FoodNetArchive

Cassell's dictionary of cookery

1892

Page 1144 · 2 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1892. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Peppermint Drops. — Rub the inside of a brass or block- tin saucepan with a little oil oi butter. Put into it half a pound of powdered and sifted loaf sugar, and two or three table-spoonfuls of water or of strained lemon- juice. Place the saucepan on the fire, and let the syrup boil for ten minutes, then stir into it a dessert-spoonful of the essence of peppermint, or one hundred and twenty drops of the oil of peppermintPeppermint Drops. Let the mixture fall in drops upon white paper which has been well rubbed over with butter. Probable cost, Id. per ounce. Peppers, To Pickle Quickly.— Put a hundred poppers into a bowl, and pour over them a strong brine, made with a pint and a half of salt and as much water as will cover them. Put a board over them to keep them under the water, and let them lie for two days. Drain them, make a small incision in the side of each to let out the water, wipe them with a soft cloth, and put them into a stone jar, with half an ounce of allspice, half an ounce of cloves, and a small lump of alum. Pour cold vinegarPeppers, To Pickle Quickly over them, and tie a bladder securely over the jar. When pickled in this way, the peppers will preserve their colour. Probable cost, 3s. 6d. for this quantity. Perch. — The perch is one of the com- monest of our fresh-water fish : at the same time it is one of the best. It is met with in almost all the lakes and rivers of Great Britain and Ireland, and throughout the whole of the tem- perate regions of the continent. Perch abound in deep, dark, sluggish rivers, and delight to lie about bridges, miU-pools, and in any deep and dark holes in the still parts of water, or PER ( 635 ) PER the gentle eddies about flood-gates and similar places. When full-grown they are large fish : one weighing a pound is a good fish, and one of thi-ee pounds is thought very large ; hut they have been found weighing even eight or nine pounds. The flesh is white, firm, of a good flavour, and easily digested. Perch are so tenacious of life that they may be carried sLxty miles in straw, and yet survive the joiu-ney. They are best crimped the moment they are taken out of the water. The pecu- liarity about the flesh of the perch is that it is very diSicult to scale, so much so that some cooks boil the fish first and scale it after- wards. If this is not done, it mil be found an assistance to plunge it for a minute into boiling water, and then scale it. Perch is in season from the latter end of May till the THE PEECH. beginning of February. When fresh, the body has a bright shining appearance, and the gills are rosy red. I'erch, like all fresh-water fish, should be used as soon as possible after they are caught.