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To Make Ice

in the bottom, about the size of a wine-cork. | ground where the peats are to be placed; then set Place inside of it a wooden tub, shaped like a churn, resting it upon two pieces of wood, which are to raise it from touching the bottom. Fill the space round the inner tub with pounded charcoal, and fit to the tub a cover with a convenient handle, having inside one or two small hooks, on which the bottles are to be hung during the operation. Place on the lid a bag of pounded charcoal, about two feet square, and over all place another cover, which must cover the head of the outer cask.

When the apparatus is thus prepared let it be placed in a cold cellar, and buried in the earth above four-fifths of its height; but, though cold, the cellar must be dry; wet ground will not answer, and a sandy soil is the best. Fill the inner tub, or nearly so, with pounded ice; or, if prepared in winter, with snow well pressed down, and the apparatus will be complete.

Whenever it is wished to make ices take off the upper cover, then the sack or bag of pounded charcoal, and suspend the vessel containing the liquid to be frozen to the hooks inside of the inner cover; then close up the whole as before for half an hour, when the operation will be complete, provided care be taken to exclude external air.

To produce Ice for Culinary Purposes.

Fill a gallon stone bottle with hot spring water, leaving about a pint vacant, and put in two ounces of refined nitre; the bottle must then be stopped very close and let down into a deep well. After three or four hours it will be completely frozen, but the bottle must be broken to procure the ice.

If the bottle is moved up and down so as to be sometimes in and sometimes out of the water, the consequent evaporation will hasten the process.

The heating of the water assists the subsequent congelation; and experience has proved that hot water in winter will freeze more rapidly than cold water just drawn from a spring.

To make Ice.

The following is a simple and speedy method of congealing water:

Into a metal vase half filled with water pour very gently an equal quantity of ether, so that no mixture may take place of the two liquids. The vase is placed under the receiver of an air-pump, which is so fixed upon its support as to remain quite steady when the air is pumped out.

At the first strokes of the piston the ether becomes in a state of ebullition; it is evaporated totally in less than a minute, and the water remains converted into ice.

To procure Ice from a Powder.

This is made by pulverizing and drying the shivery fragments of porphyritic trap, which will absorb one-fifth of its own weight of water. Two quarts of it, spread in a large dish, will, in a few minutes, in an exhausted receiver, freeze half of three quarters of a pound of water, in a cup of porous earthenware. This is a cheap substitute for the still more powerful freezing mixtures mentioned in chemical works. To char Peats at the Moss.

The best method of charring peats where they are dug is, when the peats are properly dried, wheel to the outside of the moss a single horsecart load of them. Level a spot of ground, about seven feet in diameter, near to a drain, and drive a stake of wood into the ground about five feet long; roll some dry heather or pol (the refuse of flax) round the stake, and lay some also upon the the peats upon and all round the stake, inclining to the centre, with a little dry heather or pol betweer each two floors of peat, until near the top or last course: then they are laid in a horizontal direction; and the stack, when finished, is in the form of a bee-hive. The next operation is to set the stack on fire, which is done at the bottom all round. The fire will soon run up the post in the centre, and, when the heather or pol is all consumed, the space forms a chimney, and occasions the stack to burn regularly. If the windward side should burn too fast, apply some wet turf.

When the peats are thought to be sufficiently burnt, which is easily known from the appearance of the smoke, apply wet turf and water from the adjoining drain as fast as possible until the whole is extinguished. The charcoal may be removed upon the following day.

To char Peats for Family Use.

When charcoal is required for cookery, or any other purpose in the family, take a dozen or fifteen peats and put them upon the top of the kitchen fire upon edge; they will soon draw up the coal fire, and become red in a short time. After being turned about once or twice, and done with smoking, they are charred, and may be removed to the stoves. If more char is wanted, put on another supply of peats. By following this plan the kitchen fire is kept up, and thus, with very little trouble, a supply of the best charred peat is obtained, perfectly free from smoke, and the vapor by no means so noxious as charcoal made from wood. Peats charred in this way may be used in a chafer in any room, or even in a nursery, without any danger arising from the vapor. It would also be found very fit for the warming of beds, and much better than live coals, which are in general used full of sulphur, and smell all over the house.

Peats charred in a grate, and applied to the purpose of charcoal immediately, without being extinguished, make the purest and best char, and freest of smoke. When peats are charred in a large quantity, and extinguished, any part of the peat that is not thoroughly burnt in the heart will imbibe moisture, and when used will smoke and have a disagreeable smell, which would at once hinder charred peat from being used in a gentleman's family. To make a Cheap Fuel.

Mix coal, charcoal, or sawdust, one part; sand, of any kind, two parts; marl or clay, one part; in quantity as thought proper. Make the mass up wet, into balls of a convenient size, and when the fire is sufficiently strong place these balls, according to its size, a little above the top bar, and they will produce a heat considerably more intense than common fuel, and insure a saving of one-half the quantity of coals. A fire then made up will require no stirring, and will need no fresh food for ten hours.

To clean Water-casks.

Scour the inside well out with water and sand, and afterwards apply a quantity of charcoal dust.

Another and better method is to rinse them with a pretty strong solution of oil of vitriol and water, which will entirely deprive them of their foulness.

To preserve Eggs.

Apply with a brush a solution of gum arabic to the shells, or immerse the eggs therein; let them dry, and afterwards pack them in dry charcoal dust. This prevents their being affected by any alterations of temperature.

Another Method.

Mix together in a tub or vessel one bushel of quick-lime; thirty-two ounces of salt; eight ounces of cream of tartar, with as much water as will reduce the composition to a sufficient consistence to float an egg. Then put and keep the eggs therein, which will preserve them perfectly sound for two years at least.

A Substitute for Milk and Cream.

Beat up the whole of a fresh egg in a basin, and then pour boiling tea over it gradually, to prevent its curdling. It is difficult from the taste to distinguish the composition from rich cream.

To cure Butter.

Take two parts of the best common salt, one part of sugar, and one-half part of saltpetre; beat them up and blend the whole together. Take one ounce of this composition for every sixteen ounces of butter, work it well into the mass, and close it up for use.

Butter cured this way appears of a rich, marrowy consistence and fine color, and never acquires a brittle hardness, nor tastes salt. It will likewise keep good three years, only observing that it must stand three weeks or a month before it is used.

To remove the Turnip Flavor from Milk and Butter.

Dissolve a little nitre in spring-water, which keep in a bottle, and put a small teacupful into eight gallons of milk, when warm from the cow.

To make Butter, Dumbarton Method.

First scald the churn with boiling water to insure cleanliness; then, having put in the cream, work it till the butter is separated from the milk, and put the former into a clean vessel. Next draw a corn-sickle several times cross-ways through it, for the purpose of extracting any hairs or superfluities which may adhere to it. Let the butter be put into spring-water during this operation, which will prevent its turning soft, and which will clear it likewise from any remnants of milk. Next mix with every stone of butter ten ounces of salt.

Incorporate it well, otherwise the butter will not keep. In May and June each stone of butter will take one ounce more of salt, but after the middle of August one ounce less will suffice. When made put it into a well-seasoned kit, and shake a handful of salt on the top, which will preserve it from mouldiness. In this way continue to make and salt the butter, placing one cake upon the other until the kit is full. Observe that the kit does not leak, as the liquor oozing through would occasion the butter to spoil. To make Cheshire Cheese.

It is necessary in making the best cheese to put in the new milk without skimming, and if any overnight's milk be mixed with it, it must be brought to the same natural warmth; into this put as much rennet as is just sufficient to come to the curd, and no more; for on this just proportion the mildness of the cheese is said to depend; a piece dried of the size of a worn dime, and put into a teacupful of water with a little salt, about twelve hours before it is wanted, is sufficient for eighteen gallons of milk. The curd is next broken down, and, when separated from the whey, is put into a cheese-vat, and pressed very dry; it is next broken very small by squeezing it with the hands. New curd is mixed with about half its quantity of yesterday's, and which has been kept for that purpose. When the curds have been thus mixed, well pressed and closed with the hands in a cheese-vat, till they become one solid lump, it is put into a press for four or five hours, then taken out of the cheese-vat and turned, by means of a cloth put into the same for this purpose, and again put into the press for the night. It is then taken out, well salted, and put into the press again till morning, when it is taken out and laid upon a flag or board till the salt is quite melted, then it is wiped, put into a dry room, and turned every day, till it becomes dry enough for the market.

To correct Damaged Grain.

Put the injured article into an oven, from which the bread has been just drawn. Spread it in a bed of from three to four inches in thickness, and stir it frequently with a shovel or rake to facilitate the disengagement of the vapor. In ten or fifteen minutes, according to its humidity, withdraw it; when perfectly cool and aired, it will be restored to its wholesome qualities.

Another Method.

Musty grain, totally unfit for use, and which can scarcely be ground, may be rendered perfectly sweet and sound by simply immersing it in boiling water, and letting it remain till the water becomes cold. The quantity of water must be double that of the corn to be purified. The musty quality rarely penetrates through the husk of the wheat; and in the very worst cases, it does not extend through the amylaceous matter which lies immediately under the skin. In the hot water, all the decayed or rotten grains swim on the surface, so that the remaining wheat is effectually cleaned from all impurities, without any material loss. It is afterwards to be dried, stirring it occasionally on the kiln.

To improve New Seconds Flour of bad quality.

Mix common carbonate of magnesia well, in proportion of from twenty to forty grains to a pound of flour; calcined magnesia will improve the bread, but not nearly to the same extent as the carbonate. It will improve the color of bread made from new seconds flour, while it impairs the color of bread from fine old and new flour.

To preserve Flour.

Attach a number of lofts to every mill, so that the flour, in place of being thrust into sacks, the moment it escapes from the friction of the stones, may be taken up by the machinery, and spread out to cool in the most careful manner. The violent friction of the stones necessarily creates a great heat and steam; and if flour is thrust into sacks in this state, a chemical action will make it moist, soft, and clammy.

To preserve Wheat.

Kiln dry it and put it in cubical cases of earthenware, glazed on the outside, and filled full as possible; cover them with a piece of the same ware made to fit close, and secured with a mixture of pitch, tar, and hemp cloth, till the whole be made air-tight. A case of this kind might be made which would hold four bushels or a quarter of wheat.

To correct Moist Flour.

In preparing the dough, let one-third of the flour be kept unmixed, till the dough begins to rise, then add a little of the flour, and when it rises again add a little more, and so on for four or five hours, till the whole of the flour is used. In this manner the mixture, which occasions a glistening appearance in the dough, will be taken up, and the bread, as is already mentioned, will be highly improved.

To remove Flies from Rooms.

Take half a teaspoonful of black pepper, in powder, one teaspoonful of brown sugar, and one