WINE SAUCE. For venison or hare, mix together a quarter of a pint of claret or port, the same quantity of plain mutton gravy, and a table-spoonful of currant jelly. Let it just boil up, and send it to table in a sauce boat.
WINE VINEGAR. After making raisin wine, when the fruit has been strained, lay it on a heap to heat; then to every hundred weight, put fifteen gallons of water. Set the cask in the sun, and put in a toast of yeast. As vinegar is so necessary an article in a family, and one on which so great a profit is made, a barrel or two might always be kept preparing, according to what suited. If the raisins of wine were ready, that kind might be made; if gooseberries be cheap and plentiful, then gooseberry vinegar may be preferred; or if neither, then the sugar vinegar; so that the cask need not be left empty, or be liable to grow musty.
WINE WHEY. Put on the fire a pint of milk and water, and the moment it begins to boil, pour in as much sweet wine as will turn it into whey, and make it look clear. Boil it up, and let it stand off the fire till the curd all sinks to the bottom. Do not stir it, but pour off the whey for use. Or put a pint of skimmed milk and half a pint of white wine into a basin, let it stand a few minutes, and pour over it a pint of boiling water. When the curd has settled to the bottom, pour off the whey, and put in a piece of lump sugar, a sprig of balm, or a slice of lemon.
WINTER VEGETABLES. To preserve several vegetables to eat in the winter, observe the following rules. French beans should be gathered young, and put into a little wooden keg, a layer of them about three inches deep. Then sprinkle them with salt, put another layer of beans, and so on till the keg is full, but be careful not to sprinkle too much salt. Lay over them a plate, or a cover of wood that will go into the keg, and put a heavy stone upon it. A pickle will rise from the beans and salt; and if they are too salt, the soaking and boiling will not be sufficient to make them palatable. When they are to be eaten, they must be cut, soaked, and boiled as fresh beans. Carrots, parsnips, and beet root, should be kept in layers of dry sand, and neither they nor potatoes should be cleared from the earth. Store onions keep best hung up in a dry cold room. Parsley should be cut close to the stalks, and dried in a warm room, or on tins in a very cool oven. Its flavour and colour may thus be preserved, and will be found useful in winter. Artichoke bottoms, slowly dried, should be kept in paper bags. Truffles, morels, and lemon peel, should be hung in a dry place, and ticketed. Small close cabbages, laid on a stone floor before the frost sets in, will blanch and be very fine, after many weeks' keeping.
WOOD. An excellent glue, superior to the common sort, and suitable for joining broken furniture or any kind of wood, may be made of an ounce of isinglass dissolved in a pint of brandy. The isinglass should be pounded, dissolved by gentle heat, strained through a piece of muslin, and kept in a glass closely stopped. When required for use, it should be dissolved with moderate heat, and applied the same as common glue. Its effect is so powerful as to join the parts of wood stronger than the wood itself, but should not be exposed to damp or moisture.
WOODCOCKS. These will keep good for several days. Roast them without drawing, and serve them on toast. The thigh and back are esteemed the best. Butter only should be eaten with them, as gravy diminishes the fineness of the flavour. To roast woodcocks and snipes in the French method, take out the trails and chop them, except the stomachs, with some minced bacon, or a piece of butter. Add some parsley and chives, and a little salt. Put this stuffing into the birds, sow up the opening, and roast them with bacon covered with paper. Serve them up with Spanish sauce.
WOOLLENS. To preserve articles of this sort from the moths, let them be well brushed and shaken, and laid up cool and dry. Then mix among them bitter apples from the druggists', in small muslin bags, carefully sewn up in several folds of linen, and turned in at the edges.
WORMS. A strong decoction of walnut tree leaves thrown upon the ground where there are worm casts, will cause them to rise up. They may then be given to the poultry, or thrown into the fish pond. Salt and water, or a ley of wood ashes, poured into worm-holes on a gravel walk, will effectually destroy them. Sea water, the brine of salted meat, or soot, will be found to answer the same purpose.
WORMS. Worms in children are denoted by paleness of the face, itching of the nose, grinding of the teeth during sleep, offensive breath, and nausea. The belly is hard and painful, and in the morning there is a copious flow of saliva, and an uncommon craving for dry food. Amongst a variety of other medicines for destroying worms in the human body, the following will be found effectual. Make a solution of tartarised antimony, two grains in four ounces of water, and take two or three tea-spoonfuls three times a day, for four days; and on the following day a purging powder of calomel and jalap, from three to six grains each. Or take half a pound of senna leaves well bruised, and twelve ounces of olive oil, and digest them together in a sand heat for four or five days. Strain off the liquor, take a spoonful in the morning fasting, persevere in it, and it will be found effectual in the most obstinate cases. A more simple remedy is to pour some port wine into a pewter dish, and let it stand for twenty-four hours. Half a common wine-glassful is a sufficient dose for an infant, and a whole one for an adult.
WORMWOOD ALE. The proper way to make all sorts of herb drinks, is to gather the herbs in the right season. Then dry them in the shade, and put them into closed paper bags. When they are wanted for use, take out the proper quantity, put it into a linen bag, and suspend it in the beer or ale, while it is working or fermenting, from two to six or eight hours, and then take it out. Wormwood ought not to lie so long, three or four hours will be quite sufficient. If the herbs are properly gathered and prepared, all their pure and balsamic virtues will readily infuse themselves into the liquor, whether wine or beer, as the pure sweet quality in malt does into the warm liquor in brewing, which is done effectually in about an hour. But if malt is suffered to remain more than six hours, before the liquor is drawn off, all the nauseous properties will be extracted, and overpower the good ones. It is the same in infusing any sort of well-prepared herbs, and great care therefore is requisite in all preparations, that the pure qualities are neither evaporated or overpowered. Otherwise, whatever it be, it will soon tend to putrefaction, and become injurious and loathsome. Beer, ale, or other liquor, into which herbs are infused, must be unadulterated, or the infusion will be destroyed by its pernicious qualities. Nothing is more prejudicial to the health, or the intellectual faculties of mankind, than adulterated liquors. Articles which in their purest state are of an equivocal character, and never to be trusted without caution, are thus converted into decided poisons.—Another way of making wormwood ale. Take a quantity of the herb, according to the intended strength of the liquor, and infuse it for half an hour in the boiling wort. Then strain it off, and set the wort to cool. Wormwood beer prepared either ways, is a fine wholesome liquor. It is gentle, warming, assisting digestion, and refining to the blood, without sending any gross fumes to the head. The same method should be observed in making all sorts of drinks, in which any strong bitter herbs are infused. It renders them pleasant and grateful, both to the stomach and palate, and preserves all the medicinal virtues. Most bitter herbs have a powerful tendency to open obstructions, if judiciously managed; but in the way in which they are too commonly made, they are not only rendered extremely unpleasant, but their medicinal properties are destroyed.