The Indian Cookery Book, - [classic books for 11 year olds txt] 📗
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put them into bottles, with vinegar sufficient to cover them; cork the
bottles well, and expose them to the sun for fifteen to twenty days.
The pickle will be ready for use in three or four months.
To prevent the pickle spoiling, it is not unusual to pour a
tablespoonful or two of mustard oil over it when in the bottle.
345.—Sweet Mango Pickle
Peel and quarter a hundred green mangoes, and steep them in salt for
thirty-six hours; drain off the salt water, wipe the mangoes dry, and
put them into a preserving-pan, with a seer or two pounds of sliced
ginger, and half a seer of chilies finely sliced; pour in a syrup made
of sugar and vinegar (half a seer of the former in two quarts of the
latter), and allow the whole to simmer for ten to fifteen minutes;
bottle when quite cold.
346.—Long Plum Pickle
Take the long plums, or what the natives call nar kollee bhyar;
remove the peel, and keep them in salt in the sun for a day or two;
drain away the salt water, and put them into bottles, in layers
alternately with fresh chilies, cloves of garlic, ginger finely
sliced, and peppercorns; add a little more salt, and pour in as much
vinegar as will cover the whole; cork and expose to the sun for
fifteen to twenty days. This is one of the most delicious of Indian
pickles; it will not be fit for use until the plums have pickled for
six months.
347.—Sweet Long Plum Pickle
Is made in every respect according to the foregoing recipe, with the
addition of a syrup in the proportion of a quarter of a pound of sugar
to every quart of vinegar, and a few sticks of cinnamon.
348.—Round Plum Pickle
Get the perfectly ripe fruit, which the natives call cool; put them
into a damp cloth, and roll them about to free them of dust; sprinkle
them well with salt, and stand them in the sun for three or four days;
then drain away all the water, and bottle the plums alternately with
cloves of garlic, green or fresh red chilies, sliced ginger,
peppercorns, and ground mustard-seed; add a little salt, fill up the
bottles with vinegar, and cork, and expose them to the sun for fifteen
to twenty days.
349.—Round Plum Pickle with Mustard Oil
Is made like the above, the only difference being that some mustard
oil is poured over the vinegar, and allowed to float about an eighth
of an inch thick over the surface.
350.—Dry Fruit Pickle
This is the pickle of all pickles. Take equal quantities of “dry
dates,” called the shawarah, khobanee, or Arabian apricots;
allobhokara, a species of Arabian plum or damson; English prunes,
rather of the dry sort; and Normandy dry pippins. Wash and clean them
thoroughly, particularly the Arabian dry fruits, which are very dirty,
and dry them well in the sun. Stew the dry dates for ten to fifteen
minutes, cut them up into rings, and throw away the stones. Make a
syrup of good French vinegar, in the proportion of a quarter of a
pound of good clean sugar to a quart of French vinegar. After
quartering the pippins, arrange them and the other fruit in a
wide-mouthed bottle in alternate layers, with finely-sliced ginger,
peppercorns, sticks of cinnamon, and small sprinklings of salt; then
pour over the whole as much of the vinegar syrup as will entirely
cover the fruit; cork the bottle well down, expose it to the sun for a
few days, and it will be fit for use in a month.
351.—Green Mint Vinegar
Put into a wide-mouthed bottle enough fresh, clean mint-leaves to fill
it loosely, and fill it up with good vinegar. After it has been
stopped close for two or three weeks, pour off the vinegar clear into
another bottle, and keep it well corked for use. Serve with lamb or
kid when fresh mint cannot be obtained.
352.—Another Way
Fill a wide-mouthed bottle with fresh, full-grown, green mint-leaves;
pour in a quart of vinegar; after ten or fifteen days strain away the
liquor, and re-fill the bottle with fresh leaves; pour back the
liquor, and after it has steeped for ten or fifteen days longer,
strain and bottle for use as required.
353.—Horseradish Vinegar
To three ounces of finely-scraped horseradish add a quart of vinegar
and a drachm of cayenne, some black pepper and celery-seeds, and one
ounce of bruised onions; after eight or ten days filter the vinegar,
which will serve as an excellent relish for cold beef, salads, &c.,
and for the preparation of mustard.
354.—Chili Vinegar
Pick, clean, and put into a glass-stoppered bottle one chittack or two
ounces of birds’-eye chilies, and pour over them a pint and half of
the best vinegar; after a month’s time filter through blotting-paper a
pint of the vinegar; add to what remains half a pint more of vinegar,
and expose it to the sun for a few days, when the second portion will
also be ready for use.
355.—Essence of Chilies
Pick one chittack or two ounces of the best dried Patna chilies;
expose them to a hot sun for an hour; then pound them to as fine a
powder as possible; put the powder into a stoppered bottle with a
teaspoonful of salt, pour over it as much vinegar only as will form a
limp paste, and expose it to the sun for a few days; then pass it
through muslin, adding to it as much more vinegar as will reduce it to
the consistency of some thick sauce.
356.—To Preserve Lime-juice
Squeeze and strain a pint of lime-juice; put into a basin one pound of
double-refined sugar finely pounded and sifted, add the lime-juice,
and stir it with a silver spoon till the sugar is perfectly dissolved.
Bottle it, and cork it tightly; seal the cork, or tie bladder over it,
and keep it in a dry, cool place.
357.—To Purify Lime-juice
To a quart of strained lime-juice add an ounce of well-burnt and
finely-pounded animal charcoal; in twelve hours filter it through
blotting-paper, and put it into small phials; cork these tightly, and
keep them in a cool place; a thick crust will form beneath the corks,
and the mucilage will fall to the bottom.
358.—Green Mint-juice
If for immediate use, extract it with water, but if required to keep
for a few days, take brandy for the purpose. Pick and clean half a
dozen large stalks of good fresh mint, and pound the leaves in a
mortar with a dessertspoonful of water, or with brandy, then put them
into muslin and squeeze out all the liquor. Juice may be extracted a
second time by a little more water or brandy being added, and the
leaves rebruised and pressed through muslin.
359.—Green Ginger-juice
Is extracted in the same manner as mint-juice.
360.—Juice of Onions and Garlic
Is extracted by pounding the condiment in a mortar with a little
water, and squeezing the juice through muslin.
361.—Mustard
There are various ways of preparing mustard for the table, each with
its admirers, yet in nine houses out of ten it is often so execrably
done as to mar the best dinner, through the loss of its piquancy and
pungency. Be the quantity ever so small, it should never be prepared
in a cup, but in a soup or other deep plate. The dry mustard, with a
little salt, should first be well rubbed down with the back of a
spoon; the water, vinegar, or other liquid should then be gradually
added, and mixed gently until the required consistency has been
obtained; it should then be mixed briskly, turning the spoon one way
only, and in a few minutes the pungency of the mustard will tell on
the eyes; put it immediately into the mustard-pot, and cork it,
removing the cork only when the mustard is required for use. It is a
mistake to suppose that the little silver or plated lid to a
mustard-pot is intended, or is sufficient, to preserve the piquancy
and pungency of the condiment. The practice which prevails in some
houses of allowing the spoon to remain immersed in the mustard, which
has probably been prepared with vinegar, the spoon perhaps being a
plated one, is very objectionable.
It is scarcely necessary to give any further instructions, excepting
that hot water should not be used. Some like mustard prepared simply
with water; others prefer weak vinegar and water. It is also prepared
with plain vinegar, with tarragon vinegar, with vinegar taken from
pickles and capers, and with onion and garlic juice. The best mustard
for roast beef is that prepared with horseradish; the most delicate
flavoured is that made with tarragon vinegar, or vinegar taken from
capers.
INDIAN PRESERVES, JAMS, JELLIES, AND MARMALADES
Hints about the Making of Preserves
It is not generally known that boiling fruit a long time without
sugar, in an open preserving-pan, and skimming it well, is a very
economical way, as the whole of the scum rises from the fruit, and
boiling without a cover allows the evaporation of all the watery
particles. Preserves boiled in this way keep firm and well-flavoured.
Jam made as above, with the addition of a quarter of a pound of good
pure sugar to every pound of fruit, is excellent.
362.—To Detect Adulteration of Sugar
The adulteration of brown sugar may be detected by dissolving a little
in a glass of clear water; if sand or any similar substance be
present, it will after a while fall to the bottom of the glass. If
white sugar, adulterated with flour, chalk, or other similar
substances, be dissolved in clear water, the latter will become opaque
or discoloured, and a sediment will be formed at the bottom of the
glass.
363.—White Syrup
Put a quart of water over the fire in a well-tinned and clean copper
stewpan; when on the boil, drop into it lump by lump one pound of the
best loaf sugar; let it well boil up, and after all the sugar is
thoroughly dissolved, pour it into a broad dish to cool. When cold it
is fit for use.
364.—Brown Syrup
Take a pound of brown sugar-candy called misseree, and prepare the
syrup as directed above. After all the sugar is thoroughly dissolved,
strain it through a sheet of stout blotting-paper spread on muslin,
and allow the syrup to drip into a broad dish. Use it when quite cold.
365.—To Clarify Sugar
To every three pounds of loaf sugar allow the beaten white of one egg
and a pint and a half of water; break the sugar small, put it into a
nicely cleaned brass pan, and pour the water over it; let it stand
some time before it be put upon the fire; then add the beaten white of
the egg, stir till the sugar be entirely dissolved, and when it boils
up pour in a quarter of a pint of cold water, and let it boil up a
second time; then remove it from the fire and let it settle for
fifteen minutes; carefully take off all the scum, put it again on the
fire, and boil till sufficiently thick, or, if required, till candy
high: in order to ascertain this, drop a little from a spoon into a
cup of cold water, and if it become quite hard, it is sufficiently
done; or dip the handle of a wooden spoon into the sugar, plunge it
into cold water, and draw off the sugar which adheres; if the sugar be
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