Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Red Beet.— The roots of the red beet are boiled and sliced, and eaten cold, either alone or in salads; they are also much used as a pickle, and form a most beautiful garnish. Sometimes, after being dried in thin slices in an oven they are employed in confectioner}-, and dried and ground they are occasionally turned to account as "a supplement to coffee." Red Beet, Varieties of.— These, according to Loudon, are numerous, but the principal are :— large-rooted ; long-rooted ; dwarf, one of the best ; turnip-rooted, an early variety; small red; Castelnaudari, much esteemed m France, and said to have the flavour of a nut ; and green-topped, much grown in Scotland. Redbreast.— This beautiful bird, which enlivens the dreariness of winter with its song, when almost all other birds are silent, and whose familiar manners and reliance on the generosity of man have been the cause of Ins protection throughout Britain from the destroying hand of the epicure, is extensively consumedin France, and considered excellent.— Donovan. Red Cabbage.— In form the red or purple cabbage resembles the white ; it has, however, BED (720) BED a brownish-red or purple colour. It is chiefly employed for pickling, and the dwarf red variety certainly makes one of the most beautiful pickles that can be presented at table. Both the dwarf and large kinds are sometimes shredded down in winter in salads, like beetroot. In Germany, sauer kraut is prepared from all or any of the varieties. Bed Champagne, British.— Take forty quarts of ripe green gooseberries, crush them in a tub, pour on them ten gallons of soft water that has been well boiled and become cold, add three pounds of sliced beet-roots that have been boiled twenty minutes without breaking their skins, stir well ten minutes, and leave them to steep four days covered up, stirring weU three times daily. Strain the liquor, and filter it through a flannel bag into the cask ; add thirty pounds of best loaf sugar in small lumps, two ounces of best ginger bruised, the thin rinds of four lemons, and an ounce of best isinglass dissolved in a quart of the liquor. Leave the bung out till the fermentation has ceased, then add a quart of brandy, put in the bung, and secure it with paper and sand. Keep it in a cool cellar twelve months, then put it into champagne bottles, wire the corks, and seal them. It will be in high perfection in six months more, and is an exceedingly fine wine. — Robinson. Bed Clary Wine.— Pick and stone fortyfive pounds of good Malaga raisins, cut them small, and pour on them ten gallons of pure soft water ; cover the vessel up close, stirring well for twelve days, strain the liquor from the fruit, and put it into a cask upon a peck of the tops of clary when in flower, leaving the cask open until fermentation has ceased. Boil two quarts of the wine with two pounds of purple beet-root peeled and sliced for twenty minutes ; strain this, and when cold add to it three pints of French brandy and an ounce of isinglass dissolved ; then add this to the wine, and stop it up for twelve months. It may now be bottled, and if kept six months will be very good. Longer keeping will much improve this excellent wine.