of eight eggs in pounded loaf sugar, the weight of five in flour, the rind of one lemon, one tablespoon full of brandy. Mode. Put the eggs into one side of the scale and take the weight of eight in pounded loaf sugar and the weight of five in good dry flour. Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs, beat the former, put them into a saucepan with the sugar and let them remain over the fire until milk warm, keeping them well stirred. Then put them into a basin, add the grated lemon rind mixed with the brandy, and stir these well together, dredging in the flour very gradually. Whisk the whites of the eggs to a very stiff froth, stir them to the flour, etc, and beat the cake well for a quarter of an hour. Put it into a buttered mould, strewn with a little fine sifted sugar, and bake the cake in a quick oven for one and a half hours. Care must be taken that is put into the oven immediately or it will not be light. The flavouring of this cake may be varied by adding a few drops of essence of almonds instead of the grated lemon rind. Time one and a half hours, average cost one shelling three pence, sufficient for one cake, seasonable at any time. Egyptian wheat. The Egyptian or mummy wheat is not grain to any great extent owing to its inferior quality, but it is notable for its large produce and is often cultivated on allotment grounds on small farms where quantity rather than quality is desired. At Wix, in Essex, the seed of this wheat has produced, without artificial assistance, four thousand fold. Some of the ears have had eleven offshoots and have contained together eleven grains in one ear. Spongebake two, one seven eight four, ingredients. Half a pound of loaf sugar, not quite quarter of a pint of water, five eggs, one lemon, half a pound of flour, quarter of a teaspoon full of carbonate of soda. Mode. Boil the sugar and water together until they form a thick syrup, let it cool a little, then pour it to the eggs which should be previously well whisked, and after the eggs and syrup are mixed together continue beating them for a few minutes. Grate the lemon rind, mix the carbonate of soda with the flour, and stir these lightly to the other ingredients, then add the lemon juice, and when the whole is thoroughly mixed, pour it into a buttered mould and bake in rather a quick oven for rather more than one hour. The remains of sponge or Savoy cakes answer very well for trifles, like puddings, etc., and a very stale one, if not mouldy, makes an excellent tipsy cake. Time rather than one hour, average cost to tempents, sufficient to make one cake seasonable at any time. To make small sponge cakes, one seven eight five, ingredients. The weight of five eggs in flour, the weight of eight in pounded loaf sugar, flavouring to taste. Mode. Let the flour be perfectly dry and the sugar well pounded and sifted. Separate the whites from the yolks of the eggs, and beat the latter up with the sugar, then whisk the whites until they become rather stiff, and mix them with the yolks, but do not stir them more than is just necessary to mingle the ingredients well together. Dredge in the flour by degrees, add the flavouring, batter the tins well, pour in the batter, sift a little sugar over the cakes, and bake them in rather a quick oven, but do not allow them to take too much colour as they should be rather pale. Remove them from the tins before they get cold, and turn them on their faces, where let them remain until quite cold, when store them away in a closed tin canister or wide-mouthed glass bottle. Time ten to fifteen minutes in a quick oven, average cost one pence each, seasonable at any time. Teacakes. 1786. Ingredients. Two pounds of flour, half a teaspoon full of salt, quarter a pound of butter or lard, one egg, a piece of German yeast the size of a walnut, warm milk. Mode. Put the flour, which should be perfectly dry, into a basin, mix with it the salt, and rub in the butter or lard, then beat the egg well, stir to it the yeast, and add these to the flour with as much warm milk as will make the whole into a smooth paste, and knead it well. Let it rise near the fire, and when well risen, form it into cakes. Place them on tins, let them rise again for a few minutes before putting them into the oven, and bake from a quarter to half an hour in a moderate oven. These are very nice, with a few currants and a little sugar added to the other ingredients, they should be put in after the butter is rubbed in. These cakes should be buttered and eaten hot as soon as baked, but when stale they are very nice split and toasted, or if dipped in milk or even water, and covered with a basin in the oven till hot, they will be almost equal to new. Time, quarter to half an hour, average cost, 10 pence, sufficient to make eight teacakes, seasonable at any time. To toast teacakes, 1787. Cut each teacake into three or four slices, according to its thickness. Toast them on both sides before a nice clear fire, and as each slice is done, spread it with butter on both sides. When a cake is toasted, pile the slices one on the top of the other, cut them into quarters, put them on a very hot plate, and send the cakes immediately to table. As they are wanted, send them in hot, one or two at a time, as if allowed to stand they spoil, unless kept in a muffin plate over a basin of boiling water. A nice yeast cake, 1788. Ingredients. One and a half pounds of flour, half a pound of butter, half a pint of milk, one and a half tablespoonfuls of good yeast, three eggs, three quarters of a pound of currants, half a pound of white moist sugar, two ounces of candied peel. Mode. Put the milk and butter into a saucepan, and shake it round over a fire until the butter is melted, but do not allow the milk to get very hot. Put the flour into a basin, stir to it the milk and butter, the yeast and eggs which should be well beaten, and form the whole into a smooth dough. Let it stand in a warm place covered with a cloth to rise, and when sufficiently risen, add the current sugar and candied peel cut into thin slices. When all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, line two moderate sized cake tins with buttered paper, which should be about six inches higher than the tin. Pour in the mixture, let it stand to rise again for another half an hour, and then bake the cakes in a brisk oven for about one and a half hours. If the tops of them become too brown, cover them with paper until they are done through. A few drops of essence of lemon or a little grated nutmeg may be added when the flavour is liked. Time from one and a quarter to one and a half hours, average cost two shillings, sufficient to make two moderate sized cakes seasonable at any time. End of section 83. Section 84 of the Book of Household Management This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Sarah Jennings. The Book of Household Management by Isabella Beaton. Chapter 36 General Observations on Beverages Beverages are innumerable in their variety, but the ordinary beverages drunk in the British Isles may be divided into three classes. One, beverages of the simplest kind, not fermented. Two, beverages consisting of water containing a considerable quantity of carbonic acid. Three, beverages composed partly of fermented liquours. Of the first class may be mentioned water, toast and water, barley water, au sucre, laise sucre, cheese and milk whey, milk and water, lemonade, orangeade, sherbet, apple and pear juice, apillaire, vinegar and water, raspberry vinegar and water. Of the common class of beverages consisting of water impregnated with carbonic acid gas, we may name soda water, single and double, ordinary effervescing drafts and ginger beer. The beverages composed partly of fermented liquours are hot, spiced wines, bishop, egg flip, egg hot, ale posset, sack posset, punch and spirits and water. We will, however, forthwith treat on the most popular of our beverages, beginning with the one which makes the cup that cheers but not inebriates. The beverage called tea has now become almost a necessary of life. Previous to the middle of the 17th century it was not used in England, and it was wholly unknown to the Greeks and Romans. Pepis says in his diary, September 25, 1661, I sent for a cup of tea, a china drink, of which I had never drunk before. Two years later it was so rare a commodity in England that the English East India Company bought two pounds, two ounces of it, as a present for His Majesty. In 1666 it was sold in London for 60 shillings a pound. From that date the consumption has gone on increasing from 5,000 pounds to 50 million pounds. Linnaeus was induced to think that there were two species of tea plant, one of which produced the black and the other the green teas. But later observations do not confirm this. When the leaves of black and green tea are expanded by hot water and examined by the botanist, though a difference of character is perceived, yet this is not sufficient to authorize considering them as distinct species. The tea tree flourishes best in temperate regions. In China it is indigenous. The part of China where the best tea is cultivated is called by us, the tea country. The cultivation of the plant requires great care. It is raised chiefly on the sides of hills, and in order to increase the quantity and improve the quality of the leaves, the shrub is pruned, so as not to exceed the height of from two to three feet, much in the same manner as the vine is treated in France. They pluck the leaves, when selecting them according to the kinds of tea required. And notwithstanding the tediousness of the operation, each laborer is able to gather from four to ten or fifteen pounds a day. When the tree is attained to six or seven years of age, the produce becomes so inferior that they are removed to make a room for a fresh succession, or they are cut down to allow of numerous young shoots. Teas of the finest flavor consist of the youngest leaves, and as these are gathered out four different periods of the year, the younger the leaves, the higher flavored the tea, and the scarcer, and consequently the dearer, the article. The various names by which teas are sold in the British market are corruptions of Chinese words. There are about a dozen different kinds, but the principal are Bohia, Conju, and Suchang, and signify respectively inferior, middling, and superior. Teas are often perfumed and flavored with the leaves of different kinds of plants grown on purpose. Different tea farms in China produce teas of various qualities, raised by skillful cultivation on various soils. Tea, when chemically analyzed, is found to contain woody fiber, mucilage, a considerable quantity of the astringent principle, or tannin, a narcotic principle which is perhaps connected with a peculiar aroma. The tannin is shown by it striking a black color with sulfate of iron, and is the cause of the dark stain which is always formed when tea is spilt upon buff-colored cottons dyed with iron. A constituent called Thien has also been discovered in tea, supposed to be identical with caffeine, one of the constituents of coffee. Leibig says, Thien yields in certain processes of decomposition a series of most remarkable products, which have much analogy with those derived from uric acid in similar circumstances. The infusion of tea differs from that of coffee by containing iron and manganese. We have in tea of many kinds, a beverage which contains the active constituents of the most powerful mineral springs, and however small the amount of iron may be which we daily take in this form, it cannot be destitute of influence on the vital processes. Chinese tea has frequently been adulterated in this country by the admixture of the dried leaves of certain plants. The leaves of the slow, white thorn, ash, elder, and some others have been employed for this purpose, such as the leaves of the speedwell, wild germander, black currants, syringia, purple spiked willow herb, sweet briar, and cherry tree. Some of these are harmless, others are to a certain degree poisonous, as for example are the leaves of all the varieties of the plum and cherry tribe to which the slow belongs. Adulteration by means of these leaves is by no means a new species of fraud, and several acts of parliament from the time of George II have been passed, specifying severe penalties against those guilty of the offence, which notwithstanding numerous convictions, continues to the present time. In the purchase of tea, that should be chosen which possesses an agreeable odor, and is as whole as possible in order that the leaf may be easily examined. The greatest care should be taken that it has not been exposed to the air, which destroys its flavour. It would be impossible in this space at our command to enumerate the various modes adopted in different countries for making coffee. That is, the phrase commonly understood to mean the complete preparation of this delicious beverage for drinking. For performing this operation, such recipes or methods as we have found most practical will be inserted in their proper place, but the following facts connected with coffee will be found highly interesting. The introduction of coffee into this country is comparatively of recent date. We are assured by Bruce that the coffee tree is a native of Abyssinia, and it is said to have been cultivated in that country from time immemorial. It appears that coffee was first introduced into England by Daniel Edwards, a turkey merchant whose servant Pasqua, a Greek, understood the manner of roasting it. This servant under the patronage of Edwards established the first coffee house in London, in George Yard, Lumberd Street. Coffee was then sold at four or five guineas a pound, and a duty was soon afterwards laid upon it of four pence a gallon, when made into a beverage. In the course of two centuries, however, this berry, unknown originally as an article of food, except to some savage tribes on the confines of Abyssinia, has made its way through the whole of the civilized world. Mohammedans, of all ranks, could drink coffee twice a day. It is in universal request in France, and the demand for it throughout the British Isles is daily increasing. The more especially since so much attention has been given to the mechanical contrivances for roasting and grinding the berry, and preparing the beverage. Of the various kinds of coffee, the Arabian is considered the best. It has grown chiefly in the districts of Aden and Mocha, once the name of our Mocha coffee. Mocha coffee has a smaller and rounder bean than any other, and likewise a more agreeable smell and taste. The next in reputation and quality is the Java and Ceylon coffee, and then the coffees of Bourbon and Martinique, and that of Burbus, a district of the colony of British Guyana. The Jamaica and San Domingo coffees are less esteemed. A considerable change takes place in the arrangement of the constituents of coffee by the application of heat and roasting it. Independently of one of the objects of roasting, namely that of destroying its toughness and rendering it easily ground, its tannin and other principles are rendered partly soluble in water, and it is to the tannin that the brown color of the decoction of coffee is owing. An aromatic flavor is likewise developed during torrefaction, which is not perceived in the raw berry, and which is not produced in the greatest perfection until the heat has arrived at a certain degree of temperature, but if the heat be increased beyond this the flavor is again dissipated, and little remains but a bitter and astringent matter with carbon. The roasting of coffee in the best manner requires great nicety, and much of the qualities of the beverage depends upon the operation. The roasting of coffee for the dealers in London and Paris has now become a separate branch of business, and some of the roasters perform the operation on a great scale with considerable skill. Roasted coffee loses from twenty to thirty percent by sufficient roasting, and the powder suffers much by exposure to the air. But well raw, it not only does not lose its flavor for a year or two, but improves by keeping. If a cup of the best coffee be placed upon a table boiling hot, it will fill the room with its fragrance. But the coffee, when warmed again after being cold, will be found to have lost most of its flavor. To have coffee in perfection, it should be roasted and ground just before it is used, and more should not be ground at a time than is wanted for immediate use. Or if it be necessary to grind more, it should be kept closed from the air. Coffee readily imbibes exhalations from other substances, and thus often acquires a bad flavor. Brown sugar placed near it will communicate a disagreeable flavor. It is stated that the coffee in the West Indies has often been injured by being laid in rooms near the sugar works, or where rum is distilled, and the same effect has been produced by bringing coffee over in the same ships with rum and sugar. Dr. Mosley mentions that a few bags of pepper on board a ship from India spoiled a whole cargo of coffee. With respect to the quantity of coffee used in making the decoction, much depends upon the taste of the consumer. The greatest and most common felt in English coffee is the too small quantity of the ingredient. Count Rumford says that to make good coffee for drinking after dinner, a pound of good mocha coffee, which when roasted and ground weighs only 13 ounces, serves to make 56 full cups, or a little less than a quarter of an ounce to a coffee-cup of moderate size. End of Section 84 Section 85 of the Book of Household Management This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Sarah Jennings The Book of Household Management by Isabella Beaton Recipes Chapter 37 Part 1 To Make Chocolate 1807 Ingredients Allow half ounce of chocolate to each person. To every ounce, allow half a pint of water, half a pint of milk. Mode Make the milk and water hot. Scrape the chocolate into it, and stir the mixture constantly and quickly until the chocolate is dissolved. Bring it to the boiling point, stir it well, and serve directly with white sugar. Chocolate prepared in a mill, as shown in the engraving, is made by putting in the scraped chocolate, pouring over it the boiling milk and water, and milling it over the fire until hot and frothy. Sufficient. Allow half ounce of cake chocolate to each person. Chocolate and Coco Both these preparations are made from the seeds or beans of the cocoa tree, which grows in the West Indies and South America. The Spanish, and the proper name, is cacao, not cocoa, as it is generally spelled. From this mistake, the tree from which the beverage is procured has been often confounded with the palm that produces the edible cocoa nuts, which are the produce of the cocoa tree, cocos nusifera, whereas the tree from which chocolate is procured is very different. The Theobroma cacao The cocoa tree was cultivated by the Aboriginal inhabitants of South America, particularly in Mexico, where according to Humboldt it was reared by Montezuma. It was transplanted thence into other dependencies of the Spanish monarchy in 1520, and it was so highly esteemed by Linnaeus as to receive from him the name now conferred upon it of Theobroma, a term derived from the Greek and signifying food for gods. Chocolate has always been a favorite beverage among the Spaniards and Creoles, and was discovered here as a great luxury when first introduced after the discovery of America. But the high duties laid upon it can find it long almost entirely to the wealthier classes. Before it was subjected to duty, Mr. Brian Edwards stated that cocoa plantations were numerous in Jamaica, but that the duty caused their almost entire ruin. The removal of this duty has increased their cultivation. To make Essence of Coffee, 1808 Ingredients To every quarter pound of ground coffee, allow one small teaspoonful of powdered chicory, three small tea cupfuls, or one pint of water. Mode Let the coffee be freshly ground, and if possible freshly roasted. Put it into a percolator or filter with the chicory, and pour slowly over it the above proportion of boiling water. When it has all filtered through, warm the coffee sufficiently to bring it to the simmering point, but do not allow it to boil. Then filter it a second time, and put it into a clean and dry bottle, cork it well, and it will remain good for several days. Two tablespoonsful of this essence are quite sufficient for a breakfast cupful of hot milk. This essence will be found particularly useful to those persons who have to rise extremely early, and having only the milk to make boiling is very easily and quickly prepared. When the essence is bottled, pour another three tea cupfuls of boiling water slowly on the grounds, which when filtered through will be a very weak coffee. The next time there is essence to be prepared, make this weak coffee boiling, and pour it on the ground coffee instead of plain water. By this means a better coffee will be obtained. Never throw away the grounds without having made use of them in this manner, and always cork the bottle well that contains this preparation, until the day that it is wanted for making the fresh essence. Time to be filtered once, then brought to the boiling point, and filtered again. Average cost, with coffee at one shilling eight pence per pound, six pence. Sufficient, allow two tablespoonsful for a breakfast cupful of hot milk. To roast coffee, a French recipe, 1809. It being an acknowledged fact that French coffee is decidedly superior to that made in England, and as the roasting of the berry is of great importance to the flavour of the preparation, it will be useful and interesting to know how they manage these things in France. In Paris there are two houses justly celebrated for the flavour of their coffee, La Maison Corsolette and La Maison Royer de Chartres. And to obtain this flavour, before roasting they add to every three pounds of coffee a piece of butter the size of a net, and a dessert spoon full of powdered sugar. It is then roasted in the usual manner. The addition of the butter and sugar develops the flavour and aroma of the berry, but it must be borne in mind that the quality of butter must be of the very best description. To make coffee, 1810. Ingredients. Allow four ounces or one tablespoonful of ground coffee to each person. To every ounce of coffee allow one third pint of water. Mode. To make coffee good it should never be boiled, but the boiling water merely poured on it, the same as for tea. The coffee should always be purchased in the berry, if possible freshly roasted, and it should never be ground long before it is wanted for use. There are very many new kinds of coffee pots, but the method of making the coffee is nearly always the same, namely pouring the boiling water on the powder, and allowing it to filter through. Our illustration shows one of Loy cell's hydrostatic urns, which are admirably adapted for making good and clear coffee, which should be made in the following manner. Warm the urn with boiling water. Remove the lid and movable filter, and place the ground coffee at the bottom of the urn. Put the movable filter over this and screw the lid inverted tightly on the end of the center pipe. Pour into the inverted lid the above proportion of boiling water, and when all water so poured has disappeared from the funnel, and made its way down the center pipe and up again through the ground coffee by hydrostatic pressure, unscrew the lid and cover the urn. Pour back direct into the urn, not through the funnel, one, two, or three cups, according to the size of the percolator, in order to make the infusion of uniform strength. The contents will then be ready for use, and should be run from the tap strong, hot, and clear. The coffee made in these urns generally turns out very good. There is but one objection to them. The coffee runs rather slowly from the tap. This is of no consequence when there is a small party, but tedious where there are many persons to provide for. A remedy for this objection may be suggested, namely to make the coffee very strong, so that not more than one third of a cup would be required, as the rest would be filled up with milk. Making coffee in filters or percolators does away with the necessity of using eisinglass, white of egg, and various other preparations to clear it. Coffee should always be served very hot, and if possible in the same vessel in which it is made, as pouring it from one pot to another cools and consequently spoils it. Many persons may think that the proportion of water we have given for each ounce of coffee is rather small. It is so, and the coffee produced from it will be very strong. A third of a cup will be found quite sufficient, which should be filled with nice hot milk, or milk and cream mixed. This is the cafe au lait for which our neighbours over the channel are so justly celebrated. Should the ordinary method of making coffee be preferred, use double the quantity of water, and in pouring it into the cups, put in more coffee and less milk. Sufficient for very good coffee, allow half ounce or one tablespoon full to each person. A very simple method of making coffee, 1811. Ingredients Allow half ounce or one tablespoon full of coffee to each person. To every ounce, allow one pint of water. Mode Have a small iron ring made to fit the top of a coffee pot inside, and to this ring sew a small muslin bag. The muslin for the purpose must not be too thin. Fit the bag into the pot. Pour some boiling water in it, and when the pot is well warmed, put the ground coffee into the bag. Pour over as much boiling water as required. Close the lid, and while all the water has filtered through, remove the bag and send the coffee to table. Making it in this manner prevents the necessity of pouring the coffee from one vessel to another, which cools and spoils it. The water should be poured on the coffee gradually so that the infusion may be stronger, and the bag must be well made so that none of the grounds may escape through the seams, and so make the coffee thick and muddy. Sufficient, allow one tablespoon full or half ounce to each person. The coffee plant grows to the height of about 12 or 15 feet, with leaves not unlike those of the common laurel, although more pointed and not so dry and thick. The blossoms are white, much like those of jasmine, and issue from the angles of the leaf stalks. When the flowers fade, they are succeeded by the coffee bean, or seed, which is enclosed in the berry of a red color, when ripe resembling a cherry. The coffee beans are prepared by exposing them to the sun for a few days, that the pulp may ferment and throw off a strong, acidulous moisture. They are then gradually dried for about three weeks, and put into a mill to separate the husk from the seed. Café au lait, 1812. This is merely very strong coffee, added to a large proportion of good hot milk. About 16 tablespoons full of strong coffee, being quite sufficient for a breakfast cup full of milk. Of the essence number 1808, which answers admirably for café au lait, so much would not be required. This preparation is infinitely superior to the weak watery coffee so often served at English tables. A little cream mixed with the milk, if the latter cannot be depended on for richness, improves the taste of the coffee, as also the richness of the beverage. Sufficient, six tablespoons full of strong coffee, or two tablespoons full of the essence, to a breakfast cup of milk. Tea and Coffee It is true, says Liebing, that thousands have lived without a knowledge of tea and coffee, and daily experience teaches us that under certain circumstances they may be dispensed with without disadvantage to the merely animal functions, but it is an error certainly to conclude from this that they may be altogether dispensed with in reference to their effects. And it is a question whether, if we had no tea or no coffee, the popular instinct would not seek for and discover the means of replacing them. Science, which accuses us of so much in these respects, will have in the first place to ascertain whether it depends on sensual and sinful inclinations merely that every people of the globe have appropriated some such means of acting on the nervous life, from the shore of the Pacific, where the Indian retires from life for days in order to enjoy the blissful intoxication with cocoa, to the Arctic regions where chemistat stales and koriakis prepare an intoxicating beverage from a poisonous mushroom. We think it, on the contrary, highly probable, not to say certain, that the instinct of man feeling certain blanks, certain wants of the intensified life of our times, which cannot be satisfied or filled up by mere quantity, has discovered in these products of vegetable life the true means of giving to his food the desired and necessary quality. Café noir, 1813 This is usually handed round after dinner, and should be drunk well sweetened with the addition of a little brandy or liqueur, which may be added or not at pleasure. The coffee should be made very strong and served in very small cups, but never mixed with milk or cream. Café noir may be made of the essence of coffee, number 1808, by pouring a tablespoonful into each cup and filling it up with boiling water. This is a very simple and expeditious manner of preparing coffee for a large party, but the essence for it must be made very good and kept well corked until required for use. To make tea, 1814 There is very little art in making good tea, if the water is boiling and there is no sparing of the fragrant leaf, the beverage will almost invariably be good. The old fashioned plan of allowing a teaspoonful to each person and one over is still practiced. Warm the teapot with boiling water, let it remain for two or three minutes for the vessel to become thoroughly hot, then pour it away. Put in the tea, pour in from half to three-quarter pint of boiling water, close the lid, and let it stand for the tea to draw from five to ten minutes, then fill up the pot with water. The tea will be quite spoiled unless made with water that is actually boiling, as the leaves will not open and the flavor will not be extracted from them. The beverage will consequently be colorless and tasteless, in fact nothing but tepid water. Where there is a very large party to make tea for, it is a good plan to have two teapots instead of putting a large quantity of tea into one pot. The tea, besides, will go farther. When the infusion has been once completed, the addition of fresh tea adds very little to the strength, so when more is required, have the pot emptied of the old leaves, scalded, and fresh tea made in the usual manner. Economists say that a few grains of carbonate of soda, added before the boiling water is poured on the tea, assist to dry out the goodness. If the water is very hard, perhaps it is a good plan as the soda softens it, but care must be taken to use this ingredient sparingly as it is liable to give the tea a soapy taste if added in too large a quantity. For mixed tea, the usual proportion is four spoonfuls of black to one of green, more of the latter when the flavor is very much light, but strong green tea is highly pernicious and should never be partaken of too freely. Time, two minutes to warm the teapot, five to ten minutes to draw the strength from the tea. Sufficient, allow one teaspoonful to each person and one over. Tea, the tea tree, or shrub, belongs to the class and order of monadelfia polyandria in the Linnaean system, and to the natural order of Orantieciae in the system of Jisou. Lately it has been made into a new order, the theacea, which includes the chamelea and some other plants. It commonly grows to the height of from three to six feet, but it is said that in its wild or native state it reaches twenty feet or more. In China it is cultivated in numerous small plantations. In its general appearance and the form of its leaf, it resembles the myrtle. The blossoms are white and fragrant, not unlike those of the wild rose, but smaller, and they are succeeded by soft green capsules containing each from one to three white seeds. These capsules are crushed for oil, which is in general use in China. An excellent substitute for milk or cream in tea or coffee. Ingredients Allow one new laid egg to every large breakfast cup full of tea or coffee. Mode Beat up the whole of the egg in a basin, and put it into a cup, or a portion of it if the cup be small, and pour it over the tea or coffee very hot. These should be added very gradually and stirred all the time to prevent the egg from curdling. In point of nourishment both these beverages are much improved by this addition. Sufficient Allow one egg to every large breakfast cup full of tea or coffee. To make cocoa, 1816. Ingredients Allow two teaspoonfuls of the prepared cocoa to one breakfast cup. Boiling milk and boiling water. Mode Put the cocoa into a breakfast cup. Pour over it sufficient cold milk to make it into a smooth paste. Then add equal quantities of boiling milk and boiling water, and stir all well together. Care must be taken not to allow the milk to get burnt, as it will entirely spoil the flavor of the preparation. The above directions are usually given for making the prepared cocoa. The rock cocoa, or that bought in a solid piece, should be scraped and made in the same manner, taking care to rub down all the lumps before the boiling liquid is added. Sufficient. Two teaspoonfuls of prepared cocoa for one breakfast cup, or one quarter ounce of the rock cocoa for the same quantity. Calslip wine, 1817. Ingredients To every gallon of water allow three pounds of lump sugar, the rind of two lemons, the juice of one, the rind and juice of one sevill orange, one gallon of calslip pips. To every four and a half gallons of wine allow one bottle of brandy. Mode. Boil the sugar and water together for half hour, carefully removing all the scum as it rises. Pour this boiling liquor on the orange and lemon rinds, and the juice which should be strained. When milk warm, add the calslip pips or flowers, picked from the stalks and seeds, and to nine gallons of wine, three tablespoons full of good fresh breers yeast. Let it ferment three or four days, then put all together in a cask with the brandy, and let it remain for two months, when bottle it off for use. Time to be boiled half hour, to ferment three or four days, to remain in the cask two months. Average cost exclusive of the calslips, which may be picked in the fields, two shilling nine pence per gallon. Seasonable. Make this in April or May. Elder wine, 1818. Ingredients To every three gallons of water, allow one peck of elderberries. To every gallon of juice, allow three pounds of sugar, a half ounce of ground ginger, six cloves, one pound of good turkey raisins, half a pint of brandy to every gallon of wine. To every nine gallons of wine, three or four tablespoons of fresh brewers yeast. Mode. Pour the water quite boiling on the elderberries, which should be picked from the stalks, and let these stand covered for 24 hours. Then strain the whole through a sieve or bag, breaking the fruit to express all the juice from it. Measure the liquor, and to every gallon, allow the above proportions of sugar. Boil the juice and sugar with the ginger, cloves, and raisins for one hour, skimming the liquor the whole time. Let it stand until milk warm. Then put it into a clean dry cask, with three or four tablespoons of good fresh yeast to every nine gallons of wine. Let it ferment for about a fortnight. Then add the brandy, bung up the cask, and let it stand some months before it is bottled, when it will be found excellent. A bunch of hops, suspended to a string from the bung, some persons say, will preserve the wine good for several years. Elder wine is usually mulled, and served with zippets of toasted bread and a little grated nutmeg. Time to stand covered 24 hours, to be boiled one hour. Average cost, when made at home, three shillings six pence per gallon. Seasonable, make this in September. Elderberry wine. The elderberry is well adapted for the production of wine. Its juice contains a considerable portion of the principle necessary for a vigorous fermentation, and its beautiful color communicates a rich tint to the wine made from it. It is however deficient in sweetness, and therefore demands an addition of sugar. It is one of the very best of the genuine old English wines, and a cup of it, mulled, just previous to retiring to bed on a winter night, is a thing to be run for, as Cobbett would say. It is not, however, agreeable to every taste. Ginger wine. 1819. Ingredients. To nine gallons of water, allow 27 pounds of loaf sugar, nine lemons, 12 ounces of bruised ginger, three tablespoonfuls of yeast, two pounds of raisins, stoned and chopped, one pint of brandy. Mode. Boiled together for one hour in a copper, let it previously be well scoured and beautifully clean. The water, sugar, lemon rinds, and bruised ginger. And remove every particle of scum as it rises, and when the liquor is sufficiently boiled, put it into a large tub or pan. As it must not remain in the copper. When nearly cold, add the yeast, which must be thick and very fresh. And the next day put all in a dry cask with the strained lemon juice and chopped raisins. Stir the wine every day for a fortnight. Then add the brandy, stop the cask down by degrees, and in a few weeks it will be fit to bottle. Average cost, two shillings per gallon. Sufficient to make nine gallons of wine. Seasonable. The best time for making this wine is either in March or September. Note, wine made early in March will be fit to bottle in June. Gooseberry vinegar, an excellent recipe, 1820. Ingredients, two pecks of crystal gooseberries, six gallons of water, 12 pounds of foots of sugar of the coarsest brown quality. Mode, mash the gooseberries, which should be quite ripe, in a tub with a mallet. Put to them the water nearly milk warm. Let this stand for 24 hours, then strain it through a sieve, and put the sugar to it. Mix it well, and ton it. These proportions are for a nine gallon cask, and if it be not quite full, more water must be added. Let the mixture be stirred from the bottom of the cask two or three times daily, for three or four days, to assist the melting of the sugar. Then paste a piece of linen cloth over the bunghole, and set the cask in a warm place, but not in the sun. Any corner of a warm kitchen is the best situation for it. The following spring it should be drawn off into stone bottles, and the vinegar will be fit for use 12 months after it is made. This will be found in most excellent preparation, greatly superior to much that is sold under the name of the best white wine vinegar. Many years experience has proved that pickle made with this vinegar will keep, when bought vinegar will not preserve the ingredients. The cost per gallon is merely nominal, especially to those who reside in the country and grow their own gooseberries. The coarse sugar is then the only ingredient to be purchased. Time to remain in the cask nine months. Average cost, when the gooseberries have to be purchased, one chilling per gallon, when they are grown at home, six pence per gallon. Seasonable. This should be made the end of June or the beginning of July, when gooseberries are ripe and plentiful. Effervescing gooseberry wine, 1821. Ingredients. To every gallon of water allow six pounds of green gooseberries, three pounds of lump sugar. Mode. This wine should be prepared from unripe gooseberries in order to avoid the flavor which the fruit would give to the wine when in a mature state. Its briskeness depends more upon the time of bottling than upon the unripe state of the fruit, for effervescing wine can be made from fruit that is ripe as well as that which is unripe. The fruit should be selected when it has nearly attained full growth, and consequently before it shows any tendency to ripen. Any bruised or decayed berries and those that are very small should be rejected. The blossom and stalk ends should be removed, and the fruit well bruised in the tub or pan, in such quantities as to ensure every berry being broken without crushing the seeds. Pour the water, which should be warm, on the fruit. Squeeze and stir it with the hand until all the pulp is removed from the skin and seeds, and cover the whole closely for 24 hours. After which, strain it through a coarse bag, and press it with as much forces can be conveniently applied to extract the whole of the juice and liquor the fruit may contain. To every 40 or 50 pounds of fruit, one gallon more of hot water may be passed through the mark or husks in order to obtain any soluble matter that may remain, and be again pressed. The juice should be put into a tub or pan of sufficient size to contain all of it, and the sugar added to it. Let it be well stirred until the sugar is dissolved, and place the pan in a warm situation. Keep it closely covered and let it ferment for a day or two. It must then be drawn off into clean casks, placed a little on one side for the scum that arises to be thrown out, and the casks kept filled with the remaining must, that should be reserved for that purpose. When the active fermentation has ceased, the casks should be plugged upright, again filled if necessary, the bungs be put in loosely, and after a few days when the fermentation is a little more languid, which may be known by the hissing noise ceasing, the bungs should be driven in tight, and a spile hole need to give vent if necessary. About November or December, on a clear fine day, the wine should be racked from its leaves into clean casks, which may be rinsed with brandy. After a month it should be examined to see if it is sufficiently clear for bottling. If not, it must be fined with isinglass, which may be dissolved in some of the wine. One ounce will be sufficient for nine gallons. In March or April when the gooseberry bushes begin to blossom, the wine must be bottled, in order to ensure its being effervescing. Seasonable. Make this the end of May or beginning of June, before the berries ripen. End of Section 85. Section 86 of the Book of Household Management. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Sarah Jennings. The Book of Household Management by Isabella Beaton. Recipes. Chapter 37 Part 2. Lemon Syrup. 1822. Ingredients. Two pounds of loaf sugar. Two pints of water. One ounce of citric acid. Twelve drams of essence of lemon. Mode. Boil the sugar and water together for a quarter of an hour, and put into a basin, where let it remain till cold. Beat the citric acid to a powder. Mix the essence of lemon with it. Then add these two ingredients to the syrup. Mix well and bottle for use. Two tablespoons full of the syrup are sufficient for a tumbler of cold water, and will be found very refreshing summer drink. Sufficient. Two tablespoons full of syrup to a tumbler full of cold water. Lemon wine. 1823. Ingredients. Two four and a half gallons of water. Allow the pulp of 50 lemons, the rind of 25, 16 pounds of loaf sugar, half ounce of eising glass, one bottle of brandy. Mode. Peel and slice the lemons, but use only the rind of 25 of them, and put them into the cold water. Let it stand eight or nine days, squeezing the lemons well every day. Then strain the water off, and put it into a cask with the sugar. Let it work some time, and when it has ceased working, put in the eising glass. Stop the cask down, in about six months put in the brandy, and bottle the wine off. Seasonable. The best time to make this is in January or February, when lemons are best and cheapest. Malt wine. 1824. Ingredients. Five gallons of water, 28 pounds of sugar, six quarts of sweet wort, six quarts of ton, three pounds of raisins, half pound of candy, one pint of brandy. Mode. Boil the sugar and water together for 10 minutes. Skim it well, and put the liquor into a convenient sized pan or tub. Allow it to cool, then mix with it the sweet wort and ton. Let it stand for three days, then put it into a barrel. Here it will work or ferment for another three days or more. Then bung up the cask, and keep it undisturbed for two or three months. After this add the raisins whole, the candy, and brandy, and in six months time bottle the wine off. Those who do not brew may procure the sweet wort and ton from any brewer. Sweet wort is the liquor that leaves the mash of malt before it is boiled with the hops. Ton is the new beer after the whole of the brewing operation has been completed. Time. To be boiled 10 minutes, to stand three days after mixing, to ferment three days, to remain in the cask two months before the raisins are added. Bottle six months after. Seasonable. Make this in March or October. Who made noyau? 1825. Ingredients. Two ounce of bitter almonds. One ounce of sweet ditto. One pound of loaf sugar. The rinds of three lemons. One quart of Irish risky or gin. One tablespoon full of clarified honey. Four pints of new milk. Mode. Blanch and pound the almonds, and mix with them the sugar, which should also be pounded. Boil the milk. Let it stand till quite cold. Then mix all the ingredients together and let them remain for 10 days, shaking them every day. Filter the mixture through blotting paper. Bottle off for use in small bottles and seal the corks down. This will be found useful for flavoring many sweet dishes. Average cost. Two shillings, nine pence. Sufficient to make about 24 pints of noyau. Seasonable. Maybe made at any time. Orange brandy. Excellent. 1826. Ingredients. To every one gallon of brandy, allow three-quarter pint of civil orange juice. One and a quarter pound loaf sugar. Mode. To bring out the full flavor of the orange peel, rub a few lumps of the sugar on two or three unpaired oranges, and put these lumps to the rest. Mix the brandy with the orange juice, strained. The rinds of the six oranges paired very thin. And the sugar. Let all stand in a closely covered jar for about three days, stirring it three or four times a day. When clear, it should be bottled and closely corked for a year. It will then be ready for use, but will keep any length of time. This is a most excellent stomach kick when taken pure in small quantities. Or as the strength of the brandy is very little deteriorated by the other ingredients, it may be diluted with water. Time. To be stirred every day for three days. Average cost, seven chilings. Sufficient to make two quarts. Seasonable. Make this in March. A very simple and easy method of making a very superior orange wine, 1827. Ingredients. 90 civil oranges. 32 pounds of lump sugar. Water. Mode. Break up the sugar into small pieces, and put it into a dry, sweet, nine gallon cask, placed in a cellar or other storehouse where it is intended to be kept. Have ready close to the cask, two large pans or wooden keelers, into one of which put the peel of the oranges paired quite thin, and into the other the pulp after the juice has been squeezed from it. Strain the juice through a piece of double muslin, and put it into the cask with the sugar. Then pour about one and a half gallons of cold spring water on both the peels and pulp. Let it stand for 24 hours, and then strain it into the cask. Add more water to the peels and pulp when this is done, and repeat the same process every day for a week. It should take about a week to fill up the cask. Be careful to apportion the quantity as nearly as possible to the seven days, and to stir the contents of the cask each day. On the third day after the cask is full, that is the tenth day after the commencement of making, the cask may be securely bunged down. This is a very simple and easy method, and the wine made according to it will be pronounced to be the most excellent. There is no troublesome boiling, and all fermentation takes place in the cask. When the above directions are attended to, the wine cannot fail to be good. It should be bottled in eight or nine months, and will be fit for use in a twelve month after the time of making. Ginger wine may be made in precisely the same manner, only with the nine gallon cask for ginger wine, two pounds of the best whole ginger, bruised, must be put in with the sugar. It will be found convenient to tie the ginger loosely in a muslin bag. Time, altogether ten days to make it. Average cost, two shilling six pence per gallon. Sufficient for nine gallons. Seasonable, make this in March, and bottle it the following January. Raspberry vinegar, 1828. Ingredients. To every three pints of the best vinegar, allow four and a half pints of freshly gathered raspberries. To each punch of liquor, allow one pound of pounded loaf sugar, one wine glass full of brandy. Mode. Let the raspberries be freshly gathered. Pick them from the stalks, and put one and a half pints of them into a stone jar. Pour three pints of the best vinegar over them, and let them remain for twenty-four hours. Then strain the liquor over another one and a half pints of fresh raspberries. Let them remain another twenty-four hours, and the following day repeat the process for the third time. Then drain off the liquor without pressing, and pass it through a jelly bag, previously wetted with plain vinegar, into a stone jar. Add to every pint of the liquor one pound of pounded loaf sugar, stir them together, and when the sugar is dissolved cover the jar. Set it upon the fire in a saucepan of boiling water, and let it boil for an hour, removing the scum as fast as it rises. Add to each pint a glass of brandy, bottle it, and seal the corks. This is an excellent drink in case of fevers and colds. It should be diluted with cold water according to the taste or requirement of the patient. Time to be boiled one hour. Average cost, one shilling per pint. Sufficient to make two quarts. Seasonable. Make this in July or August, when raspberries are most plentiful. Rhubarb wine, 1829. Ingredients. To every five pounds of rhubarb pulp, allow one gallon of cold spring water. To every gallon of liquor allow three pounds of loaf sugar, half ounce of eyes and glass, the rind of one lemon. Mode. Gather the rhubarb about the middle of May. Wipe it with a wet cloth, and with a mallet, bruise it in a large wooden tub or other convenient means. When reduced to a pulp, weigh it, and to every five pounds add one gallon of cold spring water. Let these remain for three days, stirring three or four times a day, and on the fourth day, press the pulp through a hair sieve. Put the liquor into a tub, and to every gallon put three pounds of loaf sugar. Stir in the sugar until it is quite dissolved. Add the lemon rind. Let the liquor remain, and in four, five, or six days the fermentation will begin to subside, and a crust or head will be formed, which should be skimmed off, or the liquor drawn from it, when the crust begins to crack or separate. Put the wine into a cask, and if after that it ferments, rack it off into another cask, and in a fortnight stop it down. If the wine should have lost any of its original sweetness, add a little more loaf sugar, taking care that the cask is full. Bottle it off in February or March, and in the summer it should be fit to drink. It will improve greatly by keeping, and should a very brilliant colour be desired, add a little current juice. Seasonable. Make this about the middle of May. Welsh nectar, 1830. Ingredients. One pound of raisins, three lemons, two pounds of loaf sugar, two gallons of boiling water. Mode. Cut the peel of the lemons very thin. Pour upon it the boiling water, and when cool, add the strange juice of the lemons, the sugar and the raisins, stoned and chopped very fine. Let it stand four or five days, stirring it every day. Then strain it through a jelly bag, and bottle it for present use. Time. Four or five days. Average cost. One shilling, nine pence. Sufficient to make two gallons. Claret cup, 1831. Ingredients. One bottle of claret. One bottle of soda water, about half pound of pounded ice, four tablespoons full of powdered sugar, a quarter teaspoon full of grated nutmeg, one liqueur glass of maraschino, a sprig of green borage. Mode. Put all the ingredients into a silver cup, regulating the proportion of ice by the state of the weather. If very warm, a larger quantity would be necessary. Hand the cup round with a clean napkin, passed through one of the handles, that the edge of the cup may be wiped after each guest has partaken of the contents thereof. Seasonable in summer. Claret. All those wines called in England, claret, are the produce of the country round bordeaux, or the bordeaux de l'Aise, but it is remarkable that there is no pure wine in France known by the name of claret, which is a corruption of claret, a term that is applied there to any red or rose-colored wine. Round bordeaux are produced a number of wines of the first quality, which pass under the name simply of vend de bordeaux, or have the designation of the particular district where they are made, as lafite, la tour, etc. The claret's brought to the English market are frequently prepared for it by the wine growers by mixing together several bordeaux wine, or by adding to them a portion of some other wines, but in France the pure wines are carefully preserved to distinct. The genuine wines of bordeaux are of great variety, that part being one of the most distinguished in France, and the principal vineyards are those of Medoc, Pellis, Graves, and Blanche, the product of each having characters considerably different. Champagne cup, 1832. Ingredients One quart bottle of champagne, two bottles of soda water, one liqueur glass of brandy or caraco, two tablespoons full of powdered sugar, one pound of pounded ice, a sprig of green borage. Mode Put all the ingredients into a silver cup, stir them together, and serve the same as claret cup, number 1831. Should the above proportion of sugar not be found sufficient to suit some tastes, increase the quantity. When borage is not easily obtainable, substitute for it a few slices of cucumber rind. Seasonable Suitable for picnics, balls, weddings, and other festive occasions. Champagne This, the most celebrated of French wines, is the produce chiefly of the province of that name, and is generally understood in England to be a brisk, effervescing, or sparkling white wine of a very fine flavour. But this is only one of the varieties of this class. There is both red and white champagne, and each of these may be either still or brisk. There are the sparkling wines, mousseau, and the still wines, non mousseau. The brisk are in general the most highly esteemed, or at least are the most popular in this country, on account of their delicate flavour, and the agreeable pungency which they derive from the carbonic acid they contain, and to which they owe their briskness. Ginger beer, 1833. Ingredients Two and a half pounds of loaf sugar, one and a half ounce of bruised ginger, one ounce of cream of tartar, the rind and juice of two lemons, three gallons of boiling water, two large tablespoons full of thick and fresh brewers yeast. Mode Peel the lemons, squeeze the juice, strain it, and put the peel and juice into a large earthen pan with the bruised ginger, cream of tartar, and loaf sugar. Pour over these ingredients three gallons of boiling water. Let it stand until just warm when add the yeast, which should be thick and perfectly fresh. Stir the contents of the pan well, and let them remain near the fire all night, covering the pan over with the cloth. The next day skim off the yeast, and pour the liquor carefully into another vessel, leaving the sediment, then bottle immediately, and tie the corks down, and in three days the ginger beer will be fit for use. For some tastes the above proportion of sugar may be found rather too large when it may be diminished, but the beer will not keep so long good. Average cost for this quantity two shillings, or half pence per bottle, sufficient to fill four dozen ginger beer bottles. Seasonable, this should be made during the summer months. Lemonade, 1834. Ingredients The rind of two lemons, the juice of three large or four small ones, one pound of loaf sugar, one quart of boiling water. Mode Rub some of the sugar in lumps on two of the lemons until they have imbibed all the oil from them, and put them in with the remainder of the sugar into a jug. Add the lemon juice, but no pips, and pour over the whole a quart of boiling water. When the sugar is dissolved, strain the lemonade through a fine sieve or piece of muslin, and when cool it will be ready for use. The lemonade will be much improved by having the white of an egg beaten up in it. A little sherry mixed with it also makes this beverage much nicer. Average cost, six pence per quart. Lemonade There is a current opinion among women, says Brilat Saberin, which every year causes the death of many young women, that acids, especially vinegar, are preventatives of obesity. Beyond all doubt, acids have the effect of destroying obesity, but they also destroy health and freshness. Lemonade is of all acids the most harmless, but few stomachs can resist it long. I knew, in 1776, at Dijon, a young lady of great beauty, to whom I was attached by bonds of friendship, great, almost as those of love. One day, when she had for some time gradually grown pale and thin, previously she had a slight embon point. She told me in confidence that as her young friends had ridiculed her for being fat, she had, to counteract the tendency, been in the habit of every day drinking a large glass of vinegar. She died at eighteen years of age from the effects of these potions. To make Neegis, 1835 Ingredients To every pint of port wine, allow one quart of boiling water, half pound of sugar, one lemon, grated nutmeg to taste. Mode As this beverage is usually drunk at children's parties than at any other, the wine need not be very old or expensive for the purpose. A new fruity wine answering very well for it. Put the wine into a jug, rub some lumps of sugar equal to a quarter pound on the lemon rind until all the yellow part of the skin is absorbed, then squeeze the juice and strain it. Add the sugar and lemon juice to the port wine with the grated nutmeg. Pour over it the boiling water, cover the jug, and when the beverage has cooled a little it will be fit for use. Neegis may also be made of sherry or any other sweet white wine, but it is more usually made of port than of any other beverage. Sufficient. Allow one pint of wine with the other ingredients in proportion for a party of nine or ten children. A pleasant drink for warm weather. 1836 Ingredients To every one and a half pint of good ale allow one bottle of ginger beer. Mode For this beverage the ginger beer must be in an ever-vessing state and the beer not in the least turned or sour. Mix them together and drink immediately. The draft is refreshing and wholesome as the ginger corrects the action of the beer. It does not deteriorate by standing a little, but of course is better when taken fresh. For a summer draft 1837 Ingredients The juice of one lemon A tumbler full of cold water Pounded sugar to taste Four small teaspoonful of carbonate of soda Mode Squeeze the juice from the lemon Strain and add it to the water with sufficient pounded sugar to sweeten the whole nicely. When well mixed put in the soda Stir well and drink while the mixture is in an ever-vessing state. To mull wine 1838 Ingredients To every pint of wine allow one large cup full of water sugar and spice to taste. Mode In making preparations like the above it is very difficult to give the exact proportions of ingredients like sugar and spice as what quantity might suit one person would be to another quite distasteful. Boil the spice in the water until the flavor is extracted then add the wine and sugar and bring the whole to the boiling point when served with strips of crisp dry toast or with biscuits The spices usually used for mulled wine are cloves, grated nutmeg, and cinnamon or mace. Any kind of wine may be mulled but port and claret are those usually selected for the purpose and the latter requires a very large proportion of sugar. The vessel that the wine is boiled in must be delicately clean and should be kept exclusively for the purpose. Small tin warmers may be purchased for a trifle which are more suitable than sauce pans as if the latter are not scrupulously clean they will spoil the wine by imparting to it a very disagreeable flavor. These warmers should be used for no other purpose. To make hot punch 1839 Ingredients Half pint of rum half pint of brandy quarter pound of sugar one large lemon half teaspoon full of nutmeg one pint of boiling water Mode Rub the sugar over the lemon until it has absorbed all the yellow part of the skin then put the sugar into a punch bowl Add the lemon juice free from pips and mix these two ingredients well together Pour over them the boiling water Stir well together Add the rum, brandy, and nutmeg Mix thoroughly and the punch will be ready to serve It is very important in making good punch that all the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated and to ensure success the processes of mixing must be diligently attended to Sufficient Allow a quart for four persons but this information must not be taken cum grano salis for the capacities of persons for this kind of beverage are generally supposed to vary considerably Punch is a beverage made of various spiritus liquors or wine, hot water the acid juice of fruits, and sugar It is considered to be very intoxicating but this is probably because the spirit being partly sheathed by the musilaginous juice and the sugar its strength does not appear to the taste so great as it really is Punch, which is almost universally drunk among the middle classes about 50 or 60 years ago has almost disappeared from our domestic tables being superseded by wine There are many different varieties of punch it is sometimes kept cold in bottles and makes a most agreeable summer drink In Scotland, instead of the Madeira or Sherry generally used in its manufacture whiskey is substituted and then its insidious properties are more than usually felt Where fresh lemons cannot be had for punch or similar beverages crystallized citric acid and a few drops of the essence of lemon will be very nearly the same thing In the composition of Regents Punch Champagne, Brandy, and Veritable Martinique are required Norfolk Punch requires Seville Oranges Milk Punch may be extemporized by adding a little hot milk to lemonade and then straining it through a jelly bag Then there are Wine Punch, Tea Punch, and French Punch made with lemons, spirits, and wine in fantastic proportions But of all the compounds of these materials perhaps for a summer drink the North American Mint Julep is the most inviting Captain Mariat gives the following recipe for its preparation Put into a tumbler about a dozen sprigs of the tender shoots of mint Upon them put a spoonful of white sugar and equal proportions of peach and common brandy so as to fill up a third or perhaps a little less Then take rasped or pounded ice and fill up the tumbler Epicures rub the lips of the tumbler with a piece of fresh pineapple and the tumbler itself is very often encrusted outside with stalactites of ice As the ice melts you drink The Virginians, say Captain Mariat, claim the merit of having invented this superb compound but from a passage in the commas of Milton he claims it for his own country Whisky cordial, 1840 Ingredients One pound of ripe white currants The rind of two lemons A quarter ounce of grated ginger One quart of whiskey One pound of lump sugar Mode Strip the currants from the stalks Put them into a large jug Add the lemon rind, ginger and whiskey Cover the jug closely and let it remain covered for 24 hours Strain through a hair sieve Add the lump sugar and let it stand 12 hours longer Then bottle and cork well Time to stand 24 hours before being strained 12 hours after the sugar is added Seasonable Make this in July End of section 86