JAUNDICE. The diet of persons affected with the jaundice ought to be light and cooling, consisting chiefly of ripe fruits, and mild vegetables. Many have been effectually cured, by living for several days on raw eggs. Buttermilk whey sweetened with honey, or an infusion of marshmallow roots, ought to constitute the whole of the patient's drink. Honey, anti-scorbutics, bitters, and blisters applied to the region of the liver, have all been found serviceable in the cure of the jaundice.
JELLY FOR COLD FISH. Clean a maid, and put it into three quarts of water, with a calf's foot, or cow heel. Add a stick of horseradish, an onion, three blades of mace, some white pepper, a piece of lemon peel, and a good slice of lean gammon. Stew it to a jelly, and strain it off. When cold, remove every particle of fat, take it up from the sediment, and boil it with a glass of sherry, the whites of four or five eggs, and a piece of lemon. Boil without stirring; after a few minutes set it by to stand half an hour, and strain it through a bag or sieve, with a cloth in it. Cover the fish with it when cold.
JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES. These must be taken up the moment they are boiled enough, or they will be too soft. They may be served plain, or with fricassee sauce.
JUGGED HARE. After cleaning and skinning an old hare, cut it up, and season it with pepper, salt, allspice, pounded mace, and a little nutmeg. Put it into a jar with an onion, a clove or two, a bunch of sweet herbs, a piece of coarse beef, and the carcase bones over all. Tie the jar down with a bladder and strong paper, and put it into a saucepan of water up to the neck, but no higher. Keep the water boiling five hours. When it is to be served, boil up the gravy with flour and butter; and if the meat get cold, warm it up in the gravy, but do not boil it.
JUGGED VEAL. Cut some slices of veal, and put them into an earthen jug, with a blade of mace, a little pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Add a sprig of sweet herbs, and a bit of lemon peel. Cover the jug close, that the steam may not escape; set it in a pot of boiling water, and about three hours will do it. Half an hour before it is done, put in a piece of butter rolled in flour, and a little lemon juice, or lemon pickle. Turn it out of the jug into a dish, take out the herbs and lemon peel, and send it to table garnished with lemon.
JUMBLES. Powder and sift half a pound of fine lump sugar, and mix it with half a pound of dried flour. Beat up two eggs in a table-spoonful of orange or rose water, shred the peel of half a lemon very fine, mix the whole together, and make it into a paste. Cut the paste into fancy shapes, bake them slightly on tins, and take them out of the oven as soon as the edges begin to brown.
K.
Ketchup. The liquor obtained from mushrooms, approaches the nearest to meat gravy, in flavour and quality, of any other vegetable juice, and is the best substitute for it, in any of those savoury dishes intended to please the palate. But in order to have it wholesome and good, it must be made at home, the mushrooms employed in preparing ketchup for sale being generally in a state of putrefaction; and in a few days after the mushrooms are gathered, they become the habitation of myriads of insects. In order to procure and preserve the flavour of the vegetable for any considerable time, the mushrooms should be sought from the beginning of September, and care taken to select only the right sort, and such as are fresh gathered. Full grown flaps are the best for ketchup. Place a layer of these at the bottom of a deep earthen pan, and sprinkle them with salt; then another layer of mushrooms, and some more salt on them, and so on alternately. Let them remain two or three hours, by which time the salt will have penetrated the mushrooms, and rendered them easy to break. Then pound them in a mortar, or mash them with the hand, and let them remain two days longer, stirring them up, and mashing them well each day. Then pour them into a stone jar, and to each quart add an ounce of whole black pepper. Stop the jar very close, set it in a stewpan of boiling water, and keep it boiling at least for two hours. Take out the jar, pour the juice clear from the settlings through a hair sieve into a clean stewpan, and let it boil very gently for half an hour. If intended to be exquisitely fine, it may be boiled till reduced to half the quantity. It will keep much better in this concentrated state, and only half the quantity be required. Skim it well in boiling, and pour it into a clean dry jar; cover it close, let it stand in a cool place till the next day, and then pour it off as gently as possible, so as not to disturb the settlings. If a table-spoonful of brandy be added to each pint of ketchup, after standing a while, a fresh sediment will be deposited, from which the liquor is quietly to be poured off, and bottled into half pints, as it is best preserved in small quantities, which are soon used. It must be closely corked and sealed down, or dipped in bottle cement, that the air may be entirely excluded. If kept in a cool dry place, it may be preserved for a long time; but if it be badly corked, and kept in a damp place, it will soon spoil. Examine it from time to time, by placing a strong light behind the neck of the bottle; and if any pellicle appears about it, it must be boiled up again with a few peppercorns. No more spice is required than what is necessary to feed the ketchup, and keep it from fermenting. Brandy is the best preservative to all preparations of this kind.
KEEPING PROVISIONS. When articles of food are procured, the next thing to be considered is, how they may be best preserved, in order to their being dressed. More waste is oftentimes occasioned by the want of judgment or of necessary care in this particular, than by any other means; and what was procured with expense and difficulty is rendered unwholesome, or given to the dogs. Very few houses have a proper place to keep provisions in; the best substitute is a hanging-safe, suspended in an airy situation. A well-ventilated larder, dry and shady, would be better for meat and poultry, which require to be kept a proper time to be ripe and tender. The most consummate skill in culinary matters, will not compensate the want of attention to this particular. Though animal food should be hung up in the open air, till its fibres have lost some degree of their toughness; yet if kept till it loses its natural sweetness, it is as detrimental to health as it is disagreeable to the taste and smell. As soon therefore as you can detect the slightest trace of putrescence, it has reached its highest degree of tenderness, and should be dressed immediately. Much of course will depend on the state of the atmosphere: if it be warm and humid, care must be taken to dry the meat with a cloth, night and morning, to keep it from damp and mustiness. During the sultry months of summer, it is difficult to procure meat that is not either tough or tainted. It should therefore be well examined when it comes in; and if flies have touched it, the part must be cut off, and then well washed. Meat that is to be salted should lie an hour in cold water, rubbing well any part likely to have been fly-blown. When taken out of the water, wipe it quite dry, then rub it thoroughly with salt, and throw a handful over it besides. Turn it every day, and rub in the pickle, which will make it ready for the table in three or four days. If to be very much corned, wrap it in a well-floured cloth, after rubbing it with salt. This last method will corn fresh beef fit for the table the day it comes in, but it must be put into the pot when the water boils. If the weather permit, meat eats much better for hanging two or three days before it is salted. In very cold weather, meat and vegetables touched by the frost should be brought into the kitchen early in the morning, and soaked in cold water. Putting them into hot water, or near the fire, till thawed, makes it impossible for any heat to dress them properly afterwards. In loins of meat, the long pipe that runs by the bone should be taken out, as it is apt to taint; as also the kernels of beef. Rumps and edgebones of beef when bruised, should not be purchased. To preserve venison, wash it well with milk and water, then dry it with clean cloths till not the least damp remains, and dust it all over with pounded ginger, which will protect it against the fly. By thus managing and watching, it will hang a fortnight. When to be used, wash it with a little lukewarm water, and dry it. Pepper is likewise good to keep it.