LEMON WHEY. Pour into boiling milk as much lemon juice as will make a small quantity quite clear; dilute it with hot water to an agreeable smart acid, and add a bit or two of sugar. This is less heating than if made of wine; and if intended only to excite perspiration, will answer the purpose as well. Vinegar whey is made in the same manner, by using vinegar only, instead of lemon juice.
LEMON WHITE SAUCE. Cut the peel of a small lemon very thin, and put it into a pint of sweet rich cream, with a sprig of lemon thyme, and ten white peppercorns. Simmer gently till it tastes well of the lemon, then strain and thicken it with a quarter of a pound of butter, and a dessert-spoonful of flour rubbed in it. Boil it up, stir it well, and pour the juice of the lemon strained into it. Dish up the chickens, and mix with the cream a little white gravy quite hot, but do not boil them together: add a little salt to flavour.
LEMONS FOR PUDDINGS. To keep oranges or lemons for puddings, squeeze out the pulp, and put the outsides into water for a fortnight. Then boil them in the same water till they are quite tender, strain the liquor from them, and when they are tolerably dry, put them into any jar of candy that happens to be left from old sweetmeats. Or boil a small quantity of syrup of lump sugar and water, and put over them. In a week or ten days boil them gently in it till they look clear, and cover them with it in the jar. If the fruit be cut in halves, they will occupy less space.
LEMONADE. To prepare lemonade a day before it is wanted for use, pare two dozen lemons as thin as possible. Put eight of the rinds into three quarts of hot water, not boiling, and cover it over for three or four hours. Rub some fine loaf sugar on the lemons to attract the essence, and put it into a china bowl, into which the juice of the lemons is to be squeezed. Add a pound and a half of fine sugar, then put the water to the above, and three quarts of boiling milk. Pour the mixture through a jelly bag, till it is perfectly clear.—Another way. Pare a quantity of lemons, and pour some hot water on the peels. While infusing, boil some sugar and water to a good syrup, with the white of an egg whipt up. When it boils, pour a little cold water into it. Set it on again, and when it boils take off the pan, and let it stand by to settle. If there be any scum, take it off, and pour it clear from the sediment, to the water in which the peels were infused, and the lemon juice. Stir and taste it, and add as much more water as shall be necessary to make a very rich lemonade. Wet a jelly bag, and squeeze it dry; then strain the liquor, and it will be very fine.—To make a lemonade which has the appearance of jelly, pare two Seville oranges and six lemons very thin, and steep them four hours in a quart of hot water. Boil a pound and a quarter of loaf sugar in three pints of water, and skim it clean. Add the two liquors to the juice of six China oranges, and twelve lemons; stir the whole well, and run it through a jelly bag till it is quite clear. Then add a little orange water, if approved, and more sugar if necessary. Let it be well corked, and it will keep.—Lemonade may be prepared in a minute, by pounding a quarter of an ounce of citric or crystalised lemon acid, with a few drops of quintessence of lemon peel, and mixing it by degrees with a pint of clarified syrup or capillaire.
LENT POTATOES. Beat three or four ounces of almonds, and three or four bitter ones when blanched, putting a little orange flower water to prevent oiling. Add eight ounces of butter, four eggs well beaten and strained, half a glass of raisin wine, and sugar to taste. Beat all together till quite smooth, and grate in three Savoy biscuits. Make balls of the above with a little flour, the size of a chesnut; throw them into a stewpan of boiling lard, and boil them of a beautiful yellow brown. Drain them on a sieve, and serve with sweet sauce in a boat.
LETHARGY. This species of apoplexy discovers itself by an invincible drowsiness, or inclination to sleep; and is frequently attended with a degree of fever, and coldness of the extremities. Blisters and emetics have often procured relief. The affusion of cold water upon the head, and the burning of feathers or other fetid substances, held near the nostrils, are also attended with advantage.
LICE. Want of cleanliness, immoderate warmth, violent perspiration, and a corrupted state of the fluids, tend to promote the generation of this kind of vermin. The most simple remedy is the seed of parsley, reduced to a fine powder and rubbed to the roots of the hair, or to rub the parts affected with garlic and mustard. To clean the heads of children, take half an ounce of honey, half an ounce of sulphur, an ounce of vinegar, and two ounces of sweet oil. Mix the whole into a liniment, and rub a little of it on the head repeatedly. Lice which infest clothes, may be destroyed by fumigating the articles of dress with the vapour of sulphur. Garden lice may be treated in the same way as for destroying insects.
LIGHT CAKE. Mix a pound of flour, half a pound of currants, and a little nutmeg, sugar, and salt. Melt a quarter of a pound of butter in a quarter of a pint of milk, and strain into it two spoonfuls of yeast and two eggs. Stir it well together, set it before the fire to rise, and bake it in a quick oven.
LIGHT PASTE. For tarts and cheesecakes, beat up the white of an egg to a strong froth, and mix it with as much water as will make three quarters of a pound of fine flour into a very stiff paste. Roll it out thin, lay two or three ounces of butter upon it in little bits, dredge it with a little flour, and roll it up tight. Roll it out again, and add the same proportion of butter, and so proceed till the whole is worked up.
LIGHT PUFFS. Mix two spoonfuls of flour, a little grated lemon peel, some nutmeg, half a spoonful of brandy, a little loaf-sugar, and one egg. Fry it enough, but not brown; beat it in a mortar with five eggs, whites and yolks. Put a quantity of lard in a fryingpan; and when quite hot, drop a dessert-spoonful of batter at a time, and turn them as they brown. Send the puffs to table quickly, with sweet sauce.