Sour

“ Acid or sour is the taste of vinegar or lemon-juice; bitter that of quassia, quinine, or strychnine. Acrid is nearly allied to bitter. Pungent suggests the effect of pepper or snuff on the organs of taste or smell; as, a pungent odor. Caustic indicates the corroding effect of some strong chemical, as nitrate of silver. In a figurative sense, as applied to language or character, these words are very closely allied. We say a sour face, sharp words, bitter complaints, caustic wit, cutting irony, biting sarcasm, a stinging taunt, harsh judgment, a tart reply. ”

“ Flat-sour often causes annoyance to beginners in canning some vegetables, such as corn, peas, beans and asparagus. These canned foods may show no signs of spoilage and yet when the can is opened the product may have a sour taste and a disagreeable odor. ”

“ If fruits are too sour, try corn syrup for sweetening; about one-half cup to each quart of prepared fruit. Fresh fruits develop their own natural sweetness if they are baked instead of stewed in a saucepan. Just place them in a casserole dish with this amount of syrup or plain water and bake in a moderate oven for thirty-five minutes. ”

“ This mass continues to grow sour and tough until all the milk sugar is converted into lactic acid, so that the longer the milk stands, the more acid it becomes. Sour milk, however, is useful in the preparation of various dishes, such as hot breads and griddle cakes. ”

“ A sober apple-tree will sometimes let down its dignity, in what gardeners call a “sport,” e. g. a sweet apple may grow on a sour tree, and vice versâ. An apple may on one side be sweet and on the other sour. ”

“ Mix flour and salt and pour enough thick sweet or sour cream over to roll out well. The thicker the cream, the better the crust will be. Sour cream makes more crisp and tender crust than sweet and has not the least sour taste when baked. ”

“ Why sour milk pancakes are not sour. It is because bases neutralize acids that you put baking soda with sour milk when you make sour milk pancakes or muffins. The soda is a weak base. The sour milk is a weak acid. The soda neutralizes the acid, changing it into a kind of salt and plain water. ”

“ One abominable woman's fat body spreads out on an arm-chair "like sour dough." And indeed, this novel bears about the same relation to a finished work of art that sour dough bears to a good loaf of bread. ”

“ To such persons as object to the taste of vinegar, sour milk, or butter-milk, or sweet milk diluted with water, may be given in its stead. I have known the labour of the longest and hottest days in summer supported, by means of these pleasant and wholesome drinks, with great firmness, and ended, with scarcely a complaint of fatigue. ”

“ The wild varieties of the orange, both the bitter and the sour, although too isolated and scattered for commercial purposes, are often a godsend to the prospector in the forest covered mountains, since the juice of the sour orange mixed with a little water and sugar makes a very pleasant drink. ”

“ If by any mistake the dough becomes sour before you are ready to bake it, you can rectify it by adding a little dry super-carbonate of soda, molding the dough a long time to distribute the soda equally throughout the mass. All bread is better, if naturally sweet, without the soda; but sour bread you should never eat, if you desire good health. ”

“ As Malt-liquor is apt to grow sour, and will not keep so long as Wine, some bitter plants are usually boiled in the decoction, to make it keep the longer, and hinder it from turning sour so soon as it otherwise would. ”

“ All others exude a sugar in the spring of the year, and become sour. The only process for preserving them, is drying them in the sun, without putting any thing to them whatever. They sell at fifteen sous the pound, while there are others as cheap as five sous the pound. I meet here a small dried grape from Smyrna, without a seed. There are few of the plants growing in this neighborhood. ”

“ Soup does very well without—Maybe it’s always pepper that makes people hot-tempered,’ she went on, very much pleased at having found out a new kind of rule, ‘and vinegar that makes them sour—and camomile that makes them bitter—and—and barley-sugar and such things that make children sweet-tempered. ”

“ When the juice has been obtained by the aid of a screw-press or any other means, it is heavy, cloudy, and sour. A proportion of ten per cent. of spirit is added to preserve the juice from being too much affected by tropical heats, and also to modify the possible effect of too great acidity. ”

“ It is, therefore, an important point to determine, by means of vessels impregnated by long use with a strong smell, and the remains of sour milk, that sudden souring which developes a spirituous principle. ”

“ A sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts. ”

“ If bread rises too long, it becomes sour. This is discovered by making a sudden opening and applying the nose, and the sourness will be noticed as different from the odor of proper lightness. Practice is needed in this. If bread is light too soon for the oven, knead it awhile, and set it in a cool place. ”

“ Beat three eggs very light with a heaping cup of sugar, add two cups sifted flour, mix smooth, then put in half a cup of rich sour cream with half-teaspoon soda dissolved in it. Mix, put instantly into shallow pans, bake in a quick oven and serve hot with or without sauce. ”

“ Put two pounds of sugar upon the fire with a gill of water, make it boil and skim it, letting it continue to boil till, in dipping the simmer in, shaking it over, and blowing across the holes, the sugar rises in little sparkles; then have ready the juice expressed from two pounds of sour grapes, very green and large, the seeds being first taken out and the fruit pounded, and put it into the sugar, letting them boil together till reduced to a very strong syrup, which you will know by its forming a strong thread between your fingers without breaking. ”

“ SWEET AND SOUR STRING BEANS
Wash, string and cut beans in pieces. Cook in boiling water till tender. Salt when nearly done. Drain and reserve one cup of water for sweet and sour sauce. (Look under sauces.) ”

“ Take oatmeal, steep it in pure clean water till it turns sour; stir it every day, strain it, and put it in a kettle over the fire; keep stirring it with a stick one way all the time, till it is as thick as hasty-pudding ”

“ The good housewife finds it indispensable to keep a little sour milk at hand in order to hasten the coagulation. Women residing in towns do their churning in earthen vessels or pitchers, called meta, always using sour milk. ”

“ Sweet meat must have sour sauce, sir. ”

“ Partially seal glass jars. Cap and tip tin cans. Process ninety minutes if using hot-water-bath outfit or condensed-steam outfit; seventy-five minutes if using water-seal outfit; sixty minutes if using five-pound steam-pressure outfit; forty-five minutes if using pressure-cooker outfit.
TOMATO ACID CHECKS BACTERIA
Some women who have canned soup tell me it spoiled or tasted "sourish and smelled sourish too." This is what we call "flat sour." It may happen to any vegetable you can, as well as to the soups. "Flat sour" affects peas, beans, asparagus and corn more than other vegetables. ”

“ What salt is to meat and vegetables, sugar is to all fruits and many farinaceous foods, rendering palatable what would otherwise be insipid or uneatable in consequence of extreme sourness. In very small quantities frequently used to soften or heighten the flavour of ragouts and sauces. ”

“ Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour. ”

“ Take a quantity of good Herbs, such as Cherville, Spinage, Sallery, Leeks, Beet-Cards, and such like, with two or three large Crusts of Bread, some Butter, a bunch of sweet Herbs, and a little Salt; put these, with a moderate quantity of Water, into a Kettle, and boil them an hour and half, and strain off the Liquor thro' a Sieve, and it will be a good Foundation for Soups, either of Asparagus Buds, Lettuce, or any other kind, fit for Lent or Fast-days. These Herb Soups are sometimes strengthened with two or three Yolks of Eggs, a little before they are serv'd to the Table. ”

“ Salt, spices, essences, vanilla, vinegar, pickles, capers, ketchups, sauces, chutneys, lime-juice, curry, and all the rest, are just our civilised expedients for adding the pleasure of pungency and acidity to naturally insipid foods, by stimulating the nerves of touch in the tongue, just as sugar is our tribute to the pure gustatory sense, and oil, butter, bacon, lard, and the various fats used in frying to the sense of relish which forms the last element in our compound taste. ”

“ None of our fruits are more wholesome than these, and, even when eaten in large quantities, they seldom disagree with the stomach. They abound in juice, have a grateful, cooling, somewhat acid taste, and a peculiarly fragrant smell; and are either eaten alone, or with sugar, milk, or wine. A palatable jam, wine, and vinegar, are prepared from strawberries. This fruit is sometimes preserved whole in syrup, and sometimes in wine.
CLASS XIII.—POLYANDRIA. MONOGYNIA.
170. ”

“ All classes of people use condiments in some form, from the wealthy epicure who flavors his terrapin with mace, salt, pepper, and sherry to the negro who sifts okra through his fingers into his gumbo soup or the Indian, stirring the contents of a steaming kettle with twigs of sassafras.
Condiments have been defined as those substances eaten with meat and combined with salt while spices are chiefly added to articles containing sugar. They may be classified as follows:
Salt is even more valuable as a condiment than as a preservative. ”

“ WOOD SORREL. Herb. L.—In taste and medical qualities it is similar to the common sorrel, but considerably more grateful, and hence is preferred by the London College. Boiled with milk, it forms an agreeable whey; and beaten with sugar, a very elegant conserve.—Lewis's Mat. Med.
244. PAPAVER Rhoeas. RED POPPY. Petals. L. E. D.—The flowers of this plant yield upon expression a deep red juice, and impart the same colour by infusion to aqueous liquors. A syrup of them is kept in the shops: this is valued chiefly for its colour; though some expect from it a lightly anodyne virtue. ”

“ SALADS.—Salads are raw vegetables, of which, among us, the lettuce is the most generally used; several others, however, such as cresses, celery, onions, beetroot, &c., are occasionally employed. As vegetables eaten in a raw state are apt to ferment on the stomach, and as they have very little stimulative power upon that organ, they are usually dressed with some condiments, such as pepper, vinegar, salt, mustard, and oil. Respecting the use of these, medical men disagree, especially in reference to oil, which is condemned by some and recommended by others. ”

“ The ripe grain is used all over the earth as food for horses, pigs, and poultry. Nothing is better for fattening stock. 11. Green corn, or "roasting ears," hulled corn and hominy, New England hasty pudding, and succotash are favorite dishes with many persons. Then there are parched corn and pop corn—the delight of long winter evenings. 12. Cornstarch is an important article of commerce. Sirup and sugar are made from the juice of the stalk, and oil and alcohol from the ripened grain. ”

“ There is abundant, and to our taste excessive, use of seasonings, not only of salt, vinegar, and pepper, but of oil, thyme, mint, ginger, and the like, The pièce de résistance—a wild boar, or whatever it may be—regularly arrives as the middle of the three services. The substantial meal ends with a small offering to the household deities. ”

“ I beg to observe that here you have the real juice of the meat; but if wanted stronger, put only half instead of one pint of water; seasoning may be introduced, that is, a little salt, sugar, and cloves, but no vegetables, as they would not have time to cook, thus leaving a raw, bad flavor. ”

“ Take twenty fair codlings being peeld and codled tender and green, put them in a clean silver-dish, filled half full of rose-water, and half a pound of sugar, boil all this liquor together till half be consumed, and keep it stirring till it be ready, then fill up the dish with good thick and sweet cream, stir it till it be well mingled, and when it hath boil’d round about the dish, take it off, sweeten it with fine sugar, and serve it cold. ”

“ Kid à la Mélissienne.—Draw the kid at the neck, and clean the intestines; then pound some pepper, alisander, benzoin root, two bay leaves, and a little Spanish camomile; add two or three brains; mix them well together; then add some garum and a little salt; afterwards, a small quantity of milk and honey. Fill the intestines with this stuffing, and place them round the kid, which you then put into a large basin on the fire. When half-cooked, you must add a mixture of garum, oil, and wine. ”

“ The ingredients of bread.—The essential ingredients are flour, water, and yeast. The liquid may be milk, or milk and water, the milk changing the flavor slightly and increasing the nutritive value, while the cream in the milk increases the tenderness of the crumb and crust. The non-essentials include salt to develop flavor, sugar sometimes added to hasten fermentation and also for flavor, and a fat to increase tenderness, as, for instance, butter or some cheaper fat. ”

“ Such shrivelled berries I have seen in many a poor man’s garret, ay, in many a church-bin and state-coffer, and with a little water and heat they swell again to their original size and fairness, and added sugar enough, stead mankind for sauce to this world’s dish. ”