Hints for the table: or, the economy of good living / [Anon].

  • John Timbs
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints for the table: or, the economy of good living / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Ratilia may be made by infusing in brandy the fresh blossom of the whitethorn, peach or apricot kernels, or very ripe grapes, and sweetening the same. The four-fruit liqueur consists of equal proportions of the juices of strawberries, raspberries, currants, and cher- ries—sweetened. A wineglass full in a tumbler of spring- water makes a delicious summer beverage. Walnut liqueur is made in France, by adding a pint of brandy to a dozen of unripe walnuts, with sugar or syrup to the palate. The French likewise preserve the walnuts. Ratifia, and similar liqueurs, are frequently extremely deleterious. A melancholy instance of this occurred a few years since at Pisa, and is thus related by Mrs. Starke. Two ladies were living together, when one of them complaining of cramp in her stomach, the other gave her a wineglass of ratifia, which happened to be in the house. Shortly after having swallowed it, she died, so evi- dently in consequence of poison, that strong suspicions fell upon her friend; who, to prove her innocence, took the same quantity of ratifia herself which she had administered to the deceased, and expired within a few hours. Prompted by this circumstance, Professor Santi, of Pisa, wrote a beau- tiful little work, to shew that ratifia lias, of late years, been made with Italian laurel leaves; the extract from which is a deadly poison. Kirschwasser is chiefly drawn from cherries, in the en- virons of the Black Forest: according to Le Nonnand, it is “downright poison.” In Paris, a spurious kirschwasser is distilled from the kernels of prunes. The Prussian medical police, which is remarkably vigi- lant, is in the habit of examining liqueurs for sale. If an hour before sitting down to drink, you take a grain or two of opium, you will be able to withstand a much greater quantity than otherwise of liquor. It is universally allowed, that mixing wines in drinking them, renders them doubly noxious to the system. The cabbage is stated in a French journal to be a sove- l 2
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