The "Queen" cookery books: Pickles and Preserves

hissing. Bottle in six months’ time. Be very particular as to your corks. It gives more flavour if the lemons are first thinly peeled, clear of all pith, and this peel laid with the quartered pulp. Nettle Beer. — Boil rather more than a peck of young nettle tops and 4lb. of malt in two gallons of water, then add 2oz. of hops, 4oz. of sarsaparilla, 1 1/2lb. of sugar, and 1oz. of ginger; strain when nearly cold, and add a little yeast. Bottle whilst still fermenting. Ginger Beer. — 1lb. sugar, 1oz. ginger (bruised), and half a lemon to each gallon of water. Slice the lemon on to the sugar and ginger, and pour the water, boiling, over it all. When this is cool add enough yeast to work it (about a tablespoonful to every two gallons), and let it stand for twelve hours, then bottle. Fit for use on the second day, and is very effervescent. If fresh fruit is not attainable, use a tablespoonful of citric acid, and a. teaspoonful of essence of lemon instead of the fresh lemon. Dandelion Beer. — Boil three quarts of fresh dandelions in a gallon of water, strain, and add 21b. of sugar, or a pound of molasses. When milk warm, add a good tablespoonful of yeast. Let it stand overnight, then draw off very carefully, add a tablespoonful of wintergreen, and bottle. This is an old country wife’s recipe, but dandelion beer is seldom seen nowadays, being usually replaced by the following, which is still very popular in the country. Put into a crock three quarts of freshly gathered dandelion blossoms, and pour over them a gallon of boiling water; let this stand all night uncovered. Next day strain off the liquor, and boil it with 31b. of sugar for half an hour, then add to it the rinds of two sweet oranges and two lemons, very thinly pared, quite free from all white pith, and previously well bruised, and when milk warm add a toast spread with yeast. Let it stand seven to ten days before putting it into a cask, then bottle in three months, adding a lump or two of sugar to each bottle. In the country this wine is often not put into a cask at all, but simply drunk from the crock, which is kept covered with a cloth or a board to keep out the dust. Country wives consider it a splendid tonic, or as they phrase it, “ excellent for clearing the blood.” Lastly, it may be mentioned that foreign housewives make all sorts of essences and tinctures by the simple process of infusing the desired aromatic in strong rectified spirit or even brandy, till the latter is strongly flavoured, keeping such tinctures very closely stoppered, as these flavours are usually very volatile. For instance, infuse the very thinly pared rind of some lemons in good brandy, keeping it closely stoppered, and shaking it daily. Essence of allspice, cloves, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, &c., can all be prepared in this way. Essence of ginger can be made by infusing loz. of bruised ginger in half a pint of strong spirit, with the thinly pared rind of half a lemon. These essences need no further treatment, if to be only used in the kitchen, but, if carefully filtered and mixed with a proportion of sugar syrup to taste, they will produce some very fair home-made liqueurs, which will, at all events, possess the merit of unconventionality. CHAPTER VII.