PEPPER. 609 



Bird-pepper in the following manner : " Dry ripe peppers 

 well in the sun, pack them in earthen or stone pots, mixing 

 common flour between every layer of pods, and put all into 

 an oven after the baking of bread, that they may be thor- 

 oughly dried ; after; which, they must be well cleansed from 

 the flour, and reduced to a fine powder. To every ounce of 

 this add a pound of wheat flour, and as much leaven as is 

 sufficient for the quantity intended. After this has been 

 properly mixed and wrought, it should be made into small 

 cakes, and baked in the same manner as common cakes of 

 the same size ; then cut them into small parts, and bake them 

 again, that they may be as dry and hard as biscuit, which, 

 being powdered and sifted, is to be kept for use." 



The pods of this variety are quite small, Cayenne 



Pepper. 

 cone-shaped, coral-red when ripe, intensely acrid, c. 



and furnish the Cayenne Pepper of commerce. 

 Like the other species of the family, it is of tropical origin, 

 and being a perennial, and of a shrubby character, will not 

 succeed in open culture at the North. 



Both the green and ripe pods are used as pickles, and also 

 for making Chili vinegar, or pepper-sauce, which is done by 

 simply putting a handful of the pods in a bottle, afterwards 

 filled with the best vinegar, and stopping it closely. In a few 

 weeks it will be fit for use. 



The process of preparing Cayenne Pepper is as follows : 

 The pods are gathered when fully ripe. " In India, they are 

 dried in the sun ; but in cooler climates they should be dried 

 on a slow hot-plate, or in a moderately heated oven : they 

 are then pulverized, and sifted through a fine sieve, mixed 

 with salt, and, when dried, put into close, corked bottles, for 

 the purpose of excluding the air. This article is subject to 

 great adulteration, flour being often mixed with it, and, still 

 worse, red lead, which is much of the same color, and greatly 

 increases the weight. 



