ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 293 



flour. Pour the boiling hot water over 

 the flour through a sieve or colander, and 

 beat it until it is quite smooth. While it 

 is warm, add two tablespoonfuls of salt, 

 and half a teacupful of sugar. Before it 

 is quite cold, stir in a pint or more of 

 good yeast. After the yeast has become 

 quite light, stir in as much Indian meal as 

 it will take, roll it out in cakes, and place 

 .them on a cloth in a dry place, taking 

 care to turn them every day. At the end 

 of a week or ten days they may be put 

 into a bag, and should be kept in a dry 

 place. When used, take one of these 

 cakes, soak it in some milk- warm water, 

 mash it smooth, and use it as any other 

 kind of yeast. 



VINEGAR, Cider.— 1. The most profit- 

 able return from such apples as are made 

 into cider is the further transformation of 

 the juice into vinegar. To do this, the 

 barrels should be completely filled, so 

 that all impurities that "working" — fer- 

 menting — throws off will be ejected 

 through the bung-hole. This process 

 should be completed before the barrel is 

 put in the cellar, and when this is done, 

 the purified juice should be drawn out 

 of the original cask and put into others 

 where there is a small amount of old 

 -vinegar, which will amazingly hasten the 

 desired result. If no vinegar can be 

 obtained to "start" the cider, it must 

 remain in a dry cellar six months, and 

 perhaps . a year (the longer the better), 

 before it will be fit for the table. 



2. Save all your apple parings and slice 

 in with them all waste apples and other 

 fruits ; keep them in a cool place till you 

 get a pailful, then turn a large plate over 

 them, on which a light weight should be 

 placed, and pour on boiling water till it 

 oomes to the top. After they have stood 

 two or three days pour off the liquid, 

 which will be as good cider as much that 

 is offered for sale; strain and pour it into 

 a cask or some other convenient vessel 

 ;( anything that can be closely covered will 

 do), and drop in a piece of " mother," or 

 vinegar plant, procured of some one that 

 has good vinegar. If set in a warm 

 place, the vinegar will be fit for use in 

 three or four weeks, when it can be drawn 

 off for use, and the cask filled with cider 

 made from time to time by this process. 

 The parings should be pressed compactly 

 into a tub or pail, and only water enough 



poured over to come to their surface, 

 otherwise the cider would be so weak as 

 to require the addition of molasses. By 

 having two casks, one to contain the 

 vinegar already made, and the other to 

 fill into from time to time, one never need 

 be without good vinegar. The rinsings 

 of preserve kettles, sweetmeat jars, and 

 from honey, also stale beer and old cider, 

 should all be saved for the vinegar cask; 

 only caution should be used that there be 

 sufficient sweetness or body to whatever 

 is poured in, or the vinegar may die from 

 lack of strength. 



3. A barrel or a cask of new sweet 

 cider, buried so as to be well covered 

 with fresh earth, will turn to sharp, clear, 

 delicious vinegar in three or four weeks, 

 as good as ever sought affinity with cab- 

 bage, pickles, or table sauce, and better 

 than is possible to make by any other 

 process. 



PICKLES, Observations on. — The 

 strongest vinegar must be used for pick- 

 ling ; it must not be boiled, or the strength 

 of the vinegar and spices will be evapo- 

 rated. By parboiling the pickles in brine 

 they will be ready in much less time than 

 they are when done in the Usual maimer, 

 of soaking them in cold salt water for six 

 or eight days. When taken out of the 

 hot brine, let them get cold and quite dry< 

 before you put them into the pickle. 



To assist the preservation of pickles, a 

 portion of salt is added, and for the same 

 purpose, and to give flavor, long pepper, 

 black pepper, allspice, ginger, cloves, 

 mace, eschalots, mustard, horse-radish 

 and capsicum. 



The following is the best method of 

 preparing the pickle, as cheap as any, and 

 requires less care than any other way: 

 Bruise in a mortar four ounces of the 

 above spices, put them into a stone jar 

 with a quart of" the strongest vinegar, stop 

 the jar closely with a bung, cover that 

 with a bladder soaked with pickle, set it 

 on a trivet by the side of the fire for three 

 days, well shaking it up at least three 

 times in the day ; the pickle should be at 

 least three inches above the pickles. The 

 jar being well closed, and the infusion 

 being made with a mild heat, there is no 

 loss by evaporation. 



To enable the articles pickled more 

 easily and speedily to imbibe the flavor of 

 the pickle they are immersed in, previ- 



