No metal (not even silver,) is good for tea-pots. All tea should be made in china or queensware. Wedgewood (whether black or white) imbibes much of the essence of the tea, and from constant use soon becomes unpleasant. Britannia ware is exceedingly unwholesome for any sort of cooking, as one fourth of the composition is copper. Block tin for a common tea-pot is less objectionable, and much cheaper. All tea-pots should, after using, be thoroughly emptied of the old leaves, and washed very clean in warm water, and set open in the sun and air for several hours. To make good tea, the tea itself, whether black or green, must be of excellent quality. There is no economy in buying that which is low-priced. Green tea, if fresh and good, and not adulterated will look green in the cup, and have a fragrant odor. If it draws red, or brown, or blackish, it is old or mixed with something wrong. Begin to make your tea about a quarter of an hour before it is wanted. Scald the tea-pot (twice over) with boiling water. Then put in the tea, allowing three heaping table-spoonfuls to each person, and a pint of water, actually boiling, when put in. Cover it closely with the lid, and set it by the fire for ten or fifteen minutes to infuse. After the first cups have gone round, put some fresh tea into the pot, and pour on it some more boiling water, that the second cups may be as strong as the first, having time to infuse. Weak tea for company is very mean. For those that like it so, have a small pot of water on the server. If the water is not boiling fast when poured on the tea, and is beginning to cool, the tea will be flat and insipid, and the leaves will float on the surface of the cups. There is then no remedy but to make some fresh.

COFFEE.—

To drink coffee in perfection, a sufficient quantity for breakfast should be roasted every morning, and ground hot, as it loses much of its strength by keeping even for a few hours. The best coffee roasters are iron cylinders, (standing on feet) with a door in one side, and a handle that turns the cylinder round towards the fire or from it, that the coffee may be equally done throughout. It must be roasted a bright brown color, and on no account black or burnt. When about half done, put in bits of fresh butter, allowing a table-spoonful to a pound of coffee. Previous to roasting pick the coffee carefully, throwing away the defective grains, and the stones or sand. Coffee should be ground while warm in a mill kept solely for that purpose, and fastened up against the kitchen wall.

For boiled coffee allow four ounces of ground coffee (or a quarter of a pound) to a quart of water. When the water boils, stir in the coffee. Give it one hard boil up. Then set it farther from the fire, and simmer it for ten minutes, adding the white of an egg, (including the egg shell,) or a small strip of isinglass. Pour out a large cup of the coffee, and then (holding it high above the coffee-pot,) pour it back again. Repeat this till wanted, and then set the coffee-pot beside the fire, (but not over it.) For company, allow six ounces of coffee to a quart of water. Keep the lid always on, but if when boiling hard it rises and seems inclined to run over, remove it instantly from the fire and set it back. Cream is indispensable to first-rate coffee; if not to be obtained sweet, substitute rich milk boiling hot. On no consideration fill up the coffee-pot with water. A percolator (to be had at the best tin stores) makes excellent coffee without boiling, if properly managed.

There is no plain chocolate better than Baker's prepared cacao, and none has so much of the true chocolate flavor. The foreign chocolate is generally mixed with sugar, spice, and milk. It cannot be made thick and strong, and therefore to many tastes is not agreeable. To make a pint (or two large cupfuls of chocolate,) scrape down two ounces on a plate, and moisten the chocolate with a jill of water, rubbing it on the plate till quite smooth. Then boil it five minutes, and add a small pint of water. When it has been well stirred with a wooden spoon, and has come again to a boil, serve it as hot as possible, accompanied by a saucer of fine loaf sugar, and a small jug of rich hot cream and a plate of nice dry toast, or some milk biscuits or sponge cake. Milled chocolate is made with rich unskimmed milk instead of water. The chocolate mill is a deep pot, belonging to which is a stick with a broad wheel-shaped bottom, the other end coming up through a hole in the lid. Take this between your hands, and turn it round fast till the chocolate is finely frothed. Then transfer it to large cups. Chocolate, after it becomes cold, is unfit to drink. But if made with milk, you can convert what is left into a custard or pudding, with the addition of more sugar and some beaten egg. The low-priced chocolate is both unpalatable and unwholesome, being adulterated with animal fat or lard, and made with old cacao beans.

MILK TOAST.—

To a pint of nice rich milk allow a quarter of a pound of excellent fresh butter. Boil the milk, and as soon as it boils take it off, and stir in the butter cut into pieces. When the butter has melted, give it another boil up Have ready a deep plate with four rather thick slices of bread, nicely and evenly toasted on both sides. Pour the milk hot over the toast, and keep it covered till it goes to the breakfast table. Send a spoon with it. Bread should always be toasted by a long-handled fork, such as are made for the purpose. They cost but twenty-five cents, and no kitchen should be without one.

BUTTERED TOAST.—

Cut even slices of bread all of the same thickness, and pare off the whole of the crust. With a long-handled toasting fork toast it evenly on both sides, taking care that no part of it is burnt or blackened. Butter the slices hot, as you take them off the fork, (using none but nice fresh butter) and lay them evenly on a heated plate. Cover them till they go to table.

All toast prepared for cookery, (to lay in the bottom of dishes,) should have the crust pared off, and be dipped in hot water after toasting.

RASPBERRY VINEGAR.—

Take a gallon of fine ripe raspberries. Put them into a large deep earthen pan, and mash them well with a wooden beetle. Then pour them with all their juice into a large and very clean linen bag, and squeeze and press out their liquid into a vessel beneath. Measure it, and to each pint of juice allow half a pint of the best and clearest cider vinegar, and half a pound of fine loaf sugar, powdered. First mix the juice and the vinegar, and give them a boil in a porcelain kettle. Then stir in the sugar, gradually, adding to every two pounds of sugar a beaten white of egg. Boil and skim till the scum ceases to rise. When it is done, bottle it cold, cork it tightly, and seal the corks. To use it, pour out half a tumbler of raspberry vinegar, and fill up with ice water. It is a pleasant and cooling beverage in warm weather, and for invalids who are feverish. Mixed with hot water, and taken at bed-time, it is good for a cold.

Strawberry Vinegar—Is made in the above manner, carefully hulling them. The strawberries must be of the finest kind, and fully ripe. These vinegars are made with much less trouble than the usual way; and are quite as good, if not better.

MACARONI.—

In buying macaroni, choose that of a large pipe; see that it is clean and white and that it has not been touched by insects. Half a pound makes one dish. If soaked before boiling it is apt to dissolve or go to pieces, but wash and drain it through cold water in a sieve. Have over the fire a large pan of boiling water, in which has been melted a piece of fresh butter the size of an egg. If boiled steadily, it will be quite tender in less than an hour; but do not boil it so long that the pipes break up and lose their shape. Having drained it well through a clean sieve, transfer it to a deep dish, dividing it into four layers, having first cut it into even lengths of two or three inches. Between the layers place on it seasoning of grated cheese of the very best quality, and bits of fresh butter, with some powdered mace. On the top layer, add to the covering of cheese and butter sufficient bread-crumbs to form a slight crust all over the surface. Brown it with a salamander or a red hot shovel. Or (omitting the cheese) you may dress it with rich gravy of roast meat.

For Sweet Macaroni.—Having boiled it in milk instead of water, drain it, and mix with it powdered mace and nutmeg, with butter, sugar, and rose or peach-water. Macaroni (like vermicelli) has in itself no taste, but is only made palatable by the manner of dressing it. Good soup is rather weakened than improved by the addition of macaroni.

COMMON OMELET.—

Beat five eggs till very light and thick. Stir gradually into the pan of eggs four table-spoonfuls of sifted flour. Thin the batter with a large tea-cup of milk. Take a yeast powder; dissolve the soda (from the blue paper) in a small quantity of tepid or lukewarm water, and stir it into the batter. In another cup melt the tartaric acid, (from the white paper;) stir that into the mixture, and stir the whole very hard. Have ready in a frying-pan a large portion of lard, boiling hot. Put in the omelet mixture, and fry it well. When one side is done turn it, and fry the other. To flavor this omelet, mix gradually into the batter either grated ham or smoked tongue; minced oysters; minced onion; mixed with sweet marjoram, or else some mushrooms chopped very fine.

For a Sweet Omelet, add to the above batter powdered sugar, nutmeg, mace, and powdered cinnamon.

The custom is now to dish omelets without folding them over, it being found that folding renders them heavy. Spread them out at full length on a very hot dish. The batter for omelets should always be made in sufficient quantity to allow them very thick.

There is no use in attempting to flavor an omelet, or any thing else, with marmalade or lemon, if you put in soda. The alkalies destroy the taste of every sort of fruit.

A PLAIN POTATO PUDDING.—

Having pared a pound of fine large potatos, put them into a pot, cover them well with cold water, and boil them gently till tender all through. When done, lay each potato (one at a time,) in a clean warm napkin, and press and wring it till all the moisture is squeezed out, and the potato becomes a round, dry lump. Mince as fine as possible a quarter of a pound of fresh beef suet, (divested of skin, and strings.) Crumble the potato, and mix it well with the suet, adding a small salt-spoon of salt. Add sufficient milk to make a thick batter, and beat it well. Dip a strong square cloth in hot water, shake it out, and dredge it well with flour. Tie the pudding in, leaving room for it to swell, and put it into a large pot of hot water and boil it steady for an hour. This is a good and economical family pudding.

ELLEN CLARK'S PUDDING.—

Slice, rather thick, some fresh bread. Pare off all the crust. Butter the bread on both sides, and lay it in a deep dish. Fill up with molasses very profusely, having first seasoned the molasses with ginger, ground cinnamon, and powdered mace or nutmeg. It will be much improved by adding the grated yellow rind and the juice of a large lemon or orange. Bake it till brown all over the top, and till the bread and butter has absorbed the molasses; taking care not to let it burn.

ARROW-ROOT BISCUIT.—

Mix in a pan half a pint of arrow-root, and half a pint of sifted wheat flour. Cut up a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, and rub it into the pan of flour, crumbling the bits of butter so small as to be scarcely visible. Mix a quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar, and wet it with a beaten egg. Add gradually a very little cream, just enough to make it into a stiff dough. Flavor it with the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon, and half a nutmeg grated. Roll out the dough into thin sheets, and cut it out into biscuits with the edge of a tumbler. Prick every biscuit all over with a fork. Lay them in square pans slightly floured, and bake them immediately. They will be improved by adding (at the last of the mixture) a table-spoonful of the best rose-water. If rose-water is put into cakes early in the mixing, much of its strength will evaporate before baking. It should always be deferred to the last. These are very nice tea biscuits.

ONTARIO CAKE.—

Take a pint and a half (or three large breakfast cups,) of sifted flour, and the same quantity of powdered white sugar, and half a pint of milk; a quarter of a pint or half a cup of the best fresh butter, and the grated yellow rind and juice of a large lemon. Have ready four well-beaten eggs, and two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast.

Cut up the butter into the pan of flour. Add the milk and sugar gradually, and then the beaten egg, and then the lemon; next the yeast. Stir the whole very well, and set it to rise in a buttered pan. Place it near the fire, and cover it with a clean flannel or a double cloth. When it has risen and is quite light, and is cracked all over the surface, transfer it to a square baking pan, put it immediately into the oven, and bake it well. When cool, either ice it or sift white sugar over it, and cut it into squares. Or, you may bake it in a round loaf, or in small round cakes.

NEW-YEAR'S CAKE.—

Stir together a pound of nice fresh butter, and a pound of powdered white sugar, till they become a light thick cream. Then stir in, gradually, three pounds of sifted flour. Add, by degrees, a tea-spoonful of soda dissolved in a small tea-cup of milk, and then a half salt-spoonful of tartaric acid, melted in a large table-spoonful of warm water. Then mix in, gradually, three table-spoonfuls of fine carraway seeds. Roll out the dough into sheets half an inch thick, and cut it with a jagging iron into oval or oblong cakes, pricked with a fork. Bake them immediately in shallow iron pans, slightly greased with fresh butter. The bakers in New York ornament these cakes, with devices or pictures raised by a wooden stamp. They are good plain cakes for children.

GOOD YEAST.—

Take two handfuls of hops. The best hops have a fresh light green color, and a pleasant, lively smell. Pour on them two quarts of boiling water, and let them boil five minutes after they have come to a boil; not longer, for it makes them bitter. Then strain the liquid into a pan, and add a table-spoonful of brown sugar and one of salt. When lukewarm, stir in flour enough to make a thick batter. Add a jill and a half of fresh baker's yeast. Set it in a warm place till it begins to ferment; then keep it in the cellar well corked.

This yeast will continue good two weeks. When you open the jug to take out some yeast, put in always a table-spoonful of flour before you cork it up again.

A stone jug or pitcher is a good vessel for yeast. Wash it very clean in hot water, always before you put in fresh yeast, and then rinse the jug with water in which a spoonful of pearlash has been melted, letting the pearlash water remain in it five or six minutes, and shaking it round hard. Then rinse it with plain cold water.

All vessels that have contained acids should have pearlash or soda in the rinsing water, and then be finished with plain water.

Never clean a bottle by rinsing it with shot. The lead is poisonous, and has caused death. Some bits of raw potato chopped, and put in the water, will clean the inside of bottles or jugs, and brighten decanters.

YEAST POWDERS.—

Get two ounces of bicarbonate of soda, and one ounce of tartaric acid. Divide the soda into equal portions, about a level tea-spoonful in each, and the tartaric acid into level salt-spoonfuls. By level we mean that the article is not to be heaped in the least, not rising above the edge of the spoon. Cut some papers of regular and sufficient size, and fold them nicely. Put the soda into white papers, and the tartaric acid into blue papers. Place an equal number of each in a little square or oblong box, standing up the papers on their folded edges. Dissolve them in two separate cups, in as much tepid water as will cover the powder. They must be entirely melted before using. Stir in the soda at the beginning, and the tartaric acid at the conclusion of the batter or cake mixture.

We do not approve of the introduction of these substances into cakes. They give a sort of factitious lightness very different from that honestly produced by a liberal allowance of egg and butter, genuine yeast, and good beating and stirring—but they destroy the taste of the seasoning, and are certain destruction to the taste of lemon, orange, strawberry, pine-apple, and every kind of fruit flavoring. The justly celebrated Mrs. Goodfellow never used any of them in her school, and the articles made there by her pupils, (of whom the author was one) were such as no money can purchase in the present times. Any confectioner who would faithfully revive them could make a fortune by doing so.

The present introduction of hartshorn into bread and cakes is an abomination, rendering the articles equally unpalatable and unwholesome. Cannot the use of hartshorn in food be put down? Which of our American doctors will write a book on "culinary poisons."

VINEGAR.—

Mix together in a clean keg three gallons of clear rain water, (that has been caught in a clean tub without running over the roof of a house,) one quart of West India molasses, and one pint of baker's yeast. Cover it, and set it in a warm place where it will be exposed to the summer sun. Remember to shake the cask every day. In three months it will be excellent vinegar. Then transfer it to stone jugs, and keep it closely corked. Begin it in May.

So much of the vinegar sold in stores is concocted of pernicious drugs, that we recommend all families to make their own, or to buy it from a cider farmer. Good cider, set in the sun, will after a while become good vinegar.

What is shamefully called the best white wine vinegar is frequently a slow poison, as may be known by its action upon oysters, pickles, &c. It is quite clear and well to look at. Its taste is very sharp and pungent, as to overpower and render every thing that is with it painfully sour, and it has a singular and disagreeable smell when boiling. Oysters cooked with this vinegar go immediately into rags, and are soon entirely eaten up, or dissolved into a thin whitish liquid, fit for nothing but to throw away.

Pickles the same. A punishment should be provided by law for persons who manufacture and sell these deleterious compounds, of which we have now so many, that it would indeed be well if we could make at home, as far as possible, every thing we eat and drink.

PINK CHAMPAGNE—

(Domestic.)—Pick from the stems three quarts of fine ripe red currants, and mix with them three quarts of ripe white currants. Bruise them all. Put nine pounds of loaf sugar to melt in three gallons of very clear soft water. Boil the water and sugar together for half an hour, skimming carefully, and pour the liquid boiling hot over the currants. When it is nearly cold, add a small tea-cupful of excellent strong fresh yeast. Let it ferment for two days, and then strain it into a small cask through a very clean hair sieve. Put into the cask half an ounce of finely-chipped isinglass. Have rather more liquor than will fill the cask at first, and keep it to fill up as it works over. In about a fortnight bung it up. Let it remain in the cask till April. Then transfer it to bottles, (putting into each a lump of double-refined loaf sugar,) and letting them remain one day uncorked. Then cork and wire them. They must stand upright in the cellar; but when likely to be wanted, lay a few of them on their sides for a week.

SHERRY COBBLER.—

Lay in the bottom of a large tumbler, two table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar, and squeeze over it (through a strainer) the juice of a large lemon that has been softened by rolling under your hand. Then half fill the tumbler with ice, broken very small. Add a large glass of very good sherry wine. Take another tumbler, and pour the liquid back and forward from glass to glass, till completely mixed without stirring. Sip it through a clean straw, or one of the tubes made on purpose.

MINT JULEP.—

Cut two or three round slices from a fine ripe pine-apple that has been pared; and take out the core or hard part from the centre of each slice. A still better way is to split down the pine-apple into four pieces, and grate two of the quarters with a coarse grater, standing it upright while doing so. Put it into a large tumbler, and cover the fruit with two or three heaped table-spoonfuls of powdered loaf sugar. Add a large glass of the best brandy, and pour on cold water till the tumbler is two-thirds full. Then put in a thick layer of finely broken ice, till it almost reaches the top. Finish by sticking in a full bunch of fresh green mint in handsome sprigs, that rise far above one side of the tumbler; and at the other side place a clean straw, or one of the tubes used for the same purpose.

CAROLINA PUNCH.—

Mix together a tumbler of peach brandy and a tumbler of water, the juice of two lemons, the yellow rinds of four, pared to transparent thinness, and four large juicy free-stone peaches cut in half, and the kernels of their stones blanched and broken up. If you cannot obtain peaches, quarter and grate down a ripe pine-apple. Let all these ingredients infuse with a quart of Jamaica spirits in a bowl for two days before the punch is wanted. Keep it carefully covered with a cloth. Then pour on sufficient cold water to make the punch of the desired strength; and strain the liquid into another bowl, and put in a large lump of ice. Serve it out in small glasses.

NECTAR.—

Take two pounds of the best raisins, seeded and chopped; the grated yellow rind and the juice of four fine lemons, and two pounds of loaf sugar, powdered. Put the sugar into a large porcelain kettle, and melt it in a gallon of water. Boil and skim it for half an hour, and while it is boiling hard, put in by degrees the raisins and lemons. Continue the boiling about ten minutes. Put the mixture into a stoneware crock, and cover it closely. Let it stand three days, stirring it down to the bottom twice every day. Then strain it through a linen bag, and bottle it, sealing the corks. It will be fit for use in a fortnight. Take it in wine-glasses, with a bit of ice in each. This is a nice temperance drink.

CHOCOLATE CARAMEL.—

Take half a pint of rich milk, and put it to boil in a porcelain kettle; scrape down a square and a half of Baker's chocolate, put it into a very clean tin cup, and set on the top of a stove till it becomes soft. Let the milk boil up twice. Then add, gradually, the chocolate, and stir both over the fire till thoroughly mixed and free from lumps. Stir in a half pint of the best white sugar powdered, and half a jill (or four large table-spoonfuls,) of molasses. Let the whole boil fast and constantly (so as to bubble,) for at least one hour or more, till it is nearly as stiff as good mush. When all is done add a small tea-spoonful of essence of vanilla, and transfer the mixture to shallow tin pans, slightly greased with very nice sweet oil. Set it on ice, or in a very cool place, and while yet soft mark it deeply in squares with a very sharp knife. When quite hard, cut the squares apart. If it does not harden well it has not been boiled long enough, or fast enough.

EGGS TO BOIL.—

The water must be boiling fast when the eggs are put in. First wipe them clean all over, with a wet cloth. It is true that the shells are never eaten, but still, if brought to table dirty and discolored, they look slovenly, disgusting, and vulgar, such as are never seen in good houses. Put them into water that is boiling fast; and if desired very soft, four minutes will be sufficient. Six or eight minutes will barely set the whites and yolks, and ten or twelve minutes (in water that is really boiling,) will render them hard enough for salad. In the egg-boilers that are set on the table no egg will ever boil hard, as the water cools too soon. A stale egg never boils hard.

Except in the spring, and late in the winter, there is often much difficulty in obtaining good eggs, unless you have fowls of your own. If an egg is really fresh, when held up against the light, the yolk looks round and compact and the white clear and transparent; you may then trust it. But if the yolk is thick, broken, and mixed among the white, and the white is cloudy and muddled, it is certainly bad, and should be thrown away. When tried in a pan of cold water the freshest will sink, and the stale ones float on the surface. It requires strong brine to bear up a good egg. Eggs may be preserved for keeping a few months, by putting every one in fast boiling water for one minute. Then grease them all over the outside with good melted fat, and wedge down close together (layer above layer,) in a box of powdered charcoal. This preserves them for a sea voyage of several weeks. The charcoal box must be kept closely covered, and closed immediately whenever opened. Pack the eggs with the small end downwards.

POACHED EGGS.—

See that the eggs are quite fresh. Pour from a kettle of boiling water enough to fill a broad shallow stew-pan. Break the eggs into a saucer, (one at a time,) slip them carefully into the hot water, and let them stand in it till the whites are set. Then put the pan over a moderate fire; and, as soon as the water boils again, the eggs are ready. The whites should be firm, and the yolks should appear in the centre looking yellow through a thin transparent coating of the white. Take them out carefully (one by one,) with an egg-slice. Have ready, for each egg, a nice slice of toast of a light brown or yellow all over. Trim off all the crust, and dip the toast for a minute in hot water. Then butter it slightly with fresh butter. Trim off neatly the ragged and discolored white from the edge of each egg. Lay a poached egg in the middle of every toast, and serve them up warm.

Instead of toast, you may lay beneath every egg a thin slice of ham, that has been soaked, and nicely broiled and trimmed. Or, large thin slices from the breast of a cold roast turkey, or cold fillet of roast pork or veal. These are nice breakfast dishes.

Scrambled Eggs.—Make a mixture as for an omelet, but instead of frying put it into a sauce-pan, and when it has boiled five minutes take it off, and chop and mix all the ingredients into confusion. Serve it up hot in a deep dish. It is eaten at breakfast, and is by many preferred to a fried omelet. You may season it with grated ham, tongue, or sweet herbs.

EGG-NOGG.—

Beat, till very light and thick, the yolks only of six eggs. Stir the eggs, gradually, into a quart of rich unskimmed milk, and add half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, a half pint of brandy, and a grated nutmeg. Next beat three whites of the eggs by themselves, and stir them quickly into the mixture. Divide it into two pitchers, and pour it back and forward from one pitcher to the other till it has a fine froth. Then serve it in a large china bowl, with a silver ladle in it, and distribute it in glasses with handles.

To Beat Eggs.—For beating eggs have a broad shallow earthen pan. If beaten in tin, the coldness of the metal retards their lightness; for the same reason, hickory rods are better than tin wire. Beat with a short quick stroke, holding the egg rods in your right hand close to your side, and do not exert your elbow, or use your arm violently with a hard sweeping stroke; of this there is no necessity. If beaten in a proper manner, (moving your hand only at the wrist) the eggs will be light long before you are fatigued. But you must continue beating till after the froth has subsided, and the pan of eggs presents a smooth thick surface, like a nice boiled custard. White of egg is done if it stands stiff alone, and will not fall from the beater when held upon it.

Butter and sugar should always be stirred with a strong hickory spaddle, which resembles a short mush stick, rather broad and flattened at one end.

BRAN MUFFINS.—

Take three quarts of bran, (unbolted wheat flour) and sift it into a large pan. Warm three half pints of rich milk, mixing with it half a common tumbler of West India molasses. Cut up in the warm milk and molasses two ounces or two large heaped table-spoonfuls of fresh butter, and stir it about till well mixed all through. Then stir all the liquid into the flour. Beat in a shallow pan three eggs till very thick and light, and then stir them gradually into the pan of flour, &c. Lastly, add two table-spoonfuls of strong fresh yeast. Cover the mixture and set it to rise. When risen very light heat a griddle on the oven of a stove, set muffin rings upon it, fill the rings nearly to the top, and bake the muffins. Send them to table hot, pull them open with your fingers, and butter them. They will be much liked if properly made and baked.

COTTAGE CHEESE.—

This is a good way of using up a pan of milk that is found to be turning sour. Or you may turn it, on purpose, by stirring in a spoonful of cider vinegar. Having covered it, set it in a warm place till it becomes a curd. Then pour off the liquid, and tie up the curd in a clean linen bag with a pointed end, and set a bowl under it to catch the droppings; but do not squeeze it. After it has drained ten or twelve hours, transfer the curd to a deep dish, enrich it with some cream, and press and chop it with a large spoon till it is a soft mass; adding, as you proceed, an ounce or more of nice fresh butter. Then set it on ice till tea-time.

FRENCH HAM PIE.—

Having soaked, boiled, and skinned a small ham of the best quality, and taken out the bone, trim it into a handsome oval shape. Of the trimmings make a rich gravy by stewing them in a sauce-pan with a little water, and four pigs feet, (split up.) Have ready a plentiful sufficiency of nice forcemeat made of cold roast chicken or veal, minced suet, and grated bread-crumbs, butter, minced sweet marjoram or tarragon, and some hard-boiled yolk of egg crumbled. Have ready, prepared, a very nice puff paste; line with it the bottom and sides of a large deep dish, and lay in it the oval ham, filling up at the corners and all round with the forcemeat, and spreading a layer of it on the top. Pour on gravy to moisten the whole, and put on the paste intended for the lid. Notch the edges handsomely, and stick a flower or tulip of paste in the cross slit at the top, and place a wreath of paste leaves all round. Bake it light brown, and eat it warm or cold. It is a fine dish for a dinner or supper party, or for a handsome luncheon or breakfast.

A Tongue Pie—Is made in a similar manner of a boiled smoked tongue, peeled and trimmed, and filled in with forcemeat. For a large company have two tongue pies, as it will be much liked, if made as above.

FIG PUDDING.—

Take a pint of very ripe figs, (peeled,) cut them up and mash them smooth with the grated yellow rind of a large ripe lemon or orange, and the juice of two. Mix together a large spoonful of fresh butter, and two table-spoonfuls of sugar, and stir the whole very hard. Bake it in a deep dish, and eat it fresh, but not warm. Grate sugar over the surface. When ripe figs can be obtained, this pudding is much liked.

POKE PLANT.—

Early in the spring, the young green stalks of the pokeberry plant, (when they are still mild and tender, and have not yet acquired a reddish tinge or a strong unpleasant taste,) are generally much liked as a vegetable, and are by many persons considered equal to asparagus. They are brought in bundles to Philadelphia market. Wash and drain them, and put them on to boil in a pot of cold water. When quite tender all through they are done. Dish them in the manner of asparagus, laid on a toast dipped for a minute in hot water, and then buttered.

You may pour a very little drawn or melted butter over the poke.

RHUBARB TARTS.—

Take large fresh stalks of the rapontica plant, such as are full-grown and reddish. Peel off the thin skin, and cut them into bits all of the same size, either one inch or two inches long. Wash them in cold water through a cullender, (but do not drain them much,) and put them into a stew-pan without any more water. Mix with them plenty of good sugar, in the proportion of half a pound of sugar to a pint of cut-up rhubarb stalks. Cover it, and stew it slowly till quite soft. Then mash it into a smooth mass. Have some puff-paste shells baked empty; and when cool, fill them to the top, and grate nutmeg and powdered sugar thickly over them. The juice and grated yellow rind of a lemon (added when the rhubarb is half stewed,) will be a pleasant flavoring. This is sometimes called "spring-fruit" and "pie-plant." It comes earlier, but is by no means so good as gooseberries. We do not think it worth preserving, or making into a sweetmeat.

VOL-AU-VENT.—

Have ready a large quantity of the best and lightest puff paste. Roll it an inch thick, and then cut it neatly into shapes, either square or circular. Bake every one separately on a flat tin pan, cutting a round hole in the centre of each, and fitting in pieces of stale bread to keep the holes open while baking. The cakes of paste should diminish in size as they ascend to the top, but the holes should all be of exactly the same dimensions. The lower cake, which goes at the bottom, should be solid and not perforated at all. The small cake which finishes the top of the pyramid must also be left solid, for a lid. When all the cakes are baked and risen high, (as good puff-paste always does) take them carefully off the baking plates; remove the bread that has kept the centres open and in shape; brush over every cake, separately, with beaten white of egg, and pile one upon another nicely and evenly so as to form a pyramid. Have ready a very nice stew of oysters or game cut small, and cooked with cream, &c. Fill the pyramid with this, and then put on the top or lid, which may terminate in a flower of baked paste.

A Sweet Vol-au-Vent—May be filled with small preserves, or with ripe strawberries or raspberries, made very sweet. Vol-au-vents are for dinner, or supper parties. The paste should be peculiarly light. The name Vol-au-vent signifies, in French, something that will fly away in the wind; which, however, it never does.

A SOUFFLÉ PUDDING.—

Take eight rusks, or soft sugar-biscuits, or plain buns. Lay them in a large deep dish, and pour on a pint of milk, sufficient to soak them thoroughly. Cover the dish, and let them stand undisturbed for about an hour and a half before dinner. In the mean time, boil half a pint of milk in a small sauce-pan with a handful of bitter almonds or peach kernels broken small, or a small bunch of fresh peach-leaves, with two large sticks of cinnamon, broken up. Boil this milk slowly, (keeping it covered,) and when it tastes strongly of the flavoring articles, strain it, and set it away to cool. When cold, mix it into another pint of milk, and stir in a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf sugar. Beat eight eggs very light, and add them gradually to the milk, so as to make a rich custard. After dinner has commenced, beat and stir the soaked rusk very hard till it becomes a smooth mass, and then, by degrees, add to it the custard. Stir the whole till thoroughly amalgamated. Set the dish into a brisk oven, and bake the pudding rather more than ten minutes. The yeast, &c., in the rusk, will cause it to puff up very light. When done, send it to table warm, with white sugar sifted over it. You may serve up with it as sauce sweetened thick cream flavored with rose-water, and grated nutmeg, or powdered loaf sugar and fresh butter stirred together in equal portions, and seasoned with lemon or nutmeg.

ICED PLUM PUDDING.—

Take two dozen sweet and half a dozen bitter almonds. Blanch them in scalding water, and then throw them into a bowl of cold water. Pound them one at a time in a mortar, till they become a smooth paste, free from the smallest lumps. As you proceed, add frequently a few drops of rose-water or lemon juice to make them light, and prevent their oiling. Seed and cut in half a quarter of a pound of the best bloom raisins. Mix with them a quarter of a pound of Zante currants, picked, washed, and dried; and add to the raisins and currants three ounces of citron, chopped. Mix the citron with the raisins and currants, and dredge them all with flour to prevent their sinking or clodding. Take a half pint of very rich milk; split a vanilla bean, and cut it into pieces two or three inches long, and boil it in the milk till the flavor of the vanilla is well extracted; then strain it out, and mix the vanilla milk with a pint of rich cream, and stir in, gradually, a half pound of powdered loaf sugar, and a nutmeg grated. Then add the pounded almonds, and a large wine-glass of either marasquino, noyau, curaÇoa, or the very best brandy. Beat, in a shallow pan, the yolks of eight eggs till very light, thick, and smooth, and stir them gradually into the mixture. Simmer it over the fire, (stirring it all the time,) but take it off just as it is about to come to a boil, otherwise it will curdle. Then, while the mixture is hot, stir in the raisins, currants, and citron. Set it to cool, and then add a large tea-cupful of preserved strawberries or raspberries, half a dozen preserved apricots or peaches; half a dozen preserved green limes; and any other very nice and delicate sweetmeats. Then whip to a stiff froth another pint of cream, and add it lightly to the mixture. Put the whole into a large melon-mould that opens in the middle, and freeze it in the usual way. It will take four hours to freeze it well. Do not turn it out till just before it is wanted. Then send it to table on a glass dish. It will be found delicious. Iced puddings are now considered indispensable on fashionable supper tables or at dinner parties. There is no flour in this pudding. The freezing will keep it together.

RENNETS.—

Milk turned into a curd with wine is by no means so good as that which is done with rennet-water alone. The curd and whey do not separate so completely; the curd is less firm, and the whey less clear; the latter being thick and white, instead of thin and greenish, as it ought to be. Neither is it so light and wholesome as when turned with rennet.

Rennets of the best quality can be had at all seasons in the Philadelphia market; particularly in the lower part, called the Jersey market. They are sold at twelve, eighteen, or twenty-five cents, according to their size, and will keep a year or two; but have most strength when fresh. You may prepare excellent rennets yourself at a very trifling expense, by previously bespeaking them of a veal butcher; a rennet being the stomach of a calf. Its form is a bag. As soon as you get the rennet, empty out all its contents, and wipe it very clean, inside and out; then rince it with cold water, but do not wash it much, as washing will weaken its power of turning milk into curd. When you have made it quite clean, lay the rennet in a broad pan, strew it over on both sides with plenty of fine salt; cover it, and let it rest five days. When you take it out of the pan, do not wipe or wash it, for it must be stretched and dried with the salt on. For this purpose hold it open like a bag, and slip within it a long, thick, smooth rod, bent into the form of a large loop wide at the top, and so narrow at the bottom as to meet together. Stretch the rennet tightly and smoothly over this bent rod, on which it will be double, and when you have brought the two ends of the rod together at the bottom, and tied them fast, the form will somewhat resemble that of a boy's kite. Hang it up in a dry place, and cut out a bit as you want it. A piece about two inches square will turn one quart of milk; a piece of four inches, two quarts. Having first washed off all the salt in several cold waters, and wiped the bit of rennet dry, pour on it sufficient lukewarm water to cover it well. Let it stand several hours; then pour the rennet-water into the milk you intend for the curd, and set it in a warm place. When the curd is entirely formed, set the vessel on ice.

Rennet may be used with good effect before it has quite dried.

AN EASY WAY OF MAKING BUTTER IN WINTER.—

The following will be found an excellent method of making butter in cold weather for family use. We recommend its trial. Take, in the morning, the unskimmed milk of the preceding evening, (after it has stood all night in a tin pan,) and set it over a furnace of hot coals, or in a stove; being careful not to disturb the cream that has risen to the surface. Let it remain over the fire till it simmers, and begins to bubble round the edges; but on no account let it come to a boil. Then take the pan carefully off, (without disturbing the cream) and carry it to a cool place, but not where it is cold enough to freeze. In the evening take a spoon, and loosen the cream round the sides of the pan. If very rich, it will be almost a solid cake. Slip off the sheet of cream into another and larger pan, letting as little milk go with it as possible. Cover it, and set it away. Repeat the process for several days, till you have thus collected a sufficiency of clotted cream to fill the pan. Then scald a wooden ladle, and beat the cream hard with it during ten minutes. You will then have excellent butter. Take it out of the pan, lay it on a flat dish, and with the ladle squeeze and press it hard, till all the buttermilk is entirely extracted and drained off. Then wash the butter in cold water, and work a very little salt into it. Set it away in a cool place for three hours. Then squeeze and press it again; also washing it a second time in cold water. Make it up into pats, and keep it in a cool place.

The unskimmed morning's milk, of course, may also be used for this purpose, after it has stood twelve hours. The simmering over the fire adds greatly to the quantity of cream, by throwing all the oily part of the milk to the surface; but if allowed to boil, this oleaginous matter will again descend, and mix with the rest, so as not to be separated.

This is the usual method of making winter butter in the south of England; and it is very customary in the British provinces of America. Try it.

SWEET POTATO PONE.—

Stir together till very light and white, three quarters of a pound of fresh butter, and three quarters of a pound of powdered white sugar, adding two table-spoonfuls of ginger. Grate a pound and a half of sweet potato. Beat eight eggs very light, and stir them gradually into the butter and sugar, in turn with the grated sweet potato. Dissolve a tea-spoonful of saleratus or soda in a jill of sour milk, and stir it in at the last, beating the whole very hard. Butter the inside of a tin pan. Put in the mixture, and bake it four hours or more. It should be eaten fresh, cut into slices.

RICE BREAD.—

To a pint of well boiled rice add half a pint of wheat flour, mixing them well together. Take six eggs, and beat the whites and yolks separately. Having beaten the whites to a stiff froth, mix them gradually with a pint of rich milk, and two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter, softened at the fire. Mix, by degrees, the yolks of the eggs with the rice and flour. Then add the white-of-egg mixture, a little at a time. Stir the whole very hard. Put it into a buttered tin pan with straight or upright sides. Set it in a moderate oven, and bake it an hour or more. Then turn it out of the pan, put it on a dish, and send it warm to the breakfast table, and eat it with butter.

This cake may be baked, by setting the pan that contains it into an iron dutch-oven, placed over hot coals. Heat the lid of the oven on the inside, by standing it up before the fire while the rice-bread is preparing; and, after you put it on, keep the lid covered with hot coals.

Rice-bread may be made of ground rice flour, instead of whole rice.

Sift into a pan a pint and a half of rice flour, and a pint and a half of fine wheat flour. Add two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter or lard, and mix in a pint and a half of milk. Beat four eggs very light; then stir them gradually into the mixture. When the whole has been well mixed, add, at the last, a small tea-spoonful of soda or saleratus, dissolved in as much warm water as will cover it. Put the whole into a buttered tin pan, set it immediately into a quick oven, and bake it well. It is best when eaten fresh. Slice and butter it.

RICE FLOUR BATTER CAKES.—

Melt a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, or lard, in a quart of milk; but be careful not to let it begin to boil. Divide the milk equally, by putting it into two pans. Beat three eggs very light, and stir them into one half of the milk with the addition of a large table-spoonful of wheat flour. Stir in as much ground rice flour as will make a thick batter. Then put in a small tea-cupful of strong fresh yeast, and thin the batter with the remainder of the milk. Cover it, and set it to rise. When it has risen high, and is covered with bubbles, bake it on a griddle in the manner of buckwheat cakes. Send them to table hot, and butter them.

Similar cakes may be made with indian meal instead of rice flour.

GROUND-NUT MACAROONS.—

Take a sufficiency of ground-nuts, or pea-nuts, that have been roasted in an iron pot over the fire; remove the shells, and weigh a pound of the nuts. Put them into a pan of cold water, and wash off the skins. Have ready some beaten white of egg. Pound the ground-nuts (two or three at a time,) in a marble mortar, adding frequently a little cold water to prevent their oiling. They must be pounded to a smooth light paste; and, as you proceed, remove the paste to a saucer or a plate. Beat, to a stiff froth, the whites of four eggs, and then beat into it gradually a pound of powdered loaf sugar, and a large tea-spoonful of powdered mace and nutmeg mixed. Then stir in, by degrees, the pounded ground-nuts, till the mixture becomes very thick. Flour your hands, and roll between them portions of the mixture, forming each portion into a little ball. Lay sheets of white paper on flat baking tins, and place on them the macaroons at equal distances, flattening them all a little, so as to press down the balls into cakes. Then sift powdered sugar over each. Place them in a brisk oven, with more heat at the top than in the bottom. Bake them brown.

Almond macaroons may be made as above, mixing one quarter of a pound of shelled bitter almonds, with three quarters of shelled sweet almonds. For almond macaroons, instead of flouring your hands, you may dip them in cold water; and when the macaroons are formed on the papers, go slightly over every one with your fingers wet with cold water.

Macaroons may be made, also, of grated cocoa-nut mixed with beaten white of egg and powdered sugar.

COLUMBIAN PUDDING.—

Tie up closely in a bit of very thin muslin a split vanilla bean, cut into pieces, and a broken-up stick of cinnamon. Put this bag, with its contents, into half a pint of rich milk, and boil it a long time till very highly flavored. Then take out the bag; set the milk near the fire to keep warm in the pan in which it was boiled, covering it closely. Slice thin a pound of almond sponge cake, and lay it in a deep dish. Pour over it a quart of rich cream, with which you must mix the vanilla-flavored milk, and leave the cake to dissolve in it. Blanch, in scalding water, two ounces of shelled bitter almonds or peach kernels, and pound them (one at a time,) to a smooth paste in a marble mortar, pouring on each a few drops of rose-water or peach-water to prevent their oiling. When the almonds are done, set them away in a cold place till wanted. Beat eight eggs till very light and thick; and having stirred together hard the dissolved cake and the cream, add them gradually to the mixture in turn with the almond, and half a pound of powdered loaf sugar, a little at a time of each. Butter a deep dish, and put in the mixture. Set the pudding into a brisk oven and bake it well. Have ready a star nicely cut out of a large piece of candied citron, a number of small stars, all of equal size, as many as there are States in the Union, and a sufficiency of rays or long strips also cut out of citron. The rays should be wide at the bottom and run to a point at the top. As soon as the pudding comes out of the oven, while it is smoking, arrange these decorations. Put the large star in the centre, then the rays so that they will diverge from it, narrowing off towards the edge of the pudding. Near the edge place the small stars in a circle.

Preserved citron-melon will be still better for this purpose than the dry candied citron.

This is a very fine pudding; suitable for a dinner party, or a Fourth of July dinner.

A WASHINGTON PUDDING.—

Pick, and wash clean half a pound of Zante currants; drain them, and wipe them in a towel, and then spread them out on a flat dish, and place them before the fire to dry thoroughly. Prepare about a quarter of a pound or half a pint of finely-grated bread-crumbs. Have ready a heaping tea-spoonful of powdered mace, cinnamon, and nutmeg mixed. When the currants are dry, dredge them thickly on all sides with flour, to prevent their sinking or clodding in the pudding while baking. Cut up in a deep pan half a pound of the best fresh butter, and add to it half a pound of fine white sugar, powdered. Stir the butter and sugar together with a wooden spaddle, till they are very light and creamy. Then add a table-spoonful of wine, and a table-spoonful of brandy. Beat in a shallow pan, eight eggs till perfectly light, and as thick as a good boiled custard. Afterwards, mix with them, gradually, a pint of rich milk and the grated bread-crumbs, stirred in alternately. Next, stir this mixture, by degrees, into the pan of beaten butter and sugar, and add the currants a few at a time. Finish with a table-spoonful of strong rose-water; or a wine-glass full, if it is not very strong. Stir the whole very hard. Butter a large deep white dish, or two of soup-plate size. Put in the batter. Set it directly into a brisk oven, and bake it well. When cold, dredge the surface with powdered sugar. Serve it up in the dish in which it was baked. You may ornament the tops with bits of citron cut into leaves and forming a wreath; or with circles of preserved strawberries.

This will be found a very fine pudding. It must be baked in time to become quite cold before dinner.

For currants, you may substitute raisins of the best quality; seeded, cut in half, and well dredged with flour.

Instead of rose-water you may stir in the yellow rind (finely grated) of one large lemon, or two small ones, and their juice also.

A COTTAGE PUDDING.—

Take ripe currants, and having stripped them from the stalks, measure as many as will make a heaping quart. Cover the bottom of a deep dish with slices of bread, slightly buttered, and with the crust cut off. Put a thick layer of currants on the bread, and then a layer of sugar. Then other layers of bread, currants, and sugar, till the dish is full; finishing at the top with very thin slices of bread. Set it into the oven, and bake it half an hour. Serve it either warm or cold; and eat it with sweetened cream.

Instead of currants you may take cherries, (first stoning them all,) raspberries, ripe blackberries, or barberries, plums, (first extracting the stones,) stewed cranberries, or stewed gooseberries. If the fruit is previously stewed, the pudding will require but ten minutes' baking. When it is sent to table, have sugar at hand in case it should not be sweet enough.

ICE-CREAM CAKES.—

Stir together, till very light, a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar and a quarter of a pound of fresh butter. Beat six eggs very light, and stir into them a half pint of rich milk. Add, gradually, the eggs and milk to the butter and sugar, alternately with a half pound of sifted flour. Add a glass of sweet wine and some grated nutmeg. When all the ingredients are mixed, stir the batter very hard. Then put it into small deep pans, or cups that have been well buttered, filling them about two thirds with the batter. Set them immediately into a brisk oven, and bake them brown. When done, remove them from the cups, and place them to cool on an inverted sieve. When quite cold make a slit or incision in the side of each cake. If very light, and properly baked, they will be hollow in the middle. Fill up this cavity with ice cream, carefully put in with a spoon, and then close the slit with your fingers to prevent the cream running out. Spread them on a large dish. Either send them to table immediately before the ice-cream melts or keep them on ice till wanted.

WHIPPED CREAM MERINGUES.—

Take the whites of eight eggs, and beat them to a stiff froth that will stand alone. Then beat into them, gradually, (a tea-spoonful at a time,) two pounds or more of finely-powdered loaf sugar; continuing to add sugar till the mixture is very thick, and finishing with lemon juice or extract of rose. Have ready some sheets of white paper laid on a baking board, and with a spoon drop the mixture on it in long oval heaps, about four inches in length. Smooth and shape them with a broad-bladed knife, dipped occasionally in cold water. The baking board used for this purpose should be an inch thick, and must have a slip of iron beneath each end to elevate it from the floor of the oven, so that it may not scorch, nor the bottoms of the meringues be baked too hard. This baking-board must not be of pine wood, as a pine board will communicate a disagreeable taste of turpentine. The oven must be moderate. Bake the meringues of a light brown. When cool, take them off the paper by slipping a knife nicely beneath the bottom of each. Then push back or scoop out carefully a portion of the inside of each meringue, taking care not to break them. Have ready some nice whipped cream, made in the following proportion:—Take a quarter of a pound of broken-up loaf sugar, and on some of the lumps rub off the yellow rind of two large lemons. Powder the sugar, and then mix with it the juice of the lemons, and grate in some nutmeg. Mix the sugar with a half pint of sweet white wine. Put into a pan a pint of rich cream, and whip it with rods or a wooden whisk, or mill it with a chocolate mill till it is a stiff froth. Then mix in, gradually, the other ingredients; continuing to whip it hard a while after they are all in. As you proceed, lay the froth on an inverted sieve, with a dish underneath to catch the droppings; which droppings must afterwards be whipped and added to the rest. Fill the inside of each meringue with a portion of the whipped cream. Then put two together, so as to form one long oval cake, joining them nicely, so as to unite the flat parts that were next the paper, leaving the inside filled with the whipped cream. Set them again in the oven for a few minutes. They must be done with great care and nicety, so as not to break. Each meringue should be about the usual length of a middle finger. In dropping them on the paper, take care to shape the oval ends handsomely and smoothly. They should look like very long kisses.

CHOCOLATE PUFFS.—

Beat very stiff the whites of three eggs, and then beat in gradually half a pound of powdered loaf sugar. Scrape down very fine three ounces of the best chocolate, (prepared cocoa is better still,) and dredge it with flour to prevent its oiling; mixing the flour well among it. Then add it gradually to the mixture of white of egg and sugar, and stir the whole very hard. Cover the bottom of a square tin pan with a sheet of fine white paper, cut to fit exactly. Place upon it thin spots of powdered loaf sugar about the size of a half dollar. Pile a portion of the mixture on each spot, smoothing it with the back of a spoon or a broad knife, dipped in cold water. Sift white sugar over the top of each. Set the pan into a brisk oven, and bake them a few minutes. When cold, loosen them from the paper with a broad knife.

COCOA-NUT PUFFS.—

Break up a large ripe cocoa-nut. Pare the pieces, and lay them awhile in cold water. Then wipe them dry, and grate them as finely as possible. Lay the grated cocoa-nut in well-formed heaps on a large handsome dish. It will require no cooking. The heaps should be about the circumference of a half dollar, and must not touch each other. Flatten them down in the middle, so as to make a hollow in the centre of each heap; and upon this pile some very nice sweetmeat. Make an excellent whipped cream, well sweetened and flavored with lemon and wine, and beat it to a stiff froth. Pile some of this cream high upon each cake over the sweetmeats. If on a supper-table, you may arrange them in circles round a glass stand.

FIG MARMALADE.—

Take fine fresh figs that are perfectly ripe, such as can only be obtained in countries where they are cultivated in abundance. Weigh them, and to every two pounds of figs allow a pound and a half of sugar, and the grated yellow rind of a large orange or lemon. Cut up the figs, and put them into a preserving kettle with the sugar, and orange or lemon rind, adding the juice. Boil them till the whole is reduced to a thick smooth mass, frequently stirring it up from the bottom. When done, put it warm into jars, and cover it closely.

CARRAWAY GINGERBREAD.—

Cut up half a pound of fresh butter in a pint of West India molasses, and warm them together slightly till the butter is quite soft. Then stir them well, and add gradually a half pound of good brown sugar, a table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, and two heaped table-spoonfuls of ground ginger, or three, if the ginger is not very strong. Sift two pounds or two quarts of flour. Beat four eggs till very thick and light, and stir them gradually into the mixture, in turn with the flour, and five or six large table-spoonfuls of carraway seeds, a little at a time. Dissolve a very small tea-spoonful of pearlash or soda in as much lukewarm water as will cover it. Then stir it in at the last. Stir all very hard. Transfer it to a buttered tin pan with straight sides, and bake it in a loaf in a moderate oven. It will require a great deal of baking.

SEA-VOYAGE GINGERBREAD.—

Sift two pounds of flour into a pan, and cut up in it a pound and a quarter of fresh butter; rub the butter well into the flour, and then mix in a pint of West India molasses and a pound of the best brown sugar. Beat eight eggs till very light. Stir into the beaten egg two glasses or a jill of brandy. Add also to the egg a tea-cupful of ground ginger, and a table-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, with a tea-spoonful of soda melted in a little warm water. Wet the flour, &c., with this mixture till it becomes a soft dough. Sprinkle a little flour on your pasteboard, and with a broad knife spread portions of the mixture thickly and smoothly upon it. The thickness must be equal all through; therefore spread it carefully and evenly, as the dough will be too soft to roll out. Then with the edge of a tumbler dipped in flour, cut it out into round cakes. Have ready square pans, slightly buttered; lay the cakes in them sufficiently far apart to prevent their running into each other when baked. Set the pans into a brisk oven, and bake the cakes well, seeing that they do not burn.

You may cut them out small with the lid of a cannister (or something similar) the usual size of gingerbread nuts.

These cakes will keep during a long voyage, and are frequently carried to sea. Many persons find highly-spiced gingerbread a preventive to sea-sickness.

EXCELLENT GROUND RICE PUDDING.—

Take half a pint from a quart of rich milk, and boil in it a large handful of bitter almonds or peach kernels, blanched and broken up; also half a dozen blades of mace, keeping the sauce-pan closely covered. When the milk is highly flavored and reduced to one half the quantity, take it off and strain it. Stir, gradually, into the remaining pint and a half of milk, five heaping table-spoonfuls of ground rice; set it over the fire in a sauce-pan, and let it come to a boil. Then take it off, and while it is warm, mix in gradually a quarter of a pound of fresh butter and a quarter of a pound of white sugar. Afterwards, beat eight eggs as light as possible, and stir them gradually into the mixture. Add some grated nutmeg. Stir the whole very hard; put it into a deep dish, and set it immediately into the oven. Keep it baking steadily for an hour. It should then be done. Eat it cool, having sifted sugar over it.

CHOCOLATE MACAROONS.—

Blanch half a pound of shelled sweet almonds, by scalding them with boiling water, till the skins peel off easily. Then throw them into a bowl of cold water, and let them stand awhile. Take them out and wipe them separately. Afterwards set them in a warm place to dry thoroughly. Put them, one at a time, into a marble mortar, and pound them to a smooth paste, moistening them, as you proceed, with a few drops of rose-water to prevent their oiling. When you have pounded one or two, take them out of the mortar with a tea-spoon, and put them into a deep plate beside you, and continue removing the almonds to the plate till they are all done. Scrape down, as fine as possible, half a pound of the best chocolate, or of Baker's prepared cocoa, and mix it thoroughly with the pounded almonds. Then set the plate in a cool place. Put the whites of eight eggs into a shallow pan, and beat them to a stiff froth that will stand alone. Have ready a pound and a half of finely-powdered loaf sugar. Stir it hard into the beaten white-of-egg, a spoonful at a time. Then stir in, gradually, the mixture of almond and chocolate, and beat the whole very hard. Drop the mixture in equal portions upon thin white paper, laid on square tin pans; smoothing them with a spoon into round cakes about the size of a half dollar. Dredge the top of each lightly with powdered sugar. Set them into a quick oven, and bake them a light brown. When done, take them off the paper.

BREAD FRITTERS.—

Pick, wash, and dry half a pound of Zante currants, and having spread them out on a flat dish, dredge them well with flour. Grate some bread into a pan, till you have a pint of crumbs. Pour over the grated bread a pint of boiling milk, into which you have stirred, (as soon as taken from the fire,) a piece of fresh butter the size of an egg. Cover the pan and let it stand an hour. Then beat it hard, and add nutmeg, and a quarter of a pound of powdered white sugar, stirred in gradually, and two table-spoonfuls of the best brandy. Beat six eggs till very light, and then stir them by degrees into the mixture. Lastly, add the currants a few at a time, and beat the whole very hard. It should be a thick batter. If you find it too thin, add a little flour. Have ready, over the fire, a hot frying-pan with boiling lard. Put in the batter in large spoonfuls, (so as not to touch,) and fry the fritters a light brown. Drain them on a perforated skimmer, or an inverted sieve placed in a deep pan, and send them to table hot. Eat them with wine, and powdered sugar.

TO KEEP FRESH BUTTER FOR FRYING STEWING, &c.—

Take several pounds of the very best fresh butter. Cut it up in a large tin sauce-pan, or in any clean cooking vessel lined with tin. Set it over the fire, and boil and skim it during half an hour. Then pour it off, carefully, through a funnel into a stone jar, and cover it closely with a bladder or leather tied down over the lid. The butter having thus been separated from the salt and sediment, (which will be found remaining at the bottom of the boiling vessel,) if kept closely covered and set in a cool place, will continue good for a month, and be found excellent for frying and stewing, and other culinary purposes. Prepare it thus in May or June, and you may use it in winter, if living in a place where fresh butter is scarce at that season.

EXCELLENT MUTTON SOUP.—

Having been accidentally omitted in its proper place, we here insert a receipt for very fine mutton soup. Try it. If for a large family, take two necks of mutton of the best quality, and let the butcher disjoint it. To each pound of meat allow a quart of water. Put it into a soup-pot, with a slice of ham, which will render the soup sufficiently salt. Boil it slowly, and skim it well, till the scum ceases to appear. If you have no ham, season the meat, when you first put it in, with a tea-spoonful of salt. In the mean time prepare the vegetables, but do not put them in till the meat has boiled to rags, and all the scum has risen to the surface and been carefully removed. It is then time to strain out the shreds of meat and bone, return the soup to the pot, and add the vegetables. First, have ready the deep yellow outsides of three or four carrots grated, and stir them into the soup to enrich it, and give it a fine color. Next, add turnips, potatos, parsnips, salsify, celery, (including its green leaves from the top) and onions that have been already peeled and boiled by themselves to render them less strong. All the vegetables should be cut nicely into small pieces of equal size, (as for Soup À la Julienne.) You may add some boiled beets, handsomely sliced. And (if approved) strew in at the last a handful of fresh leaves of the marygold flower, which adds a flavor to some persons very agreeable. Put all these vegetables gradually into the soup, (those first that require the longest boiling,) and when they are all quite done the soup is finished. If well made, with a liberal allowance of meat and vegetables, and well boiled, it will be much liked—particularly if served as Julienne soup, for company.

NEW ENGLAND CREAM CHEESE.—

Take a large pan of rich unskimmed milk that has set in the dairy all night, and is from pasture-fed cows in the summer. Have ready a small tea-cup of rennet-water, in which a piece of rennet, from four to six inches square, has been steeping several hours. Stir the rennet-water into the pan of milk, and set it in a warm place till it forms a firm curd. Tie up the curd in a clean linen bag, and hang it up in the dairy with a pan under it to receive the droppings, till it drips no longer. Then transfer the curd to a small cheese mould. Cover it all over with a clean linen cloth, folded over the sides, and well secured. Put a heavy weight on the top, so as to press it hard. The wooden vessel in which you mould cream cheeses, should be a bottomless, broad hoop, about the circumference of a dinner plate. Set it (before you fill it with the curd) on a very clean table or large flat dish. Turn it every day for four days, keeping it covered thickly all over with fresh green grass, frequently renewed. When done, keep it in a dry cool place, first rubbing the outside with fresh butter. When once cut, use the whole cheese on that day, as it may spoil before the next. Send it to the tea-table cut across in triangular or pie pieces.

MOLASSES CANDY.—

Take three quarts of the best West India molasses—no other will do. Put it into a thick block-tin kettle, (or a bain-marie) and stir in a pound and a half of the best and cleanest brown sugar. Boil slowly and skim it well, (stirring it always after skimming,) and taking care that it does not burn. Prepare the grated rind and the juice of three large lemons or oranges, and stir them in after the molasses and sugar have boiled long enough to become very thick. Continue to boil and stir till it will boil no longer, and the spoon will no longer move. Try some in a saucer, and let it get cold. If it is brittle, it is done. Then take it from the fire, and transfer it immediately to shallow square tin pans, that have been well greased with nice fresh butter or sweet oil. Spread it evenly, and set it to cool.

While boiling, you may add three or four spoonfuls of shell-barks, cracked clean from their shells, and divided into halves. Or the same quantity of roasted pea-nuts or ground-nuts. With both nuts and lemon it will be very good.