Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine

three or four blades of mace, and a nutmeg quartered; set it on the fire, and keep it stirring, and let it boil a quarter of an hour ; if it is too thick, put in more water, and let it boil longer ; then add a pint of Rhenish or white-wine; three spoonfuls of orangeflower-water, the juice of two lemons and one orange, a bit of butter, and as much fine sugar as will sweeten it ; let all these have a warm, and thicken it with the yolks of two or three eggs. Drink it hot for a breakfast. To make Tea Caudle : — Make a quart of strong green tea, and pour it out into a skillet, and set it over the fire ; then beat the yolks of four eggs and mix with them a pint of white-wine, a grated nutmeg, sugar to your taste, and put all together; stir it over the fire till ’tis very hot, then drink it in china dishes as caudle. VII.— CONSERVES, DRIED AND CAN- DIED FRUITS, MARMALADES, Etc. To dry Apricocks like Prunello's : — Take a pound of Apricocks ; being cut in halves or quarters, let them boil till they be very tender in a thin syrup quarters, let them boil till they be very tender in a thin syrup ; let them stand a day or two in the stove, then take them out of the syrup, and lay them drying till they be as dry as prunello’s, then box them : you may make your syrup red with the juice of red plums ; if you please you may pare them. To candy Angelica : — Take angelica that is young, and cut it in fit lengths, and boil it till it is pretty tender, keeping it close covered ; then take it up and peel off all the strings ; then put it in again, and let it simmer and scald till ’tis very green ; then take it up and dry it in a cloth, and weigh it, and to every pound of angelica take a pound of doublerefin’d sugar beaten and sifted ; put your angelica in an earthen pan, and strew the sugar over it, and let it stand two days ; then boil it till it looks very clear, put it in a colander to drain the syrup from it, and take a little double-refin’d sugar and boil it to sugar again; then throw in your angelica, and take it out in a little time, and put it on glass plates. It will dry in your stove, or in an oven after pyes are drawn. Early Receipts. To candy Orange-Flowers : — Take half a pound of double-refin’d sugar finely beaten, wet it with orange-flower-water, then boil it candy-high, then put in a handful of orangeflowers, keeping it stirring, but let it not boil, and when the sugar candies about them, take it off the fire, drop it on a plate, and set it by till ’tis cold. To make Conserve of Red-Roses, or any other Flowers: — Take rose-buds, and pick them, and cut off the white part from the red, and put the red flowers, and sift them through a sieve to take out the seeds ; then weigh them, and to every pound of flowers take two pounds and a half of loaf-sugar, beat the flowers pretty fine in a stone mortar ; then by degrees put the sugar to them, and beat it very well till ’tis well incorporated together ; then put it into gallipots, and tye it over with paper, and over that leather, and it will keep seven years. To preserve white Pear Plumbs: — Take pear plumbs when they are yellow, before they are too ripe ; give them a slit in the seam, and prick them behind ; make your water almost Early Receipts. 137