Virginia Cookery-book

wine. Stop it very close, and shake it when you are going to use it. It should be prepared in very cool weather, and, if well done, will keep more than a year. A table-spoonful is enough to turn a quart of milk, whether the design is to make cheese, slip, or cheese-cakes. By recourse to the druggist, the town house-keeper can supply herself more conveniently with prepared rennet ; but the notable country housewife who wants nothing wasted will find no more useful addition to her stores than a timely supply of rennet. Prize Recipe for Curing Virginia Hams. (Given by M. S. W. Ficklin, Albemarle County, Va.) For each hundred pounds of hams ten pounds of salt, two ounces of saltpetre, two pounds of brown sugar, and one ounce of red pepper, and from four to four and a half gallons of water, or just enough to cover the hams after being packed in a water-tight vessel (or enough salt to make a brine to float a fresh egg high enough, that is to say, out of the water). From five to six weeks in brine ; then hang up, smoke, and put in papers before the fly appears in spring — and bagged with the hock turned down, and hung till wanted. Boil till well done, for bad cookery can spoil the best ham. To Boil a Ham. Put it in a large pot of cold water, and boil it slowly, gently, for five, six, seven, or even eight hours, if uncommonly large — the Jonger the better. Keep plenty of water in the pot all the time, being sure to let what you add, however, be always boiling hot. If the ham is old, it is well to let it lie overnight in cold water to soak. The choicest hams do not weigh over twelve or fifteen pounds; larger ones are apt to be coarse, and not so finely flavored. It is a point of pride with old gentlemen farmers to produce a very old ham when they wish to do a guest distinguished hotior, or commemorate some festive occasion. Pressed Beef. First have your beef nicely pickled; let it stay in pickle a week; then take the thin flank pieces, such as will not make a handsome dish of themselves.; put on a large potf ul, and let them boil until perfectly done ; then pull it to pieces, and season just as you do souse, with pepper, salt, and allspice ; only put it in a coarse cloth and press down upon it some very heavy weight. The advantage of this recipe is that it makes a most acceptable, presentable dish out of a part of the beef that otherwise might be wasted. Pickled Herrings. Take fifty nice roe-herrings, cut their heads, tails, and fins off ; take out the roe and lay on a dish ; wash the fish thoroughly, and wipe them dry with a cloth. Mix together one teacupful of fine salt, one teaspoonful of Cayenne pepper ; take a pinch of the mixture and rub inside of the fish ;' then lay the roe back in the fish, and rub the outsides also with the salt and pepper ; lay them in a flat stone jar (with stone top), backs down ; on every layer sprinkle a few allspice and mace ; fill jar with pure cider vinegar; cover the top with a piece of flour dough; set the jar in an oven after the fire is removed, and let it remain all night just to keep it warm« CHAPTER XXII. CORDIALS AND COOLING DRINKS, Strawberry Acid. — Raspberry Vinegar. — Rose Brandy for Flavoring. — To make Lemon Simp.— Cherry Shrub. — Blackberry Acid. — Blackberry Cordial. (Medicine.) — Currant Shrub. Strawberry Acid.