198 CHYMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. 



gravy of meat, and beef three quarters cooked, when pre- 

 pared according to the foregoing directions, have been 

 found as good after being eighteen months at sea, as when 

 first put up. Attention must be paid in putting up solid 

 articles in bottles, to pack them closely, in order that as 

 little air as possible may interpose between the pieces. 

 Consommes, strong decoctions,* and jellies of meat con- 

 taining all those portions of it most nourishing to man, 

 may be thus preserved uninjured for a long time. 



Before milk is put into bottles for keeping, it should be 

 evaporated in a water or vapor bath, and the scum which 

 forms upon the top carefully removed; half an hour be- 

 fore evaporation is completed, there should be mixed with 

 every pint of the reduced milk, the yolk of an egg well 

 beaten. After being thoroughly cooled the milk must be 

 put into bottles, and corked tightly, to undergo the second 

 scalding. Milk preserved in this way has been found at 

 the end of two years to be unchanged, and to afford butter 

 and butter-milk the same as if new. It is not however 

 pretended, that it preserves all the qualities of new milk; 

 it almost always has a peculiar odor and taste, but such 

 as it is, it forms an agreeable and a valuable article, for sea 

 stores for long voyages. 



Cream evaporated one fifth part and put into bottles 

 after having had the skin coagulated upon the surface re- 

 moved from it, and then subjected to a second scalding 

 for an hour, has not been sensibly altered at the end of two 

 years. 



Those vegetables of which so much use is made in all 

 families, may be preserved in the same manner ; they are, 

 however, boiled a shorter time, and some of them must 

 previously undergo a degree of preparation. For instance, 

 in preserving asparagus it is necessary, after having wash- 

 ed it, to plunge it first into boiling and then into cold water, 

 to deprive it of its acrid taste ; it afterwards receives but a 

 slight scalding. 



To preserve the color of the small bush-beans, bottles 

 filled with them are plunged into very cold water, where 

 they remain for an hour ; they are then drawn out, corked, 

 wired, and scalded for an hour. Artichokes, afler having 

 had boiling water poured over them, are washed in cold 

 water, drained, and scalded in the bottles for an hour. 



* Answering to " portable soups." 



