POACHED EGGS. Set a stewpan of water on the fire; when boiling, slip an egg, previously broken into a cup, into the water. When the white looks done enough, slide an egg-slice under the egg, and lay it on toast and butter, or boiled spinach. As soon as done enough, serve them up hot. If the eggs be not fresh laid, they will not poach well, nor without breaking. Trim the ragged parts of the whites, and make them look round.
POISON. Whenever a quantity of arsenic has been swallowed, by design or mistake, its effects may be counteracted by immediately drinking plenty of milk. The patient should afterwards take a dram of the liver of sulphur, in a pint of warm water, a little at a time as he can bear it; or he may substitute some soap water, a quantity of common ink, or any other acid, if other things cannot be readily procured.—To obviate the ill effects of opium, taken either in a liquid or solid form, emetics should be given as speedily as possible. These should consist of an ounce each of oxymel squills and spearmint water, and half a scruple of ipecacuanha, accompanied with frequent draughts of water gruel to assist the operation.—Those poisons which may be called culinary, are generally the most destructive, because the least suspected; no vessels therefore made of copper or brass should be used in cooking. In cases where the poison of virdigris has been recently swallowed, emetics should first be given, and then the patient should drink abundance of cold water.—If any one has eaten of the deadly nightshade, he should take an emetic as soon as possible, and drink a pint of vinegar or lemon juice in an equal quantity of water, a little at a time; and as sleep would prove fatal, he should keep walking about to prevent it.—For the bite of the mad dog, or other venomous animals, nothing is to be depended on for a cure but immediately cutting out the bitten part with a lancet, or burning it out with a red-hot iron.—To prevent the baneful effects of burning charcoal, set an open vessel of boiling water upon the pan containing the charcoal, and keep it boiling. The steam arising from the water will counteract the effects of the charcoal. Painters, glaziers, and other artificers, should be careful to avoid the poisonous effects of lead, by washing their hands and face clean before meals, and by never eating in the place where they work, nor suffering any food or drink to remain exposed to the fumes or dust of the metal. Every business of this sort should be performed as far as possible with gloves on the hands, to prevent the metal from working into the pores of the skin, which is highly injurious, and lead should never be touched when it is hot.
POIVRADE SAUCE. Pick the skins of twelve shalots, chop them small, mix with them a table-spoonful of veal gravy, a gill and a half of vinegar, half an anchovy pressed through a fine sieve, and a little salt and cayenne. If it is to be eaten with hot game, serve it up boiling: if with cold, the sauce is to be cold likewise.—Another way. Put a piece of butter the size of half an egg into a saucepan, with two or three sliced onions, some of the red outward part, of carrots, and of the part answering to it of parsnip, a clove of garlic, two shalots, two cloves, a bay leaf, with basil and thyme. Shake the whole over the fire till it begins to colour, then add a good pinch of flour, a glass of red wine, a glass of water, and a spoonful of vinegar. Boil it half an hour, take off the fat, pass the sauce through a tammis, add some salt and pepper, and use it with any thing that requires a relishing sauce.
POLISHED STOVES. Steel or polished stoves may be well cleaned in a few minutes, by using a piece of fine-corned emery stone, and afterwards polishing with flour of emery or rottenstone. If stoves or fire irons have acquired any rust, pound some glass to fine powder; and having nailed some strong woollen cloth upon a board, lay upon it a thick coat of gum water, and sift the powdered glass upon it, and let it dry. This may be repeated as often as is necessary to form a sharp surface, and with this the rust may easily be rubbed off; but care must be taken to have the glass finely powdered, and the gum well dried, or the polish on the irons will be injured. Fire arms, or similar articles, may be kept clean for several months, if rubbed with a mixture consisting of one ounce of camphor dissolved in two pounds of hog's lard, boiled and skimmed, and coloured with a little black lead. The mixture should be left on twenty four hours to dry, and then rubbed off with a linen cloth.
POMADE DIVINE. Clear a pound and a half of beef marrow from the strings and bone, put it into an earthen pan of fresh water from the spring, and change the water night and morning for ten days. Then steep it in rose water twenty four hours, and drain it in a cloth till quite dry. Take an ounce of each of the following articles, namely, storax, gum benjamin, odoriferous cypress powder, or of florence; half an ounce of cinnamon, two drams of cloves, and two drams of nutmeg, all finely powdered. Mix them with the marrow above prepared, and put all the ingredients into a pewter pot that holds three quarts. Make a paste of flour and the white of an egg, and lay it upon a piece of rag. Over that must be another piece of linen, to cover the top of the pot very close, that none of the steam may evaporate. Set the pot into a large copper pot of water, observing to keep it steady, that it may not reach to the covering of the pot that holds the marrow. As the water shrinks add more, boiling hot, for it must boil incessantly for four hours. Strain the ointment through a linen cloth into small pots, and cover them when cold. Do not touch it with any thing but silver, and it will keep many years. A fine pomatum may also be made by putting half a pound of fresh marrow prepared as above, and two ounces of fresh hog's lard, on the ingredients; and then observing the same process as above.
POMATUM. To make soft pomatum, beat half a pound of unsalted fresh lard in common water, then soak and beat in two different rose-waters. Drain it, and beat it, with two spoonfuls of brandy. Let it drain from this, then add some essence of lemon, and keep it in small pots. Or soak half a pound of clear beef marrow, and a pound of unsalted fresh lard, in water two of three days, changing and beating it every day. Put it into a sieve; and when dry, into a jar, and the jar, into a saucepan of water. When melted, pour it into a bason, and beat it with two spoonfuls of brandy. Drain off the brandy, and add essence of lemon, bergamot, or any other scent that is preferred.—For hard pomatum, prepare as before equal quantities of beef marrow and mutton suet, using the brandy to preserve it, and adding the scent. Then pour it into moulds, or phials, of the size intended for the rolls. When cold break the bottles, clear away the glass carefully, and put paper round the balls.
PONDS. Stagnant or running water is often infected with weeds, which become troublesome and injurious to the occupier, but which might easily be prevented by suffering geese, or particularly swans, to feed upon the surface. These water fowls, by nibbling the young shoots as fast as they arise, will prevent their growth and appearance on the surface of the water, and all the expense which might otherwise be incurred in clearing them away.
POOR MAN'S SAUCE. Pick a handful of parsley leaves from the stalks, mince them very fine, and strew over a little salt. Shred fine half a dozen young green onions, add these to the parsley, and put them into a sauce boat, with three table-spoonfuls of oil, and five of vinegar. Add some ground black pepper and salt, stir them together, and it is ready. Pickled French beans or gherkins cut fine, may be added, or a little grated horseradish. This sauce is much esteemed in France, where people of taste, weary of rich dishes, occasionally order the fare of the peasant.
PORK. This is a strong fat meat, and unless very nicely fed, it is fit only for hard working people. Young pigs, like lamb and veal, are fat and luscious, but afford very little nutriment. Pork fed by butchers, or at distilleries, is very inferior, and scarcely wholesome; it is fat and spongy, and utterly unfit for curing. Dairy fed pork is the best. To judge of pork, pinch the lean; and if young and good, it will easily part. If the rind is tough, thick, and cannot easily be impressed with the finger, it is old. A thin rind denotes a good quality in general. When fresh, the meat will be smooth and cool: if clammy, it is tainted. What is called in some places measly pork, is very unwholesome; and may be known by the fat being full of kernels, which in good pork is never the case. Bacon hogs and porkers are differently cut up. Hogs are kept to a larger size; the chine or backbone is cut down on each side, the whole length, and is a prime part either boiled or roasted. The sides of the hog are made into bacon, and the inside is cut out with very little meat to the bone. On each side there is a large sparerib, which is usually divided into two, a sweet bone and a blade bone. The bacon is the whole outside, and contains a fore leg and a ham; the last of these is the hind leg, but if left with the bacon it is called a gammon. Hog's lard is the inner fat of the bacon hog, melted down. Pickled pork is made of the flesh of the hog, but more frequently of smaller and younger meat. Porkers are not so large as hogs, and are generally divided into four quarters. The fore quarter has the spring or fore leg, the fore loin or neck, the sparerib, and the griskin. The hind quarter has the leg and the loin. Pig's feet and ears make various good dishes, and should be cut off before the legs and cheeks are cured. The bacon hog is sometimes scalded, to take off the hair, and sometimes singed. The porker is always scalded.
PORK CHOPS. Cut the chops nearly half an inch thick, trim them neatly, and beat them flat. Put a piece of butter into the fryingpan; as soon as it is hot, put in the chops, turn them often, and they will be nicely browned in fifteen minutes. Take one upon a plate and try it; if done, season it with a little finely minced onion, powdered sage, pepper and salt. Or prepare some sweet herbs, sage and onion chopped fine, and put them into a stewpan with a bit of butter. Give them one fry, beat two eggs on a plate with a little salt, and the minced herbs, and mix it all well together. Dip the chops in one at a time, then cover them with bread crumbs, and fry them in hot lard or drippings, till they are of a light brown. Veal, lamb, or mutton chops, are very good dressed in the same manner.