Page:The Lady's Receipt-book.djvu/249

Rh months exposed to the hot sun; taking care to cover the bung-hole in damp or rainy weather.

APPLE-WATER.—Take three large, juicy pippin apples; pare, core, and cut them into very thin slices. Put them into a pitcher, (the yellow rind of a lemon, pared thin, will be an improvement,) and pour on a pint of boiling water. Cover the pitcher closely, and let it stand four hours. Then pour the liquid into a glass, and sweeten it with loaf-sugar.

This is a cooling drink in a fever.

TOAST-WATER.—Take thin slices of wheat bread, and toast it very brown on both sides, but do not let it burn or blacken. Put the toast into a pitcher that has straining holes at the spout, and pour over it, from a tea-kettle, as much boiling water as you wish to make into drink. The water must be actually boiling at the time. Cover the pitcher, and let it stand till the water is cold. Then pour it off into a decanter. Made in this way, toast-water is very wholesome and refreshing, and is frequently drank at table by persons in health, as well as by invalids.

AN EXCELLENT WAY OF MAKING COFFEE.—For this purpose you should have a percolator, or coffee-pot with strainers inside. The coffee will be much stronger and better, if roasted and ground just before it is put in the pot. There are no coffee-roasters so good as those of sheet-iron, made somewhat in the form of a large long candle-box; standing before the fire on feet; and turned round by a handle, so as to give all the coffee that is inside an equal chance of heat. When about half done, put among the coffee a piece of fresh butter. It should be roasted evenly throughout, of a fine brown