VEAL CUTLETS. Cut the veal into thin slices, dip them in the yolks of egg, strew them over with grated bread and nutmeg, sweet herbs and parsley, and lemon peel minced fine, and fry them with butter. When the meat is done, lay it on a dish before the fire. Put a little water into the pan, stir it round and let it boil; add a little butter rolled in flour, and a little lemon juice, and pour it over the cutlets. Or fry them without the bread and herbs, boil a little flour and water in the pan with a sprig of thyme, and pour it on the cutlets, but take out the thyme before the dish is sent to table.

VEAL GRAVY. Make it as for cullis; but leave out the spices, herbs, and flour. It should be drawn very slowly; and if for white dishes, the meat should not be browned.

VEAL LARDED. Take off the under bone of a neck of veal, and leave only a part of the long bones on. Trim it neatly, lard and roast it gently with a veal caul over it. Ten minutes before it is done, take off the caul, and let the veal be of a very light colour. When it is to be served up, put under it some sorrel sauce, celery heads, or asparagus tops, or serve it with mushroom sauce.

VEAL OLIVES. Cut some long thin collops, beat them, lay them on thin slices of fat bacon, and over these a layer of forcemeat highly seasoned, with some shred shalot and cayenne. Roll them tight, about the size of two fingers, but not more than two or three inches long. Fasten them round with a small skewer, rub egg over them, and fry them of a light brown. Serve with brown gravy, in which boil some mushrooms pickled or fresh, and garnish with fried balls.

VEAL OLIVE PIE. Having prepared the veal olives, lay them round and round the dish, making them highest in the middle. Fill it nearly up with water, and cover it with paste. When baked, mix some gravy, cream, and flour, and pour it hot into the pie.

VEAL PATTIES. Mince some veal that is not quite done, with a little parsley, lemon peel, a dust of salt and nutmeg. Add a spoonful of cream, gravy sufficient to moisten the meat, and a little scraped ham. This mixture is not to be warmed till the patties are baked.

VEAL PIE. Take some of the middle or scrag of a small neck, and season it, adding or not a few slices of lean bacon or ham. If wanted of a high relish, add mace, cayenne, and nutmeg, to the salt and pepper; also forcemeat, and eggs. To these likewise may be added, truffles, morels, mushrooms, sweetbreads cut into small bits, and cocks' combs blanched, if approved. It will be very good without any of the latter additions, but a rich gravy must be prepared, and poured in after baking.—To make a rich veal pie, cut steaks from a neck or breast of veal, season them with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and a very little clove in powder. Slice two sweetbreads, and season them in the same manner. Lay a puff paste on the ledge of the dish, put in the meat, yolks of hard eggs, the sweetbreads, and some oysters, up to the top of the dish. Lay over the whole some very thin slices of ham, and fill up the dish with water. Cover it with a crust, and when taken out of the oven, pour in at the top, through a funnel, a few spoonfuls of good veal gravy, and fill it up with cream; but first boil and thicken it with a tea-spoonful of flour.

VEAL AND PARSLEY PIE. Cut some slices from a leg or neck of veal; if the leg, from about the knuckle. Season them with salt, scald some pickled parsley, and squeeze it dry. Cut the parsley a little, and lay it at the bottom of the dish; then put in the meat, and so on, in layers. Fill up the dish with new milk, but not so high as to touch the crust. When baked, pour out a little of the milk, and put in half a pint of good scalded cream. Chicken may be cut up, skinned, and dressed in the same way.

VEAL PORCUPINE. Bone a fine large breast of veal, and rub it over with the yolks of two eggs. Spread it out, and lay on it a few slices of bacon, cut as thin as possible. Add a handful of parsley shred fine, the yolks of five eggs, boiled hard and chopped, and a little lemon peel finely shred. Steep the crumb of a penny loaf in cream, and add to it, seasoning the whole together with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Roll the veal close, and skewer it up. Cut some fat bacon, the lean of boiled ham, and pickled cucumbers, about two inches long. Place these in rows upon the veal, first the ham, then the bacon, and last the cucumbers, till the whole is larded. Put the meat into a deep earthen pan with a pint of water, cover it close, and set it in a slow oven for two hours. Skim off the fat afterwards, and strain the gravy through a sieve into a stewpan. Add a glass of white wine, a little lemon pickle and caper liquor, and a spoonful of mushroom ketchup, and thicken the gravy with a bit of butter rolled in flour. Lay the porcupine on a dish, and pour the sauce over it. Have ready prepared a thin forcemeat, made of the crumb of a penny loaf, half a pound of beef suet shred fine, the yolks of four eggs, and a few oysters chopped. Mix these together, season the forcemeat with cayenne, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and spread it on the veal caul. Having rolled the whole up tight, like collared eel, bind it in a cloth, and boil it an hour. When done enough, cut it into four slices, laying one at each end, and the others on the sides of the dish. Have the sweetbreads ready prepared, cut in slices and fried, and lay them round the dish, with a few mushrooms pickled. This is allowed to make a fine bottom dish, when game is not to be had.

VEAL ROLLS. Cut thin slices of either fresh or cold veal, spread on them a fine seasoning of a very few crumbs, a little chopped bacon or scraped ham, and a little suet, parsley, and shalot. Or instead of the parsley and shalot, some fresh mushrooms stewed and minced. Then add pepper and salt, and a small piece of pounded mace. This stuffing may either fill up the roll like a sausage, or be rolled with the meat. In either case tie it up very tight, and stew very slowly in good gravy, and a glass of sherry. Skim it very carefully, and serve it up quite tender.—Another way. Take slices of veal, enough to make a side dish; lay them on your dresser, and lay forcemeat upon each slice; roll them up, and tie them round with coarse thread. Rub them over with the yolk of an egg, spit them on a bird spit, and roast them of a fine brown. For sauce, have good gravy, with morels, truffles, and mushrooms, tossed up to a proper thickness. Lay your rolls in your dish, and pour your sauce over. Garnish with lemon.

VEAL SAUSAGES. Chop equal quantities of lean veal and fat bacon, a handful of sage, a little salt and pepper, and a few anchovies. Beat all in a mortar; and when used, roll and fry it. Serve it with fried sippets, or on stewed vegetables, or on white collops.

VEAL SCALLOPS. Mince some cold veal very small, and set it over the fire with a scrape of nutmeg, a little pepper and salt, and a little cream. Heat it for a few minutes, then put it into the scallop shells, and fill them with crumbs of bread. Lay on some pieces of butter, and brown the scallops before the fire. Either veal or chicken looks and eats well, prepared in this way, and lightly covered with crumbs of fried bread; or these may be laid on in little heaps.

VEAL-SUET PUDDING. Cut the crumb of a threepenny loaf into slices, boil and sweeten two quarts of new milk, and pour over it. When soaked, pour out a little of the milk; mix it with six eggs well beaten, and half a nutmeg. Lay the slices of bread into a dish, with layers of currants and veal suet shred, a pound of each. Butter the dish well, and bake it; or if preferred, boil the pudding in a bason.

VEAL SWEETBREAD. Parboil a fine fresh sweetbread for five minutes, and throw it into a basin of water. When the sweetbread is cold, dry it thoroughly in a cloth, and roast it plain. Or beat up the yolk of an egg, and prepare some fine bread crumbs. Run a lark spit or a skewer through it, and tie it on the ordinary spit. Egg it over with a paste brush, powder it well with bread crumbs, and roast it. Serve it up with fried bread crumbs round it, and melted butter, with a little mushroom ketchup and lemon juice. Or serve the sweetbread on toasted bread, garnished with egg sauce or gravy. Instead of spitting the sweetbread, it may be done in a Dutch oven, or fried.

VEGETABLES. There is nothing in which the difference between an elegant and an ordinary table is more visible, than in the dressing of vegetables, especially greens. They may be equally as fine at first, at one place as at another, but their look and taste afterwards are very different, owing entirely to the careless manner in which they have been prepared. Their appearance at table however is not all that should be considered; for though it is certainly desirable that they should be pleasing to the eye, it is of still greater consequence that their best qualities should be carefully preserved. Vegetables are generally a wholesome diet, but become very prejudicial if not properly dressed. Cauliflowers, and others of the same species, are often boiled only crisp, to preserve their beauty. For the look alone, they had better not be boiled at all, and almost as well for the purpose of food, as in such a crude state they are scarcely digestible by the strongest stomach. On the other hand, when overboiled they become vapid, and in a state similar to decay, in which they afford no sweet purifying juices to the stomach, but load it with a mass of mere feculent matter. The same may be said of many other vegetables, their utility being too often sacrificed to appearance, and sent to table in a state not fit to be eaten. A contrary error often prevails respecting potatoes, as if they could never be done too much. Hence they are popped into the saucepan or steamer, just when it happens to suit, and are left doing, not for the time they require, but till it is convenient to take them up; when perhaps their nutricious qualities are all boiled away, and they taste of nothing but water. Ideas of nicety and beauty in this case ought all to be subservient to utility; for what is beauty in vegetables growing in the garden is not so at table, from the change of circumstances. They are brought to be eaten, and if not adapted properly to the occasion, they are deformities on the dish instead of ornaments. The true criterion of beauty is their suitableness to the purposes intended. Let them be carefully adapted to this, by being neither under nor over done, and they will not fail to please both a correct eye and taste, while they constitute a wholesome species of diet. A most pernicious method of dressing vegetables is often adopted, by putting copper into the saucepan with them in the form of halfpence. This is a dangerous experiment, as the green colour imparted by the copperas, renders them in the highest degree unwholesome, and even poisonous. Besides, it is perfectly unnecessary, for if put into boiling water with a little salt, and boiled up directly, they will be as beautifully green as the most fastidious person can require. A little pearlash might safely be used on such an occasion, and with equal effect, its alkaline properties tending to correct the acidity. Many vegetables are more wholesome, and more agreeable to the taste, when stewed a good while, only care must be taken that they stew merely, without being suffered to boil. Boiling produces a sudden effect, stewing a slower effect, and both have their appropriate advantages. But if preparations which ought only to stew, are permitted to boil, the process is destroyed, and a premature effect produced, that cannot be corrected by any future stewing. In order to have vegetables in the best state for the table, they should be gathered in their proper season, when they are in the greatest perfection, and that is when they are most plentiful. Forced vegetables seldom attain their true flavour, as is evident from very early asparagus, which is altogether inferior to that which is matured by nature and common culture, or the mere operation of the sun and climate. Peas and Potatoes are seldom worth eating before midsummer; unripe vegetables being as insipid and unwholesome as unripe fruit, and are liable to the same objections as when they are destroyed by bad cooking. Vegetables are too commonly treated with a sort of cold distrust, as if they were natural enemies. They are seldom admitted freely at our tables, and are often tolerated only upon a sideboard in small quantities, as if of very inferior consideration. The effect of this is like that of all indiscriminate reserve, that we may negatively be said to lose friends, because we have not the confidence to make them. From the same distrust or prejudice, there are many vegetables never used at all, which are nevertheless both wholesome and palatable, particularly amongst those best known under the denomination of herbs. The freer use of vegetable diet would be attended with a double advantage, that of improving our health, and lessening the expense of the table. Attention should however be paid to their size and quality, in order to enjoy them in their highest degree of perfection. The middle size are generally to be preferred to the largest or the smallest; they are more tender, and full of flavour, just before they are quite full grown. Freshness is their chief value and excellence, and the eye easily discovers whether they have been kept too long, as in that case they lose all their verdure and beauty. Roots, greens, salads, and the various productions of the garden, when first gathered, are plump and firm, and have a fragrant freshness which no art can restore, when they have lost it by long keeping, though it will impart a little freshness to put them into cold spring water for some time before they are dressed. They should neither be so young as not to have acquired their good qualities, nor so old as to be on the point of losing them. To boil them in soft water will best preserve the colour of such as are green; or if only hard water be at hand, a tea-spoonful of potash should be added. Great care should be taken to pick and cleanse them thoroughly from dust, dirt, and insects, and nicely to trim off the outside leaves. If allowed to soak awhile in water a little salted, it will materially assist in cleansing them from insects. All the utensils employed in dressing vegetables should be extremely clean and nice; and if any copper vessel is ever used for the purpose, the greatest attention must be paid to its being well tinned. The scum which arises from vegetables as they boil should be carefully removed, as cleanliness is essential both to their looking and eating well. The lid of the saucepan should always be taken off when they boil, to give access to the air, even if it is not otherwise thought necessary. Put in the vegetables when the water boils, with a little salt, and let them boil quickly; when they sink to the bottom, they are generally done enough. Take them up immediately, or they will lose their colour and goodness. Drain the water from them thoroughly, before they are sent to table. When greens are quite fresh gathered, they will not require so much boiling by at least a third of the time, as when they have been gathered a day or two and brought to the public market. The following table shows when the various kinds of vegetables are in season, or the time of their earliest natural growth, and when they are most plentiful, or in their highest perfection.

Artichokes, July, September, —— Jerusalem ditto, Sept. November, Angelica stalks, May, June, Asparagus, April, June, Beet roots, Dec. January, Boricole, November, January Cabbage, May, July, —— Red ditto, July, August, —— White ditto, October, Cardoons, Nov. December, Carrots, May, August, Cauliflowers, June, August, Celery, Sept. November, Chervil, March, May, Corn Salad, May, June, Cucumbers, July, September, Endive, June, October, Kidney Beans, July, August, Leeks, Sept. December, Lettuce, April, July, Onions, August, November, Parsley, February, March, Parsnips, July, October, Peas, June, August, Potatoes, June, November, Radishes, March, June, —— Spanish ditto, August, September, Scarlet Beans, July, August, Small Salad, May, June, Salsify, July, August, Scorzonera, July, August, Sea Kale, April, May, Shalots, August, October, Savory Cabbage, Sept. November, Sorrel, June, July, Spinage, March, July, —— Winter ditto, Oct. November, Turnips, May, July, Turnip tops, April, May, Windsor Beans, June, August.

VEGETABLES AND FISH. Pick, wash, and chop some sorrel, spinage, small onions or chives, and parsley. Put them into a stewpan with fresh butter, a good spoonful of lemon or Seville orange juice, or vinegar and water, some essence of anchovy, and cayenne pepper. Do these gently over the fire till the vegetables are tender, then put in the fish, and stew them till well done.

VEGETABLE ESSENCES. The flavour of the various sweet and savoury herbs may be obtained, by combining their essential oils with rectified spirit of wine, in the proportion of one dram of the former to two ounces of the latter; by picking the leaves, and laying them in a warm place to dry, and then filling a wide-mouth bottle with them, and pouring on them wine, brandy, or vinegar, and letting them steep for fourteen days.

VEGETABLE MARROW. Take off all the skin of six or eight gourds, put them into a stewpan with water, salt, lemon juice, and a bit of butter, or fat bacon. Let them stew gently till quite tender, and serve them up with rich Dutch sauce, or any other sauce highly flavoured.

VEGETABLE PIE. Scald and blanch some broad beans, and cut in some young carrots, turnips, artichoke bottoms, mushrooms, peas, onions, parsley, celery, or any of these. Make the whole into a nice stew, with some good veal gravy. Bake a crust over a dish, with a little lining round the edge, and a cup turned up to keep it from sinking. When baked, open the lid, and pour in the stew.

VEGETABLE SOUP. Pare and slice five or six cucumbers, add the inside of as many cos-lettuces, a sprig or two of mint, two or three onions, some pepper and salt, a pint and a half of young peas, and a little parsley. Put these into a saucepan with half a pound of fresh butter, to stew in their own liquor half an hour, near a gentle fire. Pour on the vegetables two quarts of boiling water, and stew them two hours. Rub a little flour in a tea-cupful of water, boil it with the rest nearly twenty minutes, and serve it.—Another way. Peel and slice six large onions, six potatoes, six carrots, and four turnips; fry them in half a pound of butter, and pour on them four quarts of boiling water. Toast a crust of bread quite brown and hard, but do not burn it; add it to the above, with some celery, sweet herbs, white pepper, and salt. Stew it all together gently four hours, and strain it through a coarse cloth. Put in a sliced carrot, some celery, and a small turnip, and stew them in the soup. An anchovy, and a spoonful of ketchup, may be added if approved.

VEGETABLE SYRUP. To a pint of white wine vinegar, put two pounds of the best brown sugar. Boil them to a syrup; and when quite cold, add two table-spoonfuls of paregoric elixir, which is made in the following manner. Steep in a pint of brandy a dram of purified opium, a dram of flowers of benjamin, and two scruples of camphor, adding a dram of the oil of anniseed. Let it stand ten days, occasionally shaking it up, and then strain it off. This added to the above composition, forms the celebrated Godbold's Vegetable Syrup. The paregoric elixir taken by itself, a tea-spoonful in half a pint of white wine whey or gruel at bed time, is an agreeable and effectual medicine for coughs and colds. It is also excellent for children who have the hooping cough, in doses of from five to twenty drops in a little water, or on a small piece of sugar. The vegetable syrup is chiefly intended for consumptive cases.

VELVETS. When the pile of velvet requires to be raised, it is only necessary to warm a smoothing iron, to cover it with a wet cloth, and hold it under the velvet. The vapour arising from the wet cloth will raise the pile of the velvet, with the assistance of a whisk gently passed over it. To remove spots and stains in velvet, bruise some of the plant called soapwort, strain out the juice, and add to it a small quantity of black soap. Wash the stain with this liquor, and repeat it several times after it has been allowed to dry. To take wax out of velvet, rub it frequently with hot toasted bread.

VENISON. If it be young and good, the fat of the venison will be clear, bright, and thick, and the cleft part smooth and close: but if the cleft is wide and tough, it is old. To judge of its sweetness, run a very sharp narrow knife into the shoulder or haunch, and the meat will be known by the scent. Few people like it when it is very high.

VENISON PASTY. To prepare venison for pasty, take out all the bones, beat and season the meat, and lay it into a stone jar in large pieces. Pour over it some plain drawn beef gravy, not very strong; lay the bones on the top, and set the jar in a water bath, or saucepan of water over the fire, and let it simmer three or four hours. The next day, when quite cold, remove the cake of fat, and lay the meat in handsome pieces on the dish. If not sufficiently seasoned, add more pepper, salt, or pimento. Put in some of the gravy, and keep the remainder for the time of serving. When the venison is thus prepared, it will not require so much time to bake, or such a very thick crust as usual, and by which the under part is seldom done through. A shoulder of venison makes a good pasty, and if there be a deficiency of fat, it must be supplied from a good loin of mutton, steeped twenty-four hours in equal parts of rape, vinegar, and port. The shoulder being sinewy, it will be of advantage to rub it well with sugar for two or three days; and when to be used, clear it perfectly from the sugar and the wine with a dry cloth. A mistake used to prevail, that venison could not be baked too much; but three or four hours in a slow oven will be sufficient to make it tender, and the flavour will be preserved. Whether it be a shoulder or a side of venison, the meat must be cut in pieces, and laid with fat between, that it may be proportioned to each person, without breaking up the pasty to find it. Lay some pepper and salt at the bottom of the dish, and some butter; then the meat nicely packed, that it may be sufficiently done, but not lie hollow to harden at the edges. In order to provide gravy for the pasty, boil the venison bones with some fine old mutton, and put half a pint of the gravy cold into the dish. Then lay butter on the venison and cover as well as line the sides with a thick crust, but none must be put under the meat. Keep the remainder of the gravy till the pasty comes from the oven; pour it quite hot into the middle by means of a funnel, and mix it well in the dish by shaking. It should be seasoned with pepper and salt.—Another way. Take a side of venison, bone it, and season it with pepper and salt, cloves, and mace finely beaten; cut your venison in large pieces, and season it very well with your spices then lay it into an earthen pan; make a good gravy of two pound of beef, and pour this gravy over the venison; take three quarters of a pound of beef suet, well picked from the skins, wet a coarse cloth, lay your suet on it, and cover it over, and beat it with a rolling-pin, till it is as fine as butter; as your cloth dries, wet it, and shift your suet, and put it over the top of the venison; make a paste of flour and water, and cover the pan, and send it to the oven to bake; it is best baked with a batch of bread; when it comes from the oven, and is quite cold, make a puff-paste; lay a paste all over your dish, and a roll round the inside, then put in your venison with the fat, and all the gravy, if the dish will hold it; put on the lid, and ornament it as your fancy leads. It will take two hours and a half in a quick oven. A sheet of paper laid on the top, will prevent it from catching, and the crust will be of a fine colour. By baking your venison in this manner, it will keep four or five days before you use it, if you do not take off the crust.

VENISON SAUCE. Boil an ounce of dried currants in half a pint of water, and some crumbs of bread, a few cloves or grated nutmeg, a glass of port wine, and a piece of butter. Sweeten it to your taste, and send it to table in a boat.

VERJUICE. Lay some ripe crabs together in a heap to sweat, then take out the stalks and decayed ones, and mash up the rest. Press the juice through a hair cloth into a clean vessel, and it will be fit to use in a month. It is proper for sauces where lemon is wanted.

VERMICELLI PUDDING. Boil a pint of milk with lemon peel and cinnamon, and sweeten it with loaf sugar. Strain it through a sieve, add a quarter of a pound of vermicelli, and boil it ten minutes. Then put in the yolks of five and the whites of three eggs, mix them well together, and steam the pudding an hour and a quarter, or bake it half an hour.

VERMICELLI SOUP. Boil two ounces of vermicelli in three quarts of veal gravy, then rub it through a tammis, season it with salt, give it a boil, and skim it well. Beat up the yolks of four eggs, mix with them half a pint of cream, stir them gradually into the soup, simmer it for a few minutes, and serve it up. A little of the vermicelli may be reserved to serve in the soup, if approved.—Another way. Take two quarts of strong veal broth, put into a clean saucepan a piece of bacon stuck with cloves, and half an ounce of butter worked up in flour; then take a small fowl trussed to boil, break the breastbone, and put it into your soup; stove it close, and let it stew three quarters of an hour; take about two ounces of vermicelli, and put to it some of the broth; set it over the fire till it is quite tender. When your soup is ready, take out the fowl, and put it into your dish; take out your bacon, skim your soup as clean as possible; then pour it on the fowl, and lay your vermicelli all over it; cut some French bread thin, put it into your soup, and send it to table. If you chuse it, you may make your soup with a knuckle of veal, and send a handsome piece of it in the middle of your dish, instead of the fowl.

VICARAGE CAKE. Mix a pound and a half of fine flour, half a pound of moist sugar, a little grated nutmeg and ginger, two eggs well beaten, a table-spoonful of yeast, and the same of brandy. Make it into a light paste, with a quarter of a pound of butter melted in half a pint of milk. Let it stand half an hour before the fire to rise, then add three quarters of a pound of currants, well washed and cleaned, and bake the cake in a brisk oven. Butter the tin before the cake is put into it.

VINEGAR. Allow a pound of lump sugar to a gallon of water. While it is boiling, skim it carefully, and pour it into a tub to cool. When it is no more than milk warm, rub some yeast upon a piece of bread and put into it, and let it ferment about twenty-four hours. Then tun the liquor into a cask with iron hoops, lay a piece of tile over the bung-hole, and set it in the kitchen, which is better than placing it in the sun. It will be fit to bottle in about six months. March is the best time of the year for making vinegar, though if kept in the kitchen, this is of less consequence. A cheap sort of vinegar may be made of the refuse of the bee hives, after the honey is extracted. Put the broken combs into a vessel, and add two parts of water: expose it to the sun, or keep it in a warm place. Fermentation will succeed in a few days, when it must be well stirred and pressed down to make it soak; and when the fermentation is over, the matter is to be laid upon sieves to drain. The yellow liquor which forms at the bottom of the vessel must be removed, the vessel well cleaned, and the liquor which has been strained is to be returned to the vessel. It will immediately begin to turn sour; it should therefore be covered with a cloth, and kept moderately warm. A pellicle will be formed on the surface, beneath which the vinegar acquires strength: it must be kept standing for a month or two, and then put into a cask. The bunghole should be left open, and the vinegar will soon be fit for use. The prunings of the vine, being bruised and put into a vat or mash tub, and boiling water poured on them, will produce a liquor of a fine vinous quality, which may be used as vinegar.—Another method. To every pound of coarse sugar add a gallon of water; boil the mixture, and take off the scum as long as any rises. Then pour it into proper vessels, and when sufficiently cooled put into it a warm toast covered with yeast. Let it work about twenty-four hours, and then put it into an iron-bound cask, fixed either near a constant fire, or where the summer sun shines the greater part of the day. In this situation it should not be closely stopped up, but a tile or something similar should be laid on the bunghole, to keep out the dust and insects. At the end of three months or less it will be clear, and fit for use, and may be bottled off. The longer it is kept after it is bottled, the better it will be. If the vessel containing the liquor is to be exposed to the sun's heat, the best time to begin making it is in the month of April.

VINEGAR FOR SALADS. Take three ounces each of tarragon, savory, chives, and shalots, and a handful of the tops of mint and balm, all dry and pounded. Put the mixture into a wide-mouthed bottle, with a gallon of the best vinegar. Cork it down close, set it in the sun, and in a fortnight strain off and squeeze the herbs. Let it stand a day to settle, and filter it through a tammis bag.

VINEGAR WHEY. Set upon the fire as much milk as is wanted for the occasion, and when it is ready to boil, put in vinegar sufficient to turn it to a clear whey. Let it stand some minutes, and then pour it off. If too acid, a little warm water may be added. This whey is well adapted to promote perspiration. Lemon or Seville orange juice may be used instead of vinegar.

VINGARET. Chop some mint, parsley, and shalot; and mix them up with oil and vinegar. Serve the sauce in a boat, for cold fowl or meat.

VIPERS. The bites of such reptiles should constantly be guarded against as much as possible, as they are not unfrequently attended with dangerous consequences. Animals of the neat-cattle kind are more liable to be bitten and stung by these reptiles, than those of any other sort of live stock. Instances have been known where the tongues of such cattle have been even bitten or stung while grazing or feeding, which have proved fatal. Such stock are, however, seldom attacked by reptiles of the adder kind, except in cases where these are disturbed by the animals in pasturing or feeding; which is the main reason why so many of them are bitten and stung about the head, and occasionally the feet. There are mostly much pain, inflammation, and swelling produced by these bites and stings; the progress of which may commonly be checked or stopped, and the complaint removed, by the use of such means as are directed below. A sort of soft liquid of the liniment kind may be prepared by mixing strong spirit of hartshorn, saponaceous liniment, spirit of turpentine, and tincture of opium, with olive oil; the former in the proportion of about two ounces each to three of the last, incorporating them well together by shaking them in a phial, which will be found very useful in many cases. A proper quantity of it should be well rubbed upon the affected part, two or three times in the course of the day, until the inflammation and swelling begin to disappear, after the bottle has been well shaken. In the more dangerous cases, it may often be advantageous to use fomentations to the affected parts, especially when about the head, with the above application; such as those made by boiling white poppy-heads with the roots of the marshmallow, the leaves of the large plantain, and the tops of wormwood, in the quantities of a few ounces of the first, and a handful of each of the latter, when cut small, and bruised in five or six quarts of the stale grounds of malt liquor. They may be applied frequently to the diseased parts, rubbing them afterwards each time well with the above soft liquid liniment. Where there are feverish appearances, as is often the case in the summer season, a proper quantity of blood may sometimes be taken away with great benefit, and a strong purge be afterwards given of the cooling kind with much use. In slight cases of this kind, some think the continued free use of spirit of hartshorn, given internally, and applied externally to the affected parts, is the best remedy of any that is yet known. As they are so dangerous, these reptiles should always be destroyed as much as possible in all pastures and grazing grounds.



U.

UDDER SWEET PIE. Either parboil or roast a tongue and udder, slice them into tolerably thin slices, and season them with pepper and salt. Stone half a pound of sun raisins, raise a crust, or put a puff crust round the edge of a dish, place a layer of tongue and udder at the bottom, and then some raisins, and so on till the dish is full. Cover the top with a crust, and when the pie is baked, pour in the following sauce. Beat up some yolks of eggs, with vinegar, white wine, sugar, and butter. Shake them over the fire till ready to boil, and add it to the pie immediately before it is sent to table.

ULCERS. Ulcers should not be healed precipitately, for it may be attended with considerable danger. The first object is to cleanse the wound with emollient poultices, and soften it with yellow basilicon ointment, to which may be added a little turpentine or red precipitate. They may also be washed with lime water, dressed with lint dipped in tincture of myrrh, with spermaceti, or any other cooling ointment.

UMBRELLA VARNISH. Make for umbrellas the following varnish, which will render them proof against wind and rain. Boil together two pounds of turpentine, one pound of litharge in powder, and two or three pints of linseed oil. The umbrella is then to be brushed over with the varnish, and dried in the sun.

UNIVERSAL CEMENT. To an ounce of gum mastic add as much highly rectified spirits of wine as will dissolve it. Soak an ounce of isinglass in water until quite soft, then dissolve it in pure rum or brandy, until it forms a strong glue, to which add about a quarter of an ounce of gum ammoniac well rubbed and mixed. Put the two mixtures in an earthen vessel over a gentle heat; when well united, the mixture may be put into a phial, and kept well stopped. When wanted for use, the bottle must be set in warm water, and the china or glass articles having been also warmed, the cement must be applied. It will be proper that the broken surfaces, when carefully fitted, should be kept in close contact for twelve hours at least, until the cement is fully set, after which the fracture will be found as secure as any other part of the vessel, and scarcely perceptible.



W.

WAFERS. Dry some flour well, mix with it a little pounded sugar, and finely pounded mace. Make these ingredients into a thick batter with cream. Butter the wafer irons, and make them hot; put a tea-spoonful of the batter into them, bake them carefully, and roll them off the iron with a stick.

WAINSCOTS. Dirty painted wainscots may be cleaned with a sponge wetted in potato water, and dipped in a little fine sand. For this purpose grate some raw potatoes into water, run the pulp through a sieve, and let it stand to settle; the clear liquor will then be fit for use. If applied in a pure state, without the sand, it will be serviceable in cleaning oil paintings, and similar articles of furniture. When an oak wainscot becomes greasy, and has not been painted, it should be washed with warm beer. Then boil two quarts of ale, and put into it a piece of bees' wax the size of a walnut, with a large spoonful of sugar. Wet the wainscot all over with a brush dipped in the mixture, and when dry, rub it bright: this will give it a fine gloss.

WALNUT KETCHUP. To make the finest sort of walnut ketchup, boil or simmer a gallon of the expressed juice of walnuts when they are tender, and skim it well. Then put in two pounds of anchovies, bones and liquor; two pounds of shalot, one ounce of mace, one ounce of cloves, one of whole pepper, and one of garlic. Let all simmer together till the shalots sink; then put the liquor into a pan till cold; bottle it up, and make an equal distribution of the spice. Cork it well, and tie a bladder over. It will keep twenty years, but is not good at first. Be careful to express the juice at home, for what is sold as walnut ketchup is generally adulterated. Some people make liquor of the outside shell when the nut is ripe, but neither the colour nor the flavour is then so fine.—Another way. Take four quarts of walnut juice, two quarts of white wine vinegar, three ounces of ginger sliced, two ounces of black pepper bruised, two ounces of white pepper bruised, half a pound of anchovies; let these simmer gently, till half the quantity is evaporated; then add to it a quart of red wine, two heads of garlic, the yellow rind of eight Seville oranges, or half a pound of dried orange peel cut very small, and forty bay leaves: give it one boil together, then cover it close in an earthen vessel, and let it stand till it is cold. When it is cold put it into wide-mouthed quart bottles; and into each of the bottles put one ounce of shalots skinned and sliced: cork the bottles close, and put them by for two months, when it will be fit for use. The shalots will likewise eat very fine when taken out, though they will look of a bad colour.—Another way, for fish sauce. Take walnuts, when they are fit for pickling, bruise them well in a marble mortar, and strain off the liquor from them through a cloth, let it stand to settle, pour off the clear, and to every pint of it add one pound of anchovies, half a quarter of an ounce of mace, half a quarter of an ounce of cloves, half a quarter of an ounce of Jamaica pepper, bruised fine; boil them together till the anchovies are dissolved; then strain it off, and to the strained liquor add half a pint of the best vinegar, and eight shalots; just boil it up again, pour it into a stone pan or china bowl, and let it stand till cold, when it is fit to put up in bottles for use. It will keep for years, and is excellent with fish sauce.

WARTS AND CORNS. Warts may safely be destroyed by tying them closely round the bottom with a silk thread, or a strong flaxen thread well waxed. Or they may be dried away by some moderately corroding application, such as the milky juice of fig leaves, of swallow wort, or of spurge. Warts may also be destroyed by rubbing them with the inside of bean shells. But these corrosives can only be procured in summer; and persons who have very delicate thin skins should not use them, as they may occasion a painful swelling. Instead therefore of these applications, it may be proper to use a little vinegar impregnated with as much salt as it will dissolve. A plaster may also be made of sal ammoniac and some galbanum, which well kneaded together and applied, seldom fails of destroying them. The general and principal cause of corns is, shoes too hard and stiff, or else too small. The cure consists in softening the corns by repeated washing, and soaking the feet in warm or hot water; then cutting the corn very carefully when softened, with a sharp penknife without wounding the quick, and afterwards applying a leaf of houseleek, ground ivy, or purslain, dipped in vinegar. Or instead of these leaves, they may be dressed every day with a plaster of simple diachylon, or of gum ammoniacum softened in vinegar. The bark of the willow tree burnt to ashes, and mixed with strong vinegar, forms a lixivium which by repeated applications eradicates, warts, corns, and other cutaneous excrescences. It is however the wisest way to obviate the cause which produces them.

WASH. An infusion of horseradish in milk, makes one of the safest and best washes for the skin; or the fresh juice of houseleek, mixed with an equal quantity of new milk or cream. Honey water made rather thick, so as to form a kind of varnish on the skin, is a useful application in frosty weather, when the skin is liable to be chipped; and if it occasions any irritation or uneasiness, a little fine flour or pure hair powder should be dusted on the hands or face. A more elegant wash may be made of four ounces of potash, four ounces of rose water, and two of lemon juice, mixed in two quarts of water. A spoonful or two of this mixture put into the basin, will scent and soften the water intended to be used.

WASH BALLS. Shave thin two pounds of new white soap, into about a teacupful of rose water, and pour on as much boiling water as will soften it. Put into a brass pan a pint of sweet oil, four pennyworth of oil of almonds, half a pound of spermaceti, and dissolve the whole over the fire. Then add the soap, and half an ounce of camphor that has first been reduced to powder by rubbing it in a mortar with a few drops of spirits of wine, or lavender water, or any other scent. Boil it ten minutes, then pour it into a basin, and stir till it is quite thick enough to roll up into hard balls, which must then be done as soon as possible. If essence is used, stir it in quick after it is taken off the fire, that the scent may not fly off.

WASHING. Soda, by softening the water, saves a great deal of soap. It should be melted in a large jug of water, and some of it poured into the tubs and boiler; and when the lather becomes weak, more is to be added. The new improvement in soft soap is, if properly used, a saving of nearly half in quantity; and though something dearer than the hard, it reduces the expence of washing considerably. Many good laundresses advise soaping linen in warm water the night previous to washing, as facilitating the operation with less friction.

WASPS. These insects are not only destructive to grapes, peaches, and the more delicate kinds of fruit, but also to bees; the hives of which they attack and plunder, frequently compelling those industrious inmates to forsake their habitation. About the time when the wasps begin to appear, several phials should be filled three parts full of a mixture consisting of the lees of beer or wine, and the sweepings of sugar, or the dregs of molasses, and suspended by yellow packthread on nails in the garden wall. When the bottles are filled with insects, the liquor must be poured into another vial, and the wasps crushed on the ground. If they settle on wall fruit, they may be destroyed by touching them with a feather dipped in oil; or may be taken with birdlime put on the end of a stick or lath, and touched while sitting on the fruit. The number of these noxious insects might be greatly reduced by searching for their nests in the spring of the year. The places to find them are at new posts, pales, melon frames, or any solid timber; for as they make their combs of the shavings of sound wood, which they rasp off with their fangs, and moisten up with a mucus from their bodies, they may often be found near such materials.

WATER. As it is difficult in some places to obtain a sufficient quantity of fresh spring water for constant use, especially in large towns and cities, it is important to know that river water or such as becomes turbid, may be rendered fit for use by the following easy experiment. Dissolve half an ounce of alum in a pint of warm water, and stir it about in a puncheon of water taken from the river; the impurities will soon settle to the bottom, and in a day or two it will become as clear as the finest spring water. To purify any kind of water that has become foul by being stagnant, place a piece of wicker work in the middle of a vessel; spread on this a layer of charcoal four or five inches thick, and above the charcoal a quantity of sand. The surface of the sand is to be covered with paper pierced full of holes, to prevent the water from making channels in the sand. The water to be purified is to be poured on, to filter through the sand and charcoal, and the filter is to be removed occasionally. By this simple process, any person may procure good limpid water at a very trifling expense, and preserve what would otherwise become useless and offensive.

WATER FOR BREWING. The most proper water for brewing is soft river water, which has had the rays of the sun, and the influence of the air upon it, which have a tendency to permit it easily to penetrate the malt, and extract its virtues. On the contrary, hard waters astringe and bind the power of the malt, so that its virtues are not freely communicated to the liquor. Some people hold it as a maxim, that all water that will mix with soap is fit for brewing, which is the case with the generality of river water; and it has frequently been found from experience, that when an equal quantity of malt has been used to a barrel of river water, as to a barrel of spring water, the brewing from the former has exceeded the other in strength above five degrees in the course of twelve months keeping. It has also been observed, that the malt was not only the same in quantity for one barrel as for the other, but was the same in quality, having all been measured from the same heap. The hops were also the same, both in quality and in quantity, and the time of boiling equal in each. They were worked in the same manner, and tunned and kept in the same cellar; a proof that the water only could be the cause of the difference. Dorchester beer, which is generally in much esteem, is chiefly brewed with chalky water, which is plentiful in almost every part of that county; and as the soil is mostly chalk, the cellars, being dug in that dry soil, contribute much to the good keeping of their drink, it being of a close texture, and of a dry quality, so as to dissipate damps; for it has been found by experience, that damp cellars are equally injurious to the casks and the good keeping of the liquor. Where water is naturally of a hard quality, it may in some measure be softened by an exposure to the sun and air, and by infusing in it some pieces of soft chalk; or when the water is set on to boil, in order to be poured on the malt, put into it a quantity of bran, and it will have a very good effect.

WATER CAKES. Dry three pounds of fine flour, and rub into it a pound of sifted sugar, a pound of butter, and an ounce of carraway seeds. Make it into a paste with three quarters of a pint of boiling new milk; roll the paste very thin, and cut it into any form or size. Punch the cakes full of holes, and bake on tin plates in a cool oven.

WATER GRUEL. Mix by degrees a large spoonful of oatmeal with a pint of water in a saucepan, and when smooth, boil it. Or rub the oatmeal smooth in a little water, and put it into a pint of water boiling on the fire. Stir it well, and boil it quick, but do not suffer it to boil over. In a quarter of an hour strain it off, add salt and a bit of butter when eaten, and stir it together till the whole is incorporated. To make it however in the quickest manner, mix a spoonful of ground oatmeal very smooth, with as much hot water as will just liquify it. Then gradually pour upon it a pint of boiling water, stirring it all the time to keep it smooth. It may be cooled by pouring it from one basin to another till it is fit to drink. Water gruel made in this way is very smooth and good, and being prepared in a few minutes, it is particularly useful when wanted in haste, to assist the operation of medicine.

WATER PIPES. To prevent their freezing when full of water, preserve a little circulation by leaving the cock dripping; or by tying up the ball cock during the winter's frost, the water may be preserved for use. Care should be taken however to lay the pipe which supplies the cistern in such a position as not to retain the water, and of course it will not be liable to freeze.

WATER SOUCHY. Stew two or three flounders, some parsley leaves and roots, thirty peppercorns, and a quart of water, till the fish are boiled to pieces, and then pulp them through a sieve. Set over the fire the pulped fish, the liquor that boiled them, some perch, tench, and flounders, and some fresh leaves or roots of parsley. Simmer them together till done enough, and serve in a deep dish. Slices of bread and butter are to be sent to table, to eat with the souchy.

WAX. Bees' wax is obtained from the combs, after the sweet and liquid parts are extracted, by heating and pressing them between iron plates. The best sort is firm and hard, of a clear yellow colour and an agreeable odour, similar to that of honey. New wax is tough, yet easily broken; by long keeping it becomes harder and more brittle, loses its colour, and partly also its fragrance. With a view to bleach the wax, it is cut into small pieces, melted, and poured into cold water. In this state it is exposed to the sun, afterwards melted again, poured into water, and exposed to the air, two or three times over, till it is perfectly blanched. It is then dissolved for the last time, cast into flat moulds, and again exposed to the air for a day or two, in order to render it more transparent.

WAX PLASTER. This is made of a pound of yellow wax, half a pound of white rosin, and three quarters of mutton suet, melted together. This forms a proper plaster for blisters, and in other cases where a gentle digestive is necessary.

WEAK EYES. Dimness of sight, arising from weakness or inflammation, is best relieved by frequent washing of the eyes with cold water. If this do not succeed, the following solution may be applied. Dissolve four grains each of the sugar of lead and crude sal-ammoniac, in eight ounces of water, to which a few drops of laudanum may occasionally be added, and bathe the eyes with it night and morning. A tea-spoonful of brandy in a cup of water will also make good eye-water, or a little simple rose water may supply the place.

WEDDING CAKE. Take two pounds of butter, beat it to a cream with the hand, and put in two pounds of fine sugar sifted. Mix well together two pounds of fine dried flour, half a pound of almonds blanched and pounded with orange-flower water, and an ounce of beaten mace. Beat up sixteen eggs, leaving out three whites, and put to them half a glass of sack, and the same of brandy. Put a handful of the flour and almonds to the sugar and butter, then a spoonful of the eggs, and so on till they are all mixed together. Beat it an hour with the hand, add two pounds of currants, half a pound of citron, half a pound of orange peel, and two spoonfuls of orange-flower water. Butter the tin, and bake it three hours and a half. An iceing should be put over the cake after it is baked.

WEEDS. Weeds are in their most succulent state in the month of June, and there is scarcely a hedge border but might be rendered useful by mowing them at this season, but which afterwards would become a nuisance. After the weeds have lain a few hours to wither, hungry cattle will eat them with great freedom, and it would display the appearance of good management to embrace the transient opportunity.

WELCH ALE. To brew very fine Welch ale, pour forty-two gallons of hot but not boiling water, on eight bushels of malt; cover it up, and let it stand three hours. Mean while infuse four pounds of hops in a little hot water, and put the water and hops into a tub; run the wort upon them, and boil them together three hours. Strain off the hops, and reserve them for the small beer. Let the wort stand in a high tub till cool enough to receive the yeast, of which put in two quarts of the best quality: mix it thoroughly and often. When the wort has done working, the second or third day, the yeast will sink rather than rise in the middle: remove it then, and tun the ale as it works out. Pour in a quart at a time gently, to prevent the fermentation from continuing too long, which weakens the liquor. Put paper over the bung-hole two or three days before it is closed up.

WELCH BEEF. Rub three ounces of saltpetre into a good piece of the round or buttock. After four hours apply a handful of common salt, a quarter of an ounce of Jamaica pepper, and the same of black pepper, mixed together. Continue it in the pickle a fortnight, then stuff it with herbs, cover it with a thick paste, and bake it. Take off the paste, pour the liquor from it, and pour over it some melted beef suet.

WELCH PUDDING. Melt half a pound of fine butter gently, beat with it the yolks of eight and the whites of four eggs. Mix in six ounces of loaf sugar, and the rind of a lemon grated. Put a paste into a dish for turning out, pour in the batter, and bake it nicely.

WELCH RABBIT. Toast a slice of bread on both sides, and butter it. Toast a slice of Gloucester cheese on one side, and lay that on the bread; then toast the other side with a salamander, rub mustard over, and serve it up hot under a cover.

WENS. These are prevalent chiefly among the inhabitants of marshy countries, bordering on rivers and standing waters, especially among females, and persons of a delicate habit; but they very often arise from scrophula. Camphor mixed with sweet oil, or a solution of sal ammoniac, have often been applied to these tumours with success. In Derbyshire, where this disorder greatly prevails, they use the following preparation. Fifteen grains of burnt sponge are beaten up with a similar quantity of millipede, and from eight to ten grains of cinnabar antimony. The whole is to be mixed with honey, and taken every morning before breakfast.

WESTPHALIA HAM. Rub the ham with half a pound of coarse sugar, let it lie twelve hours, then rub it with an ounce of saltpetre pounded, and a pound of common salt. Let it lie three weeks, turning it every day. Dry it over a wood fire, and put a pint of oak sawdust into the water when it is boiled.—Another way. Take spring water that is not hard, add saltpetre and bay salt to it till it will bear an egg, the broad way, then add a pound and a half of coarse sugar; mix all together, and let the ham lay in this pickle a fortnight or three weeks; then lay it in the chimney to dry. When you boil it, put some hay into the copper with it. You may keep the pickle as long as you please by often boiling it up.

WET CLOTHES. When a person has the misfortune to get wet, care should be taken not to get too near the fire, or into a warm room, so as to occasion a sudden heat. The safest way is to keep in constant motion, until some dry clothes can be procured, and to exchange them as soon as possible.

WHEAT BREAD. To make it in the most economical way, the coarsest of the bran only is to be taken from the flour, and the second coat, or what is called pollard, is to be left in the meal. Five pounds of the bran are to be boiled in somewhat more than four gallons of water, in order that, when perfectly smooth, three gallons and three quarts of clear bran water may be poured into and kneaded up with forty-six pounds of the meal; adding salt as well as yeast, in the same way as for other bread. When the dough is ready to bake, the loaves are to be made up, and baked two hours and a half in a tolerably hot oven. As flour when thus made up will imbibe three quarts more of this bran liquor than of common water, it evidently produces not only a more nutricious and substantial food, but increases one fifth above the usual quantity; consequently it makes a saving of at least one day's consumption in every week. If this meal bread were in general use, it would be a saving to the nation of nearly ten millions a year. Besides, this bread has the following peculiar property: if put into the oven and baked for twenty minutes, after it is ten days old, it will appear again like new bread.

WHEAT EARS. To roast wheat ears and ortolans, they should be spitted sideways, with a vine leaf between each. Baste them with butter, and strew them with bread crumbs while roasting. Ten or twelve minutes will do them. Serve them up with fried bread crumbs in the dish, and gravy in a tureen.

WHEY. Cheese whey is a very wholesome drink for weakly persons, especially when the cows are in fresh pasture. Tending to quench thirst, and to promote sleep, it is well adapted to feverish constitutions. It is the most relaxing and diluting of all drinks, dissolving and carrying off the salts, and is a powerful remedy in the hot scurvy.

WHEY BUTTER. The whey is first set in mugs, to acquire a sufficient degree of consistence and sourness for churning, either by the warmth of the season, or by a fire, as in the making of milk butter. Sometimes the green and white whey are boiled together, and turned by a little sour ale. When the green whey is boiled alone, it is necessary to keep it over the fire about half an hour, till it begins to break and separate, but it must be allowed to simmer only. The process is much the same as in milk butter, but it will keep only a few days, and does not cut so firm as the butter which is made of cream.

WHIGS. Mix with two pounds of fine flour, half a pound of sugar pounded and sifted, and an ounce of carraway seeds. Melt half a pound of butter in a pint of milk; when as warm as new milk, put to it three eggs, leaving out one white, and a spoonful of yeast. Mix them well together, and let the paste stand four hours to rise. Make them into whigs, and bake them on buttered tins.—Another way. Rub half a pound of butter into a pound and a half of flour, add a quarter of a pound of sugar, a very little salt, and three spoonfuls of new yeast. Make it into a light paste with warm milk, let it stand an hour to rise, and then form it into whigs. Bake them upon sheets of tin in a quick oven. Carraway seeds may be added if preferred.—Another way. Take two pounds and a half of flour, dry it before the fire, and when cold rub in a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and six ounces of sugar; mix half a pint of yeast that is not bitter, with warm milk, put this to the flour with some carraway seeds; mix all together to a light dough, set it before the fire to rise, then make it into what shape you please; bake them in a slack oven. You may add allspice beat fine, instead of carraways, if you please.—Another way. Take a pound and a half of flour, add a quarter of a pint of ale yeast to half a pint of warm milk, mix these together, and let it lie by the fire half an hour; then work in half a pound of sugar and half a pound of fresh butter to a paste; make them up, and let them be put into a quick oven.

WHIPT CREAM. Take a quart of thick cream, the whites of eight eggs well beaten, with half a pint of sack; mix all together, and sweeten it to your taste, with double-refined sugar; (you may perfume it if you please, with a little musk, or ambergris, tied in a piece of muslin, and steeped a little while in the cream) pare a lemon, and tie some of the peel in the middle of the whisk, then whip up the cream, take off the froth with a spoon, and lay it in the glasses, or basons. This does well over a fine tart.

WHIPT SYLLABUBS. Put some rich cream into an earthen pot, add some white wine, lemon juice, and sugar to the taste. Mill them well together with a chocolate mill, and as the froth keeps rising take it off with a spoon, and put it into syllabub glasses. They should be made the day before they are to be used. Syllabubs are very pretty in the summer time made with red currant juice, instead of lemon juice.—Another way. Take a quart of cream, boil it, and let it stand till cold; then take a pint of white wine, pare a lemon thin, and steep the peel in the wine two hours before you use it; to this add the juice of a lemon, and as much sugar as will make it very sweet; put all together into a bowl, and whisk it one way till it is pretty thick, fill the glasses, and keep it a day before you use it. It will keep good for three or four days. Let the cream be full measure, and the wine rather less; if you like it perfumed, put in a grain or two of ambergris.—Another way. To a quart of thick cream put half a pint of sack, the juice of two Seville oranges, or lemons, grate the peel of two lemons, and add half a pound of double-refined sugar well pounded; mix a little sack with sugar, and put it into some of the glasses, and red wine and sugar into others, the rest fill with syllabub only. Then whisk your cream up very well, take off the froth with a spoon, and fill the glasses carefully, as full as they will hold. Observe, that this sort must not be made long before they are used.

WHITE BREAD. This is made the same as household bread, except that it consists of fine flour unmixed. The water to be used should be lukewarm in summer, and in very cold weather it must be hot, but not so as to scald the yeast. Bricks are made by moulding the loaves long instead of round, and cutting the sides in several places before they are put into the oven.

WHITE CAKES. Dry half a pound of flour, rub into it a very little pounded sugar, one ounce of butter, an egg, a few carraways, and as much milk and water as will make it into a paste. Roll it thin, cut it into little cakes with a wine glass, or the top of a canister, and bake them fifteen minutes on tin plates.

WHITE CAUDLE. Boil four spoonfuls of oatmeal in two quarts of water, with a blade or two of mace, and a piece of lemon peel; stir it often, and let it boil a full quarter of an hour, then strain it through a sieve for use; when you use it, grate in some nutmeg, sweeten it to your palate, and add what white wine you think proper: if it is not for a sick person, you may squeeze in a little lemon juice.

WHITE CERATE. Take four ounces of olive oil, half an ounce of spermaceti, and four ounces of white wax. Put them into an earthen pipkin, and stir the mixture with a stick till it is quite cold.

WHITE GRAVY. Boil in a quart of water a pound and a half of veal, from the knuckle or scrag end of the neck. Add a small onion, a bunch of sweet herbs, a blade of mace, a little whole pepper and salt. After an hour's simmering over the fire, strain off the gravy, and it is ready for use.

WHITE GRAVY FOR SOUPS. To a few slices of lean ham, add a knuckle of veal cut in pieces, some turnips, parsnips, leeks, onions, and celery. Put them all into a stewpan with two quarts of water, and let it simmer till the meat is nearly tender, without allowing it to colour. Add to this half as much clear beef gravy, and boil it an hour, skimming off the fat very clean. Strain it, and set it by for use.

WHITE HERRINGS. If good, their gills are of a fine red, and the eyes bright; as is likewise the whole fish, which must be stiff and firm. Having scaled, drawn, and cleaned them, dust them with flour, and fry them of a light brown. Plain or melted butter for sauce.

WHITE LEAD. White oxide of lead is often adulterated by the carbonate of lime. To detect this pour four drams of pure acetous acid, over a dram of the suspected oxide. This will dissolve both oxide and chalk; but if a few drops of a solution of oxalic acid be now poured in, a very abundant white precipitate of oxalate of lime will take place.

WHITE PAINT. An excellent substitute for white oil paint may be made of fresh curds bruised fine, and kneaded with an equal quantity of slacked lime. The mixture is to be well stirred, without any water, and it will produce an excellent white paint for inside work. As it dries very quickly, it should be used as soon as made; and if two coats be laid on, it may afterwards be polished with a woollen cloth till it becomes as bright as varnish. If applied to places exposed to moisture, the painting should be rubbed over with the yolk of an egg, which will render it as durable as the best of oil painting. No kind of painting can be so cheap; and as it dries speedily, two coats of it may be laid on in a day and polished, and no offensive smell will arise from it.

WHITE POT. The antient way of making a white pot is to put the yolks of four or five eggs well beaten to a pint of cream, adding some pulps of apples, sugar, spices, and sippets of white bread. It may be baked either in a dish, or in a crust.—Another way. Beat eight eggs, leaving out four whites, with a little rose water; strain them to two quarts of new milk, and a small nutmeg grated, and sugar to your taste; cut a French roll in thin slices, and lay in the bottom of a soup dish (after buttering it) then pour over your milk and eggs, and bake it in a slow oven.

WHITE PUDDINGS. Pour two pints and a half of scalding hot milk upon half a pound of Naples biscuits, or bread; let it stand uncovered, and when well soaked, bruise the bread very fine. Add half a pound of almonds well beaten with orange-flower water, three quarters of a pound of sugar, a pound of beef suet or marrow shred fine, a quarter of an ounce of salt, ten yolks of eggs and five whites. Mix the whole thoroughly together, and put it into the skins well prepared, filling them but half full, and tying them at proper distances like sausages. The skins must be carefully cleaned, and laid in rose water some hours before they are used. Currants may be used instead of almonds, if preferred.

WHITE HOG'S PUDDINGS. When the skins have been well soaked and cleaned, rinse and soak them all night in rose water, and put into them the following preparation. Mix half a pound of blanched almonds cut into seven or eight parts, with a pound of grated bread, two pounds of marrow or rich suet, a pound of currants, some beaten cinnamon, cloves, mace, and nutmeg; a quart of cream, the yolks of six and whites of two eggs, a little orange-flower water, a little fine Lisbon sugar, and some lemon peel and citron sliced, and half fill the skins. To know whether it be sweet enough, warm a little in a panikin. Much care must be taken in boiling, to prevent the puddings from bursting. Prick them with a small fork as they rise, and boil them in milk and water. Lay them in a table cloth till cold.



WHITE ONION SAUCE. Peel half a dozen white Spanish onions, cut them in half, and lay them in a pan of spring water for a quarter of an hour. Boil them an hour, or till quite tender, drain them well on a hair sieve, and then chop and bruise them fine. Put them into a clean saucepan with flour and butter, half a tea-spoonful of salt, and some cream or good milk. Stir it till it boils, rub the whole through a sieve, adding milk or cream to make it of a proper thickness. This is the usual sauce for boiled rabbits, mutton, or tripe; but there requires plenty of it.

WHITE SAUCE. This favourite sauce is equally adapted to fowls, fricassee, rabbits, white meat, fish, and vegetables; and it is seldom necessary to purchase any fresh meat to make it, as the proportion of that flavour is but small. The liquor in which fowls, veal, or rabbit have been boiled, will answer the purpose; or the broth of whatever meat happens to be in the house, such as necks of chickens, raw or dressed veal. Stew with a little water any of these, with a bit of lemon peel, some sliced onion, some white peppercorns, a little pounded mace or nutmeg, and a bunch of sweet herbs. Keep it on the fire till the flavour is good; then strain it, and add a little good cream, a piece of butter, a very little flour, and salt to your taste. A squeeze of lemon may be added after the sauce is taken off the fire, shaking it well. Yolk of egg is often used in fricassee, cream is better, as the former is apt to curdle.

WHITE SOUP. Take a scrag of mutton, a knuckle of veal, after cutting off as much meat as will make collops, two or three shank bones of mutton nicely cleaned, and a quarter of very fine undressed lean gammon of bacon. Add a bunch of sweet herbs, a piece of fresh lemon peel, two or three onions, three blades of mace, and a dessert-spoonful of white pepper. Boil all in three quarts of water, till the meat falls quite to pieces. Next day take off the fat, clear the jelly from the sediment, and put it into a nice tin saucepan. If maccaroni be used, it should be added soon enough to get perfectly tender, after soaking in cold water. Vermicelli may be added after the thickening, as it requires less time to do. Prepare the thickening beforehand thus: blanch a quarter of a pound of sweet almonds, and beat them to a paste in a marble mortar, with a spoonful of water to prevent their oiling. Then mince a large slice of cold veal or chicken, and beat it with a piece of stale white bread; add all this to a pint of thick cream, a bit of fresh lemon peel, and a blade of pounded mace. Boil it a few minutes, add to it a pint of soup, and strain and pulp it through a coarse sieve. This thickening is then fit for putting to the rest, which should boil for half an hour afterwards.—To make a plainer white soup, boil a small knuckle of veal, till the liquor is reduced to three pints. Add seasoning as above, and a quarter of a pint of good milk. Two spoonfuls of cream, and a little ground rice, will give it a proper thickness. The meat and the soup may both be served together.—Another. Take a scrag or knuckle of veal, slices of undressed gammon of bacon, onions, mace, and simmer them in a small quantity of water, till it is very strong. Lower it with a good beef broth made the day before, and stew it till the meat is done to rags. Add cream, vermicelli, a roll, and almonds.

WHITE WINE WHEY. Set on the fire half a pint of new milk; the moment it boils up, pour in as much sound raisin wine as will completely turn it, and until it looks clear. Let it boil up, then set the saucepan aside till the curd subsides, and do not stir it. Pour the whey off, add to it half a pint of boiling water, and a little lump sugar. The whey will thus be cleared of milky particles, and may be made to any degree of weakness.

WHITINGS. These may be had almost at any time, but are chiefly in season during the first three months of the year. In choosing them, the firmness of the body and fins is chiefly to be looked to; and in places where there is no regular supply of fish, it will be found an accommodation to dry them for keeping. The largest are best for this purpose. Take out the gills, the eyes, and the entrails, and remove the blood from the backbone. Wipe them dry, salt the inside, and lay them on a board for the night. Hang them up in a dry place, and after three or four days they will be fit to eat. When to be dressed, skin and rub them over with egg, and cover them with bread crumbs. Lay them before the fire, baste with butter till sufficiently browned, and serve them with egg sauce.

WHITLOWS. As soon as the disorder is apparent, the finger affected is to be plunged into warm water, or the steam of boiling water may be applied to it. The application must be very frequently repeated the first day, and the complaint will soon be dispersed. Unfortunately however it is too generally supposed, that such slight attacks can have only slight consequences, and hence they are too apt to be neglected till the complaint has considerably increased. But in this state no time should be lost in resorting to skilful advice, as the danger attending these small tumours is much greater than is usually imagined.

WHOLE RICE PANCAKES. Stew half a pound of whole rice in water till it is very tender, and let it stand in a basin to cool. Break it small, put to it half a pint of scalded cream, half a pound of clarified butter, a handful of flour, a little nutmeg and salt, and five eggs well beaten. Stir these well together, and fry them in butter or lard. Serve them up with sugar sifted over them, and a Seville orange or lemon cut and laid round the dish. This preparation may be made into a pudding, either baked or boiled, and with currants added or not, as approved. Three quarters of an hour will bake it, and an hour will boil it.

WHOLE RICE PUDDING. Stew very gently a quarter of a pound of whole rice, in a pint and a half of new milk. When the rice is tender, pour it into a basin, stir in a piece of butter, and let it stand till quite cool. Then put in four eggs, a little salt, some nutmeg and sugar. Boil it an hour in a basin well buttered.

WILD DUCKS. A wild duck, or a widgeon, will require twenty or twenty-five minutes roasting, according to the size. A teal, from fifteen to twenty minutes; and other birds of this kind, in proportion to their size, a longer or a shorter time. Baste them with butter, and take them up with the gravy in, sprinkling a little over them before they are quite done. Serve them up with shalot sauce in a boat, or with good gravy, and lemons cut in quarters.

WILD FOWL. Season with salt and pepper, and put a piece of butter into each; but the flavour is best preserved without stuffing. To take off the fishy taste which wild fowl sometimes have, put an onion, salt, and hot water, into the dripping pan, and baste them with this for the first ten minutes: then take away the pan, and baste constantly with butter. Wild fowl require much less dressing than tame: they should be served of a fine colour, and well frothed up. A rich brown gravy should be sent in the dish; and when the breast is cut into slices, before taking off the bone, a squeeze of lemon, with pepper and salt, is a great improvement to the flavour.

WILTSHIRE BACON. The way to cure Wiltshire bacon is to sprinkle the flitch with salt, and let the blood drain off for twenty-four hours. Then mix a pound and a half of coarse sugar, the same quantity of bay salt, not quite so much as half a pound of saltpetre, and a pound of common salt. Rub this mixture well on the bacon, turning it every day for a month: then hang it to dry, and afterwards smoke it ten days. The quantity of salts above mentioned is sufficient for the whole hog.

WILTSHIRE CHEESE. This is made of new milk, a little lowered with water and skim milk. The curd is first broken with the hand and dish, care being taken to let the whey run off gradually, to prevent its carrying away with it the fat of the cowl. For thin cheese the curd is not broken so fine as in Gloucestershire; for thick cheese it is crushed finer still. The whey is poured off as it rises, and the curd pressed down. The mass is then pared down three or four times over, in slices about an inch thick, in order to extract all the whey from it, and then it is pressed and scalded as before. After separating the whey, the curd is sometimes broken again, and salted in the cowl; and at others it is taken warm out of the liquor, and salted in the vat. Thin cheeses are placed in one layer, with a small handful of salt; and thick ones in two layers, with two handfuls of salt; the salt being spread and rubbed uniformly among the curd.

WINDSOR BEANS. These should be boiled in plenty of water, with a little salt, and be put in when the water boils. Serve them up with boiled bacon, and parsley and butter in a boat.

WINDSOR BEANS FRICASSEED. When grown large, but not mealy, boil, blanch, and lay them in a white sauce previously heated up. Warm them through in the sauce, and serve them up. No beans but what are of a fine green should be used for this dish.

WINDSOR PUDDING. Shred half a pound of suet very fine, grate into it half a pound of French roll, a little nutmeg, and the rind of a lemon. Add to these half a pound of chopped apple, half a pound of currants clean washed and fried, half a pound of jar raisins stoned and chopped, a glass of rich sweet wine, and five eggs well beaten, with a little salt. Mix all thoroughly together, and boil it in a basin or mould for three hours. Sift fine sugar over it when sent to table, and pour white wine sauce into the dish.

WINDSOR SOAP. Cut the best white soap into thin slices, melt it over a slow fire, and scent it with oil of carraway, or any other agreeable perfume. Shaving boxes may then be filled with the melted soap, or it may be poured into a small drawer or any other mould; and after it has stood a few days to dry, it may be cut into square pieces ready for use.

WINE. The moderate use of wine is highly conducive to health, especially in weak and languid habits, and in convalescents who are recovering from the attacks of malignant fevers. Hence it forms an extensive article of commerce, and immense quantities are consumed in this country. But nothing is more capable of being adulterated, or of producing more pernicious effects on the human constitution, and therefore it requires the strictest attention. A few simple means only will be sufficient to detect such adulterations, and to prevent their fatal consequences. If new white wine, for example, be of a sweetish flavour, and leave a certain astringency on the tongue; if it has an unusually high colour, disproportionate to its nominal age and real strength; or if it has a strong pungent taste, resembling that of brandy or other ardent spirits, such liquor may be considered as adulterated. When old wine presents either a very pale or a very deep colour, or possesses a very tart and astringent taste, and deposits a thick crust on the sides or bottom of glass vessels, it has then probably been coloured with some foreign substance. This may easily be detected by passing the liquor through filtering paper, when the colouring ingredients will remain on the surface. The fraud may also be discovered by filling a small vial with the suspected wine, and closing its mouth with the finger: the bottle is then to be inverted, and immersed in a basin of clear water. The finger being withdrawn, the tinging or adulterating matter will pass into the water, so that the former may be observed sinking to the bottom by its own weight. Wines becoming tart or sour, are frequently mixed with the juice of carrots and turnips; and if this do not recover the sweetness to a sufficient degree, alum or the sugar of lead is sometimes added; but which cannot fail to be productive of the worst effects, and will certainly operate as slow poison. To detect the alum, let the suspected liquor be mixed with a little lime water. At the end of ten or twelve hours the composition must be filtered, and if crystals be formed, it contains no alum. But if it be adulterated, the sediment will split into small segments, which will adhere to the filtering paper on which it is spread. In order to detect the litharge or sugar of lead, a few drops of the solution of yellow orpiment and quicklime should be poured into a glass of wine. If the colour of the liquor change, and become successively dark red, black or brown, it is an evident proof of its being adulterated with lead. As orpiment is poisonous, it would be better to use a few drops of vitriolic acid for this purpose, which should be introduced into a small quantity of the suspected liquor. This will cause the lead to sink to the bottom of the glass, in the form of a white powder. A solution of hepatic gas in distilled water, if added to wine sophisticated with lead, will produce a black sediment, and thus discover the smallest quantity of that poisonous metal; but in pure wine, no precipitation will take place. The following preparation has been proved to be a sufficient test for adulterated wine or cider. Let one dram of the dry liver of sulphur, and two drams of the cream of tartar, be shaken in two ounces of distilled water, till the whole become saturated with hepatic gas: the mixture is then to be filtered through blotting paper, and kept in a vial closely corked. In order to try the purity of wine, about twenty drops of this test are to be poured into a small glass: if the wine only become turbid with white clouds, and a similar sediment be deposited, it is then not impregnated with any metallic ingredients. But if it turn black or muddy, its colour approach to a deep red, and its taste be at first sweet, and then astringent, the liquor certainly contains the sugar, or other pernicious preparation of lead. The presence of iron is indicated by the wine acquiring a dark blue coat, after the test is put in, similar to that of pale ink; and if there be any particles of copper or verdigris, a blackish grey sediment will be formed. A small portion of sulphur is always mixed with white wines, in order to preserve them; but if too large a quantity be employed, the wine thus impregnated becomes injurious. Sulphur however may easily be detected, for if a piece of an egg shell, or of silver, be immersed in the wine, it instantly acquires a black hue. Quicklime is also mixed with wine, for imparting a beautiful red colour. Its presence may easily be ascertained by suffering a little wine to stand in a glass for two or three days; when the lime, held in solution, will appear on the surface in the form of a thin pellicle or crust. The least hurtful but most common adulteration of wine, is that of mixing it with water, which may be detected by throwing into it a small piece of quicklime. If it slack or dissolve the lime, the wine must have been diluted; but if the contrary, which will seldom be the case, the liquor may be considered as genuine.

WINE COOLED. The best way of cooling wine or other liquors in hot weather, is to dip a cloth in cold water, and wrap it round the bottle two or three times, then place it in the sun. The process should be renewed once or twice.

WINE POSSET. Boil some slices of white bread in a quart of milk. When quite soft, take it off the fire, grate in half a nutmeg, and a little sugar. Pour it out, and add by degrees a pint of sweet wine, and serve it with toasted bread.

WINE REFINED. In order to refine either wine or cider, beat up the whites and shells of twenty eggs. Mix a quart of the liquor with them, and put it into the cask. Stir it well to the bottom, let it stand half an hour, and stop it up close. In a few days it may be bottled off.

WINE ROLL. Soak a penny French roll in raisin wine till it will hold no more: put it in a dish, and pour round it a custard, or cream, sugar, and lemon juice. Just before it is served, sprinkle over it some nonpareil comfits, or stick into it a few blanched almonds slit. Sponge biscuits may be used instead of the roll.

WINE SAUCE. For venison or hare, mix together a quarter of a pint of claret or port, the same quantity of plain mutton gravy, and a table-spoonful of currant jelly. Let it just boil up, and send it to table in a sauce boat.

WINE VINEGAR. After making raisin wine, when the fruit has been strained, lay it on a heap to heat; then to every hundred weight, put fifteen gallons of water. Set the cask in the sun, and put in a toast of yeast. As vinegar is so necessary an article in a family, and one on which so great a profit is made, a barrel or two might always be kept preparing, according to what suited. If the raisins of wine were ready, that kind might be made; if gooseberries be cheap and plentiful, then gooseberry vinegar may be preferred; or if neither, then the sugar vinegar; so that the cask need not be left empty, or be liable to grow musty.

WINE WHEY. Put on the fire a pint of milk and water, and the moment it begins to boil, pour in as much sweet wine as will turn it into whey, and make it look clear. Boil it up, and let it stand off the fire till the curd all sinks to the bottom. Do not stir it, but pour off the whey for use. Or put a pint of skimmed milk and half a pint of white wine into a basin, let it stand a few minutes, and pour over it a pint of boiling water. When the curd has settled to the bottom, pour off the whey, and put in a piece of lump sugar, a sprig of balm, or a slice of lemon.