The encyclopædia of practical cookery

The colour is often made darker (to give the idea of strength and make it appear older) by means of burnt sugar ; but the immature character of the wine is not done away with by these expedients. No attention is paid at all to the difference between tablewines and sweet wines. A considerable portion of the winedrinking community wants sweet-tasting wine, and this compels the merchant to make dry wines sweet, which is generally done by sugar, or by the addition of extract wines. It is the manipulation of the wine which is to be blamed for the inferior quality of the Cape Wines.” Nevertheless, as the wines are cheap and sufficiently pure for making some kinds of sauces or stews, the cook need not be afraid to use them. CAPILLAIRE.— This syrup or liqueur is seldom used by itself, but generally for the purpose of giving a body to others. The name is derived from capilla, a hair, a prominent ingredient of it used at one time being the fronds of the maidenhair fern. The virtues supposed to be imparted by this herbal addition appear to have held very little credit amongst advanced liqueurists, hence the fern is now generally omitted, and the syrup compounded of sugar, clarified with white of egg, and flavoured with either orange-flower water, rose-water, or curaçoa. The For details respecting Culinary Processes, Utensils Sauces, dee., referred to, see under their special heads. Capillaire — continued. following receipts give a variety of modes of preparing it with and without the fern. (1) Boil ^lb. of maidenhair fern in 5 pints of boiling water, and leave to infuse near a fire for twenty-four hours. Press out and filter the liquid ; add 4 fluid ounces of orange-flower water, and dissolve in it from 151b. to 201b. of loaf sugar, according to the consistency the syrup is required to maintain. (2) Boil 91b. of loaf sugar in 5 pints of orange-flower water. When the syrup is quite clear, strain it through flannel ; dissolve 2 drachms of tartaric acid in ^ pint of strong orangeflower water and mix with the syrup when it is cold; add also i tumblerful of good Rhine wine. (3) Chop in small pieces a large bunch of maidenhair fern, place them in a pan with boiling water, and put a cover on. In a few minutes’ time add to the infusion 4.Ub. of broken loaf sugar, and clarify with the whites of four eggs. Boil the syrup to the pearl (see Sugar-boiling), then pour it through a strainer. When it is cool, add a little orange-flower water and bottle close. (4) Boil lib. of loaf sugar into a syrup of 24deg. strength ( see Sugar-boiling). Dissolve 2oz. of picked gum arabic in 2oz. of hot water ; infuse Joz. of chopped maidenhair fern in boiling water for one hour, and then strain. Mix the gum and the infusion of chopped fern with the syrup when it is cold. Get some pint bottles and fill them with the syrup, and stand the bottles in cold water for a few minutes until they are quite cold ; dip the nozzles in bottle-wax, and keep them stacked in a reclining position in the cellar until wanted. (5) Put 51b. of caster sugar into a stewpan with lqt. of water, adding two well-beaten eggs as well as their shells ; put the pan on the fire and boil for about twenty minutes, skim thoroughly, pass the liquid through a jelly -bag, and add 2 table-spoonfuls of orange-flower water to flavour.