CHERRY PIE. This should have a mixture of other fruit; currants or raspberries, or both. Currant pie is also best with raspberries.
CHERRY WINE. Mash some ripe cherries, and press them through a hair sieve. Allow three pounds of lump sugar to two quarts of juice, stir them together till the sugar is dissolved, and fill a small barrel with the liquor. Add a little brandy, close down the bung when it has done hissing, let it stand six months and bottle it off.
CHERRIES IN BRANDY. Weigh some fine morellas, cut off half the stalk, prick them with a new needle, and drop them into a jar or wide-mouth bottle. Pound three quarters of the weight of sugar or white candy, and strew over; fill the bottle up with brandy, and tie a bladder over.
CHERVIL SAUCE. The flavour of this fine herb, so long a favourite with the French cook, is a strong concentration of the combined taste of parsley and fennel, but more aromatic and agreeable than either, and makes an excellent sauce for boiled poultry or fish. Wash the chervil, and pick it very clean; put a tea-spoonful of salt into half a pint of boiling water, boil the chervil about ten minutes, drain it on a sieve, and mince it very fine. Put it into a sauce boat, mix with it by degrees some good melted butter, and send it up in the boat.
CHESHIRE CHEESE. In preparing this article, the evening's milk is not touched till the next morning, when the cream is taken off and warmed in a pan, heated with boiling water; one third part of the milk is heated in a similar manner. The cows being milked early in the morning, the new milk, and that of the preceding night thus prepared, are poured into a large tub along with the cream. A piece of rennet kept in lukewarm water since the preceding evening, is put into the tub in order to curdle the milk, and the curd is coloured by an infusion of marigolds or carrots being rubbed into it. It is then stirred together, covered up warm, and allowed to stand about half an hour till it is coagulated; when it is first turned over with a bowl to separate the whey from the curds, and broken soon after into small pieces. When it has stood some time, the whey is taken out, and a weight laid at the bottom of the tub to press out the remainder. As soon as it becomes more solid, it is cut into slices, and turned over several times to extract all the whey, and again pressed with weights. Being taken out of the tub, it is broken very small, salted, and put into a cheese vat. It is then strongly pressed and weighted, and wooden skewers are placed round the cheese, which are frequently drawn out. It is then shifted out of the vat with a cloth placed at the bottom; and being turned it is put into the vat again. The upper part is next broken by the hand down to the middle, salted, pressed, weighted, and skewered as before, till all the whey is extracted. The cheese is then reversed into another vat, likewise warmed with a cloth under it, and a tin hoop put round the upper part of the cheese. These operations take up the greater part of the forenoon; the pressing of the cheese requires about eight hours more, as it must be twice turned in the vat, round which thin wire skewers are passed, and shifted occasionally. The next morning it ought to be turned and pressed again; and on the following day the outside is salted, and a cloth binder tied round it. The outsides are sometimes rubbed with butter, in order to give them a coat; and being turned and cleaned every day, they are left to dry two or three weeks.
CHICKENS. Fowls are chiefly considered as an article of luxury, and are generally sold at a high price; yet the rearing of them is seldom productive of much pecuniary advantage. They are liable to innumerable accidents in their early stages, which require incessant watchfulness and care; and if the grain on which they feed is to be purchased, the labour and expence are scarcely requited by the price they bear in the market. The Irish peasantry are in the habit of rearing a great number of fowls, by substituting the offal of potatoes instead of grain; but the flesh is neither so firm nor so good as that of chickens raised in England. It is much to be desired therefore, that encouragement could be given to the cottagers of this country for rearing a larger quantity of poultry, by means less expensive than the present, in order that the market might be supplied on better terms with an article of food so fine and delicate, and in such general respect. Various artificial means have been used for brooding chickens, in order to increase their number, and to bring them forward at an earlier season, but none of them have been found to answer, though in Egypt immense quantities are raised every year by the heat of ovens, bringing the eggs to a state of maturity. A well-fed hen is supposed to lay about two hundred eggs in a year; but as she does not sit more than once or twice in that time, it is but a small quantity of chickens that can be hatched in the usual way, and it would be highly desirable if some other expedient could be devised.—The most expeditious way of fattening chickens is to mix a quantity of rice flour sufficient for present use, with milk and a little coarse sugar, and stir it over the fire till it comes to a thick paste. Feed the chickens with it while it is warm by putting as much into their coops as they can eat; and if a little beer be given them to drink, it will fatten them very soon. A mixture of oatmeal and treacle made into crumbs is also good food for chickens; and they are so fond of it, that they will grow and fatten much faster than in the common way. Poultry in general should be fed in coops, and kept very clean. Their common food is barley meal mixed with water: this should not be put in troughs, but laid upon a board, which should be washed clean every time fresh food is put upon it. The common complaint of fowls, called the pip, is chiefly occasioned by foul and heated water being given them. No water should be allowed, more than is mixed up with their food; but they should often be provided with some clean gravel in their coop.—The method of fattening poultry for the London market, is liable to great objection. They are put into a dark place, and crammed with a paste made of barley meal, mutton suet, treacle or coarse sugar, mixed with milk, which makes them ripe in about a fortnight; but if kept longer, the fever that is induced by this continual state of repletion, renders them red and unsaleable, and frequently kills them. Air and exercise are as indispensable to the health of poultry as to other animals; and without it, the fat will be all accumulated in the cellular membrane, instead of being dispersed throughout the system. A barn-door fowl is preferable to any other, only that it cannot be fatted in so short a time.
CHICKEN BROTH. Having boiled a chicken for panada, take off the skin and the rump, and put it into the water it was boiled in. Add one blade of mace, a slice of onion, and ten corns of white pepper. Simmer it till the broth be of a pleasant flavour, adding a little water if necessary. Beat a quarter of an ounce of sweet almonds with a tea-spoonful of water till it is quite fine, boil it in the broth, and strain it. When cold, remove the fat.
CHICKEN CURRIE. Cut up the chicken raw, slice onions, and fry both in butter with great care, of a fine light brown; or if chickens that have been dressed are used, fry only the onions. Having cut the joints into two or three pieces each, lay them in a stewpan, with veal or mutton gravy, and a clove or two of garlic. Simmer till the chicken is quite tender. Half an hour before serving it up, rub smooth a spoonful or two of currie powder, a spoonful of flour, and an ounce of butter; and add this to the stew, with four large spoonfuls of cream, and a little salt. Squeeze in a small lemon, when the dish is going to table.—A more easy way to make currie is to cut up a chicken or young rabbit; if chicken, take off the skin. Roll each piece in a mixture of a large spoonful of flour, and half an ounce of currie powder. Slice two or three onions, and fry them in butter, of a light brown; then add the meat, and fry all together till the meat begin to brown. Put all into a stewpan, cover it with boiling water, and simmer very gently two or three hours. If too thick, add more water half an hour before serving. If the meat has been dressed before, a little broth will be better than water, but the currie is richer when made of fresh meat. Slices of underdone veal, turkey, or rabbit, will make excellent currie. A dish of rice boiled dry should be served with it.
CHICKEN PANADA. Boil a chicken in a quart of water, till about three parts ready. Take off the skin, cut off the white meat when cold, and pound it to a paste in a marble mortar, with a little of the liquor it was boiled in. Season it with a little salt, a grate of nutmeg, and the least bit of lemon peel. Boil it gently for a few minutes till it be tolerably thick, but so it may be drank. The flesh of a chicken thus reduced to a small compass, will be found very nourishing.
CHICKEN PIE. Cut up two young fowls, season them with white pepper, salt, a little mace, nutmeg, and cayenne, all finely powdered. Put alternately in layers the chicken, slices of ham, or fresh gammon of bacon, forcemeat balls, and eggs boiled hard. If baked in a dish, add a little water, but none if in a raised crust. Prepare some veal gravy from the knuckle or scrag, with some shank-bones of mutton, seasoned with herbs, onions, mace, and white pepper, to be poured into the pie when it returns from the oven. If it is to be eaten hot, truffles, morels, and mushrooms may be added; but not if it is to be eaten cold. If baked in a raised crust, the gravy must be nicely strained, and then put in cold as jelly. To make the jelly clear, give it a boil with the whites of two eggs, after taking away the meat, and then run it through a fine lawn sieve.—Rabbits, if young and fleshy, will make as good a pie. Their legs should be cut short, and their breast-bones must not go in, but will help to make the gravy.