Book IV, chapters 22–25: Housekeeping and the increase of household-stuff

CHAP. XXII.

How vineger may be made divers wayes, and of what.

AFter wine it follows to speak of vineger: First, how our forefathers made it; then how of late years, that it may be made extream sowre, which is not only good for a family, but is necessary for many Arts. Also there are some Countries where wine, and so vineger is scarce. Therefore in those places divers men have used their wits to make it: wherefore to begin, we say that

Vineger may be made of the Fig-tree.

Out of Columella; A green fig must be taken very betimes, and also if it have rained, and the figs fall to the earth beaten down with showres, gather those figs and put them up in Hogs-heads or Amphora, and let them ferment there; then when it grows sharp, and hath sent out some liquor, what vineger there is strain it out diligently, and pour it into a sweet pitched vessel. This yields the best sharp vineger, and it will never grow musty or hoary, if it be not set in too moist a place. Some to make more quantity, mingle water with the figs, and then they adde to them the ripest new figs, and they […]et them consume in that liquor, until it tast sharp enough like vineger, then they strain all through rushy baskets, or withie bags; and they boil this vineger till they have taken off all the froth, and filth from it. Then they adde some terrefied salt, and that hinders worms and other vermine to breed in it. Cassianus makes it thus: Put into a vessel old figs, terresied Barley, and the internal parts of Citrons. Stir it often and diligently, and when they are putrified and soaked, strain them out, and use them. Apuleius, They make vineger of figs, wet upon the Trees, and cast into water to putrifie, Dioscorides, The liquor of figs steeped grows sharp as vineger, and is used for it. There is made also

Vineger of Dates.

To Date wine we speak of, some adde water, and receive it again; and they do this three, four, five or six times, and at last it grows sowre. From the same, Pliny teacheth to make

Vineger of honey.

You must wash your honey vessels, or hives in water, with this decoction is made the most wholesome vineger. Palladius teacheth the way to make

Vineger of Pears.

wild Pears are such as are sharp and ripe, are kept three dayes in a heap, then they are put into a vessel, and fountain or river water is put to them, the vessel is left covered thirty dayes, then as much vineger as is taken out for use, so much water is put in to repair it. Cassianus makes

Vineger of Peaches.

Put soft delicate Peaches into a vessel, and adde parched Barley to them, let them putrifie for one day, then strain them out, and use it. We may from Cassianus make

Vineger without wine.

If you boil Gypsum and sea-water, and then mingle it with River water, and use it being strained. But if you will

Turn wine into vineger, and contrarily vineger into wine,

Cassianus hath it. He puts Beet roots bruised into wine, it will be vineger when three hours are over. But if he would restore it again as it was, he puts in Cabbage roots. So also

To make the same.

We may do it another way and quickly: Cast into wine, Salt, Pepper and sowre leaven, mingle them and they will soon make it vineger. But to do it more quickly, quench in it often a red hot brick or piece of steel; also provide for that unripe Medlars, Cornels, Mulberries and Plums. But Sotion shews to make

Sharp vineger of new wine.

Dry the mother of wine of grapes at the Sun, and put them into new wine, adding a few sowre grapes thereto and it will make sharp vineger that will be for use after seven dayes; or put in pellitory of Spain and it will be sharp. Moreover, if you boil a fourth or fifth part of vineger at the fire, & put that to the rest, and set all eight days in the Sun, you shall have most sharp and pleasant wine. The roots of old grass, and Raisins, and the leaves of a wild Pear-tree bruised, and the root of the bramble, and whey of milk, burnt Acorns, Prunes rosted, and the decoctions of Chiches, and pot-sheards red hot, all of these put severally into vineger, will make it tart. Apuleius teacheth

To double the quantity of vineger.

Take a good measure of Vineger, about a Metreta, and to that adde one Metreta of Sea-water boiled to half, mingle them and set them aside in a vessel. Some steep Barley, and strain it, and of that juice they mingle one Metreta, and they stir them together, and they cast in torrefied salt when it is yet hot, a good quantity, then they cover the vessel, and let it stand eight dayes. But I use to make it thus,

Vineger of clusters of grapes pressed forth.

After the Vintage, we cast in the clusters when the wine is pressed forth into a wooden vessel, and we pour upon them a quantity of water, and it will be vineger when a week is over. Moreover, we cut the tendrels from Vines, and bruise them, and put water to them, and it will be vineger. Also thus,

Ill wine is turned to vineger.

When the bunches of grapes are pressed forth, lay them between two wooden bowls, not very thick together, let them grow hot for four days; then pour on them so much naughty wine as may cover them, let them alone 24 hours, then strain them into another wooden bowl, and after so many hours, put them into another bowl, and do so til it be turned into most sharp white vineger; and if you would make more of the same clusters, pour on upon them some sharp vineger, and let them alone till they be extream sharp and sowre, then take that out and pour on ill wine, and do as you did. Lastly press those clusters out in a press, and you shall recover as great quantity as of the wine that was spent.

CHAP. XXIII.

How the defects of wine may be managed and restored.

OUr forefathers found out many remedies to preserve wine, and in our dayes we have taken no less pains. For wine is easily corrupted, and takes to it self many strange qualities. Paxamus saith, wine either grows sowre or dead about the Solstices, and when the seven stars set, or when the dog star causeth heat, and when it is extream cold, or hot, or rainy, or windy, or when it thunders. We shall shew remedies for all these; First, we shall lay down out of Africanus, the signs to know wines that will last, or will corrupt. When you have put your wine into a vessel, after some time change the vessel, and look well on the Lees, for thence shall you know what the wine is, proving it by smelling to it, whether it corrupt, or weevils breed in it, these are signs it putrifies. Others take wine out of the middle of the vessel, they heat it, and when it is cold they taste of it, and they judge of the wine by the favour, some by the smell of the cover; a strong taste is the best sign, a watry the worst, sharpness of duration, weakness of corrupting. The signs must be taken at the times to be feared, we mentioned. But to come to the remedies, we shall shew how

To mend weak wine.

The wine will be weak, when it begins to breath forth that force of heat; fot when the soul of it is breathed forth, the wine grows immediately sowre: vineger is the carcasse of wine. Then we may presently prevent it by adding aqua vitae to it, for by that it may put on a new soul: the measure will be the fourth part of a pound for a vessel. Another remedy will be

That wine may not grow hot.

In the Summer Solstice wine grows hot by the hot weather, and is spoiled: then put quick-silver into a glass-viol well stopt, and hang it in the middle of the vessel, and the coldness of it will keep the wine from heating. The quantity is two pound for great vessels; for when the air is hot, the external heat draws forth the inward heat, and when that is gone, it is spoiled. We

That wine may not exhale

use this remedy. The vessel being full, we pour oyle upon it, and cover it, for oyle keeps the spirits from evaporating, which I see is now used for all liquors that they may not be perverted. Wines sometimes are troubled: But

To clear wines,

Fronto bids us do thus. Cast three whites of egges into a large earthen dish and beat them, that they may froth; put some white salt to them, that they may be exceeding white, and pour them into a vessel full of wine, for salt and the white of an egge will make all thick liquors clear, but as many Dolia or such measures as there are in the vessel, so many whites of egges must you have, to be mingled again with so many ounces of salt, but you must stir the mixture with a stick, and in four dayes it will grow clear. Also it is done

That wines may not corrupt.

I said that salt keeps all things from corrupting: wherefore for every Dolium, powder one ounce of Allome, and put it into the wine vessel with the wine, for it will keep it from corrupting. The same is done if you put in one ounce of common salt, or half one, half the other: Also brimstone hinders putrefaction. Wherefore if you shall adde to eight ounces of Allome or of Salt, four ounces of brimstone, you shall do well. The Antients were wont to peserve wine, by adding Salt or sea-water to it, and it would continue along time. Columella teacheth thus, when the winds are quiet you must take water out of the deep sea: when it is very calm, and boyl it to thirds, adding to it, if you please, some spices. There are many ordinary things, but we let them pass.

CHAP. XXIV.

How Oyl may be made of divers things.

IT is an excellent thing to shew the diversity of ways to make Oyl. That if Olives should ever be scarce, yet we might know how to draw Oyl from many kinds of fruits and seeds. And some of these ways that came from the Antients, yet onely the best and such as are our inventions. Wherefore to begin, We say that

Oyl may be made of Ricinus, call'd Cicinum.

Dioscorides makes it thus. Let ripe Ricini as many as you please, wither in the hot Sun, and be laid upon hurdles: let them be so long in the Sun, till the outward shell break and fall off. Take the flesh of them and bruise it in a morter diligently, then put it into a Caldron glazed with Tin that is full of water: put fire under and boil them, and when they have yielded their inbred juyce, take the vessel from the fire, and with a shell skim off the Oyl on the top, and keep it. But in Egypt where the custom of it is more common: for they cleanse the Ricini and put them into a Mill, and being well grownd, they press them in a press through a basket. Pliny saith, They must be boiled in water, and the Oyl that swims on the top must be taken off. But in Egypt where there is plenty of it, without fire, and water sprinkled with Salt, it is ill for to eat, but good for Candles. But we collected them in September, for then is the time to gather them, with it parts from a prickly cover and a coat that holds the seed in it; it is easily cleansed in a hot Caldron: The weight of Oyl is half as much as the seed, but it must be twice knocked, and twice pressed. Palladius shews how

Oyl of Mastick is made,

gather many Grains of the Mastick-tree, and let them lye in a heap for a day and a night: Then put a basket full of those Berries into any vessel, and pouring hot water thereto, tread them and press them forth. Then from that humour that runs forth of them, the Oyl of Mastick that swims on the top is poured off. But remember lest the cold might hold it there, to pour hot water often on. For thus we see it made with us, and all the Country of Surrentum: also, so is made

Oyl of Turpentine,

as Damageron teacheth. The fruit of Turpentine is grownd in a Mill, as the Olives are, and is pressed out, and so it sends forth Oyl. The kernels serve to feed hogs and to burn. Likewise

Oyl of Bays,

Boil Bay-berries in water, the shels yield a certain fat, it is forced out by crushing them in the hands, then gather the Oyl into horns. Palladius almost as Dioscorides, in January boil many Bay-berries, that are ripe and full, in hot water, and when they have boy'ld long, the watry oyl that swims on the top that comes from them, you shall gently pour off into vessels, driving it easily with feathers. The Indians make as it is said

Oyl of Sesamon.

It is made as we said before, it sends forth excellent Oyl abundantly. There is made

Oyl of the Plane-Tree.

Pliny, For want sometimes they are forced to make Oyl for candles, of the Plane-tree berries soaked in water and salt, but it is very little as I proved. Pliny saith the Indians make

Oyl of Ches-nuts,

which I think very difficult, for but a little will come from them, as you shall find if you try. He said also, That Gallia Cisalpina made

Oyl of Acorns of the Oak

to serve for lights; but we can make very little. Also the Ancients used to make

Oyl of Wallnuts,

that they pressed from the Wallnuts, unsavoury and of a heavy taste: for if there be any rottenness in the kernel, the whole manner is spoil'd. Now Gallia Cisalpina makes it for to eat, and for lights also. For lights, by parting the naughty Nuts from the sound; but the best serves for to eat at second courses. These therefore are to eat, and those for lights, they burn cleer, and there is nothing that yields more Oyl. For it turns almost all to Oyl, for one pound of cleansed Nuts will yield almost ten ounces of Oyl. Now follows

Oyl of sweet Almonds.

Oyl of sweet Almonds is best for food, and of bitter, for Physick, and of old it was made with great diligence. Dioscorides shews the way how half a bushel of bitter Nuts cleansed and dried, are pounded in a morter with a wooden pestle into lump[…], then a sextarius of seething water is poured on, and when for half an hour the moisture is drunk in, they are beaten more violently then before; then is it pressed between boards, and what sticks to the fingers is collected with shells. The Nuts being pressed again, a Hemina of water is sprinkled on them, and when they have drank that up, they do as before; every bushel yields an Hemina. With us it is commonly drawn out the same way. These are the Oyls of the Antients. Now we shall proceed with our Oyls: Next follows

Oyl of small Nuts.

They yield abundance of sweet sented excellent Oyl, which all may use also for meats: one pound of the cleansed Nuts will yield eight ounces of Oyl, which former times were ignorant of.

Oyl of Pistaches

serve for Meat and Physicks. Out of

Pine kirnels Oyl is made

They are cull'd, and the naughty ones serve for lights; but the Oyl that comes from the best, is for to eat, and for Physick; very much is extracted. I saw it at Ravenna. But

Oyl of Beech,

The best of all is pressed out in abundance, for meats and for lights. It burns very cleer, and tastes as sweet Almonds, and the whole Nut almost goes into Oyl, as the Wallnut doth. The elder the Mast is, the more Oyl it yields and the Lees of the Oyl is excellent to far Oxen and Hogs. They are soon gathered, cleansed, bruised and pressed: We pressed also

Oyl from the bastard Sycomore,

as they call it; for it is abundant in seed, and in winter the boughs of it are seen loaded with seed onely. In February we collected it and crumbled it, the shell is broken into six or seven parts, the kernels are like a Pear, they are bruised and heated in a pan, then put into a press, and they yield their Oyl: They make clear light in lamps, and the seed yields a fourth part of Oyl. There is drawn

Oyl out of the Sanguine-Tree

for lights. About the middle of September the ripe berries are taken forth of the clusters, let them dry a few days, bruise them, and let them boyl in water in a brass kettle for one hour, then put them into the press, you shall have green coloured Oyl, about a seventh part of the seed. The Mountainous people use it. There is pressed

Oyl out of the Grapes or Raisins,

The Greeks call'd these Gigarta: Cisalpina Gallia makes oyl of them, bruised, heat, and pressed in a press, but it is very little fit for lights, because it burns exceeding cleer. There is much in Egypt

Oyl of Radish-seed

made: they use it to season their meats, and boil it with them. But Cisalpina Gallia presseth Oyl out of Radish-seed, and Rape-seed: Rapes are pulled up onely in Novemb[…]r, but they are covered with sand together with their leaves. They are planten in March, that they may seed in May. For unless they be pulled up, they freeze with winter cold. But there is another kind of Rape that is sowed in July; it is weeded, it comes forth in the spring, in May it yields seed: out of a quarter of a bushel of it, eighteen pounds of Oyl are drawn; it is good for lights, and for common people to eat. If you sow a whole Acre with this seed, you shall have five load of seed, and of every load you may make two hundred pounds of Oyl: it is onely plow'd and weeded. Also

Oyl is made of the seed of Cameline.

It is made for lights, but those of Lombardy make great plenty of a golden-coloured Oyl of a seed like to this, called Dradella. It hath plaited leaves as wild Rochet, which they sowe amongst Pulse. The same may be said of the seeds of Nettles, Mustard, Flax, Rice.

CHAP. XXV.

How a Housholder may provide himself with many sorts of Thread.

NOw shall I speak of many sorts of Yarn, because this may much help the Household, for the Houswife hath always need thereof. Our Ancestors used Hemp and Flax; for thus they made

Yarn of Flax:

yet there needs no example, the Thread is so common. I will speak of those that follow, and of other inventions. Pliny. Flax is known to be ripe two ways, when the seed smells, or looks yellow; then it is pulled up and bound in handfuls, and dried in the Sun, letting it hang with the roots upwards for one day: Then five of these bundles standing with their tops one against another, that the seed may fall in the middle. Then after Wheat-harvest, the branches are laid in the water that is warm with the Sun, they are kept down by some weight and soaked there, and again, as before, turn'd up-side down they are dried in the Sun. Then being dried, they are bruised on with a flax-hammer; that which was next the rind is call'd hard, or the worst flax, and it is fit for to make weiks for Candles, yet that is kemmed with hackes, till all the membrans be pilled clean. The art of kembing and making of it, is, out of fifty pound of Flax-bundles, to make fifteen pound of Flax. Then again it is polished in Thread, it is often beat upon a hard stone with water, and when it is woven it is bruised again with Beetles, and the more you beat it, the better it is. Also there is made

Thread of Hemp,

Hemp is excellent for ropes. Hemp is plucked up after the Vintage, but it is cleansed and pill'd with great labour. There are three sorts of it, that next the rind is the worst, and that next the pith, the middlemost is the best, which is called Mesa: Another

To make Thread of Broom,

It is broken and pull'd from the Ides of May, until the Ides in June, this is the time when it is ripe. When it is pull'd, the bundles are set in heaps for two days to take the wind; on the third day it is opened and spread in the Sun, and is dried, and then again it is brought into the house in bundles. Afterwards it is well steep'd in sea-water, or other water where that is wanting. Then being dried in the Sun again, it is watered, if we have presently need of it, if it be wet with hot water in a vessel, it will be the shorter way. But it must be heat to make it good, for the fresh nor sea-water cannot soften it enough. Ropes of Hemp are preferred when they are dry, but Broom is preserved wet, to make good the dryness of the ground it grows on. The upper part of Egypt toward Arabia, makes linnen of Cotten. Asia makes Flax of Spanish Broom, especially for Fishers nets to last long; the Shrub must be soaked for ten days. And so every Countrey hath its Thread made of divers Plants and Shrubs. We know that there is made

Thread of Nettles,

amongst the Northern people, and it is very fine and white: also there is made

Thread of Aloes in America,

it is hard, white, and most perfect. I shall describe it by their relation, because the extream parts are full of prickles, we strike them off that they may not hinder us, and we cut the branches into long pieces long ways, that the substance under the rind may be the better taken away; then two Poles of wood are fastned in the earth, crossing one the other in the middle like a cross; these are held fast with the left hand, to make them hold fast together, and with the right the foresaid pieces or fillets are taken by one end and drawn over the cross, that the inward part may part from the wooddy part, and the Flax from the substance, and then they are kembed so often, till they become white, pure, nervous, as Fiddle or Harp-strings, then are they washed, dried, and laid up. In thirteen years after that it is planted, the leaves grow very long even twenty foot, the stalk riseth in the middle forty foot long. Then the top is adorned with flowers and bears fruit: I saw this at Rome, and I never remember that I saw any thing more beautiful. I shall now speak of Flax call'd Asbestinum. Pliny saith there is Flax also found, That fire will not consume; they call it live-Flax, and I have seen Napkins and Table-clothes burning in the fire, at Feasts, and they were better cleansed of filth with the fire, then they could be by water: Wherefore of this they made Coats for Kings funerals, to keep the ashes of the Body from other ashes. It grows in India in the desarts and scorched places with the Sun, where no rain falls; but there are terrible creatures and serpents, and this is preserved by burning; it is hard to be found, and difficult to wear, because it is so short: when it is found it is as dear as the most precious Pearls. The Greeks call it Asbestinum from the nature of it, So saith Pliny, out of which words it is plain that he knew not the Stone Asbestinum, when he said that it was hard to find; and difficult to wear for the shortness of it, for it is kembed and spun by every w[…]man almost, if she be not ignorant of it, as I saw at Venice, a woman of Cypr[…] and another of Valentia, that shewed me it in great abundance in the Arsenel or Hospital. It is an excellent secret, very rare and profitable, thou[…]h few knew it of our times: but I have freely communicated it, though it cannot be had, but at great […]ates.