Obs. You may prepare elder-flowers and herbs in the same manner; elder and tarragon are those in most general use in this country.
Our neighbours, the French, prepare vinegars flavoured with celery, cucumbers, capsicums, garlic, eschalot, onion, capers, chervil, cress-seed, burnet, truffles, Seville orange-peel, ginger, &c.; in short, they impregnate them with almost every herb, fruit, flower, and spice, separately, and in innumerable combinations.
Messrs. Maille et Aclocque, Vinaigriers à Paris, sell sixty-five sorts of variously flavoured vinegar, and twenty-eight different sorts of mustard.
Basil Vinegar or Wine.—(No. 397.)
Sweet basil is in full perfection about the middle of August. Fill a wide-mouthed bottle with the fresh green leaves of basil (these give much finer and more flavour than the dried), and cover them with vinegar, or wine, and let them steep for ten days: if you wish a very strong essence, strain the liquor, put it on some fresh leaves, and let them steep fourteen days more.
Obs. This is a very agreeable addition to sauces, soups, and to the mixture usually made for salads. See Nos. [372] and [453].
It is a secret the makers of mock turtle may thank us for telling; a table-spoonful put in when the soup is finished will impregnate a tureen of soup with the basil and acid flavours, at very small cost, when fresh basil and lemons are extravagantly dear.
The flavour of the other sweet and savoury herbs, celery, &c. may be procured, and preserved in the same manner ([No. 409], or [No. 417]), by infusing them in wine or vinegar.
Cress Vinegar.—(No. 397*.)
Dry and pound half an ounce of cress-seed (such as is sown in the garden with mustard), pour upon it a quart of the best vinegar, let it steep ten days, shaking it up every day.