PAINT. Painted doors and windows may be made to look well for a considerable time, if properly cleaned. A cloth should never be used, for it leaves some lint behind; but take off the dust with a painter's brush, or a pair of bellows. When the painting is soiled or stained, dip a sponge or a bit of flannel in soda water, wash it off quickly, and dry it immediately, or the strength of the soda will eat off the colour. When wainscot requires scouring, it should be done from the top downwards, and the soda be prevented from running on the uncleaned part as much as possible, or marks will appear after the whole is finished. One person should dry the board with old linen, as fast as the other has scoured off the dirt, and washed away the soda.

PAINT FOR IRON. For preserving palisadoes and other kinds of iron work exposed to the weather, heat some common litharge in a shovel over the fire. Then scatter over it a small quantity of sulphur, and grind it in oil. This lead will reduce it to a good lead colour, which will dry very quickly, get remarkably hard, and resist the weather better than any other common paint.

PAINTINGS. Oil paintings frequently become smoked or dirty, and in order to their being properly cleaned, require to be treated with the greatest care. Dissolve a little common salt in some stale urine, dip a woollen cloth in the liquid, and rub the paintings over with it till they are quite clean. Then wash them with a sponge and clean water, dry them gradually, and rub them over with a clean cloth.

PALING PRESERVED. The following cheap and valuable composition will preserve all sorts of wood work exposed to the vicissitudes of the weather. Take some well-burnt lime, and expose it to the air till it falls to powder, without putting any water to it, and mix with it two thirds of wood ashes, and one third of fine sand. Sift the whole through a fine sieve, and work it up with linseed oil to the consistence of common paint, taking care to grind it fine, and mix it well together. The composition may be improved by the addition of an equal quantity of coal tar with the linseed oil; and two coats of it laid on any kind of weather boards, will be found superior to any kind of paint used for that purpose.

PALPITATION OF THE HEART. Persons of a full habit may find relief in bleeding; but where it is accompanied with nervous affections, as is generally the case, bleeding must by all means be avoided. Frequent bathing the feet in warm water, a stimulating plaster applied to the left side, and gentle exercise, are the most proper.

PALSY. The luxurious, the sedentary, and those who have suffered great anxiety and distress of mind, are the most subject to this disorder, which generally attacks the left side, and is attended with numbness and drowsiness. The parts affected ought to be frequently rubbed with a flesh brush, or with the hand. Blisters, warm plasters, volatile liniments, and electricity should likewise be employed. The following electuary is also recommended. Mix an ounce of flour of mustard, and an ounce of the conserve of roses, in some syrup of ginger; and take a tea-spoonful of it three or four times a day.

PANADA. To make panada in five minutes, set a little water on the fire with a glass of white wine, some sugar, and a scrape of nutmeg and lemon peel, grating meanwhile some crumbs of bread. The moment the mixture boils up, keeping it still on the fire, put in the crumbs, and let it boil as fast as it can. When of a proper thickness just to drink, take it off.—Another way. Make the panada as above, but instead of a glass of wine, put in a tea-spoonful of rum, a little butter and sugar. This makes a very pleasant article for the sick.—Another. Put into the water a bit of lemon peel, and mix in the crumbs: when nearly boiled enough, add some lemon or orange syrup. Observe to boil all the ingredients; for if any be added after, the panada will break, and not turn to jelly.

PANCAKES. Make a light batter of eggs, flour, and milk. Fry it in a small pan, in hot dripping or lard. Salt, nutmeg, or ginger, may be added. Sugar and lemon should be served, to eat with them. When eggs are very scarce, the batter may be made of flour and small beer, with the addition of a little ginger; or clean snow, with flour, and a very little milk, will serve instead of egg. Fine pancakes, fried without butter or lard, are made as follows. Beat six fresh eggs extremely well, strain and mix them with a pint of cream, four ounces of sugar, a glass of wine, half a nutmeg grated, and as much flour as will make it almost as thick as ordinary pancake batter, but not quite. Heat the fryingpan tolerably hot, wipe it with a clean cloth, and pour in the batter so as to make the pancakes thin.—New England pancakes are made of a pint of cream, mixed with five spoonfuls of fine flour, seven yolks and four whites of eggs, and a very little salt. They are then fried very thin in fresh butter, and sent to table six or eight at once, with sugar and cinnamon strewed between them.—Another way to make cream pancakes. Stir a pint of cream gradually into three spoonfuls of flour, and beat them very smooth. Add to this six eggs, half a pound of melted butter, and a little sugar. These pancakes will fry from their own richness, without either butter or lard. Run the batter over the pan as thin as possible, and when the pancakes are just coloured they are done enough.

PAP BREAD. To prepare a light nourishing food for young children, pour scalding water on some thin slices of good white bread, and let it stand uncovered till it cools. Then drain off the water, bruise the bread fine, and mix it with as much new milk as will make a pap of a moderate thickness. It will be warm enough for use, without setting it on the fire. It is common to add sugar, but the pap is better without it, as is almost all food intended for children; and the taste will not require it, till habit makes it familiar.

PAPER. All sorts of paper improve by keeping, if laid in a dry place, and preserved from mould and damp. It is bought much cheaper by the ream, than by the quire. The expense of this article is chiefly occasioned by the enormous duty laid upon it, and the necessity of importing foreign rags to supply the consumption. If more care were taken in families generally, to preserve the rags and cuttings of linen from being wasted, there would be less need of foreign imports, and paper might be manufactured a little cheaper.

PAPER HANGINGS. To clean these properly, first blow off the dust with the bellows, and then wipe the paper downwards in the slightest manner with the crumb of a stale white loaf. Do not cross the paper, nor go upwards, but begin at the top, and the dirt of the paper and the crumbs will fall together. Observe not to wipe more than half a yard at a stroke, and after doing all the upper part, go round again, beginning a little above where you left off. If it be not done very lightly, the dirt will adhere to the paper; but if properly attended to, the paper will look fresh and new.

PAPER PASTE. To make a strong paste for paper, take two large spoonfuls of fine flour, and as much pounded rosin as will lie upon a shilling. Mix them up with as much strong beer as will make the paste of a due consistence, and boil it half an hour. It is best used cold.

PARSLEY. To preserve parsley through the winter, gather some fine fresh sprigs in May, June, or July. Pick and wash them clean, set on a stewpan half full of water, put a little salt in it, boil and scum it clean. Then add the parsley, let it boil for two minutes, and take it out and lay it on a sieve before the fire, that it may be dried as quick as possible. Put it by in a tin box, and keep it in a dry place. When wanted, lay it in a basin, and cover it with warm water for a few minutes before you use it.

PARSLEY AND BUTTER. Wash some parsley very clean, and pick it carefully leaf by leaf. Put a tea-spoonful of salt into half a pint of boiling water, boil the parsley in it about ten minutes, drain it on a sieve, mince it quite fine, and then, bruise it to a pulp. Put it into a sauce boat, and mix with it by degrees about half a pint of good melted butter, only do not put so much flour to it, as the parsley will be sure to add to its thickness. Parsley and butter should not be poured over boiled dishes, but be sent up in a boat. The delicacy of this elegant and innocent relish, depends upon the parsley being minced very fine. With the addition of a slice of lemon cut into dice, a little allspice and vinegar, it is made into Dutch sauce.

PARSLEY PIE. Lay a fowl, or a few bones of the scrag of veal, seasoned, into a dish. Scald a cullenderful of picked parsley in milk; season it, and add it to the fowl or meat, with a tea-cupful of any sort of good broth or gravy. When baked, pour into it a quarter of a pint of cream scalded, with a little bit of butter and flour. Shake it round, and mix it with the gravy in the dish. Lettuces, white mustard leaves, or spinach, well scalded, may be added to the parsley.

PARSLEY SAUCE. When no parsley leaves are to be had, tie up a little parsley seed in a piece of clean muslin, and boil it in water ten minutes. Use this water to melt the butter, and throw into it a little boiled spinach minced, to look like parsley.

PARSNIPS. Carrots and parsnips, when laid up for the winter, should have the tops cut off close, be cleared of the rough earth, and kept in a dry place. Lay a bed of dry sand on the floor, two or three inches thick, put the roots upon it close together, with the top of one to the bottom of the next, and so on. Cover the first layer with sand two inches thick, and then place another layer of roots, and go on thus till the whole store are laid up. Cover the heap with dry straw, laid on tolerably thick. Beet roots, salsify, Hamburgh parsley roots, horseradish, and turnips, should all be laid up in the same manner, as a supply against frosty weather, when they cannot be got out of the ground.

PARSNIPS BOILED. These require to be done very tender, and may be served whole with melted butter, or beaten smooth in a bowl, warmed up with a little cream, butter, flour, and salt. Parsnips are highly nutricious, and make an agreeable sauce to salt fish.

PARSNIPS FRICASSEED. Boil them in milk till they are soft. Then cut them lengthways into bits, two or three inches long, and simmer them in a white sauce, made of two spoonfuls of broth. Add a bit of mace, half a cupful of cream, a little flour and butter, pepper and salt.

PARSNIP WINE. To twelve pounds of sliced parsnips, add four gallons of water, and boil them till they become soft. Squeeze the liquor well out of them, run it through a sieve, and add to every gallon three pounds of lump sugar. Boil the whole three quarters of an hour, and when it is nearly cold, add a little yeast. Let it stand in a tub for ten days, stirring it from the bottom every day, and then put it into a cask for twelve months. As it works over, fill it up every day.

PARTRIDGE BOILED. This species of game is in season in the autumn. If the birds be young, the bill is of a dark colour, and the legs inclined to yellow. When fresh and good, the vent will be firm; but when stale, this part will look greenish. Boiled partridges require to be trussed the same as chickens: from twenty to twenty-five minutes will do them sufficiently. Serve them up with either white or brown mushroom sauce, or with rice stewed in gravy, made pretty thick, and seasoned with pepper and salt. Pour the sauce over them, or serve them up with celery sauce. A boiled pheasant is dressed in the same manner, allowing three quarters of an hour for the cooking.

PARTRIDGE PIE. Pick and singe four partridges, cut off the legs at the knee, season with pepper, salt, chopped parsley, thyme, and mushrooms. Lay a veal steak and a slice of ham at the bottom of the dish, put in the partridge, and half a pint of good broth. Lay puff paste on the edge of the dish, and cover with the same; brush it over with egg, and bake it an hour.

PARTRIDGE SOUP. Skin two old partridges, and cut them into pieces, with three or four slices of ham, a stick of celery, and three large onions sliced. Fry them all in butter till brown, but take care not to burn them. Then put them into a stewpan, with five pints of boiling water, a few peppercorns, a shank or two of mutton, and a little salt. Stew it gently two hours, strain it through a sieve, and put it again into a stewpan, with some stewed celery and fried bread. When it is near boiling, skim it, pour it into a tureen, and send it up hot.

PASTE PUDDINGS. Make a paste of butter and flour, roll it out thin, and spread any kind of jam, or currants over it, with some suet chopped fine. Roll it up together, close the paste at both ends, and boil it in a cloth.

PASTRY. An adept in pastry never leaves any part of it adhering to the board or dish, used in making it. It is best when rolled on marble, or a very large slate. In very hot weather, the butter should be put into cold water to make it as firm as possible; and if made early in the morning, and preserved from the air until it is to be baked, the pastry will be found much better. An expert hand will use much less butter and produce lighter crust than others. Good salt butter well washed, will make a fine flaky crust. When preserved fruits are used in pastry, they should not be baked long; and those that have been done with their full proportion of sugar, require no baking at all. The crust should be baked in a tin shape, and the fruit be added afterwards; or it may be put into a small dish or tart pans, and the covers be baked on a tin cut out into any form.

PATTIES. Slice some chicken, turkey, or veal, with dressed ham, or sirloin of beef. Add some parsley, thyme, and lemon peel, chopped very fine. Pound all together in a mortar, and season with salt and white pepper. Line the pattipans with puff paste, fill them with meat, lay on the paste, close the edges, cut the paste round, brush it over with egg, and bake the patties twenty minutes.

PAVEMENTS. For cleaning stone stairs, and hall pavements, boil together half a pint each of size and stone-blue water, with two table-spoonfuls of whiting, and two cakes of pipe-clay, in about two quarts of water.—Wash the stones over with a flannel slightly wetted in this mixture; and when dry, rub them with a flannel and brush.

PAYMENT OF RENT. Rent due for tenements let from year to year, is commonly paid on the four quarter days; and when the payments are regularly made at the quarter, the tenant cannot be deprived of possession at any other time than at the end of a complete year from the commencement of his tenancy. If therefore he took possession at Midsummer, he must quit at Midsummer, and notice thereof must be sent at or before the preceding Christmas. A similar notice is also required from the tenant to the landlord, when it is intended to leave the premises.—Every quarter's rent is deemed a separate debt, for which the landlord can bring a separate action, or distress for nonpayment. The landlord himself is the proper person to demand rent: if he employs another person, he must be duly authorised by power of attorney, clearly specifying the person from whom, and the premises for which the rent is due: or the demand will be insufficient, if the tenant should be inclined to evade payment. The following is the form of a receipt for rent:—'Received of R. C. February 13, 1823, the sum of ten pounds twelve shillings for a quarter's rent, due at Christmas last.'

PEA FOWL. These require to be fed the same as turkeys. They are generally so shy, that they are seldom to be found for some days after hatching; and it is very wrong to pursue them, as many ignorant people do, under the idea of bringing them home. It only causes the hen to carry the young ones through dangerous places, and by hurrying she is apt to tread upon them. The cock bird kills all the young chickens he can get at, by one blow on the centre of the head with his bill, and he does the same by his own brood, before the feathers of the crown come out. Nature therefore directs the hen to hide and keep them out of his way, till the feathers rise.

PEA POWDER. Pound together in a marble mortar half an ounce each of dried mint and sage, a dram of celery seed, and a quarter of a dram of cayenne, and rub them through a fine sieve. This gives a very savoury relish to pea soup, and to water gruel. A dram of allspice, or black pepper, may be pounded with the above, as an addition, or instead of the cayenne.

PEACH WINE. Take peaches, apricots, and nectarines, when they are full of juice, pare them, and take out the stones. Then slice them thin, pour over them from one to two gallons of water, and a quart of white wine. Simmer the whole gently for a considerable time, till the sliced fruit becomes soft. Pour off the liquid part into another vessel, containing more peaches that have been sliced but not heated; let them stand for twelve hours, then pour out the liquid part, and press what remains through a fine hair bag. Let the whole be now put into a cask to ferment, and add a pound and a half of loaf sugar to each gallon. Boil an ounce of beaten cloves in a quart of white wine, and put it into the cask; the morella wine will have a delicious flavour. Wine may be made of apricots by only bruising, and pouring the hot water upon them: this wine does not require so much sweetening. To give it a curious flavour, boil an ounce of mace, and half an ounce of nutmegs, in a quart of white wine; and when the wine is fermenting, pour the liquid in hot. In about twenty days or a month, these wines will be fit for bottling.

PEARL BARLEY PUDDING. Cleanse a pound of pearl barley, and put to it three quarts of milk, half a pound of sugar, and a grated nutmeg. Bake it in a deep pan, take it out of the oven, and beat up six eggs with it. Then butter a dish, pour in the pudding, and bake it again an hour.

PEARLS. To make artificial pearls, take the blay or bleak fish, which is very common in the rivers near London, and scrape off the fine silvery scales from the belly. Wash and rub them in water; let the water settle, and a sediment will be found of an oily consistence. A little of this is to be dropped into a hollow glass bead of a bluish tint, and shaken about, so as to cover all the internal surface. After this the bead is filled up with melted white wax, to give it weight and solidity.

PEARS. Large ones, when intended to be kept, should be tied and hung up by the stalk.

PEAS. Young green peas, well dressed, are one of the greatest delicacies of the vegetable kingdom. They must be quite young; it is equally indispensable that they be fresh gathered, and cooked as soon as they are shelled, for they soon lose both their colour and sweetness. Of course they should never be purchased ready shelled. To have them in perfection, they must be gathered the same day that they are dressed, and be put on to boil within half an hour after they are shelled. As large and small peas cannot be boiled together, the small ones should be separated from the rest, by being passed through a riddle or coarse sieve. For a peck of young peas, which will not be more than sufficient for two or three persons, after they are shelled, set on a saucepan with a gallon of water. When it boils, put in the peas with a table-spoonful of salt. Skim it well, keep them quickly boiling from twenty to thirty minutes, according to their age and size. To judge whether they are done enough, take some out with a spoon and taste them, but be careful not to boil them beyond the point of perfection. When slightly indented, and done enough, drain them on a hair sieve. Put them into a pie dish, and lay some small bits of butter on the peas; put another dish over them, and turn them over and over, in order to diffuse the butter equally among them. Or send them to table plain from the saucepan, with melted butter in a sauce tureen. Garnish the dish with a few sprigs of mint, boiled by themselves.

PEAS AND BACON. Cut a piece of nice streaked bacon, lay it in water to take out some of the salt, and boil it with some dried peas, in a little water. Add two carrots or parsnips, two onions, and a bunch of sweet herbs. When the peas are done enough, pulp them through a cullender or sieve, and serve them over the bacon.

PEAS CULTIVATED. Instead of sowing peas in straight rows, they should be formed into circles of three or four feet diameter, with a space of two feet between each circle. By this means they will blossom nearer the ground, than when enclosed in long rows, and will ripen much sooner. Or if set in straight rows, a bed of ten or twelve feet wide should be left between, for onions and carrots, or any crops which do not grow tall. The peas will not be drawn up so much, but will grow stronger, and be more productive. Scarlet beans should be treated in the same manner.

PEAS AND PORK. Two pounds of the belly part of pickled pork will make very good broth for peas soup, if the pork be not too salt. If it has been in salt several days, it must be laid in water the night before it is used. Put on three quarts of soft water, or liquor in which meat has been boiled, with a quart of peas, and let it boil gently for two hours. Then put in the pork, and let it simmer for an hour or more, till it is quite tender. When done, wash the pork clean in hot water, send it up in a dish, or cut into small pieces and put with the soup into the tureen.

PEAS PORRIDGE. Boil the peas, and pulp them through a cullender. Heat them up in a saucepan with some butter, chopped parsley and chives, and season with pepper and salt.

PEAS PUDDING. Soak the peas an hour or two before they are boiled; and when nearly done, beat them up with salt and pepper, an egg, and a bit of butter. Tie it up in a cloth, and boil it half an hour.

PEAS SOUP. Save the liquor of boiled pork or beef: if too salt, dilute it with water, or use fresh water only, adding the bones of roast beef, a ham or gammon bone, or an anchovy or two. Simmer these with some good whole or split peas; the smaller the quantity of water at first the better. Continue to simmer till the peas will pulp through a cullender; then set on the pulp to stew, with more of the liquor that boiled the peas, two carrots, a turnip, a leek, and a stick of chopped celery, till all is quite tender. The last requires less time, an hour will do it. When ready, put into a tureen some fried bread cut into dice, dried mint rubbed fine, pepper and salt if needed, and pour in the soup. When there is plenty of vegetables, no meat is necessary; but if meat be preferred, a pig's foot or ham bone may be boiled with the peas, which is called the stock. More butter than is above mentioned will be necessary, if the soup is required to be very rich.

PENCIL DRAWINGS. To prevent chalk or pencil drawings from rubbing out, it is only necessary to lay them on the surface of some skim milk, free from cream and grease; and then taking off the drawing expeditiously, and hanging it up by one corner to dry. A thin wash of isinglass will also answer the same purpose.

PEPPER POT. To three quarts of water, put any approved vegetables; in summer, peas, lettuce, spinach, and two or three onions; in winter, carrot, turnip, onions, and celery. Cut them very small, and stew them with two pounds of neck of mutton, and a pound of pickled pork. Half an hour before serving, clear a lobster or crab from the shell, and put it into the stew, adding a little salt and cayenne. Some people choose very small suet dumplings, boiled in the above, or fowl may be used instead of mutton. A pepper pot may indeed be made of various things, and is understood to consist of a proper mixture of fish, flesh, fowl, vegetables, and pulse. A small quantity of rice should be boiled with the whole.

PEPPERMINT DROPS. Pound and sift four ounces of double-refined sugar, and beat it with the whites of two eggs till perfectly smooth. Then add sixty drops of oil of peppermint; beat it well, drop it on white paper, and dry it at a distance from the fire.

PERCH. When of a good size, as in Holland, they are a remarkably fine fresh-water fish, though not so delicate as carp or tench. Clean them carefully, and if to be boiled, put them into a fish-kettle, with as much cold spring water as will cover them, and add a handful of salt. Set them on a quick fire till they boil, and then place them on one side to boil gently for about ten minutes, according to their size. If to be fried, wipe them on a dry cloth, after they have been well cleaned and washed, and flour them lightly all over. Fry them about ten minutes in hot lard or dripping, lay them on a hair sieve to drain, and send them up on a hot dish. Garnish with sprigs of green parsley, and serve them with anchovy sauce.

PERFUMERY. Oil of lavender and other essences are frequently adulterated with a mixture of the oil of turpentine, which may be discovered by dipping a piece of paper or rag into the oil to be tried, and holding it to the fire. The fine scented oil will quickly evaporate, and leave the smell of the turpentine distinguishable, if the essence has been adulterated with this ingredient.

PERMANENT INK. This useful article for marking linen is composed of nitrate of silver, or lunar caustic, and the tincture or infusion of galls; in the proportion of one dram of the former in a dry state, to two drams of the latter. The linen, cotton, or other fabric, must be first wetted with the following liquid; namely, an ounce of the salt of tartar, dissolved in an ounce and a half of water; and must be perfectly dry before any attempt is made to write upon it.

PETTITOES. Boil them very gently in a small quantity of water, along with the liver and the heart. Then cut the meat fine, split the feet, and simmer them till they are quite tender. Thicken with a bit of butter, a little flour, a spoonful of cream, and a little pepper and salt. Give it a boil up, pour the liquor over a sippets of bread, and place the feet on the mince.

PEWTER AND TIN. Dish covers and pewter requisites should be wiped dry immediately after being used, and kept free from steam or damp, which would prevent much of the trouble in cleaning them. Where the polish is gone off, let the articles be first rubbed on the outside with a little sweet oil laid on a piece of soft linen cloth. Then clear it off with pure whitening on linen cloths, which will restore the polish.

PHEASANTS. The cock bird is reckoned the best, except when the hen is with egg. If young, its spurs are short and blunt; but if old, they are long and sharp. A large pheasant will require three quarters of an hour to boil; if small, half an hour. If for roasting, it should be done the same as a turkey. Serve it up with a fine gravy, including a very small piece of garlic, and bread sauce or fried bread crumbs instead. When cold the meat may be made into excellent patties, but its flavour should not be overpowered with lemon. For the manner of trussing a pheasant or partridge, see Plate.

PHOSPHORIC MATCH BOTTLE. Two thirds of calcined oyster shells, and one third of sulphur, put into a hot crucible for an hour, and afterwards exposed to the air for half an hour, become phosphorus. This is put into a bottle, and when used to procure a light, a very small quantity is taken out on the point of a common match, and rubbed upon a cork, which produces an immediate flame. If a small piece of phosphorus be put into a vial, and a little boiling oil poured upon it, a luminous bottle will be formed; for on taking out the cork, to admit the atmospheric air, the empty space in the vial will become luminous; and if the bottle be well closed, it will preserve its illuminative power for several months.

PICKLE. For hams, tongues, or beef, a pickle may be made that will keep for years, if boiled and skimmed as often as it is used. Provide a deep earthen glazed pan that will hold four gallons, having a cover that will fit close. Put into it two gallons of spring water, two pounds of coarse sugar, two pounds of bay salt, two pounds and a half of common salt, and half a pound of salt petre. Keep the beef or hams as long as they will bear, before they are put into the pickle; sprinkle them with coarse sugar in a pan, and let them drain. Then rub them well with the pickle, and pack them in close, putting as much as the pan will hold, so that the pickle may cover them. The pickle is not to be boiled at first. A small ham may be fourteen days, a large one three weeks, a tongue twelve days, and beef in proportion to its size. They will eat well out of the pickle without drying. When they are to be dried, let each be drained over the pan; and when it will drop no longer, take a clean sponge and dry it thoroughly. Six or eight hours will smoke them, and there should be only a little saw-dust and wet straw used for this purpose; but if put into a baker's chimney, they should be sown up in a coarse cloth, and hang a week.

PICKLES. The free or frequent use of pickles is by no means to be recommended, where any regard is paid to health. In general they are the mere vehicles for taking a certain portion of vinegar and spice, and in the crisp state in which they are most admired are often indigestible, and of course pernicious. The pickle made to preserve cucumbers and mangoes, is generally so strongly impregnated with garlic, mustard, and spice, that the original flavour of the vegetable, is quite overpowered, and the vegetable itself becomes the mere absorbent of these foreign ingredients. But if pickles must still be regarded for the sake of the palate, whatever becomes of the stomach, it will be necessary to watch carefully the proper season for gathering and preparing the various articles intended to be preserved. Frequently it happens, after the first week that walnuts come in season, that they become hard and shelled, especially if the weather be hot and dry; it is therefore necessary to purchase them as soon as they first appear at market; or in the course of a few months after being pickled, the nuts may be found incased in an impenetrable shell. The middle of July is generally the proper time to look for green walnuts. Nasturtiums are to be had about the same. Garlic and shalots, from Midsummer to Michaelmas. Onions of various kinds for pickling, are in season by the middle of July, and for a month after. Gherkins, cucumbers, melons, and mangoes, are to be had by the middle of July, and for a month after. Green, red, and yellow capsicums, the end of July, and following month. Chilies, tomatas, cauliflowers, and artichokes, towards the end of July, and throughout August. Jerusalem artichokes for pickling, July and August, and for three months after. French beans and radish pods, in July. Mushrooms, for pickling and for ketchup, in September. Red cabbage, and samphire, in August. White cabbage, in September and October. Horseradish, November and December.—Pickles, when put down, require to be kept with great care, closely covered. When wanted for use they should be taken out of the jar with a wooden spoon, pierced with holes, the use of metal in this case being highly improper. Pickles should be well kept from the air, and seldom opened. Small jars should be kept for those more frequently in use, that what is not eaten may be returned into the jar, and the top kept closely covered. In preparing vinegar for pickles, it should not be boiled in metal saucepans, but in a stone jar, on a hot hearth, as the acid will dissolve or corrode the metal, and infuse into the pickle an unwholesome ingredient. For the same reason pickles should never be put into glazed jars, as salt and vinegar will penetrate the glaze, and render it poisonous.

PICKLED ASPARAGUS. Cut some asparagus, and lay it in an earthen pot. Make a brine of salt and water, strong enough to bear an egg; pour it hot on the asparagus, and let it be closely covered. When it is to be used, lay it for two hours in cold water; boil and serve it up on a toast, with melted butter over it. If to be used as a pickle, boil it as it comes out of the brine, and lay it in vinegar.

PICKLED BACON. For two tolerable flitches, dry a stone of salt over the fire, till it is scalding hot. Beat fine two ounces of saltpetre, and two pounds of bay salt well dried, and mix them with some of the heated salt. Rub the bacon first with that, and then with the rest; put it into a tub, and keep it close from the air.

PICKLED BEET ROOT. Boil the roots till three parts done, or set them into a cool oven till they are softened. Cut them into slices of an inch thick, cover them with vinegar, adding some allspice, a few cloves, a little mace, black pepper, horseradish sliced, some onions, shalots, a little pounded ginger, and some salt. Boil these ingredients together twenty minutes, and when cold, add to them a little bruised cochineal. Put the slices of beet into jars, pour the pickle upon them, and tie the jars down close.

PICKLED CABBAGE. Slice a hard red cabbage into a cullender, and sprinkle each layer with salt. Let it drain two days, then put it into a jar, cover it with boiling vinegar, and add a few slices of red beet-root. The purple red cabbage makes the finest colour. Those who like the flavour of spice, will boil some with the vinegar. Cauliflower cut in branches, and thrown in after being salted, will look of a beautiful red.

PICKLED CARROTS. Half boil some middle sized yellowish carrots, cut them into any shape, and let them cool. Take as much vinegar as will cover them, boil it with a little salt, and a pennyworth of saffron tied in a piece of muslin. Put the carrots into a jar; when the pickle is cold, pour it upon them, and cover the jar close. Let it stand all night, then pour off the pickle, and boil it with Jamaica pepper, mace, cloves, and a little salt. When cold, pour it upon the carrots, and tie them up for use.

PICKLED CUCUMBERS. Cut them into thick slices, and sprinkle salt over them. Next day drain them for five or six hours, then put them into a stone jar, pour boiling vinegar over them, and keep them in a warm place. Repeat the boiling vinegar, and stop them up again instantly, and so on till quite green. Then add peppercorns and ginger, and keep them in small stone jars. Cucumbers are best pickled with sliced onions.

PICKLED GHERKINS. Select some sound young cucumbers, spread them on dishes, salt and let them lie a week. Drain and put them in a jar, pouring boiling vinegar over them. Set them near the fire, covered with plenty of vine leaves. If they do not come to a tolerably good green, pour the vinegar into another jar, set it on a hot hearth, and when the vinegar boils, pour it over them again, and cover them with fresh leaves. Repeat this operation as often as is necessary, to bring the pickle to a good colour. Too many persons have made pickles of a very fine green, by using brass or bellmetal kettles; but as this is highly poisonous, the practice ought never to be attempted.

PICKLED HAM. After it has been a week in the pickle, boil a pint of vinegar, with two ounces of bay salt. Pour it hot on the ham, and baste it every day; it may then remain in the brine two or three weeks.

PICKLED HERRING. Procure them as fresh as possible, split them open, take off the heads, and trim off all the thin parts. Put them into salt and water for one hour, drain and wipe the fish, and put them into jars, with the following preparation, which is enough for six dozen herrings. Take salt and bay salt one pound each, saltpetre and lump sugar two ounces each, and powder and mix the whole together. Put a layer of the mixture at the bottom of the jar, then a layer of fish with the skin side downwards; so continue alternately till the jar is full. Press it down, and cover it close: in two or three months they will be fit for use.

PICKLED LEMONS. They should be small, and with thick rinds. Rub them with a piece of flannel, and slit them half down in four quarters, but not through to the pulp. Fill the openings with salt hard pressed in, set them upright in a pan for four or five days, until the salt melts, and turn them thrice a day in their own liquor till quite tender. Make enough pickle to cover them, of rape vinegar, the brine of the lemons, peppercorns, and ginger. Boil and skim it; when cold put it to the lemons, with two ounces of mustard seed, and two cloves of garlic to six lemons. When the lemons are to be used, the pickle will be useful in fish or other sauces.

PICKLED MACKAREL. Clean and divide the fish, and cut each side into three; or leave them undivided, and cut each side into five or six pieces. To six large mackarel, take nearly an ounce of pepper, two nutmegs, a little mace, four cloves, and a handful of salt, all finely powdered. Mix them together, make holes in each bit of fish, put the seasoning into them, and rub some of it over each piece. Fry them brown in oil, and when cold put them into a stone jar, and cover them with vinegar. Thus prepared, they will keep for months; and if to be kept longer, pour oil on the top. Mackarel preserved this way are called Caveach. A more common way is to boil the mackarel after they are cleaned, and then to boil up some of the liquor with a few peppercorns, bay leaves, and a little vinegar; and when the fish is cold, the liquor is poured over them. Collared mackarel are prepared the same way as collared eel.

PICKLED MELONS. Take six melons, cut a slice out of them, and scrape out the seeds and pulp quite clean. Put them into a tin stewpan with as much water as will cover them; add a small handful of salt, and boil them over a quick fire. When they boil take them off the fire, put them into an earthen pan with the water, and let them stand till the next day. The melons must then be taken out and wiped dry, both within and without. Put two small cloves of garlic into each, a little bit of ginger, and bruised mustard seed, enough to fill them. Replace the slice that was cut out, and tie it on with a thread. Boil some cloves, mace, ginger, pepper, and mustard seed, all bruised, and some garlic, in as much vinegar as will cover them. After a little boiling, pour the whole, boiling-hot, upon the melons. They must be quite covered with the pickle, and tied down close, when cold, with a bladder and leather. They will not be fit for use in less than three or four months, and will keep two or three years.

PICKLED MUSHROOMS. Rub the buttons with a piece of flannel, and salt. Take out the red inside of the larger ones, and when old and black they will do for pickling. Throw some salt over, and put them into a stewpan with mace and pepper. As the liquor comes out, shake them well, and keep them over a gentle fire till all of it be dried into them again. Then put as much vinegar into the pan as will cover them, give it one warm, and turn all into a glass or stone jar. Mushrooms pickled in this way will preserve their flavour, and keep for two years.

PICKLED NASTURTIUM. Take the buds fresh off the plants when they are pretty large, but before they grow hard, and put them into some of the best white wine vinegar, boiled up with such spices as are most agreeable. Keep them in a bottle closely stopped, and they will be fit for use in a week or ten days.

PICKLED ONIONS. In the month of September, choose the small white round onions, take off the brown skin, have ready a very nice tin stewpan of boiling water, and throw in as many onions as will cover the top. As soon as they look clear on the outside, take them up with a slice as quick as possible, and lay them on a clean cloth. Cover them close with another cloth, and scald some more, and so on. Let them lie to be cold, then put them in a jar or wide-mouthed glass bottles, and pour over them the best white-wine vinegar, just hot, but not boiling, and cover them when cold. They must look quite clear; and if the outer skin be shriveled, peel it off.

PICKLED OYSTERS. Open four dozen large oysters, wash them in their own liquor, wipe them dry, and strain off the liquor. Add a dessert-spoonful of pepper, two blades of mace, a table-spoonful of salt, if the liquor require it; then add three spoonfuls of white wine, and four of vinegar. Simmer the oysters a few minutes in the liquor, then put them into small jars, boil up the pickle, and skim it. When cold, pour the liquor over the oysters, and cover them close.—Another way. Open the oysters, put them into a saucepan with their own liquor for ten minutes, and simmer them very gently. Put them into a jar one by one, that none of the grit may stick to them; and when cold, cover them with the pickle thus made. Boil the liquor with a bit of mace, lemon peel, and black peppers; and to every hundred of these corns, put two spoonfuls of the best undistilled vinegar. The pickle should be kept in small jars, and tied close with bladder, for the air will spoil them.

PICKLED PIGEONS. Bone them, turn the inside out, and lard it. Season with a little salt and allspice in fine powder; then turn them again, and tie the neck and rump with thread. Put them into boiling water; when they have boiled a minute or two to make them plump, take them out and dry them well. Then put them boiling hot into the pickle, which must be made of equal quantities of white wine and white-wine vinegar, with white pepper and allspice, sliced ginger and nutmeg, and two or three bay leaves. When it boils up, put in the pigeons. If they are small, a quarter of an hour will do them; if large, twenty minutes. Then take them out, wipe them, and let them cool. When the pickle is cold, take the fat from it, and put them in again. Keep them in a stone jar, tied down with a bladder to keep out the air. Instead of larding, put into some a stuffing made of yolks of eggs boiled hard, and marrow in equal quantities, with sweet herbs, pepper, salt, and mace.

PICKLED PORK. The hams and shoulders being cut off, take for pickling the quantities proportioned to the middlings of a pretty large hog. Mix and pound fine, four ounces of salt petre, a pound of coarse sugar, an ounce of salprunel, and a little common salt. Sprinkle the pork with salt, drain it twenty four hours, and then rub it with the above mixture. Pack the pieces tight in a small deep tub, filling up the spaces with common salt. Place large pebbles on the pork, to prevent it from swimming in the pickle which the salt will produce. If kept from the air it will continue very fine for two years.

PICKLED ROSES. Take two pecks of damask rose buds, pick off the green part, and strew in the bottom of a jar a handful of large bay salt. Put in half the roses, and strew a little more bay salt upon them. Strip from the stalk a handful of knotted marjoram, a handful of lemon thyme, and as much common thyme. Take six pennyworth of benjamin, as much of storax, six orris roots, and a little suet; beat and bruise them all together, and mix them with the stripped herbs. Add twenty cloves, a grated nutmeg, the peel of two Seville oranges pared thin, and of one lemon shred fine. Mix them with the herbs and spices, strew all on the roses, and stir them once in two days till the jar is full. More sweets need not be added, but only roses, orange flowers, or single pinks.

PICKLED SALMON. After scaling and cleaning, split the salmon, and divide it into convenient pieces. Lay it in the kettle to fill the bottom, and as much water as will cover it. To three quarts add a pint of vinegar, a handful of salt, twelve bay-leaves, six blades of mace, and a quarter of an ounce of black pepper. When the salmon is boiled enough, drain and lay it on a clean cloth; then put more salmon into the kettle, and pour the liquor upon it, and so on till all is done. After this, if the pickle be not smartly flavoured with the vinegar and salt, add more, and boil it quick three quarters of an hour. When all is cold, pack the dish in a deep pot, well covered with the pickle, and kept from the air. The liquor must be drained from the fish, and occasionally boiled and skimmed.

PICKLED SAMPHIRE. Clear the branches of the samphire from the dead leaves, and lay them into a large jar, or small cask. Make a strong brine of white or bay salt, skim it clean while it is boiling, and when done let it cool. Take the samphire out of the water, and put it into a bottle with a broad mouth. Add some strong white-wine vinegar, and keep it well covered down.

PICKLED STURGEON. The following is an excellent imitation of pickled sturgeon. Take a fine large turkey, but not old; pick it very nicely, singe, and make it extremely clean. Bone and wash it, and tie it across and across with a piece of mat string washed clean. Put into a very nice tin saucepan a quart of water, a quart of vinegar, a quart of white wine, not sweet, and a large handful of salt. Boil and skim it well, and then boil the turkey. When done enough, tighten the strings, and lay upon it a dish with a weight of two pounds over it. Boil the liquor half an hour; and when both are cold, put the turkey into it. This will keep some months, and eats more delicately than sturgeon. Vinegar, oil, and sugar, are usually eaten with it. If more vinegar or salt should be wanted, add them when cold. Garnish with fennel.

PICKLED TONGUES. To prepare neats' tongues for boiling, cut off the roots, but leave a little of the kernel and fat. Sprinkle some salt, and let it drain from the slime till next day. Then for each tongue mix a large spoonful of common salt, the same of coarse sugar and about half as much of salt petre; rub it in well, and do so every day. In a week add another spoonful of salt. If rubbed every day, a tongue will be ready in a fortnight; but if only turned in the pickle daily, it will keep four or five weeks without being too salt. When tongues are to be dried, write the date on a parchment, and tie it on. Tongues may either be smoked, or dried plain. When a tongue is to be dressed, boil it five hours till it is quite tender. If done sooner, it is easily kept hot for the table. The longer it is kept after drying, the higher it will be; and if hard, it may require soaking three or four hours.—Another way. Clean and prepare as above; and for two tongues allow an ounce of salt petre, and an ounce of salprunella, and rub them in well. In two days after well rubbing, cover them with common salt, turn them every day for three weeks, then dey them, rub bran over, and smoke them. Keep them in a cool dry place, and in ten days they will be fit to eat.

PICKLED WALNUTS. When they will bear a pin to go into them, boil a brine of salt and water, strong enough to swim an egg, and skim it well. When the brine is quite cold, pour it on the walnuts, and let them soak for six days. Change the brine, and let them stand six more; then drain and put them into a jar, pouring over them a sufficient quantity of the best vinegar. Add plenty of black pepper, pimento, ginger, mace, cloves, mustard seed, and horseradish, all boiled together, but put on cold. To every hundred of walnuts put six spoonfuls of mustard seed, and two or three heads of garlic or shalot, but the latter is the mildest. The walnuts will be fit for use in about six months; but if closely covered, they will be good for several years: the air will soften them. The pickle will be equal to ketchup, when the walnuts are used.—Another way. Put the walnuts into a jar, cover them with the best vinegar cold, and let them stand four months. Then, pour off the pickle, and boil as much fresh vinegar as will cover the walnuts, adding to every three quarts of vinegar a quarter of a pound of the best mustard, a stick of horseradish sliced, half an ounce of black pepper, half an ounce of allspice, and a good handful of salt. Pour the whole boiling hot upon the walnuts, and cover them close: they will be fit for use in three or four months. Two ounces of garlic or shalot may be added, but must not be boiled in the vinegar. The pickle in which the walnuts stood the first four months, may be used as ketchup.

PICTURES. The following simple method of preventing flies from sitting on pictures, or any other furniture, is well experienced, and if generally adopted, would prevent much trouble and damage. Soak a large bunch of leeks five or six days in a pail of water, and wash the pictures with it, or any other piece of furniture. The flies will never come near any thing that is so washed.

PIE SAUCE. Mix some gravy with an anchovy, a sprig of sweet herbs, an onion, and a little mushroom liquor. Boil and thicken it with butter rolled in flour, add a little red wine, and pour the sauce into the pie. This serves for mutton, lamb, veal, or beef pies, when such an addition is required.

PIES AND TARTS. Attention should be paid to the heat of the oven for all kinds of pies and tarts. Light paste should be put into a moderate oven: if too hot the crust will not rise, but burn: if too slack, the paste will be heavy, and not of a good colour. Raised paste should have a quick oven, and well closed. Iced tarts should be done in a slack oven, or the iceing will become brown before the tarts are baked.

PIGEONS. In order to breed pigeons, it is best to take two young ones at a time; and if well looked after, and plentifully fed, they will breed every month. They should be kept very clean, and the bottom of the dove-cote be strewed with sand once a month or oftener. Tares and white peas are their proper food, and they should be provided with plenty of fresh water. Starlings and other birds are apt to come among them, and suck the eggs. Vermin likewise are their enemies, and frequently destroy them. If the brood should be too small, put among them a few tame pigeons of their own colour. Observe not to have too large a proportion of cock birds, for they are quarrelsome, and will soon thin the dove-cote. Pigeons are fond of salt, and it keeps them in health. Lay a large piece of clay near their dwelling, and pour upon it any of the salt brine that may be useless in the family. Bay salt and cummin seeds mixed together, is a universal remedy for the diseases of pigeons. The backs and breasts are sometimes scabby, but may be cured in the following manner. Take a quarter of a pound of bay salt, and as much common salt; a pound of fennel seed, a pound of dill seed, as much cummin seed, and an ounce of assafoetida; mix all with a little wheat flour, and some fine wrought clay. When all are well beaten together, put it into two earthen pots, and bake them in the oven. When the pots are cold, put them on the table in the dove-cote; the pigeons will eat the mixture and get well.

PIGEONS DRESSED. These birds are particularly useful, as they may be dressed in so many ways. The good flavour of them depends very much on their being cropped and drawn as soon as killed. No other bird requires so much washing. Pigeons left from dinner the day before may be stewed, or made into a pie. In either case, care must be taken not to overdo them, which will make them stringy. They need only be heated up in gravy ready prepared; and forcemeat balls may be fried and added, instead of putting a stuffing into them. If for a pie, let beef steaks be stewed in a little water, and put cold under them. Cover each pigeon with a piece of fat bacon to keep them moist, season as usual, and put in some eggs.—In purchasing pigeons, be careful to see that they are quite fresh: if they look flabby about the vent, and that part is discoloured, they are stale. The feet should be supple: if old the feet are harsh. The tame ones are larger than the wild, and by some they are thought to be the best. They should be fat and tender; but many are deceived in their size, because a full crop is as large as the whole body of a small pigeon. The wood-pigeon is large, and the flesh dark coloured: if properly kept, and not over roasted, the flavour is equal to teal.

PIGEONS IN DISGUISE. Draw the pigeons, take out the craw very carefully, wash them clean, cut off the pinions, and turn their legs under their wings. Season them with pepper and salt, roll each pigeon in a puff paste, close them well, tie them in separate cloths, and boil them an hour and a half. When they are untied be careful they do not break; put them in a dish, and pour a little good gravy over them.

PIGEONS IN A HOLE. Truss four young pigeons, as for boiling, and season them with pepper, salt, and mace. Put into the belly of each a small piece of butter, lay them in a pie dish, and pour batter over them, made of three eggs, two spoonfuls of flour, and half a pint of milk. Bake them in a moderate oven, and send them to table in the same dish.

PIGEONS IN JELLY. Save some of the liquor in which a knuckle of veal has been boiled, or boil a calf's or a neat's foot; put the broth into a pan with a blade of mace, a bunch of sweet herbs, some white pepper, lemon peel, a slice of lean bacon, and the pigeons. Bake them, and let them stand to be cold; but season them before baking. When done, take them out of the liquor, cover them close to preserve the colour, and clear the jelly by boiling it with the whites of two eggs. Strain it through a thick cloth dipped in boiling water, and put into a sieve. The fat must be all removed, before it be cleared. Put the jelly roughly over and round the pigeons.—A beautiful dish may be made in the following manner. Pick two very nice pigeons, and make them look as well as possible by singeing, washing, and cleaning the heads well. Leave the heads and the feet on, but the nails must be clipped close to the claws. Roast them of a very nice brown; and when done, put a small sprig of myrtle into the bill of each. Prepare a savoury jelly, and with it half fill a bowl of such a size as shall be proper to turn down on the dish intended for serving in. When the jelly and the birds are cold, see that no gravy hangs to the birds, and then lay them upside down in the jelly. Before the rest of it begins to set, pour it over the birds, so as to be three inches above the feet. This should be done full twenty four hours before serving. The dish thus prepared will have a very handsome appearance in the mid range of a second coarse; or when served with the jelly roughed large, it makes a side or corner dish, being then of a smaller size. The head of the pigeons should be kept up, as if alive, by tying the neck with some thread, and the legs bent as if the birds sat upon them.

PIGEON PIE. Rub the pigeons with pepper and salt, inside and out. Put in a bit of butter, and if approved, some parsley chopped with the livers, and a little of the same seasoning. Lay a beef steak at the bottom of the dish, and the birds on it; between every two, a hard egg. Put a cup of water in the dish; and if a thin slice or two of ham be added, it will greatly improve the flavour. When ham is cut for gravy or pies, the under part should be taken, rather than the prime. Season the gizzards, and two joints of the wings, and place them in the centre of the pie. Over them, in a hole made in the crust, put three of the feet nicely cleaned, to show what pie it is.

PIG'S CHEEK. To prepare a pig's cheek for boiling, cut off the snout, and clean the head. Divide it, take out the eyes and the brains, sprinkle the head with salt, and let it drain twenty-four hours. Salt it with common salt and saltpetre; and if to be dressed without being stewed with peas, let it lie eight or ten days, but less if to be dressed with peas. It must first be washed, and then simmered till all is tender.

PIG'S FEET AND EARS. Clean them carefully, soak them some hours, and boil them quite tender. Then take them out, and boil a little salt and vinegar with some of the liquor, and pour it over them when cold. When to be dressed, dry them, cut the feet in two, and slice the ears. Fry them, and serve with butter, mustard, and vinegar. They may be either done in batter, or only floured.

PIG'S FEET AND EARS FRICASSEED. If to be dressed with cream, put no vinegar into the pickle. Cut the feet and ears into neat bits, and boil them in a little milk. Pour the liquor from them, and simmer in a little veal broth, with a bit of onion, mace, and lemon peel. Before the dish is served up, add a little cream, flour, butter, and salt.

PIG'S FEET JELLY. Clean the feet and ears very carefully, and soak them some hours. Then boil them in a very small quantity of water, till every bone can be taken out. Throw in half a handful of chopped sage, the same of parsley, and a seasoning of pepper, salt, and mace in fine powder. Simmer till the herbs are scalded, and then pour the whole into a melon form.

PIG'S HARSLET. Wash and dry some liver, sweetbreads, and fat and lean bits of pork, beating the latter with a rolling-pin to make it tender. Season with pepper, salt, sage, and a little onion shred fine. When mixed, put all into a cawl, and fasten it up tight with a needle and thread. Roast it on a hanging jack, or by a string. Serve with a sauce of port wine and water, and mustard, just boiled up, and put into the dish. Or serve it in slices with parsley for a fry.

PIG'S HEAD COLLARED. Scour the head and ears nicely, take off the hair and snout, and remove the eyes and the brain. Lay the head into water one night, then drain it, salt it extremely well with common salt and saltpetre, and let it lie five days. Boil it enough to take out the bones, then lay it on a dresser, turning the thick end of one side of the head towards the thin end of the other, to make the roll of equal size. Sprinkle it well with salt and white pepper, and roll it with the ears. The pig's feet may also be placed round the outside when boned, or the thin parts of two cow heels, if approved. Put it in a cloth, bind it with a broad tape, and boil it till quite tender. Place a good weight upon it, and do not remove the covering till the meat is cold. If the collar is to be more like brawn, salt it longer, add a larger proportion of saltpetre, and put in also some pieces of lean pork. Then cover it with cow heel to make it look like the horn. This may be kept in a pickle of boiled salt and water, or out of pickle with vinegar: it will be found a very convenient article to have in the house. If likely to spoil, slice and fry it, either with or without batter.

PIG SAUCE. Take a tea-spoonful of white gravy, a small piece of anchovy, with the gravy from the roasting of the pig, and mix the brains with it when chopped. Add a quarter of a pound of butter, a little flour to thicken it, a slice of lemon, and a little salt. Shake it over the fire, and put it hot into the dish. Good sauce may also be made by putting some of the bread and sage, which has been roasted in the pig, into good beef gravy, and adding the brains to it.

PILAU. Stew a pound of rice in white gravy till it is tender. Half boil a well grown fowl, then lay it into a baking dish with some pepper and salt strewed over it. Lay truffles, morels, mushrooms, hard eggs, or forcemeat balls, any or all of them round it at pleasure; put a little gravy into the dish, and spread the rice over the whole like a paste. Bake it gently, till the fowl is done enough. If it seem dry, cut a hole carefully at the top, and pour in some white gravy, made pretty warm, before it is sent to table. Partridges or pheasants are very nice, dressed the same way.

PILCHARD PIE. Soak two or three salted pilchards for some hours, the day before they are to be dressed. Clean and skin the white part of some large leeks, scald them in milk and water, and put them in layers into a dish, with the pilchards. Cover the whole with a good plain crust. When the pie is taken out of the oven, lift up the side crust with a knife, and empty out all the liquor: then pour in half a pint of scalded cream.

PILE OINTMENT. Cut some green shoots of elder early in the spring, clear away the bark, and put two good handfuls into a quart of thick cream. Boil it till it comes to an ointment, and as it rises take it off with a spoon, and be careful to prevent its burning. Strain the ointment through a fine cloth, and keep it for use.

PILES. If this complaint be occasioned by costiveness, proper attention must be paid to that circumstance; but if it originate from weakness, strong purgatives must be avoided. The part affected should be bathed twice a day with a sponge dipped in cold water, and the bowels regulated by the mildest laxatives. An electuary, consisting of one ounce of sulphur, and half an ounce of cream of tartar, mixed with a sufficient quantity of treacle, may be taken three or four times a day. The patient would also find relief by sitting over the steam of warm water. A useful liniment for this disorder may be made of two ounces of emollient ointment, and half an ounce of laudanum. Mix them with the yolk of an egg, and work them well together.

PILLS. Opening pills may be made of two drams of Castile soap, and two drams of succotrine aloes, mixed with a sufficient quantity of common syrup. Or when aloes will not agree with the patient, take two drams of the extract of jalap, two drams of vitriolated tartar, and as much syrup of ginger as will form them of a proper consistence for pills. Four or five of these pills will generally prove a sufficient purge; and for keeping the body gently open, one may be taken night and morning.—Composing pills may consist of ten grains of purified opium, and half a dram of Castile soap, beaten together, and formed into twenty parts. When a quieting draught will not sit upon the stomach, one or two of these pills may be taken to great advantage.—Pills for the jaundice may be made of one dram each of Castile soap, succotrine aloes, and rhubarb, mixed up with a sufficient quantity of syrup. Five or six of these pills taken twice a day, more or less, to keep the body open, with the assistance of a proper diet, will often effect a cure.

PIPERS. Boil or bake them with a pudding well seasoned. If baked, put a large cup of rich broth into the dish; and when done, boil up together for sauce, the broth, some essence of anchovy, and a squeeze of lemon.

PIPPIN PUDDING. Coddle six pippins in vine leaves covered with water, very gently, that the inside may be done without breaking the skins. When soft, take off the skin, and with a tea-spoon take the pulp from the core. Press it through a cullender, add two spoonfuls of orange-flower water, three eggs beaten, a glass of raisin wine, a pint of scalding cream, sugar and nutmeg to taste. Lay a thin puff paste at the bottom and sides of the dish; shred some very thin lemon peel as fine as possible, and put it into the dish; likewise lemon, orange, and citron, in small slices, but not so thin as to dissolve in the baking.

PIPPIN TARTS. Pare two seville or china oranges quite thin, boil the peel tender and shred it fine. Pare and core twenty pippins, put them in a stewpan, with as little water as possible. When half done, add half a pound of sugar, the orange peel and juice, and boil all together till it is pretty thick. When cold, put it in a shallow dish, or pattipans lined with paste, to turn out, and be eaten cold.

PISTACHIO CREAM. Blanch four ounces of pistachio nuts, beat them fine with a little rose-water, and add the paste to a pint of cream. Sweeten it, let it just boil, and then put it into glasses.

PISTACHIO TART. Shell and peel half a pound of pistachio nuts, beat them very fine in a marble mortar, and work into them a piece of fresh butter. Add to this a quarter of a pint of cream, or of the juice of beet leaves, extracted by pounding them in a marble mortar, and then draining off the juice through a piece of muslin. Grate in two macarones, add the yolks of two eggs, a little salt, and sugar to the taste. Bake it lightly with a puff crust under it, and some little ornaments on the top. Sift some fine sugar over, before it is sent to table.

PLAICE. The following is an excellent way of dressing a large plaice, especially if there be a roe. Sprinkle it with salt, and keep it twenty four hours. Then wash, and wipe it dry, smear it over with egg, and cover it with crumbs of bread. Boil up some lard or fine dripping, with two large spoonfuls of vinegar; lay in the fish, and fry it of a fine colour. Drain off the fat, serve it with fried parsley laid round, and anchovy sauce. The fish may be dipped in vinegar, instead of putting vinegar in the pan.

PLAIN BREAD PUDDING. Prepare five ounces of bread crumbs, put them in a basin, pour three quarters of a pint of boiling milk over them, put a plate over the top to keep in the steam, and let it stand twenty minutes. Then beat it up quite smooth, with two ounces of sugar, and a little nutmeg. Break four eggs on a plate, leaving out one white, beat them well, and add them to the pudding. Stir it all well together, put it into a mould that has been well buttered and floured, tie a cloth tight over it, and boil it an hour.

PLAIN CHEESECAKES. Three quarters of a pound of cheese curd, and a quarter of a pound of butter, beat together in a mortar. Add a quarter of a pound of fine bread soaked in milk, three eggs, six ounces of currants well washed and picked, sugar to the taste, a little candied orange peel, and a little sack. Bake them in a puff crust in a quick oven.

PLAIN FRITTERS. Grate a fine penny loaf into a pint of milk, beat it smooth, add the yolks of five eggs, three ounces of fine sugar, and a little nutmeg. Fry them in hog's lard, and serve them up with melted butter and sugar.

PLAIN PEAS SOUP. The receipts too generally given for peas are so much crowded with ingredients, that they entirely overpower the flavour of the peas. Nothing more is necessary to plain good soup, than a quart of split peas, two heads of celery, and an onion. Boil all together in three quarts of broth or soft water; let them simmer gently on a trivet over a slow fire for three hours, and keep them stirring, to prevent burning at the bottom of the kettle. If the water boils away, and the soup gets too thick, add some boiling water to it. When the peas are well softened, work them through a coarse sieve, and then through a tammis. Wash out the stewpan, return the soup into it, and give it a boil up; take off any scum that rises, and the soup is ready. Prepare some fried bread and dried mint, and send them up with it on two side dishes. This is an excellent family soup, produced with very little trouble or expense, the two quarts not exceeding the charge of one shilling. Half a dram of bruised celery seed, and a little sugar, added just before finishing the soup, will give it as much flavour as two heads of the fresh vegetable.

PLAIN RICE PUDDING. Wash and pick some rice, scatter among it some pimento finely powdered, but not too much. Tie up the rice in a cloth, and leave plenty of room for it to swell. Boil it in a good quantity of water for an hour or two, and serve it with butter and sugar, or milk. Lemon peel may be added to the pudding, but it is very good without spice, and may be eaten with butter and salt.

PLANTING. In rendering swampy ground useful, nothing is so well adapted as planting it with birch or alder, which grows spontaneously on bogs and swamps, a kind of soil which otherwise would produce nothing but weeds and rushes. The wood of the alder is particularly useful for all kinds of machinery, for pipes, drains, and pump trees, as it possesses the peculiar quality of resisting injury from wet and weather. The bark is also highly valuable to black dyers, who purchase it at a good price; and it is much to be lamented that the properties of this useful tree are not duly appreciated.

PLANTATIONS. Young plantations are liable to great injury, by being barked in the winter season. To prevent this, take a quantity of grease, scent it with a little tar, and mix them well together. Brush it round the stems of young trees, as high at least as hares and rabbits can reach, and it will effectually prevent their being barked by these animals. Tar must not be used alone, for when exposed to the sun and air, it becomes hard and binding, and hinders the growth of the plantation. Grease will not have this effect, and the scent of the tar is highly obnoxious to hares and rabbits.

PLASTERS. Common plaster is made of six pints of olive oil, and two pounds and a half of litharge finely powdered. A smaller quantity may of course be made of equal proportions. Boil them together over a gentle fire, in about a gallon of water, and keep the ingredients constantly stirring. After they have boiled about three hours, a little of the salve may be taken out, and put into cold water. When of a proper consistence, the whole may be suffered to cool, and the water pressed out of it with the hands. This will serve as a basis for other plasters, and is generally applied in slight wounds and excoriations of the skin. It keeps the part warm and supple, and defends it from the air, which is all that is necessary in such cases.—Adhesive plaster, which is principally used for keeping on other dressings, consists of half a pound of common plaster, and a quarter of a pound of Burgundy pitch melted together.—Anodyne plaster is as follows. Melt an ounce of the adhesive, and when cooling, mix with it a dram of powdered opium, and the same of camphor, previously rubbing with a little oil. This plaster generally gives ease in acute pains, especially of the nervous kind.—Blistering plaster is made in a variety of ways, but seldom of a proper consistence. When compounded of oils, and other greasy substances, its effects are lessened, and it is apt to run, while pitch and rosin render it hard and inconvenient. The following will be found the best method. Take six ounces of venice turpentine, two ounces of yellow wax, three ounces of spanish flies finely powdered, and one ounce of the flour of mustard. Melt the wax, and while it is warm, add the turpentine to it, taking care not to evaporate it by too much heat. After the turpentine and wax are sufficiently incorporated, sprinkle in the powders, and stir the mass till it is cold. When the blistering plaster is not at hand, mix with any soft ointment a sufficient quantity of powdered flies, or form them into a plaster with flour and vinegar.PLATE. The best way to clean plate, is to boil an ounce of prepared hartshorn powder in a quart of water; and while on the fire, put in as much plate as the vessel will hold. Let it boil a little, then take it out, drain it over the saucepan, and dry it before the fire. Put in more, and serve it the same, till all is done. Then soak some clean rags in the water, and when dry they will serve to clean the plate. Cloths thus saturated with hartshorn powder, are also the best things for cleaning brass locks, and the finger plates of doors. When the plate is quite dry, it must be rubbed bright with soft leather. In many plate powders there is a mixture of quicksilver, which is very injurious; and among other disadvantages, it makes silver so brittle that it will break with a fall. In common cases, whitening, properly purified from sand, applied wet, and rubbed till dry, is one of the cheapest and best of all plate powders.

PLATING OF GLASS. Pour some mercury on a tin foil, smoothly laid on a flat table, and rub it gently with a hare's foot. It soon unites itself to the tin, which then becomes very splendid, or is what they call quickened. A plate of glass is then cautiously, passed upon the tin leaf, in such a manner as to sweep off the redundant mercury, which is not incorporated with the tin. Leaden weights are then to be placed on the glass; and in a little time the quicksilvered tin foil adheres, so firmly to the glass, that the weights may be removed without any danger of its falling off. The glass thus coated is a common looking-glass. About two ounces of mercury are sufficient for covering three square feet of glass.

PLOVERS. In purchasing plovers, choose those that feel hard at the vent, which shows they are fat. In other respects, choose them by the same marks as other fowl. When stale, the feet are harsh and dry. They will keep a long time. There are three sorts of these birds, the grey, the green, and the bastard plover, or lapwing. Green plovers are roasted in the same way as snipes and woodcocks, without drawing, and are served on toast. The grey ones may be roasted, or stewed with gravy, herbs, and spice.

PLOVERS' EGGS. Boil them ten minutes, and serve them either hot or cold on a napkin. These make a nice and fashionable dish.

PLUM CAKE. This is such a favourite article in most families, and is made in so many different ways, that it will be necessary to give a variety of receipts, in order that a selection may be made agreeably to the taste of the reader, or the quality of the article to be preferred.—For a good common plum cake, mix five ounces of butter in three pounds of fine dry flour, and five ounces of the best moist sugar. Add six ounces of currants, washed and dried, and some pimento finely powdered. Put three spoonfuls of yeast into a pint of new milk warmed, and mix it with the above into a light dough.—A cake of a better sort. Mix thoroughly a quarter of a peck of fine flour well dried, with a pound of dry and sifted loaf sugar, three pounds of currants washed and very dry, half a pound of raisins stoned and chopped, a quarter of an ounce of mace and cloves, twenty peppercorns, a grated nutmeg, the peel of a lemon cut as fine as possible, and half a pound of almonds blanched and beaten with orange-flower water. Melt two pounds of butter in a pint and a quarter of cream, but not too hot; add a pint of sweet wine, a glass of brandy, the whites and yolks of twelve eggs beaten apart, and half a pint of good yeast. Strain this liquid by degrees into the dry ingredients, beating them together a full hour; then butter the hoop or pan, and bake it. When the batter is put into the pan, throw in plenty of citron, lemon, and orange candy. If the cake is to be iced, take half a pound of double refined sugar sifted, and put a little with the white of an egg; beat it well, and by degrees pour in the remainder. It must be whisked nearly an hour, with the addition of a little orange-flower water, but not too much. When the cake is done, pour the iceing over it, and return it to the oven for fifteen minutes. But if the oven be quite warm, keep it near the mouth, and the door open, lest the colour be spoiled.—Another. Dried flour, currants washed and picked, four pounds; sugar pounded and sifted, a pound and a half; six orange, lemon, and citron peels, cut in slices. These are to be mixed together. Beat ten eggs, yolks and whites separately. Melt a pound and a half of butter in a pint of cream; when cold, put to it half a pint of yeast, near half a pint of sweet wine, and the eggs. Then strain the liquid to the dry ingredients, beat them well, and add of cloves, mace, cinnamon, and nutmeg, half an ounce each. Butter the pan, and put it into a quick oven. Three hours will bake it.—Another. Mix with a pound of well-dried flour, a pound of loaf sugar, and the eighth of an ounce of mace, well beaten. Beat up five eggs with half the whites, a gill of rose water, and a quarter of a pint of yeast, and strain them. Melt half a pound of butter in a quarter of a pint of cream, and when cool, mix all together. Beat up the batter with a light hand, and set it to rise half an hour. Before it is put into the oven, mix in a pound and a half of currants, well washed and dried, and bake it an hour and a quarter.—For a rich cake, take three pounds of well-dried flour, three pounds of fresh butter, a pound and a half of fine sugar dried and sifted, five pounds of currants carefully cleaned and dried, twenty-four eggs, three grated nutmegs, a little pounded mace and cloves, half a pound of almonds, a glass of sack, and a pound of citron or orange peel. Pound the almonds in rose water, work up the butter to a thin cream, put in the sugar, and work it well; then the yolks of the eggs, the spices, the almonds, and orange peel. Beat the whites of the eggs to a froth, and put them into the batter as it rises. Keep working it with the hand till the oven is ready, and the scorching subsided; put it into a hoop, but not full, and two hours will bake it. The almonds should be blanched in cold water. This will make a large rich plum cake.—A small common cake may be made of a pound of dough, a quarter of a pound of butter, two eggs, a quarter of a pound of lump sugar, a quarter of a pound of currants, and a little nutmeg.—Another. Take a pound and a half of fine white dough, roll into it a pound of butter, as for pie crust, and set it by the fire. Beat up the yolks of four eggs, with half a pound of fine powdered sugar; pour it upon the mass, and work it well by the fire. Add half a pound of currants, well picked and washed, and send it to the oven. Half the quantity of sugar, eggs, and butter, will make a very pleasant cake.—Another. A pound and a half of well-dried flour, a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, and a pound of currants, picked and washed. Beat up eight eggs, warm the butter, mix all together, and beat it up for an hour.—For little plum cakes, intended to keep for some time, dry a pound of fine flour, and mix it with six ounces of finely pounded sugar. Beat six ounces of butter to a cream, and add to three eggs well beaten, half a pound of currants nicely washed and dried, together with the sugar and flour. Beat all for some time, then dredge some flour on tin plates, and drop the batter on them the size of a walnut. If properly mixed, it will be a stiff paste. Bake in a brisk oven. To make a rich plum cake, take four pounds of flour well dried, mix with it a pound and a half of fine sugar powdered, a grated nutmeg, and an ounce of mace pounded fine. When they are well mixed, make a hole in the middle, and pour in fifteen eggs, but seven whites, well beaten, with a pint of good yeast, half a quarter of a pint of orange-flower water, and the same quantity of sack, or any other rich sweet wine. Then melt two pounds and a half of butter in a pint and a half of cream; and when it is about the warmth of new milk, pour it into the middle of the batter. Throw a little of the flour over the liquids, but do not mix the whole together till it is ready to go into the oven. Let it stand before the fire an hour to rise, laying a cloth over it; then have ready six pounds of currants well washed, picked, and dried; a pound of citron and a pound of orange peel sliced, with a pound of blanched almonds, half cut in slices lengthways, and half finely pounded. Mix all well together, butter the tin well, and bake it two hours and a half. This will make a large cake.—Another, not quite so rich. Three pounds of flour well dried, half a pound of sugar, and half an ounce of spice, nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon, well pounded. Add ten eggs, but only half the whites, beaten with a pint of good yeast. Melt a pound of butter in a pint of cream, add it to the yeast, and let it stand an hour to rise before the fire. Then add three pounds of currants well washed, picked and dried. Butter the tin, and bake it an hour.—A common plum cake is made of three pounds and a half of flour, half a pound of sugar, a grated nutmeg, eight eggs, a glass of brandy, half a pint of yeast, a pound of butter melted in a pint and half of milk, put lukewarm to the other ingredients. Let it rise an hour before the fire, then mix it well together, add two pounds of currants carefully cleaned, butter the tin, and bake it.

PLUM JAM. Cut some ripe plums to pieces, put them into a preserving pan, bruise them with a spoon, warm them over the fire till they are soft, and press them through a cullender. Boil the jam an hour, stir it well, add six ounces of fine powdered sugar to every pound of jam, and take it off the fire to mix it. Then heat it ten minutes, put it into jars, and sift some fine sugar over it.

PLUM PUDDING. Take six ounces of suet chopped fine, six ounces of malaga raisins stoned, eight ounces of currants nicely washed and picked, three ounces of bread crumbs, three ounces of flour, and three eggs. Add the sixth part of a grated nutmeg, a small blade of mace, the same quantity of cinnamon, pounded as fine as possible; half a tea-spoonful of salt, nearly half a pint of milk, four ounces of sugar, an ounce of candied lemon, and half an ounce of citron. Beat the eggs and spice well together, mix the milk with them by degrees, and then the rest of the ingredients. Dip a fine close linen cloth into boiling water, and put it in a hair sieve, flour it a little, and tie the pudding up close. Put it into a saucepan containing six quarts of boiling water; keep a kettle of boiling water near it, to fill up the pot as it wastes, and keep it boiling six hours. If the water ceases to boil, the pudding will become heavy, and be spoiled. Plum puddings are best when mixed an hour or two before they are boiled, as the various ingredients by that means incorporate, and the whole becomes richer and fuller of flavour, especially if the various ingredients be thoroughly well stirred together. A table-spoonful of treacle will give the pudding a rich brown colour.—Another. Beat up the yolks and whites of three eggs, strain them through a sieve, gradually add to them a quarter of a pint of milk, and stir it well together. Rub in a mortar two ounces of moist sugar, with as much grated nutmeg as will lie on a six-pence, and stir these into the eggs and milk. Then put in four ounces of flour, and beat it into a smooth batter; by degrees stir into it seven ounces of suet, minced as fine as possible, and three ounces of bread crumbs. Mix all thoroughly together, at least half an hour before the pudding is put into the pot. Put it into an earthenware pudding mould, well buttered, tie a pudding cloth tight over it, put it into boiling water, and boil it three hours. Half a pound of raisins cut in halves, and added to the above, will make a most admirable plum pudding. This pudding may also be baked, or put under roast meat, like a Yorkshire pudding. In the latter case, half a pint more milk must be added, and the batter should be an inch and a quarter in thickness. It will take full two hours, and require careful watching; for if the top get burned, an unpleasant flavour will pervade the whole pudding. Or butter some saucers, and fill them with batter; in a dutch oven they will bake in about an hour.—Another. To three quarters of a pound of flour, add the same weight of stoned raisins, half a pound of suet or marrow, cut small, a pint of milk, two eggs, three spoonfuls of moist sugar, and a little salt. Boil the pudding five hours.—To make a small rich plum pudding, take three quarters of a pound of suet finely shred, half a pound of stoned raisins a little chopped, three spoonfuls of flour, three spoonfuls of moist sugar, a little salt and nutmeg, three yolks of eggs, and two whites. Boil the pudding four hours in a basin of tin mould, well buttered. Serve it up with melted butter, white wine and sugar, poured over it.—For a large rich pudding, take three pounds of suet chopped small, a pound and a half of raisins stoned and chopped, a pound and a half of currants, three pounds of flour, sixteen eggs, and a quart of milk. Boil it in a cloth seven hours. If for baking, put in only a pint of milk, with two additional eggs, and an hour and a half will bake it.—A plum pudding without eggs may be made of three quarters of a pound of flour, three quarters of a pound of suet chopped fine, three quarters of a pound of stoned raisins, three quarters of a pound of currants well washed and dried, a tea-spoonful of ground ginger, and rather more of salt. Stir all well together, and add as little milk as will just mix it up quite stiff. Boil the pudding four hours in a buttered basin.—Another. The same proportions of flour and suet, and half the quantity of fruit, with spice, lemon, a glass of white wine, an egg and milk, will make an excellent pudding, but it must be well boiled.

POACHED EGGS. Set a stewpan of water on the fire; when boiling, slip an egg, previously broken into a cup, into the water. When the white looks done enough, slide an egg-slice under the egg, and lay it on toast and butter, or boiled spinach. As soon as done enough, serve them up hot. If the eggs be not fresh laid, they will not poach well, nor without breaking. Trim the ragged parts of the whites, and make them look round.

POISON. Whenever a quantity of arsenic has been swallowed, by design or mistake, its effects may be counteracted by immediately drinking plenty of milk. The patient should afterwards take a dram of the liver of sulphur, in a pint of warm water, a little at a time as he can bear it; or he may substitute some soap water, a quantity of common ink, or any other acid, if other things cannot be readily procured.—To obviate the ill effects of opium, taken either in a liquid or solid form, emetics should be given as speedily as possible. These should consist of an ounce each of oxymel squills and spearmint water, and half a scruple of ipecacuanha, accompanied with frequent draughts of water gruel to assist the operation.—Those poisons which may be called culinary, are generally the most destructive, because the least suspected; no vessels therefore made of copper or brass should be used in cooking. In cases where the poison of virdigris has been recently swallowed, emetics should first be given, and then the patient should drink abundance of cold water.—If any one has eaten of the deadly nightshade, he should take an emetic as soon as possible, and drink a pint of vinegar or lemon juice in an equal quantity of water, a little at a time; and as sleep would prove fatal, he should keep walking about to prevent it.—For the bite of the mad dog, or other venomous animals, nothing is to be depended on for a cure but immediately cutting out the bitten part with a lancet, or burning it out with a red-hot iron.—To prevent the baneful effects of burning charcoal, set an open vessel of boiling water upon the pan containing the charcoal, and keep it boiling. The steam arising from the water will counteract the effects of the charcoal. Painters, glaziers, and other artificers, should be careful to avoid the poisonous effects of lead, by washing their hands and face clean before meals, and by never eating in the place where they work, nor suffering any food or drink to remain exposed to the fumes or dust of the metal. Every business of this sort should be performed as far as possible with gloves on the hands, to prevent the metal from working into the pores of the skin, which is highly injurious, and lead should never be touched when it is hot.

POIVRADE SAUCE. Pick the skins of twelve shalots, chop them small, mix with them a table-spoonful of veal gravy, a gill and a half of vinegar, half an anchovy pressed through a fine sieve, and a little salt and cayenne. If it is to be eaten with hot game, serve it up boiling: if with cold, the sauce is to be cold likewise.—Another way. Put a piece of butter the size of half an egg into a saucepan, with two or three sliced onions, some of the red outward part, of carrots, and of the part answering to it of parsnip, a clove of garlic, two shalots, two cloves, a bay leaf, with basil and thyme. Shake the whole over the fire till it begins to colour, then add a good pinch of flour, a glass of red wine, a glass of water, and a spoonful of vinegar. Boil it half an hour, take off the fat, pass the sauce through a tammis, add some salt and pepper, and use it with any thing that requires a relishing sauce.

POLISHED STOVES. Steel or polished stoves may be well cleaned in a few minutes, by using a piece of fine-corned emery stone, and afterwards polishing with flour of emery or rottenstone. If stoves or fire irons have acquired any rust, pound some glass to fine powder; and having nailed some strong woollen cloth upon a board, lay upon it a thick coat of gum water, and sift the powdered glass upon it, and let it dry. This may be repeated as often as is necessary to form a sharp surface, and with this the rust may easily be rubbed off; but care must be taken to have the glass finely powdered, and the gum well dried, or the polish on the irons will be injured. Fire arms, or similar articles, may be kept clean for several months, if rubbed with a mixture consisting of one ounce of camphor dissolved in two pounds of hog's lard, boiled and skimmed, and coloured with a little black lead. The mixture should be left on twenty four hours to dry, and then rubbed off with a linen cloth.

POMADE DIVINE. Clear a pound and a half of beef marrow from the strings and bone, put it into an earthen pan of fresh water from the spring, and change the water night and morning for ten days. Then steep it in rose water twenty four hours, and drain it in a cloth till quite dry. Take an ounce of each of the following articles, namely, storax, gum benjamin, odoriferous cypress powder, or of florence; half an ounce of cinnamon, two drams of cloves, and two drams of nutmeg, all finely powdered. Mix them with the marrow above prepared, and put all the ingredients into a pewter pot that holds three quarts. Make a paste of flour and the white of an egg, and lay it upon a piece of rag. Over that must be another piece of linen, to cover the top of the pot very close, that none of the steam may evaporate. Set the pot into a large copper pot of water, observing to keep it steady, that it may not reach to the covering of the pot that holds the marrow. As the water shrinks add more, boiling hot, for it must boil incessantly for four hours. Strain the ointment through a linen cloth into small pots, and cover them when cold. Do not touch it with any thing but silver, and it will keep many years. A fine pomatum may also be made by putting half a pound of fresh marrow prepared as above, and two ounces of fresh hog's lard, on the ingredients; and then observing the same process as above.

POMATUM. To make soft pomatum, beat half a pound of unsalted fresh lard in common water, then soak and beat in two different rose-waters. Drain it, and beat it, with two spoonfuls of brandy. Let it drain from this, then add some essence of lemon, and keep it in small pots. Or soak half a pound of clear beef marrow, and a pound of unsalted fresh lard, in water two of three days, changing and beating it every day. Put it into a sieve; and when dry, into a jar, and the jar, into a saucepan of water. When melted, pour it into a bason, and beat it with two spoonfuls of brandy. Drain off the brandy, and add essence of lemon, bergamot, or any other scent that is preferred.—For hard pomatum, prepare as before equal quantities of beef marrow and mutton suet, using the brandy to preserve it, and adding the scent. Then pour it into moulds, or phials, of the size intended for the rolls. When cold break the bottles, clear away the glass carefully, and put paper round the balls.

PONDS. Stagnant or running water is often infected with weeds, which become troublesome and injurious to the occupier, but which might easily be prevented by suffering geese, or particularly swans, to feed upon the surface. These water fowls, by nibbling the young shoots as fast as they arise, will prevent their growth and appearance on the surface of the water, and all the expense which might otherwise be incurred in clearing them away.

POOR MAN'S SAUCE. Pick a handful of parsley leaves from the stalks, mince them very fine, and strew over a little salt. Shred fine half a dozen young green onions, add these to the parsley, and put them into a sauce boat, with three table-spoonfuls of oil, and five of vinegar. Add some ground black pepper and salt, stir them together, and it is ready. Pickled French beans or gherkins cut fine, may be added, or a little grated horseradish. This sauce is much esteemed in France, where people of taste, weary of rich dishes, occasionally order the fare of the peasant.

PORK. This is a strong fat meat, and unless very nicely fed, it is fit only for hard working people. Young pigs, like lamb and veal, are fat and luscious, but afford very little nutriment. Pork fed by butchers, or at distilleries, is very inferior, and scarcely wholesome; it is fat and spongy, and utterly unfit for curing. Dairy fed pork is the best. To judge of pork, pinch the lean; and if young and good, it will easily part. If the rind is tough, thick, and cannot easily be impressed with the finger, it is old. A thin rind denotes a good quality in general. When fresh, the meat will be smooth and cool: if clammy, it is tainted. What is called in some places measly pork, is very unwholesome; and may be known by the fat being full of kernels, which in good pork is never the case. Bacon hogs and porkers are differently cut up. Hogs are kept to a larger size; the chine or backbone is cut down on each side, the whole length, and is a prime part either boiled or roasted. The sides of the hog are made into bacon, and the inside is cut out with very little meat to the bone. On each side there is a large sparerib, which is usually divided into two, a sweet bone and a blade bone. The bacon is the whole outside, and contains a fore leg and a ham; the last of these is the hind leg, but if left with the bacon it is called a gammon. Hog's lard is the inner fat of the bacon hog, melted down. Pickled pork is made of the flesh of the hog, but more frequently of smaller and younger meat. Porkers are not so large as hogs, and are generally divided into four quarters. The fore quarter has the spring or fore leg, the fore loin or neck, the sparerib, and the griskin. The hind quarter has the leg and the loin. Pig's feet and ears make various good dishes, and should be cut off before the legs and cheeks are cured. The bacon hog is sometimes scalded, to take off the hair, and sometimes singed. The porker is always scalded.

PORK CHOPS. Cut the chops nearly half an inch thick, trim them neatly, and beat them flat. Put a piece of butter into the fryingpan; as soon as it is hot, put in the chops, turn them often, and they will be nicely browned in fifteen minutes. Take one upon a plate and try it; if done, season it with a little finely minced onion, powdered sage, pepper and salt. Or prepare some sweet herbs, sage and onion chopped fine, and put them into a stewpan with a bit of butter. Give them one fry, beat two eggs on a plate with a little salt, and the minced herbs, and mix it all well together. Dip the chops in one at a time, then cover them with bread crumbs, and fry them in hot lard or drippings, till they are of a light brown. Veal, lamb, or mutton chops, are very good dressed in the same manner.

PORK GRISKIN. As this joint is usually very hard, the best way is to cover it with cold water, and let it boil up. Then take it out, rub it over with butter, and set it before the fire in a Dutch oven; a few minutes will do it.

PORK JELLY. Take a leg of well-fed pork, just as cut up, beat it, and break the bone. Set it over a gentle fire, with three gallons of water, and simmer it down to one. Stew with it half an ounce of mace, and half an ounce of nutmegs, and strain it through a fine sieve. When cold, take off the fat, and flavour it with salt. This jelly is reckoned a fine restorative in consumptive cases, and nervous debility, a chocolate-cupful to be taken three times a day.

PORK AS LAMB. To dress pork like lamb, kill a young pig four or five months old, cut up the fore-quarter for roasting as you do lamb, and truss the shank close. The other parts will make delicate pickled pork, steaks, or pies.

PORK PIES. Raise some boiled crust into a round or oval form, and have ready the trimming and small bits of pork when a hog is killed. If these be not sufficient, take the meat of a sweet bone. Beat it well with a rolling-pin, season with pepper and salt, and keep the fat and lean separate. Put it in layers, quite up to the top; lay on the lid, cut the edge smooth round, and pinch it together. As the meat is very solid, it must be baked in a slow soaking oven. The pork may be put into a common dish, with a very plain crust, and be quite as good. Observe to put no bone or water into pork pie: the outside pieces will be hard, unless they are cut small, and pressed close. Pork pies in a raised crust, are intended to be eaten cold.

PORK SAUCE. Take two ounces of the leaves of green sage, an ounce of lemon peel thinly pared, an ounce of minced shalot, an ounce of salt, half a dram of cayenne, and half a dram of citric acid. Steep them for a fortnight in a pint of claret, shake it often, and let it stand a day to settle. Decant the clear liquor, and cork it up close. When wanted, mix a table-spoonful in a quarter of a pint of gravy, or melted butter. This will give a fine relish to roast pork, or roast goose.

PORK SAUSAGES. Chop fat and lean pork together, season it with pepper, salt, and sage. Fill hogs' guts that have been thoroughly soaked and cleaned, and tie up the ends carefully. Or the minced meat may be kept in a very small pan, closely covered, and so rolled and dusted with flour before it is fried. Serve them up with stewed red cabbage, mashed potatoes, or poached eggs. The sausages should be pricked with a pin, before they are boiled or fried, or they will be liable to burst.

PORK STEAKS. Cut them from a loin or neck, and of middling thickness. Pepper and broil them, and keep them turning. When nearly done, put on salt, rub a bit of butter over, and serve the moment they are taken off the fire, a few at a time.

PORKER'S HEAD. Choose a fine young head of pork, clean it well, and put bread and sage as for pig. Sow it up tight, roast it as a young pig, on the hanging jack, and serve it with the same kind of sauce.

PORTABLE SOUP. Boil one or two knuckles of veal, one or two shins of beef, and three pounds of beef, in as much water only as will cover them. Take the marrow out of the bones, put in any kind of spice, and three large onions. When the meat is done to rags, strain it off, and set it in a very cold place. Take off the cake of fat, which will do for common pie crusts, and put the soup into a double-bottomed tin saucepan. Set it on a pretty quick fire, but do not let it burn. It must boil fast and uncovered, and be stirred constantly for eight hours. Put it into a pan, and let it stand in a cold place a day; then pour it into a round soup-dish, and set the dish into a stewpan of boiling water on a stove, and let it boil. Stir it now and then, till the soup is thick and ropy; then it is enough. Pour it into the little round part at the bottom of cups and basons turned upside down, to form it into cakes; and when cold, turn them out on flannel to dry. Keep them in tin canisters; and when to be used, dissolve them in boiling water. The flavour of herbs may be added, by first boiling and straining off the liquor, and melting the soup in it. This preparation is convenient in travelling, or at sea, where fresh meat is not readily obtained, as by this means a bason of soup may be made in five minutes.

PORTER. This pleasant beverage may be made with eight bushels of malt to the hogshead, and eight pounds of hops. While it is boiling in the copper, add to it three pounds of liquorice root bruised, a pound of Spanish liquorice, and twelve pounds of coarse sugar or treacle.

PORTUGAL CAKES. Take a pound of well-dried flour, a pound of loaf sugar, a pound of butter well washed in orange-flower water, and a large blade of mace. Take half the flour, and fifteen eggs, leaving out two of the whites, and work them well together with the butter for half an hour, shaking in the rest of the flour with a dredger. Put the cakes into a cool oven, strewing over them a little sugar and flour, and let them bake gently half an hour.

PORTUGUESE SOLES. If the fish be large, cut it in two: if small, they need only be split open. The bones being taken out, put the fish into a pan with a bit of butter, and some lemon juice. Fry it lightly, lay it on a dish, spread a forcemeat over each piece, and roll it round, fastening the roll with a few small skewers. Lay the rolls into a small earthen pan, beat up an egg and smear them, and strew some crumbs over. Put the remainder of the egg into the bottom of the pan, with a little meat gravy, a spoonful of caper liquor, an anchovy chopped fine, and some minced parsley. Cover the pan close, and bake in a slow oven till the fish is done enough. Place the rolls in a dish for serving, and cover it to keep them hot till the baked gravy is skimmed. If not enough, a little fresh gravy must be prepared, flavoured as above, and added to the fish. This is the Portuguese way of dressing soles.

PORTUGUESE STUFFING. Pound lightly some cold beef, veal, or mutton. Add some fat bacon lightly fried and cut small, some onions, a little garlic or shalot, some parsley, anchovy, pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Pound all fine with a few crumbs, and bind it with two or three yolks of eggs. This stuffing is for baked soles, the heads of which are to be left on one side of the split part, and kept on the outer side of the roll; and when served, the heads are to be turned towards each other in the dish. Garnish with fried or dried parsley.

POT HERBS. As some of these are very pungent, they require to be used with discretion, particularly basil, savoury, thyme, or knotted marjoram. The other sorts are milder, and may be used more freely.

POT POURRI. Put into a large china jar the following ingredients in layers, with bay salt strewed between. Two pecks of damask roses, part in buds and part blown; violets, orange flowers and jasmine, a handful of each; orris root sliced, benjamin and storax, two ounces of each; a quarter of an ounce of musk, a quarter of a pound of angelica root sliced, a quart of the red parts of clove gilliflowers, two handfuls of lavender flowers, half a handful of rosemary flowers, bay and laurel leaves, half a handful of each; three Seville oranges, stuck as full of cloves as possible, dried in a cool oven and pounded, and two handfuls of balm of gilead dried. Cover all quite close, and when the pot is uncovered the perfume is very fine.

POTATOE BALLS. Mix some mashed potatoes with the yolk of an egg, roll the mass into balls, flour them, or put on egg and bread crumbs, and fry them in clean drippings, or brown them in a Dutch oven.—Potatoe balls ragout are made by adding to a pound of potatoes, a quarter of a pound of grated ham, or some chopped parsley, or sweet herbs; adding an onion or shalot, salt and pepper, a little grated nutmeg or other spice, and the yolks of two eggs. They are then to be dressed as potatoe balls.

POTATOE BREAD. Weigh half a pound of mealy potatoes after they are boiled or steamed, and rub them while warm into a pound and a half of fine flour, dried a little before the fire. When thoroughly mixed, put in a spoonful of good yeast, a little salt, and warm milk and water sufficient to work into dough. Let it stand by the fire to rise for an hour and a half, then make it into a loaf, and bake it in a tolerably brisk oven. If baked in a tin the crust will be more delicate, but the bread dries sooner.—Another. To two pounds of well-boiled mealy potatoes, rubbed between the hands till they are as fine as flour, mix in thoroughly two large double handfuls of wheat flour, three good spoonfuls of yeast, a little salt, and warm milk enough to make it the usual stiffness of dough. Let it stand three or four hours to rise, then mould it, make it up, and bake it like common bread.

POTATOE CHEESECAKES. Boil six ounces of potatoes, and four ounces of lemon peel; beat the latter in a marble mortar, with four ounces of sugar. Then add the potatoes, beaten, and four ounces of butter melted in a little cream. When well mixed, let it stand to grow cold. Put crust in pattipans, and rather more than half fill them. This quantity will make a dozen cheesecakes, which are to be baked half an hour in a quick oven, with some fine powdered sugar sifted over them.

POTATOE FRITTERS. Boil two large potatoes, scrape them fine; beat up four yolks and three whites of eggs, and add a large spoonful of cream, another of sweet wine, a squeeze of lemon, and a little nutmeg. Beat this batter at least half an hour, till it be extremely light. Put a good quantity of fine lard into a stewpan, and drop a spoonful of the batter at a time into it, and fry the fritters. Serve for sauce a glass of white wine, the juice of a lemon, one dessert spoonful of peach leaf or almond water, and some white sugar. Warm them together, but do not put the sauce into the dish.—Another way. Slice some potatoes thin, dip them in a fine batter, and fry them. Lemon peel, and a spoonful of orange-flower water, should be added to the batter. Serve up the fritters with white sugar sifted over them.

POTATOE PASTE. Pound some boiled potatoes very fine, and while warm, add butter sufficient to make the mash hold together. Or mix it with an egg; and before it gets cold, flour the board pretty well to prevent it from sticking, and roll the paste to the thickness wanted. If suffered to get quite cold before it be put on the dish, it will be apt to crack.

POTATOE PASTY. Boil, peel, and mash some potatoes as fine as possible. Mix in some salt, pepper, and a good piece of butter. Make a paste, roll it out thin like a large puff, and put in the potatoe. Fold over one half, pinching the edges, and bake it in a moderate oven.

POTATOE PIE. Skin some potatoes, cut them into slices, and season them. Add some mutton, beef, pork, or veal, and put in alternate layers of meat and potatoes.

POTATOE PUDDING. To make a plain potatoe pudding, take eight ounces of boiled potatoes, two ounces of butter, the yolks and whites of two eggs, a quarter of a pint of cream, a spoonful of white wine, the juice and rind of a lemon, and a little salt. Beat all to a froth, sweeten it to taste, make a crust to it, or not, and bake it. If the pudding is required to be richer, add three ounces more of butter, another egg, with sweetmeats and almonds. If the pudding is to be baked with meat, boil the potatoes and mash them. Rub the mass through a cullender, and make it into a thick batter with milk and two eggs. Lay some seasoned steaks in a dish, then some batter; and over the last layer of meat pour the remainder of the batter, and bake it of a fine brown.—Another. Mash some boiled potatoes with a little milk, season it with pepper and salt, and cut some fat meat into small pieces. Put a layer of meat at the bottom of the dish, and then a layer of potatoe till the dish is full. Smooth the potatoes on the top, shake a little suet over it, and bake it to a fine brown. Mashed potatoes may also be baked as a pudding under meat, or placed under meat while roasting, or they may be mixed with batter instead of flour.

POTATOE ROLLS. Boil three pounds of potatoes, bruise and work them with two ounces of butter, and as much milk as will make them pass through a cullender. Take nearly three quarters of a pint of yeast, and half a pint of warm water; mix them with the potatoes, pour the whole upon five pounds of flour, and add some salt. Knead it well: if not of a proper consistence, add a little more warm milk and water. Let it stand before the fire an hour to rise; work it well, and make it into rolls. Bake them about half an hour, in an oven not quite so hot as for bread. The rolls will eat well, toasted and buttered.

POTATOE SNOW. The whitest sort of potatoes must be selected, and free from spots. Set them over the fire in cold water; when they begin to crack, strain off the water, and put them into a clean stewpan by the side of the fire till they are quite dry, and fall to pieces. Rub them through a wire sieve on the dish they are to be sent up in, and do not disturb them afterwards.

POTATOE SOUP. Cut a pound and a half of gravy beef into thin slices, chop a pound of potatoes, and an onion or two, and put them into a kettle with three quarts of water, half a pint of blue peas, and two ounces of rice. Stew these till the gravy is quite drawn from the meat, strain it off, take out the beef, and pulp the other ingredients through a coarse sieve. Add the pulp to the soup, cut in two or three roots of celery, simmer in a clean saucepan till this is tender, season with pepper and salt, and serve it up with fried bread cut into it.

POTATOE STARCH. Raw potatoes, in whatever condition, constantly afford starch, differing only in quality. The round grey or red produce the most, affording about two ounces of starch to a pound of pulp. The process is perfectly easy. Peel and wash a pound of full grown potatoes, grate them on a bread grater into a deep dish, containing a quart of clear water. Stir it well up, then pour it through a hair sieve, and leave it ten minutes to settle, till the water is quite clear. Then pour off the water, and put a quart of fresh water to it; stir it up, let it settle, and repeat this till the water is quite clear. A fine white powder will at last be found at the bottom of the vessel. The criterion of this process being completed, is the purity of the water that comes from it after stirring it up. Lay the powder on a sheet of paper in a hair sieve to dry, either in the sun or before the fire, and it is ready for use. Put into a well stopped bottle, it will keep good for many months. If this be well made, a table-spoonful of it mixed with twice the quantity of cold water, and stirred into a soup or sauce, just before it is taken up, will thicken a pint of it to the consistence of cream. This preparation much resembles the Indian Arrow Root, and is a good substitute for it. It gives a fulness on the palate to gravies and sauces at hardly any expense, and is often used to thicken melted butter instead of flour. Being perfectly tasteless, it will not alter the flavour of the most delicate broth or gruel.

POTATOES. The following is allowed to be a superior method of raising potatoes, and of obtaining a larger and finer growth. Dig the earth twelve inches deep, if the soil will admit, and afterwards open a hole about six inches deep, and twelve wide. Fill it with horse dung, or long litter, about three inches thick, and plant a whole potatoe upon it; shake a little more dung over it, and mould up the earth. In this way the whole plot of ground should be planted, placing the potatoes at least sixteen inches apart. When the young shoots make their appearance, they should have fresh mould drawn round them with a hoe; and if the tender shoots are covered, it will prevent the frost from injuring them. They should again be earthed, when the roots make a second appearance, but not covered, as in all probability the season will be less severe. A plentiful supply of mould should be given them, and the person who performs this business should never tread upon the plant, or the hillock that is raised round it, as the lighter the earth is the more room the potatoe will have to expand. In Holland, the potatoes are strangely cultivated, though there are persons who give the preference to Dutch potatoes, supposing them to be of a finer grain than others. They are generally planted in the fields, in rows, nearly as thick as beans or peas, and are suffered to grow up wild and uncultivated, the object being to raise potatoes as small as possible, while the large ones, if such there happen to be, are thrown out and given to the pigs. The mode of cultivation in Ireland, where potatoes are found in the greatest perfection, is far different, and probably the best of all. The round rough red are generally preferred, and are esteemed the most genuine. These are planted in rows, and only just put in beneath the soil. These rows are divided into beds about six feet wide, a path or trench is left between the beds, and as the plants vegetate the earth is dug out of the trench, and thrown lightly over the potatoes. This practice is continued all the summer, the plants are thus nourished by the repeated accession of fresh soil, and the trench as it deepens serves the purpose of keeping the beds dry, and of carrying off the superfluous water. The potatoes are always rich and mealy, containing an unusual quantity of wholesome flour.

POTATOES BOILED. The vegetable kingdom scarcely affords any food more wholesome, more easily procured, easily prepared, or less expensive than the potatoe; yet although this most useful vegetable is dressed almost every day, in almost every family,—for one plate of potatoes that comes to table as it should, ten are spoiled. There is however a great diversity in the colour, size, shape, and quality of the potatoe, and some are of a very inferior description. The yellow are better than the white, but the rough red are the most mealy and nutritive. Choose those of a moderate size, free from blemishes, and fresh. It is best to buy them in the mould, as they come from the bed, and they should not be wetted till they are cleaned for cooking. Protect them from the air and frost, by laying in heaps in a dry place, covering them with mats, or burying them in dry sand. If the frost affects them, the life of the vegetable is destroyed, and the potatoe speedily rots. When they are to be dressed, wash them, but do not pare or cut them, unless they are very large. Fill a saucepan half full of potatoes of an equal size, and add as much cold water as will cover them about an inch. Most boiled things are spoiled by having too little water, but potatoes are often spoiled by too much: they should merely be covered, and a little allowed for waste in boiling. Set them on a moderate fire till they boil, then take them off, and place them on the side of the fire to simmer slowly, till they are soft enough to admit a fork. The usual test of their skin cracking is not to be depended on, for if they are boiled fast this will happen when the potatoes are not half done, and the inside is quite hard. Pour off the water the minute the potatoes are done, or they will become watery and sad; uncover the saucepan, and set it at such a distance from the fire as will prevent its burning; the superfluous moisture will then evaporate, and the potatoes become perfectly dry and mealy. This method is in every respect equal to steaming, and the potatoes are dressed in half the time.

POTATOES BROILED. Parboil, then slice and broil them. Or parboil, and set them whole on the gridiron over a very slow fire. When thoroughly done, send them up with their skins on. This method is practised in many Irish families.

POTATOES IN CREAM. Half boil some potatoes, drain and peel them nicely, and cut into neat pieces. Put them into a stewpan with some cream, fresh butter, and salt, of each a proportion to the quantity of potatoes; or instead of cream, put some good gravy, with pepper and salt. Stew them very gently, and be careful to prevent their breaking.

POTATOES FRIED. If they are whole potatoes, first boil them nearly enough, and then put them into a stewpan with a bit of butter, or some nice clean beef drippings. To prevent their burning, shake them about till they are brown and crisp, and then drain them from the fat. It would be an elegant improvement, to flour and dip them in the yolk of an egg previous to frying, and then roll them in fine sifted bread crumbs: they would then deserve to be called potatoes full dressed.—If to be fried in slices or shavings, peel some large potatoes, slice them about a quarter of an inch thick, or cut them in shavings round and round, as in peeling a lemon. Dry them well in a clean cloth, and fry them in lard or dripping. Take care that the fat and the fryingpan are both perfectly clean. Put the pan on a quick fire; as soon as the lard boils, and is still, put in the potatoe slices, and keep moving them till they are crisp. Take them up and lay them to drain on a sieve, and then send them to table with a very little salt sprinkled over.—To fry cold potatoes, put a bit of clean dripping into a fryingpan. When melted, slice in the potatoes with a little pepper and salt; set them on the fire, and keep them stirring. When quite hot, they are ready. This is a good way of re-dressing potatoes, and making them palatable.

POTATOES MASHED. When the potatoes are thoroughly boiled, drain and dry them well, and pick out every speck. Rub them through a cullender into a clean stewpan: to a pound of potatoes allow half an ounce of butter, and a spoonful of milk. Mix it up well, but do not make it too moist. After Lady day, when potatoes are getting old and specked, and also in frosty weather, this is the best way of dressing them. If potatoes are to be mashed with onions, boil the onions, and pass them through a sieve. Mix them with the potatoes, in such a proportion as is most approved.

POTATOES PRESERVED. To keep potatoes from the frost, lay them up in a dry store room, and cover them with straw, or a linen cloth. If this be not convenient, dig a trench three or four feet deep, and put them in as they are taken up. Cover them with the earth taken out of the trench, raise it up in the middle like the roof of a house, and cover it with straw so as to carry off the rain. Better still if laid above ground, and covered with a sufficient quantity of mould to protect them from the frost, as in this case they are less likely to be injured by the wet. Potatoes may also be preserved by suffering them to remain in the ground, and digging them up in the spring of the year, as they are wanted.

POTATOES ROASTED. Choose them nearly of a size, wash and dry the potatoes, and put them in a Dutch oven, or cheese toaster. Take care not to place them too near the fire, or they will burn on the outside before they are warmed through. Large potatoes will require two hours to roast them properly, unless they are previously half boiled. When potatoes are to be roasted under meat, they should first be half boiled, drained from the water, and placed in the pan under the meat. Baste them with some of the dripping, and when they are browned on one side, turn and brown them on the other. Send them up round the meat, or in a small dish.

POTATOES SCALLOPED. Having boiled and mashed the potatoes, butter some clean scallop shells, or pattipans, and put in the potatoes. Smooth them on the top, cross a knife over them, strew on a few fine bread crumbs, sprinkle them a little with melted butter from a paste brush, and then set them in a Dutch oven. When they are browned on the top, take them carefully out of the shells, and brown the other side.

POTATOES STEAMED. The potatoes must be well washed, but not pared, and put into the steamer when the water boils. Moderate sized potatoes will require three quarters of an hour to do them properly. They should be taken up as soon as they are done enough, or they will become watery: peel them afterwards.

POTTED BEEF. Take two pounds of lean beef, rub it with saltpetre, and let it lie one night. Then lay on common salt, and cover it with water four days in a small pan. Dry it with a cloth, season it with black pepper, lay it into as small a pan as will hold it, cover it with coarse paste, but put in no liquor, and bake it five hours in a very cool oven. When cold, pick out the strings and fat. Beat the meat very fine, with a quarter of a pound of fine butter just warm, but not oiled, and as much of the gravy as will make it into a paste. Put it into very small pots, and cover them with clarified butter.—Another way. Take beef that has been dressed, either boiled or roasted; beat it in a mortar with some pepper and salt, a few cloves, grated nutmeg, and a little fine butter just warm. This eats as well as the former, but the colour is not so fine. It is however a good way for using the remains of a large joint.

POTTED BIRDS. Having cleaned them nicely, rub every part well with a seasoning of white pepper and salt, mace and allspice in fine powder. Put them in a pan, lay on some butter, cover it with a paste of coarse flour, and a paper tied closely over. When baked and grown cold, cut them into pieces proper for helping, pack them close into a large potting-pan, and leave as little space as possible to receive the butter. Cover them with butter, and one third less will be wanted than when the birds are done whole.

POTTED CHEESE. Cut and pound four ounces of Cheshire cheese, one ounce and a half of fine butter, a tea-spoonful of white powdered sugar, a little bit of mace, and a glass of white wine. Press it down in a deep pot.

POTTED DAMSONS. Weigh the damsons, and wipe them dry one by one, allowing one pound of fine sugar to three pounds of fruit. Spread a little of the sugar at the bottom of the jar, then a layer of fruit, and so on till the jar is full. Then add three or four spoonfuls of water, tie it down close, and put it several times into a cool oven.

POTTED DRIPPING. Boil six pounds of good beef dripping in soft water, strain it into a pan, and let it stand to cool. Take off the hard fat, scrape off the gravy, and repeat it several times. When the fat is cold and hard, put it into a saucepan with six bay leaves, six cloves, half a pound of salt, and a quarter of a pound of whole pepper. Let the fat be entirely melted; and when it has cooled a little, strain it through a sieve into the pot, and tie it down. Turn the pot upside down, that no rats or mice may get at it, and it will keep a long time, and make good puff paste, or crust for puddings.

POTTED HARE. An old hare will do well for this purpose, likewise for soup and pie. After seasoning it, bake it with butter. When cold, take the meat from the bones, and beat it in a mortar. If not high enough, add salt, mace, pepper, and a piece of fresh butter melted in a spoonful or two of gravy that came from the hare. When well mixed, put it into small pots, and cover it with butter. The legs and back should be baked at the bottom of the jar, to keep them moist, and the bones be put over them.

POTTED HERRINGS. Scale, clean, and season them well. Bake them in a pan with spice, bay leaves, and some butter. When cold, lay them in a potting pot, and cover them over with butter. They are very fine for a supper dish.

POTTED LOBSTERS. Half boil them, pick out the meat, cut it into small pieces, season with mace, white pepper, nutmeg, and salt. Press it close into a pot, and cover it with butter; bake it half an hour, and then put in the spawn. When cold take out the lobster, and put it into pots with a little of the butter. Beat the rest of the butter in a mortar, with some of the spawn, mix the coloured butter with as much as will be sufficient to cover the pots, and strain it. Cayenne may be added, if approved.—Another way. Take out the meat as whole as possible, split the tail, and remove the gut; and if the inside be not watery, it may be added. Season with mace, nutmeg, white pepper, salt, and a clove or two, in the finest powder. Lay a little fine butter at the bottom of the pan, and the lobster smooth over it, with bay leaves between; cover it with butter, and bake it gently. When done, pour the whole on the bottom of a sieve; and with a fork lay the pieces into potting pots, some of each sort, with the seasoning about it. When cold, pour clarified butter over, but not hot. It will be good the next day; but if highly seasoned, and well covered with butter, it will keep some time. Potted lobster may be used cold, or as a fricassee, with a cream sauce. It then looks very nicely, and eats well, especially if there is spawn. Mackarel, herrings, and trout, are good potted in the same way.

POTTED MACKEREL. Clean, season, and bake them in a pan with spice, bay leaves, and some butter. When cold, lay them in a pot for potting, and cover them over with butter.

POTTED MOOR GAME. Pick, singe, and wash the birds nicely. Dry and season them pretty high, inside and out, with pepper, mace, nutmeg, allspice, and salt. Pack them in as small a pot as will hold them, cover them with butter, and bake in a very slow oven. When cold, take off the butter, dry them from the gravy, and put one bird into each pot, which should just fit. Add as much more butter as will cover them, but take care that it be not oiled. The best way to melt it is, by warming it in a bason placed in a bowl of hot water.

POTTED PARTRIDGE. Clean them nicely, and season with mace, allspice, white pepper, and salt, all in fine powder. Rub every part well, then lay the breast downwards in a pan, and pack the birds as close as possible. Put a good deal of butter on them, cover the pan with a paste of coarse flour and a paper over, tie it close and bake it. When cold, put the birds into pots, and cover them with butter. The butter that has covered potted things will serve for basting, or for paste for meat pies.

POTTED PIGEONS. Let them be quite fresh, clean them carefully, and season them with salt and pepper. Lay them close in a small deep pan; for the smaller the surface, and the closer they are packed, the less butter will be wanted. Cover them with butter, then with very thick paper tied down, and bake them. When cold, put them dry into pots that will hold two or three in each, and pour butter over them, using that which was baked in part. If they are to be kept, the butter should be laid pretty thick over them. If pigeons were boned, and then put in an oval form into the pot, they would lie closer, and require less butter. They may be stuffed with a fine forcemeat made with veal, bacon, and the other ingredients, and then they will eat very fine. If a high flavour is preferred, add mace, allspice, and a little cayenne, before baking.

POTTED RABBITS. Cut up two or three young but full-grown rabbits, and take off the leg bones at the thigh. Pack them as closely as possible in a small pan, after seasoning them with pepper, salt, mace, allspice, and cayenne, all in very fine powder. Make the top as smooth as possible. Keep out the heads and the carcase bones, but take off the meat about the neck. Put in a good deal of butter, and bake the whole gently. Keep it two days in the pan, then shift it into small pots, with some additional butter. When a rabbit is to be blanched, set it on the fire with a small quantity of cold water, and let it boil. It is then to be taken out immediately, and put into cold water for a few minutes.

POTTED SALMON. Scale and wipe a large piece of salmon, but do not wash it. Salt it, and let it lie till the salt is melted and drained from it; then season it with pounded mace, cloves, and whole pepper. Lay in a few bay leaves, put it close into a pan, cover it over with butter, and bake it. When well done, drain it from the gravy, put it into pots to keep, and when cold cover it with clarified butter. Any kind of firm fish may be potted in the same manner.

POTTED SHRIMPS. When boiled, take them out of the skins, and season them with salt, white pepper, and a very little mace and cloves. Press them into a pot, set it in the oven ten minutes, and when cold lay on butter.

POTTED TROUT. Scale and draw out the entrails of the fish without opening the belly, give them a wash, and let them drain from the water. Season the fish well with salt, pepper, cloves, mace, and ginger. Lay them into a broad pan in two layers, cover them with butter, and then with paper. Lay some sticks across the pan to keep the paper up. Bake them moderately, then take them out and drain them. Put them into pots in two layers, and fill up the pots with clarified butter, as cool as it can be to run properly. Any other fish may be potted in the same way.

POTTED VEAL. Cold fillet makes the finest potted veal, or it may be done as follows. Season a large slice of the fillet before it is dressed, with some mace, peppercorns, and two or three cloves. Lay it close into a potting pan that will but just hold it, fill the pan up with water, and bake it three hours. Then pound it in a mortar, and flavour it with salt. In pounding, put to it a little of the baked gravy, if the meat is to be eaten soon; otherwise only a little butter just melted. When done, cover it over with butter. To pot veal or chicken with ham, pound some cold veal or the white of a chicken, seasoned as above, and place layers of it with layers of ham pounded, or rather shred. Press down each, and cover the whole with clarified butter.

POTTED VENISON. If the venison be stale, rub it with vinegar, dry it with a cloth, and rub it well with red wine. Season it with pepper, salt, and mace, and put it into a jar. Pour over it half a pint of red wine, lay in a pound of butter, and bake it tender. When it is done, clean it from the bones and skin, and beat it in a marble mortar with the fat and gravy. Press it hard into the pots, and pour clarified butter over it.

POULTICES. Common poultice is best made of white bread, put into boiling water till it is of a proper thickness. Then let it boil, and add a bit of lard, or a little sweet oil. Water answers the purpose better than milk, as the poultice thus made will retain the moisture longer.—A poultice to ripen tumours or swellings, should consist of two ounces of white lily roots, half a pound of figs, and two ounces of meal or bean flour. These are to be boiled in water till it comes to a proper consistence; the poultice is then spread on a thick cloth, applied warm, and shifted as often as it grows dry.—Carrot poultice is made of clean grated carrots mixed with water, so as to form a soft pulp. This is an excellent poultice to ease pain arising from a sore; it not only cleanses it, but takes off the offensive smell which generally attends such complaints. It also affords great relief in cancers, and should be changed twice a day.

POULTRY. Previously to their being dressed, every description of game and poultry requires to be carefully picked, and neatly trussed; every plug should be removed, and the hair nicely singed with white paper. In drawing poultry, care must be taken not to break the gall bag, for no washing will take off the bitter where it has touched. In dressing wild fowl, a brisk clear fire must be kept up, that they may be done of a fine yellow brown, but so as to leave the gravy in: the fine flavour is lost if done too much. Tame fowls require more roasting, and are longer in heating through than others. All sorts should be continually basted, that they may be served up with a froth, and appear of a fine colour. A large fowl will take three quarters of an hour, a middling one half an hour, and a small one, or a chicken, twenty minutes. The fire must be very quick and clear, before any fowls are put down. A capon will take from half an hour to thirty-five minutes, a goose an hour, wild ducks a quarter of an hour, pheasants twenty minutes, a small stuffed turkey an hour and a quarter, turkey poults twenty minutes, grouse a quarter of an hour, quails ten minutes, and partridges about twenty-five minutes. A hare will take nearly an hour, and the hind part requires most heat. Pigs and geese require a brisk fire, and quick turning. Hares and rabbits must be well attended to, and the extremities brought to the quick part of the fire, to be done equally with the backs.

POULTRY YARD. In the rearing of poultry, care should be taken to choose a fine large breed, or the ends of good management may be defeated. The Dartford sort is generally approved, but it is difficult to say which is to be preferred, if they be but healthy and vigorous. The black sort are very juicy, but as their legs are so much discoloured, they are not well adapted for boiling. Those hens are usually preferred for setting, which have tufts of feathers on their head; those that crow are not considered so profitable. Some fine young fowls should be reared every year, to keep up a stock of good breeders, and bad layers and careless nurses should be excluded. The best age for a setting hen is from two to five years, and it is necessary to remark which among them are the best breeders. Hens set twenty days, and convenient places should be provided for their laying, which will also serve for setting and hatching. A hen house should be large and high, should be frequently cleaned out, and well secured from the approach of vermin, or the eggs will be sucked, and the fowls destroyed. Hens must not be disturbed while sitting, for if frightened, they are apt to forsake their nests. Wormwood and rue should be planted about their houses; some of the former should occasionally be boiled, and sprinkled about the floor, which should not be paved, but formed of smooth earth. The windows of the house should be open to the rising sun, and a hole left at the door to let in the smaller fowls; the larger may be let in and out by opening the door. There should be a small sliding board to shut down when the fowls are gone to roost, to prevent the ravages of vermin, and a strong door and lock should be added, to secure the poultry from thieves and robbers. Let the hens lay some time before they are allowed to set, the proper time for which will be from the end of February to the beginning of May. Broods of chickens are hatched all through the summer, but those that come out very late require care till they have gained sufficient strength. Feed the hens well during the time of laying, and give them oats occasionally. If the eggs of any other sort are put under a hen with some of her own, observe to add her own as many days after the others as there is a difference in the length of their setting. A turkey and duck set thirty days, the hen only twenty. Choose large clear eggs to put her upon, and such a number as she can properly cover; about ten or twelve are quite sufficient. If the eggs be very large, they sometimes contain a double yolk, and in that case neither will be productive. When some of the chickens are hatched, long before the others, it may be necessary to keep them in a basket of wool till the others come forth. The day after they are hatched, give them some crumbs of white bread or grots soaked in milk, which are very nourishing. As soon as they have gained a little strength, feed them with curd, cheese parings cut small, or any soft food, but nothing that is sour, and provide them with clean water twice a day. Keep the hen under a pen till the young have strength to follow her about, which will be in two or three weeks; and be sure to feed the hen well. Poultry in general should be fed as nearly as possible at the same hour of the day, and in the same place, as this will be the surest way of collecting them together. Potatoes boiled in a little water, so as to be dry and mealy, and then cut, and wetted with skim milk that is not sour, will form an agreeable food for poultry, and young turkies will thrive much on it. Grain should however be given occasionally, or the constant use of potatoe food will make their flesh soft and insipid. The food of fowls goes first into the crop, which softens it; it then passes into the gizzard, which by constant friction macerates it; this is facilitated by small stones which are generally found there, and which help to digest the food. If a setting hen be troubled with vermin, let her be well washed with a decoction of white lupins. The pip in fowls is occasioned by drinking dirty water, or taking filthy food. The general symptom is a white thin scale on the tongue, which should be pulled off with the finger; afterwards rub the tongue with a little salt, and the disorder will be removed.—Geese require a somewhat different management. They generally breed once in a year; but if well kept, they will frequently hatch twice within that period. Three of these birds are usually allotted to a gander; if there were more, the eggs would be rendered abortive. The quantity of eggs to be placed under each goose while setting, is about a dozen or thirteen. While brooding, they should be well fed with corn and water, which must be placed near them, so that they may eat at pleasure. The ganders should never be excluded from their company, because they are then instinctively anxious to watch over and guard their own geese. The nests of geese should be made of straw, and so confined that the eggs may not roll out, as the geese turn them every day. When they are nearly hatched, it is proper to break the shell near the back of the young gosling, as well for the purpose of admitting the air, as to enable it to make its escape at the proper time. To fatten young geese, the best way is to coop them up in a dark narrow place, where they are to be fed with ground malt mixed with milk; or if milk be scarce, with barley meal mashed up with water. A less expensive way will be to give them boiled oats, with either duck's meat or boiled carrots; and as they are very fond of variety, these may be given them alternately. They will then become fat in a few weeks, and their flesh will acquire a fine flavour. In order to fatten stubble geese at Michaelmas time, the way is to turn them out on the wheat stubble, or those pastures that grow after wheat has been harvested. They are afterwards to be pent up, and fed with ground malt mixed with water. Boiled oats or wheat may occasionally be substituted.—Ducks are fattened in the same manner, only they must be allowed a large pan of water to dabble in. Those kept for breeders, should have the convenience of a large pond; and such as have their bills a little turned up will generally be found the most prolific. In the spring of the year, an additional number of ducks may be reared by putting the eggs under the care of the hen, who will hatch them as her own brood.—Turkies, early in the spring, will often wander to a distance in order to construct their nest, where the hen deposits from fourteen to seventeen eggs, but seldom produces more than one brood in a season. Great numbers are reared in the northern counties, and driven by hundreds to the London market by means of a shred of scarlet cloth fastened to the end of a pole, which from their antipathy to this colour serves as a whip. Turkies being extremely delicate fowls, are soon injured by the cold: hence it is necessary, soon after they are hatched, to force them to swallow one whole peppercorn each, and then restore them to the parent bird. They are also liable to a peculiar disorder, which often proves fatal in a little time. On inspecting the rump feathers, two or three of their quills will be found to contain blood; but on drawing them out, the chickens soon recover, and afterwards require no other care than common poultry. Young turkies should be fed with crumbs of bread and milk, eggs boiled hard and chopped, or with common dock leaves cut fine, and mixed with fresh butter-milk. They also require to be kept in the sunshine or a warm place, and guarded from the rain, or from running among the nettles. They are very fond of the common garden peppercress, or cut-leaved cress, and should be supplied with as much of it as they will eat, or allowed to pick it off the bed. In Norfolk they are fed with curds and chopped onions, also with buck wheat, and are literally crammed with boluses of barley meal till their crops are full, which perhaps may account for the superior excellence of the turkies in that part of the kingdom.

POUNCE. This article, used in writing, is made of gum sandaric, powdered and sifted very fine; or an equal quantity of rosin, burnt alum, and cuttle fishbone well dried, and mixed together. This last is of a superior quality.

POUND CAKE. Beat a pound of butter to a cream, and mix with it the whites and yolks of eight eggs beaten apart. Have ready warm by the fire, a pound of flour, and the same of sifted sugar. Mix them and a few cloves, a little nutmeg and cinnamon, in fine powder together; then by degrees work the dry ingredients into the butter and eggs. It must be well beaten for a full hour, adding a glass of wine, and some carraway seeds. Butter a pan, and bake it a full hour in a quick oven. The above proportions, leaving out four ounces of the butter, and the same of sugar, make a less luscious cake, but a very pleasant one.

POUNDED CHEESE. Cut a pound of good mellow cheese into thin slices, add to it two or three ounces of fresh butter, rub them well together in a mortar till quite smooth. When cheese is dry, and for those whose digestion is feeble, this is the best way of eating it; and spread on bread, it makes an excellent supper. The flavour of this dish may be encreased by pounding it with curry powder, ground spice, black cayenne, and a little made mustard; or it may be moistened with a glass of sherry. If pressed down hard in a jar, and covered with clarified butter, it will keep for several days in cool weather.

PRAWNS AND SHRIMPS. When fresh they have a sweet flavour, are firm and stiff, and of a bright colour. Shrimps are of the prawn kind, and may be judged by the same rules.

PRAWN SOUP. Boil six whitings and a large eel, in as much water as will cover them, after being well cleaned. Skim them clean, and put in whole pepper, mace, ginger, parsley, or onion, a little thyme, and three cloves, and boil the whole to a mash. Pick fifty crawfish, or a hundred prawns; pound the shells, and a small roll. But first boil them with a little water, vinegar, salt, and herbs. Put this liquor over the shells in a sieve, and then pour the soup, clear from the sediment. Chop a lobster, and add this to it, with a quart of good beef gravy. Add also the tails of the crawfish, or the prawns, with some flour and butter. The seasoning may be heightened, if approved.

PRESERVES. These can never be done to perfection, without plenty of good sugar. Fruits may be kept with small quantities of sugar, but then they must boil so long that there is as much waste in the boiling away, as some more sugar added at first would have cost, and the quality of the preserve will neither be so proper for use, nor of so good an appearance, as with a larger proportion of sugar, and moderate boiling. Fruits are often put up without any sugar at all, but if they do not ferment and spoil, which is very common, they must have a good deal of sugar added to them when used, and thus the risk of spoiling seems hardly compensated by any saving. The only real economy that can be exercised in this case is, not to make any preserves at all. The most perfect state in which fruits in general can be taken for preserving is, just when they are full ripe. Sooner than this they have not acquired their best qualities, and if they hang long after it they begin to lose them. Some persons will delay the doing them, under an idea that the longer they hang the less sugar they require. But it is a false economy that would lose the perfection of the fruit to save some of the sugar, and probably quite unfounded in fact, as all things will naturally keep the best that are taken at their highest perfection, and hence do with as little sugar then as at any time.

PRESERVED CUCUMBERS. Choose such as are most free from seed; some should be small to preserve whole, and others large to cut in pieces. Put them into a jar, with strong salt and water, and a cabbage leaf to keep them down, and set them in a warm place till they turn yellow. Then wash and set them over the fire in fresh water, with a little salt, and a fresh cabbage leaf over them; cover the pan close, but they must not be boiled. If not of a fine green, change the water, cover them as before, and make them hot; when of a good green, take them off the fire, and let them stand till cold. Cut the large cucumbers in quarters, and take out the seeds and pulp; put them into cold water for two days, and change the water twice each day. Place on the fire a pound of refined sugar, with half a pint of water; skim it clean, put in the rind of a lemon, and an ounce of ginger with the outside scraped off. When the syrup is pretty thick take it off, and when cold wipe the cucumbers dry, and put them in. Boil the syrup every two or three days, continuing to do so for three weeks, and make it stronger if necessary. Be sure to put the syrup to the cucumbers quite cold, cover them close, and keep them in a dry place.

PRESERVED OYSTERS. Open the oysters carefully, so as not to cut them, except in dividing the gristle which attaches the shells. Put them into a mortar, and add about two drams of salt to a dozen oysters. Pound and then rub them through the back of a hair sieve, and put them into the mortar again, with as much well-dried flour as will make them into a paste. Roll it out several times, and at last flour and roll it out the thickness of a half crown, and divide it into pieces about an inch square. Lay them in a Dutch oven, that they may dry gently without being burnt; turn them every half hour, and when they begin to dry, crumble them. They will take about four hours to dry, then pound them fine, sift and put them into bottles, and seal them down. To make half a pint of oyster sauce, put one ounce of butter into a stewpan, with three drams of oyster powder, and six spoonfuls of milk. Set it on a slow fire, stir it till it boils, and season it with salt. This powder, if made of plump juicy natives, will abound with the flavour of the fish; and if closely corked, and kept in a dry place, will remain good for some time. It is also an agreeable substitute when oysters are out of season, and is a valuable addition to the list of fish sauces. It is equally good with boiled fowl, or rump steak; and sprinkled on bread and butter, it makes a very good sandwich.

PRESERVED WALNUTS. Put the walnuts into cold water, let them boil five minutes, strain off the water, and change it three times. Dry the nuts in a cloth, and weigh them; to every pound of nuts allow a pound of sugar, and stick a clove in each. Put them into a jar with some rose vinegar; boil up a syrup, with a pint of water and half a pound of sugar, and pour over them. Let them stand three or four days, and boil up the syrup again. Repeat this three times, and at last give the walnuts a good scald, and let them remain in the syrup.

PRESERVATION OF BUTTER. Butter, as it is generally cured, does not keep well for any length of time, without spoiling or becoming rancid. The following method of preserving butter, supposing it to have been previously well made, is recommended as the best at present known. Reduce separately to fine powder in a dry mortar, two pounds of the whitest common salt, one pound of saltpetre, and one pound of lump sugar. Sift these ingredients one above another, on two sheets of paper joined together, and then mix them well with the hands, or with a spatula. Preserve the whole in a covered jar, placed in a dry situation. When required to be used, one ounce of this composition is to be proportioned to every pound of butter, and the whole is to be well worked into the mass: the butter is then to be packed in casks in the usual way. Butter cured with this mixture will be of a rich marrowy consistence, and will never acquire that brittle hardness so common to salt butter. It has been known to keep for three years, as sweet as it was at first; but it must be observed, that butter thus cured requires to stand at least three weeks or a month before it is used. If it be opened sooner, the salts are not sufficiently blended with it, and sometimes the coolness of the nitre will then be perceived, which totally disappears afterwards. Cleanliness in this article is indispensable, but it is not generally suspected, that butter made or kept in vessels or troughs lined with lead, or put into glazed earthenware pans, is too apt to be contaminated with particles of that deleterious metal. If the butter is in the least degree rancid, this can hardly fail to take place; and it cannot be doubted, that during the decomposition of the salts, the glazing is acted upon. It is better therefore to use tinned vessels for mixing the preservative with the butter, and to pack it either in wooden vessels, or in stone jars which are vitrified throughout, and do not require any inside glazing.

PRESSED BEEF. Salt a piece of the brisket, a thin part of the flank, or the tops of the ribs, with salt and saltpetre five days. Boil it gently till extremely tender, put it under a great weight, or in a cheesepress, and let it remain till perfectly cold. It is excellent for sandwiches, or a cold dish.

PRIMROSE VINEGAR. Boil four pounds of moist sugar in ten quarts of water for about a quarter of an hour, and take off the scum. Then pour the liquor on six pints of primroses, add some fresh yeast before it is quite cold, and let it work all night in a warm place. When the fermentation is over, close up the barrel, and still keep it in a warm place.

PRINCE OF WALES'S PUDDING. Put half a pound of loaf sugar, and half a pound of fresh butter, into a saucepan; set it over the fire till both are melted, stirring it well, as it is very liable to burn, but do not let it boil. Pour this into an earthen pan, grate the rind of a lemon into it, and leave it to cool. Have ready two sponge biscuits soaked in a quarter of a pint of cream, bruise them fine and stir them into the sugar and butter. Beat the yolks of ten, and the whites of five eggs well with a little salt; squeeze and strain the juice of the lemon into them, and mix these well in with the other ingredients. Lay a puff paste into the dish, strew it with pieces of candied lemon peel, put in the pudding, and bake it three quarters of an hour in a moderate oven. Sift fine sugar over it, before it is sent to the table.

PROVISIONS. The first of all requisites for human sustenance is Bread, which with great propriety is denominated 'the staff of life.' The next to this is Meat, which though not alike essential, is of great importance in strengthening and invigorating the human frame. The former of these constituting the principal food of great numbers, and a part of the sustenance of all people, it is highly necessary to attend carefully to the ingredients of which it is composed, and to the manner in which it is prepared. A person's health must inevitably be injured by bad corn and flour, and even by what is good, when improperly prepared. The best flour is often made into bad bread by not suffering it to rise sufficiently; by not kneading it well, by not baking it enough, and by keeping it too long. Mixing other substances with the flour also injures the quality of the bread in a very high degree. These faults have a bad effect on those who generally eat such bread, but the injury is still more serious to children and weakly persons. Where the flour is corrupted, the use of it in every other article of food, will of course be as unwholesome as in that of bread. The mere exposure to the air will evaporate and deaden all flour, though the grain may never have passed through any fermentation or digestion; as in the instance of wheat flour, the strongest and the best of any other. For this reason, flour which has been ground five or six weeks, or longer, though it be kept close in sacks or barrels, will not make so sweet a loaf, nor one so moist and pleasant, as that which is newly ground. Hence all bread made in London eats drier and harsher than bread in the country, which is made within a few days after the grinding of the wheat. All grains which are ground, ought therefore to be used as soon afterwards as possible. But this is not the most profitable to the dealers in meal, as meal newly ground will not part so freely from the bran, nor consequently yield so much flour, as when it lies a certain time after the grinding; for this disposes the branny and floury parts to give way from each other, and thus they separate easier and more completely than when dressed immediately. The flour also then looks finer, but the bread made of such meal is not of so good a quality as that made of meal fresh ground. All sorts of grain kept entire, will remain sound and good for a long time: but flour will in a comparatively short time, corrupt, and generate worms. This therefore requires peculiar attention, or much loss and injury may be sustained. The health of mankind depends in great measure on the good or bad preparation of food, and on the purity of all sorts of provisions: and grain being the most essential article of sustenance, very much depends on the conduct of millers, bakers, and mealmen. Those who acquit themselves honestly in these vocations are entitled to a fair profit, and the goodwill of their fellow-men: but such as betray the confidence reposed in them, by corrupting or withholding it when needed, are undoubtedly amongst the worst enemies of mankind. So far as health is concerned, bread made with leaven is preferable to that made with yeast; the sour quality of leaven is more agreeable to the ferment of the stomach than yeast; it is also easier of digestion, and more cleansing. It opens the vessels, and gives a healthy appetite; and a little use will make it familiar and pleasant to the eater. This bread however seldom agrees with weak stomachs, especially such as are liable to acidity and heartburn. One of the best kinds of bread for sickly people, is made of wheaten flour, the coarse or husky bran being taken out, but not finely dressed; otherwise it would be dry, and obstructing to the stomach. The inner skin or branny parts of wheat contain a moisty quality, which is opening and cleansing, while the fine floury parts afford more nourishment. Bread therefore of a middling quality is the wholesomest, and the best. Mixing in much salt is injurious, from the change it occasions in bread of every description. Finding no matter liable to putrefaction to work on, it acts upon the best qualities of the flour, which it alters and corrupts. Hence, when bread is intended to be kept a considerable time, as biscuits for a long voyage, no salt is put into it. But bread for common use will admit of a moderate portion of salt. It may be remarked however, that bread, notwithstanding it is so excellent with meat, milk, and vegetables, is not so substantial and nourishing as flour, when prepared in porridges and other articles. To have good bread, it should not be baked in too close an oven, but a free passage should be left for the air. The best way is to make it into thin cakes, and bake them on a stone, which many in the northern counties use for that purpose, making a wood fire under it. This sort of bread is sweeter, of a more innocent taste, and far easier of digestion, than bread baked the common way in ovens. In the same manner cakes may be made of any kind of grain, such as rye, oats, or barley, and will be found more wholesome and nourishing, and more agreeable to nature, than bread made in the usual manner. Oat cakes are often preferred to those made of wheat flour, as they tend to open the body, and are rather warmer, to cold and weak stomachs. Barley is not so nourishing, and requires more preparation to render it digestible, than the other kinds of grain. Cakes, biscuits, muffins, buns, crumpets, and small bread, made with eggs, butter, or sugar, seldom agree with delicate persons. Biscuits made without leaven, yeast, butter, or sugar, are more difficult of digestion, than bread when it is fermented. Where bread is fixed to a standard weight and price, bakers are very apt to mix alum and pearlash with it, for the purpose of hastening its rising, and of encreasing its weight, by causing it to retain its moisture. If a piece of bread be soaked in water, and turns the juice of a red cabbage into a green colour, it is a proof that it contains an alkali or earthy substance, which is most probably pearlash. It is said that a compound salt is clandestinely sold in London, under the name of baker's salt, and is composed of the above ingredients. When there is reason to suspect that bread is adulterated with alum, it may be detected thus. Cut about a pound of bread into an earthen vessel, pour upon it a quart of boiling water, and let it stand till cold. Strain the liquor off gently through a piece of fine linen, boil it down to about a wine glass full, and set it by to cool. If there be a mixture of alum, it will form itself into crystals. The observance of the following rules may be considered as essential to the making of good bread. The corn must be sound and clean, and newly ground, and not contaminated with any extraneous mixtures. To make it easy of digestion it should be leavened, and moderately seasoned with salt. Let it rise for several hours, and be well wrought and kneaded with the hands. It must be well baked, but neither over nor under-done. If baked too little, the bread will be heavy, clammy, and unwholesome: if too much, its strength and goodness will be consumed. In general, bread should not be eaten hot; it is then more viscid, and harder of digestion. Bread is in its best state the first and second day after it is baked. Economical bread, or bread of an inferior quality, depraved by other mixtures, has frequently been recommended to poor people in times of scarcity; but except where absolute necessity exists, this is a kind of policy that cannot be too severely condemned. The labouring classes, whose dependence is almost entirely upon bread, ought to be provided with what is of the purest and most nutricious quality, and at a reasonable price. They might then live upon their labour, and in health and activity would feel that labour itself was sweet. If potatoes, rice, or any other ingredients are to be mixed with the bread, to lower its nutricious qualities, let it not be offered to the labourer; but if economy of this kind be required, let it be exercised by those whose eyes are standing out with fatness, and to whom a sparer diet might be beneficial.—Meat in general, as well as all other kinds of food, is nourishing or otherwise, according to its quality, and the manner in which it is prepared. There are peculiar constitutions, or particular diseases and periods of life, when animal food is highly detrimental; and others again, when it is essentially necessary; but it is the general use of it, and not these exceptions, that will be the subject of the following observations. As a part of our habitual diet, the main points to be attended to are, the kinds of animal food, and the modes of dressing it, which are most to be recommended. A choice of meat is desirable, but if the animals subject to this choice be neither sound nor healthy, it is of little consequence which kind is preferred, for they, are alike unwholesome. It is proper therefore to avoid the flesh of all such as are fatted in confinement, or upon pernicious substances, which can never make wholesome food. Oil cakes and rank vegetables, with want of air and exercise, will produce such sort of meat as will shew immediately from its appearance, that it must be unwholesome. Animals may eat rancid fulsome food, and grow fat upon it, and yet the meat they produce may be highly offensive. Hunger and custom will induce the eating of revolting substances, both in the brute and human species; and growing fat is by no means a certain sign of health. On the contrary, it is frequently the symptom of a gross habit, and a tendency to disease. The distinct effects of various kinds of food upon animals, are very obvious in the instance of milch cows. Grass, hay, straw, grains, turnips, and oil cakes, produce milk of such different qualities as must be at once distinguished; and the preference to that where cows are fed upon grass or hay, and next to them straw, appears very decided. The inference would be fair, that it must be the same with respect to flesh, even if it were less obvious than it is. It is an unwise economy, in the management of cows, that withholds from them a sufficient quantity of the best and most nourishing food. If duly appreciated, the quality of milk is even of superior importance to that of flesh, from its general excellence and utility as an article of food. If milk was plentiful and good, the want of meat would in many instances not be felt, and in others, the consumption of it might be lessened with great advantage. To confine cows with a view to increase their supply of milk, is as injurious to the quality of it, as the confinement of animals is in other instances. The over feeding them also with a similar view, is an injurious practice. Cleanliness too is no less essential to keeping them in a wholesome state, than to animals intended to be slaughtered. It is no uncommon effect of confining and cramming animals, that they become diseased in the liver, besides acquiring a general tendency to putridity in their juices and muscular substances, from want of air and exercise, excess of feeding and bad food, and the dirt in which they live. A brute, no more than a human being, can digest above a certain quantity of food, to convert it into actual nourishment; and good chyle can only be produced from wholesome food, cleanliness, air, and exercise. To be well fleshed rather than fat, is the desirable state of animals destined for slaughter. There will always be with this a sufficient proportion of fat; and labouring by artificial means to produce more, is only encreasing that part of animal substance, which from its gross indigestible nature is not proper for human diet, unless in a very limited degree. Venison, which in its domestic state is never fatted like other animals; game, and every wild animal proper for food; possess superior qualities to the tame, from the total contrast in their habits, more than from the food they eat. They have an extensive range in the open air, take much exercise, and choose their own sustenance, the good effects of which are very evident in a short delicate texture of flesh found only in them. Their juices and flavour are more pure, and their fat is far more delicious than that of home-bred animals. The superiority of Welch mutton and Scotch beef is owing to a similar cause, and is still more in point than the former, as a contrast between animals of the same species under different management. The preferences just mentioned are not a mere matter of taste, which might readily be dispensed with, but are founded on more important considerations. A short delicate texture renders the meat more digestible, in a very high degree, than the coarse, heavy, stringy kind of substance produced by the misapplied art of man. A pure animal juice too, is something more than a luxury; for if what we use as food is not pure, neither can our blood nor our juices be so. If we would but be content with unadulterated luxuries, we have them at our command; and provided they are not indulged to excess, are of decided advantage to our health. Supposing all animal flesh to be good of its kind, there is still abundant room for selection and choice. Mutton, beef, venison, game, wild rabbits, fowls, turkies, and various small birds, are preferable to lamb, veal, pork, young pigs, ducks, geese, and tame rabbits. Beef and mutton are much easier of digestion and more nutricious than veal and lamb, especially if not slaughtered before they come to proper maturity. Nothing arrives at perfection under a stated period of growth, and till this is attained it will afford only inferior nutriment. If the flesh of mutton and lamb, beef and veal, are compared, they will be found of a different texture, and the two young meats of a more stringy indivisible nature than the others, which makes them harder of digestion. Neither are their juices so nourishing when digested; as any one at all in the habit of observing what is passing within and about them will readily perceive from their own experience. Lamb and veal leave a craving nausea in the stomach, not perceived after taking other kinds of animal food. Veal broth soon turns sour by standing, owing to the sugar of milk contained in the blood of a calf; and the same change takes place in a weak stomach. Persons in the habit of drinking strong liquors with their meals, cannot competently judge of such an effect; as these liquors harden all kinds of animal food, and therefore little distinction can be perceived amongst them. Pork and young pigs are liable to the same objections as lamb and veal, but in a greater degree; they are fat and luscious, but afford no nutriment. Ducks and geese are of a coarse oily nature, and only fit for very strong stomachs. Tame rabbits are of a closer heavier texture than wild ones, and hence of inferior quality. Pigeons are of a hot nature, and should therefore be used sparingly. Fowls and turkies are of a mild proper nature for food, but the fattening them in confinement is equally prejudicial, as to other animals already mentioned. If left at large, well fed with good barley, and with clean water to drink, they will be little inferior to game. Barley is preferable to barley meal, as retaining all the natural qualities of the grain in greater perfection than when ground; and as these birds are provided with grinders in the gizzard, the concocting their own food is more nourishing and wholesome for them. These, like other animals, should be suffered to attain their full growth, in order to have them in the best state for nutriment. Some parts of birds, and other animals, are hard and viscid, as the head, neck, feet, and tail; the parts about the wings, back, and breast of birds, are in general the most tender, and of the finest flavour. In four-footed animals, the upper part of the leg and shoulder, the back, breast, and long bones of the neck, are generally superior to the rest. The heart and other viscera are nutricious, but hard of digestion, and improper for weak stomachs. The larger an animal is of its kind, the flesh of it will be stronger, and more difficult to digest; the juices also will be more rank than those of smaller ones of the same species, supposing them to have arrived at the same maturity. Animals which abound with fat and oily substances are harder to digest, than those of a drier and more fleshy nature; and to persons who use but little exercise, or have weak stomachs, this kind of food is very improper. Its tendency is to weaken the tone and force of the stomach, the fat and oil being enclosed in little bladders, which are with difficulty broken and separated. Hence fat meat is not so digestible as that of well fed animals, which do not abound with fat. The flesh of very old animals is unwholesome, being hard, dry, sinewy, innutricious, and difficult to digest. Those which are the longest in coming to maturity have the coarsest juices, such as oxen, cows, and boars. These are less tender and digestible than sheep, venison, hares, rabbits, poultry, game, and other birds. In almost all cases, the strong and pungent in flavour are harder to digest than those of a milder nature. The flesh of birds is lighter, drier, and easier of digestion, than that of four-footed animals. A difference also arises from the place of pasturage, from food and exercise. Animals living in high places, refreshed with wholesome winds, and cherished with the warm beams of the sun, where there are no marshes, lakes, or standing waters, are preferable to those living in pools, as ducks and geese, and other kinds of fowl.—Fish is less nourishing than flesh, because it is gross, phlegmatic, cold, and full of watery superfluities: but under certain restrictions, it may be safely used as a part of our general diet. It is unsuitable to cold phlegmatic constitutions, but very well adapted to such as are hot and choleric. The white kinds of fish, which contain neither fat nor oil, are preferable to the rest; such as whitings, turbot, soles, skate, haddock, flounders, smelts, trout, and graylings. These are easier of digestion than salmon, mackarel, eels, lampreys, herrings, or sprats, and therefore more wholesome. Shell-fish, such as oysters, muscles, cockles, crabs, and lobsters, are very far from being easy of digestion, and are particularly improper for invalids, though too commonly imagined to be suitable in such cases. In general it may be observed, that those kinds of fish which are well grown, nourish better than the young and immature. Sea-fish are wholesomer than fresh-water fish: they are of a hotter nature, not so moist, and more approaching to flesh meat. Of all sea and river fish, those are the best which live in rocky places. Next to these, in gravelly or sandy places, in sweet, clear, running water, where there is nothing offensive. Those which live in pools, muddy lakes, marshes, or stagnant water, are bad. Whether sea or river fish, those are the best which are not too large, whose flesh is not hard and dry, but crisp and tender; which taste and smell well, and have many fins and scales. All fresh fish should be eaten hot, and less in quantity than fresh meat. Fish should not be eaten very often, and never after great labour and exercise, nor after eating other solid food. Fish and milk are not proper to be eaten at the same meal, nor should eggs be used with fish, except with salt fish, and that should be well soaked in water before it is dressed. It may be eaten with carrots or parsnips, instead of egg sauce. If salt fish be eaten too often, or without this precaution, it produces gross humours and bad juices in the body; occasions thirst, hoarseness, sharpness in the blood, and other unfavourable symptoms. It is therefore a kind of food which should be used very sparingly, and given only to persons of a strong constitution. All kinds of salted and dried fish are innutricious and unwholesome, and their injurious effects are often visible in the habits of seafaring people. Even prawns and shrimps, if eaten too freely, are known to produce surfeits, which end in St. Anthony's fire.—If proper attention be paid to health, every kind of sustenance intended for the use of man, must be provided in its season; for to every thing there is both time and season, which the wisdom and goodness of providence have pointed out. Every production is the most pure in quality, and of course the most wholesome, when nature has perfected her work, and prepared it for human sustenance. To anticipate her seasons, or to prolong them, is a misapplication of labour, and a perversion of the bounties of providence into secret poisons, to indulge the wanton cravings of a depraved appetite. The properties of animal food in general seem not to restrict the use of it to any particular season, but rather to admit its common use at all times. The only period in which it is less seasonable than at any other, appears to be in hot weather, when animal substances of all kinds are very liable to taint. The profuse supply of vegetables too in the warmer months, seems to lessen the occasion for animal food. Attention should be paid however at all times to the proper season for using the different kinds of animal food, and to the various circumstances that may contribute to its being more or less wholesome. The killing of animals by the easiest means, and not previously abusing them by over-driving, or in any other way, materially affects their fitness for food, and ought therefore to be carefully attended to. The high flavour, or taint in meat, which so many English palates prefer, is in fact the commencement of putrefaction; and of course meat in this state is very improper for food, particularly for persons with any tendency to putrid disorders. At a time when bad fevers prevail, food of this description ought to be generally avoided, as it disposes the blood and juices to receive infection. With respect to grain, its adaptedness to keep the whole year round, evidently denotes that it was intended for constant use. But the recurrence of an annual supply seems to be the voice of nature, forbidding its being kept in ordinary cases to a longer period, especially as new corn is generally preferred to the old. All other vegetables, including fruits, seem designed only for a transient season. Roots, and a few late fruits, have indeed the property of keeping for some months, and may thus provide a store for the winter, when fresh vegetables are less plentiful. Other kinds will not keep without undergoing a culinary process, by which they are rendered less wholesome, however palatable they may be considered. Provisions of almost every description may be preserved from putrefaction by being partially dressed and then closely stopped down, as has been fully demonstrated by Messrs. Donkin and Gamble of Bermondsey, who by means of air-tight canisters are in the habit of preparing all kinds of meat, which will keep perfectly sweet and fresh for a considerable length of time in any climate, and are incomparably better than those preserved in the ordinary way by salting or drying. But however applicable these preserves may be to the purposes of a long voyage, or a foreign expedition, where no fresh supplies can be obtained, they are by no means to be recommended to private families, who enjoy the superior advantages of going to market for fresh provisions. Time, which devours all things, cannot fail to impair, though not immediately, the flavour and other properties of whatever is preserved, in defiance of every precaution against its influence. The appearance and flavour of such articles may not be revolting to us, but if compared with the same things when fresh and well dressed, their inferiority is sufficiently obvious. Pickled salmon is a familiar instance of this kind. It is very generally relished, and often preferred to fresh salmon; yet if brought into comparison, the substance of the one is heavy, that of the other light and elastic. The flavour of the pickled salmon is sophisticated and deadened, if not vapid; that of the other is natural, fresh, and delicate, the pure volatile spirit not being destroyed by improper cookery, or long keeping. Instances of violent surfeits often occur from eating pickled salmon, soused mackarel, and other rich preserves, not from their being in a state of decay, but from the unwholesomeness of their preparation. People acquire tastes indeed, that reconcile them to any thing; that even make them fond of corrupted flavours, such as decayed cheese, tainted meat, and other things of a similar description. Our taste therefore is very likely to betray us into error; and to guard against it, it is necessary to be able to distinguish between what is really wholesome and what is otherwise, for this is rather a matter of judgment than of taste.—A few brief remarks may very properly be added on the important article of Milk, which forms, or ought to form, an essential part of the food of every family, in one shape or another. As far as regards the general properties of milk, it is in season at all times; and by judicious management it might always be supplied in sufficient quantities to become a plentiful source of human sustenance. It is of the best quality however, five or six months after a cow has calved. When she becomes with calf again, her milk will of course fall off, both in quantity and in quality. The impatient greediness of cow-keepers would have calves and milk at the same time, and on this account they seldom allow their dairies a fair interval for keeping up a successive supply of the best milk. To keep cows in the healthiest condition, and their milk consequently in the purest state, they should not be confined in houses, nor in yards, but suffered to go at large in the open fields. They should also be well fed with wholesome provender, and have access to good water. If kept quite clean, by occasionally rubbing them down, and washing their bag, and legs and feet, their health would be promoted, and of course the nutricious quality of the milk. If the comfort and welfare of society were consulted, the higher classes would not slight their dairies for studs of horses, kept more for ostentation than for use. In reference to the same subject, the breaking up of small farms is deeply to be regretted, not only as ruinous to a numerous class of deserving persons, but as depriving the markets and the neighbourhoods of those articles of necessity which their industry produced. It was an object to a small farmer to make the most of his dairy and poultry yard, which to an occupier on a larger scale is regarded as a matter of indifference. The consequence is, there is neither so plentiful a supply of these things, nor are they so good in quality as formerly. The wife of a small farmer attended to her own business, her poultry was brought up at the barn door, and killed when it was sweet and wholesome, while the produce of her dairy redounded to her credit, and afforded ample satisfaction to her customers.—The most judicious choice of food however will avail but little, if the manner of preparing it is not equally judicious. The principal error in cooking lies in overdoing what is intended for the table; the qualities of the meat are then so entirely changed, that it ceases to be nourishing, and becomes hard of digestion. It is literally put into the stomach only to be pressed out of it again by some unnatural exertion, which at last throws the oppressive load into the rest of the system, from whence it will not pass off without leaving some injury behind it. This, frequently repeated, ends at last in acute or chronic diseases, no less certainly than constant friction upon a stone will at length wear it away, though it may be a long time before any impression upon it is perceived. Similar effects arise from drinking, but generally with a more rapid progress, from the extension and collapse of the vessels being more sudden and violent. Plain cookery, in the exact medium between under and over doing, is the point to be attained to render our food salutary. The mixture of a great variety of ingredients should be avoided, for if good in themselves separately, they are often rendered indigestible by being compounded one with another. As we must eat every day, there is opportunity enough for all things in turn, without attempting any unwholesome composition. Much seasoning with spices, contributes to make animal food indigestible. They are much safer when used just before serving up the dish, or by adding them at the time of eating it. Beef and pork long salted, and hams, bacon, tongues, and hung beef, are very indigestible, and particularly improper for weak stomachs, though they will often crave them. Boiled meat is generally preferable to roast meat, for nourishment and digestion. Boiling extracts more of the rank strong juices, and renders it lighter and more diluted. Roasting leaves it fuller of gravy, but it adds to the rigidity of the fibres. The flesh of young animals is best roasted. Fried and broiled meats are difficult to be digested, though they are very nourishing: weak stomachs had better avoid them. Meat pies and puddings cannot be recommended, but strong stomachs may sustain but little inconvenience from them. It is a confined mode of cookery, and the meat therefore is not at all purified of its grossness. When meat pies and puddings are used, they should be moderately seasoned. Baking meat, instead of roasting it, is a worse manner of dressing it, from the closeness of the oven, and the great variety of things often baking at the same time. Stewing is not a good way of dressing meat, unless it is done very carefully. If it is stewed till all the juices are drawn from the meat, the latter becomes quite unfit for food: and if the stewpan be kept close covered, there are the same objections to it as meat pies and puddings. Hashing is a very bad mode of cooking. It is doing over again what has already been done enough, and makes the meat vapid and hard. What would have been good nourishment in the cold meat, is thus totally lost, as the juices, which are all drawn into the gravy, are spoiled by this second cookery, which exposes them too long to the fire.

PRUNE PUDDING. Mix four spoonfuls of flour in a quart of milk; add six eggs, two tea-spoonfuls of powdered ginger, a little salt, and a pound of prunes. Tie it in a cloth, and boil it an hour.

PRUNE TART. Scald some prunes, take out the stones and break them. Put the kernels into a little cranberry juice, with the prunes and sugar; simmer them together, and when cold, make a tart of the sweetmeat.

PRUNING. In pruning wall fruit, care should be taken to cut off all fresh shoots that will not readily bind to the wall; for if any be twisted or bruised in the binding, they will in time decay, and the sap will issue from the place. Vines should not be cut too close to please the eye, as by that means they have sometimes been rendered barren of fruit. Two knots should generally be left on new shoots, which will produce two bunches of grapes, and which are to be cut off at the next pruning. New branches are to be left every year, and some of the old ones must be removed, which will increase the quantity of fruit.

PUDDINGS. The only puddings which can with propriety be recommended, as really wholesome diet, are those of the simplest kind, such as are seldom met with except in families in the middle ranks of life. The poor unfortunately cannot get them, and the rich prefer those of a more complex kind, of which the best that can be hoped is, that they will not do much harm. The principal ingredients of common puddings are so mild and salutary, that unless they are over-cooked, or too many of them mixed together, such puddings are generally wholesome. To make them of the best and most nutricious quality, the materials should all be fresh and good of their kind; such as, flour newly ground, new milk, fresh laid eggs, and fresh suet. Millet, sago, tapioca, whole rice, will all keep a considerable time, if put into a dry place. When rice, millet, or sago, are wanted to be used ground, they had better be ground at home for the sake of having them fresh, and the certainty of having them pure. Such a mill as is used for grinding coffee, will grind them extremely well. The whites of eggs should never be used in puddings for children, or persons of weak stomachs, or for those who are any way indisposed, on account of their being indigestible. Omitting them altogether would indeed be attended with no disadvantage. The yolk of an egg alone answers the same purpose, as when the white is used with it. To prove this, let two cups of batter pudding be made, one with the yolk of an egg only, the other with the yolk and white together, and the result will be, that the pudding with the yolk only is quite as light, if not lighter, than the one with the whole egg. In other instances also, of several kinds of puddings, where the whites of eggs have been totally omitted, without at all encreasing the number of eggs, the result has been the same. There is a species of economy practised by good housewives, of making compositions on purpose to use up the whites of eggs which have been left out of any preparation made with eggs. But this is a false economy; for surely it is far better to reject as food what is known to be injurious, and to find other uses for it, than to make the human stomach the receptacle for offal. Economy would be much more judiciously exerted in retrenching superfluities, than exercised in this manner. Two or three good dishes of their kind, and well cooked, are infinitely preferable to a whole course of indigestible compositions. A soup might as well be made of cabbage stalks and pea shells, as any preparation of food with whites of eggs, when there is no doubt of their being positively prejudicial. As cabbage stalks then go to the dunghill, and pea shells to the pigs, so let whites of eggs go to the book-binder, or find some other destination. There are also various kinds of fruit that require to be used with great caution. Currants, raisins, prunes, French plums, figs, and all kinds of preserves, are prepared either by the heat of the sun, or by cookery to the full extent that they will bear, and beyond which any application of heat gives them a tendency to putridity. They are therefore certainly prejudicial to weak stomachs when used in puddings, and cannot be good for any; though strong stomachs may not perceive an immediate ill effect from them. Eaten without any farther preparation, and especially with bread, these things may be used in moderation. For the reasons just given, spices are better not put into puddings, they are already in a sufficiently high state of preparation. The warm climates in which they grow, brings them to a state of far greater maturity than the general productions of our northern latitude. When they are used, it is better to add them ground, at the time of eating what is to be seasoned, or put in the last thing before serving up the dish. These are also better ground at home, both to have them fresh, and free from adulteration. Almonds used in puddings are liable to the same objection. The danger of using laurel leaves in cooking, cannot be too frequently repeated. Bay leaves, bitter almonds, and fruit kernels, if not equally dangerous, are pernicious enough to make it very advisable not to use them. Fresh fruits often become more unwholesome from being cooked in puddings and tarts, yet will in many cases agree then with stomachs that cannot take them raw; but unripe fruits are not good, either dressed or in any other state.—To prepare puddings in the best manner, they should boil briskly over a clear fire, with the pot lid partly if not entirely off, as the access of fresh air makes every thing dress sweeter. As butter is generally an expensive article, dripping, nicely prepared, may on many occasions be used as a substitute. It will answer the purpose of rubbing basins with, quite as well as butter, and never gives any unpleasant flavour to the pudding. It is also very proper to dredge a basin with flour, after it is rubbed with butter or dripping. Economy in eggs is both rational and useful, as puddings with a moderate number of eggs are more wholesome, than when used extravagantly or with profusion. Pudding cloths, and every utensil in making puddings, should be quite clean, or the food cannot be wholesome. The outside of a boiled pudding often tastes disagreeably, which arises from the cloth not being nicely washed, and kept in a dry place. It should be dipt in boiling water, squeezed dry, and floured, when to be used. A bread pudding should be loosely tied, and a batter pudding tight over. The water should boil quick when the pudding is put in, and it should be moved about for a minute, lest the ingredients should not mix. Batter pudding should be strained through a coarse sieve, when all is mixed: in others, the eggs should be strained separately. Pans and basins in which puddings are to be boiled, should always be buttered, or rubbed with clean dripping. A pan of cold water should be prepared, and the pudding dipped in as soon as it comes out of the pot, to prevent its adhering to the cloth. Good puddings may be made without eggs; but they must have as little milk as is sufficient to mix the batter, and must boil three or four hours. A few spoonfuls of fresh small beer, or one of yeast, will answer instead of eggs. Snow is also an excellent substitute for eggs, either in puddings or pancakes. Two large spoonfuls will supply the place of one egg, and the article it is used in will be equally good. This is a useful piece of information, especially as snow often falls when eggs are scarce and dear. Fresh small beer, or bottled malt liquors, will likewise serve instead of eggs. The yolks and whites beaten long and separately, make the article they are put into much lighter.

PUDDING CAKES. Put four yolks and two whites of eggs to a pint of milk; mix with it half a pint of bread crumbs grated fine, half a nutmeg, six ounces of currants washed and dried, a quarter of a pound of beef suet chopped small, a little salt, and flour sufficient to make it of a moderate thickness. Fry these cakes in lard, of about the usual size of a fritter.

PUDDING KETCHUP. Steep an ounce of thin-pared lemon peel, and half an ounce of mace, in half a pint of brandy, or a pint of sherry, for fourteen days. Then strain it, and add a quarter of a pint of capillaire. This will keep for years, and being mixed with melted butter, it is a delicious relish to puddings and sweet dishes.

PUDDING WITH MEAT. Make a batter with flour, milk, and eggs. Pour a little into the bottom of a pudding-dish; then put seasoned meat of any kind into it, and a little shred onion. Pour the remainder of the batter over, and bake it in a slow oven. A loin of mutton baked in batter, being first cleared of most of the fat, makes a good dish.

PUFFS. They should be made of light puff crust, rolled out and cut into shapes according to the fancy. Then bake them, and lay some sweetmeat in the middle. Or roll out the crust, cut it into pieces of any shape, lay sweetmeats over one half, and turn the other half of the crust over; press them together round the edge, and bake them.

PUFF CRUST. Take a pound and a half of flour, put it upon a pie board with a little salt, and mix in gradually just water sufficient to make it into a paste, taking care that it be neither too thin nor too stiff. Mould it lightly together, and let it lie for two hours before it is finished. Roll out the paste, put a pound of butter into the middle of it, fold the two ends of the paste over it, and roll it out; then fold it together, and roll it out again. Repeat this six times in the winter, and five in the summer. It should be rolled rather less than half an inch in thickness, dusting a little flour lightly over and under it, to prevent its sticking to the rolling-pin. When finished, roll it out for use as occasion requires. This makes a very nice and delicate crust.—Another. To a pound and a half of flour, allow a pound of butter, and three quarters of an ounce of salt. Put the flour on a clean pie board, make a hole in the middle, and put in the salt with the butter cut into small pieces. Pour in the water carefully, as it is of great importance that the crust should not be made too thin; there should only be water enough just to make it hold well together, and to roll it out smooth. Work the butter and water up well together with the hand, and then by degrees mix in the flour. When the flour is all mixed in, mould the paste till it is quite smooth and free from lumps, and then let it lie two hours before it be used. This is a very nice crust for putting round the dish for baked puddings, tarts, or pies.

PUFF PASTE. Puffs may be made of any sort of fruit, but it should be prepared first with sugar. To make a rich paste, weigh an equal quantity of butter with as much fine flour as is necessary. Mix a little of the former with the latter, and wet it with as little water as will make it into a stiff paste. Roll it out, and put all the butter over it in slices; turn in the ends, and roll it thin. Do this twice, and tough it no more than can be avoided. The butter may be added at two different times; and to those who are not accustomed to make paste, it may be better to do so. The oven must be rather quicker than for a short crust.—A less rich paste may be made of a pound of flour, and a quarter of a pound of butter, rubbed together. Mix it into a paste with a little water, and an egg well beaten; of the former as little as will suffice, or the paste will be tough. Roll it out, and fold it three or four times. Or rub extremely fine, six ounces of butter in one pound of dried flour, with a spoonful of white sugar. Work up the whole into a stiff paste, with as little hot water as possible.

PUITS D' AMOUR. Cut a fine rich puff paste rolled thin, with tin shapes made on purpose, one size less than another, in a pyramidal form, and lay them so. Then bake in a moderate form, that the paste may be done sufficiently, but very pale. Lay different coloured sweetmeats on the edges.

PULLED CHICKENS. Take off the skin, and pull the flesh off the bones of a cold fowl, in large pieces. Dredge it with flour, and fry it of a nice brown in butter. Drain the butter from it, simmer the flesh in a good well-seasoned gravy, thickened with a little butter and flour, adding the juice of half a lemon.—Another way. Cut off the legs, and the whole back, of an underdone chicken. Pull all the white part into little flakes free from skin, toss it up with a little cream thickened with a piece of butter rolled in flour, half a blade of powdered mace, some white pepper, salt, and the squeeze of a lemon. Cut off the neck end of the chicken, broil the back and sidesmen in one piece, and the two legs seasoned. Put the hash in the middle of the dish, with the back on it, and the two legs at the end.

PULLED TURKEY. Divide the meat of the breast by pulling instead of cutting. Then warm in a spoonful or two of white gravy, and a little cream, grated nutmeg, salt, and a little flour and butter, but do not let it boil. The leg should be seasoned, scored, and broiled, and put into the dish with the above round it. Cold chicken may be treated in the same manner.

PUNCH. In preparing this favourite liquor, it is impossible to take too much pains in the process of mixing, that all the different articles may be thoroughly incorporated together. Take then two large fresh lemons with rough skins, quite ripe, and some lumps of double-refined sugar. Rub the sugar over the lemons, till it has absorbed all the yellow part of the rinds. Put these lumps into a bowl, and as much more as the juice of the lemons may be supposed to require: no certain weight or quantity can be mentioned, as the acidity of a lemon cannot be known till tried, and therefore this must be determined by the taste. Then squeeze the lemon juice upon the sugar, and with a bruiser press the sugar and the juice particularly well together, for a great deal of the richness and fine flavour of the punch depends on this rubbing and mixing being thoroughly performed. Having well incorporated the juice and the sugar, mix it up with boiling soft water, and let it stand a little to cool. When this mixture, which is now called the sherbet, is made of a pleasant flavour, take equal quantities of rum and brandy and put into it, mixing the whole well together. The quantity of liquor must be according to taste: two good lemons are generally enough to make four quarts of punch, including a quart of liquor, with half a pound of sugar: but this depends much on taste, and on the strength of the spirit. As the pulp of the lemon is disagreeable to some persons, the sherbet may be strained before the liquor is put in. Some strain the lemon before they put it to the sugar, which is improper; as when the pulp and sugar are well mixed together, it adds much to the richness of the punch. When only rum is used, about half a pint of porter will soften the punch; and even when both rum and brandy are used, the porter gives a richness, and also a very pleasant flavour. A shorter way is to keep ready prepared a quarter of an ounce of citric or crystallized lemon acid, pounded with a few drops of the essence of lemon peel, gradually mixed with a pint of clarified syrup or capillaire. Brandy or rum flavoured with this mixture, will produce good punch in a minute.

PUNCH ROYAL. Take thirty Seville oranges and thirty lemons quite sound, pare them very thin, and put the parings into an earthen pan, with as much rum or brandy as will cover them. Take ten gallons of water, and twelve pounds of lump sugar, and boil them. When nearly cold, put in the whites of thirty eggs well beaten, stir it and boil it a quarter of an hour, then strain it through a hair sieve into an earthen pan, and let it stand till the next day. Then put it into a cask, strain the spirit from the parings, and add as much more as will make it up five gallons. Put it into the cask with five quarts of Seville orange juice, and three quarts of lemon juice. Stir it all together with a cleft stick, and repeat the same once a day for three successive days; then stop it down close, and in six weeks it will be fit to drink.

PURPLE GLOVES. To dye white gloves of a beautiful purple, boil four ounces of logwood, and two ounces of roche alum, in three pints of soft water, till half wasted. Strain off the liquid, and let it stand to be cold. Mend the gloves neatly, brush them over with the dye, and when dry repeat it. Twice is sufficient, unless the colour is to be very dark. When quite dry, rub off the loose dye with a coarse cloth. Beat up the white of an egg, and with a sponge rub it over the leather. The dye will stain the hands, but wetting them with vinegar will take it off before they are washed.