16 October 1880 - Answers to Correspondents - Cookery

AN ANXIOUS LITTLE COOK - The preserved ginger made in China or the East Indies is much superior to anything we can make at home, as the roots are fresh. The method of making here is, to boil the dried roots till tender, and then boil again in a thin syrup of white sugar.

IDA - To make ginger wine - Put 19 lbs of sugar to 7 gallons of water, and boil for half an hour; skimming it carefully. Then add to it 9 oz of the best ginger, bruised. When nearly cold, chop 9 lbs of raisins very small, and put them into a 9 gallon cask with 1 oz of isinglass and 4 lemons sliced, and a 1/2 pint of fresh yeast. Pour the liquor in which the ginger and sugar were boiled upon them, and leave unstopped for three weeks, and in about three months it will be ready for bottling. There will be one gallon more than the cask will hold at first, which must be placed in a bottle, and kept to fill up the cask every few days; for as the liquor works off, the cask must be kept full. Spring and autumn are the seasons for making this wine.

K.B. - To make inexpensive ginger beer - Put into a sufficiently large earthenware jar 1 gallon of boiling water, 1 lb of loaf sugar, 1 oz of the best ginger bruised, 1 oz of cream-of-tartar, or a sliced lemon. Stir these ingredients up till the sugar be dissolved, and let it remain till as warm as new milk. Then add a tablespoonful of good yeast, poured on a piece of bread, and floated on the top. Cover the whole with a cloth, let it remain 24 hours, and then strain and put into bottles, filling them only three quarters up, cork them well, and tie the corks, and in two days the beer will fit to drink. This quantity will make 18 bottles, and will cost less than a shilling.

A YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER (Janin H.) - We have heard of a family of three persons living on 15s per week, for eatables alone, but we cannot tell if you could manage to live on that sum. The sweetbread is the pancreas of an animal, used for food - that of the calf is the most recherché.

YLIME - What are called "Slim Cakes" are usually made just as pastry is made, not too much butter being used to make them short. They are baked on a flat tin in the oven, or in America on the top of the flat-iron stand sold with the kitcheners.