To each pound of Damson plums, add a half cupful of sugar, one half ounce each of cinnamon, mace, and cloves (tie the spices in a bag).

Remove the stones from the plums and boil until it becomes thick like jam.

=SWEET PICKLED PEACHES AND PLUMS=

Allow three and three quarter pounds of sugar to seven pounds of fruit.

Put the sugar into the preserving kettle with a quart of vinegar and two ounces each of cloves and a stick of cinnamon. Boil them for five minutes after the sugar is dissolved. Pare the peaches and stick a clove into each one. Place a few at a time in the boiling syrup and cook them until they look clear, but are not softened enough to fall apart. When all are cooked, continue to boil the syrup until it is reduced nearly one half and pour it over the peaches. Plums are pickled in the same way. The skins may be left on both peaches and plums if preferred; in which case the down must be brushed off the peaches, and the plums must be p.r.i.c.ked with a fork in several places to prevent the skins cracking when placed in the hot syrup.

=PICKLED WALNUTS=

Gather the walnuts when well grown, but still soft enough to be pierced through with a needle. Run a heavy needle through them several times and place them in strong brine, using as much salt as the water will absorb.

Let them remain in brine for a week or ten days, and change the brine every other day; then drain the nuts and expose them to the air until they have turned black. Pack them in jars and cover them with boiling hot vinegar prepared as follows: To a gallon of vinegar add an ounce each of ginger root, mace, allspice, and cloves, and two ounces of peppercorns; boil them together for ten minutes and strain over the nuts. Let them stand a month before using.

=CUc.u.mBER OR GHERKIN PICKLES=

Gather each day the cuc.u.mbers of the size desired; rub them smooth with a cloth and place them in brine strong enough to float an egg. They will keep in the brine until wanted to pickle. Soak the cuc.u.mbers in water for two days after taking them from the brine, changing the water once, and then scald them in vinegar, or pour the boiling vinegar over them and let them stand in it two days before using. Put into each two quarts of vinegar an ounce of peppercorns, a half ounce each of mustard seed and mace, a piece of horseradish, a piece of alum the size of a pea, and a half cupful of sugar; boil them together for ten minutes before straining it over the cuc.u.mbers. The very small cuc.u.mbers are called gherkins.

=GREEN TOMATO PICKLE=

1 peck of green tomatoes.

2 quarts of onions.

Vinegar.

1/2 tablespoonful of cayenne.

1/4 tablespoonful of ground mustard.

1 teaspoonful of turmeric.

2 pounds of brown sugar.

1/2 pound of white mustard seed.

1/2 ounce of ground mace.

1 tablespoonful of celery seed.

1 tablespoonful of ground cloves.

Slice the tomatoes and onions very thin; sprinkle a little salt through them and let them stand over night. Drain them through a colander and put them on to boil with enough vinegar to cover them and boil slowly until they are clear and tender, then drain them from the vinegar. Put into some fresh vinegar the sugar, mustard seed, mace, celery seed, and cloves, and let them boil for a few minutes; then pour it over the drained tomatoes, which have been mixed with the cayenne pepper, ground mustard, and turmeric. Mix them well together; add a half bottle of salad oil, and when cold put it in jars.

=CHOW-CHOW=

Cut into pieces, 1/2 peck of green tomatoes.

2 large cabbages.

15 onions.

25 cuc.u.mbers.

Mix them together and pack them in layers with salt; let them stand for twelve hours, then drain off the brine and cover them with vinegar and water, and let them stand another twelve hours.

Drain off the vinegar and cover them with one and one half gallons of scalding hot vinegar which has been boiled a few minutes with one pint of grated horseradish, one half pound of mustard seed, one ounce of celery seed, one half cupful of ground pepper, one half cupful of turmeric, one half cupful of cinnamon, and four pounds of sugar.

Let them stand until perfectly cold, then add one cupful of salad oil and one half pound of ground mustard. Mix them all thoroughly together and place in jars.

=NASTURTIUM PICKLE=

Pick the nasturtium seeds green; leave a short stem on them and place them in a weak brine for two days; then soak them in fresh water for a day. Pack them in jars and turn over them boiling vinegar; seal and let them stand a month before using.

CHAPTER XXVI

BEVERAGES

FILTERED WATER

[Sidenote: Boiling the water.]

It is a recognized fact that many diseases are contracted through drinking impure water, yet many are so careless as not to take the simple means of removing this danger. It only requires boiling the water to destroy the germs. This, however, does not remove the foreign matter, such as decayed vegetable growth and other substances, therefore it is well to filter as well as to boil water. Many good filters are made which are cheap and easy to clean. The Gate City Stone Filter is perhaps the simplest one, being an earthen crock with a porous stone bottom. Although all filters claim to remove germs as well as impurities from water, it is safer to boil it first. Bright, crystal-like water in clear gla.s.s carafes is an ornamental addition to the table service as well as a convenient way of serving it. If the carafes are stopped with cotton and placed in the refrigerator for several hours, the water will be refreshingly cool, and cracked ice, which many do not use, in the belief that it arrests digestion, will not be required.

TO FREEZE CARAFES

[Sidenote: Packing.]

Fill the bottles a little less than half full. The water should be below the largest part of the bulb; stop the bottles with cotton, and over the top of each one invert a tin cup.

Individual timbale-molds may be used. Cover the bottom of a tub with ice and salt, place the bottles on it, leaving some s.p.a.ce around each one, then fill the tub with ice and salt, the same as in packing ice-creams, and cover it. Within two or three hours the water will become frozen. Care must be taken that the water in the tub is never high enough to flow into the top of the carafes. When ready to serve, wipe the frozen carafes and fill them with ice water.

TEA

[Sidenote: The water.]

You cannot have first-rate tea or coffee unless you use freshly-boiled water. Water that has been boiled for an hour or more lacks life, and gives a dull taste to the decoction.

Draw freshly filtered water and let it come to a hard boil before using.

Scald the pot and immediately put into it the tea-leaves.

When the water boils hard, pour upon the tea-leaves the required quant.i.ty of water. Shut down the cover of the tea-pot and let it stand just five minutes before serving.

[Sidenote: Proportions.]

[Sidenote: Steeping.]

To give the proportions of tea and water is impossible, as such different degrees of strength are demanded. One teaspoonful of tea to a pint of water, steeped five minutes, makes a weak tea. Two teaspoonfuls give the color of mahogany, if an English breakfast tea is used. Oolong tea does not color the water very much, so its strength cannot be as well judged in that way. Tea, to be perfect, should not steep longer than five minutes; it may continue to grow stronger after that time, but the flavor is not as good, and if the leaves remain too long in the water the tea becomes bitter.

The Russians, who are reputed to have the best tea, prepare it at first very strong, getting almost an essence of tea; this they dilute to the strength desired, using water which is kept boiling in the samovar. Water removed from the kettle and kept in a pot where it falls below the boiling-point, will not give satisfactory results in diluting a strong infusion.

[Sidenote: The tea-bag.]