Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Sherbet, Raspberry.— One pint of sugar and one and one-half pints of water, boiled twenty minutes ; add one pint of crushed raspberries and the juice of two lemons and remove Strawberry Acid Tea from the fire. When cold, strain through a sieve. Strawberry Acid. — Dissolve io ozs. of tartaric acid in two quarts of cold water. In a large bowl put twelve quarts of strawberries, washed and capped. The wild ones are to be preferred. Pour over them the acidulated water, and let the fruit stand thus undisturbed for forty-eight hours. Then let the juice drip through a flannel bag without squeezing. Measure the juice. To one pint of the acid allow i lb. of white sugar. Allow the sugar and juice to remain together in a large jar until the former is thoroughly dissolved. As a slight fermentation may ensue, do not cork at first, but tie up the mouth of the bottle tightly with muslin or gauze, to stand for several weeks until this danger is past. In six weeks you may safely bottle, and will find that it never spoils, although the brilliant color will fade after a time. It has the advantage of being ready at a moment’s warning. Have your glass or pitcher one-fifth part full of the acid, filling up the remainder with cracked ice and pure water. You may in this way make drinks of all the small fruits, especially raspberries, blackberries, stemmed currants, and seeded Morello cherries. Strawberry, Raspberry, or Pineapple Cordial is used instead of wine with cake. Sugar down the berries overnight, using more sugar than you would for the table. In the morning lay them in a hair sieve over a bowl; let them remain until evening, so as to thoroughly drain ; then put the juice into a thick flannel bag ; let it drain all night, being careful not to squeeze it, as that takes out the brightness and clearness. All this should be done in a cool cellar, or it w’ill be apt to sour. Add brandy in proportion of one-third the quantity of juice, and as much more sugar as the taste demands. Bottle it tightly. It will keep six or eight years, and is better at last than at first. Strawberry Syrup. — Make a syrup in the proportion of 3 lbs. of sugar to half a pint of water. Boil and skim until clear. Allow two and a half pints of strained strawberry juice to the half-pint of water. After you add this, let it boil hard for not more than five minutes. Take it from the fire before it loses its fine color, and pour hot into self-sealing glass jars. This syrup preserves even the odor of the fresh strawberry when opened months afterwards, and flavors ice-cream delightfully. No sweetening is needed for the cream but what is supplied by the syrup.