Eggs

—These ought to be taken new laid. The e ential point towards their preservation is the exclusion of the atmospheric oxygen, as their shells are porous, and permit the external air to pa inwards, and to excite putrefaction in the albumen. There is also some oxygen always in the air cell of the eggs, which ought to be expelled or rendered inoperative, which may be done by plunging them for 5 minutes in water heated to 140° F. The eggs must be then taken out, wiped dry, besmeared with some oil (not apt to turn rancid) or other unctuous matter, packed into a ve el with their narrow ends uppermost, and covered with sawdust, fine sand, or powdered charcoal. Eggs coated with gum arabic, and packed in charcoal, will keep fresh for a year. Lime water, or rather milk of lime, is an excellent vehicle for keeping eggs in, as I have verified by long experience. Some persons coagulate the albumen partially, and also expel the air by boiling the eggs for two minutes, and find the method succe ful. When eggs are intended for hatching, they should be kept in a cool cellar; for example, in a chamber adjoining an ice-house. Eggs exposed, in the holes of perforated shelves, to a constant current of air, lose about 3 ⁄ 4 of a grain of their weight daily, and become concentrated in their albuminous part, so as to be little liable to putrefy. For long sea voyages, the surest means of preserving eggs, is to dry up the albumen and yolk, by first triturating them into a homogeneous paste, then evaporating this in an air-stove or a water-bath heated to 125°, and putting up the dried ma in ve els which may be made air-tight. When used, it should be di olved in three parts of cold or tepid water. Grain of all kinds, as wheat, barley, rye, ., and their flour, may be preserved for an indefinite length of time, if they be kiln-dried, put up in ve els or chambers free from damp, and excluded from the air. Well dried grain is not liable to the depredations of insects. To preserve fruits in a fresh state, various plans are adopted. Pears, apples, plums, . should be gathered in a sound state, altogether exempt from bruises, and plucked, in dry weather, before they are fully ripe. One mode of preservation is, to expose them in an airy place to dry a little for eight or ten days, and then to lay them in dry sawdust or chopped straw, spread upon shelves in a cool apartment, so as not to touch each other. Another method consists in surrounding them with fine dry sand in a ve el which should be made air-tight, and kept in a cool place. Some persons coat the fruit, including their stalks, with melted wax; others lay the apples, ., upon wicker-work shelves in a vaulted chamber, and smoke them daily during 4 or 5 days with vine branches or juniper wood. Apples thus treated, and afterwards stratified in dry sawdust, without touching each other, will keep fresh for a whole year. The drying of garden fruits in the air, or by a kiln, is a well-known method of preservation. Apples and pears of large size should be cut into thin slices. From 5 to 6 measures of fresh apples, and from 6 to 7 of pears, afford in general one measure of dry fruit, (biffins). Dried plums, grapes, and currants are a common article of commerce. Herbs, cabbages, ., may be kept a long time in a cool cellar, provided they are covered with dry sand. Such vegetables are in general preserved for the purposes of food, by means of drying, salting, pickling with vinegar, or beating up with sugar. Cabbages should be scalded in hot water previously to drying; and all such plants, when dried, should be compactly pre ed together, and kept in air-tight ve els. Tuberous and other roots are better kept in an airy place, where they may dry a little without being exposed to the winter’s frost. A partial drying is given to various vegetable juices by evaporating them to the consistence of a syrup, called a rob, in which so much of the water is di ipated as to prevent them from running into fermentation. The fruits must be crushed, squeezed in bags to expel the juices, which must then be inspi ated either over the naked fire, or on a water or steam bath, in the air or in vacuo. Sometimes a small proportion of spices is added, which tends to prevent mouldine . Such extracts may be conveniently mixed with sugar into what are called conserves. Salting is employed for certain fruits, as small cucumbers or gherkins, capers, olives, . Even for peas such a method is had recourse to, for preserving them a certain time. They must be scalded in hot water, put up in bottles, and covered with saturated brine, having a film of oil on its surface, to exclude the agency of the atmospheric air. Before being used, they must be soaked for a short time in warm water, to extract the salt. The most important article of diet of this cla , is the sour kraut of the northern nations of Europe, (made from white cabbage,) which is prepared simply by salting; a little vinegar being formed spontaneously by fermentation. The cabbage must be cut into small pieces, stratified in a cask along with salt, to which juniper berries and carui seeds are added, and packed as hard as po ible by means of a wooden rammer. The cabbage is then covered with a lid, on which a heavy weight is laid. A fermentation commences, which causes the cabbage to become more compact, while a quantity of juice exudes and floats on the surface, and a sour smell is perceived towards the end of the fermentation. In this condition the cask is transported into a cool cellar, where it is allowed to stand for a year; and indeed, where, if well made and packed, it may be kept for several years. The excellent proce for preserving all kinds of butcher meat, fish, and poultry, first contrived by M. Appert in France, and afterwards succe fully practised upon the great commercial scale by Me rs. Donkin and Gamble, for keeping beef, salmon, soups, . perfectly fresh and sweet for exportation from this country, as also turtle for importation thither from the West Indies, deserves a brief description. Let the substance to be preserved be first parboiled, or rather somewhat more, the bones of the meat being previously removed. Put the meat into a tin cylinder, fill up the ve el with seasoned rich soup, and then solder on the lid, pierced with a small hole. When this has been done, let the tin ve el thus prepared be placed in brine and heated to the boiling point, to complete the remainder of the cooking of the meat. The hole of the lid is now to be closed perfectly by soldering, whilst the air is rarefied. The ve el is then allowed to cool, and from the diminution of the volume, in consequence of the reduction of temperature, both ends of the cylinder are pre ed inwards, and become concave. The tin cases, thus hermetically sealed, are exposed in a test-chamber, for at least a month, to a temperature above what they are ever likely to encounter; from 90° to 110° of Fahrenheit. If the proce has failed, putrefaction takes place, and gas is evolved, which, in proce of time, will cause both ends of the case to bulge, so as render them convex, instead of concave. But the contents of those cases which stand the test will infallibly keep perfectly sweet and good in any climate, and for any number of years. If there be any taint about the meat when put up, it inevitably ferments, and is detected in the proving proce . Mr. Gamble’s turtle is delicious. This preservative proce is founded upon the fact, that the small quantity of oxygen contained within the ve el gets into a state of combination, in consequence of the high temperature to which the animal substances are exposed, and upon the chemical principle, that free oxygen is nece ary as a ferment to commence or give birth to the proce of putrefaction. I shall conclude this article with some observations upon the means of preserving water fresh on sea voyages. When long kept in wooden casks, it undergoes a kind of putrefaction, contracts a disagreeable sulphureous smell, and becomes undrinkable. The influence of the external air is by no means nece ary to this change, for it happens in close ve els even more readily than when freely exposed to the atmospherical oxygen. The origin of this impurity lies in the animal and vegetable juices which the water originally contained in the source from which it was drawn, or from the cask, or insects, . These matters easily occasion, with a sufficient warmth, fermentation in the stagnant water, and thereby cause the evolution of offensive gases. It would appear that the gypsum of hard waters is decomposed, and gives up its sulphur, which aggravates the disagreeable odour; for selenitic waters are more apt to take this putrid taint, than those which contain merely carbonate of lime. As the corrupted water has become unfit for use merely in consequence of the admixture of these foreign matters, for water in itself is not liable to corruption, so it may be purified again by their separation. This purification may be accomplished most easily by pa ing the water through charcoal powder, or through the powder of rightly calcined bone-black. The carbon takes away not only the finely diffused corrupt particles, but also the gaseous impurities. By adding to the water a very little sulphuric acid, about 30 drops to 4 pounds, Lowitz says that two-thirds of the charcoal may be saved. Undoubtedly the sulphuric acid acts here, as in other similar cases, by the coagulation and separation of the albuminous matters, combining with them, and rendering them more apt to be seized by the charcoal. A more effectual agent for the purification of foul water is to be found in alum. A dram of pounded alum should be di olved with agitation in a gallon of the water, and then left to operate quietly for 24 hours. A sediment falls to the bottom, while the water becomes clear above, and may be poured off. The alum combines here with the substances di olved in the water, as it does with the stuffs in the dyeing copper. In order to decompose any alum which may remain in solution, the equivalent quantity of crystals of carbonate of soda may be added to it. The red sulphate of iron acts in the same way as alum. A few drops of its solution are sufficient to purge a pound of foul water. The foreign matters di olved in the water, which occasion putrefaction, become insoluble, in consequence of oxidize ment, like vegetable extractive, and are precipitated. On this account, also, foul water may be purified, by driving atmospheric air through it with bellows, or by agitating it in contact with fresh air, so that all its particles are exposed to oxygen. Thus we can explain the influence of streams and winds, in counteracting the corruption of water exposed to them. Chlorine acts still more energetically than the air in purifying water. A little aqueous chlorine added to foul water, or the transmi ion of a little gaseous chlorine through it, cleanses it immediately. Water-casks ought to be charred inside, whereby no fermentable stuff will be extracted from the wood. British ships, however, are now commonly provided with iron tanks for holding their water in long voyages.