Mary Eaton - The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families

APPLE WATER. Cut two large apples in slices, and pour a quart of boiling water on them, or on roasted apples. Strain it well, and sweeten it lightly. When cold, it is an agreeable drink in a fever.

APPLE WINE. To every gallon of apple juice, immediately as it comes from the press, add two pounds of lump sugar; boil it as long as any scum rises, then strain it through a sieve, and let it cool. Add some yeast, and stir it well; let it work in the tub for two or three weeks, or till the head begins to flatten; then skim off the head, draw off the liquor clear, and tun it. When made a year, rack it off, and fine it with isinglass. To every eight gallons add half a pint of the best rectified spirits of wine, or a pint of brandy.

APRICOTS DRIED. Pare thin and halve four pounds of apricots, put them in a dish, and strew among them three pounds of fine loaf-sugar powdered. When the sugar melts, set the fruit over a stove to do very gently; as each piece becomes tender, take it out, and put it into a china bowl. When all are done, and the boiling heat a little abated, pour the syrup over them. In a day or two remove the syrup, leaving only a little in each half. In a day or two more turn them, and so continue daily till quite dry, in the sun or in a warm place. Keep the apricots in boxes, with layers of fine paper.

APRICOTS PRESERVED. There are various ways of doing this: one is by steeping them in brandy. Wipe, weigh, and pick the fruit, and have ready a quarter of the weight of loaf sugar in fine powder. Put the fruit into an ice-pot that shuts very close, throw the sugar over it, and then cover the fruit with brandy. Between the top and cover of the pot, fit in a piece of thick writing paper. Set the pot into a saucepan of water, and heat it without boiling, till the brandy be as hot as you can bear your finger in it. Put the fruit into a jar, and pour the brandy on it. When cold, put a bladder over, and tie it down tight. – Apricots may also be preserved in jelly. Pare the fruit very thin, and stone it; weigh an equal quantity of sugar in fine powder, and strew over it. Next day boil very gently till they are clear, remove them into a bowl, and pour in the liquor. The following day, mix it with a quart of codlin liquor, made by boiling and straining, and a pound of fine sugar. Let it boil quickly till it comes to a jelly; put the fruit into it, give it one boil, skim it well, and distribute into small pots. – A beautiful preserve may also be made in the following manner. Having selected the finest ripe apricots, pare them as thin as possible, and weigh them. Lay them in halves on dishes, with the hollow part upwards. Prepare an equal weight of loaf sugar finely pounded, and strew it over them; in the mean time break the stones, and blanch the kernels. When the fruit has lain twelve hours, put it into a preserving pan, with the sugar and juice, and also the kernels. Let it simmer very gently till it becomes clear; then take out the pieces of apricot singly as they are done, put them into small pots, and pour the syrup and kernels over them. The scum must be taken off as it rises, and the pots covered with brandy paper. – Green apricots are preserved in a different way. Lay vine or apricot leaves at the bottom of the pan, then fruit and leaves alternately till full, the upper layer being thick with leaves. Then fill the pan with spring water, and cover it down, that no steam may escape. Set the pan at a distance from the fire, that in four or five hours the fruit may be soft, but not cracked. Make a thin syrup of some of the water, and drain the fruit. When both are cold, put the fruit into the pan, and the syrup to it; keep the pan at a proper distance from the fire till the apricots green, but on no account boil or crack them. Remove the fruit very carefully into a pan with the syrup for two or three days, then pour off as much of it as will be necessary, boil with more sugar to make a rich syrup, and add a little sliced ginger to it. When cold, and the thin syrup has all been drained from the fruit, pour the thick over it. The former will serve to sweeten pies.

APRICOT CHEESE. Weigh an equal quantity of pared fruit and sugar, wet the latter a very little, and let it boil quickly, or the colour will be spoiled. Blanch the kernels and add them to it: twenty or thirty minutes will boil it. Put it in small pots or cups half filled.

APRICOT JAM. When the fruit is nearly ripe, pare and cut some in halves; break the stones, blanch the kernels, and put them to the fruit. Boil the parings in a little water, and strain it: to a pound of fruit add three quarters of a pound of fine sifted sugar, and a glass of the water in which the parings were boiled. Stir it over a brisk fire till it becomes rather stiff: when cold, put apple jelly over the jam, and tie it down with brandy paper.

APRICOT PUDDING. Halve twelve large apricots, and scald them till they are soft. Meanwhile pour on the grated crumbs of a penny loaf a pint of boiling cream; when half cold, add four ounces of sugar, the yolks of four beaten eggs, and a glass of white wine. Pound the apricots in a mortar, with some or all of the kernels; then mix the fruit and other ingredients together, put a paste round a dish, and bake the pudding in half an hour.

AROMATIC VINEGAR. Mix with common vinegar a quantity of powdered chalk or whiting, sufficient to destroy the acidity; and when the white sediment is formed, pour off the insipid liquor. The powder is then to be dried, and some oil of vitriol poured upon it, as long as white acid fumes continue to ascend. This substance forms the essential ingredient, the fumes of which are particularly useful in purifying rooms and places where any contagion is suspected.

ARROW ROOT. This valuable article has often been counterfeited: the American is the best, and may generally be known by its colour and solidity. If genuine, the arrow root is very nourishing, especially for weak bowels. Put into a saucepan half a pint of water, a glass of sherry, or a spoonful of brandy, grated nutmeg, and fine sugar. Boil it up once, then mix it by degrees into a dessert-spoonful of arrow root, previously rubbed smooth with two spoonfuls of cold water. Return the whole into the saucepan, stir and boil it three minutes.

ARSENIC. The fatal effects of mineral poisons are too often experienced, and for want of timely assistance but seldom counteracted. Arsenic and other baleful ingredients, if used for the destruction of vermin, should never be kept with common articles, or laid in the way of children. But if, unfortunately, this deadly poison should by some mistake be taken inwardly, the most effectual remedy will be a table-spoonful of powdered charcoal, mixed with honey, butter, or treacle, and swallowed immediately. Two hours afterwards, take an emetic or an opening draught, to cleanse away the whole from the stomach and bowels. The baneful effects of verdigris, from the use of copper boilers and saucepans, may be counteracted by the same means, if resorted to in time, and no remedy is so likely to become effectual.

ARTICHOKES. Soak them in cold water, wash them well, and boil them gently in plenty of water. If young, they will be ready in half an hour; if otherwise, they will not be done in twice that time. The surest way to know when they are boiled enough is to draw out a leaf, and see whether they be tender; but they cannot be properly boiled without much water, which tends also to preserve their colour. Trim and drain them on a sieve, serve with melted butter, pepper and salt, and small cups.

ARTICHOKE BOTTOMS, if dried, must be well soaked, and stewed in weak gravy. Or they may be boiled in milk, and served with cream sauce, or added to ragouts, French pies, &c. If intended to keep in the winter, the bottoms must be slowly dried, and put into paper bags.

ASPARAGUS. Having carefully scraped the stalks till they appear white, and thrown them into cold water, tie them up in small bundles with tape, and cut the stalks of an equal length. Put them into a stewpan of boiling water a little salted, and take them up as soon as they begin to be tender, or they will lose both their taste and colour. Meanwhile make toasts well browned for the bottom of the dish, moisten them in the asparagus liquor, place them regularly, and pour on some melted butter. Then lay the asparagus on the toasts round the dish, with the heads united at the centre, but pour no butter over them. Serve with melted butter in a sauce tureen, and separate cups, that the company may season with salt and pepper to their taste. – As this vegetable is one of the greatest delicacies which the garden affords, no person should be unacquainted with the means of producing it in constant succession. Toward the end of July, the stalks of the asparagus are to be cut down, and the beds forked up and raked smooth. If the weather be dry, they should be watered with the drain of a dunghill, and left rather hollow in the middle to retain the moisture. In about a fortnight the stalks will begin to appear, and the watering should be continued once a week if the weather be dry. Asparagus may thus be cut till near the end of September, and then by making five or six hot-beds during the winter, a regular succession may be provided for almost every month in the year. To obviate the objection of cutting the same beds twice a year, two or three others may be left uncut in the spring, and additional beds made for the purpose. The seed is cheap, and in most places the dung may be easily procured. There is no need to continue the old beds when they begin to fail; it is better to make new ones, and to force the old roots by applying some rotten dung on the tops of the beds, and to sow seed every year for new plants.