Sweet basil is in perfection about the middle of August; gather the fresh green leaves, quite free from stalk, and before it flowers; fill a wide-mouthed bottle with them, fill it with vinegar or wine, and steep them ten days; if you want a very strong essence, strain the liquor, put it on some fresh leaves, and let them steep fourteen days more; strain it and bottle, cork it close; it is a very agreeable addition to cold meat, soups, sauces, and to the mixture generally made for salads. A table-spoonful, when the soup is ready, impregnates a tureen-full with the basil and acid flavours at a very little expense, when fresh basil and lemons are very dear.

The flavour of other sweet or savoury herbs may be preserved in the same manner, by infusing; them in wine or vinegar.

449. Burnet Vinegar is made exactly in the same way as the above, and imparts the flavour of cucumbers so exactly, when steeped in vinegar, that the nicest palate could not distinguish it from the fruit itself. This is a nice relish to cold meat, salads, etc. Burnet is best in season from Midsummer to Michaelmas.