Mackenzie's Ten Thousand Receipts

Ten thousand receipts from the great Victorian household compendium — cookery, brewing, dyeing, gilding, fireworks, medicine, farriery and the rest of the useful arts, in one volume.

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Preservation of Food, Potichomania, Etc

was strained and put into quart bottles; these hav- | wash is improved by a mixture of very fine sanding been carefully corked, were put into a pan of cold water, which was then by degrees raised to the boiling point. At that temperature it was kept for half an hour, and was then allowed to cool down to the temperature of the air. After being bottled for 8 months the juice was in the state of a whitish, turbid liquor, with the acidity and much of the flavor of the lime; nor did it appear to have undergone any alteration. Some of the juice, which had been examined the year before, and which had since only been again heated and carefully bottled, was still in good condition, retaining much of the flavor of the recent juice. Hence it appears that, by the application of the above process, the addition of rum or other spirit to lime or lemon-juice, may be avoided, without rendering it at all more liable to spontaneous alteration.

To Preserve Milk.

Provide bottles, which must be perfectly clean, sweet, and dry. Draw the milk from the cow into the bottles, and, as they are filled, immediately cork them well up, and fasten the corks with pack-thread or wire. Then spread a little straw on the bottom of a boiler, on which place the bottles with straw between them, until the boiler contains a sufficient quantity. Fill it up with cold water; heat the water, and as soon as it begins to boil draw the fire, and let the whole gradually cool.

When quite cold take out the bottles, and pack them with straw or saw-dust in hampers, and stow them in the coolest part of the house or ship. Milk preserved in this manner, although 18 months in the bottles, will be as sweet as when first milked from the cow.

To Preserve Cabbages and other Esculent Vegetables Fresh during a Sea Voyage or a Severe Winter.

Cut the cabbage so as to leave about 2 inches or more of the stem attached to it; after which scoop out the pith to about the depth of 1 inch, taking care not to wound or bruise the rind by the operation. Suspend the cabbage by means of a cord tied around the stem, so that that portion of it from which the pith is taken remains uppermost, which regularly fill every morning with fresh water. By this simple method cabbages, cauliflowers, brocoli, etc. may be preserved fresh during a long voyage, or in a severe winter, for domestic use.

Fish-House (State of Schuylkill) Punch.

One-third pt. of lemon-juice, lb. white sugar, pt. peach brandy, pint cogniac brandy, pt.

Jamaica rum, no water, but a large lump of ice.

To Whitewash.

Put some lumps of quicklime into a bucket of cold water, and stir it about till dissolved and mixed, after which a brush with a large head, and a long handle, to reach the ceiling of the room, is used to spread it thinly on the walls, etc. When dry, it is beautifully white, but its known cheapness has induced the plasterers to substitute a mixture of glue size and whiting for the houses of their opulent customers; and this, when once used, precludes the employment of limewashing ever after, for the latter, when laid on whiting, becomes yellow. Whitewashing is an admirable manner of renas much as will mix and can be applied. Third. For inside walls an addition of a little glue-say lb. to 3 pailfuls - increases the adhesion. If it is desired to have the walls very white, the whites of eggs may be used in the place of the glue.

To Prevent the Smoking of a Lamp.

Soak the wick in strong vinegar, and dry it well and pleasant, and give much satisfaction for the before you use it; it will then burn both sweet trifling trouble in preparing it.

Easy Method of Preserving Meat in the Country, for a Few Days, without Salt and without Ice.

Put the meat into the water running from a spring. It will sink-examine it daily-when it begins to rise from the bottom it must be used; it will be found perfectly sound and tender, and may be boiled or roasted. Meat may be preserved in this manner 3 or 4 days in summer-time, free from taint. The outside will appear somewhat whitened, but the flavor is not injured. It would be advisable to have a box or tub, with a cover, into and out of which the water shall have free passage, which may be put either inside or outside of the spring-house.

Ready Mode of Mending Cracks in Stoves, Pipes, and Iron Ovens, as Practised in Germany.

When a crack is discovered in a stove, through which the fire or smoke penetrates, the aperture may be completely closed in a moment with a composition consisting of wood-ashes and common salt, made up into paste with a little water, and plastered over the crack. The good effect is equally certain, whether the stove, etc., be cold or hot.

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