PAPER HANGINGS. To clean these properly, first blow off the dust with the bellows, and then wipe the paper downwards in the slightest manner with the crumb of a stale white loaf. Do not cross the paper, nor go upwards, but begin at the top, and the dirt of the paper and the crumbs will fall together. Observe not to wipe more than half a yard at a stroke, and after doing all the upper part, go round again, beginning a little above where you left off. If it be not done very lightly, the dirt will adhere to the paper; but if properly attended to, the paper will look fresh and new.
PAPER PASTE. To make a strong paste for paper, take two large spoonfuls of fine flour, and as much pounded rosin as will lie upon a shilling. Mix them up with as much strong beer as will make the paste of a due consistence, and boil it half an hour. It is best used cold.
PARSLEY. To preserve parsley through the winter, gather some fine fresh sprigs in May, June, or July. Pick and wash them clean, set on a stewpan half full of water, put a little salt in it, boil and scum it clean. Then add the parsley, let it boil for two minutes, and take it out and lay it on a sieve before the fire, that it may be dried as quick as possible. Put it by in a tin box, and keep it in a dry place. When wanted, lay it in a basin, and cover it with warm water for a few minutes before you use it.
PARSLEY AND BUTTER. Wash some parsley very clean, and pick it carefully leaf by leaf. Put a tea-spoonful of salt into half a pint of boiling water, boil the parsley in it about ten minutes, drain it on a sieve, mince it quite fine, and then, bruise it to a pulp. Put it into a sauce boat, and mix with it by degrees about half a pint of good melted butter, only do not put so much flour to it, as the parsley will be sure to add to its thickness. Parsley and butter should not be poured over boiled dishes, but be sent up in a boat. The delicacy of this elegant and innocent relish, depends upon the parsley being minced very fine. With the addition of a slice of lemon cut into dice, a little allspice and vinegar, it is made into Dutch sauce.
PARSLEY PIE. Lay a fowl, or a few bones of the scrag of veal, seasoned, into a dish. Scald a cullenderful of picked parsley in milk; season it, and add it to the fowl or meat, with a tea-cupful of any sort of good broth or gravy. When baked, pour into it a quarter of a pint of cream scalded, with a little bit of butter and flour. Shake it round, and mix it with the gravy in the dish. Lettuces, white mustard leaves, or spinach, well scalded, may be added to the parsley.
PARSLEY SAUCE. When no parsley leaves are to be had, tie up a little parsley seed in a piece of clean muslin, and boil it in water ten minutes. Use this water to melt the butter, and throw into it a little boiled spinach minced, to look like parsley.
PARSNIPS. Carrots and parsnips, when laid up for the winter, should have the tops cut off close, be cleared of the rough earth, and kept in a dry place. Lay a bed of dry sand on the floor, two or three inches thick, put the roots upon it close together, with the top of one to the bottom of the next, and so on. Cover the first layer with sand two inches thick, and then place another layer of roots, and go on thus till the whole store are laid up. Cover the heap with dry straw, laid on tolerably thick. Beet roots, salsify, Hamburgh parsley roots, horseradish, and turnips, should all be laid up in the same manner, as a supply against frosty weather, when they cannot be got out of the ground.
PARSNIPS BOILED. These require to be done very tender, and may be served whole with melted butter, or beaten smooth in a bowl, warmed up with a little cream, butter, flour, and salt. Parsnips are highly nutricious, and make an agreeable sauce to salt fish.
PARSNIPS FRICASSEED. Boil them in milk till they are soft. Then cut them lengthways into bits, two or three inches long, and simmer them in a white sauce, made of two spoonfuls of broth. Add a bit of mace, half a cupful of cream, a little flour and butter, pepper and salt.
PARSNIP WINE. To twelve pounds of sliced parsnips, add four gallons of water, and boil them till they become soft. Squeeze the liquor well out of them, run it through a sieve, and add to every gallon three pounds of lump sugar. Boil the whole three quarters of an hour, and when it is nearly cold, add a little yeast. Let it stand in a tub for ten days, stirring it from the bottom every day, and then put it into a cask for twelve months. As it works over, fill it up every day.