The "Queen" cookery books: Pickles and Preserves

bay salt, and last the spices, mixing them well in together. Baking Powder. — Honestly, this is in these days hardly worth the trouble of making, as so many good kinds may be bought. But cooks should remember that these powders vary considerably in strength, and should therefore be careful when using them. The following formula, when baking powder must necessarily be home made, will be found satisfactory : Sift together, two or three times, 3oz. each of tartaric acid, carbonate of soda, and creme de riz, or fine rice flour. Lemon Juice. — If at any time you are using much lemon peel, or if lemons are cheap, squeeze them quite dry into a basin, then strain off free from pith, &c. Have ready very clean and perfectly dry little bottles, and fill them with this juice right up to the shoulder ; then pour in sufficient sweet oil to cover the juice entirely, cork and seal the bottles tightly, and store upright in a cool place. Once the bottle is opened the juice must be used at once, as it does not keep well after the oil is removed. Lemon peel can be preserved if dried and packed in stoppered bottles. It will grate perfectly Lemon and orange peel alike may be preserved thus : Steep the thick skins for a few days in salt and water, then boil them in fresh water till soft enough to pierce with the head of a pin ; when you drain and put them aside. Boil a pound of loaf sugar in half a pint of water for five minutes, and pour it on to the peels ; let it all stand a week, then just boil up the syrup, lay in the peel again, and boil all together till the peel looks clear, when you lift it out, spread it on a disli to cool and dry, sprinkling it well with caster sugar, and when dry store it in tins. It also keeps well if poured, syrup and all, when clear, into a crock, and kept covered. Eggs, to Preserve. — Soak 41b. of lime in two gallons of water in an earthenware crock, let it stand two days, stirring it now and again, then put in the eggs (which must be very fresh) up to within three inches of the surface of the pickle. Or, mix in a large crock 31b. quicklime, lOoz. salt, loz. cream of tartar, and one and a half gallons of boiling water. Stir all these ingredients well together, let them stand twenty-four hours, then put in the eggs, which must be perfectly fresh (if warm from the nest so much the better) and entirely uncracked. These pickles make the shell rather brittle, so that the eggs should never be boiled in the ordinary way, but be put on in cold water, and then brought gently to the boil. Either way the eggs will, if carefully packed, keep a long time perfectly fresh and good. Feuit in Season. — One can only give averages for the preserve-making season, as it must in great measure depend on the weather, and the consequent growth and ripening of the fruit. Fruit for preserving should never be quite dead ripe, save in the case of medlars, which are not really good till lightly touched by the frost, so that discretion must be used as to the best time for jam and jelly making. This being premised, here are the average seasons for various kinds of fruits : Apples. — All the year round, but at their best from September onwards. Apricots (English). — From August to October ; foreign ones begin and end a month earlier. Bananas. — All the year round.