SPFRITS. 657 
Spinach is to chop it up finely, and stew it in butter; if it 
be cooked in water this water will have a strong smell. A 
French physician styles Spinach “le balai de lestomac,” “ the 
broom of the stomach”; people know the plant in France as 
“ Epinards,” whilst containing a small quantity of sorrel salt, 
the binoxalate of potash; they like it with much butter, and 
call it therefore “la mort au beurre.’ Their epicures teach 
“when eating it not forget the nutmeg.” Brillat Savarin 
never had Spinach served to him on a Friday unless it had been 
cooked the Sunday before, and put each day over the fire with 
a fresh addition of butter. A wild species of Spinach, the “ Good 
King Henry,” or Margery, grows about rural England, particu- 
larly in Lincolnshire, where it is popular as a pot-herb in most 
cottage gardens. Another excellent way of dressing the 
ordinary Spinach is to ‘‘ wash your Spinach well, break off the 
leaves, boil (without adding water, or only a drain) until tender, 
dry, chop fine, and fry in butter until thoroughly done; add a 
tablespoonful of white sugar, and mix thoroughly ; place in a 
dish some toasted bread cut into small squares, and put these 
on the Spinach, or else some slices of hard-boiled egg.” To 
make Extract of Spinach: “ Comminute in a mortar one pound 
of Spinach, and when it is quite a paste, place it on a strong 
cloth, roll it up, and twist the opposite ends so as to wring the 
cloth, and Spinach, and express the juice; (for making it more 
easy to twist the cloth use two cooking spoons as levers,—one 
at each end.) Then place the extracted juice in a pan, and heat 
it until the chlorophyllin, and the albumin are coagulated; next 
drain off the water, and work it through a tammy.” It was 
with a delicate offering of gammon (of pork), and Spinach, in his 
hands, Mr. Anthony Roley, of Nursery fame, went a-wooing, 
calamitous as to its result. 
* Ranula furtivos statuebat quoerere amores; 
Me miserum! tristi Rolius ore gemit: 
Ranula furtivos statuebat qucrere amores, 
Mater sive daret, sive negaret iter.” 
SPIRITS (See ALconot). 
THE several Spirits—Brandy, Gin, Rum, and Whisky,—(which see) 
are obtained by the fermentation of various saccharine substances, 
their alcohol, and other volatile bodies thus produced, being 
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