The Lady's Country Companion; Or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally. Mrs. Loudon
be two saucepans, one going within the other, like a gluepot, forming a bain marie. German saucepans, and other enamelled articles for the kitchen, are very convenient in all dishes where milk or cream is used; but it is a long time before any liquid boils in them; and when it does boil, it continues to do so for a minute or more after the saucepan is taken from the fire, on account of the enamel retaining the heat. You ought also to have a cupboard in the kitchen, for the cook to keep her spices and other articles in, fitted up with shelves and canisters: and there should be another closet for the flour tub and bread jar, which should stand on a board raised at least six inches above the floor, to keep them from the attacks of mice and black beetles. The egg-basket and the salt-box may also find a place in this closet, so as to keep the general appearance of the kitchen neat and clean. Of course you will have one or two dressers for plates and dishes, made with drawers and cupboards below. Every kitchen should also contain a clock, that the cook may see exactly how the time goes, and have no excuse for not being punctual.
The scullery should be as close to the kitchen as possible. It should be paved with Yorkshire stone or brickwork, and it should have a cistern of water closely adjoining it. In every scullery there should be a stone sink, with a plate-rack at one end, and under the plate-rack should be a slanting dripboard with a kind of gutter at the base, to convey the water that drains from the plates and dishes to the waste-pipe of the sink; and it will be found a great convenience to have a pipe carried to it from the boiler behind the kitchen fireplace, in order to afford a constant supply of hot water. The scullery should also contain two coppers, one small, for boiling hams or large pieces of beef, and another of a much larger size for brewing.
For brewing twelve gallons of table ale at a time, the copper should hold eighteen gallons, as about six gallons of water will be absorbed by the malt. The usual proportion of malt and hops required for this quantity is, one bushel of malt and three quarters of a pound of hops. Pale malt is the best, and it should be plump and crisp, breaking readily, and full of flour; it should also taste sweet. The hops should have no bad smell, and they should be in condition, that is, they should abound in the yellow powder called by chemists lupuline, which makes them feel sticky when rubbed between the fingers. The malt must be crushed or ground before it is used. River water is preferred for brewing, and it should be heated in the copper to about 175°, or rather more.
Fig. 2. Spigot and faucet.
A large deep tub is then provided, called a mash-tub, in one side of which, at the distance of an inch or two from the bottom, is fixed a cock, or what is called a spigot and faucet (fig. 2.), with the end which projects within the tub covered with basket-work to prevent the escape of the grains when the wort is drawn off. About six gallons of hot water are then poured into the mash-tub, and some of the malt is shaken in, a little at a time, and mixed with the water by the help of a wooden instrument called a mash-stirrer (fig. 3.); more water is then added, and then more malt, till nearly all the water has been poured in, and only a peck of malt is left dry. The dry malt is then strewed over the mass of malt which has been mixed with the water, and the mash-tub, having some sticks laid across it, is covered with an old blanket, a piece of sacking, or a coarse cloth, and the malt is left for an hour and a half or two hours to steep. This is called mashing the malt; and the goodness of the ale depends upon the care with which this operation is performed. The water should never be suffered to become cooler during the operation than 160°, or it will not dissolve the starchy matter contained in the malt; and, if it is hotter than 180°, the malt will be set, as the maltsters call it, that is, it will become changed into a glutinous paste, from which no strength can be extracted. When the malt has been sufficiently mashed, the wort is drawn off by the spigot, and it will be found that the eighteen gallons of water have only yielded about thirteen gallons of wort, and sometimes not so much.
Fig. 3. Mash-stirrer.
A new kind of mashing-tub (fig. 4.) has been invented, which has a false bottom pierced with holes, through which the wort filters, instead of being drawn off by the spigot; and, by an improvement on this, the hot water is poured through a tube into the part of the mashing-tub which is below the false bottom, and suffered to rise up through the malt. When ale and beer are to be made, the ale wort is drawn off first, and then more water is heated to 175° and put to the malt, to make the beer; but when all the liquor drawn from the malt is mixed together, it is called in some places "table ale," and in others "one-way beer."
Fig. 4. Mash-tub.
While the malt is being mashed, the proper quantity of hops should be steeped in water, having been first well rubbed and separated; and when the wort is drawn off they should be added to it, and the whole put into the copper to be boiled. During the boiling the mass should be frequently stirred, to prevent the hops from either floating at the top or settling to the bottom, which they would otherwise be very apt to do. The boiling should continue briskly till the liquor begins to break, the time for which varies from half an hour to two hours and a half, according to the strength of the wort. The "breaking" is known by large fleecy flakes which appear to float in the liquor; and, when it appears, a bowlful of the liquor is taken out and set aside, when, if the flakes part and subside, leaving the wort clear, it is considered enough. Some large shallow vessels called coolers are then provided, and some sticks being laid across one of them, a sieve or wicker basket is set upon them, and the liquor is ladled out of the furnace into the sieve, to strain it from the hops. The other coolers are afterwards filled in the same manner, and then the whole are exposed to a cool current of air, in order that the liquor may cool as rapidly as possible.
When the liquor is about 70°, it is generally tunned off into a large vat or cask for it to ferment. About three quarters of a pint of yeast is mixed with a little of the wort, and as soon as it begins to work it is added to the rest. Another mode is, as soon as the wort has cooled to 70°, to convey it in the coolers to a cellar, where the temperature is about 55°, and then to mix two gallons of it with a pint of good thick yeast, and put it into an upright eighteen-gallon cask, the head of which has been knocked out, but which is covered with a piece of flannel, on which the head is laid loosely. As soon as the fermentation has begun, about three gallons more of the wort are added, provided it has not cooled below 65°; but, if it has, a pailful must be taken out and heated, so that when mixed with the rest of the three gallons, the whole shall be about 70°. When this has been added to the wort fermenting in the cask and well stirred, the cask should be covered and left to work for the night. Early the following morning the working wort should be tried with a thermometer, and, if it is between 70° and 75°, five gallons more of the wort should be added, heated as before to about 68°. The liquor should then be stirred, and left for six hours, after which three gallons more wort at 65° are added. It is then covered and left for four hours more, after which nearly all the remaining wort is added, reserving only about two quarts.
This process is very tedious, but it is said to make the ale exceedingly fine and clear; and, if the proportions be one bushel and a half of malt to a pound and three quarters of hops to make twelve gallons, it is said exactly to resemble the celebrated Indian ale. If the heat of the working wort be ever found above 75°, the remaining wort should be added cool, and the whole should be tunned out as soon as possible.
In the usual mode of brewing, when the fermentation has gone on till the yeast begins to look brown, the beer should be tunned; that is, the yeast is removed, and the beer is put into the casks in which it is to remain; and, in general, the beer is not taken down into the cellar till at this period. The casks are placed slantingly, with the bung out; and they are always kept quite full, being filled up with beer reserved for that purpose, as the beer they contain works out. In about a fortnight all the fermentation will be over, and the casks may be bunged up.
According to the Indian ale process, two quarts of wort were kept back from that fermented; and when the beer is to be tunned, which it is into two six-gallon