Pick out all the stalks from a peck of fresh elder flowers and put them into a vessel with two gallons of white-wine vinegar, set them under the influence of bright sunbeams for fourteen days and upwards, or at a short distance from a continuous fire, and then filter the vinegar through a new flannel bag; fill bottles, which must be well corked and sealed.
TARRAGON VINEGAR.
Take the leaves of tarragon just before it blossoms, put a pound of them to three quarts of the best white-wine vinegar in a stone jar, and let them infuse sixteen days. Then drain it and strain through a flannel bag; add for every two gallons a quarter of an ounce of isinglass dissolved in sherry wine, and let it be agitated briskly in a large stone bottle two days. Leave it a month to get fine, then draw it off into clean dry glass bottles, which cork well and seal.
WHITE-GOOSEBERRY VINEGAR.
Vinegars should be made at home if you wish to rely upon their quality. This will be superior to any white-wine vinegar, “so called at the shops,” and as such will be extremely serviceable in all large establishments and families. Choose fruit of the lightest colour you can get when fully ripe, mash it with a wooden mallet or potato beetle. To every peck of the fruit put two gallons of water, stir them well for an hour and let them ferment three weeks, repeating the stirring daily. Then strain off the liquor and add for every gallon:
| Loaf sugar | 1 | lb. |
| Yeast, thick and fresh | 1 | tablespoonful |
| Treacle | 1 | tablespoonful |
Let it work for three or four days, then put it into a sweet barrel of convenient size, and stop it down for twelve months.
SYRUP D’ORGEAT, A PARIS RECEIPT.
This elegant syrup is thus made:
| Sweet almonds | 20 | oz. |
| Bitter almonds | 8 | oz. |
| Refined sugar | 9 | lb. |
| Water | 4 | pints |