CATCHUPS.
LOBSTER CATCHUP.—
This catchup, warmed in melted butter, is an excellent substitute for fresh lobster sauce at seasons when the fish cannot be procured, as, if properly made, it will keep a year.
Take a fine lobster that weighs about three pounds. Put it into boiling water, and cook it thoroughly. When it is cold break it up, and extract all the flesh from the shell. Pound the red part or coral in a marble mortar, and when it is well bruised, add the white meat by degrees, and pound that also; seasoning it with a tea-spoonful of cayenne, and moistening it gradually with sherry wine. When it is beaten to a smooth paste, mix it well with the remainder of the bottle of sherry. Put it into wide-mouthed bottles, and on the top of each put a table-spoonful of sweet oil. Dip the corks in melted rosin, and secure them well by tying leather over them.
In using this catchup, allow four table-spoonfuls to a common-sized sauce-boat of melted butter. Put in the catchup at the last, and hold it over the fire just long enough to be thoroughly heated.
ANCHOVY CATCHUP.—
Bone two dozen anchovies, and then chop them. Put to them ten shalots, or very small onions, cut fine, and a handful of scraped horseradish, with a quarter of an ounce of mace. Add a lemon, cut into slices, twelve cloves, and twelve pepper-corns. Then mix together a pint of port, a pint of madeira, and a pint of anchovy liquor. Put the other ingredients into the liquid, and boil it slowly till reduced one-half. Then strain it, and when cold put it into small bottles, securing the corks with leather.
OYSTER CATCHUP.—
Take large salt oysters that have just been opened. Wash them in their own liquor, and pound them in a mortar, omitting the hard parts. To every pint of the pounded oysters, add a half pint of white wine or vinegar, in which you must give them a boil up, removing the scum as it rises. Then to each quart of the boiled oysters allow a tea-spoonful of beaten white pepper, a tea-spoonful of pounded mace, and cayenne pepper to your taste. Let it boil up for a few minutes, and then pass it through a sieve into an earthen pan. When cold, put it into small bottles, filling them quite full, as it will not keep so well if there is a vacancy at the top. Dip the corks in melted rosin, and tie leather over each.
WALNUT CATCHUP.—
Take green walnuts that are young enough to be easily pierced through with a large needle. Having pricked them all in several places, throw them into an earthen pan with a large handful of salt, and barely sufficient water to cover them. Break up and mash them with a potato-beetle, or a rolling-pin. Keep them four days in the salt and water, stirring and mashing them every day. The rinds will now be quite soft. Then scald them with boiling-hot salt and water, and raising the pan on the edge, let the walnut liquor flow away from the shells into another pan. Put the shells into a mortar, and pound them with vinegar, which will extract from them all the remaining juice.
Put all the walnut liquor together, and boil and skim it; then to every quart allow an ounce of bruised ginger, an ounce of black pepper, half an ounce of cloves, and half an ounce of nutmeg, all slightly beaten. Boil the spice and walnut liquor in a closely covered vessel for three quarters of an hour. When cold, bottle it for use, putting equal proportions of the spice into each bottle. Secure the corks with leather.
MUSHROOM CATCHUP.—
Take mushrooms that have been freshly gathered, and examine them carefully to ascertain that they are of the right sort. Pick them nicely, and wipe them clean, but do not wash them. Spread a layer of them at the bottom of a deep earthen pan, and then sprinkle them well with salt; then another layer of mushrooms, and another layer of salt, and so on alternately. Throw a folded cloth over the jar, and set it by the fire or in a very cool oven. Let it remain thus for twenty-four hours, and then mash them well with your hands. Next squeeze and strain them through a bag.
To every quart of strained liquor add an ounce and a half of whole black pepper, and boil it slowly in a covered vessel for half an hour. Then add a quarter of an ounce of allspice, half an ounce of sliced ginger, a few cloves, and three or four blades of mace. Boil it with the spice fifteen minutes longer. When it is done, take it off, and let it stand awhile to settle. Pour it carefully off from the sediment, and put it into small bottles, filling them to the top. Secure them well with corks dipped in melted rosin, and leather caps tied over them.
The longer catchup is boiled, the better it will keep.
You may add cayenne and nutmeg to the spices.
The bottles should be quite small, as it soon spoils after being opened.
TOMATA CATCHUP.—
Take a peck of large ripe tomatas. Having cut a slit in each, put them into a large preserving-kettle, and boil them half an hour. Then take them out, and press and strain the pulp through a hair sieve. Put it back into the kettle, and add an ounce of salt, an ounce of powdered mace, half an ounce of powdered cloves, a small tea-spoonful of ground black pepper, the same of cayenne pepper, and eight table-spoonfuls of ground mustard. Mix the seasoning with the tomata pulp; let it boil slowly during four hours. Then take it out of the kettle, and let it stand till next day, in an uncovered tureen. When cold, stir into it one pint of the best cider vinegar. Put it into clean bottles, and seal the corks. It will be found excellent for flavouring stews, hashes, fish-sauce, &c.
LEMON CATCHUP.—
Grate the peel of a dozen large fresh lemons. Prepare, by pounding them in a mortar, two ounces of mustard seed, half an ounce of black pepper, half an ounce of nutmeg, a quarter of an ounce of mace, and a quarter of an ounce of cloves. Slice thin two ounces of horseradish. Put all these ingredients together. Strew over them one ounce of fine salt. Add the juice of the lemons.
Boil the whole twenty minutes. Then put it warm into a jar, and let it stand three weeks closely covered. Stir it up daily.
Then strain it through a sieve, and put it up in small bottles to flavour fish and other sauces.
This is sometimes called lemon pickle.
SEA CATCHUP.—
Take a gallon of stale strong beer, a pound of anchovies washed from the pickle, a pound of peeled shalots or small onions, half an ounce of mace, half an ounce of cloves, a quarter of an ounce of whole pepper, three or four large pieces of ginger, and two quarts of large mushroom-flaps rubbed to pieces. Put the whole into a kettle closely covered, and let it simmer slowly till reduced to one half. Then strain it through a flannel bag, and let it stand till quite cold before you bottle it. Have small bottles and fill them quite full of the catchup. Dip the corks in melted rosin.
This catchup keeps well at sea, and may be carried into any part of the world. A spoonful of it mixed in melted butter will make a fine fish sauce. It may also be used to flavour gravy.
[FLAVOURED VINEGARS.]
These vinegars will be found very useful, at times when the articles with which they are flavoured cannot be conveniently procured. Care should be taken to have the bottles that contain them accurately labelled, very tightly corked, and kept in a dry place. The vinegar used for these purposes should be of the very best sort.