FOOL. Cooks give this name to a species of jam made of boiled and crushed fruit, mixed with milk or cream, and sweetened.
Fool, Ap′ple. From the peeled and cored fruit, placed in a jar, with moist sugar, q. s. to render it palatable, and a very little cider or perry; the jar is set in a saucepan of water over the fire, and the heat continued until the apples become quite soft, when they are pulped through a colander, and a sufficient quantity of milk, a little cream, and some sugar, added to bring them to the proper ‘palate.’
Fool, Goose′berry. From gooseberries, as the last. Those which are unripe are generally preferred. These preparations, when nicely made, are very pleasant and wholesome.
FOOT (Human). See Feet.
FOOTS. Coarse moist sugar. The scrapings of the sugar hogsheads, refuse sugar, waste, and dirt, is also sold to the publicans under this name, who use it in the adulteration of their beer; chiefly to make it stand more water, and to impart ‘briskness.’
FORCE′MEAT. Syn. Farce, Stuffing. A species of sausage meat, either served up alone, or employed as an ingredient in other dishes.
Mrs Rundell truly remarks that “at many tables, where everything else is done well, it is common to find very bad forcemeat or stuffing.” To avoid this error, care should be taken to so proportion the ingredients that “no one flavour should predominate; yet if several dishes be served the same day, there should be a marked variety in the tastes of the forcemeats as well as of the gravies. A general fault is, that the tastes of lemon peel and thyme overcome all others; therefore they should only be used in small quantities.” Forcemeats should be just consistent enough to cut with a knife, but not dry and heavy. Herbs are very essential ingredients; and it is the copious and judicious use of them that chiefly gives the cookery of the French its superior flavour. “To force fowls, meat, &c., is to stuff them.” (Mrs Rundell.)
FOR′CING. Horticulturists apply this term to the art of accelerating the growth of plants, so as to obtain fruits or flowers at unusual seasons. Dung-beds, bark-beds, and frames, pits, and houses, with glass roofs, are commonly employed by the gardeners for this purpose.
FORGERIES, PROTECTION FROM. See Paper, Protective.
FORMATE. Syn. Formiate. Salts, in which one atom of hydrogen in formic acid is replaced by a metal or other basic radical. They are best obtained either by direct saturation of the acid, or by double decomposition; most of them are very soluble, and are decomposed by hot oil of vitriol. Formate of ammonium crystallises in square prisms; formate of sodium, in rhombic prisms; formate of potassium is deliquescent, and crystallises with difficulty; the formates of barium, calcium, magnesium, and strontium, form small prismatic crystals; formate of lead assumes the shape of small colourless needles, soluble in 40 parts of water; the formates of cobalt, iron, manganese, nickel, and zinc, are easily crystallisable, whilst that of copper forms very beautiful, large, bright-blue rhombic prisms; formate of silver is less soluble than the salt of lead, and is decomposed at a gentle heat.