COTTAGE ECONOMY;
CONTAINING
INFORMATION RELATIVE TO THE BREWING OF BEER, MAKING OF BREAD,
KEEPING OF COWS, PIGS, BEES, EWES, -GOATS, POULTRY, AND RABBITS,
AND RELATIVE TO OTHER MATTERS DEEMED USEFUL IN THE CONDUCT-
ING OF THE AFFAIRS OF A LABOURER'S FAMILY ; TO WHICH ARE ADDED,
INSTRUCTIONS RELATIVE TO THE SELECTING, THE CUTTING AND THE
BLEACHING OF THE PLANTS OF ENGLISH GRASS AND GRAIN, FOR THB
PURPOSE OP MAKING HATS AND, BONNETS ; AND ALSO INSTRUCTIONS
FOR ERECTING AND USING ICE-HOUSES, AFTER THE VIRGINIAN MANNER.
TO WHICH IS ADDED
THE POOR MAN'S FRIEND;
on,
A DEFENCE OF THE RIGHTS OF THOSE WHO DO THE WORK,
AND FIGHT THE BATTLES.
BY WILLIAM COBBETT.
NEW YORK :
PUBLISHED BY JOHN DOYLE, 12,
Sorrw? $Y CONNER
1833.
Entered according to act of Congress^in the year of our Lord 1833-
by John Doyle, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the
Southern District of New- York.
CONTENTS.
No.
I. Introduction. To the Labouring Classes
of this Kingdom Brewing Beer, - 5
II. Brewing Beer, continued, - - - - 23
III. Making Bread, 41
IV. Making Bread, continued Brewing
Beer Keeping Cows, - - - - 59
V. Keeping Cows, continued, Keeping
Pigs, ---------- 73
VI. Keeping Pigs, continued Salting Mut-
ton, and Beef, ------- 86
VII. Bees, Geese, Ducks, Turkeys, Fowls,
Pigeons, Rabbits, Goats, and Ewes,
Candles and Rushes, Mustard, Dress
and Household Goods, and Fuel,
Hops, and Yeast, % - - - - 98
VIII. Selecting, Cutting and Bleaching the
Plants of English Grass and Grain,
for the purpose of making Hats and
Bonnets Constructing and using
Ice-houses, -------- 122
AoDiTiON.-^Mangel Wurzel Cobbett's Corn, 151
INDEX, ------------- 158
COTTAGE ECONOMY.
No. I.
INTRODUCTION.
To THE LABOURING CLASSES OF THIS KINGDOM.
1. THROUGHOUT this little work, I shall number
the Paragraphs, in order to be able, at some stages of
the work, to refer, with the more facility, to parts that
have gone before. The last Number will contain an
Index, by the means of which the several matters may
be turned to without loss of time ; for, when economy
is the subject, time is a thing which ought by no means
to be overlooked.
2. The word Economy ', like a great many others,
has, in its application, been very much abused. It is
generally used as if it meant parsimony, stinginess, or
niggardliness ; and, at best, merely the refraining from
expending money. Hence misers and close-fisted men
disguise their propensity and conduct under the name
of economy ; whereas the most liberal disposition, a
disposition precisely the contrary of that of the miser,
is perfectly consistent with economy.
3. ECONOMY means management, and nothing
more ; and it is generally applied to the affairs of a
house and family, \vhich affairs are an object of the
greatest importance, whether as relating to indivi-
duals or to a nation. A nation is made powerful and
to be honoured in the world, not so much by the num-
ber of its people as by the ability and character of that
people ; and the ability and character of a people de-
pend, in a great measure, upon the economy of the
several families, which, all taken together, make up
the nation. There never yet was, and never will be,
1*
<5 INTRODUCTION. [No,
a nation permanently great, consisting, for the greater
part, of wretched and miserable families.
4. In every view of the matter, therefore, it is de-
sirable, that the families of which a nation consists
should^ be happily off: and as this depends, in a great
degree, upon the management of their concerns, the
present work is intended to convey, to the families of
the labouring classes in particular such information
as I think may be useful with regard to that manage-
ment.
5. I lay it down as a maxim, that for a family to be
happy, they must be well supplied withybotZ and rai-
ment. It is a sorry effort that people make to persuade
others, or to persuade themselves, that they can be
happy in a state of want of the necessaries of life.
The doctrines which fanaticism preaches, and which
teach men to be content with poverty, have a very per-
nicious tendency, and are calculated to favour tyrants
by giving them passive slaves. To live well, to enjoy
all things that make life pleasant, is the right of every
man who constantly uses his strength judiciously and
lawfully. It is to blaspheme God to suppose, that he
created man to be miserable, to hunger, thirst, and
perish with cold, in the midst of that abundance
which is the fruit of their own labour. Instead, there-
fore, of applauding " happy poverty," which applause
is so much the fashion of the present day, I despise the
man that is poor and contented; for, such content is a
certain proof of a base disposition, a disposition which
is the enemy of all industry, all exertion, all love of
independence.
6. Let it be understood, however, that, by poverty,
I mean real want, a real insufficiency of the iood and
raiment and lodging necessary to health and decency ;
and not that imaginary poverty, of which some per-
sons complain. The man who, by his own and his
family's labour, can provide a sufficiency of food and
raiment, and a comfortable dwelling-place, is not a
poor man. There must be different ranks and degrees
in every civil society, and, indeed, so it is even amongst
the savage tribes. There must be different degrees of
L] INTRODUCTION. 7
wealth; some must have more than others ; and the
richest must be a great deal richer than the least rich.
But it is necessary to the very existence of a people,
that nine out of ten should live wholly by the sweat
of their brow; and. is it not degrading to human nature,
that all the nine-tenths should be called poor; and,
what is still worse, call themselves poor ', and be con-
tented in that degraded state?
7. The laws, the economy, or management, of a
state may be such, as to render it impossible for the
labourer, however skilful and industrious, to maintain
his family in health and decency ; and such has, for
many years past, been the management of the affairs
of this once truly great and happy land. A system
of paper-money, the effect of which was to take from
the labourer the half of his earnings, was what no
industry and care could make head against. I do not
pretend that this system was adopted by design. But,
no matter for the cause; such was the effect.
8. Better times, however, are approaching. The
labourer now appears likely to obtain that hire of
which he is worthy ; and, therefore, this appears to
me to be the time to press upon him the duty of using
his best exertions for the rearing of his family in a
manner that must give him the best security for hap-
piness to himself, his wife and children, and to make
him, in all respects, what his forefathers were. The
people of England have been famed, in all ages, for
their good living; for the abundance of their food
and goodness of their attire. The old sayings about
English roast beef and plum-pudding, and about Eng-
lish hospitality, had not their foundation in nothing.
And, in spite of all refinements of sickly minds, it is
abundant living amongst the people at large, which
is the great test of good government, and the surest
basis of national greatness and security.
9. If the labourer have his fair wages ; if there be
no false weights and measures, whether of money
or of goods, by which he is defrauded ; if the laws be
equal in their effect upon all men : if he be called
upon for no more than his due share of the expenses
8 INTRODUCTION. [No.
necessary to support the government and defend the
country, he has no reason to complain. If the large-
ness of his family demand extraordinary labour and
care, these are due from him to it. He is the cause
of the existence of that family ; and, therefore, he is
not, except in cases of accidental calamity, to throw
upon others the burden of supporting it. Besides,
"little children are as arrows in the hands of the giant,
and blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of
them/' That is to say, children, if they bring their
cares, bring also their pleasures and solid advanta-
ges. They become, very soon, so many assistants
and props to the parents, who, when old age comes
on, are amply repaid for all the toils and all the cares
that children have occasioned in their infancy. To
be without sure and safe friends in the world makes
life not worth having ; and whom can we be so sure of
as of our children ? Brothers and sisters are a mutual
support. We see them, in almost every case, grow up
into prosperity, when they act the part that the im-
pulses of nature prescribe. When cordially united,
a father and sons, or a family of brothers and sisters,
may, in almost any state of life, set what is called
misfortune at defiance.
10. These considerations are much more than
enough to sweeten the toils and cares of parents, and to
make them regard every additional child as an addition-
al blessing. But, that children may be a blessing and
not a curse, care must be taken of their education.
This word has, of late years, been so perverted, so
corrupted, so abused, in its application, that I am al-
most afraid to use it here. Yet I must not suffer it to
be usurped by cant and tyranny. I must use it: but
not without clearly saying what I mean.
11. Education means breeding up, bringing up ,
or rearing up ; and nothing mom This includes
every thing with regard to the mind as well as the
body of a child ; but, of late years, it has been so used
as to have no sense applied to it but that of book-learn-
ing, with which, nine times out of ten, it has nothing
at all to do. It is, indeed, proper, and it is the duty
I.] INTRODUCTION. 9
of all parents, to teach, or cause to be taught, their
children as much as they can of books, after, and not
before, all the measures are safely taken for enabling
them to get their living by labour, or for providing
them a living without labour, and that, too, out of the
means obtained and secured by the parents out of their
own income. The taste of the times is, unhappily, to
give to children something of book-learning', with a
view of placing them to live, in some way or other,
upon the labour of other people. Very seldom, com-
paratively speaking, has this succeeded, even during
the wasteful public expenditure of the last thirty years ;
and, in the times that are approaching, it cannot, I
thank God, succeed at all. When the project has
failed, what disappointment, mortification and misery,
to both parent and child ! The latter is spoiled as a
labourer : his book-learning has only made him con-
ceited : into some course of desperation he falls ; and
the end is but too often not only wretched but ignomi-
nious.
12. Understand me clearly here, however ; for it is
the duty of parents to give, if they be able, book-learn-
ing to their children, having first taken care to make
them capable of earning their living by bodily labour.
When that object has once been secured, the other
may, if the ability remain, be attended to. But I am
wholly against children wasting their time in the idle-
ness of what is called education; and particularly in
schools over which the parents have no control, and
where nothing is taught but the rudiments of servility,
pauperism and slavery.
13. The education that I have in view is, there-
fore, of a very different kind. You should bear con-
stantly in mind, that nine-tenths of us are, from the
very nature and necessities of the world, born to gain
our livelihood by the sweat of our brow. What rea-
son have we, then, to presume, that our children are
not to do the same ? If they be, as now and then
one will be, endued with extraordinary powers of mind,
those powers may have an opportunity of developing
themselves ; and if they never have that opportunity.
10 INTRODUCTION. [No.
the harm is not very great to us or to them. Nor does it
hence follow that the descendants of labourers are
always to be labourers. The path upwards is steep
and long, to be sure. Industry, care, skill, excellence,
in the present parent, lay the foundation of a rise,
under more favourable circumstances, for his children.
The children of these take another rise; and, by-and-
by, the descendants of the present labourer become
gentlemen.
14. This is the natural progress. It is by attempt-
ting to reach the top at a single leap that so much
misery is produced in the world ; and the propensity
to make such attempts has been cherished and encou-
raged by the strange projects that we have witnessed
of late years for making the labourers virtuous and
happy by giving them what is called education.
The education which I speak of consists in bringing
children up to labour with steadiness, with care, and
with skill ; to show them how to do as many useful
things as possible ; to teach them to do them all in
the best manner ; to set them an example in industry,
sobriety, cleanliness, and neatness ; to make all these
habitual to them, so that they never shall be liable to
fall into the contrary; to let them always see a good
living proceeding from labour, and thus to remove
from them the temptation to get at the goods of others by
violent or fraudulent means, and to keep far from their
minds all the inducements to hypocrisy and deceit.
15. A nd, bear in mind, that if the state of the labourer
has its disadvantages when compared with other call-
ings and conditions of life, it has also its advantages. It
is free from the torments of ambition, and from a great
part of the causes of ill-health, for which not all the
riches in the world and all the circumstances of high
rank are a compensation. The able and prudent labourer
is always safe, at the least ; and that is what few men
are who are lifted above him. They have losses and
crosses to fear, the very thought of which never enters
his mind, if he act well his part towards himself, his
family and his neighbour.
16. But, the basis of good to him, is steady and
1J INTRODUCTION. Jl
skilful labour. To assist him in the pursuit of this
labour, and in the turning of it to the best account, are
the principal objects of the present little work. I pro-
pose to treat of brewing Beer, making Bread, keeping
Cows and Pigs, rearing Poultry, and of other matters ;
and to show, that, while, from a very small piece of
ground a large part of the food of a considerable fami-
ly may be raised, the very act of raising it will be the
best possible foundation of education of the children
of the labourer ; that it will teach them a great number
of useful things, add greatly to their value when they
go forth from their father's home, make them start
in life with all possible advantages, and give them the
best chance of leading happy lives. And is it not much
more rational for parents to be employed in teaching
their children how to cultivate a garden, to feed and rear
animals, to make bread, beer, bacon, butter and cheese,
and to be able to do these things for themselves, or for
others, than to leave them to prowl about the lanes and
commons, or to mope at the heels of some crafty, sleek-
headed pretended saint, who while he extracts the
last penny from their pockets, bids them be contented
with their misery, and promises them, in exchange
for their pence, everlasting glory in the world to come ?
It is upon the hungry and the wretched that the fana-
tic works. The dejected and forlorn are his prey.
As an ailing carcass engenders vermin, a pauperized
community engenders teachers of fanaticism, the very
foundation of whose doctrines is, that we are to care
nothing about this world, and that all our labours and
exertions are in vain.
17. The man, who is doing well, who is in good
health, who has a blooming and dutiful and cheerful
and happy family about him, and who passes his day
of rest amongst them, is not to be made to believe,
that he was born to be miserable, and that poverty,
the natural and just reward of laziness, is to secure
him a crown of glory. Far be it from me to recom-
mend a disregard of even outward observances as to
matters of religion ; but, can it be religion to believe
that God hath made us to be wretched and dejected ?
12 INTRODUCTION. [No.
Can it be religion to regard, as marks of his grace,
the poverty and misery that almost invariably attend
pur neglect to use the means of obtaining a competence
in worldly things ? Can it be religion to regard as
blessings those things, those very things, which God
expressly numbers amongst his curses ? Poverty
never finds a place amongst the blessings promised
by God. His blessings are of a directly opposite de-
scription ; flocks, herds, corn, wine and oil ; a smiling
land ; a rejoicing people ; abundance for the body and
gladness of the heart : these are the blessings which
God promises to the industrious, the sober, the careful,
and the upright. Let no man, then, believe that, to
be poor and wretched is a mark of God's favour ; and
let no man remain in that state, if he, by any honest
means, can rescue himself from it.
18. Poverty leads to all sorts of evil consequences.
Want, horrid want, is the great parent of crime. To
have a dutiful family, the father's principle of rule
must be love not fear. His sway must be gentle, or
he will have only an unwilling and short-lived obedi-
ence. But it is given to but few men to be gentle and
good-humoured amidst the various torments attendant
on pinching poverty. A competence is, therefore, the
first thing to be thought of; it is the foundation of all
good in the labourer's dwelling ; without it little but
misery can be expected. " Health, peace, and compe~
tence," one of the wisest of men regards as the only
things needful to man : but the two former are scarcely
to be had without the latter. Competence is the
foundation of happiness and of exertion. Beset with
wants, having a mind continually harassed with fears
of starvation, who can act with energy, who can
calmly think? To provide a good living, therefore,
for himself and family, is the very first duly of every
man. "Two things," says AGUE, "have I asked;
deny me them not before I die : remove far from me
vanity and lies ; give me neither poverty nor riches ;
feed me with food convenient for me : lest I be full
and deny thee ; or lest I be poor and steal."
19. A good living therefore, a competence, is the
L] BREWING. 13
first thing to be desired and to be sought after ; and, if
this little work should have the effect of aiding only
a small portion of the Labouring Classes in securing
that competence, it will afford great gratification to
their friend WM. COBBETT.
Kensington, 19th July, 1821.
BREWING BEER.
20. BEFORE I proceed to give any directions about
brewing, let me mention some of the inducements to
do the thing. In former times, to set about to show
to- Englishmen that it was good for them to brew beer
in their houses would have been as impertinent as
gravely to insist, that they ought to endeavour not to
lose their breath ; for, in those times, (only forty years
ago,) to have a house and not to brew was a rare
thing indeed. Mr. ELLMAN, an pld^man and a large
fanner, in Sussex, has recently given in evidence, be-
fore a Committee of the House of Commons, this fact ;
that, forty years ago, there was not a labourer in his
parish that did not brew his -own beer ; and that now
there is not one that does it, except by chance the
malt be given him. The causes of this change have
been the lowering of the wages of labour, compared
with the price of provisions, by the means of the paper-
money ; the enormous tax upon the barley when made
into malt ; and the increased lax upon hops. These
have quite changed the customs of the English people
as to their drink. They still drink beer, but, in gene-
ral, it is of the brewing of common brewers, and in
public-houses, of which the common brewers have be-
come the owners, and have thus, by the aid of paper-
money, obtained a monopoly in the supplying of the
great body of the people with one of those things
which, to the hard-working man, is almost a necessary
of life.
21. These things will be altered. They must be
altered. The nation must be sunk into nothingness,
2
14 BREWING. [No.
or a new system must be adopted ; and the nation will
not sink into nothingness. The malt now pays a tax
of 4s. 6d* a bushel, and the barley costs only 3s.
This brings the bushel of malt to Ss. including the
maltster's charge for malting. If the tax were taken
off the malt, malt would be sold, at the present price
of barley, for about 3s. 3d. a bushel ; because a bushel
of barley makes more than a bushel of malt, and the
tax, besides its amount, causes great expenses of va-
rious sorts to the maltster. The hops pay a tax of
2cZ.f a pound ; and a bushel of malt requires, in ge-
neral, a pound of hops ; if these two taxes were taken
off, therefore, the consumption of barley and of hops
would be exceedingly increased ; for double the pre-
sent quantity would be demanded, and the land is
always ready to send it forth.
22. It appears impossible that the landlords should
much longer submit to these intolerable burdens on
their estates. In short, they must get off the malt tax,
or lose those estates. They must do a great deal
more, indeed ; but that they must do at any rate. The
paper-money is fast losing its destructive power ; and
things are, with regard to the labourers, coming back
to what they were forty years ago, and therefore we
may prepare for the making of beer in our own houses,
and take leave of the poisonous stuff served out to us
by common brewers. We may begin immediately ;
for, even at present prices, home-brewed beer is the
cheapest drink that a family can use, except milk, and
milk can be applicable only in certain cases.
23. The drink which has come to supply the place
of beer has, in general, been tea. It is notorious that
tea has no useful strength in it; that it contains
nothing nutritious ; that it, besides being good for
nothing, has badness in it, because it is well known
to produce want of sleep in many cases, and in all
cases, to shake and weaken the nerves. It is, in fact,
a weaker kind of laudanum, which enlivens for the
moment and deadens afterwards. At any rate it com-
* 4s. 6d. English, equal to one dollar.
t 2d, English, equal to four cents, nearly.
I.] BREWING. 15
municates no strength to the body ; it does not, in any
degree, assist in affording what labour demands. It
is, then, of no use. And, now, as to its cost, compared
with that of beer. I shall make my comparison ap-
plicable to a year, or three hundred and sixty-five days.
I shall suppose the tea to be only five shillings the
pound ; the sugar only sevenpence ; the milk only two-
pence a quart. The prices are at the very lowest. I
shall suppose a tea-pot to cost a shilling, six cups and
saucers two shillings and sixpence, and six pewter
spoons eighteen-pence. How to estimate the firing
I hardly know ; but certainly there must be in the
course of the year, two hundred fires made that would
not be made, were it not for tea drinking. Then
conies the great article of all, the time employed in
this tea-making aifair. It is impossible to make a fire,
boil water, make the tea, drink it, wash up the things,
sweep up the fire-place, and put all to rights again, in
a less space of time, upon an average, than two hc/urs.
However, let us allow one hour; and here we have a
woman occupied no less than three hundred and sixty-
five hours in the year, or thirty whole days, at twelve
hours in the day ; that is to say, one month out of the
twelve in the year, besides the waste of the man's time
in hanging about waiting for the tea ! Needs there
any thing more to make us cease to wonder at seeing
labourers' children with dirty linen and holes in the
heels of their stockings ? Observe, top, that the time
thus spent is, one half of it, the best time of the day.
It is the top of the morning, which, in every calling
of life, contains an hour worth two or three hours of
the afternoon. By the time that the clattering tea
tackle is out of the way, the morning is spoiled ; its
prime is gone ; and any work that is to be done after-
wards lags heavily aloii. If the mother have to go
out to work, the tea affair must all first be over. She
comes into the field, in summer time, when the sun
has gone a third part of his course. She has the heat
of the day to encounter, instead of having her work
done and being ready to return home at any early
hour. Yet early she must go, too : for, there is the
16 BREWING. [NO.
fire again to be made, the clattering tea-tackle again
to come forward ; and even in the longest day she
must have candle light, which never ought to be seen
in a cottage (except in case of illness) from March to
September.
24. Now, then, let us take the bare cost of the use
of tea. I suppose a pound of tea to last twenty days ;
which is not nearly half an ounce every morning and
evening. I allow for each mess half a pint of milk.
And I allow three pounds of the red dirty sugar to
each pound of tea. The account of expenditure
would then stand very high ; but to these must be
added the amount of the tea tackle, one set of which
will, upon an average, be demolished every year.
To these outgoings must be added the cost of beer
at the public -house ; for some the man will have,
after all, and the woman too, unless they be upon
the point of actual starvation. Two pots a week is
as little as will serve in this way ; and here is a dead
loss of ninepence a week, seeing that two pots of
beer, full as strong, and a great deal better, can be
brewed at home for threepence. The account of the
year's tea drinking will then stand thus :
L. s. d.
' 18Ib. of tea . . . 4 10
541b. of sugar . . . 1 11 6
365 pints of milk . . . 1 10
Tea tackle . . .050
200 fires . ... 16 8
30 days' work . . . 15
Loss by going to public-house 1 19
L.ll 7 2*
25. I have here estimated every thing at its very
lowest. The entertainment which I have here pro-
vided is as poor, as mean, as miserable as any thing
short of starvation can set forth ; and yet the wretch-
ed thing amounts to a good third part of a good and
able labourer's wages ! For this money, he and his
* The above items may be converted into United States' money by
reckoning 4s. 6d. to the dollar : Thus As 4*. 6d. ; 1 dollar: ; III. 7s, 2d. J
50 dollars 48 cents.
I.] BREWING. 17
family may drink good and wholesome beer ; in a
short time, out of the mere savings from this waste,
may drink it out of silver cups and tankards. In a
labourer's family, wholesome beer, that has a little
life in it, is all that is wanted in general. Little
children, that do not work, should not have beer.
Broth, porridge, or something in that way, is the
thing for them. Hdwever, I shall suppose, in order
to make my comparison as little complicated as pos-
sible, that he brews nothing but beer as strong as
the generality of beer to be had at the public-house,
and divested of the poisonous drugs which that beer
but too often contains ; and I shall further suppose
that he uses in his family two quarts of this beer
every day from the first of October to the last day of
March inclusive : three quarts a day during the
months of April and May ; four quarts a day during
the months of June and September ; and five quarts
a day during the months of July and August ; and
if this be not enough, it must be a family of drunk-
ards. Here are 1097 quarts, or 274 gallons. Now,
a bushel of malt will make eighteen gallons of bet-
ter beer than that which is sold at the public-houses.
And this is precisely a gallon for the price of a quart.
People should bear in mind, that the beer bought at
the public-house is loaded with a beer tax, with the
tax on the public-house keeper, in the shape of
license, with all the taxes and expenses of the brew-
er, with all the taxes, rent, and other expenses of the
publican, and with all the profits of both brewer and
publican ; so that when a man swallows a pot of
beer at a public-house, he has all these expenses to
help to defray, besides the mere tax on the malt and
on the hops.
26. Weil, then, to brew this ample supply of good
beer for a labourer's family, these 274 gallons, re-
quires fifteen bushels of malt and (for let us do the
thing well) fifteen pounds of hops. The malt is now
eight shillings a bushel, and very good hops may be
bought for less than a shilling a pound. The grains
and yeast will amply pay for the labour and fuel
2*
18 BREWING. [NO.
employed in the brewing ; seeing that there will be
pigs to eat the grains, and bread to be baked with
the yeast. The account will then stand thus :
L. s. d.
15 bushels of malt . . . 600
15 pounds of hops . . . 15
Wear of utensils . . . 10
.7 5
27. Here, then, is the sum of four pounds two shil-
lings and twopence saved every year. The utensils
for brewing are, a brass kettle, a mashing tub, cool-
ers, (for which washing tubs may serve,) a half
hogsnead, with one end taken out, for a tun tub,
about four nine-gallon casks, and a couple of eigh-
teen-gallon casks. This is an ample supply of
utensils, each of which will last, with proper care,
a good long lifetime or two, and the whole of which,
even if purchased new from the shop, will only ex-
ceed by a few shillings, if they exceed at all, the
amount of the saving, arising the very first year^
from quitting; the troublesome and pernicious prac-
tice of drinking tea. The saving of each succeed-
ing year would, if you chose it, purchase a silver
mug to hold half a pint at least. However, the sa-
ving would naturally be applied to purposes more
conducive to the well-being and happiness of a
family.
28. It is not, however, the mere saving to which
I look. This is, indeed, a matter of great import-
ance, whether we look at the amount itself, or at
the ultimate consequences of a judicious application
of it ; for four pounds make a great hole in a man's
wages for the year; and when we consider all the
advantages that would arise to a family of children
from having these four pounds, now so miserably
wasted, laid out upon their backs, in the shape of a de-
cent dress, it is impossible to look at this waste with-
out feelings of sorrow not wholly unmixed with
those of a harsher description.
To convert these sums into United States' money, see page 16.
I.] BREWING. 19
29. But, I look upon the thing in a still more seri-
ous light. I view the tea drinking as a destroyer of
health, an en feebler of the frame, an engenderer of
effeminacy and laziness, a debaucher of youth, and
a maker of misery for old age. In the fifteen bushels
of malt there are 570 pounds weight of sweet ; that
is to say, of nutricious matter, unmixed with any
thing injurious to health. In the 730 tea messes of
the year there are 54 pounds of sweet in the sugar,
and about 30 pounds of matter equal to sugar in the
milk. Here are 84 pounds instead of 570, and even
the good effect of these 84 pounds is more than over-
balanced by the corrosive, gnawing and poisonous
powers of the tea.
30. It is impossible for any one to deny the truth
of this statement. Put it to the test with a lean
hog : give him the fifteen bushels of malt, and he
will repay you in ten score of bacon or thereabouts.
But give hirh the 730 tea messes, or rather begin to
give them to him, and give him nothing else, and he
is dead with hunger, and bequeaths you his skeleton,
at the end of about seven days. It is impossible to
doubt in such a case. The tea drinking has done a
great deal in bringing this nation into the state of
misery in which it now is ; and the tea drinking,
which is carried on by " dribs" and " drabs ;" by
pence and farthings going out at a time ; this, mise-
rable practice has been gradually introduced by the
growing weight of the taxes on malt and on hops,
and by the everlasting penury amongst the labourers,
occasioned by the paper-money.
31. We see better prospects however, and there-
fore let us now rouse ourselves, and shake from us
the degrading curse, the effects of which have been
much more extensive and infinitely more mischiev-
ous than men in general seem to imagine.
32. It must be evident to every one, that the prac-
tice of tea drinking must render the frame feeble and
unfit to encounter hard labour or severe weather,
while, as I have shown, it deducts from the means
of replenishing the belly and covering the back.
20 BREWING, [No.
Hence succeeds a softness, an effeminacy, a seeking
for the fire-side, a lurking in the bed, and, in short,
all the characteristics of idleness, for which, in this
case, real want of strength furnishes an apology.
The- tea drinking fills the public-house, makes the
frequenting of it habitual, corrupts boys as soon as
they are able to move from home, and does little less
for the girls, to whom the gossip of the tea-table is
no bad preparatory school for the brothel. At the
very least,- it teaches them idleness. The everlast-
ing dawdling about with the slops of the tea tackle,
gives them a relish for nothing that requires strength
and activity. When they go from home, they know
how to do nothing that is useful. To brew, to bake,
to make butter, to milk, to rear poultry ; to do any
earthly thing of use they are wholly unqualified.
To shut poor young creatures up in manufactories
is bad enough ; but there, at any rate, they do some-
thing that is useful ; whereas, the girl that has been
brought up merely to boil the tea-kettle, and to assist
in the gossip inseparable from the practice, is a mere
consumer of food, a pest to her employer, and a
curse to her husband, if any man be so unfortunate
as to fix his affections upon her.
33. But is it in the power of any man, any good
labourer, who has attained the age of fifty, to look
back upon the last thirty years of his life, without
cursing the day in which tea was introduced into
England? Where is there such a man, who can-
not trace to this cause a very considerable part of all
the mortifications and sufferings of his life? When
was he ever too late at his labour ; when did he ever
meat with a frown, with a turning off, and pauper-
ism on that account, without being able to trace it to
the tea-kettle ? When reproached with lagging in
the morning, the poor wretch tells you that he will
make up for it by working during his breakfast
time ! I have heard this a hundred and a hundred
times over. He was up time enough ; but the tea-
kettle kept him lolling and lounging at home ; and
now, instead of sitting down to a breakfast upon
I.] BREWING. 21
bread, bacon, and beer, which is to carry him on to
the hour of dinner, he has to force his limbs along
under the sweat of feebleness, and at dinner time
to swallow his dry bread, or slake his half-feverish
thirst at the pump or the brook. To the wretched
tea-kettle he has to return at night, with legs hardly
sufficient to maintain him; and thus he makes his
miserable progress towards that death, which he finds
ten or fifteen years sooner than he would have found
it had he made his wife brew beer instead of making
tea. If he now and then gladdens his heart with the
drugs of the public house, some quarrel, some acci-
dent, some illness, is the probable consequence; to the
affray abroad succeeds an affray at home ; the mischiev-
ous example reaches the children, corrupts them or
scatters them, and misery for life is the consequence.
34. I should now proceed to the details of brew-
ing; but these, though they will not occupy a large
space, must be put off to the second number. The
custom of brewing at home has so long ceased
amongst labourers, and, in many cases, amongst
tradesmen, that it was necessary for me fully to state
my reasons for wishing to see the custom revived.
I shall, in my next, clearly explain how the operation
is performed ; and it will be found to be so easy a
thing, that I am not without hope, that many trades-
men, who now spend their evenings at the public
house, amidst tobacco smoke and empty noise, may
be induced, by the finding of better drink at home,
at a quarter part of the price, to perceive that home
is by far the pleasantest place wherein to pass their
hours of relaxation.
35. My work is intended chiefly for the benefit of
cottagers, who must, of course, have some land; for,
I purpose to show, that a large part of the food of even
a large family may be raised, without any diminution
of the labourer's earnings abroad, from forty roji, or a
quarter of an acre, of ground ; l)ut at the same time,
what I have to say will be applicable to larger estab-
lishments, in all the branches of domestic economy :
and especially to that of providing a family with beer.
22 BREWING. [No.
36. The kind of beer, for a labourer's family, that
is to say, the degree of strength, must depend on cir-
cumstances ; on the numerousness of the family ; on
the season of the year, and various other things. But,
generally speaking, beer half the strength of 'that men-
tioned in paragraph 25 will be quite strong enough ;
for that is, at least, one-third stronger than the farm-
house " small beer," which, however, as long experi-
ence has proved, is best suited to the purpose. A ju-
dicious labourer would probably always have some
ale in his house, and have small beer for the general
drink. There is no reason why he should not keep
Christmas as well as the farmer ; and when he is
mowing, reaping, or is at any other hard work, a
quart, or three pints, of really good fat ale a-day is
by no means too much. However, circumstances vary
so much with different labourers, that as to the sort of
beer, and the number of brewings, and the times of
brewing, no general rule can be laid down.
37. Before I proceed to explain the uses of the se-
veral brewing utensils, I must speak of the quality of
the materials of which beer is made ; that is to say,
the malt, hops, and water. Malt varies very much
in quality, as, indeed, it must, with the quality of the
barley. When good, it is full of flour, and in biting
a grain asunder, you find it bite easily, and see the
shell thin and filled up-well with flour. If, it bite hard
and steely, the malt is bad. There is pale malt and
brown malt ; but the difference in the two arises
merely from the different degrees of heat employed
in the drying. The main thing to attend to is, the
quantity of flour. If the barley was bad ; thin, or
steely, whether from unripeness or blight, or any other
cause, it will not malt so well ; that is to say, it will
not send out its roots in due time; and a part of it
will still be barley. Then, the world is wicked enough
to think, and even to say, that there are maltsters who,
when they send you a bushel of malt, put a Little bar-
ley amongst it, the malt being taxed and the barley
not I Let us hope that this is seldom the case ; yet,
when we do know that this terrible system of taxation
II.] BREWING. 23
induces the beer-selling gentry to supply their custom-
ers with stuff little better than poison, it is not very
uncharitable to suppose it possible for some maltsters
to yield to the temptations of the devil so far as to
play the trick above mentioned. To detect this trick,
and to discover what portion of the barley is in an
unmalted state, take a handful of the unground malt,
and put it into a bowl of cold water. Mix it about
with the water a little ; that is, let every grain be just
wet all over ; and whatever part of them sink are not
food. If you have your malt ground, there is. not, as
know of,- any means of detection. Therefore, if your
brewing be considerable in amount, grind your own
malt, the means of doing which is very easy, and nei-
ther expensive nor troublesome, as will appear, when
I come to speak o flour. If the barley be well malted,
there is still a variety nrthe quality of the malt; that
is to say, a bushel of malt from fine, plump, heavy
barley, will be better than the same quantity from thin
and light barley. In this case, as in the case of wheat,
the weight is the criterion of the quality. Only bear
in mind, that as a bushel of wheat, weighing sixty-
two pounds, is better worth six shillings, than a bushel
weighing fifty-two is worth four shillings, so a bushel
of malt weighing forty-five pounds is better worth
nine shillings, than a bushel weighing thirty-five is
worth six shillings. In malt, therefore, as in every
thing else, the word cheap is a deception, unless the
quality be taken into view. But, bear in mind, that
in the case of unmalted barley, mixed with the malt,
the weight can be no rule ; for barley is heavier than
malt.
No. II.
BREWING BEER (continued.)
38. As to using barley in the making of beer, I have
given it a full and fair trial twice over, and I would
recommend it to neither rich nor poor. The barley
produces strength, though nothing like the malt ; but
24 BREWING. [NO.
the beer is flat, even though you use half malt and
half barley ; and flat beer lies heavy on the stomach,
and of course, besides the bad taste, is unwholesome.
To.pay 4s. Qd. tax upon every bushel of our own bar-
ley, turned into malt, when the barley itself is not
worth 3s. a bushel, is a horrid thing ; but, as long as
the owners of the land shall be so dastardly as to suf-
fer themselves to be thus deprived of the use of their
estates to favour the slave-drivers and plunderers of
the East and West Indies, we must submit to the
thing, incomprehensible to foreigners, and even to our-
selves, as the -submission may be. \
39. With regard to hops, the quality is very various.
At times when some sell for 5s. a pound, others sell
for sixpence. Provided the purchaser understand the
article, the quality is, of course, in proportion to thp
price. There are two things to be considered in hops :
the power of preserving beer, and that of giving it a
pleasant flavour. Hops may be strong, and yet not
good. They should be bright, have.no leaves orbits
of branches amongst them. The hop is the husk, or
seed-^pod, of the hop-vine, as the cone is that of the
fir-tree ; and the seeds themselves are deposited, like
those of the fir, round a little soft stalk, enveloped by
the several folds of this pod, or cone. If, in the gath-
ering, leaves of the vine or bits of the branches are
mixed with the hops, these not only help to make up
the weight, but they give a bad taste to the beer ;
and indeed, if they abound much, they spoil the beer.
Great attention is therefore necessary in this respect
There are, too, numerous sorts of hops, varying in
size, form, and quality, quite as much as apples. How-
ever, when they are in a state to be used in brewing,
the marks of goodness are an absence of brown colour,
(for that indicates perished hops ;) a colour between
green and yellow ; a great quantity of the yellow fa-
rina ; seeds not too large nor too hard ; a clammy
feel when rubbed between the fingers ; and a lively,
pleasant smell. As to the age of hops, they retain for
twenty years, probably, their power of preserving
beer ; but not of giving it a pleasant flavour.. I have
II.] BREWING. 25
used them at ten years old, and should have no fear of
using them at twenty. They lose none of their bit-
terness ; none of their power of preserving beer ; but
they lose the other quality ; and therefore, in the mak-
ing of fine ale, or beer, new hops are to be preferred..
As to the quantity of hops, it is clear, from what has
been said, that that must, in some degree depend upon
their quality ; but, supposing them to be good in qual-
ity, a pound of hops to a bushel of malt is about the
quantity. A good deal, however, depends upon the
length of time that the beer is intended to be kept, and
upon the season of the year in which it is brewed.
Beer intended to be kept a long while should have the
full pound, also beer brewed in warmer weather,
though for present use : half the quantity may do un-
der an opposite state of circumstances.
40. The water should be soft by all means. That
of brooks, or rivers, is best. That of a pond, fed by
a rivulet, or spring, will do very well. Rain-water ,
if just fallen, may do ; but stale rain-water, or stag-
nant pond- water, makes the beer flat and difficult to
keep ; and hard water, from wells, is very bad ; it does
not get the sweetness out of the malt, nor the bitter-
ness out of the hops, like soft water ; and the wort of
it does not ferment well, which is a certain proof of
its unfitness for the purpose.
41. There are two descriptions of persons whom I
am desirous to see brewing their own beer ; namely,
tradesmen, and labourers and journeymen. There
must, therefore, be two distinct scales treated of. In
the former editions of this work, I spoke of a machine
for brewing, and stated the advantages of using it in a
family of any considerable consumption of beer ; but,
while, from my desire to promote private brewing,
I strongly recommended the machine, I stated that,
" if any of my readers could point out any method by
which we should be more likely to restore the practice
of private brewing, and especially to the cottage, I
should be greatly obliged to them to communicate it
to me." Such communications have been made, and
I am very happy to be able, in this new edition of my
3
26 BREWING. [No.
little work, to avail myself of them. There was, in
the Patent Machine, always, an objection on account
of the expense; for, even the machine for one bushel
of malt cost, at the reduced price, eight pounds ; a
sum far above the reach of a cottager, and even above
that of a small tradesman. Its convenience, especially
in towns, where room it so valuable, was an object
of great importance ; but there were disadvantages
attending it which, until after some experience, I
did not ascertain. It will be remembered that the
method by the brewing machine requires the malt to
be put into the cold water, and for the water to make
the malt swim, or, at least, to be in such proportion as
to.prevent the fire beneath from burning the malt. We
found that our beer was flat, and that it did not keep.
And this arose, I have every reason to believe, from
this process. The malt should be put into hot water,
and the water, at first, should be but just sufficient in
quantity to stir the wait in, and separate it well.
Nevertheless, when it is merely to make small beer;
beer not wanted to keep; in such cases the brewing
machine may be of use ; and, as will be seen by-and-
by, a moveable boiler (which has nothing to do with
the patent) may, in many cases, be of great conveni-
ence and utility.
42. The two scales of which I have spoken above,
are now to be spoken of; and, that I may explain my
meaning the more clearly, I shall suppose, that, for
the tradesman's family, it will be requisite to brew
eighteen gallons of ale and thirty-six of small beer,
to fill three casks of eighteen gallons each. It will be
observed, of course, that, for larger quantities, larger
utensils of all sorts will be wanted. I take this quan-
tity as the one to give directions on. The utensils
wanted here will be, FIRST, a copper that will contain
forty gallons, at least ; for, though there be to be but
thirty-six gallons of small beer, there must be space
lor the hops, and for the liquor that goes ofi^n steam.
SECOND, a ma$hing~tvb to contain sjxty gallons;
for the malt is to be in this along with the water.
THIRD, an underbuck, or shallow tub to go under the
II.] BREWING. 27
mash-tub, for the wort to run into when drawn from
the grains. FOURTH, a tun-tub, that will contain
thirty gallons, to put the ale into to work, the mash-
tub, as we shall see, serving as a tun-tub for the small
beer. Besides these, a couple of coolers, shallow tubs,
which may be the heads of wine buts, or some such
things, about a foot deep ; or if you have four it may
be as well, in order to effect the cooling more quickly.
43. You begin by filling the copper with water, and
next by making the water boil. You then put into the
mashing-tub water sufficient to stir and separate the
malt in. But now let me say more particularly what
this mashing-tub is. It is, you know, to contain sixty
gallons. It is to be a little broader at top than at "bot-
tom, and not quite so deep as it is wide across the
bottom. Into the middle of the bottom there is a
hole about two inches over, to draw 'the wort off
through. In this hole goes a stick, a foot or two
longer than the tub is high. This stick is to be about
two inches through, and tapered for about eight inches
upwards at the end that goes into the hole, which at
last it fills up closely as a cork. Upon the hole, be-
fore any thing else be put into the tub, you lay a little
bundle of fine birch, (heath or straw may do,) about
half the bulk of a birch broom, and well tied at both
ends. This being laid over the hole (to keep back the
grains as the wort goes out,) you put the tapered end
of the stick down through into the hole, and thus cork
the hole up. You must then have something of
weight sufficient to keep the birch steady at the bot-
tom of the tub, with a hole through it to slip down the
stick ; otherwise when the stick is raised it will be apt
to raise the birch with it, and when you are stirring
the mash you would move it from its place. The
best thing for this purpose will be a leaden collar for
the stick, with the hole in the collar plenty large
enough, and it should weigh three or four pounds.
The thing they use in some farm-houses is the iron box
of a wheel. Any thing will do that will slide down
the stick, and lie with weight enough on the birch
to keep it from moving. Now, then, you are ready
28 BREWING. [No.
to begin brewing. I allow two bushels of malt for the
brewing I have supposed. You must now put into
the mashing-tub as much boiling water as will be suf-
ficient to stir the malt in and separate it well. But
here occur some of the nicest points of all ; namely,
the degree of heat that the water is to be at, before
you put in the malt. This heat is one hundred and
seventy degrees by the thermometer. If you have a
thermometer, this is ascertained easily ; but, without
one, take this rule, .by which so much good beer has
been made in England for hundreds of years : when
you can, by looking down into the tub, see your face
clearly in the water, the water is become cool enough ;
and you must not put the malt in before. Now put
in the malt and stir it well in the water. To perform
this stirring, which is very necessary, you have a stick,
somewhat bigger than a broom- stick, with two or three
smaller sticks, eight or ten inches long, put through
the lower end of it at about three or four inches asunder,
and sticking out on each side of the long stick. These
small cross sticks serve to search the malt and sepa-
rate it well in the stirring or mashing. Thus, then,
the malt is in; and in this state it should continue for
about a quarter of an hour. In the mean while you
will have filled up your copper, and made it boil; and
now (at the end of the quarter of an hour) you put in
boiling water sufficient to give you your eighteen gal-
lons of ale. But, perhaps, you must have thirty gal-
lons of water in the whole ; for the grains will retain
at least ten gallons of water ; and it is better to have
rather too much wort than too little. When your pro-
per quantity of water is in, stir the malt again well.
Cover the mashing-tub over with sacks, or something
that will answer the same purpose ; and there let the
mash stand for two hours. When it has stood the
two hours, you draw off the wort. And now, mind,
the mashing-tub is placed on a couple of stools, or on
something, that will enable you to put the underbuck
under it, so as to receive the wort as it comes out of
the hole before-mentioned. When you have put the
underbuck in its place, you let out the wort by pulling
IL] BREWING. 29
up the stick that corks the whole. But, observe, this
stick (which goes six or eight inches through the hole)
must be raised by degrees, and the wort must be let
out slowly, in order to keep back the sediment. So
that it is necessary to have something to keep the stick
up at the point where you are to raise it, and wish to
fix it at for the time. To do this, the simplest, cheap-
est and best thing in the world is a cleft stick. Take
a rod of ash, hazel, birch, or almost any wood ; let it
be a foot or two longer than your mash ing-tub is wide
over the top ; split it, as if for making hoops ; tie it
round with a string at each end ; lay it across your
mashing-tub ; pull it open in the middle, and let the
upper part of the wort-stick through it, and when you
raise that stick, by degrees as before directed, the cleft
stick will hold it up at whatever height you please.
44. When you have drawn off the ale-wort, you
proceed to put into tbe mashing tub water for the
small beer. But, I shall go on with my directions
about the ale till I have got it into the cask and cel-
lar and shall then return to the small-beer.
45. As you draw off the ale-wort into the under-
buck, you must lade it out of that into the tun-tub, for
which work, as well as for various other purposes in
the brewing, you must ha ye a bowl-dish with a handle
to it. The underbuck will not hold the whole of the
wort. It is, as before described, a shallow tub, to go
under the mashing-tub to draw off the wort into. Out
of this underbuck you must lade the ale-wort into the
tun-tub ; and there it must remain till your copper
be emptied and ready to receive it.
46. The copper being empty, you put the wort into
it, and put in after the wort, or before it, a pound and
a half of good hops, well rubbed and separated as you
put them in. You now make the copper boil, and
keep it, with the lid off, at a good brisk boil, for a full
hour, and if it be an hour and a half it is none the
worse.
47. When the boiling is done, put out your fire,
and put the liquor into the coolers. But it must be
put into the coolers without the hops. Therefore, in
3*
30 BREWING. t^O.
order to get the hops out of the liquor, you must have
a strainer. The best for your purpose is a small
clothes-basket, or any other wicker-basket. You set
your coolers in the most convenient place. It may be
in-doors or out of doors, as most convenient. You
lay a couple of sticks across one of the coolers, and
put the basket upon them. Put your liquor, hops
and all, into the basket, which will keep back the hops.
When you have got liquor enough in one cooler, you
go to another with your sticks and basket, till you have
got all your liquor out. If you find your liquor deeper
in one cooler than the other, you can make an altera-
tion in that respect, till you have the liquor so distri-
buted as to cool equally fast in both, or all, the coolers.
48. The 'next stage of the liquor is in the tun-tub,
where it is set to work. Now, a very great point is,
the degree of heat that the liquor is to be at when it
is set. to working. The proper heat is seventy de-
grees ; so that a thermometer makes this matter sure.
In the country they- determine the degree of heat by
merely putting a finger into the liquor. Seventy de-
grees is but just warm, a gentle luke-warmth. No-
thing like heat. A little experience makes perfect-
ness in such a matter. When at the proper heat, or
nearly, (for the liquor will cool a little in being re-
moved,) put it into the tun-tub. And now, before I
speak of the act of setting the beer to work, I must
describe this tun-tub, which I first mentioned in Para-
graph 42. It is to hold thirty gallons, as you have
seen ; and nothing is better than an old cask of that
size, or somewhat larger, with the head taken out, or
cut off. But, indeed, any tub of sufficient dimensions,
and of about the same depth proportioned to the
width as a cask or barrel has, will do for the purpose.
Having put the liquor into the. tun-tub, you put in the
yeast. About half a pint of good yeast is sufficient.
This should first be put into a thing of some sort that
will hold about a gallon of your liquor ; the thing
should then be nearly filled with liquor, and with a
stick or spoon you should mix the yeast well with the
liquor in this bowl, or other thing, and stir in along
II."] BREWING. 31
with the yeast a handful of wheat or rye flour. This
mixture is then to be poured out clean into the tun-
tub, and the whole mass of the liquor is then to be
agitated well by lading up and pouring down again
with your bowl-dish, till the yeast be well mixed with
the liquor. Some people do the thing in another
manner. They mix up the yeast and flour with
some liquor (as just mentioned) taken out of the
coolers ; and then they set the little vessel that con-
tains this mixture down on the bottom, of the tun-tub ;
and, leaving it there, put the liquor out of the coolers
into the tun-tub. Being placed at the bottom, and
having the liquor poured on it, the mixture is, per-
haps, more perfectly effected in this way than in any
way. The flour may not be necessary ; but, as the
country people use it, it is, doubtless, of some use ;
for their hereditary experience has not been for no-
thing. When your liquor is thus properly put into
the tun-tub and set a working, cover over the top of
the tub by laving across it a sack or two, or some-
thing that will answer the purpose.
49. We now come to the last stage ; the cask or
barrel. But I must first speak of the place for the
tun-tub to stand in. The place should be such as
to avoid too much warmth or cold. The air should,
if possible, be at about 55 degrees. Any cool place
in summer and any warmish place in winter. If the
weather be very cold, some cloths or sacks should be
put round the tun-tub while the beer is working. In
about six or eight hours, a frothy head will rise upon
the liquor; and it will keep rising, more or less slow-
ly, for about forty-eight hours. But, the length of
time required for the working depends on various cir-
cumstances; so that no precise time can be fixed.
The best way is, to take off the froth (which is in-
deed yeast) at the end of about twenty-four hours,
with a common skimmer, arid put it into a pan or
vessel of some sort ; then, in twelve hours' time,
take it off again in the s^ime way; and so on till the
liquor has done working, and sends up no more yeast.
Then it is beer ; and when it is quite cold (for ale or
32 BREWING. [No.
strong beer) put it into the cask by means of a fun-
nel. It must be cold before you do this, or it will be
what the country-people call foxed ; that is to say,
have a rank and disagreeable taste. Now, as to the
cask, it must be sound and sweet. I thought, when
writing the former edition of this work, that the bell-
shaped were the best casks. I am now convinced
that that was an error. The bell-shaped, by con-
tracting the width of the top of the beer, as that top
descends, in consequence of the draft for use, certainly
prevents the head (which always gathers on beer as
soon as you begin to draw it off) from breaking and
mixing in amongst the beer. This is an advantage
in the bell-shape; but then the bell-shape, which pla-
ces the widest end of the cask uppermost, exposes
the cask to the admission of external air much more
than the other shape. This danger approaches from
the ends of the cask ; and, in the bell-shape, you
have the broadest end wholly exposed the moment
you have drawn out the first gallon of beer, which is
not the case with the casks of the common shape.
Directions are given, in the case of the bell-casks,
to put damp sand on the top to keep out the air. But,
it is very difficult to make this effectual ; and yet, if
you do not keep out the air, your beer will be flat ;
and when flat, it really is good for nothing but the
pigs. It is very difficult to Jill the bell-cask, which
you will easily see if you consider its shape, It must
be placed on the level with the greatest possible
truth, or there will be a space left ; and to place it
with such truth is, perhaps, as difficult a thing as a
mason or bricklayer ever had to perform. And yet,
if this be not done, there will be an empty space in
the cask, though it may, at the same time, run over.
With the common casks there are none of these dif-
ficulties. A common eye will see when it is well
placed ; and, at any rate, any little vacant space that
may be left is not at an end of the cask, and will,
without great carelessness, be so small as to be of no
consequence. We now come to the act of putting
in the beer. The cask should be placed on a stand
II.] BREWING. 33
with legs about a foot long. The cask, being round,
must have a little wedge, or block, on each side to
keep it steady. Bricks do very well. Bring your
beer down into the cellar in buckets, and pour it in
through the funnel, until the cask be full. The cask
should lean a little on one side, when you fill it ; be-
cause the beer will work again here, and send more
yeast out of the bung-hole ; and, if the cask were
not a little on one side, the yeast would flow over
both sides of the cask, and would not descend in
one stream into a pan, put underneath to receive it.
Here the bell-cask is extremely inconvenient ; for
the yeast works up all over the head, and cannot run
off, and makes a very nasty affair. This alone, to
say. nothing of the other disadvantages, would de-
cide 'the question against the bell-casks. Something
will go off in this working, which may continue for
two or three days. When you put the beer in the
cask, you should have a gallon or two left, to keep
filling up with as the working produces emptiness-;
At last, when the working is completely over, right
the cask. That is to say, block it up to its level.
Put in a handful of fresh hops. Fill the cask quite
full. Put in the bung, with a bit of coarse linen
stuff round it ; hammer it down tight ; and, if you
like, fill a coarse bag with sand, and lay it, well
pressed down, over the bung.
50. As to the length of time that you are to keep
the beer before you begin to 'use it, that must, in
some measure, depend on taste. Such beer as this
ale will keep almost any length of time. As to the
mode of tapping, that is as easy almost as drinking.
When the cask is empty, great care must be taken
to cork it tightly up, so that no air get in ; for, if it
do, the cask is moulded, and when once moulded, it
is spoiled for ever. It is never again fit to be used
about beer. Before the cask be used again, the
grounds must be poured out, and the cask cleaned by
several times scalding ; by putting in stones (or a
chain,) and rolling and shaking about till it be quite
clean. Here again the round casks have the decided
34 BREWING. |N9
No. IV
MAKING BREAD (CONTINUED.)
101. IN the last number, at Paragraph 86, 1 observ-
ed that I hoped it was unnecessary for me to give
any directions as to the mere act of making bread.
But several correspondents' inform me that, without
these directions, a conviction of the utility of baking
bread at home is of no use to them. Therefore, I
shall here give those directions, receiving my in-
structions here from one, who, I thank God, does
know how to perform this act.
102. Suppose the quantity be a bushel of flour.
Put this flour into a trough that people have for the
purpose, or it may be in. a clean smooth tub of any
shape, if not too deep, and if sufficiently large.
Make a pretty deep hole in the middle of this heap
of flour. Take (for a bushel) a pint of good fresh
yeast, mix it and stir it well up in a pint of soft wa-
ter milk-warm. Pour this into the hole in the heap
of flour. Then take a spoon and work it round the
outside of this body of moisture so as to bring into
that body, by degrees, flour enough to make it form
a thin batter, which you must stir about well for a
minute or two. Then take a handful of flour and
scatter it thinly over the head of this batter, so as to
hide it. Then cover the whole over with a cloth to
keep it warm ; and this covering, as well as the si-
tuation of the trough, as to distance from the fire,
must depend on the nature of the place and state of
the weather as to heat and cold. When you per-
ceive that the batter has risen enough to make cracks
in the flour that you covered it over with, you begin
to form the whole mass into dough, thus : you begin
round the hole containing the batter, working the
flour into the batter, and pouring in, as it is wanted
to make the flour mix with the batter, soft water milk-
warm, or milk, as hereafter to be mentioned. Before
you begin this, you scatter the salt over the heap at
60 MAKING BREAD. [No.
the fate of half a pound to a bushel of flour. When
you have got the whole sufficiently moist, you knead
it well. This is a grand part 01 the business; for,
unless the dough be well worked, there will be little
round lumps of flour in the loaves ; and, besides, the
original batter, which is to give fermentation to the
whole, will not be duly mixed. The dough must,
therefore, be well worked. The Jists must go hear-
tily into it. It must be rolled over ; pressed out ;
folded up and pressed out again, until it be com-
pletely mixed, and formed into a stiff and tough
dough. This is labour, mind. I have never quite
liked baker's bread since I saw a great heavy fellow,
in a bakehouse in France, kneading bread with his
naked feet ! His feet looked very white, to be sure :
whether they were of that colour before he got into
the trough I could not tell. God forbid, that I should
suspect that this is ever done in England : It is la-
bour ; but, what is exercise other than4abour ? Let a
young woman bake a bushel once a week, and she
will do very well without phials and gallipots.
103. Thus, then, the dough is made. And, when
made, it is to be formed into a lump in the middle of
the trough, and, with a little dry flour thinly scattered
over it, covered over again to be kept warm and to
ferment ; and in this state, if all be done rightly, it
will not have to remain more than about 15 or 20
minutes.
104. In the mean while the oven is to be heated;
and this is much more than half the art of the ope-
ration. When an oven is properly heated, can be
known only by actual observation. Women who
understand the matter, know when the heat is right
the moment they put their faces within a yard of the
oven-mouth ; and once or twice observing is enough
for any person of common capacity. But this much
may be said in the way of rule: that the fuel (I am
supposing a brick oven) should be dry (not rotten)
wood, and not mere brush-wood, but rather fagot-
sticks. If larger wood, it ought to be split up into
sticks not more than two, or two and a half inches
IV.] MAKING BREAD* 61
through.^ Bush-wood tnat is strong, not green and
not too old, if it be hard in its nature and has some
sticks in it, may do. The woody parts of furze, or
ling, will heat an oven very well. But the thing is,
to have a lively and yet somewhat strong fire ; so
that the oven may be heated in about 15 minutes, and
retain its heat sufficiently long.
105. The oven should be hot by the time that the
dough, as mentioned in Paragraph 103, has remained
in the lump about 20 minutes. When both are ready,
take out the fire, and wipe the oven out clean, and,
at nearly about the same moment, take the dough out
upon the lid of the baking trough, or some proper
place, cut it up into pieces, and make it up into loaves,
kneading it a
