the
dryness of the summer heat is apt to shrink the vessel, and make it
leak. If putty well wrought, tar, or even yellow soap, be rubbed over
the seams, and round the inner rim of the head of the cask, it will
preserve it from opening. The equal temperature of the kitchen is
preferred by experienced housewives to letting the vinegar stand abroad;
they aver the coldness of the nights in this country is prejudicial to
the process, being as speedily perfected as if it underwent no such
check. By those well skilled in the manufacture of home-made wines and
beer, excellent maple-wine and beer might be produced at a very trifling
expense; i.e. that of the labour and skill exercised in the making it.
Every settler grows, as an ornament in his garden, or should grow, hops,
which form one of the principal components of maple-beer when added to
the sap.
HOP-RISING
This excellent, and, I might add, indispensable, article in every
settler's house, is a valuable substitute for ale or beer-yeast, and is
made in the following simple manner:--Take two double handfuls of hops,
boil in a gallon of soft water, if you can get it, till the hops sink to
the bottom of the vessel; make ready a batter formed by stirring a
dessert-platefull of flour and cold water till smooth and pretty thick
together; strain the hop-liquor while scalding hot into the vessel where
your batter is mixed ready; let one person pour the hop-liquor while the
other keeps stirring the batter. When cooled down to a gentle warmth, so
that you can bear the finger well in it, add a cup or basinful of the
former barm, or a bit of leaven, to set it to work; let the barm stand
till it has worked well, then bottle and cork it. Set it by in a cellar
or cool place if in summer, and in winter it is also the best place to
keep it from freezing. Some persons add two or three mealy potatoes
boiled and finely bruised, and it is a great improvement during the cool
months of the year. Potatoes in bread may be introduced very
advantageously; and to first settlers, who have all their flour to buy,
I think it must be a saving.
The following method I found made more palatable and lighter bread than
flour, mixed in the usual way:--Supposing I wanted to make up about a
stone and half of flour, I boiled (having first pared them carefully)--
say three dozen good-sized potatoes in about three quarts or a gallon of
water, till the liquor had the appearance of a thin gruel, and the
potato
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