 Section 25 of the Complete Confectioner by Hannah Glass. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. English Wines Part 2 To Make Birch Wine This being a liquor but little known, we shall be as particular as possible in the directions for it. The season for getting the liquor from birch trees sometimes happens the latter end of February or beginning of March before the leaves shoot out as the sap begins to rise, and this is according to the mildness or rigor of the weather, and if the time is delayed the juice will grow too thick to be drawn out which should be as thin and clear as possible. The method of procuring the juice is by boring holes in the trunk of the tree and fixing faucets made of elder, but care should be taken not to tap it in too many places at once for fear of hurting the tree. If the tree is large it may be bored in five or six places at once and place bottles to let it drop in. When you have extracted a proper quantity, three, four or five gallons from different trees, cork the bottles very close and rosin or wax them till you begin to make your wine which should be as soon as possible after you have got the juice. As soon as you begin, boil the sap as long as you can take off any scum and put four pounds of fine loaf sugar to every gallon of the juice and the peel of a lemon cut thin. Then boil it again for near an hour, scumming it all the while and pour it into a tub. When it is almost cold, work it with a toast spread with yeast and let it stand five or six days, stirring it twice or three times a day. Then take a cask that will contain it and put a lighted match dipped well in brimstone into the cask. Stop it till the match is burnt out and then turn your wine into it, putting the bung lightly in till it has done working. Bung it very close for about three months and bottle it off for use. It will be ready in a week after it is put in the bottles. It is a very wholesome, pleasant and rich cordial and very serviceable in curing consumptions and particularly useful in scorbutic disorders. To make wines of plums, damsons, etc. Take what plums you please, mix those of a sweet taste with an ally of those that are somewhat sour, though they must all be inclining to ripeness. Slit them in halves so that the stones may be taken out, then mash them gently and add a little water and honey. The better to moisten them, boil to every gallon of your pulp a gallon of spring water and put in a few bay leaves and cloves. Add as much sugar as will sweeten it. Come off the froth and let it cool, then press the fruit, squeezing out the liquid part. Strain all through a fine strainer and put the water and juice all together into a cask. Let it stand and ferment for three or four days. Fine it with white sugar, flour and whites of eggs. Pour it off into bottles and cork it up that the air may not injure it. In twelve days it will be ripe and taste like sherry, or rather a nearer flavour of canary. Damsons may be ordered as other plums, though they produce a tarter wine, more clear and lasting, but do not put so much water to them as to luscious plums, unless you mix some sweet wine with it, as malagar, canary or the like, or infuse raisins of the sun in it, which will give it a rich mellow taste. These as other wines made of English fruit are moderately cooling, purify the blood and cleanse the reins, cause a freeness of urine and contribute much to soft slumbers and quiet rest, by sending up gentle refreshing spirits to the brain, which dispel heat and noxious vapours and put that noble part in a right temperature. To make wine of English figs. Take the large blue figs, pretty ripe, steep them in white wine, having made some slits in them that they may swell and gather in the substance of the wine. Then slice some other figs and let them simmer over a fire in fair water, till they are reduced to a kind of pulp. Strain out the water, pressing the pulp hard, and pour it as hot as possible to those figs that are infused in the wine. Let the quantity be near equal, the water somewhat more than the wine and figs. Having infused 24 hours, mash them well together and draw off all that will run voluntarily. Then press the rest, and if it proves not pretty sweet, add loaf sugar to render it so. Let it ferment and add a little honey and sugar candy to it, then fine it with whites of eggs and a little eisen glass, draw it off and keep it for use. It is chiefly appropriated to defects of the lungs, helping shortness of breath, removing colds or inflammations of the lungs. It also comforts the stomach and eases pains of the bowels. To make rose wine. Put a glass basin or body, or for want of it, a well-glazed earthen vessel, and put into it three gallons of rose water, drawn with a cold still. Put into it a convenient quantity of rose leaves. Cover it close, and put it for an hour in a kettle or cauldron of water, heating it over the fire to take out the whole strength and tincture of the roses. And when cold, press the rose leaves hard into the liquor, and steep fresh ones in, repeating it till the liquor has got a full strength of roses. Then to every gallon of liquor, add three pounds of loaf sugar. Stir it well, that it may melt and disperse in every part. Then put it into a cask or other convenient vessel to ferment. And to make it do so the better, add a little fixed niter and flour, with two or three whites of eggs. Let it stand to cool about thirty days, and it will be ripe and have a curious flavour, having the whole strength and scent of the roses in it. And you may add, to meliorate it, some wine and spices, as your taste or inclination leads you. By this way of infusion, wine of carnations, clove ghillie flowers, violets, primroses or any flower having a curious scent may be made, to which, to prevent repetition, you are referred. Wines thus made, are not only pleasant in taste, but rich and medicinal, being excellent for strengthening the heart, refreshing the spirits and gently cooling the body, making it lennative, and so purges the first digestion of phlegm, and even colour. It abates the heat of the fever, quenches thirst, mitigates the inflammation of the entrails, and on many occasions serves for a good counter-poison. To make Kelslip Wine Put five pounds of loaf sugar to four gallons of fair water. Simmer them over a fire half an hour, to well dissolve the sugar, and when it is taken off and cold, put in half a peck of Kelslip flowers, clean pecked, and gently bruised. Then put in two spoonfuls of new ale yeast, and a pound of syrup of lemons beaten with it, with a lemon peel or two. Pour the whole into a well-seasoned cask or vessel. Let them stand close-stopped for three days, that they may ferment well. Then put in some juice of Kelslip, and give it a convenient space to work. When it has stood a month, draw it off into bottles, putting a little lump of loaf sugar into each, by which means you may keep it well the space of a year. In like manner you may make wine of such other flowers as are of a pleasant taste and scent, as oxlips, jessamine, peach blooms, comfrey, scabians, featherfew, fumatory, and many more, as your fancy and taste may lead you. This wine, moderately drank, much helps the palsy, cramp, convulsions, and all other diseases of the nerves and sinews. It also eases pains of the joints and gout, and greatly contributes to the curing of ruptures. To make scurvy grass wine Take the best large scurvy grass tops and leaves in May, June or July, bruise them well in a stone mortar, put them in a well-glazed earthen vessel, and sprinkle them over with some powder of crystal of tartar, then smear them over with virgin honey, and, being covered close, let it stand twenty-four hours. Then set water over a gentle fire, putting to every gallon three pints of honey, and when the scum rises take it off and let it cool. Put your bruised scurvy grass into a barrel and pour the liquor to it, setting the vessel conveniently end ways with a tap at the bottom, and when it has been infused twenty-four hours draw off the liquor and strongly press the juice and moisture out of the herb into the barrel or vessel, and put the liquor up again. Then put a little new ale yeast to it, and let it ferment three days, covering the place of the bung or vent with a piece of bread spread over with mustard seed downward in a cool place, and let it continue till it is fine, and drinks brisk. Then draw off the finest part, leaving only the dregs behind. Add more herb and ferment it with whites of eggs, flour, and fixed knight of ur juice, or the juice of green grapes, if they are to be had. To which add six pounds of the syrup of mustard, all mixed and well beaten together, to refine it down, and it will drink brisk, but not very pleasant. It helps digestion, warms cold stomachs, carries off phlegm, purifies the blood, purges out salt, watery humours, cleanses the bowels from cold slimeiness, eases pains in the limbs, head, heart, and stomach, especially those proceeding from scorbutic humours, etc. To make wine of mint, balm, etc. distil the herb in the cold still, add honey to it, work as in scurvy grass, then refine it, and work it down by due proportion of its own syrup. By this means the wine will become very fragrant and contain the whole virtue of the herb. Wormwood wine, wine of roux, carduous, and such strong physical herbs may be made by infusion only in small white wines, cider, peri, or the like, adding a little sweets to them that they may be more agreeable to the taste. Wine of black currants may be made as of other currants, and is very useful in all families. Wines made of mint, balm, wormwood, roux, etc. resist pestilential air, are good in agues and cold diseases, prevent fits of the mother and agues, ease pains in the joints and sinews, cleanse the blood, and frequently prevent apoplexies, epilepsies, and the like. They not only contain the virtues of the herb, but greatly strengthen and revive the decay of nature. To make orange wine Put twelve pounds of fine sugar and the whites of eight eggs well beaten into six gallons of spring water. Let it boil an hour, scumming it all the time. Take it off, and when it is pretty cool, put in the juice of fifty servile oranges and six spoonfuls of good ale yeast, and let it stand two days. Then put it in another vessel with two quarts of relish wine and the juice of twelve lemons. You must let the juice of lemons and wine and two pounds of double refined sugar stand close covered ten or twelve hours before you put it into the vessel to your orange wine, and scum off the seeds before you put it in. The lemon peels must be put in with the oranges, half the rinds must be put into the vessel, and it must stand ten or twelve days before it is fit to bottle. To make sage wine Boil twenty-six quarts of spring water a quarter of an hour, and when it is blood warm, put into it twenty-five pounds of malagar raisins picked, rubbed, and shred, with near half a bushel of red sage shred, and a poringer of ale yeast. Stir all well together, and let it stand in a tub covered warm six or seven days, stirring it once a day. Then strain it off, and put it in a runlet. Let it work three or four days, and then stop it up. When it has stirred six or seven days, put in a quart or two of malagar sack, and when it is fine, bottle it. To make sycamore wine Take two gallons of the sap of sycamore, and boil it half an hour, then add to it four pounds of fine powder sugar. Beat the whites of three eggs to a froth, and mix them with the liquor, but if it be too hot, it will poach the eggs. Boil it well, and boil it half an hour, then strain it through a hair sieve, and let it stand till next day. Then pour it clear from the sediment, put half a pint of good yeast to every twelve gallons, cover it close up with blankets till it is white over, after which put it into the barrel, and leave the bung-hole open till it has done working. Use it well up, let it stand three months, and bottle it. The fifth part of the sugar must be loaf, and if you like raisins, they are a great addition to the wine. To make turnip wine Take a good number of turnips, pair them, put them into a cider press, and squeeze out all the juice. To every gallon of juice, take three pounds of lump sugar. Have a vessel ready, just big enough to hold the juice, and put your sugar into a vessel. To every gallon of juice, add half a pint of brandy. Pour in the juice, and lay something over the bung for a week to see if it works. If it does, you must not bring it down till it has done working, then stop it close for three months, and draw it off into another vessel. When it is fine, bottle it off. To imitate Cyprus wine To nine gallons of water, put nine quarts of the juice of white elder berries, which has been pressed gently from the berries with the hand, and pass through a sieve without bruising the kernels of the berries. Add to every gallon of liquor three pounds of Lisbon sugar. To the whole quantity, put an ounce and a half of ginger sliced, and three quarters of an ounce of cloves. Then boil this near an hour, taking off the scum as it rises, and pour the whole to cool in an open tub, and work it with ale yeast, spread upon a toast of white bread for three days, and then turn it into a vessel that will just hold it, adding about a pound and a half of raisins of the sun's split to lie in liquor till you draw it off, which should not be till the wine is fine, which you will find in January. It is so much like the fine rich wine brought from Cyprus in its colour and flavour that it has deceived the best judges. To make ghillie flour wine. To three gallons of water, put six pounds of the best powdered sugar. Boil the sugar and water together for the space of half an hour. Keep scumming it as the scum rises. Let it stand to cool. Beat up three ounces of syrup of betony with a large spoonful of ale yeast. Put it into the liquor, let them infuse and work together three days, covered with a cloth. Strain it, put it into a cask, and let it settle for three or four weeks, when bottle it. To make mountain wine. Take fine Malaga raisins, pick all the stalks out, chop them very small, and put ten pounds of them to every two gallons of spring water. Let them steep three weeks, stirring them often. Then squeeze out the liquor, and put it into a vessel that will just hold it, but do not stop it till it has done hissing. Then bung it up close, and it will be fit for use in six months. To make orange wine with raisins. Take thirty pounds of new Malaga raisins, pick them clean, and chop them small. Then take twenty large Seville oranges, ten of which pair as thin as for preserving. Boil about eight gallons of soft water till a third part be consumed. Let it cool a little, then put five gallons of it hot upon your raisins and orange peel. Cover it well together, cover it up, and when it is cold let it stand five days, stirring it up once or twice every day. Then pass it through a hair sieve, and with a spoon press it as dry as you can. Put it in a rundler, fit for it, and add to it the rinds of the other ten oranges, cut as thin as the first. Then make a syrup of the juice of twenty oranges with a pound of white sugar. It must be made the day before you turn it up. Stir it well together, and stop it up close. Let it stand two months to clear, then bottle it up. It will keep three years, and is better for keeping. To make Smyrna raisin wine. Put twenty-four gallons of water to a hundred pounds of raisins. After letting it stand about fourteen days put it into your cask. When it has remained there six months put a gallon of brandy to it, and when it is fine bottle it. To make an excellent English wine. Take currants both red and white, gooseberries red and green, mulberries raspberries strawberries of different sorts, cherries but not little black ones, and grapes red and white. All the fruits must be full ripe, and take an equal quantity of each. Throw them into a tub, and bruise them lightly. Take golden pippins and nonpareils, chop and bruise them well, and mix them with the others. To every two gallons of fruit put one gallon of spring water, and boil it all together twice a day for a fortnight. Then press it through a hair bag into a vessel, and have ready a wine hog's head. Put into it a hundred raisins of the sun with their stalks, fill it with the strained juice, lay the bung on lightly, and when it has done hissing and working put in a gallon of the best French brandy, and stop the vessel close. Let it stand six months, then peg it and see if it be fine. If it is bottle it. If not stop it for six months longer, and then bottle it. The longer it is kept the better it will be. It is necessary you put in bay leaves with your brandy. To make, bitter a wine. Take two quarts of strong white wine, infuse in it one dram of rhubarb, one dram and a half of gentian root, Roman wormwood, tops of carduous, centauri, and chamomile flowers of each three drams. No peel of oranges, half an ounce, nutmegs, mace, and cloves of each one dram. Infuse all forty-eight hours, strain it, and drink a glass an hour before dinner. To make mead. Having got thirteen gallons of water, put thirty pounds of honey to it, boil and scum it well. Then take rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, and sweet briar, one handful altogether, boil it an hour. Then put it into a tub with two or three handfuls of ground malt. Stir it till it is blood warm. Then strain it through a cloth, and put it into a tub again. Cut a toast round a quart and loaf, and spread it over with good ale yeast, and put it into your tub. And when the liquor is quite over with the yeast, put it into your vessel. Then take of cloves, mace, and nutmegs, an ounce and a half, of ginger sliced, an ounce. Use the spice, tie it up in a rag, and hang it in the vessel. Then stop it up close for use. Another way to make mead. Take a gallon of honey, eight gallons of water, a quarter of a pound of ginger sliced, and six whites of eggs, beat with the shells. Put all these into a convenient vessel, and let them boil till a fourth part of the liquor be wasted, scumming it all the time. To each gallon of water, put a handful of rosemary. When your liquor is sufficiently boiled, put in the remainder of your ingredients. And when all is boiled, strain your liquor through a hair-save, and let it stand till it is thoroughly cold. Then put a pint of ale yeast into the vessel, and put in the liquor. If the weather be cold, let it stand two or three days before you bottle it. Another way to make mead. Take the honey out, and add as much water to the honeycombs as they will sweeten. Let it stand to mix, boil it well, and scum it. When an egg will swim at the top, it will be sufficiently boiled. Then put it into a wooden vessel, let it stand till cold, and bottle it in stone bottles. You may boil it either with lemon, thyme, rosemary, or cow slips. To make Frontiniac Mead. Take 50 pounds of honey, 50 pounds of Belvedere raisins, and 50 gallons of water. Boil these about 15 minutes, keeping it well scummed. Put it into the working tub, and put to it a pint of ale yeast, letting it work till the yeast begins to fall. When taken clear off, turn it with the raisins, and throw into the cask a quart of white elderflowers. Take care to attend it in change of weather. Let it continue in the cask 12 months, and then fine it down with winefining, and bottle it off. To make Kel Slip Mead. Take 15 gallons of water, and 30 pounds of honey, and boil them together till one gallon is wasted. Scum it, and take it off the fire. Have ready 16 lemons cut in halves. Put a gallon of the liquor to the lemons, and the rest into a tub with 7 packs of Kel Slips. Let them stand all night, then put in the liquor with the lemons, 8 spoonfuls of new yeast, and a handful of sweet briar. Stir them all well together, and let it work 3 or 4 days. Then strain it, and put it in your cask, and in 6 months time you may bottle it. General Observations Your vessel should be quite dry, and previously rinsed with brandy, and well bunged or closed up as soon as the wines have done fermenting. As it greatly depends on the flavour of the water you use, in order to have good tasted wines you must be careful to get the best. The water in London will not be proper, unless put for some time in earthen vessels to settle itself. Fine spring water is most proper if it can be readily got. Be careful not to let it stand too long before you get it cold, and remember to put in the yeast in time, or else your wine will fret in the cask, and be prevented fining. If you let it stand too long in the tub while working, it will lose the natural sweetness and flavour of the fruits and flowers it is made from. Lastly, let your fruit, berries etc., be always gathered quite dry, and in general when full ripe. End of Section 25, Section 26 of the Complete Confectioner by Hannah Glass. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Artificial wines etc. The method of making artificial wines, of recovering faded, and such wines as have lost their colour, and of racking, sweetening etc. of small wines, meeliorated. It is certain that weak wines may be raised and improved on the rich leaves of wine that is drawn off, and indeed it is common to draw off such small wines and put them on such leaves. By this the Prophet of the Vintners is greatly enlarged. We also see that wine is fed with proper food, as sweet flesh, salt of tartar, or the sweet and volatile spirit of tartar. But more especially with the quintessence of wine, essential salts, prepared oils, herbs and things of an aromatical nature. Why then may not small wine be greatly bettered by the animal spirit, or quintessence extracted from other wines? For the animal part of wine only, and nothing else, can increase the strength of wine. If the quintessence be drawn out of one small wine, and added to another, it will make that rich, though the other is altogether impoverished. For this reason it is better that one be lost, which may serve for vinegar, than both remain useless. This cannot be so well demonstrated by words as by practice, for which reason we shall give some examples to prove what has been said. To make artificial claret. Take the juice or water of clary, distill it in a cold still one part, red streak cider half a part, malaga raisins beaten in a mortar, six pounds, the fat mother of claret, one pound. Cover them in a closed vessel for fifteen days to ferment. Then draw off the liquor into another vessel, and to every gallon add half a pint of the juice of mulberries, blackberries or gooseberries, and a pint of the spirit of clary. To the whole put three spoonfuls of flour, and the whites of two new laid eggs with a drama vising glass. Beat these together, and add to the liquor two pounds of the syrup of clary, and it will refine down and be very rich, not distinguishable from the right claret, unless by those well skilled in wines. To make artificial malaga, canary wine, etc. Take a cask that has been well seasoned with right old malaga, new trimmet, and hoop it strong, leaving it open at one end, to which open end a close cover must be fitted to take off and put on at pleasure, and keep it in all seasons in a warm place. Fill it with spring or conduit water, and to every gallon of water add six pounds of the best malaga raisins, well bruised, and sprinkle on every twenty gallons a handful of calyx wine. Then place the cover close, and keep it warm with cloths fastened about it, and let it continue so four or five days to work and ferment. After that, open it to see if the raisins are floating on the top of the water. If you find they are, press them down again, and do so every four or five days, letting them stand three weeks or a month. Then tap the vessel three or four inches above the bottom, and try if the liquor tastes, and if it does not, let it stand longer, till it has got the true flavour. Then draw it off into another cask that has had malaga in it, and to every twenty gallons put a pint of the best aqua vitae, a quart of alicante wine, and two new-laid eggs beaten together, and let it stand in a vaulted cellar or such like place till it be fit for drinking. If it wants sweetness, put in a little fine loaf sugar, and it will abundantly answer your expectation, and the stashed with a little white wine, or brisk pip insider, may pass for canary. And thus not only artificial malaga may be made, but other artificial wines, for it cannot but be supposed that an ingenious person may, by these examples, invent and prepare other sorts of wines different from these in taste. For having once got a knowledge of the different herbs that bear a similarity to the different sulphur of the true wine, whether styptic, acid, mild, luscious, fat, or balsamic, so must the imitation of the different sorts of wines be, whether ribella, tent, rapidaevia, canary, or any others. As for white wine or renish, you may make them of sweeter or tartar-siders as you find in the directions given for making artificial claret, baiting the colouring, though you must be at the labour and the charge of finding them more on purpose to keep up a good body. To restore pricked wines Take the wine down to the leaves in another casque, where the leaves of good wine are fresh. Then take a pint of strong aqua vitae, scrape half a pound of yellow beeswax into it, and by heating the spirit over a gentle fire melt the wax. Then dip it in a cloth, and set it on fire with a brimstone match. Put it in flaming at the bung, and stop the casque close. To restore wines decayed by too much vent or souring. Stir it well with a flat-ended stick, till you have removed it in all parts and made it ferment, but do not touch the leaves. Then pour in a pint of aqua vitae, and stop it up close, and at the end of ten days it will be tolerably restored. Wine that is decayed by too much vent may be recovered by putting burning brimstone or hot crust of bread into it. For musty wines, or such as have got a twang of the casque. To remedy this, rack it off upon leaves of rich wine of the same sort, then put into a bag four ounces of the powder of Lenorel berries and two ounces of the filings of steel. Let it hang by a string in the middle of the wine, and so by degrees lower it as you draw it off. To prevent wine from turning. Put a pound of butter melted in fair water into your casque, pretty warm, and stop it close. To take away the ill scent of wine. Bake a long roller of dough stuck well with cloves. Let it thoroughly bake, and hang it in your casque, and it will remove the ill scent from the wine by gathering it to itself. To remedy a bitter or sour scent in wine. Take half a peck of barley and boil it in two quarts of water till one half of the water be wasted. Strain it, let it settle well, and pour it into the wine casque, stirring it without touching the leaves. To soften green wine. Put in a little vinegar, wherein litherage has been well steeped, and boil some honey to draw out the wax. Strain it through a cloth, and put a quarter of it into a tears, which will improve it in summer especially. Some when they perceive the wine turning, put in a stone of unslacked lime. This will make it very good. To keep wine from souring. Put a gallon of wine with some beaten oyster shells and crabs claws calcined. Strain out the liquid part, and when it is cool put it into green wine, and it will give it a pleasant, lively taste. To sweeten wine. Fill it upon the leaves, put a handful of the flowers of clary, and infuse in it. And a pound of mustard seed, dry ground, which must be sunk in a bag to the bottom of the casque. To make artificial marmsey. Take English gallingal and cloves of each a dram. Beat them to a powder, and infuse them a day and a night in a pint of aqua vitae, in a wooden vessel kept close covered. Then put it into good claret, and it will make twelve or fourteen gallons of fine marmsey in five or six days. The drugs may be hung in a bag in the casque. To make wine settle well. Take a pint of wheat, and boil it in a quart of water till it bursts and becomes very soft. Then squeeze it through a new linen cloth, and put a pint of the liquid part into a hog's head of unsettled white wine, and it will fine it. To make wormwood wine. Take a good brisk renish wine, or white wine, and put into it a pound of Roman wormwood in a bag, clean stripped from the stalks and well dried. And in ten or twelve days infusion it will give it a taste and curious colour beyond what it had before. This may be done as it is drawn by dropping three or four drops of chemical spirit, or oil of wormwood, into a quart of wine. To make rough claret. Put a quart of claret to two quarts of sloes, and bake them in a gentle oven till they have stewed out a great part of their moisture. Then pour off what is liquid, and squeeze out the rest. And half a pint of this will make ten gallons rough. To recover the lost colour of white wine, or renish wine. To do this effectually, rack the wine from the leaves, and if the colour of the wine be faint and tawny, put in cognac leaves, and pour the wine upon them, rolling and shaking them together a considerable time in the cask. In ten or twelve days, rack off the wine, and it will be of a proper colour, and drink brisk and fine. To prevent the decay of lowering wine. Take an ounce of roach alum powder, draw out four gallons of the wine, and strew the powder over it. Beat it well for the space of half an hour, then fill up the cask, and set it on broach, being careful to let it take vent. By this means, in three or four days, you will find it a curious brisk wine. To rack wine. This is done with such instruments as are useful, and appropriated to the manner of doing it, and cannot be so well described by words as by seeing it done. However, observe this in doing it. Let it be when the wind sets full north, and the weather is temperate and clear, that the air may the better agree with the constitution of the wine, and make it take more kindly. It is likewise most proper to do it in the increase of the moon, when she is under the earth, and not in full height, etc. To make wines, scent well, and give them a curious flavour. Take two ounces of powder of sulphur, half an ounce of calamus, incorporate them well together, and put them into a pint and a half of orange water. Let them steep in it a considerable time, and then, drawing off the water, melt the sulphur and calamus in an iron pan, and dip in it as many rags as will soak it up, which put into the cask. Then rack your wine and put in a pint of rose water, and stopping the hog's head, roll it up and down half an hour, after which let it continue still two days. And by so ordering any gascoin or red wine it will have a pleasant scent and taste. To mend wines that rope. When you have set your cask a brooch, place a coarse linen cloth before the bore, then put in the linen and rack it in a dry cask. Add five or six ounces of the powder of alum, roll and shake them sufficiently together, and upon settling it will be fined down and prove a very pleasant wine, both in taste and scent. To mend white or relish wines. If these wines have an unpleasant taste, the best way is speedily to draw them off and to one half of the wine put two gallons of new milk, a handful of basalt, and as much rice. Mix and beat them well together for half an hour, with a star for paddler. Then fill up the cask, and when you have rolled it well, turn it over in the leaves, and two or three days after you may brooch and it will drink very fine and brisk. Another way to mend white or relish wines. Take a gallon or more of morning's milk, put it into the cask, and mix it well with rolling. When you perceive it is quite settled, put in three or four ounces of icing glass, and about a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar, fine scraped. Then fill up the hog's head or other cask, and roll it four or five times over, and this will bring it to a colour and fineness. To meal your rate or better vicious wine. Take a pint of clarified honey, a pint of water, wherein raisins of the sun have been well steeped, and three quarters of a pint of good white wine or claret, according as the colour of your wine is. Let them simmer and boil a little over a gentle fire, to the consumption of a third part, taking off the scum as fast as it rises. Put it very hot into the vitiated wine, and let it stand, the bung-hole being open. Then put a little bruised mace, nutmegs and cloves into a linen bag, and hang it in the wine by a string for three or four days. By so doing, either new or old wine will not only be fine, but much bettered, for by this means they are restored from their foulness and decay, and yield a good scent and taste. You may, to make this work more perfect, when you take out the spice, hang in a small bag of white mustard seed, a little bruised. To make ice in summer for cooling wine. Take a stone bottle that will hold about three-quarters of water. Put into it three ounces of refined salt-peter, half an ounce of Florence orris, and fill it with water boiling hot. Stop it close, and immediately let it down into a well, where it must remain three or four hours. And when you break the bottle, you will find it full of hard ice. Or, for want of this opportunity, dissolve a pound of niter in a pail of water, and it will cool your bottles exceedingly. General Observations Take salt of tartar, and pour distilled vinegar on it till it is associated every time you draw off the phlegm, and then distill it into a coated retort by degrees. And rectify the oil through the spirit of vitriol, which will render it lucid, fragrant and very pleasant. A small quantity of the powder put in a linen rag, and hung in the cask, will refresh and meliorate, if not recover, foul, prect, or faded wine in a short time. Wines may also be enriched by essential and fragrant oils, made in such a manner as to incorporate with water or spirits of wine or other wine. After being diluted by proper fermentation, they are easily united, and the body of the wine much enriched. It is necessary to observe that although we have been very exact in specifying the particular quantity of each ingredient used in the making, as well as mending the wines treated of, yet every man's palate should be consulted by those who are employed to do the business, and your own judgment will direct you how to lessen or increase any part in proportion, according to the taste of the employer. End of section 26. Section 27 of the Complete Confectioner by Hannah Glass. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Brandy, cider, etc. To make cherry brandy. Take of black and morella cherries of each a light quantity, and fill your jar or bottle full. To every 12 pounds of cherries, put in half a pound of either plum or apricot kernels. Fill it up with French brandy, and the longer it stands, the better it will be. Current brandy may be made the same way. Another way to make cherry brandy. Take and pick eight pounds of black maroon cherries, and eight pounds of small black cherries. Put them in a mortar, and bruise them, or leave them whole if you choose. Put them into a cask, and pour six gallons of good brandy over them. Then put in two pounds of loaf sugar, broke to pieces, and a quart of sack. Stir all well up together, and let it stand two months. Then draw it off into pint bottles, cork it tight, and keep it for use. You may make it with morella cherries the same way. To make raspberry brandy. Take two gallons of raspberries, pick them from the stalks, bruise them with your hands, and put them into a cask. Pour eight gallons of good brandy over them. Put in two pounds of loaf sugar, beat fine, and a quart of sack. Stir all well up together, and let it stand a month. Then draw it off clear into another cask, and when it is fine, bottle it. Cork the bottles well, and keep it for use. To make Sir John Cope's shrub. Take two gallons of brandy, twenty-four genoa lemons, and peel the yellow rinds very thin. Throw away all the whites of the rinds, slice the lemons, and throw away the stones. Then let the yellow rind, and the lemons so sliced, infuse in the brandy five or six days. Drain them through a thick flannel, and put to the brandy a gallon of white wine or renish, with six pounds of white sugar. Bottle it up, and let it be close sealed. To make Currant Shrub. Take white currants full ripe, mash them with your hands, then strain them through a hair sieve, and to one gallon of rum or brandy, put five pints of the current juice and a pound of loaf sugar. Cover it up close, and let it stand two or three days, stirring it twice a day. Then run it through a jelly bag. It is best to put half the spirits to the juice, and add the other half when you bottle it off. To make Cider. Let your apples be thoroughly ripe. Press out the juice, and throw it into a tub or vat with a tap and canal in it. About thirty or forty hours after you have put it into the vat, you will observe a head to rise upon it. Take care not to disturb the head, or suffer it to break, which it will do if you neglect to draw off the cider at the proper time. When therefore your head is pretty thick, draw a glass of it now and then, and see whether it is fine. When you see it is fine, draw it off into a clean vessel. By this means you will get rid of a good deal of feces, which, if the head breaks, will mix again with the cider and not easily be discharged. When the cider is in the hog's head, it will begin, after a day or two, to sing or ferment again, which is discovered by putting your ear to the bung of your hog's head. Let it ferment for four or five days in order to raise a proper spirit, but no longer. To grate a fermentation, being apt to destroy that lusciousness which is necessary to preserve it, and give it a fine taste of the apple. After it has worked four or five days, rack it into another vessel matched with brimstone. The match of brimstone answers two ends. It stops the fermentation and, by keeping the body quiet, occasions the heavy particles to subside. By this means you will get your cider perfectly fine and keep up the strength and lusciousness of it, which, by too much fermentation, will necessarily go off. After you have got it thoroughly fine, you may rack it into another vessel matched with brimstone, and stop it up till the time of bottling, which is about May or the latter end of August. Or, if it be too luscious, not till the March following. However, do not rack it too often, because it weakens the cider, and occasions a good deal of the spirit to fly off. In the above method of making cider, it is to be observed that the chief intention is to stop the fermentation, to unlock or raise no more of the spirit than is necessary, and to preserve as much of the lusciousness as possible. The method is the same in the management of wines, and for the like reason. When you brew malt liquor, you can add spirit to it by an additional quantity of malt, but in wines and cider, you have but just a quantity of spirit, which therefore must be managed with prudence and frugality. The common fermentation which cider undergoes in bottles, will soon raise spirit enough, and make it like old wine, a noble, racy liquor. For in proportion as the spirit is raised by fermentation, the lusciousness goes off. But if you ferment it too much at first, the spirit will be exhausted, the lusciousness broke and carried off, and you will have nothing left but a rough, vapid, disagreeable liquor, such as you meet with among country farmers, who often ferment their cider so long, that it is fit for little else but to make vinegar. To make so John cope cider, good and fit for drinking in two or three days. Take any quantity of apples, pound them, and pour three gallons of water on each bushel. Put them into a tub or any other wooden vessel with a spigot near the bottom. Let them infuse 24 hours, then without pressing or shaking the vessel, draw off the liquor into bottles, which after two or three days will be clear and fit to drink, but it will be too brisk if kept much longer. It may be proper to fasten a small basket, such as brewers use, to the end of the faucet, to keep the apples from stopping it. To make Mr Bentham's cider, take your apples and beat them in a wooden trough till they are well mashed. Then put them into a clean hair bag, squeeze and press out the juice, and let it run into a clean vessel. Then put it into the barrel you intend to keep it in. It is best to be thick. You must clay up your vessel as you do beer the next morning. To make peri, take pears that have a viner's juice, such as gooseberry pears, horse pears, both red and white, the John and Joke pears, and others of the like kind. Take the reddest of the sort, let them be ripe, but not too ripe, and grind them as you do apples for cider, and work it off in the same manner. If your pears are of a sweet taste, mix a few crabs with them. To make you squibore, take ten gallons of good malt spirits, and a seeds one pound, cloves two ounces, nutmegs, ginger and caraway seeds of each four ounces, coriander seeds four ounces. Distill them in a still with a worm, put it into a vessel, and add to it Spanish licorice bruised, and raisins of the sun stoned, of each two pounds. Cinnamon four ounces, dates stoned and the white skin taken off four ounces. If you intend it to be yellow, put in two ounces of saffron, and five pounds of white or brown sugar candy. Keep it close nine or ten days, stir it once a day, and if you would have it green, leave out the saffron, and add either angelica or green corn sufficient to give it a fine color. A week after, put in three grains of ambergris and mask. After standing ten days, put a flannel in a large sieve, set the sieve under a funnel, and strain it into the cask. Let it stand till it is fine, bottle it off, and the longer you keep it, the better. To make mum, boil a hog's head of water until it is reduced to two-thirds. Put to it seven bushels of wheat flour, one bushel of oatmeal, and a bushel of beans. Then mix with it a handful of elder leaves, with three ounces of barberries. Put to it a little yeast, and when it has worked itself from all impurities, let it be drawn off and stopped up close in another cask, with half a dozen of eggs mixed with it. It must be kept in the cask two years before you draw it off for drinking. To make milk punch, take two quarts of water, one-quarter milk, half a pint of lemon juice, and a quarter brandy. Sugar it to your taste. Put the milk and water together a little warm, then add the sugar and lemon juice, and stir it through a flower bag till it is fine. You may bottle it, and it will keep a fortnight or longer. To make milk punch for present drinking. To two quarts of water, put two quarts of French brandy, a dozen and a half of lemons, three-quarters of a pound of double refined sugar, and three pints of new milk. Strain it frequently through a jelly bag till it is clear and fine. You must make it two or three days before you use it, and may bottle it off, but it will preserve its goodness for some time. End of Section 27. Section 28 of the Complete Confectioner by Hannah Glass. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Pickles Part 1 General Observations on Pickling The knowledge of pickling is very essential in a family, but it is to be lamented that the health of individuals is often endangered merely to gratify the age. Things known to be pernicious are frequently made use of in order to procure a brighter colour to the thing meant to be pickled. It is indeed a common practice to make use of brass utensils that the vertegris extracted from it may give an additional tint to all pickles intended to be green, not considering that they are communicating an absolute poison to that which they are preparing for their food. Such inconsiderate proceedings, it is hoped, will hereafter be avoided, especially as there is no necessity for having recourse to such pernicious means, when all these articles will become equally green by keeping them of a proper heat upon the hearth, without the help of brass or vertegris of any kind. It is therefore highly proper to be very particular in keeping the pickles from such things, and to follow strictly the directions of your receipts, given with respect to all kinds of pickles which are green only by pouring vinegar hot upon them, and it will keep them a long time. Stone jars are the most proper for all sorts of pickles, for though they are expensive in the first purchase, yet they will, in the end, be found much cheaper than earthen vessels, through which it has been found by experience salt and vinegar will penetrate, especially when put in hot. Be careful never to put your fingers in to take the pickles out, as it will soon spoil them, but always make use of a spoon upon those occasions. To Pickle Cucumbers Let your cucumbers be as free from spots as possible, and take the smallest you can get. Put them into strong salt water for 9 or 10 days, or till they become yellow, and stir them at least twice a day, or they will grow soft. Should they become perfectly yellow, pour the water from them, and cover them with plenty of vine leaves. Set your water over the fire, and when it boils, pour it upon them, and set them upon the hearth to keep warm. When the water is almost cold, make it boiling hot again, and pour it upon them. Proceed in this manner till you perceive they are of a fine green, which they will be in 4 or 5 times. Be careful to keep them well covered with vine leaves, with a cloth and dish over the top, to keep in the steam, which will help to green them the sooner. When they are greened, put them in a hair sieve to drain, and then make the following pickle for them. To every 2 quarts of white vinegar, put half an ounce of mace, 10 or 12 cloves, an ounce of ginger cut into slices, an ounce of black pepper, and a handful of salt. Boil them all together for 5 minutes. Pour it hot upon your pickles, and tie them down with a bladder for use. You may pickle them with aisle, aisle vinegar, or distilled vinegar, and you may add 3 or 4 cloves of garlic or shallots. To pickle cucumbers in slices, take some large cucumbers before they are too ripe. Slice them of the thickness of crown pieces in a pewter dish. To every 12 cucumbers, slice 2 large onions thin, and so on till you have filled your dish with a handful of salt between every row. Then cover them with another pewter dish, and let them stand 24 hours. Then put them into a colander, and let them drain well. Put them in a jar, cover them over with white wine vinegar, and let them stand 4 hours. Pour the vinegar from them into a copper saucepan, and boil it with a little salt. Put to the cucumbers a little mace and whole pepper, a large race of ginger sliced, and then pour the boiling vinegar on. Cover them close, and when they are cold, tie them down. They will be fit to eat in 2 or 3 days. To pickle, man goes. Cucumbers used for this purpose must be of the larger sort, and taken from the vines before they are too ripe or yellow at the ends. Cut a piece out of the side, and take out the seeds with an apple scraper or teaspoon. Then put them into strong salt and water for 8 or 9 days, or till they are very yellow. Stir them well 2 or 3 times each day, and put them into a pan with a large quantity of vine leaves, both over and under them. Beat a little roach alum very fine, and put it into the salt and water they came out of. Pour it on your cucumbers, and set it upon a very slow fire for 4 or 5 hours, till they are pretty green. Then take them out, and drain them in a hair sieve, and when they are cold, put to them a little horseradish. Then mustard seed, 2 or 3 heads of garlic, a few peppercorns, a few green cucumbers sliced in small pieces. Then horseradish, and the same as before mentioned, till you have filled them. Then take the piece you cut out, and sew it with a large needle and thread, and do all the rest in the same manner. Have ready the following pickle. To every gallon of alagar, put an ounce of mace, the same of cloves, 2 ounces of sliced ginger, the same of long pepper, Jamaica pepper, and black pepper, 3 ounces of mustard seed tied up in a bag, 4 ounces of garlic, and a stick of horseradish cut in slices. Boil them 5 minutes in the alagar, then pour it upon your pickles, tie them down, and keep them for use. To pickle onions, take some small onions, peel them, and put them into salt and water. Shift them once a day for 3 days, then set them over the fire in milk and water, till ready to boil. Dry them, pour over them the following pickle when boiled and cold. Double distilled vinegar, salt, mace, and 1 or 2 bay leaves. They will not look white with any other vinegar. Another way to pickle onions. Take a sufficient number of the smallest onions you can get, and put them into salt and water for 9 days, observing to change the water every day. Then put them into jars, and pour fresh boiling salt and water over them. Let them stand close covered till they are cold, then make some more salt and water, and pour it boiling hot upon them. When it is cold, put your onions in a hair sieve to drain, then put them into wide mouth bottles and fill them up with distilled vinegar. Put into every bottle a slice or two of ginger, a blade of mace, and a large teaspoonful of eating oil, which will keep the onions white. If you like the taste of bay leaf, you may put 1 or 2 into every bottle, and as much bay salt as will lie on a sixpence. Cook them well up. To pickle walnuts black. Your walnuts should be gathered when the sun is hot upon them, and always before the shell is hard, which may be easily known by running a pin into them. Then put them into a strong salt and water for 9 days. Stir them twice a day, and change the salt and water every 3 days. Put them in a hair sieve, and let them stand in the air till they turn black. Then put them into strong stone jars, and pour boiling alligator over them. Cover them up, and let them stand till they are cold. Then boil the alligator 3 times more, and let it stand till it is cold between every time. Tie them down with paper and a bladder over them, and let them stand 2 months. Then take them out of the alligator, and make a pickle for them. To every 2 quarts of alligator, put half an ounce of mace, half an ounce of cloves, 1 ounce of black pepper, the same of Jamaica pepper, ginger and long pepper, and 2 ounces of common salt. Boil it 10 minutes, and pour it hot upon your walnuts, and tie them down with a bladder and paper over it. Another way to pickle walnuts black. Take large full grown nuts, but before they are hard, and lay them in salt and water. Let them lie 2 days, then shift them into fresh water. Let them lie 2 days longer, then shift them again, and let them lie 3 in your pickling jar. When the jar is half full, put in a large onion stuck with cloves. To a hundred walnuts, put in half a pint of mustard seed, a quarter of an ounce of mace, half an ounce of black pepper, half an ounce of allspice, 6 bay leaves, and a stick of horseradish. Then fill your jar, and pour boiling vinegar over them. Cover them with a plate, and when they are cold, tie them down with a bladder and leather, and they will be fit to eat in 2 or 3 months. The next year, if any remains, boil up your liquor again and skim it. When cold, pour it over your walnuts. This is by much the best pickle for use. Therefore, you may add to it what quantity of vinegar you please. If you pickle a great many walnuts, and eat them fast, make pickle for a hundred or two. The rest, keep in strong brine of salt and water, boiled till it will bear an egg. And, as your pot empties, fill them up with those in the salt and water. Take care that they are covered with pickle. In the same manner, you may do a smaller quantity. But if you can get rape vinegar, use that instead of salt and water. Do them, thus. Put your nuts into the jar you intend to pickle them in. Throw in a handful of salt, and fill the pot with rape vinegar. Cover it close, and let them stand a fortnight. Then pour them out of the pot, wipe it clean, and just rub the nuts with a coarse cloth. And then put them in the jar with the pickle as above. To pickle, walnuts green. Take the largest double, or French walnuts, before the shells are hard. Pair them very thin, and put them into a tub of spring water as they are paired. Put to them, if there are two or three hundred nuts, a pound of basalt. Leave them in the water twenty-four hours. Then put them into a stone jar, a layer of vine leaves, and a layer of walnuts. Fill it up with cold vinegar, and when they have stood all night, pour the vinegar from them into a copper with a good quantity of basalt. Set it upon the fire, and let it boil. Then pour it hot on the nuts. Tie them over with a woolen cloth, and let them stand a week. Then pour that pickle from them, rub the nuts clean with a piece of flannel, and put them again into a jar with vine leaves, as before mentioned. Boil fresh vinegar, and to every gallon of vinegar, four or five pieces of ginger, a quarter of an ounce of mace, and the same quantity of whole black pepper. Pour the vinegar boiling hot upon the walnuts, and cover them with a woolen cloth. Let it stand four or five days, and repeat the same four or five times. When the vinegar is cold, put in half a pint of mustard seed, a stick of horseradish sliced. Tie them down with a bladder, and then with leather. They will be fit to eat in three weeks. If they are intended to be kept, the vinegar must not be boiled, but then they will not be ready under six months. To pickle French beans. Pour a boiling hot wine over your French beans, and cover them close. The next day, drain and dry them. Then pour over them a boiling hot pickle of white wine vinegar, Jamaica pepper, black pepper, a little mace and ginger. Repeat this for two or three days, or till the beans look green. To pickle red cabbage. Slice your cabbage crossways, put it on an earthen dish, and sprinkle a handful of salt over it. Cover it with another dish, and let it stand 24 hours. Then put it into a colander to drain, and lay it in your jar. Take white wine vinegar enough to cover it, a little cloves, mace and allspice. Put them in whole with a little cochineal boiled fine. Then boil it up, and pour it either hot or cold on your cabbage. If you pour on the pickle hot, cover it close with a cloth till it is cold, and then tie it up close as you do other pickles. Another way to pickle red cabbage. Take a fine, close red cabbage, and cut it thin. Then take some cold ale alegar, and put to it two or three blades of mace, and a few white peppercorns. Make it pretty strong with salt, and put your cabbage into the alegar as you cut it. Tie it down close with a bladder, and a paper over that. In a day or two it will be fit for use. Two Pickle Mushrooms Take the smallest mushrooms you can get, and put them into spring water. Rub them with a piece of new flannel dipped in salt, and put them into cold spring water as you do them, to keep their colour. Then put them into a saucepan, throw a handful of salt over them, cover them close, and set them over the fire four or five minutes, or till you see they are thoroughly hot, and the liquor is drawn out of them. Then lay them between two clean cloths till they are cold. Put them into glass bottles, and fill them up with distilled vinegar. Put a blade or two of mace, and a teaspoonful of good oil in every bottle. Cook them up close, and set them in a cool place. If you have not any distilled vinegar, you may use white wine vinegar, or even alegar, but it must be boiled with a little mace, salt, and a few slices of ginger. It must be cold before you pour it on your mushrooms. If your vinegar or alegar is too sharp, it will make your mushrooms soft. Neither will they keep so long, or appear so white. Two Pickle Coley Flowers Take the largest and closest you can get. Pull them into sprigs. Put them in an earthen dish, and sprinkle salt over them. Let them stand twenty-four hours to draw out all the water. Then put them in a jar, and pour salt and water boiling over them. Cover them close, and let them stand till the next day. Then take them out, and lay them on a coarse cloth to drain. Put them into glass jars, and put in a nutmeg sliced, and two or three blades of mace in each jar. Cover them with distilled vinegar, and tie them down with a bladder, and over that a leather. They will be fit for use in a month. Two Pickle Capers These are the flower buds of a small shrub, preserved in Pickle. The tree which bears capers is called the caper shrub, or bush, and is common in the western part of Europe. We have them in some gardens, but Toulon is the principal place for capers. We have some from Leon, but they are flatter and less firm. And some come from Majorca, but they are salt and disagreeable. The finest flavoured are from Toulon. They gather the buds from the blossoms before they are open, then spread them upon a floor in the room where no sun enters, and there let them lie till they begin to wither. They then throw them into a tub of sharp vinegar, and after three days they add a quantity of basalt. When this is dissolved they are fit for packing for sale, and are sent to all parts of Europe. The finest capers are those of a moderate size, firm, and close, and such as have the Pickle highly flavoured. Those which are soft, flabby, and half open are of little value. Take the Pickle Sam Fire. Take the Sam Fire that is green, put it into a clean pan, and throw over it two or three handfuls of salt, then cover it with spring water. Let it lie 24 hours, after which put it into a clean saucepan, throw in a handful of salt, and cover it with good vinegar. Cover the pan close, and set it over a slow fire. Let it stand till it is just green and crisp, and take it off at that moment, for should it remain till it is soft it will be spoiled. Put it in your pickling pot and cover it close. As soon as it is cold tie it down with a bladder and leather, and keep it for use. Or you may keep it all the year in a very strong brine of salt and water, and throw it into vinegar just before you use it. Two Pickle Beat Roots. Beat Roots, which are a pretty garnish for made dishes, are thus pickled. Boil them tender, peel them, and, if agreeable, cut them into shapes. Pour over them a hot pickle of white wine vinegar, a little pepper, ginger, and horseradish sliced. Two Pickle Barberries. Let your barberries be gathered before they are too ripe. Take care to pick out the leaves and dead stalks, and then put them into jars with a large quantity of strong salt and water, and tie them down with a bladder. Note, when you see a scum over your barberries, put them into fresh salt and water. They require no vinegar, their own sharpness being sufficient to keep them. Two Pickle Codlings. Gather your codlings when they are about the size of a large French walnut. Put a quantity of vine leaves in the bottom of a brass pan, and put in your codlings. Cover them well with vine leaves, and set them over a very slow fire till you can peel the skins off. Then take them carefully up in a hair-save, peel them with a pen knife, and put them into the saucepan again with the vine leaves and water as before. Cover them close, and set them over a slow fire till they are of a fine green. Then drain them through a hair-save, and when they are cold, put them into distilled vinegar. Pour a little meat oil on the top, and tie them down with a bladder. Indian Pickle or Peccadillo. Quarter a white cabbage and cauliflower. Take also cucumbers, melons, apples, French beans, plums, all or any of these. Lay them on a hair-save, strew over a large handful of salt, set them in the sun for three or four days, or till very dry, and put them into a stone jar with the following pickle. Put a pound of raced ginger into salt and water. The next day scrape and slice it, salt it, and dry it in the sun. Slice, salt, and dry a pound of garlic. Put these into a gallon of vinegar with two ounces of long pepper, half an ounce of turmeric, and four ounces of mustard seed bruised. Stop the pickle close, then prepare the cabbage, etc. If the fruit is put in, it must be green. Two Pickle Artichoke Bottoms. Take some artichokes and boil them till you can pull the leaves off. Then take off the chokes and cut them from the stalk. Take great care that you do not let the knife touch the top. Throw them into salt and water for an hour. Then take them out and lay them on a cloth to drain. Then put them into large wide-mouthed glasses. Put a little mace and sliced nutmeg between. Fill them either with distilled vinegar or sugar vinegar and spring water. Cover them with mutton fat fried and tie them down with a bladder and leather. Two Pickle Nasturtium Buds. After the blossoms are gone off, gather the little knobs and put them into cold water. Shift them once a day for three successive days. Then make a cold pickle of white wine vinegar, a little white wine, shallot, pepper, cloves, mace, nutmeg quartered and horseradish. Put in the buds. Two Pickle Gherkins. Take 500 gherkins and have ready a large earthen pan of spring water and salt. To every gallon of water, put two pounds of salt, mix it well together and throw in your gherkins. Wash them out in two hours, put them to drain, let them be drained very dry and put them in a jar. In the meantime, get a bell-metal pot with a gallon of the best white wine vinegar, half an ounce of cloves and mace, one ounce of allspice, one ounce of mustard seed, a stick of horseradish cut in slices, six bay leaves, a little dill, two or three races of ginger cut in pieces, a nutmeg cut in pieces and a handful of salt. Boil it up in the pot all together and put it over the gherkins. Cover them close down and let them stand 24 hours. Then put them in your pot and simmer them over the stove till they are green. Be careful not to let them boil, if you do, you will spoil them. Then put them in your jar and cover them close down till they are cold. Then tie them over with a bladder and leather over that and put them in a cold dry place. Mind always to keep your pickles tied down close, or this way. After they have been 24 hours in the vinegar, pour the vinegar off from them and make it boil. Then pour it over the gherkins, cover them close and repeat it every day until they are green. Then tie them down with a bladder and leather and keep them in a cool dry place. By this method they will keep good for three or four years. Two pickle asparagus. Take the largest asparagus you can get. Cut off the white ends and wash the green ends in spring water. Then put them in another clean water and let them lay two or three hours in it. Have a large broad stupan full of spring water with a handful of salt. Set it on the fire and when it boils put in the grass, not tied up but loose and not too many at a time for fear you should break the heads. Just scold them and no more. Take them out with a broad skimmer and lay them on a cloth to cool. For your pickle take a gallon or more according to your quantity of asparagus of white wine vinegar and one ounce of base salt. Boil it and put the asparagus in your jar. To a gallon of pickle put two nutmegs, a quarter of an ounce of mace, the same of whole white pepper and pour the pickle hot over them. Cover them with a linen cloth, gobbled three or four times. Let them stand a week and boil the pickle. After standing a week longer boil the pickle again and pour it on hot as before. When they are cold cover them close with a bladder and leather. Two pickle peaches. Take your peaches when they are at their full growth just before they begin to ripen. Be sure they are not bruised. Then take spring water as much as you think will cover them. Make it salt enough to bear an egg with bay and common salt and equal quantity of each. Put in your peaches and lay a thin board over them to keep them under the water. Let them stand three days. Then take them out, wipe them very carefully with a fine soft cloth and lay them in your glass or jar. Then take as much white wine vinegar as will fill your glass or jar. To every gallon put one pint of the best well-made mustard, two or three heads of garlic, a good deal of ginger sliced, half an ounce of cloves, mace and nutmeg. Mix your pickle well together and pour it over your peaches. Tie them close with a bladder and leather. They will be fit to eat in two months. You may, with a fine pen knife, cut them across, take out the stones, fill them with mustard seed, garlic, horseradish and ginger and tie them together. You may pickle nectarines and apricots the same way. End of section 28