Domestic French Cookery, 4th ed.

The word Purée cannot be exactly translated, as there is nothing in the English language that gives precisely the same idea. In French it is generally applied to a certain manner of cooking vegetables that converts them into a substance resembling marmalade, which, when the coarser parts are strained out, leaves a fine smooth jelly.

It is served up with meat.

Wash and pare some of the finest turnips. Cut them into small pieces, and let them lie for half an hour in cold water. Then take them out and drain them. Put them into a stew-pan, with a large piece of butter and some salt and pepper. Moisten them with a little broth or boiling water. Let them stew over a very slow fire, for five or six hours, stirring them frequently. Then rub them through a sieve, and serve up the jelly with roast meat.

Wash your celery, peel it, and stew it slowly for three or four hours, with salt, and a very little water. Then pass it through a sieve, and season it with pepper, salt, and nutmeg to your taste.

Peel a pint of mushrooms, cut them in pieces, and put them in a pan with as much cold water as will keep them from burning. Throw in with them a small onion to test their goodness; as, if there is a bad or poisonous one among them, the onion will turn of a bluish black while cooking. In that case, throw them all away.

Stew them slowly till they have lost all shape and have become an undistinguishable mass. Then strain them.

Put into a stew-pan a large piece of butter, or a spoonful of flour, and two lumps of sugar. Add your purée, and let it stew again for about five minutes. When you take it off the fire, stir in the yolks of two eggs slightly beaten, and a spoonful of cream or rich milk. Put it in the middle of a dish, and lay round it thin slices of fried bread or toast.

Having strung and cut your beans till you have a quart, throw them into boiling water, with a little salt. Let them remain a quarter of an hour. Then drain them, and throw into cold water to green them. After they have lain half an hour in the cold water, take them out and drain them again.

Take a quart of shelled green peas. Wash them, and put them into a stew-pan with water enough to cover them, a little salt and pepper, a piece of butter the size of a walnut, a laurel leaf or a couple of peach-leaves, and a bunch of mint.

Let them stew very slowly; and if necessary moisten them occasionally with a little warm water or broth. Stir them frequently, that they may not stick to the pan. When they become of the consistence of marmalade, strain it. Chop an onion fine, fry it in butter, and have it ready to mix with the purée.

Dried split peas may be made into a purée in the same manner.

Purées may be made in a similar manner of different sorts of meat, poultry &c. seasoned, stewed slowly to a jelly, then strained through a cullender or sieve, and taken as soups.

In choosing eggs, hold them up against the light, and if you see that the yolk is round, and the white thin and clear, you may suppose them to be good. But if the yolk appears to be broken and mixed with the white, giving it a thick cloudy look, you may be sure that the egg is bad. Eggs may be preserved by keeping them in a keg of lime-water, or by greasing each egg all over with dripping, and putting them into a tight vessel filled with wood-ashes, placing them all with their small ends downwards. You may also keep them by burying them in salt. Still they are never so good as when quite fresh.

When you break eggs for use, do every one separately, in a saucer. If you find the egg good, throw it into the pan in which they are to be beaten. If you meet with a bad one, throw it away and wash the saucer or get a clean one. A single bad egg will make the whole mixture heavy, spungy, and of an unpleasant taste.

When the water boils hard, put in the eggs, and let them boil exactly three minutes. Then take them out, and cover them up for about a minute, which will greatly improve them. Send them to table wrapped in a napkin, and laid in a deep dish.

Melt some butter in a dish that will bear the fire. Add to it salt, and nutmeg, and a little milk in the proportion of a table-spoonful to each egg. Mix them well together. Then lay over it the yolks of your eggs, first ascertaining that they are all good. Let it stew over a slow fire for a few minutes; and color it by holding over it a red-hot shovel. The eggs must not be allowed to get hard, but the surface should be soft and perfectly smooth and even.

Before you put in the eggs, you may stir into the mixture some heads of boiled asparagus.

Boil twelve eggs hard. Take off the shell, and cut each egg in half. Take out the yolks, and pound them in a mortar with a quarter of a pound of butter; a nutmeg; some grated bread that has been soaked in milk; a little salt; and if you choose, some minced sweet-herbs. Fill the whites of the eggs with this stuffing, heaping it up, and smoothing it into a round even shape. Butter a dish, and spread over the inside a thin layer of the stuffing. Arrange in it all your halves of eggs, the bottoms downwards. Put them into an oven, the lid of which must be hot. Let them set about five minutes, and then send them to table.

Beat together a quart of sifted flour, six eggs, a table-spoonful of brandy, a grated nutmeg, a little salt, and sufficient water to make a thin batter. Melt a piece of butter in a frying-pan, or substitute a little sweet-oil. Pour in a ladleful of the batter, and let it spread into a circular form. When it is slightly brown on one side, turn it carefully on the other. Serve them up with white sugar grated over each.

You may color them pink, by stirring into the mixture some of the juice of a beet-root, which has been boiled and then beaten in a mortar.

Cheese Omelet.—Grate some rich cheese, and mix it gradually with your eggs while beating them. Season with salt and pepper. Melt some butter in a frying-pan. Put in your omelet, and fry it first on one side, and then on the other. When you dish it up, fold it over in half.

Omelets may be seasoned in the same manner with parsley, chopped sweet-herbs, or mushrooms. Also with minced oysters.

Boil half a pound of maccaroni with two ounces of butter, some whole pepper, and a little salt. Do not let it boil long enough for the maccaroni to lose its shape. When done, mix with it a quarter of a pound of rich cheese, scraped or grated. Butter a deep dish, and put the mixture into it. Then set it for a quarter of an hour in the oven. Brown the top with a red-hot shovel.

Take two ounces of shelled sweet almonds, and one ounce of shelled bitter almonds. Blanch them by throwing them into scalding water to make the skins peel off easily; then put them in cold water; wipe them dry afterwards, and pound them in a mortar, adding at times a little rose-water.

Dissolve an ounce of isinglass in warm water, and then stir it into a quart of cream. Add a quarter of a pound of broken loaf-sugar, and a wine-glass of rose-water. Boil it hard for a quarter of an hour, and stir it all the time. Then strain it through a linen bag, and put it into egg-cups, or into the halves of egg-shells nicely and evenly trimmed, and set it away in a cold place to congeal.

Sift a quart of flour, and lay it in a pan. Make a hole in the middle, and put into it the white of an egg slightly beaten, a piece of butter the size of an egg, and a very little salt. Pour in gradually as much cold water as will moisten it. Mix it well with your hands, as rapidly as possible, and see that no lumps are left in it. Set it away to cool, and in a quarter of an hour roll it out, and spread over it half a pound of butter which has been kept in ice. Then fold up the paste with the four sides laid one over another, so as entirely to inclose the butter, and set it for half an hour in a cool place. Then roll it again; fold it, and give it another roll. Set it away again; and in half an hour roll it out twice more, and it will be fit for use.

Mix together a quart of flour, half a pound of butter, a little salt, and two beaten eggs. Add a little cold water; make it into a paste, and set it away to cool. Then roll it out again. Cut it into round shapes with the edge of a tumbler. Lay round each a rim made of an even strip of the paste, and notch it handsomely. Bake them for a quarter of an hour, and then take them from the oven. Beat together a pint of cream, four eggs, and four table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar. Fill the tarts with this mixture, grate nutmeg over each, and bake them again for a quarter of an hour.

Blanch half a pound of shelled sweet almonds and three ounces of shelled bitter almonds. Beat them, a few at a time, in a mortar, mixing them well, and adding at times a little rose-water. When done, mix with them a quarter of a pound of loaf-sugar powdered, and the juice and grated peel of half a lemon.

Make some fine paste, and cut it out with the edge of a tumbler. Have ready some minced veal, seasoned in the best manner, or some chopped oysters, or any sort of force-meat, and lay some of it on one half of each piece of paste. Then turn over it the other half, so as to inclose the meat. Crimp the edges. Put some butter into a frying-pan. Lay the rissoles into it, and fry them of a light brown.

They should be in the shape of a half-moon.

Blanch and pound in a mortar half a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and three ounces of peach-kernels, or shelled bitter almonds, adding sufficient rose-water to moisten them. When they are all pounded to a paste, mix with them a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and boil them in a quart of milk or cream. Then set it away to cool. When cold, stir eight beaten eggs into it. Put the mixture into cups. Set them in an iron oven half filled with water, and bake them.

Cut into pieces half a pound of the best chocolate. Pour on it sufficient milk to prevent its burning, and let it boil ten minutes. After you remove it from the fire, have ready a pint of boiling milk or cream, and pour it on the chocolate. Beat together the yolks of eight eggs and the whites of two only, and stir them into the chocolate with two ounces, or more, of loaf-sugar. Put the mixture into cups, set them in an oven with water in it, and bake them. Beat the six remaining whites of eggs to a froth, adding a very little sugar, and heap some of the froth on each custard. You may lay on the top of each heap of froth one of the bonbons or confections called chocolate-nuts.

Boil a quart of cream or rich milk, and pour it (while boiling) on three ounces of the best green tea. Add two ounces of loaf sugar. Cover it and set it away. Take eight eggs, and beat them well, leaving out the whites of four; and when the tea is cold, stir in the eggs. Then strain the whole mixture; put it into cups, and bake them in an oven with water. Grate sugar over the top of each.

Put six table-spoonfuls of rice into a pint of water, and boil it till quite soft. Drain it through a sieve, and put the rice into a quart of milk with a quarter of a pound of sugar, and three or four peach-leaves, or a few peach-kernels. Boil it, and before you serve it up, take out the peach-leaves or kernels, and stir in the yolks of two eggs.

Boil a quart of milk with cinnamon and sugar to your taste. When done, stir in a table-spoonful of rose-water. Cut some slices of bread into a circular shape. Soak them in the milk till they have absorbed it. Then drain them. Have ready some yolks of eggs well beaten. Dip the slices of bread into it, and fry them in butter. Serve them up strewed with powdered sugar.

Ground rice is best for this cake.

If any of the cake is left, you may next day cut it in slices and fry them in butter.

Roast in the ashes a dozen small or six large potatoes. When done, peel them, and put them into a pan with a little salt, and the rind of a lemon grated. Add a quarter of a pound of butter, or half a pint of cream, and a quarter of a pound of sugar. Having mashed the potatoes with this mixture, rub it through a cullender, and stir it very hard. Then set it away to cool.

Beat eight eggs, and stir them gradually into the mixture. Season it with a tea-spoonful of mixed spice, and half a glass of rose-water.

Butter a mould or a deep dish, and spread the inside all over with grated bread. Put in the mixture, and bake it for three quarters of an hour.

Take ten eggs, and beat them till very thick and smooth. Add gradually a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Rub a lump of loaf-sugar all over the rind of a large lemon, to draw the juice to the surface; then grate the peel of the lemon, and stir it into the mixture, together with the lump of sugar. Squeeze in the juice of the lemon, and add two table-spoonfuls of rose-water. Beat the mixture very hard; then take half a pound of potato flour (which is best), or else of fine wheat flour, and stir it in very lightly and slowly. It must be baked immediately.

Take a pound of powdered sugar, a pound of butter, half a pound of wheat-flour, and half a pound of Indian meal; mix all together, and add the juice and grated peel of a large lemon, with spice to your taste. Make it into a lump of paste. Then put it into a mortar, and beat it hard on all sides.

Roll it out thin, and cut it into cakes with the edge of a tumbler, or with a tin cutter.

Flour a shallow tin pan. Lay the cakes into it, but not close together. Bake them about ten minutes. Grate sugar over them when done.

Beat together till very light, a pound of butter and a pound of powdered sugar. Sift a pound of flour into a pan. Take the yolks only, of twelve eggs, and beat them till very thick and smooth. Pour them into the flour, and add the beaten butter and sugar. Stir in a grated nutmeg, and a wine-glass of rose-water. Mix the whole together, till it becomes a lump of dough.

Mix together two pounds of flour, one pound of sugar, five beaten eggs, three quarters of a pound of butter, and a tea-cupful of ginger. Put the flour to the other ingredients, a little at a time, and stir the whole very hard. Melt a tea-spoonful of sal aratus or fine pearl-ash in a little sour milk, and stir it in at the last. Roll the dough into sheets, and cut it out with square tins. If not stiff enough for rolling, add a little more flour. Lay it in buttered pans, and bake it in a moderate oven.

Pare and core some fine pippins, and cut them into small pieces. Melt some butter in the bottom of a pan. Then lay your apples in it with a sufficient proportion of sugar, beaten cinnamon or nutmeg, and some rose-water or grated lemon-peel. Set the pan in an oven, and let the apples bake till they are quite soft. Then take them out of the pan, and mash them to a marmalade with the back of a spoon.

Cut some thin slices of bread into a triangular or three-cornered shape, and dip them in melted butter. Then butter a broad deep dish, and lay the pieces of bread in the bottom of it, making the points meet in the centre. Spread a thick layer of apple all over the bread; then more bread, covered with another layer of apple, and so on till the dish is full; having a cover of bread on the top. Set it in the oven, and bake it slowly about a quarter of an hour.

A very fine Charlotte may be made by substituting slices of spunge-cake for the bread, or having square spunge-cakes laid round, leaving a hole in the centre to be filled up with gooseberry jelly. If you use spunge-cake, you need not put it in the oven.

Pare them, but leave on the stems. Lay them in a preserving-pan; and to a dozen moderate-sized pears, put half a pound of white sugar, a gill of water, and a few sticks of cinnamon, with some slips of lemon-peel. Simmer them till tender; and when half done, pour in a glass of port-wine. When quite done, take out the pears and lay them in a deep dish. Strain the syrup; give it another boil, and pour it over them.

Take some of the largest and finest chestnuts. Cut a slit in the shell of each, and roast them in a charcoal furnace, taking care not to burn them. When done, peel them and put them into a pan with some powdered sugar, and a very little water. Let them simmer over a slow fire for about a quarter of an hour. When done, take them out, put them into a dish, squeeze over them some lemon-juice, and sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

Pare and core some of the largest and finest pippins, and cut them into thin round slices. Mix together in a deep dish some brandy, lemon-juice, and powdered sugar. Lay the slices of apple in it, and let them soak for several hours. Then drain them, and dip each slice in flour. Put some butter into a pan, and fry the apples of a fine brown. Dish them, and grate loaf-sugar over them.

Quinces may be done in the same manner. So also may peaches, but they must be cut in half.

Take ripe peaches; pare them and cut them in half, taking out the stones. Weigh them, and to each pound of fruit allow half a pound of loaf-sugar. Mash them with the sugar, and put them in a preserving-kettle. Boil them slowly till they become a shapeless mass, which will generally be in about three quarters of an hour. Stir the marmalade frequently, to prevent its sticking to the kettle. Blanch half the kernels, and cut them in two; and when the marmalade is about half done, put them into it to give it a fine flavor. Take out the kernels when the marmalade is cold, and then tie it up in pots or glasses, laying over it paper dipped in brandy.

Marmalade of plums or green-gages may be made in the same manner.

Previous to making your jelly, clarify the sugar, which must be the best loaf. Break it up, and to each pound allow a gill of water and an ounce of isinglass. Mix the water with the sugar. Dissolve the isinglass in as much hot water as will cover it. Set the sugar over the fire in a preserving-kettle; and when it is beginning to boil, throw in the melted isinglass. Skim the syrup well, and when it is quite clear and no more scum rises, take it from the fire, cover it, and leave it to settle.

Prepare the fruit of which you intend to make the jelly. If small fruit, such as gooseberries, currants, grapes, raspberries, or strawberries; pick them from the stems, and put them into a jar; set the jar in a vessel of warm water, and let them come to a boil. Then take them out, put them into a fine sieve, set a pan under it, and with the back of a large spoon press out all the juice from the fruit. Mix the juice, while warm, with the clarified sugar, and boil them together for about a quarter of an hour. Then put it into your jars or glasses, and tie it up with brandy-paper.

If you want the jelly for immediate use, put it into a mould; set the mould in ice for two or three hours; and when the jelly is congealed, loosen it by setting the mould in warm water, and then turn it out.

Take a fine ripe pumpkin of a deep rich color. Cut from it as many slices as you want; they should be very thin. Have ready some lime-water. Put into it the slices of pumpkin, and let them soak for twenty-four hours. Then take them out, wash them well in cold water, and wipe them dry. Having prepared a nicely clarified syrup of sugar, put the slices of pumpkin into it, and let them simmer over a slow fire without stirring, for a day and a night; but first flavor them to your taste with lemon-juice mixed into the syrup. When done, they will be crisp and transparent. Put them into broad stone or queensware pots, and tie them up with brandy-paper.

Let your raspberries be gathered on a dry day. Measure them, and to a quart of raspberries allow a pound of fine loaf-sugar. Spread the fruit on large dishes, but do not heap it; let every raspberry lie singly. Pound the sugar to powder, and sift it over the fruit.

Peel twelve large sweet oranges, and cut them into small pieces. Put them into a linen bag, and squeeze out all the juice. Measure the juice, and if it does not amount to a pint, squeeze some more pieces of orange through the bag. Put a pound of double-refined loaf-sugar into a preserving kettle, and pour the juice over it. When the sugar has melted, put it over the fire. Dissolve two ounces of isinglass in a little hot water, and add it to the jelly just as it is beginning to boil. Let it boil hard twenty minutes. Then put it into glasses, and tie it up with brandy-paper.

Lemon-jelly may be made in this manner.

Prepare some of the best loaf-sugar powdered as fine as possible. Have ready some white of egg. Take some of the best and largest plums, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, apricots (peeled) or any other suitable fruit.

Dip the fruit, separately, in the white of egg, and then roll it all over in the powdered sugar, which will thus adhere to it, and form a coat. Then lay it on a dish (spreading it out so as not to touch) and set it in a cool oven to harden.

Powder some fine loaf-sugar, add to it a little essence of peppermint (sufficient to give it a strong flavor) and enough of water to make it into a thick paste, which you must mix on a plate with the point of a broad knife. Then put the paste into a pan that has a lip or little spout at one side; melt it over the fire, and let it come to a boil. As soon as it boils, take it off and drop it from the lip of the pan into a clean broad tin pan or plate. Let the drops be all of the same size and shape. The tin pan that receives them must be very cold. As soon as the drops have hardened, loosen them from the tin, by slipping the point of a knife under each.

You may color them red with cochineal.

Keep them in a glass jar.

If the mixture congeals before all the drops are made, melt it again over the fire.

This is a very fine confection. Take three quarters of a pound of shelled sweet almonds, and one quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds. Blanch them by scalding them in boiling water. Then throw them into cold water, and take them out and wipe them. Cut them into small pieces (but do not pound them,) and mix them well together.

Take a pound of loaf-sugar broken small, and mix it with half a pint of cold water, and an ounce of isinglass melted in a very little hot water. Boil the sugar, and skim it well. When it is quite clear, throw in your almonds, having first squeezed over them the juice of two lemons. Stir the almonds well through the sugar; and as soon as they are properly mixed with it, take the kettle off the fire.

Take half a pound of shelled bitter almonds, and a pound and a half of shelled sweet almonds. Blanch them, and pound them in a mortar one or two at a time, pouring in frequently a little rose-water, which will preserve their whiteness and prevent them from being oily and heavy. Pound them to a fine smooth paste, and then mix them with a pound and a half of loaf-sugar finely powdered.

Put the mixture again into the mortar, a little at a time, and pound it awhile that the sugar and almonds may be thoroughly incorporated; adding still a little rose-water.

When done, put it away in small covered pots or glasses, and it will keep several months in a cool dry place. It makes a very fine drink.

When you want to use it, put a small piece into a tumbler of cold water, and stir it till dissolved.

This process is slow, but it makes the liquor beautifully clear.

Take six ounces of peach kernels, and one ounce of bitter almonds. Break them slightly. Put them into a jug with three pints of white French brandy. Let them infuse three weeks; shaking the jug every day. Then drain the liquor from the kernels, and strain it through a linen bag. Melt three quarters of a pound of the best loaf-sugar in a pint of rose-water. Mix it with the liquor, and filter it through a sieve, the bottom of which is to be covered on the inside with blotting paper. Let the vessel which is placed underneath to receive the liquor be entirely white, that you may be the better enabled to judge of its clearness. If it is not clear the first time, repeat the filtering. Then bottle it for use.

Take a pound of the leaves of full-blown red roses. Put them into a quart of lukewarm water, and let them infuse for two days, in a covered vessel. Then squeeze them through a linen bag, to press out all the liquid, and take as much white brandy as you have of the decoction of roses. To a pint of the infusion add half a pound of loaf-sugar, and a very small quantity of coriander and cinnamon. Put it into a jug, and let it set for two weeks. Then filter it through blotting paper, and put it into bottles.

Pare your quinces, and scrape them to the core. Put all the scrapings into a tureen, and see that there are no seeds among them. Let the scrapings remain covered in the tureen for two days. Then put them into a linen bag, and squeeze out all the juice. Measure it, and mix it with an equal quantity of white brandy. To each pint of the mixture add half a pound of loaf-sugar, and a little cinnamon and cloves. Put it into a jug, and let it infuse for two months. Then filter it through blotting paper, and bottle it. This cordial improves by age, and is excellent.

Let the coffee be roasted immediately before you want to use it, as it loses much of its strength by keeping. Its color, when done, should be a fine bright brown; but by no means allow it to scorch. A cylindrical coffee-roaster that can be turned by a handle, and sets before the fire, is far preferable to a pot or a pan. Grind the coffee while warm.

If you intend to make half a dozen cups of coffee for drinking, measure six cups of water of the same size, and put the water into the coffee-pot. Set it on hot coals, and when the water boils, put in two or three chips of isinglass, or the white of an egg. Then throw in six large tea-spoonfuls of ground coffee. Stir it several times while boiling, and set it several times back from the fire to diminish the boiling gradually. When it has boiled sufficiently, remove it entirely from the coals, pour in a cup of cold water, and then put it in a corner and let it settle for half an hour. Afterwards pour it off from the grounds into another pot (which must first be scalded), and set it close to the fire, but do not let it boil again.

If you intend to serve it up with hot cream, you must make the coffee stronger. While the coffee is clearing, boil your cream or milk, and pour some of it hot into each cup of coffee.

Never boil chocolate in milk, as that spoils the flavor; and do not scrape it, but merely cut it into pieces. To an ounce of chocolate allow a cup of boiling water.

Having first scalded the pot, put in the chocolate, pour the water on it, and boil it till one third has evaporated. Then supply that third with cream or milk, and take it immediately from the fire.

Allow a whole lemon and four or five lumps of loaf-sugar to half a pint of cold water. Roll the lemons hard on a table to make them more juicy. Cut them in half, and squeeze them over the sugar. Then pour on the water, and stir till the sugar is dissolved. Take out whatever seeds may have fallen in. In warm weather, put a lump of ice into each glass.

Take three large lemons, and roll them very hard on the table to make them more juicy. Then pare them as thin as possible. Cut out the pulp, and throw away the seeds and the white part of the rind. Put the yellow rind and the pulp into a pint of boiling water; set it on the fire, and let it boil two or three minutes. Take it off, and throw in a tea-spoonful of raw green tea of the best sort, and let it infuse about five minutes. Then strain it through linen. Stir into it three quarters of a pound of loaf-sugar, and a pint of brandy, or any other suitable liquor. Set it again over the fire, and when it is just ready to boil, remove it, and pour it into a china bowl or pitcher.

Take four ounces of powdered tartaric acid, and two drachms of essential oil of lemon. Mix them together, and keep them in a well-corked phial. A table-spoonful mixed with sugar and water, will make six or eight glasses of lemonade.

It will keep about a month, but not longer, as it will then lose its strength.

Put on a plate an ounce of the very best mustard powder, with a salt-spoon of salt, a few leaves of tarragon, and a clove of garlic minced fine. Pour on by degrees sufficient vinegar to dilute it to the proper consistence (about a wine-glassful), and mix it well with a wooden spoon. Do not use it in less than twenty-four hours after it is mixed.

Potato flour is excellent for sponge-cake, and other things which require extraordinary lightness. It is also good for young children, and for convalescent sick persons.

Take the best and most mealy potatoes; pare them, and wash them through several waters. Then rasp or grate them over a tureen half full of cold water. Continue to grate the potatoes till the lower half of the tureen is filled with the pulp, so that the water may rise to the top. The mealy part of the potatoes will sink to the bottom, while the remainder or the useless part will rise to the surface. When nothing more rises, pour off the water carefully, and dry the flour which you find at the bottom. When quite dry, pound it in a mortar to a fine powder, and sift it through a sieve.

Potato flour is much lighter than that of wheat.

Take ten pounds of very small cucumbers. Brush them all over to clean them well, and cut off the stems. Put them into an earthen pan with two handfuls of salt. Let them rest twenty-four hours, and then drain them. When they are well drained, put them back into the same pan, and pour in a quantity of boiling hot white wine vinegar, sufficient to cover them. Then cover the pan carefully with a lid or dish, and let the cucumbers set in the vinegar twenty-four hours. They will then be yellow. Pour the vinegar from them, and cover them with vine-leaves. Boil the vinegar again, and when it boils throw it over the cucumbers, stirring them well.

When the vinegar is cold, pour it from the cucumbers, and boil it again. Then pour it over them, and proceed in this manner four or five times, till they become of a fine green. Keep them in the interval always covered with a layer of vine-leaves, fresh each time, and also with a cloth kept down by a large dish. This, by keeping in the steam, will assist them in greening.

Then drain them on a sieve, and put them into glass jars.

Afterwards, boil some fresh white wine vinegar, first mixing in it the following seasoning. To every quart of vinegar allow half an ounce of mace, half an ounce of sliced ginger, half an ounce of whole black pepper, six cloves, a few sprigs of tarragon, and half a clove of garlic.

Procure at an apothecary’s the following oils and have them all put into the same phial:—Oil of lemon, 2 drams; oil of rosemary, 2 drams; oil of lavender, 1 dram; oil of bergamot, 2 drams; oil of cinnamon, 10 drops; oil of cloves, 10 drops; oil of roses, 2 drops; tincture of musk, 8 drops.

Put 2 pint of highly rectified spirits of wine into a bottle, and pour the oils into it. Shake it hard for a few minutes, having corked it tightly. It will be fit for immediate use, but it improves by keeping.

If you wish it stronger, double the quantity of all the oils, but have only a pint of spirits of wine.

THE END.