Godey's Lady's Book, Vol. 48, June, 1854

Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

Text size

FROM THE CELEBRATED ESTABLISHMENT OF THOMAS WHITE AND CO.,

_No. 41 South Second Street, Philadelphia._

No. 1.--INFANT'S TURBAN. No. 2.--BOY'S JOCKEY CAPS.

No. 3.--SUMMER BONNET. No. 4.--ITALIAN LEGHORN.

(Description on page 548.)]

THE PYRAMID TALMA.

[From the establishment of G. BRODIE, No. 51 Canal Street, New York. Drawn by L. T. VOIGT, from actual articles of costume.]

THE Talma we select for illustration is peculiarly becoming, especially for the richest toilet. Its material is white _poult de soie_. It is constructed of nine pieces cut in gores or pyramidal form, joined together, the seams being hidden by a fancy braid trimming. Nine tabs, widening at the bottom, and placed at distances equal to their width, descending about one-third of the depth of the garment, constitute the form of this novel garment. It is exquisitely adorned in needlework, and beautified by an elegant netted fringe. By an oversight in the drawing, fringe, which should also border the tabs that form the upper portion of the dress, was omitted.

THE SCARF VOLANT.

[From the establishment of G. BRODIE, No. 51 Canal Street, New York. Drawn by L. T. VOIGT, from actual articles of costume.]

THIS is a novel and peculiarly dressy-looking garment, the distinctive features being a closed square front (which is confined by a bow of a rare fancy ribbon), and in the character of the flounce: this is gathered or fulled in divisions, giving it the appearance somewhat of a series of festoons. The separate compartments are strongly pronounced by transverse bands of black velvet and narrow black lace; a similar trimming of which outlines the whole scarf, and, with the piquant air of the garment, renders it an exceedingly beautiful production. The color may be made to taste. Those of lavender _glacé_ silks, the drabs, and of black taffeta, especially are very beautiful.

THE PALACE WALTZ.

BY A YOUNG AMERICAN COMPOSER.

Published by T. C. ANDREWS, 66 Spring Garden St., Phila.

* * * * *

_Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1853,
by T. C. ANDREWS, in the Clerk's Office of the
District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania._

]

THE EMPRESS. THE NOVADA.

A pattern of either of these will be sent on receipt of 62½ cents. Post-office stamps received in payment. These patterns are exact counterparts of the original, with trimmings, etc.

THE EMPRESS.--_A silk mantelet_, cut low in the neck. Two hollow plaits forming a fichu are trimmed with a bow in the middle of the back. The bottom is bordered by a wide ribbon plaited with bows at each side of the arm. Two rows of lace complete it.

THE NOVADA.--_Pelisse_, cut low and square. A wide revers forms the sleeve. All the edges are trimmed with ribbon, silk with gold fillets. Two rows of lace fall on the back, one narrow between two plaited ribbons; the other wider, which begins square in front and widens in the back: a deep lace runs along the bottom. The back is plain, and falls in flutes from the second row of ribbons.]

_ENGRAVED BY ALFRED JONES FOR GODEY'S LADY'S BOOK._]

GODEY'S

LADY'S BOOK.

PHILADELPHIA, JUNE, 1854.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A Consideration, 569

A Lace Basque, 550

A Loving Heart, by _W. S. Gaffney_, 543

A Song, by _Charles Stewart_, 501

A Strange Incident, 514

Braid for Child's Dress, 549

Bread-Cloth, 553

Caps and Headdress, 546

Celestial Phenomena, by _D. W. Belisle_, 504

Centre-Table Gossip, 569

Chemistry for Youth, 81, 185, 279, 566

Chinese Sayings, 548

Costly China, 569

Cottage Furniture, 551

Editors' Table, 555

Enigmas, 567

Evening Thoughts, by _H. Merran Parke_, 543

Everyday Actualities.--No. XX 487

Every Lady her own Dressmaker, 570

Fashions, 571

Geraniums, _from Mrs. Hale's New Household Receipt-Book_, 565

Godey's Arm-Chair, 561

Godey's Course of Lessons in Drawing, 502

History of Pearls, Natural and Artificial, 533

Illuminated, or Vellum-Painting, 538

Juvenile Fashions, 547

Lady's Riding Boots, 551

Lady's Slipper, 552

Legend of Long-Pond; or, Lake of the Golden
Cross, by _Fanny Fales_, 506

Let me Die! by _S. M. Montgomery_, 544

Letters Left at the Pastry Cook's, _Edited by Horace Mayhew_, 499

Lines to a Bronchitis Birdie, by _N. W. Bridge_, 545

L'Isolement, _Translated from the French of Alphonse
de Lamartine, by Wm. A. Kenyon_, 545

Literary Notices, 558

Mantillas, from the celebrated Establishment of G. Brodie,
New York, 482, 483

Mrs. Clark's Experience as a Servant, by _Bell_, 508

My Tulips, by _H. S. D._, 544

Niagara, 521

Ornaments, 570

Patterns for Embroidery, 554

Philadelphia Agency. 565

Physical Training, 525

Preservation of Food, 487

Receipts, &c., 567

Secret Love, by _Kate Harrington_, 542

Slander, 557

Smyrna Embroidery.--Lady's Slipper on Cloth, 552

Sonnets, by _Wm. Alexander_, 543

The Borrower's Department, 566

The Dead Tree, 544

The Last Kiss, by _Jenny A. M'Ewan_, 541

The Needle in the Haymow.--A Story for Housekeepers,
by _H. D. R._, 515

The Nursery Basket, 570

The Pedestrian Tour, by _Pauline Forsyth_, 494

The Schottisch Partner, by _Motte Hall_, 542

The Toilet, 568

The Trials of a Needle-Woman, by _T. S. Arthur_, 527

The Wild Flowers of the Month, by _H. Coultas_, 523

Time's Changes; or, Fashions in the Olden Times, 512

To a Friend on the Day of his Marriage, 545

To Correspondents. 571

Truth, by _D. Hardy, Jr._, 550

Two Mothers? by _Mrs. S. F. Jennings_, 543

What shall be done for the Insane? 555

Why don't Ladies learn to Cook? 549

EMBELLISHMENTS, &c.

_June._

Eastport and Passamaquoddy Bay.

Colored Fashions.

Embroidered Dress Collar.

The Truant Detected.

Fashionable Bonnets and Caps.

The Pyramid Talma.

The Scarf Volant.

Music.--The Palace Waltz.

The Empress and the Novada.

Preservation of Food.

Godey's Course of Lessons in Drawing.

The Wild Flowers of the Month.

Artificial Pearls in the Mussel.

Illuminated, or Vellum-Painting.

Caps and Headdress.

Juvenile Fashions.

Braid for Child's Dress.

Lace Basque.

Lady's Riding Boots.

Cottage Furniture.

Lady's Slipper on Cloth.--Smyrna Embroidery.

Design for a Bread-Cloth.

Patterns for Embroidery.

EVERYDAY ACTUALITIES.--NO. XX.

ILLUSTRATED WITH PEN AND GRAVER.

BY C. T. HINCKLEY.

PRESERVATION OF FOOD.

THE various organic substances furnished by the animal and vegetable kingdoms, which constitute the food of man, are, from the nature of their chemical structure, liable to change and decay; they are also irregular in their supply; hence arises the necessity of storing up the abundance of one season to meet the deficiencies of another. The art of preserving food as much as possible in its original state is therefore of great importance; it has been improved by gradual steps, depending, in great measure, as in so many other cases, on chemical discovery and the diffusion of chemical knowledge among persons engaged in the useful arts; so that, at the present time, the deprivations suffered by our forefathers may be prevented; the commonest articles of food may be enjoyed at all seasons; and even the delicious fruits of our gardens may be made to contribute to our health and refreshment at a season when the trees which produced them are covered with snow. The mariner, too, is not now necessarily confined to salt meats; he may, on the longest voyage, and in the severest clime, as easily enjoy fresh meat and vegetables as when he is in port.

The necessity for adopting means for the preservation of articles of food arises from the complicated structure of organic compounds, and their tendency to resolve themselves into simpler or inorganic compounds. Although the comprehensive history of the animal and vegetable kingdoms is written with a very brief alphabet; although the elements which enter into the composition of organic bodies are only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen--often, but not always, nitrogen--and occasionally minute portions of sulphur and phosphorus; yet their extraordinary powers of combination are such that there appears to be no limit to the number of definite substances which they are capable of producing, each substance having a character peculiar to itself, and often a crystalline form. It is very different with the fifty-eight other members of the list of elements; the compounds which they assist in forming are inorganic, and they are formed by the union of _pairs_ of elements, or _pairs_ of _binary_ compounds.

It is a consequence of this complicated structure that organic compounds are unstable in their character, and liable to decomposition, or, in other words, to resolve themselves into simpler compounds. An inorganic substance, on the contrary, however complex its formula may appear, is actually built up of binary compounds, the simplest that can be formed. But in the organic substance the carbon and hydrogen have a strong tendency to form carbonic acid; the hydrogen and oxygen to form water; the hydrogen and nitrogen to form ammonia; or, the hydrogen and the sulphur to form sulphuretted hydrogen, &c. In popular language, these changes are expressed by such terms as _decay_ and _putrefaction_. Liebig, however, has given precision to them by limiting the term _decay_ to the decomposition of moist organic matter freely exposed to the air, the oxygen of which gradually burns and destroys it without sensible elevation of temperature.[1] The term _putrefaction_ is limited to changes which occur in and beneath the surface of water, the effect being a mere transposition of elements or metamorphosis of the organic body.[2] The conversion of sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid is a simple illustration of the term. The contact of oxygen is, however, first necessary to the change, which, when once begun, is continued without the aid of any other external substance, except perhaps water, or its elements. Every instance of putrefaction begins with decay; and if the decay, or its cause, viz., the absorption of oxygen, be prevented, no putrefaction occurs. In short, if the access of oxygen be prevented, there is no decay; if the access of water be prevented, there is no putrefaction. The exclusion of air and moisture forms the basis of some of the best methods of preserving food.

There are certain substances named _Antiseptics_ (from ἀντὶ, against, and σήπομας, to putrefy), from their property (exerted, however, very unequally) of preventing the putrefaction of organic substances. Thus, alcohol, and common salt in certain proportions, check all putrefaction and all the processes of fermentation by depriving the putrefying body of water. Nitre, vinegar, spices, and sugar are also antiseptics. The antiseptic effect of a very low temperature is caused by the solidification of the water and other juices, which, in their usual fluid state, allow the molecules to move freely on one another.

We will first notice the various methods of preserving animal food. These are: 1, by drying; 2, by cold; 3, by salting and by sugar; 4, by smoking; 5, by vinegar; 6, by parboiling and excluding air; 7, by potting; 8, by alcohol.

1. A familiar example of the first method is afforded in common glue, which in its hard and dry state may be kept for any length of time. So also may white of egg, if prepared by pouring the white of a number of eggs into a large flat dish, and exposing this for twelve or fourteen hours to heat in front of the fire. As the water evaporates, the albumen forms into a yellow, transparent, hard, shining, brittle mass, which scales off at the least touch--a test that it is properly done. These two substances, _gelatine_ and _albumen_, are two of the constituents of flesh; _fibrin_ or _fleshy fibre_, which is the third, dries equally well, and is not liable to putrefaction in that state. Gelatine, after being dried, may be softened by the action of hot water. Albumen _coagulated_ by heat cannot be softened again by water; but if dried at about 140° without being coagulated, it may be dissolved in cold water, retaining all its valuable properties. Hence, in preserving meat by drying, too high a temperature must be carefully avoided, or the albumen will become coagulated, and the meat be made insoluble.

The dried flesh of the bison, of the buffalo, and of the deer, forms _pemmican_, the preparation of which is thus described in Captain Back's Journal:--

"While meat remains in a thick piece, it is impossible to get the middle dried before putrefaction commences; but if the meat be cut into slices, its desiccation may be easily effected. The fleshy parts of the hind quarters are cut into very thin slices, dried in the sun, or before the fire, and pounded. Two parts of the pounded meat are then mixed with one of melted fat, and packed into a bag formed of the hide of the animal. A bag weighing ninety pounds is called a _taureau_ by the Canadian voyageurs; and, in fact, only one bag of pemmican is generally made from each bison cow. Two pounds of this kind of food are sufficient for the daily support of a laboring man; though, when the voyageurs first commence upon pemmican, they each consume three pounds or more. In the spring, they generally boil the young shoots of _Epilobium angustifolium_ with it, and some Scotchmen in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company add flour or oatmeal, thus rendering it more palatable. The best pemmican is made of finely-pounded meat mixed with marrow, and further improved by the addition of dried berries or currants. If kept from the air, it may be preserved sound for several years, and being very portable, it might be used with great advantage in provisioning troops that have to make forced marches. It may be eaten raw, or mixed with a little water and boiled; and although not much relished by those who taste it for the first time, the voyageur, with the single addition of the luxury of tea, requires nothing else for breakfast, dinner, and supper."

In the West Indies, and in South America, jerked beef is prepared by cutting the meat into slices, dipping them into sea-water or brine, and then drying them in the sun. The flesh of wild cattle is thus preserved at Buenos Ayres. Sometimes this dried meat is pounded in a mortar, into a uniform paste, which is pressed into jars, and if intended to supply the wants of the traveller, it is beaten up with maize meal and packed closely in leather bags. It is eaten in this state without further cooking. Drying meat in the air is said, however, to injure its flavor, and to dissipate a great portion of the nutritious juices.

Some kinds of fish are preserved by slitting them down the middle, and drying them in the air to evaporate the moisture. Small cod, haddock, and stock fish, prepared in this way, will, if kept dry, remain good for a great length of time.

Portable soup is prepared by processes similar to those used in the manufacture of glue. The gelatine of meat is dissolved by boiling water, and the water being evaporated, the gelatine is left in a solid state. Any fresh lean meat, with the fat cut away, will answer the purpose. Bones are also used for the purpose, the gelatine being extracted by means of a digester. In the French manufacture of _gelatine brut fin_, one hundred pounds of bones yield about twenty-five of gelatine, which is dried, cut up into dice, and used for making soup.

2. The effect of cold in the preservation of animal substances received a remarkable illustration in the discovery made by Pallas, in the year 1779, on the shores of the Frozen Ocean, near the mouth of the river Lena, of an animal of immense size, imbedded in ice, which, as it melted gradually, exposed it to the air and furnished food for the hungry wolves and other animals of those regions. It was the opinion of Cuvier that this animal differed from every known species of elephant, and was antediluvian, preserved from the remote period of the deluge in the mass of ice which enveloped it. Some of the hair of this animal may be seen in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, England.

In Russia, Canada, Hudson's Bay, and other countries where the frost is sufficiently steady, meat preserved in this way is a common article of commerce. Travellers speak with admiration of the frozen markets of Russia, supplied as they are from distant places with provisions solidified by the cold. Thus, in the market at Petersburg, Mr. Kohl noticed partridges from Saratoff, swans from Finland, heathcocks and grouse from Livonia and Esthuria, while the wide Steppes furnished the trapp-geese which flutter over their endless plains, where the Cossack hunts them on horseback, and kills them with his formidable whip. All these birds, as soon as the life-blood has flown, are apparently converted into stone by the frost, and, packed in huge chests, are sent for sale to the capital. So rapid are the effects of frost in that country, that the snow-white hares, which are brought in sledge-loads to the market, are usually frozen in the attitude of flight, with their ears pointed and their legs stretched out, just as they were at the moment of death. Another curious sight in these markets is a frozen reindeer, its knees doubled under its body, its hairy snout stretched forth upon the ground, and its antlers rising majestically in the air; or a mighty elk, disappearing piece by piece, as the action of the saw and the axe separates it for distribution among the several customers.

When provisions have been frozen, great care is required in thawing them; for, if this be done suddenly, putrefaction soon sets in, and although cooked immediately, they are hard and deficient in flavor. They must be thawed by immersion in cold water.

The London markets are supplied with salmon packed in ice from many of the northern rivers that flow to the eastern coasts of Britain. Every salmon fishery is now provided with an ice-house, and a stock of ice collected during the winter. The salmon is packed in large oblong wooden boxes, with pounded ice between, and the fish is received in London as fresh as when it was taken out of the water. It is not, however, frozen. Most fishmongers are furnished with ice-houses or cellars for the preservation of their fish in tubs of ice; and we do not see why English butchers should not be provided with larders cooled by the same means. In many parts of the United States every housekeeper has a small ice-safe, in which, through the warm season, all kinds of perishable provisions are kept. Public ice-houses are also maintained by the butchers, so that, under the burning climate of South Carolina, there is less loss in the way of butcher's meat, fish, game, &c., than in the comparatively temperate summer of London. The meat is sent to the ice-house, near the market, every evening, and is cooled down to near the freezing-point during the night; when exposed on the stalls next day, it retains its low temperature for a long time. Such a plan, adopted in London, would prevent the immense waste of meat during every summer, which is said to amount to at least two thousand tons in London alone. It is true that, when meat has been once frozen, its flavor is injured, but the reduction of meat to 32° or thereabouts, and the solidification of its juices, are very different things; and it would be easy to regulate the temperature within a range of several degrees.

3. Various kinds of salt are used in the preservation of food. Saltpetre and sal prunella (which is saltpetre deprived of its water of crystallization by heat) are also used for the purpose. The action of these alkaline salts upon animal substances is, as already noticed, to abstract the water in the juices of the meat, and, being dissolved therein, the salts enter the pores of the animal substance; the albumen of the meat, which is more liable to putrefaction than the gelatine and fibrine, is thus rendered less so. There are two methods of salting, _dry salting_ and _pickling_. In dry salting, the meat is packed in dry salt, or in some cases the surface is rubbed all over with salt. In pickling, the meat is kept immersed in a solution (sometimes saturated) of common salt dissolved in water. This method does not render the meat so salt as dry rubbing, and is probably less injurious to its nutritious qualities, but it will not keep the meat so well. Bacon is _cured_ by salting and drying, for which latter purpose it is often hung up in the wide chimneys of farm-house kitchens; cod is also salted and dried for the large demand of the Peninsula; in England, it is used in a _green_ state; that is, instead of being split quite open, it is only opened down to the navel, then salted, and laid in brine or strong pickle, and put into casks without drying. Haddock, cod, or ling, are cured by splitting the fish and removing the backbone; they are then salted for two or three days, with equal parts of salt and sugar, or with salt alone; they are next stretched on sticks, and laid on the beach to dry in the sun, or they are arranged on stages, or hung up in an inclosed space warmed by a stove. Herrings are salted, or pickled, and smoked.

Sugar, like salt, takes away the water from animal substances, and thus prevents putrefaction. By immersing meat in molasses, it has been preserved fresh for months. Fish is sometimes preserved by cutting it open, rubbing in sugar, and leaving it for a few days; it is then dried in the air, taking care to turn it frequently. For a salmon of six pounds weight, a table-spoonful of brown sugar is sufficient; but, if hardness be required, a teaspoonful of saltpetre is to be added.

4. The efficacy of _smoking_, or _smoke-drying_, arises not only from the heat of the smoke, but from certain chemical products disengaged during the combustion of the wood fuel used for the purpose. Pyroligneous acid vapor and creasote are both produced, and the latter substance possesses the remarkable property of coagulating albumen. Hence, those chimneys only are fit for the purpose where the fire below is wood or peat, not coal. The kind of wood burnt is also of importance, the smoke from beech and oak being preferable to that from fir or larch. Smoke from the twigs of juniper, rosemary, peppermint, &c., impart to the meat a portion of their aromatic flavor. Westphalia hams owe some of their excellence to being smoked by juniper. Slow smoking is preferable to rapid, as it penetrates completely into the interior of the meat. In some parts of the country, the drying and smoking of hams are a separate trade. In such cases, a smoking-house or hut is erected, about twelve feet square, and the walls seven feet high, with a hole in the roof; joists are laid across inside, to hang the flitches on, and the floor is covered five or six inches deep with sawdust, which, being kindled, produces much smoke and little flame.

5. Vinegar and some other acids preserve both animal and vegetable substances by coagulating their albumen, which, as already stated, is peculiarly liable to putrefactive fermentation.

6. In the year 1810, M. Appert received a reward of 12,000 francs from the French Government for his method of parboiling provisions, and inclosing them in earthenware vessels in such a manner as to exclude the air. Many vegetables, fruits, &c., can be kept fresh for a great length of time, by shutting them up closely in a vessel, having previously filled up the interstices with sand or other loose substance that will exclude nearly all the air. Fresh walnuts may be preserved in this way in a jar, packed with sand and closely covered over; grapes packed in sawdust are imported into this country. Meat cannot be preserved in this way, but by exposing it to the heat of boiling water, the albumen, in which putrefaction first commences, coagulates; and as coagulated albumen is somewhat slow in decomposing, we thus have a reason for the common observation that cooked meat will keep longer than raw. It will not, however, keep many days, unless the air be perfectly excluded, not only from the external, but from the internal parts. The air in the interior may be expelled by boiling, and the exterior air may be kept away by inclosing the substance in an air-tight vessel. If these conditions be carefully observed, food may be preserved for any length of time. Appert's method consists in applying heat to the substances to be preserved, so as to coagulate their fermentable juices, and then to place them in such a situation as to deprive them of contact with air. The vessel in which the meat is prepared is plunged for some time into boiling water before it is finally sealed, in order to drive out the last portions of the air; for, if a small portion of oxygen gas were present, this would be sufficient to commence the process of fermentation, and when once begun it would be continued.

M. Appert's process may be described as follows:--

The meat to be preserved is first parboiled, or somewhat more, and freed from the bones. It is then put, together with vegetables, if required, into tin cases or canisters, which are filled quite up with a rich gravy; a tin cover, with a small aperture in it, is then carefully fixed on to each canister by solder, and while the vessel is perfectly full, it is placed in boiling water, or in a saline bath, heated above the boiling point of water, and kept therein until the air has been expelled as completely as possible by the steam generated within the canister. The small hole in the cover is completely closed up with a little solder while the contents are yet hot, the issue of the steam being stopped for a moment by means of a damp sponge. The canister, with its ingredients, is now allowed to cool, in consequence of which these contract, and the sides of the vessel are forced slightly inwards by the pressure of the atmosphere, and become a little concave. As a precautionary measure, however, the tins are placed in the testing-room, which is heated to above 100° Fahr. Should putrefaction take place in consequence of a minute portion of oxygen left in the case, and not combined with the animal or vegetable matter, the generated gases will burst the canisters; those, however, which withstand this test will preserve the provisions for many years; for as each vessel is hermetically sealed, and all access of air prevented, it may be sent into any climate without fear of putrefaction, and the most delicate food of one country be thus eaten in its original perfection in a distant region, many months, or even years after its preparation. In this manner may all kinds of alimentary substances be preserved; beef, mutton, veal, and poultry; fish and game; soups, broths, and vegetables; creams and custards. Of a quantity taken by Captain Nash to India, not one canister was spoiled; and one which he brought back contained, after two years, beef in the highest state of perfection and preservation, and after having been carried upwards of 35,000 miles, in the warmest climates. This method has been adopted by the commissioners for victualling the English Navy, who, having examined some meat so preserved for four years, during voyages in the Mediterranean, found it as sound, sweet, and fresh, as if it had been boiled only the day before. Captain Basil Hall bears similar testimony. It was stated, however, by the officers in the Antarctic voyage, that they gradually got very tired of preserved meats, but not of preserved vegetables, and that there was an insipidity in them which they did not find in fresh food. There is, however, no doubt that, if the articles be selected with care, and the process be properly conducted, M. Appert's method of preserving food is a valuable invention. If the contractor be careless or dishonest, the most fearful consequences might ensue to the crews of ships victualled with preserved meats. It appears, from a recent examination of several thousand canisters of the preserved meat of the Navy at Portsmouth, England, that their contents were masses of putrefaction, consisting of meat, &c., which, even in a fresh state, ought never to be used as food. It is stated that this preserved meat was supplied from Galatz, in Moldavia.

In 1842, M. Appert's method was made the subject of a further patent, granted to Mr. Bevan, whose process consisted in expelling air from the cases containing the food, by placing such cases in connection with a vacuum chamber, or other exhausting apparatus, and also with a vessel containing gelatine or other suitable fluid material, in such a manner that, by opening the communications, the air escapes into the exhausting apparatus and the gelatine takes its place. By this method the high temperature previously used in preserving food was not required; it could, on the contrary, be cooked at very low temperatures, and in a space almost void of air. The apparatus used is shown in section, in the following figure: A is a vessel open at the top, and filled to the line _i_ with fluid gelatine, having a pipe _j_, and a stopcock _e_ firmly attached to it. B is a sphere of metal in which a vacuum is produced by blowing steam through it by the pipe _l_ out through _k_; _l_ and _k_ are then closed, and a jet of water at _m_, applied to the outside of the sphere, condenses the steam and leaves a vacuum within it. The substance to be preserved is inclosed within a cylindrical tin vessel C, the top of which is then soldered on, and two small metal pipes _d_ and _c_ passed into it air-tight, as far as _a b_; the other ends being secure to the pipes _j j_ at _h h_. The case is next immersed in a water-bath N, at a temperature of about 120°, and by turning the cock _f_, the greater portion of the air in the case C rushes into B; the article of food, animal or vegetable, in the case, being thus relieved of atmospheric pressure, the heat of 120° is sufficient to cook it, and to expel the air from it. A fowl is cooked in this way in about fifteen minutes. The cock _e_ is then opened, and the gelatine, kept fluid by the warm bath P, enters by the pipes _j_ and _c_, into the case C, and drives the small portion of air left therein into the vacuum chamber B. The case C is then hermetically sealed by nipping the tubes _d_ and _c_ at the points _g g_. The case is then submitted for a few minutes to the action of boiling water (thirty minutes for a fowl), and when cool, the process is complete.

A concentrated form of food, called _meat biscuit_, excited a considerable degree of attention in the Great Exhibition. It is formed by boiling down the fresh beef of Texas, and mixing into the strong beef-tea thus formed a certain proportion of the finest flour. The biscuit formed from these materials is so nutritive, that less than four ounces a day (mixed with warm water or not, according to circumstances) is sufficient food for a man in active service. It is very light and portable, and keeps perfectly well without change; hence it is admirably adapted to the provisioning of troops, ships, and overland expeditions. The manufacture is also of great importance to those countries in which cattle are superabundant, and are killed merely for the sake of their skins for the tanner, or their bones for the farmer, the flesh being actually thrown away. In some places, animals which we are accustomed to regard as valuable are so numerous that they are drowned by hundreds, merely to get rid of them, neither their skin, bones, nor flesh serving as a pretext for the wholesale slaughter.

Milk has been preserved in the following manner: Fresh milk is reduced by boiling to one-half, and beaten up with yolk of eggs, in the proportion of eight eggs to every ten and a half quarts of milk. The whole is then placed on the fire for half an hour, and skimmed frequently; it is next strained and heated in a water-bath for two hours. It is stated that this milk will keep good for two years, and, if churned, would afford good butter. Cream may be preserved by boiling five measures down to four; then, after cooling and skimming, it is put into a bottle, corked down, luted, and kept in the boiling heat of a water-bath for half an hour. This, it is said, will keep two years.

A much better method of preserving milk is that first pointed out by M. Dirchoff, the Russian chemist; namely, to solidify it by driving off the aqueous portion by a gentle heat. Specimens of consolidated milk were shown in the Great Exhibition; and it was stated that, after being dissolved in boiling water, and reproduced in the form of milk, the solution will keep pure for four or five days. As milk contains 873 parts of water in every 1000, it follows that 1000 parts of milk will yield by evaporation only 127 parts.

7. _Potting_ is only another contrivance for excluding animal substances from contact with air. Lean meat should be selected, cooked, and then reduced to a pulp by being beaten in a mortar, salt and spices being incorporated. The pulp is then rammed into jars, and preserved from the air by a thick coating of melted butter or lard poured over it.

In the preservation of fruits and vegetables, some are dried, as in the case of nuts, raisins, sweet herbs, &c.; others are preserved by sugar, such as many of the fruits, whose delicate juices would be dissipated in the process of drying. Some are preserved in vinegar, as in the case of pickles; a few by salting, as French beans; and others are preserved in spirits.

Appert's method applies to vegetables and fruits of all kinds; they need not, however, be parboiled. The dry and fresh-gathered fruits are put into strong, wide-mouthed glass bottles, carefully corked, and luted with a cement of lime and soft cheese, and bound down with wire. The bottles are then inclosed separately in canvas bags, and put into a kettle of water, which is gradually heated until it boils; the bottles are kept in this condition until the fruits are boiled in their own juice. The whole is then left to cool; after which the bottles are examined separately, and put away for store.

Many kinds of vegetables may be preserved by being spread out on the floor of a kiln, and dried by a gentle heat: the thicker kinds of roots, such as carrots, turnips, potatoes, &c., are to be sliced, and thoroughly well dried; after which they must be packed up in paper or very dry boxes, and put into casks.[3]

A method of preserving vegetables by drying and pressure, recently invented by M. Masson, was brought into prominent notice at the Great Exhibition. Cabbage, sliced turnips, apples, or whatever vegetable be selected, are dried in an oven at a certain temperature, so as to drive off from seven to eight per cent. of water: the drying must not be conducted too slowly nor too rapidly, but at a medium rate. After the drying, the vegetables are packed into a very small compass by the intense pressure of an hydraulic press; then squared and trimmed with a knife, packed up in tinfoil, and lastly, stored in boxes. A short time ago, we examined some red cabbage preserved in this way, which had been exposed in the Great Exhibition all the time it was open, and had been slowly absorbing moisture, and yet it appeared to be perfectly good. By this method, from 15,000 to 18,000 rations, of a quarter pound each, can be stowed into a cubic yard. We also saw some dried plantains from Mexico (a vegetable of very considerable nutritious value), which had been lying in a warehouse at Woolwich ever since the year 1835, and had undergone no change. It was stated that the method of preparing them is cheap and easy, and that the dried plant can be sent in any quantities to Europe, at six cents per pound, with a considerable profit to the importer.

Some kinds of vegetables, such as French beans, artichokes, olives, samphire, and barberries, are preserved by salt, a strong brine being made by the addition of four pounds of salt to a gallon of water; the vegetables are put into this, and quite covered with it. In Holland and Germany, kidney beans are sliced by a machine something like a turnip-cutter, and put into a cask in layers with salt between; a weight is then put on, and pressure is kept up until a slight fermentation takes place; the salt liquor is then poured off; the cask is covered up, and put into the cellar as store. Before being cooked, the beans are steeped in fresh water.

_Sauer Kraut_ is prepared somewhat in the same manner. The following recipe for making it is given by Parmentier:--

The heads of white winter-cabbages, after removing the outer leaves, are to be cut into fine shreds, and spread out upon a cloth in the shade. A cask which has had vinegar in it is to be selected, or, if that cannot be had, the inside should be rubbed over with vinegar or sauerkraut liquor. A layer of salt is to be put in the bottom of the cask, caraway-seeds are to be mixed with shreds of cabbage, and they are to be packed in the cask to the depth of four or six inches; and layers of this kind, with salt between each layer, are added till the cask is full, stamping them down with a wooden stamper as they are put in, to half their original bulk; some mix a little pepper and salad oil with the salt. Some salt is to be put on the top, and some of the outside leaves of the cabbages. About two pounds of salt suffice for twenty middle-sized cabbages. The head of the barrel is to be placed upon the cabbage-leaves, and must be loaded with heavy stones. A common method is for a man, with clean wooden shoes on, to tread the cabbage down in the cask. Fermentation will take place, and some juice will be given out, which is green, muddy, and fetid; this rises to the surface, and is to be replaced with fresh brine. When the fermentation is over, the casks are closed up. Cabbages are preferred, but any other vegetables may be treated in the same manner.

When vegetables are preserved in vinegar, they form _pickles_. When sugar is the preserving medium, they are variously named according to the mode of preparation. Fruits, flowers, herbs, roots, and juices, boiled with sugar or syrup, and employed in pharmacy, as well as for sweetmeats, are called _confections_ (Latin, _conficere_, to make up). _Liquid confects_ consist of fruits, either whole or in pieces, preserved by immersion in fluid transparent syrup: apricots, green citrons, and some foreign fruits, are treated in this way. _Dry confects_ are prepared by boiling in syrup those parts of vegetables adapted to this method, such as citron and orange-peel, &c.; they are then taken out and dried in an oven. _Marmalades_, _jams_, and _pastes_ are soft compounds made of the pulp of fruits, or other vegetable substances, beaten up with sugar or honey; oranges, apricots, pears, &c., are treated in this way. _Jellies_ are the juices of fruits--currants, gooseberries, apples, &c.--boiled with sugar to such a consistence as, on cooling, to form a trembling jelly. _Conserves_ are dry confects, made by beating up flowers, fruits, &c. with sugar not dissolved. _Candies_ are fruits candied over with sugar, after having been boiled in the syrup.

The best syrup for preserving fruits is made by dissolving two parts of double-refined sugar in one part of water, boiling a little, skimming, and filtering through a cloth. This gives a good smooth syrup, which does not readily ferment nor crystallize.

The specimens of preserved food in the Great Exhibition were exceedingly numerous; they included animal and vegetable productions, fruits, &c. One interesting specimen was a canister containing boiled mutton, prepared by the exhibitor, Mr. Gamble, for the Arctic Expedition in 1824. A large number of these canisters were landed from the ship _Fury_, on the beach where the ship was wrecked in Prince Regent's Inlet, and were found by Captain Sir John Ross in August, 1833, in a state of perfect preservation, although annually exposed to a temperature of 92° below, and 80° above zero. Had it not been for the large store of provisions left by Parry near the spot where the _Fury_ was wrecked, Ross's expedition must have perished.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Hence the term employed by Liebig and his followers, _eremacausis_, or _slow-burning_.]

[Footnote 2: "The colorless, fresh-cut surfaces of a potato, of a turnip, or of an apple, when exposed to the air, soon become brown. In all such substances, the presence of a certain quantity of water, by which the molecules are enabled to move freely on one another, is a condition necessary to the production, by temporary contact with air, of a change in form and composition, a resolving of the original body into new products, which continues uninterrupted till no part of the original compound is left. This process has been distinguished by the name of _putrefaction_."--_Liebig._]

[Footnote 3: The flour and biscuit which are taken out to sea in the British navy are packed in casks of wrought-iron. These were formerly painted, to prevent rust, and also to make them water-tight; but the paint was found to give a bad taste to the flour, &c., and they are now coated outside with a waterproof composition of caoutchouc, black resin, and Venice turpentine.]

THE PEDESTRIAN TOUR.

BY PAULINE FORSYTH.

BETWEEN the projecting a scheme in the mind and its actual accomplishing, the difference is as great as that between the appearance of some Eastern city seen from a distance in the moonlight, with its picturesque domes and minarets silvered by the rays that throw over the darkest spots an unreal glamour of purity and brightness, and the same place viewed in the broad daylight, while standing in the midst of its narrow and dirty streets. It is as if we had devised some airy palace, beautiful and complete in its smallest details, and found ourselves, when going about to build it, with no materials ready but a little clay and a few stones and sticks, and those of the most crooked and unpliable materials. Few persons realize, before they are twenty-five, the resolutely prosaic actualities of the world as it is. Almost every one in his early youth is fully persuaded that he is about to perform an important part in some deeply interesting drama, and it is a hard lesson that disenchants him, and shows that he has been acting the part of Don Quixote with the world for Sancho Panzo.

Frederic Lanier was a young man of nineteen. His early life had been passed in the country; but when he was fifteen he had been sent to New York to complete his education, and to reside in the mean time with his uncle, Mr. Lawrence. The very day after his arrival in the city had been marked by an important event. He had seen Adelaide Marshall, and had fallen in love with her. This love had accompanied him during the one year he had spent at the High School, and his three succeeding ones at the college. The lady was six years older than himself, but that was an additional attraction. Her stately and graceful movements, her majestic presence, and the calm and regular beauty of her face, never lost their charm to him. He was too much in love to observe that in the light of her blue eyes there was no warmth, but a cold and critical scrutiny, and that her mouth closed with a severe and slightly satirical expression. She was to him a perfect Helen.

About soon to be elevated to the rank of a Senior, he had begun to think himself in a position to show his passion more openly than he had hitherto ventured to do. He little suspected that the lofty Adelaide had divined his feelings from the first, and had received his timid attentions with sensations of gratified pride and amusement that, unmingled with any softer feeling, promised little for the success of his suit. The lady, accustomed to admiration, considered all homage as her due; and, looking on Frederick Lanier as a mere boy, she talked to him familiarly when she so inclined, and made use of him in a gracious and royal manner without the slightest tender consideration for his feelings, or fear of the consequences. She had known many men and boys to fall in love with her, and, when they had found out that she did not and would not reciprocate their affection, the worst that had ever happened was that they had married somebody else; and this she calmly contemplated as the probable termination of Frederick Lanier's passion, while he was internally vowing a lifelong devotion to the lady of his heart.

He had discovered that she was to pass two or three weeks at the White Mountains during the month of July. He decided to arrange his summer wanderings so as to be there at the same time. Meantime, a vague desire to be alone, to feed on his own thoughts free from the importunate interruptions of even the members of his own family, induced him to follow the example of several of his college companions, and undertake a pedestrian tour.

This proposal was not received with any approbation by his uncle's family.

"Now, Fred," said his cousin Emily, "this is too bad. We were going to have such a pleasant time at Lake George this summer, and had relied upon you to go with us. Father will have to be away a great deal, and I am sure I don't know what we shall do without you to go about with us. I have asked Bessie Graham to accompany us, too, and I particularly wanted you to become better acquainted with her."

"Bessie Graham! Why, she is a little girl."

"She is nearly seventeen," replied Emily.

"Well, she is a very small specimen of womankind, and I have no particular admiration for little women; besides, she is somewhat of a chatter-box, is she not?"

"She talks a little, but not too much," was the reply.

"And laughs a great deal. I like dignified manners better."

"For instance, Miss Adelaide Marshall's," said Emily, with a little irritation in her tone. "You are going to the White Mountains, you say?"

"Yes."

"And I heard Miss Marshall say, the other day, that she intended to pass two or three weeks there; so that accounts for your plan. It is a most absurd fancy of yours to fall in love with that iceberg. I have as much expectation of seeing you return with Mount Washington in your pocket, as with Miss Marshall on your arm."

Frederick Lanier grew red even to the tips of his ears with embarrassed indignation at thus having the most cherished secret of his heart rudely laid bare to the light of common day. He became only the more determined to escape, where he could dwell in peace on the one idea that engrossed all his thoughts.

"When do you think of leaving?" asked Emily.

"To-morrow," he replied.

"And Bessie comes the day after. And when will you return?"

"Perhaps by the last week in August."

"And Bessie will be gone by that time. It is too bad!"

"I do not understand what Bessie Graham has to do with my movements. I might change my plans to suit you, Emily, but not a little chattering thing like your friend."

Emily said nothing; she had had schemes of her own, and Frederick had completely destroyed them, but she deigned no explanation.

"I think of going along the Hudson River until I reach the northern extremity of the State, when I shall cross over to the Green Mountains in Vermont, and go through that State into New Hampshire. I hope to find myself at the foot of the White Mountains by the middle of July."

"The very time Miss Marshall expects to arrive there. She is going on horseback with her brother. Her mother and sister are to accompany them in the carriage."

"Ah!" said Frederick, endeavoring, in a most transparently artful manner, to appear ignorant and indifferent.

"If you are going so soon," said his aunt, "we had better see if your wardrobe is in a fit state for so long an absence."

"I shall need very little," replied Frederick; "the less the better, as I intend to carry it myself."

"I have a little light valise I can lend you," said a cousin of his, John Williams, who happened to be passing the evening there.

The offer was accepted, and the rest of the time was passed in discussing the many delightful and romantic adventures that pedestrian tourists have met with both in Europe and America.

With a heart full of hope and joyous expectation, Frederick took his valise and a stout stick, with which all prudent pedestrians provide themselves, and saw with delight the dusty pavements merging into the dustier road, and the houses becoming more and more widely separated.

He had intended to choose the byways rather than the main road, and to make it convenient to stop at farm-houses instead of the country taverns along his route, thinking by this means to be able to see more of the people, and to gain a little insight into habits and customs with which he felt as though he ought to be somewhat more familiar. He had anticipated a great deal of pleasure from the variety of character and mode of life which would thus be brought under his notice; but his first attempt proved so unsatisfactory, that he gave up all farther idea of intruding on the privacy of those who were unprepared for receiving strangers.

He had stopped at a farm-house, and asked if he could be lodged for the night just at eight o'clock. He found the occupants preparing to retire, and, though they made him welcome, and entertained him hospitably, yet he could not help perceiving that he gave them additional trouble; and, when he found that they would not receive payment for it, he decided that it was a false position in which he had placed himself, and that nothing but necessity should induce him to adopt the same course again. He lacked the cheerful assurance with which some men can make themselves at home anywhere, without a suspicion that others are not equally pleased with their society.

The next morning, feeling rather footsore and unrefreshed, after his unusual exertions of the day before, Frederick took advantage of a stage that was going in the same direction with himself, and rode to the village in which he had decided to pass the night. Here he amused himself by wandering about the beautiful and romantic country around, and returning when he was weary to the country inn. This he found so much easier and pleasanter a mode of travelling than the fatiguing one of walking, that he went almost to the foot of the Green Mountains before he thought of resuming it. Then, ashamed of his faint-heartedness, he left the stage, and, shouldering his valise again, he walked for some hours quite vigorously.

He entered the little village of Hillsdale just as the moon was rising, and, after a supper such as none but a pedestrian could eat, he strolled out to enjoy the loveliness of the summer evening and his own meditations, by the banks of a clear and rapid stream, the beauty of which had attracted his notice as he was entering the village. He walked for some distance up its banks, and then, throwing himself down on a grassy mound, he lay in a sort of musing trance, watching the moonlight shimmering on the flashing waters, and listening to the tinkling music of their flow, while his imagination was busily engaged in inventing deeds of heroism and chivalric daring, by which he fancied himself proving to the lady of his love that he was worthy of one so noble and high-souled.

Midnight stole unawares upon him while thus engaged, and, with reluctant steps, he sought the Eagle Hotel, where he had decided to pass the night. A decision not difficult to arrive at, as there was no other public house in the place. The next morning he discovered, to his great annoyance, that he had lost his purse in his evening ramble. He sought for it in vain; and when the landlord, conjecturing from his movements that he was about to depart, asked him if he would like his bill, he could not help a guilty conscious feeling stealing over him as he tried to answer, in an off-hand way, that he intended to pass a few days in Hillsdale.

Comments

Godey's Lady's Book, Vol. 48, June, 1854Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

0%37 min left in chapter