Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1656

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Ingredients.—Sound, not over ripe Morella cherries. To each lb. allow 3 ozs. of best castor, or pounded loaf sugar, good French brandy to cover them.

Method.—Cut off the stalks, leaving them about ½ an inch in length, wipe the cherries with a soft cloth, and put them into perfectly dry wide-necked bottles. Rather more than half fill the bottles, and place the fruit and sugar in alternate layers. Fill the bottles with brandy, cork them closely, and cover the tops with melted wax or bladder. Keep for at least 2 months before using.

Ingredients.—Sound Morella cherries. To each lb. allow 3 ozs. of brown sugar candy, 12 apricot, peach, or plum kernels, ¼ of an oz of shredded bitter almond, ¼ of an inch of cinnamon, and good French brandy to cover.

Method.—Cut off the stalks, leaving them about ½ an inch in length, wipe the cherries with a soft cloth, and prick them well with a coarse darning needle. Half fill some wide-necked bottles with the prepared fruit; to each one add sugar candy, etc., in the above-stated proportions, and fill the bottles with brandy. Cork closely, cover the top with melted wax or bladder, and keep for at least 3 months before using.

Cider is the fermented juice of apples, and it is chiefly manufactured in Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Norfolk and Worcestershire. The juice is extracted by first crushing the apples in a cider-mill, and afterwards subjecting the pulp to heavy pressure. The product is either diluted with water, and sold as Sweet Cider, or it is allowed to ferment in barrels, which in some districts are closed at the top, and in others open, and simply covered with a cloth. When active fermentation has subsided the cider is drawn off into casks, where it remains for several months before it is ready for bottling or drinking. Some varieties of effervescing cider almost approach champagne in character.

Ingredients.—1 quart of cider iced, 1 bottle of iced seltzer or soda water, 1 wineglassful of brandy, 2 ozs. of sugar, or to taste, 1 lemon thinly sliced.

Method.—Mix all the ingredients together in a glass jug, and serve in small glasses.