Either divide six small lemons into quarters, remove all the pips that are in sight, and strew three ounces of salt upon them, and keep them turned in it for a week, or, merely make deep incisions in them, and proceed as directed for pickled lemons. When they have stood in a warm place for eight days, put into a stone jar two ounces and a half of finely-scraped horseradish, and two ounces of eschalots, or one and a half of garlic; to these add the lemons with all their liquor, and pour on them a pint and a half of boiling vinegar in which half an ounce of bruised ginger, a quarter of an ounce of whole white pepper, and two blades of mace have been simmered for two or three minutes. The pickle will be fit for use in two or three months, but may stand four or five before it is strained off.
Small lemons, 6; salt, 3 oz.: 8 days. Horseradish, 2-1/2 oz.; eschalots, 2 oz., or garlic 1-1/2 oz.; vinegar, 1-1/2 pint; ginger, 1/2 oz.; whole white pepper, 1/4 oz.; mace, 2 blades: 3 to 6 months.
Obs.—These highly-flavoured compounds are still much in favour with a certain class of housekeepers; but they belong exclusively to English cookery: they are altogether opposed to the practice of the French cuisine, as well as to that of other foreign countries.
PONTAC CATSUP FOR FISH.
On one pint of ripe elderberries stripped from the stalks, pour three quarters of a pint of boiling vinegar, and let it stand in a cool oven all night; the next day strain off the liquid without pressure, and boil it for five minutes with a half-teaspoonful of salt, a small race of ginger, a blade of mace, forty corns of pepper, twelve cloves and four eschalots. Bottle it with the spice when it is quite cold.
BOTTLED TOMATAS, OR TOMATA CATSUP.
Cut half a peck of ripe tomatas into quarters; lay them on dishes and sprinkle over them half a pound of salt. The next day drain the juice from them through a hair-sieve into a stewpan, and boil it for half an hour with three dozens of small capsicums and half a pound of eschalots; then add the tomatas, which should be ready pulped through a strainer. Boil the whole for thirty minutes longer; have some clean wide-necked bottles, kept warm by the fire, fill them with the catsup while it is quite hot; cork, and dip the necks into melted bottle-resin or cement.
Tomatas, 1/2 peck; salt, 1/2 lb.; capsicums, 3 doz.; eschalots, 1/2 lb.: 1/2 hour. After pulp is added, 1/2 hour.
Obs.—This receipt has been kindly contributed by a person who makes by it every year large quantities of the catsup, which is considered excellent: for sauce it must be mixed with gravy or melted butter. We have not ourselves been able to make trial of it.