BENTON SAUCE. Grate some horse-radish, or scrape it very fine. Add to it a little made mustard, some pounded white sugar, and four large spoonfuls of vinegar. Serve it up in a saucer: this is good with hot or cold roast beef.
BILLS OF FARE, or list of various articles in season in different months.
January.——Poultry. Game, pheasants, partridges, hares, rabbits, woodcocks, snipes, turkeys, capons, pullets, fowls, chickens, tame pigeons.—Fish. Carp, tench, perch, eels, lampreys, crayfish, cod, soles, flounders, plaice, turbot, skate, thornback, sturgeon, smelts, whitings, crabs, lobsters, prawns, oysters.—Vegetables. Cabbage, savoys, coleworts, sprouts, brocoli, leeks, onions, beet, sorrel, chervil, endive, spinach, celery, garlic, potatoes, parsnips, turnips, shalots, lettuces, cresses, mustard, rape, salsify, herbs dry and green.—Fruit. Apples, pears, nuts, walnuts, medlars, grapes.
February, March.——Meat, fowls and game, as in January, with the addition of ducklings and chickens.—Fish. As the last two months, except that cod is not thought so good, from February to July.—Vegetables. The same as the former months, with the addition of kidney beans.—Fruit. Apples, pears, forced strawberries.
April, May, June.——Meat. Beef, mutton, veal, lamb, venison in June.——Poultry. Pullets, fowls, chickens, ducklings, pigeons, rabbits, leverets.—Fish. Carp, tench, soles, smelts, eels, trout, turbot, lobsters, chub, salmon, herrings, crayfish, mackarel, crabs, prawns, shrimps.—Vegetables. As before, and in May, early potatoes, peas, radishes, kidney beans, carrots, turnips, early cabbages, cauliflowers, asparagus, artichokes, all sorts of forced sallads.—Fruit. In June, strawberries, cherries, melons, green apricots, gooseberries and currants for tarts. In July, cherries, strawberries, pears, melons, gooseberries, currants, apricots, grapes, nectarines, peaches; but most of these are forced.
July, August, September.—Meat as before.—Poultry. Pullets, fowls, chickens, rabbits, pigeons, green geese, leverets, turkey poults, plovers, wheatears, and geese in September.—Fish. Cod, haddock, flounders, plaice, skate, thornback, mullets, pike, carp, eels, shellfish, except oysters; mackarel the first two months, but are not good in August.—Vegetables. Beans, peas, French beans, and various others.—Fruit. In July, strawberries, gooseberries, pineapples, plums, cherries, apricots, raspberries, melons, currants, damsons. In August and September, peaches, plums, filberts, figs, mulberries, cherries, apples, pears, nectarines, grapes, pines, melons, strawberries, medlars, quinces, morella cherries, damsons, and various plums.
October.—Meat as before, and doe-venison.——Poultry. Game, pheasants, fowls, partridges, larks, hares, dotterels, wild ducks, teal, snipes, widgeon, grouse.—Fish. Dories, smelts, pike, perch, holibets, brills, carp, salmon trout, barbel, gudgeons, tench, shellfish.—Vegetables. As in January, French beans, runners, windsor beans.——Fruit. Peaches, pears, figs, bullace, grapes, apples, medlars, damsons, filberts, nuts, walnuts, quinces, services.
November.—Meat. Beef, mutton, veal, pork, house lamb, doe venison, poultry and game. Fish as the last month.—Vegetables. Carrots, turnips, parsnips, potatoes, skirrets, onions, leeks, shalots, cabbage, savoys, colewort, spinach, cardoons, cresses, endive, celery, lettuces, salad, herbs.—Fruit. Pears, apples, nuts, walnuts, bullace, chesnuts, medlars, grapes.
December.—Meat. Beef, mutton, veal, house lamb, pork and venison.—Poultry. Game, turkeys, geese, pullets, pigeons, capons, fowls, chickens, rabbits, hares, snipes, woodcocks, larks, pheasants, partridges, sea-fowls, guinea-fowls, wild ducks, teal, widgeon, dotterels, dunbirds, grouse.—Fish. Turbot, cod, holibets, soles, gurnets, sturgeon, carp, gudgeons, codlings, eels, dories, shellfish.—Vegetables. As in the last month; asparagus forced.—Fruit. As the last, except bullace.
BIRCH WINE. The season for obtaining the liquor from birch trees, is in the latter end of February or the beginning of March, before the leaves shoot out, and as the sap begins to rise. If the time be delayed, the juice will grow too thick to be drawn out. It should be as thin and clear as possible. The method of procuring the juice is by boring holes in the trunk of the tree, and fixing in facets made of elder; but care should be taken not to tap it in too many places at once, for fear of injuring the tree. If the tree is large, it may be bored in five or six places at once, and bottles are to be placed under the apertures to receive the sap. When four or five gallons have been extracted from different trees, cork the bottles very close, and wax them till the wine is to be made, which should be as soon as possible after the sap has been obtained. Boil the sap, and put four pounds of loaf sugar to every gallon, also the rind of a lemon cut thin; then boil it again for nearly an hour, skimming it well all the time. Into a cask that will contain it, put a lighted brimstone match, stop it up till the match is burnt out, and then pour the liquor into it as quickly as possible. When nearly cold, work it with a toast spread with yeast, and let it stand five or six days, stirring it two or three times a-day. Put the bung lightly in till it has done working; then close it down, and let it stand two or three months. The wine may then be bottled, and will be fit for use in about a week. It makes a rich and salutary cordial, and its virtues are much relied on in consumptive and scorbutic cases.