VINTAGE RECIPES

[Welland Telegraph 1900]

Watermelon Salad

Cut the red portion of a well-chilled watermelon in small cubes. Place two cups of the dice in a salad bowl; have ready a mixture of four tablespoons of sugar, one teaspoonful of grated nutmeg. Sprinkle the cut melon with this; pour over a wineglassful of orange juice and serve.

Ten pounds of currants, mashed and strained through a cloth. Add one quart of vinegar, five pounds of granulated sugar, three tablespoonfuls of cinnamon, two of allspice and one each of cloves and salt and one-half teaspoonful of red pepper. Boil slowly one hour and put up in small bottles.

This is a luncheon dainty or dinner dessert, served with ice cream. Select as many fine, red-cheeked peaches as there are guests. Wipe carefully and halve, removing stones. Fill each half with following paste,- Beat white of 1 egg stiff, add powdered sugar till creamy and one cup mashed peaches, one cup rolled macaroons. Fill each half peach with the same. Arrange on white china platter. Decorate here and there between well-washed, glossy, tiny peach twigs and leaves.

One can of shredded pineapple, one fourth box of gelatine, five eggs the whites only, one pint of whipped cream, one pint of water, one cup of sugar. Drain the syrup from the fruit, pour one-half

the water over the gelatine and allow to stand thirty minutes, then pour the syrup, sugar and remaining water into the gelatine, place on the fire and allow to come to a boil, only; pour over the eggs, which have been whipped stiff and fruit, beat for twenty minutes, mould; at serving time turn from the mould, cover the top with the whipped cream. This should slice in three distinct shades.

One bushel of ripe tomatoes will make 5 gals of wine. Pick off the stems, mash them in a clean tub or a granite or porcelain-lined kettle, then strain through a cheese-cloth bag and add 3 lbs of coffee or light brown sugar to each gallon. Put in a cask and let ferment for 36 hours, skimming off the impurities that rise to the top. Cork and seal tightly after fermentation is over. It is better to bottle domestic wine than to use casks or demijohns. Bottles are more convenient to handle; and then the danger of air getting in from repeated openings is avoided. A curious creole method to make wine perfectly clear is as follows– To 1-2 gallon of wine add 2 wineglasses of sweet milk. Stir into the wine and pour all into a transparent half-gallon bottle or jar. Stop it and set to one side for 24 hours, when the wine will be clear, the sediment all being in the milk at the bottom. Carefully pour off the wine and bottle, not shaking or stirring up the milk in the process. The same practice will clarify vinegar.

To 1 qt. flour add 1 teaspoon salt, 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder, 2 tablespoons butter and one pint of milk. While sifting flour add salt and baking powder. Then rub in butter cold, add milk. Mix to a soft dough. With large cookey cutter cut in separate pieces. In each, place berries and fold in oblong shape. Bake in well-greased pans. Serve with butter and sugar sauce or sauce quoted above, substituting huckleberries.

Take a piece of salmon, codfish or other boiled fish, free it from skin and bones, pick up fine. Take half a dozen dinner rolls, cut off a thin slice of the top crust, scoop out all the bread, leaving the hollow crust, mix the crumbs with the fish; season well with pepper and salt. Make a cream sauce with a half pint of rich milk, two tablespoonfuls of butter and as much flour; cook until it begins to thicken, then add the fish and bread crumbs; boil until quite thick, when fill the empty rolls and put on the top crust. Garnish with parsley.

Take half a dozen oranges and cut them in half with a sharp knife; scrape out all the pulp, notch the skins around the edges, and put them in cold water until they are wanted. Put all the pulp in a jelly bag squeeze out the juice and add to it enough water to make three gills, add an ounce and a half of gelatine dissolved in one and a half cupfuls of boiling water, the juice and grated rind of a lemon, half a pound of sugar, the crushed shells and beaten whites of three eggs. Stir over the fire until it boils, put a lid on and simmer for eight minutes. Take it off, let it stand until partly cooled, when strain through a hair sieve. Take the orange shells out of water, wipe dry and fill with the mixture. Pack in ice and when wanted for use, whip cream stiff, flavored with sugar and very little vanilla, put half of an English walnut or a candied cherry on top of each and serve in a lace doily on individual plates.