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THE ART AND MYSTERY
OF
CURING, PRESERVING, AND POTTING
ALL KINDS OF

MEATS, GAME, AND FISH;

ALSO
THE ART OF PICKLING AND THE PRESERVATION
OF
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.
ADAPTED AS WELL FOR THE WHOLESALE DEALER AS ALL HOUSEKEEPERS.

By a WHOLESALE CURER OF COMESTIBLES.

LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.
1864.

PREFACE.

[A] “Bucaning” is a method of preserving meats, &c., partly by drying and partly by smoking with the embers of wood fires, and retaining all the palatable and nutritious juices. It must have had its origin with the rude hunters of the forests, who, for want of a chimney, laid sticks across, at a proper distance from the heat.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

AN APPARATUS FOR DRYING AND SMOKING.

I recommend this apparatus, having, for many years, employed exactly such an one in my own business.

The Chimney should be three brick walls of light structure, a back and two sides, to be run up to the height of about nine feet from a paved floor. It must be open in front for a yard high from the bottom, and then a wooden door-frame must be put in, to carry a door five feet high, or, preferably, two doors, each two feet six inches, one above the other, the advantage of which will be seen when you come to make use of it. Above this door there must be brick-work again, for one foot higher, and then the top must be covered over. The inside of the chimney must be one yard wide, and two feet six inches deep, that is, from the front to the back. On each side there must be fixed a framework of wood, with strips one inch square, nailed across at the distance of six inches apart, these reaching from the bottom of the door-frame and terminating within a foot of the top of the chimney; on these strips will rest your spits or rods when laden with fish. Six inches from the top, two or three iron bars, with movable hooks running on them, must be fixed in the brickwork, which will[Pg 2] be able to sustain the weight of sides of bacon, hams, salmon, &c. &c. A sheet of strong wire-work, or a plate of sheet-iron, perforated with many holes half an inch in diameter, must be fixed upon the bottom of the door frame. This will distribute the smoke in its ascent, and receive any small fish that may fall from the spits while being smoked. Six inches from the top of the chimney a wooden pipe six inches square must be introduced, to carry the smoke out of the room or shed, and in this must be put a valve or slide, which, when shut, will increase the volume of vapour in the chimney, and when opened will discharge the same; thus you will have the force of the fumigation completely under your command. A door of light sheet-iron should be hung at the open space at the bottom of the front, and so as to be let down or kept open at your pleasure, by means of which the heat from your fire may be reduced as necessity may require, by letting in the cold air, and this can be let down partially or totally when it is desirable to increase the draught. This iron door must not reach quite to the floor, but leaving about six inches open, to keep a small current of air always in the chimney. This construction has many advantages over the old-fashioned close-fronted chimneys.

The Spits, or Rods, must be of any tough wood, perfectly round and a little pointed at one end, half an inch diameter and three feet long. These are for bloaters, &c. For sprats and other small fish, you must have spits of iron wire, also a yard long, and pointed bluntly. For split mackerel, kippered herrings, &c., you must have deal rods of inch square[Pg 3] wood, and with wrought-iron sprigs, two inches long, driven through them, and protruding on the other side, on which the shoulders of the various sorts of fish must be fixed.

The Horses, on which the rods must rest while drying the fish, must be plainly made by fixing two upright posts, in figure like the Roman capital letter T inverted, thus ┴ at the distance of three feet from each other, by means of two or three connecting rails. The posts may be six feet long, with strips of wood nailed across them six inches apart; on these will rest all the different sorts of rods when loaded with fish, and will correspond with the wood-work inside of your chimney.

FUEL FOR SMOKING.

Oak lops, or the extreme branches of that tree, such as charcoal is made from in the country places; it may be procured in large towns from manufacturers of rustic chairs and garden seats. Dried fern and short grass, the latter being pared off the heaths and short pastures, very thin, and well dried in the air. Beech and birch chips, or sycamore, are used with all fine goods. Peat or bog-earth must be procured on account of its preservative and deodorising quality; it imparts a wonderfully mild and truly acceptable flavour mixed along with other fuel.

Oak sawdust must be from the dry, old, heart of oak trees; the outside slabs will not do, as being full of sour sap. It is needless to say all these should be quite dry when taken into your stock, and kept so, for it will not suit your purpose to have a damp fume in your chimney.

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PRESERVATIVES.

All the manufactured white edible salts impart a bitter taste to meats and fish cured by them, particularly if the same are to be kept many months. This is the reason why bay salt is so much used in part, along with the common salt, and if bay salt was less expensive, it would be universally used, and alone. I cannot recommend too strongly the use of the rock salt of the Cheshire mines; it acts similarly to the bay salt, and is by no means expensive.

Foots of Sugar can be got from the wholesale grocers, and is much preferable to the common sorts sold. It is nearly double the strength, and is not so rank and mawkish in the flavour it gives. There is a quantity of it at the bottom of every cask of the West India sugar when first opened. It is preferable to treacle in many respects. To store your goods when cured, and to keep them in the best possible state of preservation, there is nothing so well adapted, and proved by experience to be effectual, as malt cooms, which should be contained in chests and boxes, with little bags of pulverised charcoal here and there distributed throughout. Hanging up hams, tongues, smoked meats, &c., in paper or calico bags, from the ceilings of kitchens, and all habitable rooms with fires in them, is an old, but very thoughtless, custom, for all the foul air in an used room is accumulated near the ceiling.

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ON THE

CURING, SMOKING, AND PRESERVATION

OF

MEATS, FISH, GAME, POULTRY, & FRUITS.

ESSENCES.

The following are made use of in the preparation of the finer sort of meats, and are thus made:

Essence of Cinnamon.—Half an ounce of the essential oil to half an ounce of spirits.

Essence of Clove, Cassia, Nutmeg, and Allspice.—One ounce of any of the oils to half a pint of spirits.

Essence of Peppermint, Rose, and Almonds.—A quarter of an ounce of otto of roses, of essential oil of peppermint, or of almonds, to half a pint of spirits.

Essence of Lemon and Orange.—Three-quarters[Pg 6] of an ounce of the essential oils to half a pint of spirits.

Essence of Thyme, Celery, Sage, and Mint.—Half a pint of rectified spirits to an ounce of any of these substances.

Essence of Vanilla.—Half a pint of spirits to half an ounce of vanilla pods.

Essence of Ginger.—Bruised ginger, eight ounces; chillies, quarter of an ounce; digest for a month and strain.

Essence of Cayenne Pepper.—Spirits, six ounces; water, half an ounce; Cayenne pepper, two ounces; red sanders, in powder, half an ounce; digest for ten days and strain.

Concentrated Essence of Ginger.—Unbleached ginger, bruised, one ounce; rectified spirits, two ounces; digest ten days, and strain.

Dried and Smoked Meats

HUNG BEEF—A SHROPSHIRE SIRLOIN.

From the sirloin of a grass-fed young Scot, or prime heifer, the butcher should take off the superfluous suet of the under side, so as to leave the joint handsome, and when it has hung up a week in cold weather, rub it well in every part with

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Turn the meat and continue the rubbing three days, when you may add

Persist in this course four days longer, when it will be sufficient to turn it only every second day, and baste it with the liquor ten minutes each time. When it has thus laid fourteen days more, it may be taken up, wiped dry, and suspended in a quick current of air, and bound round with broad tape, so that it may be turned upside down occasionally, to prevent the juices settling in one part. When dried sufficiently, rub coarse oatmeal or bran, first well heated, all over the joint, and hang it in your chimney to be smoked, three days only, with

which will impart scarcely any flavour of the smoke for observe, it is “Hung Beef.”

CHOICE BREAKFAST BACON.

Take a side or “middle” of dairy-fed pork from a pig not exceeding eight score pounds weight, and mixing well

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Rub both sides of the meat well for a week, turning it every other day, then add common salt and treacle, each one pound, and rub again daily for a week; after which baste and turn only, for a week longer, then take it up, dry with coarse cloths, rub it well all over with peas meal and bran mixed, equal quantities, and hang it to be smoked with

for three weeks. Commit it to your ham and bacon chest, to be kept three months or longer, well embedded in malt coom and pulverised charcoal. It will never be rancid.

MELTON-HUNT BEEF.

Choose a round of prime ox beef, about thirty pounds weight, the butcher removing the bone; examine the flap and take out the kernels and skins, and hang it up in a dry air, where let it remain as long as the weather will permit. Then take

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Mix them well, and rub all parts well, particularly the flap and the void left by the bone, every day for a week, and turning it every other day. Then add

and never omit rubbing well with the pickle every day for ten days. After this turn it daily for ten days more, then take it up, look well to the centre and fat, and setting it up in proper shape, and skewer and bind it firmly. Wipe it dry, and if not immediately wanted, coat it well over with dry bran or pollard, and smoke it a week with

Otherwise, bake it, and when it has cooled forty-eight hours, not less, it will cut firm and obtain for you high commendation.

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BEEF’S HEART SMOKED.

From choice, take the heart of a prime Scot or well-fed heifer, and hang it in a current of dry air for a week, but if it should be a fine large one, and you are in doubt as to its age and probability as to tenderness, ten days or more in hard weather will not be too long to keep it. Clean it well from the coagulated blood in the cavities, ventricles, and wipe the outside with salt and water and sponge. Then take

Boil these a quarter of an hour, skimming well. Put the meat, the small end downwards, in a deep straight-sided vessel, that will just more than contain it, and add to it six large onions sliced and fried brown, with some sweet lard; also

and pour the liquor, nearly scalding hot, upon all these, covering close with brown paper tied over;[Pg 11] thus let it remain forty-eight hours, if a moderate sized one, and sixty hours if a large one. Next take it out and wipe dry, and fill all the hollows, of which there are four, with the following stuffing:

And having pressed this into all parts accessible, make the “deaf ears” secure, that the stuffing does not come out, by sewing thin leather or bladder over the base of the heart, and hang it up, point downwards, in your chimney, and smoke it three weeks. When boiled and got cold properly, it will be a nice relishing article at a trifling expense. Beech chips, with oak dust and fern, or short grass, will be the proper fuel.

ULVERSTON RED FLANK OF BEEF.

For this purpose engage about twelve pounds of prime young meat, and let it hang the full time to become tender. Trim away the skin neatly, and cut it into pieces adapted to the family requirements. Set the trimmings, with a pound of any rough beef, and a similar weight of lean gammon of bacon, on the fire with

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and boil twenty minutes, skimming well; strain the liquor and pour it hot over the meat, which must be totally immersed. In a week boil up the pickle, adding

Cover the meat again, and let it remain ten days more; then take it up, dry it well with cloths, and hang it up in a quick current of air, rub it well on both sides with warmed bran, and when it is not capable of retaining any more, coat it with the gelatine and treacle composition so effectually as to totally exclude the air. In three months, meat thus preserved will be juicy and mellow, and presenting a striking contrast with the dry and tough preparations of the general common practice. When wanted for table, plunge a piece of the meat into a pan of boiling water, and keep it so boiling for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, after which draw the utensil a little off the fire, and simmer only, until the cooking is completed.

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BEEF HAMS.

Your butcher will furnish you with a joint of a prime young beef, cut handsomely, and shaped for the purpose. Hang it as long as prudent, then rub it well in all parts with coarse sugar, and turn it every second day for six days, then mix well,

These are allowed for each ten pounds of meat. Let the rubbing in of this mixture be sedulously observed for three weeks, and then only the turning every second day, two weeks longer, the pickle having been boiled up again and well skimmed, adding twenty per cent. of the ingredients to replenish the strength. Now take up and dry your meat, and give it a nice firm covering of oatmeal and bran mixed and warmed; hang it in the fresh air a week, changing its position, so that all the juices may not be at one end of it. Smoke it a month with oak lops and sawdust, fern or short grass turfs, and plenty of beech and birch chips. Store it in malt cooms and charcoal, and let it not be molested for four months.

HAMBRO’ ROUGH BEEF.

Take ten or twelve pounds of any part of the animal that has not much fat or skin, and no bone[Pg 14] attached; rub it well over with a pound of West India molasses, made moderately hot, and let it lie so four days; make a pickle of

boiled and skimmed clear, and added to the meat, which must be quite covered, and remain so three weeks more. Now dry it well, give it a good coat of pea flour, and covering with brown paper, smoke it a month with

BRESLAU BEEF.

Take the second round or fillet of beef without fat or bone, cut it into two equal parts horizontally, and rub them well with the following mixture:

Let them lie, being regularly rubbed and turned for[Pg 15] fourteen days. Boil up your pickle, skimming it thoroughly at the expiration of each week, and add, at the end of the fortnight,

Let them lie thus a week together, then take them up and wipe dry. Smoke one of the pieces for three weeks, in brown paper, with oak and fern, and hang it in a dry air to harden a month. The other portion of the meat may be thoroughly dried in an air current, and then coated with the gelatine composition, and exposed to the air a month also.

Both these are intended for rubbing on a tin grater, and taken on bread and butter, or as sandwiches, and well adapted for gentlemen emigrating and travelling at home.

WHITEHAVEN CORNED BEEF.

For a round of beef about twenty-five pounds weight. Rub it in all parts with

and let it lie, turned and rubbed daily, for a week. Then add

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boiled twenty minutes, skimmed and let go cold. Baste the meat twice a day, and turned every second day for three weeks longer. Now take up and wipe dry, sew a broad fillet of light canvas around the meat tightly, and suspend it to be dried very gradually in your chimney, with beech and birch embers. It may hang thus for three weeks, never allowing a flame, and should be turned occasionally.

NEATS’ TONGUES.

For each tongue of seven to nine pounds weight, having cut out the gullet and trimmed the root, take

Mix well, and rub the meat well for four days, then add for each tongue one ounce more salt and continue the rubbing and turning six days longer. The curing is now completed, and if wanted for table, may be boiled slowly four to five hours. If it is intended to dress them fresh out of pickle as wanted, the rubbing, except for the first day, must be omitted, and in such case, they would not be unpleasantly salt for four or[Pg 17] five weeks; nevertheless, they should be turned daily. If they are only to be dried, wipe them well when taken out of the pickle, and rub them all over with bran or pollard warmed, but if to be smoked, it must be done with

for a week, and they may be packed along with your hams in malt cooms and pulverised charcoal.

NEATS’ TONGUES, VERY HIGH FLAVOUR.

Having cut away the useless parts at the roots, and removed the gullets, rub the tongues all over with coarse sugar or real West India molasses, and let them lie twenty-four hours; then take

mix, and rub with it three days, turning them daily; then add

rub three days, and turn the meat daily for a week, when you may dry it and smoke with beech and fern or grass turfs. The above proportions are for one fine tongue of eight or nine pounds.

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A BOAR’S HEAD.

Procure the head of a large well-fed bacon hog, your butcher having had it open and taken out the tongue, gullet, eyes, and nasal cartilages, and small bones; remove the brain and clean it thoroughly, particularly at the roots of the ears and nostrils; wash it quickly in salt and water, and dry with cloths. Rub it well in all parts with rock or common salt, and hang it up to drain twenty-four hours. Next, make a pickle of

Boil fifteen minutes, and skim, and when cold pour it over the head and tongue, placed in a deep straight-sided earthen vessel, where it must remain, being turned every second day, and well covered with the pickle for a month; at the end of fourteen days take out the tongue, boil up the pickle, adding one pound more salt, and pour it again on the head cold. When taken out of pickle, wipe both the head and tongue dry, and with a sharp knife cut through the rind from the nose to the base, in lines two inches[Pg 19] apart, but not severing the flesh. You may now remove any superfluous fat from the base, but not interfering with the lean part; rub all over with dried oatmeal; peel the tongue, and skewer it inside the head, close the sides with string, and smoke it in brown paper for three weeks, with

Store it in malt cooms, and when wanted let it be baked.

WESTPHALIA HAMS.

Get your legs of pork—each about sixteen pounds weight—cut in shape like those imported, viz. longer and more narrow than usual, inclining to a peak at the large end, and flattened between boards weighted down upon them. But since they may be cured at home far finer flavoured, and of infinitely far superior quality in the feeding, this attempt at deception is optional. The following is a good mixture, with which let the meat be rubbed well, and turned daily for three days:

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Then let them lie in this way, only turning them for ten days more, when you will boil up the ingredients, adding

and when cold turn it to the meat, and baste with it a fortnight longer. You may now take them up and dry them well. They must hang in a current of fresh air for a week or more, and then be smoked a month with oak lops, fern, and grass turfs.

WESTPHALIA HAMS ECLIPSED.

Take a fine thick leg of pork, of about sixteen pounds weight, and mix

with which rub the meat in all parts once a day, and turning it for four days. Bring a pint of pickling vinegar to the boiling point, with one ounce of sliced shalot in it, and when cold add it to the meat, which must be turned daily for a month; then take it out of pickle, hang it to drip twenty-four hours, turn the ham end for end twice a week at least, smoke it a month with oak lops, fern, beech chips, and turfs.

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EXCELLENT HAMS OF HIGH FLAVOUR.

Hang a leg of well-fed pork, weighing about eighteen pounds, as long as the weather will permit; take

Rub this mixture well into all parts of the meat, and let it lie, being rubbed and turned twice in three days and nights; then add rock salt, or if you cannot get it, then common salt two pounds, and let it lie a month, turning it every other day. Then wipe it dry, and put a nice clear covering of bran or pollard all over the joint, and smoke it a month, turning it now and then in the chimney while the juices are settling. The fuel must be oak lops, sawdust, and beech chips. If you have no store chest with malt, corn, &c., you must have your resource in a paper bag, as is often the case. Do not let your meats hang near a kitchen fire from the ceiling; they will inevitably be rancid if you do, and to avoid the flies in summer time, brush your meats over once a fortnight with three drops of creosote in a pint of water.

A NORFOLK CHINE.

Take the chine of a well-fed hog of ten score[Pg 22] weight, deprived of the rind, and what fat may be considered superfluous, and rub it in all parts effectually with

and let it be rubbed and turned daily for a week. Next boil together the herbs used above, and

Skim it well, and when cold, pour it to the meat, and mix with the first pickle. Take care that the pickle completely covers the chine. Handle it attentively three weeks, and wipe it dry. It must be well coated with bran first, and pea-flour over that, and smoked with

for a fortnight or more. One half of it will be exceedingly good, if coated with the gelatine composition, and kept three months; the other half may be baked, and eaten cold.

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LEICESTERSHIRE SPICED BACON.

Many persons are prejudiced against spiced bacon, generally because they may have been deceived in the quality of that purchased at the shops; too often indeed is the spicing resorted to that it may cover defects which would have been too glaring if merely salted. (See Note, No. 3.) Take a middle of well-fed large pork, and divide it into pieces that will suit your salting tub; rub them well over, both sides, with warmed treacle, and let them lie for a week, being rubbed and turned every day; then take a mixture of

and rub the meat well with this on the fleshy side only, for a week, after which turn the pieces every other day for a fortnight longer. You may then dry it with cloths, and suspend the meat in a current of air, being turned end for end every third day; and when ready, lay on a nice coat of bran or pollard, and smoke with oak and beech for a fortnight, and finish it by adding peat to your smoking fuel for a week longer. This will be superior bacon.

SMOKED PORKER’S HEAD.

Take the head of a dairy-fed porker, seven score weight, lay it open, take out the tongue, gullet, eyes,[Pg 24] &c., and wash it five minutes in salt and water. Rub it well all over with coarse sugar and sliced onions, and let it remain in a deep dish forty-eight hours, the tongue may be cured as a neat’s tongue. Make a pickle by boiling

Skim it well, and when cold, pour it over the head in a deep straight-sided earthen vessel; so let it lie three weeks, being turned and basted with the pickle every other day. Take it up now, wipe it dry, place the tongue in, and stuff all the cavities with a stuffing of onions fried in olive oil or sweet lard, and dried sage powdered; bind the cheeks close together with tape, and smoke it three weeks with beech chips two parts, fern two parts, peat one part, oak sawdust one part. It must be kept in same packing as hams, tongues, &c., and in two months it will be excellent, baked and taken cold.

BATH CHAPS, OR CHEEKS.

Chose your cheeks from pigs not more than eight score weight. Split open, carefully take out all the offal, and for every stone of fourteen pounds of meat, allow

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Rub the cheeks thoroughly and daily for a week; then turn them in the pickle for a fortnight more, when you may take them up, dry and wipe, and coat them nicely with warmed coarse oatmeal, and hang them to dry for a week. Smoke them a month, or only dry them in your chimney by a gentle heat. Oak and grass turfs must be the fuel made use of.

DUTCH BEEF.

Take ten pounds of any part of prime beef that has a moderate share of fat attached, the thick flanks suit well. Displace the skin, and rub the meat all over with foots of coarse sugar one pound, and let it lie three days and nights, turned daily. Take then

with which mixture rub your meat well five days, and then turn it in the pickle every three days for a fortnight more. Bind broad tape around it as a collar, rub pea-flour over it in all parts, until it is thoroughly[Pg 26] coated therewith, and smoke it a month with oak lops, sawdust, and beech or birch chips. It should be kept in store two months at least, and then put into boiling water over the fire, done moderately, and cut when cold.

HAUNCH OF MUTTON AS VENISON.

Get your butcher to leave the tail attached to a leg of fine fat wether mutton, which you may hang as long as ever the weather will permit. Carefully remove the outer skin, and rub half a pint of pure olive oil well into all parts of it, lying in a deep dish. Put into a jug

Pour a pint of good vinegar, nearly boiling, over these, cover the jug close, and let remain till next day. Then add this pickle to the meat, and rub it well in for half an hour, not disturbing the fat if possible; slice six large onions, and strew them equally over the meat, turn it every day twice, and keep always the onions well on the uppermost part. Continue this for[Pg 27] five days, then take it up, wipe it dry, and rub it for half an hour with a pound of West India molasses, made hot. Next day wipe it clean, and roast it as venison. Serve with red-currant jelly liquefied.

THIGH OF MUTTON L’DIABLE.

Take a short thick leg of prime mutton, that has been well kept, and rub it well in all parts with pounded bay salt for half an hour, then immerse it in cold water for a minute, and wipe it quite dry. Mix well

Rub the joint freely with this until it has disappeared. Divide the flesh down to the bone for three inches above the knuckle, and lay in three shalots, and half a head of garlic minced very fine, and close the skin neatly over it. Set aside on a dish until the next day, when rub it again with what liquor may have arisen, and put it down to roast before a brisk clear fire. Smear six ounces of sound fat bacon with a spoonful of tar, stick it on the prongs of a long toasting fork, and when the meat is about half cooked, hold the bacon over the fire until it blazes, then transfer it over the meat, and baste it with the liquid fire until the bacon has melted all away. The mutton[Pg 28] when cooked will have a peculiar appearance, and a flavour highly esteemed by many persons. To be served hot with a spoonful or two of tomato, or any other favourite sauce.

WELSH MUTTON HAMS.

Take a couple of legs of prime Welsh mutton, rub them well with treacle made hot, and put them away in a deep pan until the next day. Make a pickle of

boiled an hour and well skimmed, and when cold to be poured over the meat, and to be rubbed every day, and turned for three weeks. Then take them out of pickle, rub them well in all parts with strong vinegar for one hour, when wipe them dry, and hang them up in a current of air until well dry. Then give them a thorough coat of bran or of oatmeal, and smoke them with

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for three weeks or more. Store them in malt cooms and pulverised charcoal, and in three months they will be very good.

DRIED MUTTON, AS IN THE ARDENNES.

Put these into a stone jar with a pint of fresh rendered goose oil, and let them digest three weeks. Take a leg or loin of prime mutton fresh from the butcher, rub it well in all parts, with the herbs and part of the oil prepared as above, and lay it in a vessel covered close; to be turned and rubbed every day for three weeks; then hang it up in a cold dry air three days more, when add to the herbs

Rub the joint then with the whole mixture, and let it lie; if a leg, for fourteen days; if a loin, nine days, turning it every day. Take it out, wipe it dry and rub all parts with warmed bran or pollard, and suspend it again in a dry air previous to enclosing it in a paper[Pg 30] or calico bag for a month, then pack it in malt cooms and charcoal. If preferred smoked, we cannot provide you with juniper bushes for that purpose, and with which the “Ardennes” abounds, we must therefore substitute

TO PICKLE A TONGUE.

Take out the gullet and rough root of a neat’s tongue, eight pounds weight; rub it well with common or rock salt three days, then take

Rub well with this, out of the pickle, then return all to the first brine, and keep it close covered three weeks, turning it every day. It will be fit to be cooked if wanted, but if to be smoked, treat it with the drying process, and when ready, smoke it with

This is intended for tongues for general purposes. There follow some excellent pickles for higher flavours.

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HAMBRO’ PICKLE FOR BEEF AND PORK.

Boil fifteen minutes, skimming well; pour into a vessel, and the next day it will be fit for use. This is appropriate for beef, hams, and tongues—for family use, hotels, and refreshment rooms, &c. &c. A moderate-sized round of beef should remain in it fourteen to sixteen days.

PICKLE FOR PORK.

EXCELLENT FOR A QUARTER OF A YEAR.

For a whole porker weighing not exceeding five score pounds. The pieces adapted for pickling being at hand, put a layer of finely beaten rock salt at the bottom of your powdering tub, which must always be particularly clean and sweet, and better if fumigated with sulphur the day before it is used, then place the thickest of the meat, then a layer of this mixture:

[Pg 32] then again meat, and alternately to the finish, and filling all the spaces with common or rock salt. In a week, if a pickle does not rise up so as totally to cover the pork, boil as much of similar ingredients, and, when cold, pour it gradually and evenly over the meat, and leave it. You can take thin pieces out in a fortnight if wanted in haste, but it will be preferable if not disturbed for a month. The water requisite for the second brine depends upon what brine was produced by the first salting.

PRESERVATIVE PICKLE.

This is proper for cured meats in general, and is recommended for imparting a mild and excellent flavour.

SUPERIOR PICKLE FOR PORK.

Boil and skim well. Apply cold. Small delicate pork will be ready in a week.

[Pg 33] BREAST OF MUTTON COLLAR, AS VENISON.

Hang the largest breast of well-fed wether mutton you can get, as long as the weather will warrant you. Take away the outer skin, all the bones, and strew coarse sugar plentifully all over the inside flesh, and put a slate or piece of board that is tasteless—as beech, or sycamore, or poplar—upon it, with heavy weights, and let it remain so forty-eight hours. Be provided with

Boil these altogether for twenty minutes. Rub both sides of the meat for at least twenty minutes, and lay it, along with its sugar or pickle, in a deep vessel, and keep up the friction for a week or nine days; then take it up, dry it with cloths, and making a layer of bay leaves and laurel in a dry tub, put the breast upon it, and cover the meat with other leaves of similar sort, and with thyme, parsley, and any sweet herbs you may have near at hand. Now take it up, wash it for five minutes in vinegar and table-beer,[Pg 34] half-and-half, and hang it up to dry for twenty-four hours, then roll it up as a collar, and bind it tight; hang it in your chimney, but do not let much smoke enter into it, as it must be dried rather than smoked. The embers of beech chips, grass turfs, and sawdust, will effect this in a week. The half of it may be roasted, and the other part kept with your hams, tongues, &c., for six months; it will then be mellow and beautifully flavoured.

A PERPETUAL GOOSE.

Procure the heart of a prime ox—the larger the better—hang it up in a current of dry air as long as it is safe, and at the same time get a pint of newly-drawn goose oil, which put into a jar along with

Tie brown paper over, and let it remain in a gentle heat until your meat is ready. First cut out from the heart, the pipe—blood vessel—as low down as you can, pare away the “deaf ears,” and open as wide as you consistently can, without piercing the bark or outside skin, a communication between the two upper cavities—auricles, and the two lower ones—ventricles, and take out the coagulated blood. Next rub all[Pg 35] parts, the inside and outside, thoroughly twice a day with the oily mixture for a week, having put the meat, point downwards, in a straight-sided deep earthen vessel, and keeping the cavities all the while filled with the liquor. Now boil for fifteen minutes.

Skim it well and add it when half-cold to the meat in the jar, mixing all well together. Mind that the meat is completely covered with the pickle, and tie paper over all, so let it be for a week, when boil up all the pickle, skimming it well, and taking care to renew what may have been lost or imbibed, and the cavities kept well filled all the time; let it be in pickle a fortnight longer, then take up, wipe dry inside and out, make a stuffing of fried sliced onions and sage leaves powdered, adding black pepper to make it pleasantly hot, and with this fill the inside of the heart as full as possible, and pressing it in from the top, make the holes secure with wetted bladder sewed over them. Let it hang up for a day or two to dry, then wrap it in brown paper and smoke it, point downwards, for a week; then take it down, rub it for half-an-hour with olive oil, and smoke it again for a[Pg 36] week. This done, rub it again with the oil and hang it in a quick current of air for twenty-four hours, and as soon as it is dry enough to retain it, coat it securely with the gelatine composition, and keep it three months, and longer the better. Ultimately, it must be roasted, and slices cut out when cold to be broiled. It is an exceedingly beautiful treat.

Fish

THE NUTRIMENT IN FISH.

“This is a subject on which I have made some experiments, the results of which go far to prove that there is much nourishment in fish—little less than in butcher’s meat, weight for weight; and in effect it may be more nourishing, considering how, from its softer fibre, fish is more easily digested. Moreover, there is I find, in fish—in sea-fish—a substance which does not exist in the flesh of land animals, viz. iodine, a substance which may have a beneficial effect on the health, and tend to prevent the production of scrofulous and tubercular disease—the latter in the form of pulmonary consumption, one of the most cruel and fatal with which civilised society, and the highly educated and refined are afflicted. Comparative trials prove that, in the majority of fish the proportion of solid matter—that is, the matter which remains after perfect desication or the expulsion of the aqueous part, is little inferior to that of the several kinds of butcher’s meat, game, or poultry. And if we give our attention to classes of people, classed as to the quality of[Pg 37] food they principally subsist on, we find that the ichthyophagous class are especially strong, healthy, and prolific. In no other class than that of fishers do we see larger families, handsomer women, or more robust men, or a greater exemption from the maladies just alluded to.”—Dr. Davy.

WELSH DRIED SALMON.

A great deal of the Welsh salmon is “poached,” or taken surreptitiously, in the long dark nights, by means of lanterns and “spearing,” when the fish, attracted by the light, come to the water’s edge. The salmon is often lank and out of season, and consequently of inferior quality, yet some of it is tolerable and inquired for at the shops by gentlemen, who having resided some time in Wales, and, as it often happens, prejudiced in favour of home productions. However, if it possesses any admired flavour it arises, not so much from the method of curing it, as from the fuel it is smoked with, and which the poachers can easily procure, to wit, dried fern, and young gorse, besides short grass turfs which grow on commons and on the mountain sides, and which is pared off the land very thin, and dried in the sunny weather. They dry and smoke the salmon in some remote part of their cottage, or hut, and hence its dark and dirty appearance, and there it remains until traders intending it for the Chester and Bristol markets come and purchase it. I conclude it pays the curers pretty[Pg 38] well for their trouble, since it costs them nothing. Take a fresh salmon, sixteen to twenty pounds weight, split it open at the belly, beginning at about eight inches from where the tail sets on, and cutting through to the bone up to the nose, remove the gills and all the refuse, wipe well out, and quite dry. Mix an ounce of ground white pepper with a pound of coarse sugar, and rub all the inside with it, particularly at the bone, for fifteen minutes or more; then bring the sides together, lay it on a dish, and rub the remainder of the mixture all over the outside of the fish, the back fins and thick part of the shoulders. So let it lie, the thin side uppermost, until next day in a cool room. Then rub again all over with the liquor produced, and let it lie twenty-four hours longer, the thick side uppermost. Now hang it up by the tail until dripping ceases, lay it again on a clean dish, strew fine salt well over the inside, bring the sides together, and rub the outside well with fine salt, leaving the fish covered to the thickness of half-a-crown with pounded rock salt, a thin stratum of which must be under the salmon. Each day the runnings must be thrown away—for observe it is hot weather when fresh salmon is cured—and more salt applied. In five days from the commencement it will be safely cured, provided that the thick part of the back and shoulders have been well supplied with the salt heaped under, around, and above those parts. Then take up the fish, brush off the salt, wipe dry, prop the sides[Pg 39] open with splints of wood, and hang it up by the tail in a current of air. Next day hang it up by the head for twelve hours, and after that remove it to your chimney, where, suspended with the head downwards, you may smoke it with beech chips two parts, oak sawdust two parts, and fern or grass turfs two parts, for two weeks, keeping the sides wide open with splints of wood. As soon as the salmon is taken out of smoke, and while it may be a little warm and pliable, lay some well dried oat straw in the inside, bring the sides together and tie round with string. In two months you will have prime dried salmon for broiling in steaks, cut three quarters of an inch thick, and will keep good many months.

FINE DUTCH SALMON.

This article is in great esteem with the Jews. Prepare the fish as per our own directions for “superior kippered salmon,” having taken out the backbone, &c. &c. Now, for a fish of sixteen to twenty pounds weight, take

mix them well, and rub the skin side of the fish all over, using a large handful. Lay your fish flat on a good layer of common salt—rock is far preferable—in[Pg 40] your tub, strew bay leaves on it, cover well with your mixture, and put your boards on the fish, weighting them down with accuracy. Remove them once a day for the purpose of applying more of the seasoning, and put fresh bay leaves on the third morning. On the fifth morning take the salmon out of the pickle tub, stretch it open at the back by wooden splints, rinse it quickly through salt and water, and proceed as in the next receipt, in every respect, until the process is completed.

SUPERIOR KIPPERED SALMON.

Choose a short, thick fish with a small head, a bright eye, and of twenty pounds weight, although salmon cannot be too large for splitting, and just fresh from the ice they come packed in. Immediately it is brought home—in hot weather observe—commence your operations. Lay the fish on a table with its back towards you, and, beginning at the nose, draw a sharp knife clean down at one stroke to within two inches of where the tail begins. This must be accomplished so that the backbone is left quite bare under the knife; thus one, the under, side of the fish will be thicker than the upper side. Then take out the roe and liver, which may be beautifully preserved as by various receipts in this treatise, and removing the gills and garbage, wipe out the fish well, and having previously with a pen-knife severed a tissue that runs along the whole length of the bone, and[Pg 41] hides much coagulated blood. Pure water must not be allowed, but salt and water may be used to assist in cleaning out the fish—that is, cloths dipped in salt and water. In the next place we must have the backbone detached, to effect which “nicely,” you will need a pen-knife with a strong blade, or one of those used by shoemakers for “paring,” and which are the smallest used by them. Commencing about eight inches from the root of the tail, the knife must be run up by the side of the bone to the head, and then beginning again at the same start, you must pass the knife on the lower side of the bone, and so meeting with the point of the instrument the incision made by the first cutting, thus the bone may be got out, and afterwards the meat so pared down as to appear as though the fish never had a backbone. The necessity for thus taking out the bone is, that handsome slices may be cut from the thick side for broiling. Now, when thus far advanced, make a layer of finely beaten rock salt, or bay salt, at the bottom of your pickling tub, and on that lay the salmon, its scaly side downwards, and with a fine bread-grater cover the whole inside of the fish with finely rendered loaf-sugar, to the thickness of a crown-piece, and put plenty of bay leaves upon that, place your flattening boards nicely on the fish, and weigh them down effectively. These must of course be displaced once a day to supply more sugar to the fish. On the third morning put fresh bay leaves, with a pound more salt,[Pg 42] and an ounce and a half of sal prunelle, and replace the boards. Look to it every morning and evening, keeping it well supplied with fine salt and sal prunelle, but using no more sugar. On the fourth day sprinkle lightly over it finely ground white pepper, and renew the leaves. Next day dismiss the boards, bring the thin side over upon the other, and, scattering salt over it, leave it till the next day. Then rinse it quickly through salt and water, and hang it up to drip; wipe it dry, stretch out the sides by pieces of light lath placed across the back, and suspend it in a free current of dry air; examine it occasionally, and if the red side begins to feel clammy or sticky, place it before a fire until the “face” becomes somewhat dry and hardened, then expose it again to the air current, and when ready smoke it with

for three days and nights, adding a little peat to your fire the last twelve hours. It should not be cut for three or four days, and then with a very sharp knife held across the fish in an oblique direction, which procures the slices much broader than if the knife were placed at right angles with the back of the salmon. The slices are usually broiled, enclosed in writing-paper.

COLLARED SALMON.

Take a short, thick fish about twelve pounds weight, scale it, remove the fins, cut off the head with two inches of the jowl, and the tail with six inches of the fish, these to be cured some other way. Lay the fish open at the back, take out the bone, wipe nicely and scatter sifted loaf-sugar over it; after lying six hours replenish the sugar and leave it till the next day. Next draw your knife down the middle, thus making two sides of it, which may by cured in different ways. Get a pint and a half of recently picked shrimps, examine them carefully, and pound them in a mortar with an anchovy, wiped and boned, and so much of this mixture as you think sufficient—viz.

adding a little water that has been boiled. Make a nice smooth paste, and cover the red surface of the fish with it equally; begin at the head part, and roll it up into a nice firm collar, which bind tightly with a broad tape, and sew up in strong calico or light canvas. Let it remain thus two or three days, then plunge it into a pan of boiling water, with saltpetre half an[Pg 44] ounce, and salt one pound, to each half-gallon of water; when done enough, take it out, set it on a sieve to cool, and next day put it in your chimney with a slow fire, to dry gradually, and then smoke it with

for a week. When cool take off the cloth, and hang it up in a dry air to get solid. It may then be enclosed in writing paper and sent to table, and will be greatly relished. Let the thin side be treated thus: Lay it down on the skin side, and cover it with rock or bay salt in fine powder, sifted loaf sugar half a pound, and saltpetre half an ounce; so let it lie forty-eight hours under a board of tasteless wood, weighted down. Next wipe it dry, and hang it on your tenterhooks in a free current of air twenty-four hours; mix well,

lay the fish down on the scaly side, and with a soft flat brush of camel’s hair, pay it well over with the mixture, and cover with oiled silk, or its best substitute, to prevent the evaporation of the essences.[Pg 45] Repeat this brushing over three times in twenty-four hours, and roll it up from the head, binding tightly; expose it to a current of dry air, and when ready to receive it, give it a fine firm coating with gelatine composition, and keep it three months in a dry place. It may be cut in slices for broiling, or if boiled let it be put into boiling water.

KIPPERED MACKEREL.

When in season and full of roe, is the time for this process. Take a dozen mackerel, split them down the back from the head downwards, and leaving the thin side connected for an inch with the tail; take out the roes and livers, some of which will be beautiful if otherwise cured and preserved, remove the gills and refuse, wiping clean out. Rub the insides lightly with good olive oil, and let them remain skin side downwards three hours. Boil for a quarter of an hour the following ingredients, and skim well:

Lay your fish in an earthen pan along with

[Pg 46] Pour the boiled liquor upon them at about 150 deg. Fahr., and cover close. In thirty-six hours take out the fish, wipe them dry, stretch them open by wooden splints at the backs, and hang them in a strong air current; watch the inside face of them, and if becoming clammy, place them to a fire for an hour. Smoke them of a nice chesnut brown colour with

They will keep well if packed face to face with dry oiled paper between every two of them. Broil or toast them moderately.

MAY FISH—A LESS EXPENSIVE METHOD.

Take fifty mackerel, split and clean them, as for “kippered mackerel.” Mix

warm these, and rub the fish well on both sides; lay them in a deep pan and let them remain until next day, when they must again be rubbed and laid for another twenty-four hours. Then take one up and try if the flavour is high enough for your approbation,[Pg 47] if not, let remain a few hours longer in pickle. When enough, wipe them dry and stick them as kippered herrings, on your tenters; dry them a day or two and smoke them well with

SUPERIOR PRESSED MACKEREL.

In the midst of the mackerel season take twenty fine fresh fish, split them open at the belly, only as far as to the backbone, remove the gills and entrails, clear out well, particularly the blood lying on the bone, wash them with salt and water, and hang them up to drain. Make a pickle by boiling for twenty minutes,

Lay the fish in a vessel, and pour the liquor, when luke warm, upon them; keep the fish down by a board, and let them lie twenty-four hours; then pour off the liquor, boil it up, skimming well, and return it on to[Pg 48] the fish for twenty-four hours more. Then take them up and hang them to dry, exposing the insides well to the current of air by wooden splints placed inside. When sufficiently dried both inside and outside, remove them to your chimney and smoke them a dark colour with

When cold, take a pair of large scissors, and cut off the sides of the belly part, to extent of an inch; take off the heads, lay the fish on their backs, packed side by side, and saturate the backbones with this mixture by means of a camel’s-hair tool:

Repeat this twice a-day for three days, and when dry, coat the fish with gelatine composition, and keep in a dry place.

BRITISH AMERICAN SALMON.

Annually, in November, we get from St. John’s, N.B., excellent salted salmon in tierces, dexterously[Pg 49] split at the backs, and which, if treated in the following manner, makes tolerable kipper. If it is your purpose to convert two or more fish at once, choose them nearly of the same size, and lay them in a shallow tub with plenty of soft water and salt, so that they are totally immersed for twenty-four hours; then take one up, lay it on a table, scale side downwards, and with scalding hot water and a middling soft brush clean the face of the red side, by drawing the instrument down always in the same direction with the grain of the fish; it will be quite necessary to use a small knife in paring away loose films which attach to the middle of the belly and about the vent. This done, turn over, and brush the skin side until clean, and looking well to the fins and gills. Now lay the fish in plenty of cold water, in which three-quarters of an ounce of common washing soda to each gallon has been dissolved; change the water every twelve hours for thirty-six hours, if the fish weigh about nine pounds each, and so in proportion for greater or less weight. You will now let the fish lie in pure cold water for six hours, then hang them up to drip for twelve hours, and, taking them down, brush the red side quite smooth, stretch open at the back by means of wooden splints, and hang them to dry in a free current of air, watching the inside faces to prevent their getting clammy or sticky, and presenting them to the fire should that be the case. In a day or so you[Pg 50] may proceed to smoke them, after you have gained a well-dried face on the red side; this must be done with

Give them a continuance of this smoke for two days and nights, and although while in the chimney the colour of the inside face may not be so deep as you might wish, yet, when drawn out and exposed to the common air, the shade will be greatly altered, and a fine bright red will succeed it.

BLOATERS.

This process is generally conducted in so negligent and rough a manner—excepting at Yarmouth and Lowestoft—that a little advice on the subject may not be out of place. As the barrels are emptied of their contents, the largest fish should be picked out from the rest, and pickled separately, for otherwise the consumer gets the finest herrings hardly tasting of salt, and most likely in a state of decay, while the small ones are so much oversalted, as to be scarcely eatable. As the fish generally come to hand far from clean, they should be washed by means of round baskets agitated in tubs of salt and water, and turned into separate pickling vats, which should have[Pg 51] false bottoms in them, perforated here and there with holes, taps also being introduced to let off the pickle when required. The safest and best method is to make use of saturated solutions of salt, which are made by adding twenty-nine pounds of common salt to seventy-one pounds of water. The herrings will float in this pickle, but must be totally immersed by battens of wood laid on the top of them, and held down by little bags of salt, which, being gradually dissolved, will maintain the strength of the solution, which is always lessened as the fish imbibe the muriatic property thereof, and all pickles of this description are weaker at the surface than at the bottom, and may in this way be rectified. (See Note, No. 4.) As to the length of time the fish should remain in the pickle, that depends whether they came to hand with coarse salt scattered amongst them, at the sea coast, a precaution necessary in hot weather; a good criterion is when the fish begin to be stiff or rigid while being handled, but to try one or two cooked is certainly a sure proof. Pure fresh water must never be added or made use of in this process after salt has been imbibed, or the heads will all be broken when putting them on the spits. When salt enough, run off the brine, and shortly commence putting your fish on the rods, and hang them up in a current of air, then remove them to your chimney, and smoke them with

When they have been smoked enough, return them to the air currents, as they keep much better on the rods until wanted. If a constant and full smoke has been kept up, twelve hours will be sufficient for the smaller fish, and sixteen to eighteen hours for the large ones. They are not intended to keep good more than four or five days, but in perfection should be eaten the day after being cured.

KIPPERED HERRINGS.

The herring is so favourite a fish with the majority of society, that any improvement in the modes of curing them is a valuable acquisition. The getting rid of the gut and other objectionable parts recommends itself, and claims a decided preference over the old practice of sending the fish to table whole, and, in fact, carrying to the parlour what ought to have been left in the scullery. The salting process should be conducted in a similar manner to that for bloaters, and when taken out of pickle, should be wiped dry, and then split open at the backs, leaving the bone bare as possible; yet, an inch from the tail, the thin side should remain attached to the thick side, this adds much to the appearance of the fish when at table, and saves the curer some trouble in the succeeding stages of process. Clean out all the offal and gills, and wipe[Pg 53] with cloths dipped in salt and water, and suspend them by the shoulders upon the tenter hooks of your rods, thus avoiding the trouble caused by the old plan of keeping the fish open by splints of wood. Hang them in a free current of air, and when dried enough—one night is generally sufficient for that purpose—hang them in the chimney, and smoke them of a nice chesnut brown colour, and keep them on the rods, but not in a current, though in a dry room and cold air; when packed it should be insides faces together, with strips of dry oiled paper between each two fish.

SUPERIOR SPICED KIPPERED HERRING.

This is a more troublesome, but withal a delicious preparation of the herring, and should be practised on the best and freshest fish, as on the Isle of Man—“Manx herrings”—in July and August, and the Yarmouth later on in the season. Select two dozen from out of a lot of fish, the largest and roundest, wash them a minute in salt and water, having taken out the eyes and gills, wipe them, and lay them open at the back, wipe clean out, and put them into a pickle made by boiling water for twenty minutes, skimming, and then straining through a sieve,

Let the fish remain in this six hours, then hang them by their shoulders, and stretched widely open, to dry in a quick current of air. In this, and all similar cases, where the inside is to be acted upon by the atmosphere, those sides should be placed on the hooks so as to receive the full advantage of the air current. When dried as you think sufficiently, hang them in the chimney, and smoke them till of a fine bright brown; return them to the air, and next day take them off the hooks, lay them on their backs, and brush them all over the inside with essence of allspice and water, two parts of the former to one part of the latter; repeat this, and when absorbed, brush them over again liberally with this mixture:

repeating this three or four times, according to your taste. Any of the others may be used singly or in combination. The backbone must be well saturated. Stow away, wrapped in paper, in malt cooms and charcoal; they will keep a long time, and repay your trouble well.

CAPE BRETON, OR DIGBY HERRINGS.

St. John’s, N.B., and Cape Breton furnish us with these highly flavoured fish, smoked with the pine branches of that region. Small herrings visit our coasts soon after Christmas, and being “shot,” or without roes, are not much esteemed, but will serve well for curing in this way. Let them lie in a saturated solution of common salt so long as just to taste of the brine, then put them on spits, dry them a week, and smoke them for a month with deal chips, having much turpentine in them, from carpenters’ shops, and with the fruit of the larch fir tree, fir cones, and top branches of any of our firs, and some oak sawdust to smother the flame. These fish are generally eaten without being cooked, and will keep a long time, packed in small boxes, or buried in malt cooms, &c. &c.

ABERDEEN REDS.

For this purpose the herrings should be large, full-roed, and fresh. Immerse them in a pickle of twenty-nine pounds of common salt to seventy-one pounds of water, and to every pound of salt add half an ounce of saltpetre. When they become rigid and moderately flavoured, run off the pickle, put them on the spits, dry them a day or two, and smoke them with

until they are of a deep red.

SPELDINGS.

At present we are not aware of any superior method of curing the haddock to the “finnin haddock,” which, if procured soon after they are drawn from the smoke, are very fine eating. But some seasons produce these fish in such abundance that it induces curers to save them by various processes; the small ones may be converted as follow: Split them open at the belly, right over the backbone, clean away all the garbage, gills, &c, and lay them in a strong brine of common salt until nicely flavoured, then hang them on your tenters, dry them a day or two, taking care they do not become clammy, as these fish very soon are spoiled. Make a fire in your chimney with oak lops, sawdust, and beech chips, and when you have brought it to embers put in the rods, and first dry and then smoke them highly. Whitings are often done the same way, when the markets are glutted with the fresh fish.

SMOKED SPRATS.

This is a remunerative business when conducted on the best principles, employing children at trifling[Pg 57] wages. I have found the following to be the best method: Provide a wooden trough eight feet long by a yard wide, and eighteen inches deep; fix strips of wood an inch square along the sides, lengthwise of the vat, and six inches above one another. On these will rest the spits, which must be of iron wire, a yard long, and so as just to go within the vat. Pick out all the small fish and rubbish, and wash the bulk in salt and water, as for bloaters, but not too many at once, as they are apt to sweat if lying long together, and then would never be bright when smoked. Use a saturated solution of common salt, or, preferably, of rock salt, and if you intend to produce “bloated sprats,” two hours will be sufficient to let them remain in pickle; run off the brine, and put the fish on the spits, which may be a little pointed at one end. Hang them in a free current of air till next day, and smoke them with

until they are the colour of new sovereigns. These will not keep well more than four or five days, and are generally esteemed. If you want dried sprats for commerce, let them remain in the brine four hours, dry them well when on the spits, in a current of air, and when they begin to lose their plumpness, smoke them with similar fuel till of the colour of Spanish[Pg 58] mahogany. These when packed in boxes, like cigar boxes, will suit for exportation to the European Continent, where many thousands of boxes are sent every winter.

ALDBOROUGH SMOKED SPRATS.

Many gentlemen who delight in highly smoked relishes, inquire for these articles, and as they are seldom to be procured north of the metropolis, I subjoin an easy way of getting them. In the beginning of the sprat season—November—take a bushel of fish, pick out all the largest ones, and with a dozen pounds of common coarse salt or rock salt at hand, throw a layer of it into the bottom of your salting tub, then a layer of fish, and so on in alternate layers to the end; let them lie four hours, mixing them about in the tub two or three times, this will fix the scales, which are cleared off the fish by the “washing” process. Now take the sprats up, and with a basket wash them quickly in very strong salt-and-water, using the same salt if you choose, and get them on to your spits, and dry them as soon as a strong current of air will accomplish it. Smoke them with oak alone, lops and sawdust, until they are of a very dark red colour, and when quite cold, pack them in round shallow kits, in circles, the heads lying all one way, and the fish on their backs. The appearance of them is anything but inviting, yet they are very good, and are always eaten without cooking. Vast quantities used to be exported[Pg 59] to the Netherlands, Holland, and the German States; they are also well adapted for sea-stores.

BRITISH ANCHOVIES.

If it were worth while to favour the deception, you must select your fish from out of half a bushel of the freshest you can get, retaining only the middle-sized ones, for the real Gorgona fish are never so large as our large sprats, and never so small as our little ones, and your’s should also be all of the same size. Pull off the heads—not cutting them—in a rough manner, and draw out the gut. Wash not and wipe not the fish, but put them in straight-sided unglazed earthen jars, wood is preferable, in layers alternately with this mixture:

pressing them down as you proceed, and letting the top layer of the mixture be at least two inches thick. Get cork bungs cut to fit well, and secure them with plenty of melted resin. Bury the jars in dry sand in your cellar or store room, “out of the way,” and do not disturb them for nine months, or till the next sprat season. A fortnight before you would broach your “prize,” dissolve

[Pg 60] in a pint of boiled water, and strain it through flannel, pour it evenly over the contents of your jars or vessels; secure the bung again, and in a week or less, turn the receptacles upside-down for a day or two, and then again set them upright. This is called “feeding” them. And when all is done, without the aid of “brick-dust,” or what is as bad, “Armenian Bole,” to give them a fine red colour, the said “British anchovies” may do to make anchovy sauce of, with other ingredients, but to bring to table, with dry or buttered toast, as Gorgona fish—Oh never! See Note, No. 7.

TURBOT FINS.

This idea will naturally suggest itself, that “a pretty expensive product this will be, by cutting off the fins of a turbot at such a cost;” but there are fish to be got at much less price that will answer the purpose, for instance, the brill or brett, and even good firm plaice, in hard frosty weather, will afford the “amateur” an opportunity of testing the value of the venture. In a private family, if such a fish came to table minus its fins it would eat quite as well, even though to the eye it might not be exactly a handsome dish. Scale the fish, and cut off the extreme edge of the fins, lay a piece of wood an inch thick on the body, just to act as a guide to the knife—which must have a very sharp point—and cut off the fins with an inch and half, or rather more, of the solid attached; place these upon[Pg 61] their bases upright in a pie dish, a foot long, and pour in as much of this pickle as will cover to the extent of the inch and half taken out of the fish, viz.

boiled twenty minutes, skimmed, strained, and got cold. Let them remain in this state twelve hours, basting the part which is not in the pickle three or four times with plenty of the liquor. Then take out the fish, wipe it dry, and place it again in the same position, in the same dish emptied and washed out. Now pour in the dish as much of the following as will cover as before, viz.

boiled fifteen minutes, slammed, and gone cold. Let them rest in this eight hours, and then laid flat in and covered by the pickle four hours longer. Now take them up, wipe them dry, suspend them in draft of air until they are fit, and coat them nicely with the gelatine composition. They should be kept a month at[Pg 62] least, but three months would be better, and then broiled lightly, first being rubbed over well with pure olive oil. Observe, the same pickles and trouble would have done a dozen fins.

RIVER EELS SMOKED.

This a nice preparation of the richest fresh water fish we have, and will fully repay the amateur for the trouble and trifling expense. I have said “river eels,” because those fish of ponds or waters nearly stagnant, when they run to large sizes, are said to taste of the mud they inhabit. I have experienced the truth of this. Take fresh eels of two pounds each and upwards, cut off the heads, tails, and fins, split them open at the belly to the backbone, from the vent upwards, and clean them out, well washing them also in salt and water a minute or two. Next make a pickle of

by boiling fifteen minutes, skimming and going cold. Cut the fish into pieces six inches long, put them into a deep earthen pan, and pour the liquor over them. Let them lie thirty hours, then take them up, wipe[Pg 63] them dry, and with little splints of wood extend the sides well open, hang them in free current of air for twenty-four hours, watching the insides do not remain damp. Then take them down, lay them on their backs packed up one against another, and with a flat camel-hair tool brush the insides over plentifully with

repeat this in four hours, and when it is absorbed, mix

and apply it with the brush three times at least, as it becomes necessary by absorption—particularly regard the bone. The parts from the vent to the tail may be cut open at the back, and treated in the same manner four times, with each combination of the essences. Hang the pieces in your chimney, and smoke them thoroughly with beech chips, grass turfs and fern, and coat them with the gelatine composition effectually.

GORGONA FISH SMOKED.

These are inquired for by foreigners, and especially[Pg 64] by the Israelites, who are connoisseurs in fish, as generally admitted. If many are likely to be wanted you may save forty per cent. by purchasing a barrel of anchovies “first hand,” and feeding them yourself. You have another advantage also, viz. you would insure the fine racy flavour, which is gradually lost where the shopkeeper is perhaps two months or more in selling out a barrel in small quantities. A barrel turns out, in general, about twenty-two pounds of neat fish, exclusive of the sauce, and not often more. Acting on this advice, and feeding them, you will be able to take out what you want, without breaking the rest, and be careful to keep those in the barrel well covered with the salt, and after that the slate which you always find in the barrels of genuine fish.

Run thin wire through the shoulders of the fish, and making a light temporary frame to hold the wires, smoke them with beech and oak, with some fern or grass turfs. As no wiping nor washing is required in this instance, the scales will have adhered to the fish, and a general rough appearance will be the result, this is a great recommendation to goods of this class. They must be of a coarse brown mahogany colour, and should be packed in boxes, the size and shape of cigar-boxes, and made of wood that has neither smell nor taste. Dried bay leaves must be packed with them, about forty in each box.

ITALIAN CINCERELLI.

At the beginning of every sprat season the fish are possessed of oil or liquid fat to a great extent; this diminishes as the season advances, and in about three weeks or so from their first arrival, take half a bushel of prime fresh ones, pick out the largest, and cure them as best suits your convenience at that time, then throw away the small ones and rubbish, and leaving the middle class for the present purpose. Wash them in salt and water quickly as possible, and set them in a basket to drain. Now make a mixture of

These must be all well dried, powdered, and sifted. Take now two perfectly clean unglazed stone jars, as wide at top as at bottom, with bungs cut to fit tightly. Put a bunch of the old-fashioned brimstone matches lighted into each jar, and fumigate them well, wipe them out, and beginning with a light layer of the mixture, proceed with alternate layers of fish and powders, until both are filled, minding to keep them very closely[Pg 66] stowed as you proceed; fix in the bungs, and secure them water-tight with melted resin or pitch; put them away in a dry place for six months, turning the jars topsy-turvy every fortnight. They will be delightful, wiped dry and fried in olive oil boiling, or eaten with toast, as anchovies. If thought to be too high flavoured by some persons, put them in warm water at 120 deg. Fahr. for ten minutes prior to serving them.

SMOKED CONGER EELS.

Request your fishmonger to send in these without their skins, heads, and tails. Take a fish of from five to six pounds weight, and with a large pair of scissors or shears, cut off all the fins close to the body. Open it at the belly, from three inches below the vent up to the head part, and clean away all the garbage, and opening a membrane that covers the backbone, and hid clotted blood, which must be set free. Cut the fish into pieces eight or nine inches long, and wash well and very quickly in strong salt and water, and dry with cloths. Rub all the pieces well inside and outside with this mixture:

and lay them in a deep pan, rubbing and turning them daily for four days; then take them up, wipe them dry, stretch out the sides by splints of wood, so[Pg 67] that the wind may get easy access to the inside surface, and hang them up in a free current of air for twenty-four hours. Next lay them on their backs, and pay them inside plentifully with

Particularly attend to the bone and the solid pieces below the vent, towards the tail, which must be cut open to the bone, and specially well paid over with the essences; repeating it three or four times. Let the pieces lie thus on their backs forty-eight hours, attended to at least twice a day, and the brushing part continued. Now wipe each piece dry, rub warmed oatmeal over every part and hang them up to dry, which fully accomplished, they must be smoked and dried three weeks, then the ragged edges pared off, and either coated with gelatine or wrapped in paper, and hidden well in malt cooms. Rich broiling steaks may be cut in two months. The fuel for smoking them should be

If boiled in the pieces as they were cured they must be put into water that boils, and when brought again[Pg 68] to the boiling point, to be only simmered afterwards till done enough. To be eaten cold.

COLLARED CONGER EELS.

Fish of four to six pounds and upwards may be treated as follows: Head, tail, and fins being removed, the skin must be taken off, but reserved. Lay the fish open at the backs, take out the large bone the whole length, scatter bay salt in fine powder generally over the inside face, and coarse sugar over that again, and load boards down upon both sides, same as for kippered salmon. Next day remove the boards, renew the salt and sugar, and dust ground white pepper over all; leave pressed down till the morrow. Now add to the pickle, which is now getting moist,

For convenience, it must be cut in pieces, whenever it suits you best, and according to your vats. When it has laid two days more, and has been well rubbed inside and out with this second mixture, take up the pieces, wipe them fair with cloths, and roll up each piece, making a nice collar, which may be now dried gradually, then smoked as the former, and finally coated with gelatine, &c., or buried in malt cooms with paper round it. Tape is better for binding than string.

DRIED CONGER EELS, HIGH FLAVOURED.

Take two eels, not exceeding four pounds each, skin them, cut off the heads, tails, and fins, split them open at the belly, clean well out, cut them across a little below the vent, and again into pieces four inches long. Lay open the solid pieces from below the vent, and rub them in every part well with

Let them lie, being rubbed and turned in the pickle twenty-four hours, then add bay salt one pound, and continue the rubbing a day longer. Take them up now, and rub them with

Repeat this twice a day for two days; then wipe them dry, and suspend them in a free current of air until the insides, which must be exposed by sticks of wood, are no longer moist. Sew up each piece separately in calico that has been steeped in whisky or rum, and with which the backbone inside has been well saturated. Tie round with narrow tape, hang to[Pg 70] dry one night, and coat with the gelatine composition. In two months they will be splendid, being broiled in the wrappers and served hot.

BROWN CAVIARE.

This excellent relish may be prepared with advantage in January and February, when the codfish come to our markets full of roes. Having procured some roes and livers as soon after they are taken out of the fish as possible, tie them up separately in cloths, and put them into a pan of boiling water, in which common salt one pound, and saltpetre one ounce to the gallon, have been dissolved, and let them simmer by the fireside, the roes for four hours and the livers for two hours, and let them get cold in the water they were boiled in. When taken up, carefully remove all the skins and dark specks—coagulated blood—and pound them separately in a mortar, until of a perfectly smooth paste. Then mix them in the proportion of two and a half ounces of the liver to one and a half ounce of the roes, and work them well together on a dish—a clean board is better—with a broad knife, until not a bit of film or one dark speck can be seen. Make a mixture of

Sift these, and add table salt to your taste. Lay[Pg 71] paper shavings in the bottom of a stone jar, and upon them a piece of new calico, and then proceed to make alternate layers of leaves of bay and your fish, with one laurel leaf on each layer of the roes. Tie paper over the jar, and subject it to the heat of a water-bath in a large saucepan for three hours; then let it cool a night, and take out the contents of the jar, observing, when near the bottom to let none of the oil below the calico, mix with your fish. Now take out the leaves, mix all the fish well together, and salt, if you think it requisite, and fill clean little jars and potting pots with it; dry them a little in a slow oven, and when cold pour clarified butter over, and finish with wetted bladder, &c. &c.

WHITE CAVIARE

Is prepared from the milts of the male fish alone, and must be procured fresh as possible. Tie them up in cloths, and boil them in salt and water with saltpetre, as for brown caviare. When cold, remove the skins—which will involve much trouble—and work the mass well with the best fresh butter clarified. Subject to the water-bath with bay leaves and green laurel, and season with

[Pg 72] which must be all in the finest powder, and sifted. When all are well incorporated, add to the mass as much of the lemon zest as will be just perceptible, and fill pots of small sizes, in which the fish must be well pressed down; put a short time in a cool oven, and when cold be covered with clarified butter or olive oil, and next day, seeing that the air is excluded, tie over with bladder; and keep in a dry, cool room. This preparation will require two or three months to get well flavoured and mellow, and has been highly extolled by a first rate authority.

CAVIS OF MACKAREL.

Take twelve nice fresh fish, open them at the belly, take out the roes, which set apart, the eyes, gills, &c., and wipe quite clean. Mix

Season the insides of the fish plentifully with this mixture, and close the sides upon it, tie the fish round with packthread, and place them on their backs on a layer of table salt, and let them lie till next day. Take off the threads, and lay the fish in a deep dish or earthen pan, and pour over them best vinegar and water in equal parts. Pare off the thin yellow rind of one large or two smaller lemons, lay this on the top,[Pg 73] cover with paper and bake in slow oven. If not all consumed in a week, boil up the pickle, skim it, and pour again to the fish, when cold.

HERRINGS PICKLED.

When the herrings come fine and fresh, embrace the opportunity to preserve some by this process. Scale twenty fish, cut off the heads, fins, and tails, open them at the belly, clean them well out, and, if required, wash them in salt and water, and dry them quickly; season the insides with

and fry them a nice brown colour in boiling olive oil, and do the same to the roes, which must have been washed and well dried previous to the frying; set all by to get cold, on sieves or cloths, and keep covered up. Make a pickle of

by boiling twenty minutes, and straining quite clear.[Pg 74] Lay your fish, cut in proper pieces, in oblong earthenware pots, and pour the pickle over them when it is scalding hot, not boiling. Next day fill up the pots with more liquor, and tie bladder over them. These will be fit for table in a week, but will be improved by keeping. If any water is put to the vinegar it will certainly spoil them for keeping long.

HERRINGS CAVEACH.

Scale two dozen of fresh herrings, take off the heads and tails, split them open at the belly, clean them out nicely, and lay them with their roes in strong pickle of salt and water for three hours, then wipe them well and season with

well mixed and sifted; replace the roes in the fish, which lay along in a deep dish, covered with what spice remains, and twenty bay leaves; tie paper over, and bake them in a slow oven. Boil vinegar and water equal parts, and when cold, pour it over the herrings so as to cover them well. In two days they will be very good, and are intended only for present use.

YORKSHIRE PRESSED PORK.

Take two pounds of lean pork and four pounds of[Pg 75] the fat, freed from all skin and gristle; chop the meat coarsely, and mix with it intimately,

press the meat well into a dish, tie brown paper over it, and bake in a slow oven two hours. It is generally eaten cold.

BIRMINGHAM TRIPE.

It is not less strange than true, that this excellent preparation cannot be procured in perfection except in London, Oxford, Birmingham, and Coventry, the first of which is supplied principally from Birmingham. The more independent and established of the preparers of this delicacy refuse to communicate the secret of the process to strangers, and my own curiosity cost me a guinea some few years ago, besides my expenses from Lancashire and back again. As will be seen, however, plenty of cold and of boiling water, with an adequate amount of diligence, are the main requisites, which I liked the better, since in the whole of my practice I have eschewed the use of drugs and chemicals, as tending to rob what is estimable by nature of its purity and flavour. The butchers in this case leave nearly all the fat attached, and which is[Pg 76] absolutely necessary to the richness of the tripe when cooked. It is forbidden to interfere with the bellies, as they are termed, until the day they are wanted, and they are therefore hung up in an outer-house. The cleansing commences with scraping off the rough dirt with a dull edged knife, and, proceeding in this way, scraping until you come to the most troublesome and tedious part, viz. the “honeycomb,” and every one of those little cells of which it is composed is to be attacked with a dull pointed knife, until, by assiduity and great patience, the work is completed. The process is forwarded by occasionally dipping the flesh into the boiling water, which is always close at hand. And beautifully sweet are these parts of the beast made by these means, without a grain of lime or salt, or any chemicals. The part when cleaned is washed in two or three fresh waters, then cut into large pieces, and put into a tin jar made on purpose, nearly covering the meat with soft water, and sent off to the common bakehouse to be left in—after the bread is withdrawn—for five or six hours. When it is brought home, a teacupful of new milk is put into the liquor or gravy, in the tin, stirred about for a minute or so, and the business is completed.

CALF’S HEAD BRAWN.

A fine large calf’s head is best adapted for this purpose with the skin on. Take out the brains, and bone it entirely, or let the butcher do this. Rub a[Pg 77] little fine salt over it, and let it drain for ten or twelve hours; next wipe it dry, and rub each half well in every part with

all in very fine powder. Turn the head in this pickle for four or five days, rubbing it a little each time; pour over it four ounces of West India molasses (eight ounces for the whole head), and continue to turn it every day, and baste it with the brine very frequently for a month, then hang it for a night to drain, fold each part separately in brown paper, and send it to be smoked for three or four weeks. When wanted for table, wash and scrape one half of it very clean, but do not soak it. Lay it with the rind downwards into a saucepan or stewpan, which will hold it easily, and cover it well with cold water, as it will swell considerably in the cooking. Let it heat rather slowly, skim it thoroughly when it first begins to simmer, and boil it as gently as possible from an hour and three quarters to a couple of hours or more, should it not then be perfectly tender quite through, for unless sufficiently boiled, the skin, which greatly resembles bacon, will be unpleasantly tough when cold; when the fleshy side of the head is done, which will be twenty minutes or half an hour sooner than the outside,[Pg 78] pour the water from it, leaving so much only in the saucepan as will just cover the gelatinous part, and simmer it until this is thoroughly tender. The head thus cured is very highly flavoured, and most excellent eating. The receipt for it is new. It will be seen that the foregoing proportion of ingredients, with the exception of the treacle, is for one half of the head only, and must be doubled for a whole one.

PORTABLE SOUP.

Put these into a saucepan with just sufficient water to cover them, and set it on to boil. When nearly done, suspend a clove bag in the liquor. Remove the meats, and press them through a sieve; evaporate the fluid freed from water in a water-bath to the consistency of honey, and pour it upon a clean smooth stone or slate. When cold, cut it into pieces and dry it. Beef and veal, as an addition, or alone, may be treated in the same manner.

ANOTHER, AND MUCH RICHER.

Take the lean part of a good ham, ten pounds[Pg 79] weight, a leg of beef and a leg of veal, after the round and fillet have been cut off, slice off all the meat, and chop up the bones small; put half a pound of the best butter you can get into a pan with six or seven heads of celery sliced, and from which the tops have been cut off, seven or eight anchovies, two ounces of mace, four eschalots, minced, and four large carrots cut into small pieces; set these on the fire and shake them often to prevent their burning until the butter and juices have attained a brown colour, then pour in as much water as will cover them, and let it simmer four or five hours; then strain it through a hair sieve into another saucepan; darken the colour if you think proper, and let it simmer by the fire till it becomes glutinous. Great care must be taken that it does not adhere to the pan and become burnt. You may now add cayenne pepper and salt to your taste, and pour it out on to dishes a quarter of an inch thick, and when nearly cold cut it into cakes, which may be packed in tin cases between writing paper, and kept in a cool dry place. A pint of boiling water poured into a basin on one or two of these cakes, will immediately produce soup of very superior flavour, which will be found a great convenience, especially in travelling. It will keep well for many months, unimpaired in taste and quality.

SMOKED GEESE.

After the Christmas festivals, geese may be had[Pg 80] somewhat cheaper than usual. Take eight fresh fine geese, clean picked and drawn, wash them in strong salt and water, then take

Boil these fifteen minutes, and skim well, and when cold, rub the birds well inside and outside, and let them lie, being turned and rubbed with the pickle three days; then wipe them dry, and with two ounces of ground black pepper, rub the insides until the spice adheres firmly. Hang them up in a free current of air for two days, and then smoke them a fortnight with

Keep them in paper bags well defended from the fly.

BUCANED BEEF KIDNEYS.

Take half a dozen beef kidneys, cut them open lengthwise, take out the pipes and skins, lay them in a deep dish and pour boiling water over them; in two[Pg 81] hours take them up and dry with cloths, then rub well in all parts with

Let them be rubbed and turned twice a day for two days, then hang in a brisk air current for twenty-four hours, and rub them well with best olive oil three or four times in twenty-four hours. They must again be hung to dry, and when ready must be subjected to a gentle heat in your chimney for forty-eight hours, or until the surfaces on both sides are a little shrivelled, the proper embers being of

When cold you can coat them with gelatine composition, or, cutting into appropriate pieces, put them in oblong pots and cover them with olive oil; wait two days, fill up again with oil and tie wetted bladder over them. Pigs and sheep’s kidneys may be done in a similar manner.—The above have been much praised.

BUCANED BEEF UDDER.

Get seven pounds of the udder of a prime five years old beast—when much older it is worthless for this[Pg 82] purpose—and one that has been quickly fed up on grass; cut it in slices two inches thick and lay it in the pickle made as follows:

boiled and well skimmed. Let the meat lie in this thirty-six hours, being well rubbed and turned occasionally, then wipe dry, and hang in a quick draught of air for two days, after which it must be plentifully rubbed all over with olive oil, and put into your chimney to be dried, rather than smoked, forty-eight hours with

cut it now in pieces, and coat them nicely with the gelatine composition. In two months it will be mellow and beautiful.

BUCANED CALF’S LIVER.

This is a beautiful preparation, and in my opinion not in any degree inferior to the buzzards and storks’ livers of the Pampas of South America. Take a couple of healthy fine livers, cut away all the pipes—blood-vessels—and skins, and rub them well with

and let them lie, turned and rubbed twice daily, for two days and nights, or rather more if thick livers. Now wipe them dry, and cut them into pieces (some for being coated and others to be put in pots), hang them on wires until the surfaces warrant your proceedings, then with embers, not too powerfully hot, dry, and towards the end of the third day smoke them with

In two months these rashers will be splendid, rubbed well with olive oil and broiled on a clear fire. A lemon squeezed over, or served with good lemon pickle, is highly recommended.

BUCANED BEEF SKIRTS.

Take six pounds of skirts of prime beasts, beat them with a cleaver or rolling pin, but not so heavily as to start the gravy, and rub them thoroughly with

Let them lie so, turned and rubbed, four days and nights, then wipe dry, take away the skins, but not piercing the meat, and hang them to dry twenty-four hours. Now rub the best olive oil all over them, and dry with gentle heat (mind, be careful not to start the gravy), of the embers of

and coat them with gelatine composition, or cut in fitting pieces and pot them with olive oil, and tie bladder over. The fire must be backened, if too hot, by sawdust a little damped, or remove the meat into a corner of your chimney for a while.

Potted Meats and Fish

POTTED OX CHEEK.

Take the half head of a well-fed beast, chopped into four pieces, cut out the gullet, the small bones and cartilages, and wash it in salt and water, dry with cloths, and rub it well in all parts with

[Pg 85] then let it lie three days, occasionally turning it, and rubbing. Then place the pieces in a wide stone jar or stewing pot, along with

Tie double paper over, and send it to the baker’s oven, to be baked four or five hours, then turn it out into a dish, and when cool enough, separate all the meat from the bones, and chop coarsely, and mixing the pieces of fat equally throughout the mass. Press the meat now into a dish that will about hold it, and using what part of the liquor you may require to moisten the meat, and leave a plate or dish over the meat, with weights to keep it pressed down. Next day, when it has settled into a dense mass, pour clarified butter all over it, a quarter of an inch thick. It is eaten cold, and in winter season will keep well some weeks.

POTTED SHRIMPS, DIABLE.

Follow the directions for preparing the fish as for potted shrimps, until you arrive at the seasoning department, when mix

[Pg 86] Make four or five tablespoonfuls of olive oil boiling hot in a stewpan, throw a handful of the shrimps at a time into it, and in less than a minute take them out, season them well with the mixture and lay them on dishes to cool. Continue thus to treat all the rest, and when done fill your pots and press the fish down closely. Next day cover with clarified butter, and afterwards the pots may be made secure with bladder, white or coloured paper over that. Keep them in a dry airy room. They will be much liked if taken with wine, and rectify a vitiated palate.

POTTED PIGEONS.

Take a couple of dozen of pigeons, which should be hung up a full week in cold weather. They must be drawn of the intestines and nicely picked of pen-feathers. Cut off the necks and pinions and lay them open at the backbones, wiped clean out and washed in salt and water, being dried quickly. Season them well with

inside, particularly on the backbone and vent, and let them lie put down in a jar and covered over for a week, turning them daily. Then place them singly,[Pg 87] or in halves, if a small family; put a lump of fresh butter inside of each, and, tying thick paper over the pots, bake them slowly until done. While they are yet warm pour off any gravy that may have been produced, which must be set by, and when cold the butter taken off and added to the quantity which will be required to be clarified, and with which the birds must be covered, when cold, to the thickness of at least half an inch in each pot. These will be excellent, taken cold.

RUSSIAN POLONY.

Your success in this undertaking chiefly depends upon the choice of the meats made use of. Take of

Peel the tongues after being boiled and reject the roots and tips. Cut the four first of the above up into dice and pound them separately into smooth pastes, with mucilage of gum tragacanth and fresh butter. Next cut the fat bacon into dice or cubes as large as the finest growth of peas, no rind or gristles to be retained; then mix intimately together,

and blending all the meats well, season highly with the mixture, and put it down in a jar for a week to mellow. Then work the mass well for half an hour. Get some of the largest ox intestines, and soak them in luke-warm salt and water, wipe them dry and proceed to fill them, keeping out the air as much as possible, which you will effect by regular and even pressure, and pricking, only where necessary, with a stocking-needle. Make your polonies about a foot long each, and put them aside as done until the next day; then repeat the pressure and tie them up finally. They must be put into boiling-water with a little salt and saltpetre, and after once boiling, simmer only for half an hour. Then take them up, wipe dry, and hang in a current of air for a week, being turned daily without fail. Then smoke them with

for a month. Stow them away in malt cooms. They will be prized by those persons who delight in high flavours. They need no coating; nay, many foreigners prefer them mouldy on the outsides.

GERMAN SAVELOYS.

Boil the tongue moderately, peal and cut off the gross root tip. Cut up the whole of the meat into large dice, and pound it thoroughly, mixing the fat in equally in all parts of the mass. Pick out all skins, sinews, &c., and mix a pound of good moist sugar throughout it, so let it lie two days. Then take

mix them well and then sift them, and blend them well with the meat, so that all parts may partake of the flavour alike; put it into a jar, which bung up close and set it aside for a week to get mellow. Now try a small quantity of it: if it suits your taste, well and good, if not add seasoning. Now fill your sausage skins, and when nice and solid prick them a little, and put them into a pan of boiling water to simmer slowly three quarters of an hour. Then take them out and let go cold, and next day wipe them and smoke them three weeks with

then hang them up in a dry room and keep them with hams, tongues, &c. These will be excellent in a month, just popped into boiling water for five minutes, or fried in olive oil and eaten cold.

JERSEY BLACK PUDDINGS.

In France, in the Channel Islands, and Belgium these delicacies are introduced at the tables of the highest families, a distinction which they richly deserve, while in England very few persons make them at home, but purchase at the shops an indescribable mass of groats, blood, bread, herbs, &c., and frequently, to cover the indolence of the pork-butcher, loaded with such an amount of the commoner spices, as to render the whole anything but palatable. Then, again, the fat, which seems to be the only recommendation, is found here and there in lumps so large, that before they become heated through, it is certain the other of part of the mass must be burnt nearly to a cinder. I think that we can produce an article well worthy of the trouble and slight expense incurred by the trial. Take a couple of dozen of large onions, peel them, cutting off the bottoms, cut them into small pieces, and put them into a stewpan along with ten ounces of sweet lard, and stew them slowly till of a light brown colour. Cut three pounds of pig’s leaf that is perfectly sweet and dry into dice, pick out all[Pg 91] the skins. Boil half a dozen heads of endive, chop them fine and add to the fried onions; season them with

Now add three quarts of pig’s blood—calf’s, or sheep’s is as good—that has not been long taken from the animal, and if still warm is preferable. Mix all intimately, and if you find the mixture is too thin to work well, add a handful or two of stale bread crumbs, or half to three quarters of a pound of rice, boiled just tender but not mashed. Take now the smaller pudding skins which have been properly scraped and cleaned, wash them in salt and water, and with a tin funnel tie one end of the skin tightly upon it, and the other end up in a knot, two feet or a yard will be a convenient length. Proceed now to fill your skins by pressing the meat through the funnel, pricking with a pin to let out the air. When nicely and firmly filled, tie up the end, and put the puddings into a flat large pan, with plenty of water tasting slightly of salt, and already boiling, and let them simmer twenty minutes, or rather more, attentively watching and pricking them to prevent bursting. When the blood oozes out no longer, they are[Pg 92] fully cooked, then take them up and let them lie all night on a sieve. Cut them into pieces four to six inches long, and when wanted for table wipe them lightly over with a linen rag dipped in olive oil, and broil them ten minutes. Serve them plain, but very hot. If you cannot procure endive, you may substitute celery, which must be boiled along with three or four laurel leaves; the tender parts only must be used. Leeks also are generally liked, but in that case part of the onions must be omitted.

MARINATED SALMON.

Take six or eight pounds of the middle of a large fish, in preference to a similar weight of the whole of a grilse or salmon trout, scale it and cut off the fins, split it open at the back and reserve the roe and liver; wipe the fish out nicely, and strew moist sugar all over the red side, put it away on a dish until the next day. Then make the following mixture,

Take out the backbone neatly and rub the fish on both sides well with the mixture and the former sugar; lay three or four laurel leaves upon the red face of the thick side, turn the thin side over upon them, and[Pg 93] set it away in a cool place for twenty-four hours. Then take it up, wipe dry, and cut the sides into fitting pieces, and place them in a deep dish upon the spices, and half a pint of Rhenish wine or Cape Madeira; tie double paper over and bake it in a slow oven till done enough. Pour off the pickle while yet warm, and set the pieces on a sieve to drip until the next day—covered close with a cloth to prevent the action of the air upon it, and thus to preserve the colour. Now choose your pots according to the size of your family, and into each one place a piece of the fish, the red face downwards, and fill up with genuine olive oil, let remain until the next day, when add more oil, and again on the third day replenishing what has been absorbed by the fish. Then tie wetted bladder over the pots and keep them in a cool dry air. This cannot fail of gaining the approval of all who partake of it, and is the most certain method of obtaining fresh salmon in the winter months. The same oil will do again and again for a similar purpose.

MARINATED TENCH AND CARP.

How often have I seen twenty or thirty brace of these delicious and exceedingly nutritious fish exposed for sale in some provincial market-place, and spoiling for want of purchasers, some neighbouring baronet or esquire having been drawing his pits and preserves. But why no purchasers? Simply because, although the spectators might nearly beg them, the[Pg 94] price being so low, few persons only would know what to do with them, they not being “poor men’s fish;” and the sauces, &c., required to dress them would be too expensive; the operatives have not seen pies made of them, like eels, so even the million as they are termed do not enjoy them, and ten to one the beautiful fish are lost; whilst if they were near Houndsditch or the Minories, amongst the Israelites, they would not remain half an hour unsold even at half-a-crown the brace, because they know how to prepare them, and delicious indeed are the majority of their fish dishes. Take three brace of these fish, scale them, cut off the tails and fins, split them open at the back, take out all the garbage, gills and eyes, and wash them quickly in salt and water; now wipe them dry, and have ready the following mixture:

Make two sides of each fish and cut them across, again place these pieces in alternate layers with the mixture in an oblong pot closely covered up, and set them aside for forty-eight hours; then unpack the fish and replace them in the same receptacle, having rubbed them well and turned each piece over; so let remain[Pg 95] twenty-four hours longer, the thickest pieces lying nearest the bottom of the jar. Now unpack again and wash the pieces separately in weak vinegar and water with a trifle of saltpetre in it, and wiping, leave them between cloths while you are preparing, by boiling the used herbs and liquor with half a pint of vinegar and water for ten minutes, and skimming well, strain it through a fine sieve and set it aside. Now take

Boil these for fifteen minutes, skim thoroughly, strain through a fine sieve and add port wine half a pint, return this to the saucepan, simmer it covered close for twelve minutes, and let remain by the fireside. Lay your pieces of fish in a pie dish that will just hold them, the thickest near the bottom, and pour the liquor in the saucepan over the fish, tie paper doubled over the dish and bake till done moderately, which can always be ascertained by the fish leaving the bone upon a knife being applied. Now pour off the liquor, take out the fish and set it to drain all night, covered up; place the pieces in the best adapted[Pg 96] pots and fill up with olive oil, renewing on the third day what had been absorbed by the fish, and tie bladder over. In this and similar cases take care that the oil is sufficient in quantity to cover the contents to the thickness of three quarters of an inch at least. These will be remarkably fine eating in a month. You cannot purchase such at the shops.

MARINATED SHRIMPS.

To ensure this delicacy of first-rate quality you must buy your shrimps alive, and boil and pick them at home with all possible despatch. Set a gallon of live shrimps in three quarts of boiling water, in which one and half pounds of bay or rock salt has been dissolved, and boil them fifteen minutes, then strain off the water and as soon as possible commence shelling them, and keep them covered with cloths as you proceed. Be particular that no refuse or pieces of the shells remain to disgrace the preparer, and laying them lightly on clean dishes, mix amongst them the following seasoning in very fine powder, being well sifted and dried the day previous and kept bottled up. I repeat that the shrimps must have been deprived of all their moisture with the assistance of a moderately cool oven, and not two fish to be seen sticking together. Nor can any excuse avail in this instance, as the less time that is occupied in potting these sorts so much better chance will there be of your total success in the product.

When seasoned to your entire satisfaction, the fish however fully retaining their own fine flavour, fill your pots, which must be the cleanest and best dried possible; press the shrimps well down, and set them as you proceed at the mouth of your cool oven until there is no evaporation observable. Now take them up, press down again, and laying one or two bay leaves on the top, fill up with the best olive oil, and set away in a cool dry room. Next day replenish the oil that has been absorbed, and not till after the third day tie bladder over. Plenty of oil must cover the fish, and although potted shrimps are not expected to keep well after three or four days, yet you may expect every satisfaction from this process. If decay soon takes place, it will be owing to the fish not having been well dried in the process. As to the preservation of the true flavour of the fish, this preparation demands our decided preference.

MARINATED TROUT AND GRAYLING.

Fish about a pound weight each are the best for this purpose, but provided that they are perfectly fresh, have a clear red gill, and bright eye, we should be induced to thus preserve fish of any size, because by[Pg 98] this process the true flavour of the fish may be effectually retained. Take two dozen fish, from twelve to twenty ounces each, scale them, take off the heads, tails, and fins, open them at the belly, take out the garbage, and washing them quickly in salt and water, dry them with cloths and leave them covered up. Make the following seasoning:

All these must be in finest powder, and sifted, and with a good mixture of them rub the insides and outsides of the fish well. If you have any roes of them, wash them well, roll them in the powder and place them inside the fish, bring the sides together, and tie round with thread; place them in a convenient pot of earthenware, and with half a pint of good sherry wine, paper tied closely over, bake them sufficiently; then, while warm, pour off the gravy and let the fish lie by till next day, basting them two or three times with the liquor, and removing to the top those which laid on the bottom. Now pour off the gravy, strain it, and put it aside bottled up close. Take out the fish and pay the backbones inside with a camel’s-hair brush and this mixture:

Lay the fish on their backs and repeat this brushing over the bone two or three times, then lay the fish on their flat, mix the strained liquor in the bottle with whatever you have remaining of your essence mixture, and six tablespoonfuls of good old malt whisky, and pour this over the fish; baste well with it two or three times daily for a week or until they have imbibed a fine flavour of the ingredients, and tying over with leather. Now dry the fish by wiping outside only, and place pieces in fitting oblong pots and cover with olive oil of first quality. (See Note, No. 11.) Replenish the oil, and after the third day make safe with wetted bladder and remove to a cool dry room. In a month they will be very good, but if you could keep some three months they would be much improved.

MARINATED SILVER EELS.

Take ten pounds of fine fresh river eels, each one and a half pound to two pounds, skin them, cut off the heads, tails, and fins, lay them open at the backs and remove all visible bones, and wash in salt and water; then dry them, cut them into pieces four inches long, and lay them in salt and water with a bit of saltpetre in it for ten hours; then make a seasoning thus:

Dry the fish well with cloths, rub them all over plentifully with this mixture, and let them lie packed closely for twenty-four hours; roll them up neat into little collars, tie them round, and bake them in a wide-mouthed jar with a teacupful of water and vinegar at the bottom. Next day pour off the liquor, take out the collars and put them singly into white earthenware pots, and cover with olive oil, observing to replenish the oil before finally closing up with bladder.

SUPERIOR MARINATED SILVER EELS, OF VERY HIGH FLAVOUR.

Get fresh eels of ten to fifteen ounces each, skin them, take off heads, tails, and fins, open them at the bellies, and, clearing away all refuse, wash them in salt and water and dry with cloths. Then for ten pounds of fish take

[Pg 101] Boil these twenty minutes, skimming well, and let go cold. Cut the fish into pieces, place them in a deep dish and pour this pickle over them, so let them lie till next day. Take out the fish and rub each piece separately with the mixture, replace the fish in the vessel and let them lie so for twenty-four hours longer. Now wipe them and hang them up in a current of air for two days; then with a soft brush take off the herbs and spice and roll up tightly each piece into a collar, which secure with narrow tapes. Choose pots of white earthenware that will each just hold a collar, and so as to allow of the fish being totally surrounded by oil, and fill up with olive oil and replenishing as before directed previous to finishing with wetted bladder. Keep these three months at least, when they will be a fine relish at a moderate expense. They should be boiled in hot water, and when cold enough the tapes taken off and the fish eaten cold.

PICKLED SMELTS, PREFERRED TO ANCHOVIES.

This is an elegant preparation of the smaller fish, the large ones being chosen for the dinner table. Cut open the fish at the belly, and wipe them well out with damp cloths, lay in a light coat of the following seasoning, the roes being replaced, and put them in layers with the mixture alternately, in a deep jar wide at the top:

These must have been well mixed. Press the fish well down in the jar, and boiling sufficient of the best pickling vinegar with bay leaves, and four or five laurel leaves, pour it upon the fish when cold, and tie leather over the jar. They will require three months at least to become mellow, and are much improved by keeping twice that length of time.

PICKLED LOBSTERS.

In our hot summer months, and when lobsters are plentiful, it would be wise to save some that would come in opportunely for sauce and many dishes, when lobsters are scarce and high priced. Take fresh boiled lobsters, split them, take out the meat as whole as you can, and make a seasoning of

by well mixing them. Rub the meat well with this and equally, so that no part is left undefended. Put the fish down in an earthen jar, and repeat the rubbing for a day or two. Pack it then in small jars and[Pg 103] pour the following pickle over it, so that it may be covered to thickness of an inch:

and in similar proportions for each pint of vinegar used. Mind that the vinegar pickle covers well, and then put over all as much olive oil as will cover to the depth of half an inch. Tie wetted bladder over and leather upon that for safe keeping. It will be well recommended after a trial.

MARINATED HERRINGS.

The freshest full-roed herrings must be taken for this purpose. Scale twenty of the shortest and fattest you can get in the middle of the season, take off the heads, tails, fins, and open them at the bellies, clean all out, scrape the backbone, and washing the fish in salt and water, wipe them dry and let them lie until next day, after rubbing a dessert-spoonful of good moist sugar into the inside of each fish. Lay them upon their backs in any vessel not too deep, and cover the fish over with the following mixture—the roes should be nicely washed, dried, and laid by the side of the fish:

putting half the fish in one layer then a layer of the mixture, and then a layer of fish above that, and the spices covering all; so let them lie covered up with a cloth three days. Then wipe the fish dry, place the roes inside, cut them across in two parts, tie up in rolls with calico, and lay them with plenty of bay leaves and four laurel leaves in a deep dish and bake them, just covered over with good sound porter; then while warm pour off the liquor, and set the fish on a sieve to go cold, and next day put each one into a white earthenware jar and cover with olive oil with the same precautions as before. In two months they will be mellow and rich and greatly liked. The porter in which they were baked, being boiled twenty minutes with a dozen of shalots and cayenne, will be a very good cold sauce for chops, steaks, fish, &c.

MARINATED SPRATS.

These shall be superior to what were called “sardines in oil,” some thirty years ago, and sold in London at 4s. 6d. at first in small tin boxes, and afterwards at 2s. 6d., each tin containing about sixteen sprats—for sprats they certainly were. Take a peck of fresh sprats and pick out for your present use as many of the largest and most sound as will suit your purpose.[Pg 105] Pull off the heads, cut off the fins and tails, and draw out the little guts, wash them quickly through salt and water, and dry them between cloths. Have ready the following:

with which rub each fish on the inside first, and then throughout the bulk; put them into small pots of white earthenware, closely packed; tie bladder over them, merely to keep out the water, and place them in a stewpan, adding water to reach half way up the sides of the jars, cover the pan and set it on a slow fire to simmer until the fish are cooked; then take them up, remove the covers, and set them aside till the next day, when, pouring off any oil or fat that may have been given out in cooking, fill up with olive oil and tie bladders safely over.

POTTED SMELTS.

For this purpose the smaller fish will do very well. Cut them open at the belly, clean out and wash in salt and water, having first cut off the tails and fins; now season them inside with

and let them lie till next day, when lay them in oblong pots and cover them with clarified butter; bake them in a slow oven, and when done enough pour off the butter, and drain effectually, and let them remain twelve hours. Now warm up the butter again in a water bath, and running it through a warmed sieve, pour the clear again over the fish, adding more clarified butter to cover well. Tie bladder over and keep dry.

POTTED LOBSTERS.

Take a couple of fine lobsters, place them in a tub with plenty of weak salt and water, and brush them well from froth and slime, then wash in pure water and pop them into boiling water in which some salt and saltpetre have been dissolved. When done lay them on a sieve to get cold, and next day cut open the shells, crack the claws and take out the meat, which then pick over carefully from skins and specks, the coral also must be separated and examined. Now cut the meat into dice and pound it finely in a mortar, till of a nice smooth consistence, adding clarified butter at pleasure. Then season with

and working the paste well proceed to fill white pots, and putting a part of the coral into the middle of each pot. Press well in and set aside for the night. Put the pots next into a slow oven, and let the steam escape that might arise, and when you have got them as dry as it is possible, without changing the colour of the preparation, set them by to go cold; then cover with clarified butter effectually and writing paper over the tops of the pots.

POTTED CRABS.

To meet with well potted crabs is a very rare occurrence, and, speaking generally, is attributable to the carelessness of the preparer. Crabs are very often out of season, that is, cannot be got without great trouble and expense, and they are very much liked; these admissions furnish reasons why we should have some well preserved. Take half a dozen eastern coast crabs—those of Hartlepool and neighbourhood are always sound and well flavoured, while those on the western coast and about Ireland are little worth—plug up all the holes with wooden pegs, throw them into a tubful of salt and water and brush them thoroughly, then wash in pure water and put them into boiling water to be cooked; then take them up and lay them[Pg 108] to get cold; pull off the claws and put the large shells into a slow oven after having run off any water that may have collected in them, and when no more steam arises from the slow drying, set them also to get cold. Take all the meat out of the claws, pick out very carefully all the little skins and strings, cut it into dice and pound it in a mortar with clarified butter until of a nice plastic mass, which cover up in a cloth. Now attack the body shells, pick out all the solid meat, and, setting the coral aside, throw out all the skins and refuse you can find, and beat up this also with best Durham mustard, as for the table, some cayenne, chillie vinegar, and table salt. Place some of this at the bottom of each pot, and having ready this seasoning, mix what is requisite with the meat from the claws:

Work this well into the mass, and having put a portion of the hard coral into each pot, fill up with the seasoned claw meat. Set the pots in a slow oven to evaporate what moisture you can, then set aside and when cold pour clarified butter plentifully over, which, when cold, must again be covered with writing paper. If your ingredients were genuine, your butter sweet,[Pg 109] and well managed, and the fish of prime quality, you will have a choice or rare preparation of these generally admired fish.

SIDE OF VENISON COLLARED.

As this sort of animal food can only be got at one season of the year, I recommend any person who is fond of good eating at a moderate cost, to get the two sides or flitches of a prime fat buck, and cure them in the two different ways herein described, with full assurance that the result will be perfectly satisfactory. Take a side and hang it up in a free current of air as long as ever you can trust it, wiping it daily with a coarse cloth, and dusting it over, particularly the fat parts, with ground black pepper, to prevent the flies settling on it. With a sharp knife take off the outer skin, and, removing all sinews, bone it nicely; divide it next into pieces fit for collars, that is, so that when rolled up the ends may be level and firm. Rub vinegar well over the meat and leave it packed closely in a deep dish and covered up till the next day. Make ready a mixture of

[Pg 110] and with this rub the meat, which should have been dried with cloths well, and pack them down to lie forty-eight hours. Then take them up, and cutting slices of hard fat bacon, half an inch wide and six or eight inches long, insert them in channels cut in the venison and about two and a half inches apart; this should be done with consummate nicety. Now roll up the meat into collars and bind tightly with broad tape, and sew strong unbleached calico all round the length. Lay paper shavings in the bottom of a deep straight-sided jar, and upon them six or eight laurel leaves and twice as many bay leaves, and place the collars lightly upon them, then pouring in half a pint of water, tie doubled paper over the jar and bake slowly for three hours at least, or until nicely cooked; then while warm pour off the gravy into a basin to get cold, and taking out the collars set them to drain all night. Next day, after wiping them dry, place the rolls of meat in a jar that will just hold them without squeezing, and pour clarified mutton suet with sweet lard in the proportion of a quarter of a pound of the latter to twelve ounces of the former, and when cold covering the meat to the thickness of two inches. Tie wet bladder over and put away in a cold airy room. This should not be broached under two months, and then by placing the jar in a pan of boiling water for twenty minutes you can take out a collar and put away the jar, taking care that the meat is totally covered by the suet and made safe from the air. Pop the collar into a saucepan of[Pg 111] boiling water and salt for fifteen minutes, then take it out, wipe it dry, and when nearly cold take off the envelopes and set it by till next day. Serve it garnished with fresh parsley and slices of lemon or pickled red beetroot, which two latter may be eaten with it, and then I think you will confess that this “common part of venison” is very first-rate eating.

THE OTHER SIDE SMOKED.

Proceed as with the former side, and having rubbed it well with vinegar, make a mixture of

and rub all parts thoroughly, and let them lie placed down in a deep pan for forty-eight hours; then take them up, wipe dry and lard them well with shreds of the best sweet fat bacon and roll up tightly into collars, which bind with tape and envelope in calico or thin canvas, and stow them away in a deep jar that will hold them conveniently till the next day. Boil up the used spices, herbs, and salts with as much porter as you think will cover the meat, well skimming it till no more scum arises, and pour it hot over the meat; so let[Pg 112] it remain covered with leather for a week. Then hang up the collars in a draught of air, minding to turn them every morning regularly, or the neglect is certain to be detected when brought to table. Next suspend them in your chimney, and smoke them for a fortnight with

When cold you can coat them with gelatine composition and keep them in malt cooms. Slices cut off these collars and broiled will be excellent in three months, or, if you choose to boil them and eat cold, take care they are put on the fire in ready boiling water, as we do not want venison broth. (See Note, No. 10.)

YOUNG PIG COLLARED.

Your porkman having supplied you with a short, round pig, say about ten to twelve weeks old, the neck taken off close up to the shoulders and split down the back, you will proceed to take out the bones and gristles and wash it five minutes in salt and water, then wipe dry and rub the following mixture—

[Pg 113] —in all parts well, and let them lie pressed closely for twenty-four hours, then take them up, wipe dry, roll the one half up into a collar, with tape and new linen, and boil it in a pickle made by boiling up the former used spices—adding thereto

—until tender. Examine the collars when nearly cold, and tighten the binding if requisite. Cut them through, in the middle, straight across, put each roll into a jar just capable of holding it; boil up the pickle again, adding vinegar and porter, if not enough to cover your meat completely; tie bladder over and keep a month, when it will be very rich, yet delicate. The pickle must have been well skimned and all fat removed from it. The other half may be thus treated, making an agreeable change, though this latter will be much higher flavoured: Proceed as with the last, until having rolled it up in a nice tight collar, you will make this pickle:

Boil these twenty minutes, skim well and pour over the meat, placed in a deep jar that will just hold it, and tying leather over let it remain three weeks. Then take it up, wipe dry, hang it in a current of dry air for a week, turning it daily, and smoke it with

for three weeks. When cold you can coat it with gelatine, or if packed with hams, tongues, &c. &c., in malt cooms, will be a high, much esteemed article, after being kept a month or two to become mellow. Care must be taken in the broiling, as the meat will be extremely rich and tender.

POTTED HARE.

A large one is generally chosen for this purpose, although you run the risk of its not being tender; but since flavour is the essential here, we must guard against the toughness by hanging it with the skin on, and not opened for a fortnight if it came to hand quite fresh killed. A stuffing should be made of

[Pg 115] and the hare stuffed and basted as if for the parlour or dining-room. Here, before the meat is cold, it should be separated from the bones and well picked over, then, with clarified butter at hand, it must be pounded well till of a nice stiff paste, and then seasoned with

When these are well blended with the mass, you may fill pots and jars, and proceed as usual with clarified butter to cover, and writing paper over the pots.

POTTED MOOR GAME.

It is absolutely necessary that the greatest nicety prevails in the picking and dressing of these species of game, and we shall leave that to the poulterer and the cook, and only offer our advice as to the different ingredients most acceptable as seasonings. Moor game will bear hanging longer, and must not be overdone with fire, as they possess a flavour well worth keeping. Season your birds with

[Pg 116] and roast them a nice brown. Their heads, which in general are made to be seen protruding, should be glazed, and the pots just nicely adapted to contain one bird each. Clarified butter must wholly cover the body and half an inch above. Writing paper, pasted on, covers all.

POTTED SNIPES AND WOODCOCKS.

We see so many of these delicious birds now-a-days, particularly at our seaports opposite to the Continent, that we are reminded of the great gratifications of former days, when such things were not purchaseable, as to induce us to embrace the opportunity of preserving some. The trails must not be drawn, but the picking and dressing must be done effectually. Affix the bills to the thighs by skewers, the feet being brought on to the breasts, season inside rather highly with

Place your birds in a straight-sided jar, with the best salt butter well washed, and bake slowly until done enough. Then pour off the butter, put the birds singly into pots, and next day clarify the used butter, adding more. Cover well and finish with writing paper pasted over.

POTTED TROUT.

Where the natural flavour of this delicious fish can be retained it is worth while potting them, and vice versâ. (See Note, No. 9.) From half a pound to one and a half pounds weight each fish, will be the best size for this preparation. Their freshness is insisted upon, or better to let them alone. Scale your fish, cut off the heads, tails, and fins, open them at the belly and wipe out clean, scatter good moist sugar over the inside of the fish, and bring the sides of them together again, pack them the backs downwards side by side, and let them lie till the next day. Then take

Mix these well together and season the fish plentifully inside and out with it, lay them flat in a dish, cover with a coarse meal crust and bake them in a slow oven. Pour off the gravy while warm and let the fish remain till next day. Then cut your trout into pieces adapted to your pots, fill them, and pour clarified butter over to cover well, and if for long keeping at least an half inch thick above the fish. Next day, if all seem firm and safe, paste writing paper over and put away in a cool airy room.

POTTED EELS.

Provided the fish are fresh we shall not refuse any size for this purpose, from nine ounces to a pound each. They must be divested of their skins, heads, tails, and fins, and opened at the belly from the head down to the tail end. Clear all rubbish away, and at once wash them a minute or two in salt and water, and dry with cloths. Dust best flour over them and put them away, while you prepare a pickle of

For ten pounds of eels:

Lay your fish in a deep dish, previously cut into pieces three inches long, or less, according to shape of your pots; with alternate layers of seasoning, cover all close down and let lie twenty-four hours, and if thick somewhat longer. When all are pickled, wash them through salt and water, dry with cloths, and dusting them with flour, fry them in boiling olive oil a nice brown colour, and put them as done to drain and get cold. Next day lay a pinch of crushed or[Pg 119] shred chillies inside each piece of fish, and lay them into white pots, cover well with best butter clarified, and all over the tops thickly. Replenish next day if any has been absorbed, and make all safe with bladder. These will be much liked with wine.

POTTED SHRIMPS.

Whether you are about to pot a large or a small quantity of shrimps, and wish them to be “got up” in good style, and calculated to keep well, I must desire you to boil your own fish at home. This done, get them picked quickly as possible, then examine well that no skins or filaments remain, spread them out in clean dishes, and evaporate the moisture by a cool oven and attention, and will be only just accomplished when no two fish are found sticking together. Season them according to your own taste with this mixture:

All these must have been well dried, mixed, and sifted finely. Your pots must be particularly clean and dry, and the sooner they are filled with the fish the better. Press down the fish in the pots and dry them in a cool oven, but not to brown them. Set them aside to get cold, not damp, and cover well with best[Pg 120] butter nicely clarified, and paste writing paper over the tops of the pots.

POTTED BEEF, AS HARE.

Get half a dozen pounds of fine beef skirts, hang them up in dry air for a week, or in hard weather for ten days, then beat them well with a paste pin, take off the skin and lay them down in a deep earthen pot, without cutting, and rub them well on both sides with

and let them lie six days, being turned every day. Then take them up, wipe dry, and cut into pieces; lay them in a deep straight-sided jar, with a pound of the best salt butter dispersed in little lumps here and there between them, subject this to the action of a water bath until the meat is tender. You can raise the heat of the boiling water which surrounds the jar, by adding plenty of salt to it, by eight deg. Fahr. Then while hot pour off the gravy and set the meat in a dish to go cold. Next day take off the butter and fat from the gravy, cut your meat into dice, take out the films and strings, and with the butter[Pg 121] and pounding bring the meat into a nice plastic consistence. If your hare is to be very highly flavoured you may add more thyme and cayenne. Now fill your pots and cover well with clarified butter, and again with wetted bladder.

POTTED NEATS’ TONGUES.

Unless the tongues were cured according to your own receipts, you cannot tell how to treat them for potting. I shall therefore consider that you have been under the necessity of purchasing some out of the pickle tub of the butcher, which, generally speaking, are not remarkable for excellence as regards flavour, and please observe that neats’ tongues have no piquant flavour of their own, it is always created by the curer. Take two tongues of seven or eight pounds each, boil them as usual, and rather underdone; take off the peel and extra root, gullet, and two and a half inches of the extreme tip, cut them into slices one inch thick, and lay them down in a jar, with

[Pg 122] These must be simmered half an hour and put into the jar hot, then cover close with paper and let remain in a week; then take up and wash the meat quickly with water half a pint, and vinegar half a pint, cut then into dice and pound them in a mortar with fresh butter till you have got a nice, smooth, thick paste. Fill clean dry pots and jars, and leave them in a cool oven for two hours. Then press the meat down well, and next day cover with plenty of best clarified butter and tie white paper over. This is a quick method of getting a very excellent article of its sort, and as the same ingredients would perfect three or four tongues more in succession, it is economical in the end.

POTTED BEEF’S HEART.

You may not expect any thing particularly good as a relish from so common an article as a beef’s heart, but I often think there is more credit due to a person for producing a choice relish from what is considered an inferior base, than in spoiling an expensive natural production in the attempt to improve it. In this case I fear not to give satisfaction. The expense is really trifling, and the trouble reducible to a pleasure. Get a fine ox heart, with plenty of fat on it, hang it up a dry room, but not in an air current, for a week; then empty the cavities of the clotted blood, cut out the deaf ears as low down internally as your knife will reach, cut open a communication between the upper cavities and the lower ones, but on no account[Pg 123] penetrate through the outside bark of the heart. Tie good string round and about it, so that the meat may be hung in various ways when needed, and rub it well for a quarter of an hour with the following:

simmered for twenty minutes and let go cold. Hang up the heart point downwards, and fill the holes with the mixture. Rub it daily for a week, keeping the cavities filled. Then boil up the pickle, adding

and for another week rub the heart daily and keep the holes filled. Then boil up again, adding

and rub with this once. Take down the meat and let it lie on its broad end in a deep dish, and baste it every morning for a week longer. Then take it up, wipe it dry and hang it in a current of air for twenty-four hours, and then rub it twice daily for a week with

[Pg 124]

Now wipe it dry again, put it in a deep pot, tie paper over, and bake it in a slow oven until done enough. When cold cut it open lengthwise, select all the tender parts, pick them well from strings and films, and, cutting it into dice, pound it in a mortar into a nice smooth pulpy consistence. Consider now that it may be required to be kept, and if it needs salt add some, but unless you are in favour of any peculiar taste, I think we shall need no addition. Press the meat into pots and jars, cover with clarified butter, and tie paper over. If kept three months, or twelve months, I am pretty sure of your approbation.

POTTED VENISON.

Get a nice fat plump shoulder of mutton, cut it open three inches above the knuckle and also for three or four inches on the under side, and down to the bone, and filling these trenches with

sew the skin over, and hang the meat in a dry room to season for nine days; then rub it all over with

and let it lie, being turned and rubbed daily, for a week longer. It may now be baked, and when cold cut up in the way best calculated for embracing the tenderness of the joint. The lean should be pounded by itself, picking out all sinews and strings, and the fat, or such parts as will help to make the mass smooth; fresh butter must also be used if required, and when all is in readiness you may season it to your taste with

and adding salt as you relish, remembering that potted delicacies if seeming too salt at first lose that predominance by keeping, and it is the same, but in a less degree, with some of the finer spices. Fill your pots and little jars, and cover with clarified butter and paper, and keep them in a dry cool room, and where there is nothing to be feared from damps.

MARINATED VEAL.

Beat a fine large cutlet with the rolling-pin, put butter, eggs, and flour into a pan, and when hot lay in the cutlet and let it stew; the mixture will penetrate[Pg 126] to the very inside, and your olfactory sense is delighted and palate refreshed with veal, not insipid as veal generally is, but with a morsel moist with odoriferous juices. When cold it may be cut in pieces, placed in oblong pots, and covered with the best olive oil. It must be eaten with tomato sauce.

ANOTHER METHOD.

Chop a pound and a half of veal fine, with half a pound of lean ham and half a pound of sweet fat bacon to be minced along with

Put these into a mortar after they have been well mixed, and bring the whole to a nice thick plastic consistence; put it into a mould lined with thin slices of fat bacon, and let it remain pressed down heavily for a week; then take it out, cut it into rather thick slices, which fry in boiling olive oil until done through, and of a nice brown colour, set them aside, and when cold put them into proper pots and fill up with best olive oil; tie bladder over the pots and keep in a dry cool room.

MARINATED SALMON ROES.

As soon as they are taken out of the fish wash them in salt and water for a minute, and dry them well with cloths. Smear the inside of an earthenware jar with sweet lard, put in the roes, tie leather over and subject them to the action of a water bath for three hours, then let them cool and divide them, pick out all the films and specks, and mix the following with the mass according to your taste:

Dry small white jars and pots and fill them to within three quarters of an inch of the top with the fish, press closely down, set the jars near the door of an oven for twenty minutes, and when cold fill up with olive oil, which replenish the next day, and then tie bladder closely over. Keep in a cool dry room.

ESSENCE OF LOBSTERS.

Boil six pounds of live lobsters thus: Throw them into salt and water and with a brush clean them well, tie up the tails, and pop them into a pan of boiling water, in which a good handful of salt and half an ounce of saltpetre have been dissolved; then set them to cool, take out all the meat and coral, which, when[Pg 128] it has been cleared of the skins, chop up into dice, and set it on the fire in a clean pan, with a pound and a half of bay salt and two quarts of water, and let it simmer twenty minutes. Then take out the fish, pound it in a mortar with half an ounce of cayenne pepper and the same quantity of finely powdered mace, bring it to a nice paste with some of the water last used, and put it again into the pan with the remainder of the water and let it simmer half an hour. When cold, or nearly so, fill your clean glass jars with it, cork them well and seal them.

ESSENCE OF SHRIMPS.

Put a gallon of live shrimps into a pan of three quarts of boiling water, in which a pound and half of bay salt or rock salt has been dissolved, skim them well and boil them ten minutes, strain off the water through a sieve, and while the shrimps are warm pull off the heads, which with unsound ones put aside. Boil one pound of bay salt with two quarts of water ten minutes, skimming it well, and set it by to get cold. Pound the shrimps in a mortar with their skins to a paste, using a little of the last water, and when it has been well worked add the remainder of the water, boiled and strained, with this mixture:

[Pg 129] Pass the pulp through a sieve, and, when cold, bottle it, corking and sealing securely.

ESSENCE OF ANCHOVIES.

Boil fourteen pounds of Gorgona fish for ten or twelve minutes with ten quarts of river water, rub the fish through a sieve, saving the water to again boil any of the fish that will not pass. When the bones are all dissolved, strain, add the water to the pulp of the fish along with

Put it into bottles, which cork and seal well.

TOMATO PASTE.

Scald and peel twenty large fine tomatoes, put them in a stone jar, tie paper over, and leave them in a warm oven for an hour. Take off the liquid that floats on the top and press the fruit through a sieve. Add to every quart of the tomatoes half a pint of good sharp vinegar, and seasoning to your taste with this mixture, viz.

[Pg 130] Put it into a clean saucepan, stir it continually from the bottom for three hours and until you have got a smooth nice thick mass, which when cold put into jars and cover well with bladder. It will be found of essential service in seasoning soups, &c., when tomatoes are not to be had.

TOMATO CATSUP.

Take twenty fine tomatoes and scatter over them, upon a dish, twelve ounces of table salt, so let them lie three days. Next boil together

The boiling and skimming should continue half an hour. Peel the fruit, add them, and boil together half an hour longer; strain through a sieve and bottle it the next day; cork well and seal. This is an excellent receipt, as will be proved by a trial. The catsup should be six months old to attain its prime.

BENGAL CHETNA

Pound these ingredients well together, adding the vinegar by degrees until it comes to a smooth pulp. Let this remain six hours covered up. If the vinegar has risen to the top clear, it must be further blended with the spices by well rubbing with some surface of wood, for example, a potato masher; then add the whole of the vinegar, pass all through a sieve and bottle it, corking and sealing well.

AN EXCELLENT FISH SAUCE.

Take two dozen genuine anchovies, neither wipe nor wash them, and add them to the following:

[Pg 132] Boil all together until reduced to one quart, skim it well, and afterwards strain through a sieve. When cold bottle it, and seal the corks.

A PROVOCATIVE.

Infuse for fourteen days in a gentle heat, strain and bottle for use, corking and sealing well.

FRENCH SAUSAGE SPICE.

Mix them thoroughly, sift, bottle, cork well and seal.

Preserved Fruits

TO PREPARE SYRUP FOR PRESERVING FRUIT.

The best refined sugar, which will require no clarifying, should invariably be used for this process;[Pg 133] but when inferior qualities are chosen they must be prepared in the following manner: To clarify six pounds of sugar, break it into large lumps, put it into a preserving pan, and pour upon it five pints of cold spring water; in another pint of water beat up lightly the white of one small egg, but not frothing it very much, add it to the sugar, and stir it to mix it well with the whole. Set the pan over a gentle fire, when the sugar is nearly dissolved, and let the scum rise without being disturbed; when the syrup has boiled five minutes, take it off the fire, let it stand two minutes, and then skim it very clean, let it boil again, then throw in half a cupful of cold water, which will bring the remainder of the scum to the surface; skim it until it is perfectly clear, strain it through a thin cloth, and it will be ready for use, or for further boiling.

All unripe fruit must be rendered perfectly tender by gentle scalding, before it is put into syrup, or it will not imbibe the sugar; and the syrup must be thin when it is first added to it, and be thickened afterwards by frequent boiling, or with sugar added, or the fruit will shrivel instead of becoming plump and clear. A pound of sugar boiled for ten minutes in a pint of water will make a very light syrup, but it will gradually thicken if rapidly boiled in an uncovered pan. Two pounds of sugar to the pint of water will become thick with little more than half an hour’s boiling, or with three or four separate boilings[Pg 134] of eight or ten minutes each; if too much reduced it will candy, instead of remaining liquid.

WEST INDIA PRESERVED GREEN GINGER.

Take half a dozen middle-sized cucumbers, cut them open lengthwise, take out the seeds, cut off the pulpy part, and soak them three days in strong salt and water, and weighted down so as to be completely submerged. Next, take them out and wash them in cold water, and put them, with plenty of cold water, into a pan on the fire, and when it comes to the boiling point, take them off, pour off the water, and add more cold water with a quarter of an ounce of bicarbonate of potash to each quart of water. Now boil them half an hour, and set by in the water they were boiled in till next day. Then take out, and set them to drain on a sieve, covered with a cloth. Then take

which boil five minutes, then simmer for half an hour, in a closely covered pan, strain the liquor through a flannel bag, and add to each pint of it one and a quarter pounds of sifted loaf-sugar, making a syrup, which must be clarified with the white of egg. Boil this, and skim with care till no scum rises. Peel[Pg 135] the cucumbers, and cut them in pieces the size and shape of a pigeon’s egg. Simmer two ounces more of bruised ginger, tied in a piece of muslin, in a pint of water, till reduced to a moderate sized teacupful, and add it to the syrup. Take the ginger you first used, put it with the syrup and cucumbers into a clean pan, and boil for ten minutes. Empty all into a clean earthenware jar, and let stand two days and nights. Next pour off the syrup, boil it five minutes, taking off the scum if any arises; then add the cucumbers, boil five minutes longer, and put all back again into the jar, and let stand three days. Return the syrup and the whole of the ginger tied in muslin into the pan, and boil until the syrup adheres to the spoon. Then put in the cucumbers, and boil, a quarter of an hour, when return all into the jar, and let remain twenty-four hours uncovered. Then tie wet bladder well over, and in a month it may be removed into small wide-mouthed glass jars and covered with bladder, and green paper over that. This, as dessert, is an excellent stomachic, assisting digestion in weak habits.

CURRANTS FOR TARTS.

The fruit for these purposes should be gathered on fine days, and only the best used for preserves. Press the juice from the rejected currants, and strain it clear. To each pound of fruit you must allow a pound of the best refined sugar, and make a fine[Pg 136] clear syrup of the currant juice and sugar. When it is cold put in your fruit and let it boil until beautifully clear, when you may put it into pots and glass jars, covering with brandy paper and wetted bladder.

TOMATOES.

The fruit here must be taken before it is quite ripe, and if not having lost its green hue quite may be preferable; and for three pounds of fruit take off the thin yellow rinds of two large lemons, and, squeezing out the juice, strain it and put it aside for awhile. Put the juice with the thin rinds into a clean saucepan, with two or three blades of mace, a few peach leaves and a dessert-spoonful of ginger sliced thinly; cover the tomatoes with water barely, and set the pan on a clear fire to simmer half an hour. Then take out the fruit carefully with a spoon and set them on a sieve to cool. Add to the water they were simmered in sugar sufficient to make a thin syrup, which must be poured over the fruit, when placed in a deep dish, boiling hot, and so leave them for four or five days. Then pour out the syrup into a pan, and add sugar to make a strong syrup, into which you may put the tomatoes and simmer them gently until the syrup has entered fully into them. Remove them now from the fire and let them remain unmolested for four or five days longer. If the syrup has now not attained a proper consistence, you may add sugar, and boil until you have got the desired end. Pour now[Pg 137] on the fruit while it is hot, and if when cold you are satisfied, make all safe with bladder and leather, and keep in a cool and airy room.

CUCUMBERS.

This is an elegant preserve if well managed. Take two dozen of the finest, largest, and most clear cucumbers, and without seeds. Cut them into pieces, take out the very soft part of the insides, put them into a jar with strong salt and water to cover them, and set them in a warm situation until they become yellow. Now wash them well, and set them in a pan of water, with plenty of fresh cabbage leaves, on the fire, close the lid of the pan, so that no steam can escape, and simmer them until of a fine green colour. If you have not yet attained your object, change the water and leaves, and simmer them again. Then take out the fruit, set it on a sieve to cool, and then into pure cold water for three or four days, changing the water daily. Put into a clean pan four pounds of the best refined sugar, with one quart of pure spring water, boil and skim it well. Then add the rinds of four large lemons pared very thin, and three ounces of the best ginger sliced, and boil all together ten minutes. Take it then off the fire, and when cool put in the cucumbers, and boil them until they are perfectly clear. If their appearance does not fully satisfy you, set them aside for forty-eight hours, and then repeat the boiling, and putting your cucumbers into your[Pg 138] pots and glasses, pour the syrup over them, and secure them from the air with bladder and leather, or with paper over the glasses.

GREEN-GAGE PLUMS.

From a peck of this rich fruit, pick out all the largest and most clear. Put a handful of vine leaves into a pan, then a layer of the fruit, and so on, in alternate layers, to the end; fill the vessel up with water, put them over a moderate fire, and let them get thoroughly hot through, skim them well, pour off the water, and put the plums on a sieve to cool. Now take off the peels carefully, and, as you proceed, put them into the water they were heated in, with fresh leaves, and let them boil three minutes, preventing the escape of the steam as much as you possibly can. Let them remain at a moderate distance from the fire seven or eight hours, or until they become green; then put them on a sieve to drain, and then boil them up in a good clear syrup once a day, for three successive days. Then take them up, and place in clean dry glasses and jars; skim the syrup thoroughly over the fire, and, when nearly cold, pour it over the plums, put brandy paper upon them, and cover with bladder. You will have an elegant and very rich preserve.

PEACHES AND NECTARINES.

Before they are ripe, take the choicest of these fruit, rub off the down from them with soft old linen,[Pg 139] and divide the skin at the seam with a sharp pointed knife. Put them into a clean jar, cover them with French brandy, and let them remain so for ten days; then take them out, and having ready a fine clear syrup, put the fruit into a pan with it, and boil them until they are beautifully bright and clear. When cold, take out the fruit, place it in glasses and jars, and fill up with the syrup nearly cold. Lay brandy paper over and cover with bladder.

LEMONS PRESERVED.

Take two dozen fine lemons, wipe them well, and pare off the yellow rind very thin. Cut out a piece of the rind at the blossom end, and take out the whole of the pulp and seeds. Rub the lemons over with fine bay salt, and lay them in cold water, so let them lie for a week, quite covered, and then boil them in fresh salt and water twenty minutes. Now prepare a syrup of one pound of the best loaf sugar to a quart of water, and well skimmed, and into which put the lemons, and boil them five or six minutes for four days successively, then place them in a jar and let them stand six weeks, and all the time well covered with the syrup. Now make a clear, thick, fine syrup of the best refined sugar and water, put the lemons into it, and boil them gently for ten minutes; then put them away, and in twenty-four hours boil them again at short intervals, until they look plump and clear. Now lay them in jars and glasses, and[Pg 140] pour the syrup over them cold; cover with brandy-paper and tie bladder over them.

APRICOTS.

Take two dozen of the largest and soundest apricots when they are just fully ripe, wipe them clear from gum and other filth; push the stones out through the stalk ends with a blunted piece of wood; weigh the fruit now, and for each pound of apricots, allow one pound of the best refined sugar, the half of which, when reduced to a powder and sifted, you must strew over the fruit, and let them remain so for twenty-four hours. Boil them up gently, and when they have been cold repeat the boiling four or five times, at intervals of three hours, by which means they will have become clear and bright. Now take them up and lay them on a sieve, and when you have prepared a good clear thick syrup, boil the fruit up in it for five minutes, and skimming it well. Then put the apricots into clear glass jars, and pour the syrup over them. When cold make all safe with writing paper steeped in brandy, and tie wetted bladder over. They must be stored in a dry, airy room.

DAMSONS.

Choose the finest, large prune damsons for this purpose, pick them over carefully, throwing out the stalks, and all that are the least crushed, cut them open lengthwise, and take out the stones, put them[Pg 141] into a pan with water sufficient to cover them, and boil them ten minutes; turn them out upon a sieve, and when cold, or nearly so, wipe each separately with some old soft linen or flannel. To each pound of the fruit allow one pound of the best refined sugar, the half of which, after being sifted finely, you must scatter equally over the damsons, on large dishes; put the other half of the sugar to the water in which the fruit was scalded, set it in a pan on a clear fire, and let it boil up; skim it thoroughly, and then simmer only, for ten or twelve minutes; put in the fruit and bring it to a boil; then take it off the fire, and let it stand, closely covered, half an hour; then put it again to simmer for half an hour longer, and then put it aside until the next day. Now boil up the fruit until it is tender, put the damsons into a sieve while warm, and boil the jelly alone full half an hour, and taking off any scum that may yet have arisen. Put the fruit into your pots, jars, &c., and pour your jelly over them, well heated. When cold, put brandy-paper upon the fruit, and melted mutton suet above that. Make all safe with bladder and leather, and store them in a dry, airy, cool room.

MORELLO CHERRIES.

Pick thoroughly ripe and sound fruit from the stalks and wipe them separately; prick them with a needle in three or four places. To each pound of fruit allow one pound and a half of the best sugar,[Pg 142] and strew one half of it when finely sifted over the cherries upon clean large dishes, and let them remain so for twenty-four hours. Take now as much strained red-currant juice as will effectually dissolve the other half of the sugar, and put it into a pan over a moderate fire, and let it boil twelve or fifteen minutes, skim it well, add to it the fruit with their sugar, and let all simmer five minutes, being careful to not allow them to boil. Then remove the cherries into glasses, boil the syrup until it is thick and pour it cool over them. When cold guard them with brandy paper, and paste writing paper neatly cut over the glasses.

BARBERRIES IN SPRIGS AND BUNCHES.

Pick out the finest bunches and sprigs of fine ripe clear berries—reject all faulty ones—lay them in as much water as will be requisite for making their syrup, and boil them until they are tender. Now strain them upon a sieve, and to every pint of their juice add a pound and half of best refined sugar, boil and skim this thoroughly, and to each pint of the syrup put half a pound of the fruit in bunches and boil them very gently until they become quite bright and clear. When cold put them into clear glasses and pour the syrup to them. Use brandy paper, and paste writing paper over the glasses.

HAMBURGH GRAPES PRESERVED WHOLE.

Pick out some handsome little bunches, wipe them[Pg 143] very carefully with soft old linen moistened with spirits and water, place them in a wide jar, and allow one ounce of white sugar-candy beaten small to each pound of the grapes, which, as the fruit is placed, must be scattered equally amongst it. Fill the jar up with French brandy, the best, and seeing in two days afterwards that the fruit is properly covered, make up safely with bladder and leather, and store away in a cool airy room.

GOLDEN PIPPINS

Pare two dozen fine pippins nicely, cut them into quarters and take out the cores. Boil the rinds of two fine large oranges in a pan of cold water until perfectly tender and lay them in pure spring water for three days. Put these into a pan, just cover them with water and let them boil twenty minutes, and strain the juice through a jelly-bag; then pare two dozen more pippins, take out the cores at the stalk ends neatly. Make now a fine clear syrup of two pounds of the best refined sugar and one pint of water, to which add the apple juice, and when it is cold put in the pippins, adding the orange peel cut into thin chips. Boil it very gently ten minutes, then take out the pippins, and when cool put them into jars and pour the syrup over them. Apply brandy paper, and tie bladder over the jars, and leather over that. Some adopt the mutton suet melted, with one-eighth of its weight of sweet lard added, which corrects the brittleness[Pg 144] of the suet and causes it to adhere better to the sides of the jars.

RASPBERRY MARMALADE.

Pick fresh ripe raspberries from the stalks and simmer them gently about ten minutes, keeping them stirred all the time. Pour them and their juice into a clean hair sieve and rub them through it with a wooden spoon, leaving only the seeds behind. Weigh the fruit and boil it quickly for eight or ten minutes, then take the pan from the fire and stir gradually into it three quarters of a pound of sugar to the pound of pulp. When this is quite dissolved continue the boiling for another ten minutes—less time will occasionally be sufficient, but the thickness of the preserve and the manner in which it jellies on the skimmer will show when it is boiled enough. The raspberries may be rubbed through a sieve without the previous simmering, then mixed with their weight of sugar and boiled quickly for twenty minutes. Rich strawberry jam or marmalade is made in precisely the same manner.

JAM OF MORELLO CHERRIES.

This is a delicious preserve when made with fine ripe morellos. Stone the fruit, weigh it, heat it rather slowly to draw out the juice, then boil it quickly for twenty minutes over a very clear fire, add thirteen ounces of sugar for each pound of the cherries, and boil the jam from fifteen to twenty minutes longer,[Pg 145] being careful to clear off all the scum. The sugar should be of good quality; it must be beaten to powder and added gradually to the fruit, and stirred with it off the fire until it is dissolved. A larger portion may be used when the morellos are very acid. An equal weight with the cherries will not be too much for some tastes, but their flavour will be better preserved with less. A few of the kernels blanched and wiped quite dry may be added a couple of minutes before the jam is poured out.

Pickles

RED CABBAGE.
A RECEIPT FROM HALTON CASTLE.

Take two middle-sized close-knit red cabbages, just when the frost has seasoned them, strip them of all superfluous leaves, cut them across in slices nearly a quarter of an inch thick, and scatter finely beaten bay or rock salt over them when laid on large dishes and covered with cloths; so let them lie twenty-four hours. Next drain the cabbage on a sieve and let it remain until the next day, still covered over. Put it into one jar that will contain it without pressure, and strew as you proceed pretty plentifully the following mixture amongst and finally upon the cabbage:

[Pg 146] Now pour pure cold best London pickling vinegar into the jar, and take care that the cabbage is perfectly covered, and to the depth of an inch or more. Make up the jar with a bung, and secure it with resin or pitch. In a month you will have perhaps the best article of its kind to be found anywhere, its excellency consisting in its flavour, its colour, and crispness.

GREEN SAMPHIRE.

Carefully pick out the refuse from a peck of fresh samphire as soon as you get it, or it will be tough by delay. Immerse the accepted branches in salt and water strong brine for two days, then take it up and dry with cloths, place it lightly in a pan, and cover it with spring water in which a handful of salt and half an ounce of saltpetre have been dissolved, and put it on the fire to simmer, taking it off the moment that a thick steam comes upon the surface, and add for every quart of water used in the mouth of each jar a small teaspoonful of gum kino. Then make the jars secure with bladder and keep for use.

CAULIFLOWERS.

Purchase for pickling the closest, soundest, and whitest, entirely free from grub and insect, and pull them into nice branches and sprigs. Lay them loosely on large dishes, and scatter table salt generally through and over them, let them remain thus for three days. Next place them neatly in jars, and pour boiling[Pg 147] water upon them, tie leather over, and let them stand by twelve or fourteen hours, then dry them on a sieve and remove them to glass jars, filling them up with the following pickle when cold:

This must be boiled twenty minutes, and skimmed quite clear. Let olive oil float at the top of the pickle, in the jars, to the depth of half an inch. Then cover with bladder.

WHITE MUSHROOMS.

Choose the smallest, round, perfect buttons, rub each separately with a piece of soft old flannel, wetted with a solution of bay salt, and let them be thoroughly cleansed after they are all rubbed. (See note, No. 11). When all ready put them into a pan with a little finely powdered bay salt scattered over them, and covered so closely that not the least steam can escape, for ten or twelve minutes, or until the water is extracted from them. Then get them removed, without any delay, on to a sieve, then dry them well with cloths, and let them get cold, effectually covered up from the action of the air. Make the following light pickle, by boiling it and skimming it well, and, laying[Pg 148] your mushrooms in clean glass jars, pour it amongst and upon them:

When the bottles are nearly filled with the pickle, let olive oil float on the top for an inch in depth, then make safe with bladder, and keep dry and cool. In a month they will be fit for use.

SILVER ONIONS.

Select your onions well, for many attempts at pickling them have been rendered abortive by the bad quality of the raw material. They should be globular and sound, and have the appearance of being got up in dry weather, and been well dried by the air and sun previous to being stored. The peeling will, however, prove much, and if you are suspicious of having been not well served, do not proceed with them. Peel a peck of nice onions, and, as you proceed, throw them into plenty of strong salt and water, and let them remain so for ten or twelve days, changing the pickle every second day. Set them now on a sieve to drain, then put them into jars and pour on them a brine freshly made of bay salt and water,[Pg 149] boiling hot, and, covering up close, let them remain till cold. Repeat the scalding and with fresh pickle, and when drained thoroughly, put them into jars with

scattered amongst them, and fill up with the vinegar cold. Let olive oil float on the top, for nearly an inch deep, and secure the jars with wetted bladder, and, that dried, soft leather above all. For the preservation of the colour, this attention to the exclusion of the air is chiefly owing. These are of first-rate quality, and are much resorted to in the kitchens of the wealthy.

PRESERVED WALNUTS.

Take half a hundred of walnuts just when they are ready for pickling, that is, when punctured with a pin no shell can be perceived. Take a jar that will a little above hold them, deposit in it a layer of coarse-sugar half an inch thick, on this make a layer of walnuts well wiped, and every one sound, then a layer of sugar, and so on alternately to near the top of the jar. The allowance of sugar must be half a pound to every score of nuts. Tie coarse paper over the[Pg 150] mouth of the jar and place it in a saucepan of boiling water, in which it must remain three hours. This will dissolve the sugar; the syrup should now cover the fruit; if it does not, add some more sugar and continue the simmering. When cold, cover the mouth of the jar with bladder, and do not disturb them for six months, for the longer kept the better they will be. These will be found of excellent and extensive use in families of many children as a gentle aperient medicine. One is a dose for a child of five to seven years old, and so in advancing ratio, and instead of proving nauseous to young palates, will be regarded as a treat, and, if I am not mistaken, adults will occasionally be troubled with constipation.

APPLE MARMALADE.

Pare and core two pounds of rather acid apples, put them into an enamelled pan with a pint of sweet cider, or with half a pint of cape wine, and a pound of crushed good loaf sugar, and cook them slowly by a gentle heat three hours. Squeeze the fruit first through a colander and then through a sieve. If not sweet enough add powdered sugar to your taste. Put it in small white jars, cover with bladder and writing paper. It will be very nice, and extremely wholesome as supper for the juveniles, and for the aged, eaten with cream or milk.

RED CURRANTS.

Take currants for this purpose just before they have attained a perfect red colour. Select the nicest bunches, which keep separate, and accept no single ones but what are clear and sound. Boil these with the fruit until the colour of the vinegar is changed by it,

skim it well, and let it get cold. Strain it now nicely, and press the fruit in a sieve, to obtain as much of the colour as possible. Boil it up again, and skim till quite clear. Now place the bunches and detached fruit into glass jars or tumblers, and pour the liquor hot upon them, so as to cover totally; then tie paper and bladder closely over.

CELERY.

The white part only is used for this purpose. Wash very clean half a dozen fine heads, and wipe them dry. Cut them into pieces to your taste, and make the following pickle:

[Pg 152] Put all these into a deep saucepan, and soon as they come to the boiling point, strew in the celery; let it boil again, not more than two minutes, then take it up, pour it through a sieve. When cold, place the celery in jars, and pour the liquor upon it, and make all safe with bladder, &c. &c. This will be found extremely useful in all families that live well. It will keep good a great length of time, and when the celery is all used, the pickle will be highly acceptable in dressing salads, &c. A few small onions may be added where they are not disliked, and omitted at pleasure.

GRAPES.

The foreign grapes, if got in the beginning of the importations to this country, for then they are less likely to be decayed or specked, answer extremely well for pickling, and are, of course, much cheaper than those grown at home. The white ones are generally chosen; but it appears to me that a mixture of the purple ones with them makes an agreeable change, as far as the appearance is concerned. Take ten pounds of the largest and soundest you can, and divide into little branches, which place in a deep straight-sided stone jar, embedded in vine leaves, and completely cover them with this mixture:

Tie leather over the jar, and set it in a saucepanful of water on the fire, and when it has boiled three quarters of an hour, pour off the liquor, which set aside to be well skimmed, and poured clean off the dregs. Return the liquor on to the fruit, cover up close, and let remain so for twenty-four hours; then take them up, and dry them well between cloths, not allowing the air to act upon them by keeping them covered up. Next make this pickle:

Boil these ten minutes, skim until quite clear, and let it get cold. Replace the fruit in the jar, and fill up with the pickle; you having laid plenty of vine leaves under, and also on the top of the fruit. After two days more see if the jar will hold any more of the pickle, which, if needful, must be added. Make all secure with bung and resin, and keep them in a cool airy apartment. You will please not to open them for six months, and will then be much delighted with so elegant and rich a product.

CODLINS.

These must be taken when about the size of hen-eggs, and none but perfectly sound ones accepted. Wrap them up singly in vine leaves recently plucked, and place them lightly in a saucepan, with plenty of leaves under, amongst, and above them, and thoroughly cover them with water. Boil them slowly until the peels begin to start, and separate, then carefully take them up, and drain them on a sieve. When cold, pare them carefully, and, replacing them in the pan, cover so well that none of the steam can escape, and continue the simmering until they are of a nice green colour. Now take them up, and let them drain, and get cold. Put them into little jars, and cover the fruit with white-wine vinegar, put a round of pasteboard on the top, and pour in melted mutton suet. Tie bladder over and leather above that, and keep them cool and dry for three or four months. They will be a good pickle at a little expense.

BARBERRIES.

These are more useful as garnishes than otherwise, and a great many are annually pickled for that purpose. Take half a sieve of fine, high-coloured fruit, pick out all the nice bunches that are sound, and keep them apart by themselves; the best of the single ones must also be had, but put in separate jars. Wash both in salt and water, and set them to drain.[Pg 155] Now take two and a half pounds of bay salt to each gallon of water, and fill up the jars with the mixture, to running over; skim them daily for four or five days, and then pour the liquor away, and fill the jars again with a similar mixture of salt and water, adding half a pint of the strongest pickling vinegar. Let it merely steam over the fire, until it has become crisp and finely green, then take it off quickly, and let it cool, drain off the liquor, and put the fruit along with a light scattering of the following mixture into a jar, and cover it well with the liquor:

Close the jar with a bung and secure that with resin. In a month it will be ready for table.

ASPARAGUS.

Take two hundred of fresh cut asparagus, fully grown, take off the root ends so high up as to leave the remaining parts tender, and wash the green tops in cold water, slightly tasted with salt, then remove them into fresh water, and let them remain in it for about two hours. Put them next into a shallow pan with as much cold spring water as will just cover them, and putting it on the fire, watch them closely, so that the moment the water comes to the boiling[Pg 156] point you will remove it from the fire, and taking out the asparagus heads very carefully, lest they break, lay them on a sieve to get cold, being covered over with cloths. Place them now in jars and pour upon them a pickle made of

boiled ten minutes or more, and well skimmed, to be used hot. Tie leather over the jars, and let them remain for five or six days, when you will boil the pickle again, and pour over hot. When cold make up the jars securely with bungs and leather.

GHERKINS.

From out of three hundred gherkins of the markets you may probably pick two hundred that will suit your purpose, and they should be all nearly of the same size; put them into a pickle made of two pounds and a half of common table salt to one gallon of soft or river water, and let them remain in it for three hours if they run small, or four hours if large. Let them lie on a sieve to drain, and wipe them carefully quite dry, and place them in stone jars—glazed ware is objectionable on many accounts for pickles. Next make a pickle of

by boiling them fifteen minutes and skimming clear; when cold pour it over the gherkins, cover up closely, and let them remain so for twenty-four hours. Then put the whole contents into a saucepan, and let them simmer until they have acquired a bright green colour, then place them not too closely in jars, and pour the liquor with the spices over them. They must be totally covered with pickle, or more must be made for that purpose if you intend them to keep well and a long time. Cover your jars with wetted bladder, and soft leather over that.

PICCALILLI.

Take two perfectly fresh closely grown white cabbages, in preference to one large one, they must be quite sound at the hearts; cut them crosswise in slices, and then take a thorough grown white beetroot cut also the same way; divide a nice cauliflower into many small sprigs; some clear green radish pods, and twenty of the smallest gherkins. Place these apart[Pg 158] from each other and strew three or four handfuls of common table salt over them. Expose these to the action of the sun if possible, or of a slow fire four days, or until you see that all the moisture has been drawn from them. Then put all into a large stoneware jar, and scatter over and amongst them two handfuls of sound bright mustard seed as you are packing them down. Now boil together

Skim it well, and while boiling hot pour it upon the vegetables, and let them stand closely covered with leather, near the fire, until they have become of a nice yellow colour and saturated with the acid. Then make the following pickle:

Let these boil fifteen to twenty minutes, skimming well, and when cold add it to the pickles. Make the jar safe with bladder and tie leather over that. This pickle requires three months at least to become superior,[Pg 159] and that the different flavours may be assimilated.

LEMON MANGOES.

Take a couple of dozen of large thick-skinned lemons, cut off a piece from the blossom end of each, leaving a bare surface the size of a shilling, scoop out the whole of the insides, wash them in cold water, entirely freeing them of loose pulp, and immerse them in a brine of a pound of bay salt to the gallon of water. Rouse them about occasionally, change the brine on the third day, and let them remain so pickled three days longer. Now drain and wipe them dry, and fill them with this mixture:

Stitch the pieces which you cut off on to their respective correspondents, neatly place the fruit closely together in a stone jar, and pour upon them, boiling hot, the following pickle:

[Pg 160] The lemon juice must have been strained, and the vinegar put upon the pulp for half an hour, and then also passed through a fine sieve. The mangoes must be well covered by the pickle, and as some will be absorbed, it is desirable to let them remain just temporarily covered with paper for three days and then fill up with the pickle. These will be very fine in four or five months, but for present consumption they could not be recommended. Put bladder safely over the jars and cover with leather.

LEMON PICKLE.

Rub off with a fine tin grater the yellow rind of twenty fine large fresh lemons, recently unpacked from the chest, without disturbing the white part that lies underneath; next take the white part off with a sharp knife, and divide the fruit into two parts in the middle, and then again divide these pieces into slices, which will be each about an inch and three quarters thick. Rub these thoroughly with bay salt in fine powder, and set them on a dish to dry in a cool oven until the juice is completely taken up; put them then in a jar and pour upon them a pickle of the following ingredients, viz.

[Pg 161] enclosed in a piece of muslin rag and boiled ten minutes with four quarts of white-wine vinegar. Make up the jar close with a bung, if it will admit of it, and put it on a hob by a fireside for ten days, agitating the contents three or four times daily. Now see that the fruit is perfectly covered with pickle, and secure the vessel with bladder and leather, and set it by for six months, by which time the bitter taste will be dissipated. It must next be bottled for store, effected thus: Turn the pickle and fruit into a hair sieve and press the liquor out into a large jug or jar, and on the next day pour the clear off from the lees through a muslin strainer into bottles, which should be corked well and the air excluded by sealing wax. You will still have remaining some sediment, upon which you may put half a pint of boiling rough cider or light vinegar, for an inferior lemon pickle, to be kept apart from your best. Better than the first product is rarely made, and it is an estimable pickle, generally admitted.

MANGOES.

An excellent imitation may be made by any dextrous person who wishes to excel in this branch. The cucumbers for this pickling must be gathered as soon as they have attained full growth, and the larger the better, but they must not be ripe or of a light yellow colour. Cut out a piece from the side of each and put them aside, take out nicely the seeds, and put both the cucumbers and the pieces which were taken from[Pg 162] them into a pickle of two pounds of salt to a gallon of water, with half an ounce of saltpetre and one ounce of sal prunelle, so let them lie ten or twelve days, and until they come to a yellow colour; then put them in a pan with alternate layers of vine leaves, and dissolve half an ounce of alum in the brine they were pickled in, pour it upon them in the pan, which set upon a fire not too brisk, and let the cucumbers be subjected to a scalding process for about four hours, being attentive all the time that the pickle does not reach the boiling point. They should now be of a nice green colour. Set them on a sieve to drain, and then insert into each cucumber

Replace the pieces of the fruit you cut out, and attach them by a needle and green silk. Make then the following pickle, by boiling for ten minutes:

[Pg 163] Lay the mangoes in a deep straight-sided jar, and pour the pickle when cold upon them, covering completely, and an inch above at least, then make secure with bladder and leather. These will require three or four months at least before fit for use.

GREEN WALNUTS.

Get a hundred of fine large walnuts while the shells are yet tender, wrap them up in vine leaves separately, put them into jars along with plenty more vine leaves, and so that they cannot suffer by contact with each other, and cover plentifully with the best light-coloured vinegar; make secure from the air, and let them remain so for three weeks. Now pour off the vinegar, wrap up again the fruit in fresh vine leaves, and fill the jars with vinegar as before, this must be continued two weeks longer, when you may take off the leaves, put the fruit into jars, and make the following pickle for them:

Let these simmer fifteen minutes, and pour the whole, boiling hot, over the walnuts; tie bladder and[Pg 164] leather over the jars, and keep four months before breaking in upon them.

WALNUTS PICKLED WHITE.

Bespeak a hundred of the largest walnuts just when they will suit your purpose, that is, to admit of their being peeled down to the very white interior, the kernels; have ready a brine of one pound of salt to the gallon, and pop your walnuts into it, overhead, as you get them peeled, and when all done, keep them well covered in the brine four hours. Next put a pan of pure water over the fire, and just as it is coming to boil, lay in the fruit, which must not be boiled at all, only simmered, for about ten or twelve minutes. Then transfer them to a pan of cold water, with a trifling amount of salt in it; after being in this ten minutes, take them out, and remove them into a pickle of two and a half pounds of salt to the gallon, in this let them be kept half an hour, totally immersed in the pickle to protect the colour. Next take them out, and lay them between cloths to dry; each nut then must be wiped separately, and put into clean white earthenware jars, with this mixture—

[Pg 165] —scattered pretty plentifully throughout them. Fill up your jars with best white-wine vinegar, and secure them from the air with bladder and leather.

PEACHES AND NECTARINES.

The fruit should be gathered just as it is beginning to ripen, and needs to be perfectly sound, as any bruised or decaying ones would most likely spoil the whole, and, what is worse, the loss is not discoverable till a long time after. Let them lie covered over with a pickle of bay salt and water, one and a half pounds to the gallon, for three or four days, according to size; take them out and, wiping them separately, lay them in jars, and pour over them, when cold, this pickle:

It must be boiled fifteen minutes and skimmed well. Fill the jars so as to cover the fruit completely with the pickle. Tie bladder and leather over, and keep them eight or nine months. They will be very rich and choice pickles.

GOLDEN PIPPINS.

From a basketful of this ripe fruit pick out[Pg 166] twenty of the largest and clearest, lay them in a stewpan, and, covering them with soft water, set them on a fire and let them simmer until the peels begin to be separated from them—they must on no account come to the boil. If tender, set them to go cold, and peel them carefully, then lay them again in the water, adding nearly a pint of good sharp vinegar, and continue the simmering until they become a nice green colour. Now, with a wooden spoon take them out singly, and let them go cold, and make the following pickle, boiling it and skimming as long as any scum arises, for fifteen or twenty minutes:

Put the fruit carefully into jars, not crushing them, and pour the pickle, cold, upon them, and effectually exclude the air with bladder and leather.

NASTURTIUMS.

About ten days after the blossoms have left the plants is the proper time to take these for pickling, and they should be immediately put into process, before they become shrivelled. Immerse half a peck of the clearest and soundest in a pan of cold salt and[Pg 167] water, and let them remain thus, changing the pickle every morning, for three days. Lay them to drain on a sieve, and then dry them well between cloths; and make a pickle of the following ingredients:

Skim this well, boiling it fifteen minutes, and, filling jars with the fruit, pour the liquor and spices equally upon them, when about new milk warm, and tie bladder over the jars.

BEET-ROOTS.

Pickled beet-roots which have both fine colour and flavour to recommend them are seldom to be met with, particularly in the provinces. If this method is tried, it will most certainly recommend them. Take half a dozen roots of the deepest blood-red colour, put them into a pail of cold water, and with a soft brush scour and wash them well, and without breaking the skin in the least. Put them into a saucepan of boiling water, and let them boil gently until tender, and no longer, then take them up, wipe dry, and leave them until the next day. Now peel them nicely, and cut them across in slices a quarter of an[Pg 168] inch thick, not using the extremities. You may cut the slices into various ornamental and grotesque figures, and lay them in open-mouthed jars, and make the following pickle:

Boil these ten or fifteen minutes, skimming well, and, when cold, pour over the roots. Replenish the next day what pickle may have been absorbed, and cover the jars with bladder and leather. This pickle is ready in a month, and is very good. It makes a beautiful garnish with fish at dinner, &c. &c.

BUTTON MUSHROOMS, FOR PIES AND SAUCES.

Pick out expressly for this purpose a couple of quarts of fresh gathered button mushrooms, cut the stalks out closely, and wipe them singly with a piece of soft flannel dipped in moistened bay salt, place them apart on dishes and scatter a little finely beaten salt amongst them. Put them into a roomy saucepan along with

and let them simmer gently and until all their juice is taken up. Take the pan from the fire, and when cooled a little add to them four or five glasses of good white wine, agitate the mushrooms in the pan, replace it on the fire and bring it to the boil for one minute, then add three pints of the best pale vinegar and boil for ten minutes slowly. Now put the mushrooms into glass or stone jars that are clean and perfectly dry, and when cold make secure with corks or bladder, and keep them in a dry cool room. This is an estimable pickle, and will be appreciated duly by lady-cooks, who best know its usefulness and the various ways in which both the mushrooms and their pickle may be made available. The wine should be good old Madeira, and the quantity may be increased with great advantage.

GREEN PARSLEY.

Take fresh green curled parsley just at maturity, pick out the most handsome sprigs and put them into salt and water strong enough to float an egg, and let remain so for five or six days; set them to drain on a sieve, and then immerse them in another fresh pickle of the same strength for ten days longer, changing the brine twice. Then drain them again, and put them into pure cold spring water for two days, changing the water daily, and when again drained scald them[Pg 170] in boiling water until they are of a nice green, and dry them between soft cloths. Make, then, the following pickle of

which must be boiled ten or twelve minutes and well skimmed. Put the parsley branches lightly into jars and pour the pickle over, covering well. Fill up again with pickle the next day, and cover that again with pure olive oil to the thickness of an inch or thereabouts. Cover close with wetted bladder, and over that, when dried, with soft leather, and keep in a dry airy room.

WALNUT CATSUP.

When walnuts have attained maturity, and are being deprived of the outside green shells by the fruiterers, take half a peck of these husks, put them into a jar, and pour on them as much cold strong pickling vinegar as will quite cover them; bung up the jar, and so let them remain three months. Then press out the liquor upon a sieve, and to every gallon of it take

With all these boil up the liquor of the walnuts, and let them simmer twenty minutes, skimming well the whole time, then put it aside for two days and boil it again until reduced one-third part. When cold, you may put it in bottles, which cork well and seal with wax. It will be an excellent catsup, and will be greatly improved by long keeping.

MUSHROOM CATSUP.

Throw large black flap mushrooms into a vessel, and crush them with the hands well, throwing in a large handful of common salt to each peck, and let them so lie for two days. Then put them into a crock of earthenware, and let them be macerated in a cool baker’s oven for six hours or so, and, when cold, press out the juice, which boil with the following, to each gallon of the liquor:

The simmering and skimming must be continued as long as any filth rises, and let it then be put away for a day or two, and boiled up again, being kept well up to the boiling point until reduced to half its original quantity. When cold it may be put into bottles and firmly corked and waxed.

TOMATO CATSUP.

When tomatoes are fully ripe take two dozen of fine, large, sound ones, put them into jars and bake until they are tender; strain off the water from them, and pass the pulp through a sieve, then add to every pound of the pulp,

Boil them together until the whole is quite soft, and pass it again through a sieve. Now, to every pound of the pulp add the juice of two lemons, and one large Seville orange, boil it again until it has attained the consistence of thick cream, and when cold bottle it; cork and seal well.[Pg 173]

CELERY, CRAB SALAD.

Open and wash thoroughly clean a fine head of celery, wipe dry, and cut it across into a basin, add to it two ounces of some good rich old cheese sliced thinly, a teaspoonful of mustard mixed as for the table, a tablespoonful of best olive oil, the same quantity of vinegar, with pepper and salt to your taste. Mix all well together.

ELDER-FLOWER VINEGAR.

Pick out all the stalks from a peck of fresh elder flowers and put them into a vessel with two gallons of white-wine vinegar, set them under the influence of bright sunbeams for fourteen days and upwards, or at a short distance from a continuous fire, and then filter the vinegar through a new flannel bag; fill bottles, which must be well corked and sealed.

TARRAGON VINEGAR.

Take the leaves of tarragon just before it blossoms, put a pound of them to three quarts of the best white-wine vinegar in a stone jar, and let them infuse sixteen days. Then drain it and strain through a flannel bag; add for every two gallons a quarter of an ounce of isinglass dissolved in sherry wine, and let it be agitated briskly in a large stone bottle two days. Leave[Pg 174] it a month to get fine, then draw it off into clean dry glass bottles, which cork well and seal.

WHITE-GOOSEBERRY VINEGAR.

Vinegars should be made at home if you wish to rely upon their quality. This will be superior to any white-wine vinegar, “so called at the shops,” and as such will be extremely serviceable in all large establishments and families. Choose fruit of the lightest colour you can get when fully ripe, mash it with a wooden mallet or potato beetle. To every peck of the fruit put two gallons of water, stir them well for an hour and let them ferment three weeks, repeating the stirring daily. Then strain off the liquor and add for every gallon:

Let it work for three or four days, then put it into a sweet barrel of convenient size, and stop it down for twelve months.

SYRUP D’ORGEAT, A PARIS RECEIPT.

This elegant syrup is thus made:

Blanch the almonds, dry them perfectly and pound them in a mortar with the sugar, adding gradually two thirds of the water; strain through linen, and wash the almonds on the strainer with the remainder of the water, and dissolve the sugar in the strained liquor by a gentle heat. Pour the syrup into an earthenware vessel, remove the scum, and, when nearly cold, add two ounces of orange-flower water. Put it into clean clear glass bottles, cork well, and seal effectually.

AN EXCELLENT CURRY-POWDER.

Pound all the above separately in a mortar, mix thoroughly for twenty minutes, then sift and again pound the returns, which, when in finest powder, mix[Pg 176] with bulk; put into dry bottles, cork them well and seal. Some persons prefer more turmeric and less coriander. Others add two ounces of the best Durham mustard (scorched). Others, half an ounce of cardamoms or two ounces of cummin. The colour should be light yellow—brown, not bright yellow.[Pg 177]

NOTES.

It has been incontestably proved by Baron Liebig and other Professors of Chemistry, that the albumen and gelatine constitute the leading nutritive ingredients in the different kinds of flesh and fish used as food; and I have arrived at the conclusion, that any mode of curing which deprives them of these valuable properties, is opposed to facts in science and to common-sense, and cannot therefore be tolerated.

On the nutritive properties of animal food, Professor Brande writes: “When the muscular parts of animals are washed repeatedly in cold water, the fibrinous matter which remains, consists chiefly of albumen, and is, in its chemical properties, analogous to the clot of blood.”

In mutton, the albumen or fibrin amounts to as much as twenty-two per cent., and of gelatine to seven per cent., giving a total of twenty-nine per cent. of nutritive matter. In beef, the albumen is twenty, and the gelatine six per cent., yielding a total of twenty-six per cent. of nutritive matter.

When a piece of meat is covered with salt, or immersed in brine, the salt penetrates the whole fibre of the flesh, and the juices contained within are drawn out, and mix with the brine; the salts of potass contained in it, are exchanged and superseded by those of soda, derived from the salt with which it has been cured; now, as a constant supply of potass is required in the system to renew the muscular fibre, it is quite clear that the want of it must be attended with some derangement of the health; and hence the benefit[Pg 178] derived from the taking of vegetables, which by supplying potass, make up for the want of this alkali in the meat.

Albumen is coagulated by heat, and is drawn out by cold water; this fact is referred to in Note, No. 11.

No. 1. The coating of small articles, of the better sorts, excludes the air. It is a mixture of gelatine with treacle, applied when hot, and which when exposed to the air becomes hardened, yet elastic as india-rubber. See Note, No. 12.

No. 2. The smoking with different sorts of fuel exerts a considerable influence on the flavour and preservation of the articles so treated; for example, the mutton of the Ardennes forest, Belgium, which owes its superiority to the juniper bushes with which it is dried and smoked. And again, kippered salmon smoked with cedar-wood, at the request of some of our wealthy Jew families, is excellent, though rather expensive.

No. 3. The spicing of bacon was adopted some years since, and chiefly in Ireland, to hide the inferior quality of the meat.

No. 4. Bay salt is far preferable to common salt for curing meats and fish, but the expense deters many persons from using it, except in small quantities. The rock, or mineral salt of Cheshire, is equal in all respects to the bay salt of commerce, and I have long used it with the greatest success. Common salt leaves a bitter smatch on all food cured with it after being long kept. See Note, No. 12.

No. 5. There is no remedy for over-salted provisions. You may, indeed, cut them into slices and lay them in water, but this only affects the outsides of large pieces, as hams, &c. If I had a ham that I suspected of being over salted, I should put it in an old bag, and bury it in my garden for a week or more, according to size.

[Pg 179] No. 6. Rubbing large joints of meat over with a profusion of common salt, and letting them lie, to “draw out the blood,” as it is termed, is contrary to all reason, for away goes the chief part of the flavour and nutriment.

No. 7. Sprats are so different in their animal construction as to be easily detected from genuine fish—Gorgona anchovies. The Armenian bole, often made use of to colour the sauce, has very properly been exposed and condemned.

No. 8. Pure olive oil will preserve meat and fish, after it has been cured, for a long time; but oils drawn from lard and other spurious imitations, will not fail to hasten their decay. The oil should never be heated, when used for this purpose.

No. 9. Subjecting meats to a water-bath is not to be resorted to. I was shown a specification previous to the taking out of a patent (in France, by a French gentleman) to cure the more expensive sorts of fish. The first part of the process proposed, was subjecting the fish to a water-bath, first for three hours, and, changing the water, then to two hours further immersion in warm water. I, of course, entered my protest against such unreasonable treatment. I am sure I could not conjecture what became of both flavour and nutriment after so long immersion.

No. 10. Meats to be boiled, and particularly fish, must be put into boiling water, and after being kept up to the boiling point fifteen minutes or so, let them only simmer until done.

No. 11. The albumen is drawn out from both meat, fish, and vegetables by cold water; how, then, can we reconcile ourselves with the foolish old practice of laying the heads, for instance, and other parts, in pails of water, and leaving them for hours in that state, to lose all their goodness. Vegetables for pickling, too, are often treated in this way.[Pg 180] Lying in water cannot possibly clean anything. Wash well, and hang up to dry, is more reasonable.

No. 12. A very effective coating for small cured articles is made thus: To four pounds of hard, compact gelatine, add as much soft or rain-water as will just cover it, and stir it about occasionally for six hours. When it has stood twenty-four hours, and all the water is absorbed, submit it to the action of heat in a water-bath, and the gelatine will be quickly dissolved. Take it off the fire as soon as the froth is perceived to rise, and mix with it three and a half pounds of molasses, which has previously been made thoroughly hot. Stir the composition well together while in the water-bath over the fire, not suffering it to boil. After it has been thus subjected to heat for half an hour, and well stirred all the time, it should be taken off the fire and allowed to cool a little; it is now ready for use, and to be applied to the article of food with a soft brush. Set it in a current of air to harden quickly. A second paying-over with the composition may be done with advantage sometimes. For larger articles, as hams, &c. &c., the best transparent glue may be used instead of gelatine, adding to the composition, when a little cooled, a few drops of essence of nutmegs or pimento. If when cold the coating is found to be not firm enough, the proportion of gelatine or glue must be slightly increased, and when, on the contrary, it is too brittle, the quantity of molasses may be increased.

No. 13. For the accommodation of parties residing at a distance, peat or bog-earth, rock salt from the Cheshire mines, charcoal, &c. &c., may be had, ready for immediate, use, on application to Mr. Robinson, provision curer, Runcorn, Cheshire, and on very moderate terms.

INDEX.

• Aberdeen red herrings, 55
• Anchovies, British, 59
• — Gorgona, to feed, 59
• — Gorgona, smoked, 63
• — essence of, 129
• Apparatus for drying, smoking, &c., 1
• Asparagus, pickled, 155
• Bacon, choice breakfast, 7
• — Leicestershire spiced, 23
• Barberries pickled, 154
• Bath chaps, 24
• Beef as hare, potted, 120
• Beef’s heart, potted, 123
• Beef, hung, Shropshire sirloin, 6
• — Melton hunt, 8
• Beef’s heart, smoked, 10
• Beef, Ulverston red flank, 11
• — hams, 13
• — Hambro rough, 13
• — Breslau, 14
• — Whitehaven corned, 15
• — Dutch, 25
• Beetroots, pickled, 167
• Bloaters, 50
• Black puddings, Jersey, 90
• Birmingham and Oxford tripe, 75
• Boar’s head smoked, 19
• Brawn, calf’s head, 77
• Bucaning meats, described, 1
• Bucaned beef kidneys, 80
• — udder, 81
• — calf’s liver, 82
• — beef skirts, 83
• Cabbage, red, pickled, 145
• Catsup, tomato, 130
• — mushroom, 171
• — walnut, 170
• Cauliflowers, pickled, 146
• Caveach herrings, 74
• Caviare brown, 70
• — white, 71
• Cavis of mackerel, 72
• Celery, pickled, 151
• — crab salad, 173
• Charcoal, preservative quality, 4
• Chetna, Bengal, 131
• Coating composition, to make, 180
• — to apply, 180
• Codlins, pickled, 154
• Coated turbot fins, 60
• — river eels, 62
• — conger eels, 68
• — young pig, 114
• Collared salmon, 43
• — side of venison, 109
• — young pig, 112
• Crabs potted, 107
• Crab salad, 173
• Conger eels, 69
• Currants red, pickled, 151
• — preserved for tarts, 135
• Curry powder, excellent, 175
• Dried Mutton, as in the Ardennes, 29
• — breast of mutton as venison, 33
• Dried Ulverston red flank of beef, 11[Pg 182]
• — Conger eels, high flavoured, 69
• Digby herrings, 55
• Eels, conger, smoked, 66
• — collared, 68
• — dried, 69
• — potted, 118
• Elder-flower vinegar, 173
• Essences to make, 1
• Essence of lobsters, 127
• — shrimps, 128
• — anchovies, 129
• Fish, nutriment in (Dr. Davy), 36
• — sauce, excellent, 131
• Foots of sugar, to be preferred, 4
• Fuel for smoking and drying with, 3
• Geese, smoked, 79
• German saveloys, 89
• Gherkins, pickled, 156
• Grapes,   „   152
• Goose, a perpetual (beef’s heart), 34
• Green West India ginger, preserved, 134
• Hambro’ Pickle, for beef and pork, 31
• Hams, Westphalia, 19
• — eclipsed, 20
• Hare, potted, 114
• Haunch of mutton as venison, 26
• Herrings, marinated, 103
• Italian Cincerelli, 65
• Jersey Black Puddings, 90
• Kippered Herrings, 52
• — superior, spiced, 53
• — salmon, superior, 40
• Lemon mangoes, pickled, 159
• Lemon pickle, 160
• Lemons, preserved, 139
• Lobsters, essence of, 127
• — pickled, 102
• — potted, 106
• Mackarel Kippered, 45
• — (May-fish), 46
• — superior pressed, 47
• Maltcooms, to keep cured goods in, 4
• Mangoes, pickled, 161
• Marinated herrings, 103
• — eels, 99
• — high flavour, 100
• — salmon, 92
• — sprats, 104
• — shrimps, 96
• — salmon roes, 127
• — tench and carp, 93
• — trout and grayling, 97
• — veal, 125
• — another method, 126
• Marmalade, raspberry, 144
• Moor-game, potted, 115
• Morello cherries, jam of, 144
• Mushroom catsup, 171
• — buttons, pickled, for pies and sauces, 168
• Mutton, dried as in the Ardennes, 29
• — breast of, collar as venison, 33
• — haunch as venison, 26
• — thigh of l’Diable, 27
• — Welsh hams, 28
• Nasturtiums, pickled, 166
• Neats’ tongues, potted, 121
• — pickled, 16
• — high flavoured, 17
• — to pickle, 30
• Oversalted Meat, to rectify, 178
• Pickled Vegetables,
• — asparagus, 155
• — barberries, 154
• — beetroots, 167
• — cauliflowers, 146
• — currants, red, 151
• — celery, 151
• — codlins, 154[Pg 183]
• — gherkins, 156
• — golden pippins, 165
• — grapes, 152
• — mushrooms, white, 147
• — mangoes (lemon), 159
• — lemon pickle, 160
• — mangoes (cucumber), 161
• — nasturtiums, 166
• — mushroom buttons, 168
• — peaches and nectarines, 165
• — piccalilli, 157
• — parsley (green), 169
• — onions, silver, 148
• — walnuts, green, 163
• —   „  white, 164
• — samphire, 146
• Pickled Meats and Fish,
• — herrings, 73
• — smelts, 101
• — lobsters, 102
• Pickle for pork, 31
• — superior, 32
• — a preservative (excellent), 32
• — the Hambro’, for beef and pork, 31
• Pig, a young one collared, 112
• Polony, Russian, 87
• Provocative, a, 132
• Portable soup, 78
• — much richer, 78
• Porker’s head, smoked, 23
• Preservatives, 4
• Potted beef’s heart, 122
• — crabs, 107
• — hare, 114
• — eels, 118
• — lobsters, 106
• — Moor game, 115
• — ox cheek, 84
• — neat’s tongue, 121
• — beef as hare, 120
• — pigeons, 86
• — snipes and woodcocks, 116
• — shrimps, 119
• —  „  l’Diable, 85
• — trout, 117
• — venison, 124
• Preserved
• — apricots, 140
• — barberries, 142
• — cucumbers, 137
• — golden pippins, 143
• — greengage plums, 138
• — damsons, 140
• — Hambro’ grapes, 142
• — lemons, 139
• — Morello cherries, 141
• — peaches and nectarines, 138
• — tomatoes, 136
• Smoked Meats,
• — beef’s heart, 10
• — beef hams, 13
• —  „ Breslau, 14
• — boar’s head, 19
• — calf’s head brawn, 76
• — Dutch beef, 25
• — geese, smoked, 78
• — goose, a perpetual, 34
• — Hambro beef, 13
• — hung beef, 6
• — Leicestershire spiced bacon, 23
• — Melton hunt beef, 9
• — mutton, as in the Ardennes, 29
• — neats’ tongues, high flavour,17
• — Norfolk chine, 21
• — porker’s head, 23
• — polony, Russian, 87
• — German saveloys, 89
• — venison, side of, 111
• — Whitehaven corned beef, 15
• — Westphalia hams, 19
• —  „   eclipsed,20
• Smoked Fish,
• — eels, river, 62
• —  „   conger, 66
• — Gorgona anchovies, 63
• — herrings, bloaters, 50
• —  „   kippered, 51
• — Mackerel, kippered, 45
• —  „   May-fish, 46
• —  „   superior, 47
• — salmon, Welsh, 37
• —  „   Dutch, 39[Pg 184]
• —  „   superior kipper, 40
• —  „   American, 48
• —  „   collared, 43
• — herrings, Digby, 55
• —  „   Aberdeen reds,55
• — speldings, 56
• — sprats, 56
• Smelts, pickled, 101
• — potted, 105
• Snipes and woodcocks, potted, 116
• Sprats, marinated, 104
• Shrimps, essence of, 128
• Sausage spice (French), 132
• Syrup for preserving fruit, to prepare, 132
• Samphire, green, pickled, 146
• Silver onions, pickled, 148
• Syrup d’Orgeat (French), 174
• Tench and Carp, marinated, 93
• Tomatoes paste, 129
• — catsup, 130
• —  „   172
• Tripe, Birmingham and Oxford, 75
• Trout and grayling, marinated, 97
• — potted, 117
• Turbot fins, 60
• Veal Marinated, 125
• —  „   126
• Vinegar, elder flower, 173
• — tarragon, 173
• — white gooseberry, 174
• Walnuts, pickled, 164
• — preserved, 149
• — green, pickled, 163
• — catsup, 170
• Yorkshire Pressed Pork, 74

THE END.

C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND.

Transcriber’s Note:

This book was written in a period when many words had not become standardized in their spelling. Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have been left unchanged. Obsolete and alternative spellings were left unchanged. Misspelled words were not corrected.

Footnote was renumbered and was moved to the end of the preface. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, or partially printed letters and punctuation, were corrected. Final stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added.