CURRY. 141 



CURRANT WINE. 



Pick your fruit on a dry day, and make your wine on the 

 same day you gather it. Take the currants from the stems, 

 bruise and press them, and strain the juice from them. To 

 every gallon of currant juice add two gallons of pure soft 

 water, and three pounds of the best loaf-sugar. Mix well 

 till the sugar is dissolved. Put the whole into a keg, and 

 let it ferment twelve or fourteen days, covering the bung- 

 hole with coarse muslin. The keg or cask should be filled 

 so that impurities may escape at the bung. At the expira- 

 tion of the twelfth or fourteenth day, beat up the whites of 

 five or six eggs, and stir them into the cask. Put in the 

 bung lightly at first, a little firmer on the second day, and on 

 the third, secure it well, and cover with bottle cement. Let 

 it stand five or six months, when rack it off, and, if not per- 

 fectly clear, it may be refined with isinglass, milk, or the 

 addition of more white of egg. See Jellies. 



CURRY. This powder is dealt in largely commercially, 

 but it is frequently shamefully adulterated by the mixture of 

 red-lead, and other substances, if not as poisonous, equally 

 uncalled for. Besides, the packages which are purchased 

 are not suitable for all dishes. From these considerations 

 many persons buy the different substances which make curry- 

 powder, dry and powder them, and, keeping them carefully 

 from the air, mix them as they need the curry, and in such 

 proportions as the dish may require. 



The principal ingredients in this powder are turmeric, 

 ginger, cayenne, mustard, and pepper, softened by some aro- 

 matic spice ; cinnamon, coriander, and cardamon seed being 

 generally used. Turmeric is disagreeable to many persons ; 

 it is the root of the Curcuma longa, a native of * the East 

 Indies. 



