  ORANGE CAKE.—Take four ripe oranges, and roll them under your hand on the table. Break up a pound of the best loaf-sugar, and on some of the pieces rub off the yellow rind of the oranges. Then cut the oranges, and squeeze their juice through a strainer. Powder the sugar, and mix the orange-juice with it; reserving a little of the juice to flavour the icing. Wash, and squeeze in a pan of cold water, a pound of the best fresh butter, till you have extracted whatever milk and salt may have been in it, as they will impede the lightness of the cake. Cut up the butter in the pan of sugar and orange, and stir it hard till perfectly light, white, and creamy. Sift into a pan fourteen ounces (two ounces less than a pound) of fine flour. Beat ten eggs till they are as thick and smooth as a fine boiled custard. Then stir them, by degrees, into the butter and sugar, alternately with the flour, a little of each at a time. Continue to beat the whole very hard for some time after all the ingredients are in; as this cake requires a great deal of beating. Have ready a large square, shallow pan, well buttered. Put in the mixture, and set it immediately into a brisk oven. It must be thoroughly baked, otherwise it will be heavy, streaked, and unfit to eat. The time of baking must of course be in proportion to its thickness, but it requires a much longer time than pound-cake, queen-cake, or Spanish buns. When it shrinks from the sides of the pan, and looks as if done, try it by sticking in the middle of it, down to the bottom, a twig from a corn-broom, or something similar. If This cake will be found very fine. It is, of course, best when oranges are ripe and in perfection, as the orange flavour should be very high. We recommend that at the first trial of this receipt, the batter shall be baked in small tins, such as are used for queen-cake, or Naples biscuit, as there will thus be less risk of its being well baked than if done in a larger pan. When they seem to be done, one of the little cakes can be taken out and broken open, and if more baking is found necessary, the others can thus be continued longer in the oven. After some experience, an orange cake may be baked, like a pound cake, in a large tin pan with a tube in the centre; or in a turban mould, and handsomely iced and ornamented when done. A fine orange cake will, when cut, perfume the table. Lemon cake may be made and baked in a similar manner, adding also a little lemon juice to the icing. CITRON CAKE—Cut a pound of candied citron into slips. Spread it on a large dish. Sprinkle it thickly with sifted flour till it is entirely white with it, tumbling the citron about with your hands till every piece is well covered with flour. Then sift into a pan fourteen ounces (two ounces less than a pound) of flour. Beat together in a deep pan, till perfectly light, a pound of fresh butter cut up in a pound of When the cake is cool, ice and ornament it. Common pound cakes are now very much out of use. They are considered old-fashioned. BOSTON CREAM CAKES—From a quart of rich milk or cream take half a pint, and put it into a small saucepan, with a vanilla bean, and a stick of the best Ceylon cinnamon, broken in pieces. Cover the saucepan closely, and let it boil till the milk is highly flavoured with the vanilla and cinnamon. Then strain it, take out the vanilla bean, wipe it, and put it away, as it will do for the same purpose a second time. Mix the flavoured milk with the other pint and a half, and let it get quite cold. Beat very light the yolks only of twelve eggs, and stir them into the milk alternately with a quarter of a pound, or more, of powdered white sugar. Put this custard mixture into a tin pan, set it in a Dutch oven or something similar, pour round the pan some boiling water, enough to reach half-way up its sides, and bake the custard ten minutes. Instead of vanilla, you may flavour the custard by boiling, in the half pint of milk, a handful of bitter almonds or peach kernels, blanched and broken in half, and stirring into the custard when it has done baking, but is still hot, a wine glass of rose water. In the mean time let another mixture be prepared as follows. Sift half a pound of fine flour, cut up half a pound of fresh butter in a pint of rich milk, and set it on a stove or near the fire till the butter is soft but not melted. Then stir it well and take it off. Beat eight whole eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the milk and butter, in turn with the flour. Take care to have this batter very smooth, and quite free from lumps. Having beaten and stirred it thoroughly, put it in equal portions into deep pattypans with plain unscolloped sides, filling them but little more than half, so as to allow space for the cakes to rise in baking. The pattypans must be previously buttered. When the mixture is in, sprinkle powdered loaf-sugar over the top of each. Set them immediately into a brisk oven, and bake them about a quarter of an hour, or twenty minutes. They must be well browned. When done, take them out, and open in the side of each (while quite hot) a slit or cut, large enough to admit a portion of the custard that has been made for them. Put in with a spoon as much of this custard as will amply fill the cavity or hollow in the middle of each cake. Then close the slit nicely, by pinching and smoothing it with your thumb and finger, and set the cakes to cool. They should be eaten fresh. In summer they will not keep till next day unless they are set on ice. If properly made, they will be found delicious. For this cake you must prepare, the day before, three pounds of sifted flour, two pounds of powdered white sugar, four nutmegs, and a quarter of an ounce of mace powdered fine; two pounds of stoned raisins, two pounds of currants, picked, washed, and dried (or CLOVE CAKES.—Rub a pound of fresh butter (cut up) into three pounds of sifted flour; adding, by degrees, a pound of fine brown sugar, half an ounce of cloves ground or powdered, and sufficient West India molasses to wet the whole SOFT GINGERBREAD.—Beat to a cream half a pound of fresh butter cut up in a deep pan, among half a pound of brown sugar, and at the beginning set near the fire to soften it a little, but not to melt it. Add two large table-spoonfuls of ginger, a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, and a tea-spoonful of powdered cloves. Then stir into it, alternately, a pint of West India molasses, and three pints of sifted flour, and six well-beaten eggs. Lastly, dissolve a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in a pint of sour milk, and stir it, while foaming, into the mixture. Put it immediately into shallow square tin pans, well buttered, and place it in an oven not too hot, or it will burn the outside, and leave the inside raw and heavy. This cake requires long beating, and much baking. FINE COOKIES.—Sift into a pan five large tea-cupsful of flour, and rub into it one tea-cup of fresh butter; add two cups of powdered white sugar, and a handful or two of carraway seeds; wet it with an egg well beaten, and a little rose-water. Add, at the last, a small tea-spoonful of sal-aratus dissolved in a very little lukewarm water. Knead the whole well. Roll it out into a sheet. Cut it into cakes with a stamp or a tumbler edge; put them into a buttered pan, and bake them about fifteen minutes. Instead of carraway seeds, you may use currants, picked, washed, and dried. INDIAN CUP CAKES.—Sift a pint and a half of yellow Indian meal, and mix it with half a pint wheat flour. Beat two eggs very light, and then stir them gradually into the meal, in turn with almost a quart of sour milk. If you have no sour milk from the preceding day, you can turn some sweet milk sour by setting it in the sun. Lastly, dissolve a tea-spoonful of sal-aratus, or a very small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in a little of the sour milk reserved for the purpose. The batter must be as thick as that for a pound-cake. More Indian meal may be necessary. Stir it at the last into the mixture, which, while foaming, must be put into buttered cups, or little tin pans, and set immediately into an oven, brisk but not too hot. When well baked, turn out the cakes, and send them warm to the breakfast-table. Eat them with butter. BRAN BATTER-CAKES.—Mix a quart of bran with a handful of wheat flour, and a level tea-spoonful of salt. Pour in sufficient milk-warm water to make a thick batter. Add two table-spoonfuls of brewer's yeast, or three, if home-made; and stir it very hard. Cover it, and set it by the fire to rise. Half an hour before you begin to bake, you may add a salt-spoonful of soda, melted in a little warm water. Bake it like buckwheat cakes, on a griddle. APPLE BREAD PUDDING.—Pare, core, and slice thin, a dozen or more fine juicy pippins, or bell-flowers, strewing among them some bits of the yellow rind of a large lemon that has been pared very thin, and squeezing over them the juice of the lemon. Or substitute a tea-spoonful of essence of lemon. Cover the bottom of a large deep dish with a thick layer of the sliced apples. Strew it thickly with brown sugar APPLE CUSTARDS.—Take fine juicy apples, sufficient when stewed to fill two soup plates. Pare, core, and slice them. Add a lump of butter, about the size of a walnut, and the grated peel of a lemon; and stew them with as little water as can possibly keep them from burning. They must be stewed till they are quite soft all through, but not broken. Then mash them well with the back of a spoon, and make them very sweet with fine brown sugar. Squeeze in the juice of a lemon, or add a wine-glass of rose-water. When the apple is quite cold, add a grated nutmeg, a table-spoonful of brandy, and a table-spoonful of cream, mixed with a table-spoonful of finely-grated bread crumbs, and the well-beaten yolk of an egg. Stir the whole very hard. Cover the bottom and sides of two soup plates with thin puff-paste, and put a thick paste round the edges, notching it handsomely. Then Peach custards may be made in a similar manner, of fine ripe free-stone peaches, pared, stoned, quartered, and stewed without any water. Omit the lemon, and add two eggs. NEW ENGLAND PUMPKIN PIE.—Take a quart of stewed pumpkin. Put it into a sieve, and press and strain it as dry as possible. Then set it away to get cold. Beat eight eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the pumpkin, a little at a time, in turn with a quart of rich cream and a pound of sugar. Mix together a quarter of an ounce of powdered mace, two powdered nutmegs, and a table-spoonful of ground ginger, and stir them into the other ingredients. When all is mixed, stir the whole very hard. Cover the bottom of your pie-dishes with a thin paste, and fill them nearly to the top with the mixture. Cut out narrow stripes of paste with your jagging-iron, and lay them across the tops of your pies. Bake them from an hour to an hour and a quarter. Send them to table cool. They are best the day they are baked. Some persons prefer them without any paste beneath, the dishes being filled entirely with the mixture; and if they have broad edges, a border of thick puff-paste may be laid along the edge, and handsomely notched. We think this the best way; as paste that is baked under any mixture that has milk and eggs in it, is liable, in consequence of the moisture, to become clammy and heavy, and is therefore unwholesome. WEST INDIA COCOA-NUT PUDDING.—Cut up and skin a large ripe cocoa-nut, and grate it fine. Then put the grated cocoa-nut into a clean cloth, and squeeze and press it YANKEE TEA CAKES.—Cut up half a pound of fresh butter in a pint of milk, and warm it a little, so as to soften but not melt the butter. Add, gradually, half a pound of powdered white sugar, in turn with three well-beaten eggs, and a pound of sifted flour, finishing with half a jill of strong fresh yeast. Set the mixture in a warm place to rise. It will most probably be five hours before it is light enough to bake, and it should therefore be made in the forenoon. When it has risen high, and the top is covered with bubbles, butter some cups, and bake it in them about twenty minutes. When done, turn the cakes out on large plates; send them to table hot, and split and butter them. To open these cakes, pull them apart with your fingers. GELATINE JELLY.—Gelatine is used as a substitute for calves feet in making jelly. It is prepared in light yellowish sheets, and can be purchased at the druggists'. The chief advantage in gelatine is, that by keeping it in the house, you can always have it ready for use, and the jelly made with it may be commenced and finished the same day: while, if you use calves' feet, they must be boiled the day before. Also, you Soak two ounces of gelatine, for twenty-five minutes, in as much cold water as will cover it. Then take it out, lay it in another vessel, pour on it two quarts of boiling water, and let it thoroughly dissolve. Afterwards set it to cool. Having rolled them under your hand on a table, pare off very thin the yellow rind of four lemons, and cut it into small bits. Break up, into little pieces, two large sticks of the best cinnamon (that of Ceylon is far preferable to any other) and a pound of the best double refined loaf-sugar. Mix together in a large bowl, the sugar, the lemon-rind, and the cinnamon; adding the juice of the lemons, the beaten white of an egg, and a pint of Malaga or any other good white wine. Add to these ingredients the dissolved gelatine, when it is cool but not yet cold. Mix the whole very well, put it into a porcelain kettle, or a very clean bell-metal one, and boil it fifteen minutes. Then pour it warm into a white flannel jelly-bag, and let it drip into a large glass bowl. On no account squeeze or press the bag, or the jelly will be dull and cloudy. After it has congealed in the bowl, set it on ice; but the sooner it goes to table the better. A warm damp day is unfavourable for making any sort of jelly. You may flavour it with four or five oranges instead of lemons. If you are averse to using wine in the jelly, substitute a pound of the best raisins, stemmed (but not seeded or stoned) and boiled whole with the other ingredients. BISCUIT ICE CREAM.—This is the biscuit glacÉ so popular in France. Take some pieces of broken loaf-sugar, and rub off on them the yellow rind of four lemons, or oranges. Then pulverize the sugar, and mix it with half a pound of loaf-sugar already powdered, and moistened with the juice of the lemons. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them gradually into a quart of cream, in turn with the sugar and lemon. Have ready some stale Naples biscuit or square sponge cakes grated very fine, and stir them gradually into the mixture, in sufficient quantity to make a thick batter, which must be beaten till perfectly smooth and free from lumps. Put it into a porcelain stew-pan, and give it one boil up, stirring it nearly all the time. Then put it into a freezer, and freeze it in the usual manner. Afterwards transfer it to a pyramid mould, and freeze it a second time for half an hour or more. When quite frozen, take it out of the mould upon a glass or china dish. Instead of lemon or orange, you may flavour it with a vanilla bean boiled slowly in half a pint of cream, and then strained out, before you mix it with the other cream. MACCAROON ICE CREAM.—From a quart of cream take half a pint, and boil in it slowly two ounces of bitter almonds, or peach kernels, previously blanched and broken up. Then, when it is highly flavoured with the almonds, strain the half pint and mix it with the remaining pint and a half of cream, to which add, by degrees, six eggs previously beaten ORANGE WATER ICE.—To four pounds of the best double refined loaf-sugar, allow a quart of water, and four dozen large ripe deep-coloured oranges. Having rolled the oranges on the table under your hand to increase the quantity of juice, wash and wipe them dry. Take pieces of the sugar and rub them on half the oranges till you have taken off on the sugar their yellow rind or zest. Then put that sugar with the remainder into a porcelain kettle, and pour on it a quart of water into which has been beaten the white of one egg. When the sugar is quite melted, set the kettle on the fire, and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise, and the orange-zest is entirely dissolved. Then stir in gradually the juice of the oranges, and when all is in, take it directly off the fire, lest the flavour of the juice should be weakened by boiling. Let it cool, stirring it well. Lastly, put it into a freezer surrounded by pounded ice and salt, and stir it hard for the first ten minutes. Take off the lid and repeat the stirring every five minutes till the freezing is accomplished. Turn it out into a glass bowl; having first washed off the ice and salt from the outside of the freezer, lest some of it should chance to get into the inside. Serve it on saucers. After it has congealed in the freezer, you may transfer it to a pyramid or pine-apple mould, and freeze it a second time, LEMON-WATER ICE.—May be made in the above manner, only that you must allow an additional pound of sugar, and use the zest or yellow rind of all the lemons. STRAWBERRY-WATER ICE.—To each pound of loaf-sugar allow half a pint of water, and three quarts of ripe strawberries. Having broken up the sugar, put it into a preserving-kettle, and pour on it the water in the above proportion. To make the syrup very clear, you may allow to each pint of water half the white of an egg beaten into the water. When the sugar has melted, and been well stirred in the water, put the kettle over the fire, and boil and skim it till the scum ceases to rise. Have ready the strawberry juice, having put the strawberries into a linen bag, and squeezed the liquid into a deep pan. As soon as you take the kettle of syrup from the fire, stir into it the strawberry juice. Then put it into a freezer, surrounded with ice broken small, and mixed with salt; twirl it round by the handles for ten minutes, and then let it freeze, frequently stirring it hard. When done, turn it out into a glass bowl, and serve it on saucers. Or you may give it a second freezing in a pyramid mould. RASPBERRY-WATER ICE.—Is made exactly as above. You may heighten the colour of these ices by adding to the juice a little cochineal, which it is very convenient to keep in the house ready prepared. To do this, mix together an ounce of cochineal (pounded to a fine powder), a quarter of an ounce of powdered alum, and a quarter of an ounce of cream of tartar, GRAPE-WATER ICE—Is made as above, first mashing the grapes with a wooden beetle, before you put them into the bag for squeezing the juice. Currants for water ice must also be mashed before squeezing in the bag. PINE-APPLE WATER ICE.—Having pared and sliced a sufficient number of very ripe pine-apples, cut the slices into small bits, put them into a deep dish or a tureen, sprinkle among them powdered loaf-sugar, cover them and let them set several hours in a cool place. Then have ready a syrup made of loaf-sugar, dissolved in a little water (allowing to every two pounds of sugar a pint of water beaten with half the white of an egg), and boiled and skimmed till quite clear. Get as much pine-apple juice as you can, by squeezing through a sieve the bits of pine-apple (after they have stood some hours in the tureen), measure it, and to each pint of the boiled syrup allow a pint of juice. Mix them together while the syrup is warm from the fire. Then put it into a freezer, and proceed in the usual manner. PEACH-WATER ICE.—Take soft, ripe, juicy, freestone peaches, pare them, stone them, and cut them in pieces. Put the pieces into a linen bag and squeeze the juice into a deep pan. Crack the stones, scald and blanch the kernels, break them in half, and, having made a syrup as in the above re A FINE CHARLOTTE RUSSE.—For this purpose you must have a circular or drum-shaped tin mould, or a pair or more of them. The mould should be without a bottom. They can be procured at a tin-store, and are useful for other purposes. The day before you want the Charlotte russe, make a stiff plain jelly by boiling a set of calves' feet (four) in a gallon of water till the meat drops from the bone. It should boil slowly till the liquid is reduced to less than two quarts. Then, having strained it, measure into a pan three pints of the liquid, cover it, and set it away to congeal. Next morning, it should be a solid cake, from which you must carefully scrape off all the fat and sediment. Boil a vanilla bean in half a pint of milk, till the milk is very highly flavoured with the vanilla. Then strain it, and set it away to get cold. Take three pints of rich cream, put it into a shallow pan, set it on ice, and beat it to a stiff froth with rods or a whisk; or churn it to a foam with a little tin churn. Next, add to the cream the vanilla milk, and beat both together. Melt the jelly in a pan over the fire. Beat very light the yolks of six eggs, and then stir gradually into the beaten egg half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Next, add, by degrees, the melted jelly to the egg and sugar, stirring very hard. Keep the vessel sitting on ice, and continue stirring till the mixture is firm enough to retain the mark of the spoon. Then stir in the cream as quickly as possible. Have ready the tin mould, lined with the long thin cakes called Instead of lady-fingers you may use sponge-cake for the shape or form. Cut two circular slices from a large sponge-cake, one for the bottom, and one for the top of the charlotte, and for the wall or sides arrange tall, square slices of the cake, all of them standing up so as to wrap a little over each other. All the cake must be glazed with beaten white of egg. A still easier way is to make an almond sponge-cake, and bake it in a drum-shaped mould or pan, or an oval one with straight or upright sides. When cold, cut off the top in one thin slice, and carefully cut out or hollow the middle, so as to make a space to contain the mixture of the charlotte, leaving bottom and sides standing. They must be left thin. Then, when the mixture is ready and quite cold, fill up the cake with it. It must be set on a china or glass dish, and kept on ice till wanted. It will require no turning out; and there is no risk of its breaking. The pieces that come out of the almond-cake when it is hollowed to receive the charlotte mixture, can be used for some other purpose, for instance, to mix with other cakes in a basket, or to dissolve at the bottom of a trifle. COFFEE CUSTARD—For this purpose the coffee should be cold drawn. Take a large half pint of fresh ground coffee, When the coffee liquid has all filtered down through both the upper and lower strainers, pour it off into a bowl, and return it to the upper strainer to filter down a second time. It will then be beautifully clear, and very strong, notwithstanding that it has been made with cold water. Have ready a custard-mixture made of eight well-beaten eggs, stirred gradually into a pint of cold rich milk or cream; and three or four table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf-sugar. Stir the cold liquid coffee gradually into it. Put it into cups. Set them in an iron oven or bake-pan with boiling water round them, reaching rather more than half-way up the sides of the cups. Bake them ten minutes or more. Then set them on ice, and send them to table quite cold. PRESERVED LIMES, OR SMALL LEMONS.—Take limes, or small lemons that are quite ripe, and all about the same size. With a sharp penknife scoop a hole at the stalk end of each, and loosen the pulp all around the inside, taking care not to break or cut through the rind. In doing this, hold the lime over a bowl, and having extracted all the pulp and juice, (saving them in the bowl,) boil the empty limes half an hour or more in alum-water, till the rinds look clear and nearly transparent. Then drain them, and lay them for several hours in cold water, changing the water nearly every After the limes have been greened, give the kettle a complete washing; or take another and proceed to make the syrup. Having weighed the limes, allow to every pound of them a pound of the best double refined loaf-sugar, and half a pint of very clear water. Break up the sugar and put it into the kettle. Then pour on to it the water, which must previously be mixed with some beaten white of egg, allowing the white of one egg to three pounds of sugar. Let the sugar dissolve in the water before you set it over the fire, stirring it well. Boil and skim the sugar, and when the scum ceases to rise, put in the limes, adding the juice that was saved from them, and which must first be strained from the pulp, seeds, &c. Boil the limes in the syrup till they are very tender and transparent. Then take them out carefully, and spread them on flat dishes. Put the syrup into a tureen, and leave it uncovered for two days. In the mean time prepare a jelly for filling the limes. Get several dozen of fine ripe lemons. Roll them under your hand on the table, to increase the juice; cut them in half, and squeeze them through a strainer into a pitcher. To each pint The lemon-jelly, the syrup and the limes, being thoroughly done, and all grown cold, finish by filling the limes with the jelly; putting them, with the open part downwards, into wide-mouthed glass jars, and gently pouring on them the syrup. Cover the jars closely, and paste strong paper over the covers. Or seal the corks. Very small, thin-skinned, ripe oranges, preserved in this manner, and filled with orange-jelly, are delicious. If, instead of having it liquid, you wish the syrup to crystallize or candy round the fruit, put no water to the sugar, but boil it slowly a long time, with the juice only, clarified by beaten white of egg mixed with the sugar in the proportion of one white to three pounds. Before squeezing out the juice of the lemons intended to make the jelly, it will be well to pare off very thin the yellow rind; cut it into bits, and put it into a bottle of white wine or brandy, where it will keep soft and fresh, and the infusion will make a fine flavouring for cakes, puddings, &c. The rind of lemons should never be thrown away, as it is useful for so many nice purposes. Apple-sauce and apple-pies should always be flavoured with lemon-peel. PINE-APPLE MARMALADE.—Take the largest, ripest, and most perfect pine-apples. Pare them, and cut out whatever blemishes you may find. Weigh each pine-apple, balancing the other scale with an equal quantity of the best double refined loaf-sugar, finely powdered. Grate the pine-apples on a large dish, omitting the hard core in the centre of each. Put the grated pine-apples and the sugar into a preserving-kettle, mixing them thoroughly. Set it over a moderate fire, and boil and skim it well, at times stirring it up from the bottom. After the scum has ceased to appear, still stir, till the marmalade is done, which will generally be in half an hour after it has come to a boil; but if not clear, bright, and smooth in that time, continue to boil it longer. When done, put it into a tureen, and cover it closely, while it is growing cold. Afterwards, remove it into tumblers, covering the top of each with double white tissue-paper, cut round so as exactly to fit the inside. Lay this paper closely on the marmalade, and press it down round the edges. Then paste on covers of thick paper. This preparation of pine-apples is far superior to the usual method of preserving it in slices. It will be found very fine for filling tart-shells, and for jelly-cake. ORANGE DROPS.—Squeeze through a strainer the juice of a dozen or more ripe oranges. Have ready some of the best double refined loaf-sugar, powdered as fine as possible, and sifted. Mix gradually the sugar with the juice, till it is so thick you can scarcely stir it. Put it into a porcelain skillet. Set it on hot coals, or over a moderate fire, and stir it hard with a wooden spoon for five minutes after it begins to boil. Then take it off the fire, and with a silver spoon or the point of a broad knife, drop portions of the mixture upon a flat tin pan or Lemon drops may be prepared in the same manner. FINE LEMON SYRUP.—The best time for making lemon syrup is early in the spring. Lemons are then plenty, and the syrup mixed with ice-water, makes a pleasant beverage for summer. It is best and cheapest to buy lemons by the box. Before using them for any purpose, each lemon should be wiped well, and then rolled hard under your hand upon a table to soften them and increase the juice. Two dozen large ripe lemons will generally yield about a quart of juice if pressed with a wooden lemon-squeezer; but it is best to have a few extra ones at hand, in case they should be required. To a quart of juice allow six pounds of the best loaf-sugar, broken up; on pieces of which rub off the yellow rind or zest of the lemons. The white part of the skin is useless and injurious. Put all the sugar into a large porcelain preserving-kettle. Beat to a stiff froth the whites of two eggs, mix it gradually with a quart of clear soft water, and then add it to the sugar. Stir the sugar while it is melting in the water, and when all is dissolved, place the kettle over the fire, and boil and skim it till perfectly clear, and the scum ceases to rise, and the particles of lemon zest are no longer visible. Meanwhile, squeeze the lemons through a strainer into a large pitcher, till you have a quart of juice. When the sugar has boiled sufficiently, and is quite clear, stir in gradually the lemon-juice, cover the kettle and let CROQUANT CAKE.—Take three quarters of a pound of almonds, (of which two ounces, or more, should be the bitter sort,) and blanch and slice them. Powder three quarters of a pound of fine white sugar. Sift three quarters of a pound of flour, and slice half a pound of citron. Mix together the almond and citron, on a flat dish, and sprinkle among them flour from the dredging-box, till they are white all over. Beat six eggs as light as possible, till they are very thick and smooth. Then mix them gradually with the sugar, almond, and citron, stirring very hard. Lastly, stir in, by degrees, the sifted flour. Butter a tin pan or pans, and put in the mixture about an inch deep. Bake it; and when cool, cut it into narrow slices about an inch wide, and five inches long. To make them keep a long time, lay them on shallow tins, and give them a second baking. Put the cakes into a stone jar, and they will keep a year or more, after this double baking. SASSAFRAS MEAD.—Mix gradually with two quarts of boiling water, three pounds and a half of the best brown sugar, a pint and a half of good West India molasses, and a quarter of a pound of tartaric acid. Stir it well, and when Sassafras mead will be found a cheap, wholesome, and pleasant beverage for warm weather. The essence of sassafras, tartaric acid, and carbonate of soda, can of course all be obtained at the druggists'. FINE TOMATA CATCHUP.—Take a large quantity of tomatas, and scald and peel them. Press them through a fine hair-sieve, and boil the pulp in either a porcelain or a bell-metal preserving-kettle, as tin or iron will blacken it. Cover the kettle closely, and keep it at a slow boil during four hours. Then measure the pulp of the tomatas, and to every two quarts allow a tea-spoonful of salt. Boil it an hour after the salt is in, stirring it frequently. Have ready, in equal proportions, a mixture of powdered ginger, nutmeg, mace, and cloves; and to every two quarts of the liquid, allow a large tea-spoonful of these mixed spices, adding a small tea-spoonful of cayenne. Stir in this seasoning, and then boil the catchup half an hour longer. Strain it carefully into a large pitcher, avoiding the grounds or sediment of the spices, and then (while hot) pour it through a flannel into clean bottles. Cork them tightly, and seal the corks. Keep it in a dry, cool place. It will be of a fine scarlet colour. GREEN TOMATA PICKLES.—Slice a gallon of the largest green tomatas, and salt them over night to your taste. In the morning mix together a table-spoonful of ground black pepper; one of mace; one of cloves; four pods of red pepper, chopped fine; and half a pint of grated horse-radish. Mix them all thoroughly. Have ready a large, wide-mouthed stone jar; put into it first a layer of the seasoning, then a layer of tomatas, then another of seasoning, then another of tomatas, then another of seasoning, another of tomatas; and so on alternately till the jar is filled within two inches of the top, finishing with a layer of seasoning. Then fill up to the top with cold cider vinegar; adding at the last a table-spoonful of sweet oil. Cover the jar closely. This will be found a very nice pickle, and is easily made, as it requires no cooking. After the tomatas are all gone, the liquid remaining in the jar may be used as catchup. RED TOMATA PICKLES.—Fill three quarters of a jar with small, round, button tomatas when quite ripe. Put them in whole, and then pour over them sufficient cold vinegar (highly flavoured with mace, cloves, and whole black pepper) to raise them to the top. Add a table-spoonful of sweet oil, and cover the jar closely. HASHED VEAL.—Always save the gravy of roast meat. Having skimmed off the fat, and poured the gravy through a strainer into a jar, cover it closely, and set it away in a refrigerator, or some very cold place, till next day. When cold meat is hashed or otherwise recooked, it is best to do it in its own gravy, and without the addition of water. Take some cold roast veal, and cut it into small mouthfuls. Put it into a skillet or stew-pan, without a drop of water. Add FRENCH CHICKEN SALAD.—Take a large, fine, cold fowl, and having removed the skin and fat, cut the flesh from the bones in very small shreds, not more than an inch long. The dressing should not be made till immediately before it goes to table. Have ready half a dozen or more hard-boiled eggs. Cut up the yolks upon a plate, and with the back of a wooden spoon mash them to a paste, adding a small salt-spoonful of salt, rather more of cayenne pepper, and a large tea-spoonful of made mustard. Mix them well together; then add two large table-spoonfuls of salad oil, and one of the best cider vinegar. All these ingredients for the dressing, must be mixed to a fine, smooth, stiff, yellow paste. Lay the shred chicken in a nice even heap, upon the middle of a flat dish, smoothing it, and making it circular or oval with the back of a spoon, and flattening the top. Then cover it thickly and smoothly with the dressing, or paste of seasoned yolk of egg, &c. Have ready a large head of lettuce that has been picked, and washed in cold water; and, cutting up the best parts of it Do not use for this, or any other purpose, the violently and disagreeable sharp vinegar that is improperly sold in many of the grocery stores, and is made entirely of chemical acids. Some of these employed for making vinegar, are so corrosive as to be absolutely poisonous. This vinegar can always be known by its very clear transparency, and its excessive pungency, overpowering entirely the taste of every thing with which it is mixed; and also by its entire destitution of the least flavour resembling wine or cider, though it is often sold as "the best white vinegar." You can always have good wholesome vinegar by setting in the sun with the cork loosened, a vessel of cider till it becomes vinegar. In buying a keg of vinegar, it is best to get it of a farmer that makes cider. NORMANDY SOUP.—Take four pounds of knuckle of veal. Put it into a soup pot with twenty common-sized onions, and about four quarts of water. Let it simmer slowly for two hours or more. Then put in about one third of a six-penny loaf grated; adding a small tea-spoonful of salt, and not quite that quantity of cayenne pepper. Let it boil two hours longer. Then take out the meat, and press and strain the soup through a large sieve into a broad pan. Measure it, and to every quart of the soup add a pint of cream, and about two ounces of fresh butter divided into four bits, and rolled in Put the soup again over the fire, and let it just come to a boil. Then serve it up. These proportions of the ingredients ought to make a tureen-full. This soup is a very fine one for dinner company. The taste of the onions becomes so mild as to be just agreeably perceptible; particularly in autumn when the onions are young and fresh. In cool weather it may be made the day before; but in this case, when done, it must be set on ice, and the cream and butter not put in till shortly before it goes to table. Never keep soup (or any other article that has been cooked) in a glazed earthen crock or pitcher. The glazing being of lead would render it unwholesome. Its effects have sometimes been so deleterious as really to destroy life. TOMATA SOUP.—Take a fore-leg of beef, and cut it up into small pieces. Put the meat with the bones into a soup-pot, and cover it with a gallon of water. Season it with pepper, and a little salt. Boil and skim it well. Have ready half a peck of ripe tomatas cut up small; and when the soup is boiling thoroughly, put them in with all their juice. Add six onions sliced, and some crusts of bread cut small. The soup must then be boiled slowly for six hours or more. When done, strain it through a cullender. Put into the tureen some pieces of bread cut into dice or small squares, and pour the soup upon it. Tomata soup (like most others) is best when made the day before. In this case you may boil it longer and slower. Then When ochras are in season, this soup will be greatly improved by the addition of half a peck of ochras, peeled and sliced thin. Take eight calves' feet (two sets) and season them with a small tea-spoonful of salt, half a tea-spoonful of cayenne, and half a tea-spoonful of black pepper, all mixed together and rubbed over the feet. Slice a quarter of a peck of ochras, and a dozen onions, and cut up a quarter of a peck of tomatas without skinning them. Put the whole into a soup-pot with four quarts of water, and boil and skim it during two hours. Then take out the calves' feet, and put them on a dish. Next, strain the soup through a cullender, into an earthen pan, and with the back of a short wooden ladle mash out into the pan of soup all the liquid from the vegetables, till they are as dry as possible. Cut off all the meat nicely from the bones into small bits, and return it to the soup, adding a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, divided into four, and rolled in flour. Put the soup again into the pot, and give it a boil up. Toast two or three large thick slices of bread; cut it into small square dice or mouthfuls; lay it in the bottom of the tureen; pour the soup over it, and put on the tureen cover immediately. This soup (which, however, can only be made when tomatas and ochras are in season) will be found excellent. It may be greatly improved by boiling in it the hock of a cold ham: in which case add no salt. FINE CALVES' HEAD SOUP.—Boil in as much water as will cover it, a calf's head with the skin on, till you can Take rather more than a pint of the liquid, (after all the fat has been carefully skimmed off,) and put it into a saucepan with two ounces of fresh butter, a bunch of sweet marjoram, a few sprigs of parsley, two onions minced fine, and a large slice of the lean of some cold boiled ham, cut into little bits. Keep it closely covered, and let it simmer over the fire for an hour. Then press it through a sieve into the pan that contains the rest of the soup. Thicken it with a large tea-cupful (half a pint) of grated bread-crumbs; return it to the soup-pot, and boil it half an hour. Unless your dinner hour is late, it is best to make this soup the day before, putting it into a large stoneware or china vessel, (not an earthen one,) covering it closely and setting it in a cool place. Have ready some force-meat balls, made of the meat of the calves' head, finely minced, and mixed with grated bread-crumbs, butter, powdered sweet-majoram, a very little salt and pepper, and some beaten yolk of egg to cement these ingredients together. Each ball should be rolled in flour, and fried in fresh butter before it is put into the soup. Shortly before you send it to table, add a large lemon sliced thin without peeling, and a pint of good madeira or sherry, wine of inferior quality being totally unfit for soup, terrapin, or any such purposes. Add also the yolks of some hard-boiled eggs cut THE BEST CLAM SOUP.—Put fifty clams into a large pot of boiling water, to make the shells open easily. Take a knuckle of veal, cut it into pieces (four calves' feet split in half will be still better) and put it into a soup-pot with the liquor of the clams, and a quart of rich milk, or cream, adding a large bunch of sweet majoram, and a few leaves of sage, cut into pieces, and a head of celery chopped small; also, a dozen whole pepper-corns, but no salt, as the saltness of the clam liquor will be sufficient. Boil it till all the meat of the veal drops from the bones, then strain off the soup and return it to the pot, which must first be washed out. Having in the mean time cut up the clams, and pounded them in a mortar, (which will cause them to flavour the soup much better,) season them with two dozen blades of mace, and two powdered nutmegs; mix with them a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and put them into the soup with all the liquor that remains about them. After the clams are in, let it boil another quarter of an hour. Have ready some thick slices of nicely-toasted bread, (with the crust removed,) cut them into small square mouthfuls; put them into a tureen; and pour the soup upon them. It will be found excellent. Oyster soup may be made in the same manner. BAKED CLAMS.—In taking out the clams, save several dozen of the largest and finest shells, which must afterwards be washed clean, and wiped dry. Chop the clams fine, and mix with them some powdered mace and nutmeg. Butter the sides and bottom of a large, deep dish, and cover the bottom with a layer of grated bread-crumbs. Over this scatter some Oysters may be cooked in a similar manner; sending them to table in the dish in which they were baked. The meat of boiled crabs may also be minced, seasoned, and dressed this way, and sent to table in the back shells of the crabs. Clams intended for soup will communicate to it a much finer flavour, if they are previously chopped small, and pounded in a mortar. FINE STEWED OYSTERS.—Strain the liquor from two hundred large oysters, and putting the half of it into a saucepan, add a table-spoonful of whole mace, and let it come to a hard boil, skimming it carefully. Have ready six ounces of fresh butter divided into six balls or lumps, and roll each slightly in a little flour. Add them to the boiling oyster liquor, and when the butter is all melted, stir the whole very hard, and then put in the oysters. As soon as they have come to a boil, take them out carefully, and lay them immediately in a pan of very cold water, to plump them and make them firm. Then season the liquor with a grated nutmeg; and taking a pint and a half of very rich cream, add it gradually to the liquor, stirring it all the time. When it has boiled again, return the oysters to it, and simmer them in the creamed liquor about five minutes or If you stew six or eight hundred oysters, in this manner, for a large company, see that the butter, spice, cream, &c., are all increased in the proper proportion. Oysters cooked in this way make very fine patties. The shells for which must be made of puff-paste, and baked empty in very deep patty-pans, filling them, when done, with oysters. SPICED OYSTERS.—To four hundred large oysters allow a pint of cider vinegar, four grated nutmegs, sixteen blades of whole mace, six dozen of whole cloves, three dozen whole pepper corns, and a salt-spoonful of cayenne. Put the liquor into a porcelain kettle, and boil and skim it; when it has come to a hard boil, add the vinegar and put in the oysters with the seasoning of spices, &c. Give them one boil up, for if boiled longer they will shrivel and lose their flavour. Then put them into a stone or glass jar, cover them closely, and set them in a cool place. They must be quite cold when eaten. You may give them a light reddish tint by boiling in the liquor a little prepared cochineal. TO KEEP FRESH EGGS.—Have a close, dry keg, for the purpose of receiving the eggs as they are brought in fresh from the hen's nests. An old biscuit keg will be best. Keep near it a patty-pan, or something of the sort, to hold a piece of clean white rag with some good lard tied up in it. While they are fresh and warm from the nest, grease each egg all over with the lard, not omitting even the smallest part; and then put it into the keg with the rest. Eggs preserved in this manner (and there is no better way) will continue good for months, provided they were perfectly fresh when greased; and it is A MOLASSES PIE.—Make a good paste, and having rolled it out thick, line a pie-dish with a portion of it. Then fill up the dish with molasses, into which you have previously stirred a table-spoonful, or more, of ground ginger. Cover it with an upper crust of the paste; notch the edges neatly; and bake it brown. This pie, plain as it is, will be found very good. It will be improved by laying a sliced orange or lemon in the bottom before you put in the molasses. To the ginger you may add a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. SOUP À LA LUCY.—Take a large fowl; cut it up; put it with a few small onions into a soup-pot, and fry it brown in plenty of lard. Afterwards pour in as much water as you intend for the soup, and boil it slowly till the whole strength of the chicken is extracted, and the flesh drops in rags from the bones. An hour before dinner, strain off the liquid, return it to the pot (which must first be cleared entirely out) add the liquor of a quart of fresh oysters, and boil it again. In half an hour put in the oysters and mix into the soup two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter rolled in flour; some whole pepper; blades of mace; and grated nutmeg. Toast some thick slices of bread (without the crust) cut them into dice, and put them into the soup tureen. For the fowl, you may substitute a knuckle of veal cut up; or a pair of rabbits. MINT JULEP.—This can only be made when fresh green mint is in season. Lay at the bottom of a large tumbler, one or two round slices of pine-apple nicely pared; and cover them with a thick layer of loaf-sugar, powdered or well-broken. Pour on it a glass or more of the best brandy. Add cold water till the tumbler is two-thirds full. Finish with a thick layer of pounded ice till it nearly reaches the top. Then stick down to one side a bunch of fresh green mint, the sprigs full and handsome, and tall enough to rise above the edge of the tumbler. Place, in the other side, one of the small tubes or straws used for drawing in this liquid. The proportions of the above ingredients may, of course, be varied according to taste. A UNION PUDDING.—The night before you make this pudding, take a piece of rennet, in size rather more than two inches square, and carefully wash off in two cold waters all the salt from the outside. Then wipe it dry. Put the rennet into a tea-cup and pour on sufficient milk-warm water to cover it well. Next morning, as early as you can, stir the rennet-water into a quart of rich milk. Cover the milk, and set it in a warm place till it forms a firm curd, and the whey becomes thin and greenish. Then remove it to a cold place and set it on ice. Blanch, in scalding water, two ounces of shelled bitter almonds, or peach-kernels; and two ounces of shelled sweet almonds. Pound the almonds in a mortar, to a smooth paste, one at a time (sweet and bitter alternately, so as to mix them well); and add, while pounding, sufficient rose-water to make them light and white, and to prevent their oiling. Grate upon a lump of loaf-sugar the yellow rind or zest of two lemons, scraping off the lemon-zest as you proceed, Butter a deep dish of strong white ware. Put in the mixture: set it immediately into a brisk oven and bake it well. When done, set it in a cold place till wanted, and before it goes to table, sift powdered sugar over it. It will be still better to cover the surface with a meringue or icing, highly flavored with rose-water or lemon-juice. You may decorate the centre with the word UNION in letters of gilt sugar. The pudding will be found very fine. COCOA-NUT CANDY.—Take three cocoa-nuts and grate their meat on a coarse grater. Weigh the grated cocoa-nut, and to each pound, allow one pound of the best double-refined loaf-sugar. Put the sugar into a preserving kettle, and to every two pounds allow a pint of water, and the beaten white of one egg mixed into the water. When the sugar is entirely dissolved in the water, set it over the fire, and boil and skim it. When the scum has ceased to rise, and the sugar is boiling hard, begin to throw in the grated cocoa-nut, gradually, stirring hard all the time. Proceed till the mixture is so thick it can be stirred no longer. Have ready, square or oblong tin pans, slightly buttered with the best fresh butter. Fill them with the mixture, put in evenly and smoothly, and of If any of the grated cocoa-nut is left, you may make it into cocoa-nut maccaroons, or into a cocoa-nut pudding. PRESERVED GREEN TOMATAS.—Take a peck of button tomatas, full grown, but quite green. Weigh them, and to each pound allow a pound of the best double-refined loaf-sugar, broken up small. Scald and peel them. Have ready ten lemons rolled under your hand on a table, to increase the juice. Grate off, upon lumps of sugar, the yellow surface of the rind, scraping up the grating or zest with a spoon, and transferring it to a bowl. Squeeze over it, through a strainer, the juice of the lemon. Take a quarter of a pound of root ginger, scrape off the outside, grate the ginger and mix it with the lemon. Put the sugar into a large preserving kettle, and pour water on it; allowing half a pint of water to each pound of sugar. Stir it about with a large, clean wooden spoon, till it melts. Set it over a clear fire, and boil and skim it. After it has boiled, and is very clear, and the scum has ceased to rise, put in the tomatas and boil them till every one has slightly bursted. Next add the lemon and ginger, and boil them about a quarter of an hour longer. Then take them out and spread them on large dishes to cool. Boil the syrup by itself, ten minutes longer. Put the tomatas into jars, about Green tomatas, done as above, make an excellent sweetmeat. Ripe or red tomatas may be preserved in the same manner; yellow ones also. The lemon and ginger must on no account be omitted. PRESERVED FIGS.—Take figs when perfectly ripe, and wipe them carefully, leaving the stem about half an inch long. Boil them rapidly, for about ten minutes, in water that has a small bag of hickory wood-ashes laid at the bottom of the preserving kettle. Then take them out carefully, so as not to break the skins. Wash out the kettle, and boil the figs a second time, in clean hot water, for ten minutes. Take them out, spread them separately on large dishes, and let them rest till next morning. Prepare a syrup, by allowing to every pound of the finest loaf-sugar, half a pint of water, and, when melted together, placing the kettle over the fire. When the syrup has boiled, and is thoroughly skimmed, put in the figs, and boil them about twenty-five minutes or half an hour. Then take them out, and again spread them to cool on large dishes. Afterwards, put them up in glass jars, pouring the syrup over them. Cover the jars closely, and set them in the hot sun all next day. Then seal the corks with the red cement made of melted rosin and bees-wax, thickened with fine brick-dust. Another way is to cut the stems closely, and to peel off the skin of the figs; and to substitute for the bag of wood-ashes, a little powdered alum. Then proceed as above. MYRTLE ORANGES PRESERVED.—The small myrtle of the South, makes a very fine green sweetmeat. Lay them Another way is to scoop out all the inside of oranges as soon as they are greened, and make a thick jelly of it, with the addition of some more orange-pulp from other oranges. Press it through a strainer, and, after adding a pound of sugar to each pint of orange juice, boil it to a jelly. Having boiled the empty oranges in a syrup till they are crisp and tender, spread them out to cool—fill them with the jelly, and put them up in glass jars, pouring the syrup over them. TO KEEP STRAWBERRIES.—Take the largest and finest ripe strawberries, hull them, and put them immediately into large wide-mouthed bottles, filling them quite up to the top. Raspberries, ripe currants stripped from the stalk, ripe gooseberries topped and tailed, and any small fruit, may be kept in this manner for many months. In France, where syrups of every sort of fruit are made by boiling the juice with sugar, and then bottling it, it is very customary to serve up, in glass dishes, fruits preserved as above, with their respective syrups poured round them, from the bottles. They are delicious. TO KEEP PEACHES.—Take fine ripe juicy free-stone peaches. Pare them, and remove the stones by thrusting them out with a skewer, leaving the peaches as nearly whole as possible. Or you may cut them in half. Put them immediately into flat stone jars, and cement on the covers with the composition of bees-wax and rosin melted together, and Peaches done in this manner, have arrived at California in perfect preservation. But they must be eaten as soon as the jars are opened. GREEN CORN MUFFINS.—Having boiled the corn, grate it, as if for a pudding. Beat six eggs very light, and stir them gradually into a quart of milk. Then stir in, by degrees, the grated corn, till you have a moderately thick batter. Add a salt-spoon of salt. Butter the inside of your muffin-rings. Place them on a hot griddle, over a clear fire, and nearly fill them with the batter. Bake the muffins well, and send them to table hot. Eat them with butter. COMPOTE OF SWEET POTATOES.—Select fine large sweet potatoes, all nearly the same size. Boil them well and then peel off the skins. Then lay the potatoes in a large baking-dish; put some pieces of fresh butter among them, and sprinkle them very freely with powdered sugar. Bake them slowly, till the butter and sugar form a crust. They should be eaten after the meat. This is a Carolina dish, and will be found very good. BAKED HAM.—Soak a nice small sugar-cured ham in cold water, from early in the evening till next morning—changing the water at bed-time. (It may require twenty-four hours' soaking.) Trim it nicely, and cut the shank-bone short off. Make a coarse paste of merely flour and water, sufficient in quantity to enclose the whole ham. Roll it out, and cover the ham entirely with it. Place it in a well-heated oven, and If the ham is rather salt and hard, parboil it for two hours. Then put it into the paste, and bake it three hours. MUSHROOM SWEET-BREADS.—Take four fine fresh sweet-breads; trim them nicely, split them open, and remove the gristle or pipe. Then lay the sweet-breads in warm water till all the blood is drawn out. Afterwards, put them into a saucepan, set them over the fire, and parboil them for a quarter of an hour. Then take them out, and lay them immediately in a pan of cold water. Have ready a quart of fresh mushrooms; peel them, and remove the stalks. Spread out the mushrooms on a large flat dish, with the hollow side uppermost, and sprinkle them slightly with a little salt and pepper. Having divided each sweet-bread into four quarters, put them into a saucepan with the mushrooms, and add a large piece of the best fresh butter rolled in flour. Cover the pan closely, and set it over a clear fire that has no blaze. You must lift the saucepan by the handle, and shake it round hard, otherwise, the contents may burn at the bottom. Keep it closely covered all the time; for if the lid is removed, much of the mushroom-flavour may escape. Let them stew steadily for a quarter of an hour or more. Then take them up, and send them to table in a covered dish, either at breakfast or dinner. They will be found delicious. If the mushrooms are large, quarter them. PANCAKE HAM.—Cut very thin some slices of cold ham, making them all nearly of the same size and shape. Beat In making yeast-powders, allow twice as much carbonate of soda as of tartaric acid. For instance, a level tea-spoonful of soda to a level salt-spoonful of the tartaric acid. Put up the two articles, separately folded in papers of different colours; the former in blue paper, the latter in white. AN APPLE PANDOWDY.—Make a good plain paste. Pare, core, and slice half a dozen or more fine large juicy apples, and strew among them sufficient brown sugar to make them very sweet; adding some cloves, cinnamon, or lemon-peel. Have ready a pint of sour milk. Butter a deep tin baking-pan, and put in the apples with the sugar and spice. Then, having dissolved, in a little lukewarm water, HONEY PASTE (for the HANDS.)—Take half a pound of strained honey, half a pound of white wax, and half a pound of fresh lard. Cut up the wax very small, put it into a porcelain-lined saucepan, and set it over the fire till it is quite melted. Then add alternately the honey and the lard; stirring them all well together. Let them boil moderately, till they become a thick paste, about the consistence of simple cerate, or of lip salve. Then remove the saucepan from the fire, and stir into the mixture some rose-perfume, or carnation, or violet—no other. Transfer the paste, while warm, to gallicups with covers; and paste a slip of white paper round each cover. For keeping the hands white and soft, and preventing their chapping, there is nothing superior to this paste; rubbing on a little of it, after dipping your hands lightly in water. GLYCERINE.—This is an excellent and very convenient preparation for the hands. Buy a bottle of it at one of the best druggists, and keep it well corked. After washing your hands with palm or castile soap, empty the basin, and pour in a little fresh water, to which add a few drops of glycerine. Finish your hands with this, rubbing it in hard. It will render them very soft and smooth, and prevent chapping. Try it, by all means. TO KEEP OFF MUSQUITOES.—Before going to bed, put a little eau de cologne into a basin of clean water, and with this wash your face, neck, hands, and arms, letting it dry on. The musquitoes then will not touch you. It may be necessary to repeat this washing before morning, or about day-light. There is nothing better. You may also do it early in the evening, before the musquitoes begin. CORN-STARCH BLANCMANGE.—Buy at one of the best grocer's, a half-pound paper of corn-starch flour. Boil a quart of milk, taking out of it a large tea-cup-full, which you may put into a pan. While the milk is boiling, mix with the cold milk four heaping table-spoonfuls of the corn-starch. Beat three eggs very light, and stir them into the mixture. Flavour it with a tea-spoonful of extract of bitter almonds, or of vanilla, or a wine-glass of rose-water. Add a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, and stir the whole well together. When the other milk is boiling hard, pour it gradually on the mixture in the pan, which mixture will thicken while the milk is pouring. Transfer it to blancmange moulds, (first wetting them with cold water,) and set them in a cold place till dinner-time. Eat it with cream. Serve up sweetmeats at the same time. If you use new milk, the mixture will be like a soft custard, and must be sent to table as such. Skim-milk makes it blancmange. If you wish it as a pudding, use five heaping spoonfuls of the corn-starch powder. Send it to table hot, and eat it with wine sauce. It is a pudding very soon prepared. Blancmange moulds are best of block tin. Those of china are more liable to stick. These preparations of corn-starch are much liked. FARINA.—Is the finest, lightest, and most delicate preparation of wheat flour. It is excellent for all sorts of boiled puddings, for flummery, and blancmange. Also, as gruel for the sick. CINNAMON CAKE.—Take as much of the very best and lightest bread-dough as will weigh a pound. The dough must have risen perfectly, so as to have cracked all over the surface. Put it into a pan, and mix into it a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, melted in half a pint of milk, adding a well-beaten egg, and sufficient flour to enable you to knead the dough over again. Then mix in a heaping tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon. Next, take a yeast-powder. In one cup, melt the soda or contents of the blue paper, in as much lukewarm water as will cover it; and, when thoroughly melted, mix it into the dough. Immediately after, having dissolved in another cup the tartaric acid, or contents of the white paper, stir that in also, and knead the dough a little while, till the whole is well mixed. Spread the dough thick and evenly in a square pan greased with lard or fresh butter, and with a knife make deep cuts all through it. Having previously prepared in a bowl a mixture of brown sugar, moistened with butter, and highly flavoured with powdered cinnamon, in the proportion of four heaping table-spoonfuls of sugar to two large spoonfuls of butter and one heaped tea-spoonful of cinnamon. Fill the cuts with this mixture, pressing it down well into the dough. Bake the cake half an hour or more, in a rather quick oven. When done, set it to cool; and when cold, cut it in squares, and sift powdered white sugar over it. It is best the day it is baked. You may, previous to baking, form the dough into separate By bespeaking it in time, you can get risen bread dough from your baker. For two pounds of dough you must double the proportions of the above ingredients. THAWING FROZEN MEAT, &c.—If meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, or any other article of food, when found frozen, is thawed by putting it into warm water or placing it before the fire, it will most certainly spoil by that process, and be rendered unfit to eat. The only way is to thaw these things by immersing them in cold water. This should be done as soon as they are brought in from market, that they may have time to be well thawed before they are cooked. If meat that has been frozen is to be boiled, put it on in cold water. If to be roasted, begin by setting it at a distance from the fire; for if it should not chance to be thoroughly thawed all through to the centre, placing at first too near the fire will cause it to spoil. If it is expedient to thaw the meat or poultry the night before cooking, lay it in cold water early in the evening, and change the water at bed-time. If found crusted with ice in the morning, remove the ice, and put the meat in fresh cold water; letting it lie in it till wanted for cooking. Potatoes are injured by being frozen. Other vegetables are not the worse for it, provided they are always thawed in cold water. KEEPING MEAT, &c., IN SUMMER.—In summer, meat, poultry, fish, fruit, &c., should always be kept in ice, from the time they are brought from market till it is time to cook them. Families, who have not an ice-house, should have two refrigerators; one for meat and poultry, the other A barrel of salt fish should never be kept in the same cellar with other articles of food. The fish-smell will injure them greatly, and render them unwholesome; milk and butter particularly. It is best to buy salt fish a little at a time, as you want it. A fish-barrel in the cellar will sometimes vitiate the atmosphere of the whole lower story of the house, and, indeed, may be smelt immediately on entering the door. In this case, let the barrel and its contents be conveyed to the river and thrown in; otherwise, its odour may produce sickness in the family. Avoid eating anything that is in the very least approaching to decomposition. Even sour bread and strong butter are unwholesome as well as unpalatable. If the bread is sour, or the butter rancid, it is because (as the French, in such cases, unceremoniously say) "putrefaction has commenced." Fortunately, the vile practice (once considered fashionable) of eating venison and other game when absolutely tainted, is now obsolete at all good tables. Persons who have had opportunities of feasting on fresh-killed venison, just from the woods, and at a season when the deer have plenty of wild berries to feed on and are fat and juicy, can never relish the hard, lean, black haunches that are brought to the cities in winter. BROILED SHAD.—Cut off the head and tail, and clean the fish. Wipe it very dry with a cloth, and sprinkle the inside with a little salt and pepper. You may either broil it split open, and laid flat; or you may cut it into three or four pieces without splitting. In the latter case, it will require a APPLE PORK.—Take a fillet of fine fresh pork, and rub it slightly all over with a very little salt and pepper. Score the outside skin in diamonds. Take out the bone, and fill up the place with fine juicy apples, pared, cored, and cut small, and made very sweet with plenty of brown sugar; adding some bits of the yellow rind of a lemon or two, pared off very thin. Then have ready a dozen and a half or more of large apples, pared, cored, and quartered, sweetened well with sugar, and also flavoured with yellow rind of lemon. The juice of the lemons will be an improvement. Put the pork into a large pot, or into an iron bake-oven; fill up with the cut apples the space all round, adding just sufficient water to keep it from burning. Stew or bake it during three hours. When done, serve all up in one large dish. STEWED SALT PORK.—Take a good piece of salt pork, (not too fat,) and, early in the evening, lay it in water, to soak all night, changing the water about bed-time. In the morning, drain and wash the pork, and cut it in very thin slices, seasoning it with pepper. Put a layer of this pork in the bottom of a large dinner-pot, and then a layer of slices of This is a homely dish, but a very good one, particularly on a farm or on ship-board. At sea, you must substitute biscuit for bread. Cold pork, left from yesterday, may be cooked in this manner. TO MAKE GOOD TOAST.—Cut the bread in even slices, and moderately thick. When cut too thin, toast is hard and tasteless. It is much nicer when the crust is pared off before toasting. A long-handled toasting-fork (to be obtained at the hardware or tin stores) is far better than the usual toasting apparatus, made to stand before the fire with the slices of bread slipped in between, and therefore liable to be browned in stripes, dark and light alternately; unless the bread, while toasting, is carefully slipped along, so that the whole may receive equal benefit from the fire. With a fork, whose handle is near a yard in length, the cook can sit at a comfortable distance from the fire, and the bread will be equally browned all over; when one side is done, taking it off from the fork, and turning the other. Send it to table hot, in a heated plate, or in a toast-rack; and butter it to your taste. Toast should neither be burnt nor blackened in any way. You may lay it in even piles, and butter it before it goes to table; cutting each slice in half. |
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