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practice of the chief cider counties, a very good idea will not fail to be afforded those who may possess little practical skill or experience in preparing this useful and agreeable beverage. The goodness of cider will always greatly depend on the proper mixture, or rather on the proper separation, of the several fruits. Those which have their rind and pulp tinged with green, or are red without a mixture of yellow, which last colour disappears in the first stages of fermentation, must be carefully set apart from such as are yellow, or yellow intermixed with red. These latter kinds, which should be ripe enough to fall from the tree without being much shaken, are alone capable of making fine cider; and each kind should be separately collected, and kept till it becomes perfectly mellow. Prior to its being ground, every heap should be examined, and all decayed or green fruit carefully taken away; a trifling labour, which the excellence of the liquor, and the ease with which too great a degree of fermentation may thus be prevented, will amply repay. Each kind of fruit should be separately ground; or, at least be mixed with such only as becomes ripe precisely at the same time; it is the former practice which produces fine ciders, of different flavours and degrees of strength, from the same orchard. The fruit should be ground, as nearly as possible to a uniform mass, in which the rinds and kernels are scarce dis-, tinguishable. When the apples are thoroughly ground, the pulp must remain twenty-four hours before it be taken to the press. If they were properly mellow, a large quantity of pulp will pass through the hair cloth in which it is expressed; and, as this will be thrown off in the first stages of fermentation, the casks should be each filled about a gallon short.

To make it work kindly, heat a little honey, three whites of eggs, and a little flour, together; put them into a fine rag, and let them hang down by a string to the middle of the cider cask; then put in a pint of new ale yeast pretty warm, and let it purge itself from dross five or six days; after which, draw it off from the lees into smaller casks, or bottles, as you have occasion. If you bottle it, take care to leave the liquor an inch short of the corks, lest the bottles burst by the fermentation. If any such danger exists, you may perceive it by the hissing of the air through the corks; when it will be necessary to open them, to let out the fermenting air. In winter cover up the

bottles and casks warm; but in summer place them in as cold a place as you can, lest the heat should make them ferment and burst the bottles, or the liquor become musty. That it may the better feed, and preserve its strength, put a small lump of loaf-sugar into every bottle.

Ciderkin, Perkin, Purre, or Water Cider.

These various names are, in different parts of the country, given to an inferior kind of liquor, made by macerating the murk, marc, or reduced pulp, of the apples, absurdly called cheese pumice, from which the cider has been expressed, in a small quantity of water, and regrinding it. The residue of three hogsheads of cider commonly yields about one of this liquor, which may be kept till the next autumn. It is, however, almost immediately fit to drink, and usually supplies the place of cider in farm-houses; except, indeed, during harvest, when the labourers are always indulged with the stronger liquor. Though no sort of attention is ever paid to the perkin, as it is most universally called, during its fermentation, it frequently continues more palatable than the cider of the same fruit, till near the end of the following summer. It should seem, that the name perkin ought, in strictness, to be confined to the smaller sort of perry, and ciderkin to that of cider; though we do not recollect ever to have seen them thus classically distinguished. Nor is there any known definition of the word purre; which is far less generally used, and may have been originally a mere local corruption of the word perry, at first intended to denote a weak liquor from the murk of the combined fruits. The name of water cider is sufficiently obvious. In many parts, these weak liquors supply the place of small beer; and, when boiled, after pressure, with a proper quantity of hops, suffered to stand till cold, and tunned next day, may be kept any length of time.

Pai-y.

This incomparable British beverage, which far surpasses, in its approaches to genuine wine, all our other liquors, seems very much neglected, and apparently undervalued in the general estimation. Some of it, however, is sufficiently excellent to be often sold at taverns, inns, &c. as the best champaign;

where, indeed, it is then overvalued. More perry, there seems much reason to believe, is sold in England under the name of different wines, than its own; such is our national weakness, with regard to favourite liquors, &c. It is remarkable that, though every variety of the apple which possesses colour and richness is capable of making fine cider, a good perry pear requires an assemblage of qualities rarely found in the same fruit. The juice of the best perry pears is so harsh and rough, that even hungry swine are said to reject them; yet, though the juice of these pears, when the fruit is attempted to be eaten, occasions a long-continued heat and irritation in the throat, by being simply pressed from the pulp, it becomes rich and sweet, without more roughness than is found agreeable to almost every palate. Pears, when full ripe, known by their beginning to fall, are ground and pressed for making perry, exactly in the same manner as apples for cider; but the reduced pulp is not usually suffered to remain, like that of apples, any time unpressed. It is, therefore, immediately put in the press, between several layers of hair cloths; the liquor being received into a vat, from whence it is removed into casks, which stand in any cool place, or even in the open air, with their bungholes open. The management of the liquor, during its fermentation, is similar to that of cider; but perry does not furnish the same criterions for knowing the proper moment to rack off. Where the pears have been regularly ripe, their produce will commonly become moderately clear and quiet in a few days, and it must then be drawn off from its grosser lees. Excessive fermentation is best prevented in the same manner as cider; and the liquor is rendered bright by isinglass, which cider but seldom requires, though perry is scarcely ever made thoroughly clear or fit for the bottle without it. The process of fining and racking off must be repeated, exactly in the same manner, till the required degree of brightness be obtained. The brightness of the perry being now secured, its after management may be like that of cider though it does not well bear situa tions exposed to much change of temperature; nor can its future merit, like that of cider, be judged of by its present state. In the bottle, however, it almost always retains its good qualities; and in that situation it is recommended to be constantly put at the conclusion of the first succeeding summer,

provided it then remain sound and perfect. Were we more intimately acquainted with this excellent liquor, we should, perhaps, less frequently be induced to purchase as wine what we are at present inclined to neglect as perry.

BILLS OF FARE, FAMILY DINNERS, &c.

BILLS OF FARE, &C.

List of Various Articles in Season in different Months.

Meat.

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BEEF, mutton, and veal, are in season, all the year; lamb, in January, February, March, November, and December; grass-lamb, in April, May, June, July, August, September, and October; pork, in January, February, March, September, October, November, and December; buck-venison, in June, July, August, and September; and doe-venison, in October, November, and December.

Fish.

January-Cod, crawfish, eels, lampreys, perch, tench, carp, sturgeon, skate, thornback, turbot, plaice, flounders, soles, oysters, prawns, crabs, lobsters, smelts, and whitings.

February.—Thornback, turbot, flounders, plaice, sturgeons, soles, cod, prawns, oysters, crabs, lobsters, smelts, whitings, skate, crawfish, lampreys, eels, carp, tench, and perch.

March.—Tench, carp, mullets, eels, whitings, sole), skate, thornback, turbot, lobsters, flounders, plaice, prawns, crawfish, and crabs.

April.—Crawfish, trout, tench, chub, carp, mullet, skate, soles, turbot, salmon, prawn, lobsters, crabs, and smelts.

May.—Chub, trout, eels, tench, carp, smelts, turbot*, soles, salmon, prawns, crabs, crawfish, and lobsters.

June.—Eels, pike, tench, carp, trout, mackarel, mullets, turbot, soles, salmon, smelts, lobsters, crawfish, and prawns.

July.—Mackarel, mullets, haddocks, cod, flounders, plaice, soles, carp, salmon, skate, thornback, pike, tench, lobsters, eels, crawfish, and prawns.

August.—Thornbacks, skate, plaice, flounders, haddocks, cod, carp, pike, mackarel, mullets, oysters, prawns, crawfish, eels, and lobsters.

September.—Thornbacks, plaice, flounders, haddocks, cod, carp, salmon, smelts, soles, skate, herrings, oysters, lobsters, pike, and tench.

October.—Brills, smelts, bearbet, holoberts, dorees, perch, tench, carp, pike, herrings, gudgeons, oysters, muscles, cockles, lobsters, and salmon-trout.

November. Salmon, bearbet, holoberts, dorees, gurnets, tench, pike, carp, smelts, salmon, herrings, trout, muscles, cockles, gudgeons, lobsters, and oysters.

December.—Bearbet, holoberts, dorees, sturgeon, gurnets, turbot, carp, soles, codlings, cod, smelts, oysters, muscles, cockles, eels, and gudgeons.

Poultry and Game.

January.—Pullets, fowls, chickens, tame pigeons, capons, turkeys, snipes, woodcocks, rabbits, hares, partridges, and pheasants.

February-Fowls, pullets, capons, turkeys, chickens, pigeons, tame rabbits, hares, snipes, woodcocks, partridges, and pheasants.

March. Tame rabbits, pigeons, ducklings, chickens, fowls, capons, pullets, and turkeys.

April.—Chickens, fowls, pullets, pigeons, ducklings, leverets, and rabbits.

May.—Chickens, fowls, pullets, turkey poults, ducklings, green geese, leverets, and rabbits.

June.—Green geese, chickens, pullets, fowls, plovers, turkey-poults, ducklings, wheat-ears, leverets, and rabbits.

July.—Green geese, pigeons, chickens, fowls, pullets, duck lings, ducks, turkey-poults, leverets, rabbits, plovers, wheat

ears.

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