Wine Vinegar.
After making raisin wine, when the fruit has been strained, lay it on a heap to heat: then to every hundred weight put fifteen gallons of water. Set the cask, and put yeast, &c. as before.
As vinegar is so necessary an article in a family, and one on which so great a profit is made, a barrel or two might always be kept preparing, according to what suited. If the raisins of wine were ready, that kind might be made: if a great plenty of gooseberries made them cheap, that sort; or if neither, then the sugar vinegar, so that the cask may not be left empty, and grow musty.
Kitchen Pepper.
Mix in the finest powder, one ounce of ginger; of cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg, and Jamaica pepper, half an ounce of each; ten cloves, and six ounces of salt. Keep it in a bottle. It is an agreeable addition to any brown sauces or soups.
Spice in powder, kept in small bottles, close stopped, goes much further than when used whole. It must be dried before pounded; and should be done in quantities that may be wanted in three or four months. Nutmeg need not be done; but the others should be kept in separate bottles, with a little label on each.
Browning, to colour and flavour made dishes.
Beat to powder four ounces of doubly refined sugar: put it into a very nice iron fryingpan, with one ounce of fine fresh butter: mix it well over a clear fire, and when it begins to froth, hold it up higher. When of a very fine dark brown, pour in a small quantity of a pint of port wine; and the whole by very slow degrees, stirring all the time. Put to the above half an ounce of Jamaica, and the same of black pepper, six cloves of shalots peeled, three blades of mace bruised, three spoonfuls of mushroom, and the same of walnut catsup, some salt, and the finely pared rind of a lemon. Boil gently fifteen minutes; pour it into a bason till cold; take off the scum, and bottle for use.
To make Sprats taste like Anchovies.
Salt them well, and let the salt drain from them. In twenty four hours wipe them dry, but do not wash them. Mix four ounces of common salt, an ounce of bay salt, an ounce of saltpetre, a quarter of an ounce of sal prunel, and half a teaspoonful of cochineal, all in the finest powder. Sprinkle it among three quarts of the fish, and pack them in two stone jars. Keep in a cold place, fastened down with a bladder.