VARIOUS MODES OF COOKING EGGS

Unless an egg is perfectly fresh it is unfit for any purpose. You may try the freshness of eggs by putting them in a pan of cold water. Those that sink the soonest are the freshest. Eggs may be preserved a short time by putting them in a jar of salt or lime water with the small ends downwards. The salt should not afterwards be used. They may be preserved several months by greasing them all over with melted mutton suet, and wedging them close together in a box of bran. The small ends always downwards.

To BOIL EGGS. — Never attempt to boil an egg without a watch beside you. In three minutes an egg will boil soft, if the water in which it is placed is already boiling ; in four the white part is completely cooked — in ten minutes it is hard enough for salad.

POACHED EGGS. — The beauty of a poached egg is for the yolk to be seen blushing through the white, which should only be just sufficiently hardened, to form a transparent veil for the

egg- Have some boiling water in a tea-kettle ; pass as much of il

through a clean cloth as will half fill a stew-pan; break the egg into a cup, and when the water boils, remove the stew-pan from the stove, and gently slip the egg into it ; it must stand till the white is set; then put it over a very moderate fire, and as soon as the water boils, the egg is ready ; take it up with a slice, and neatly round orT the ragged edges of the white ; send them up on bread toasted on one side only, with 01 without buiter.

EGGS AND BREAD. — Put half a handfull of bread crumbs into a sauce-pan, with a small quantity of cream, salt, pepper, and

?2' PICKLES.

Tintmeg, and let it stand till the bread has imbibed all the cream; then break ten eggs into it, and having -beaten them up together, fry it like an omelet.

OMELET. — Five or six eggs will make a good sized omelet; break them into a basin, and beat them well with a fork, and add a salt-spoonful of salt; have some parsley ready chopped; heat it well up with the eggs; then take four ounces of fresh 'mtter, and break half of it into large bits, and put it into the omelet, and the other half into a very clean frying pan ; when it is melted, pour rn the omelet, and stir it with a spoon till it begins to set, then turn it up all round the edges, and when it is of a nice brown it is done ; the safest way to take it out is to put a plate on the omelet, and turn the pan upside down ; serve it on a hot dish ; it should never be done till just wanted.

SCRAMBLED EGGS. — Beat seven or eight eggs quite light, and throw them into a clean frying-pan with a small quantity of butter, some salt and chopped parsley. Stir them carefully un- til they are well thickened, and turn them out on a hot dish, without permitting any portion of them to adhere to the frying- pan. This dish is excellent with a trimming of stewed toma* toes.

Kettles of block tin or lined with porcelain are the best for pickling. Iron discolors the acid, and the verdigris produced by the vinegar on brass, copper, or bell-metal, is extremely poi- sonous. If, after keeping the pickles any time, you discern any symptoms of their not keeping well, boil them over again with fresh vinegar and spice. The jars in which pickles are kept should always be full enough of vinegar to cover the pickles themselves. Vinegar for pickles should only boil h've or six minutes.

To PICKLE TOMATOES. — The Tomatoes should not be very ripe when used for pickling. Mix in a large stone jar an ounce of mustard, half an ounce of cloves, half an ounce of pepper. Fill the jar half full of the best vinegar, then lay in the toma- toes, m-ixing amongst them a dozen or more whole onions.

The jar should not be tuened for a month, when the pickle will be Hi for use. Great care must be taken to close the jar closely every lime that any of the pickles are taken out. [f ihese precautions are followed, the ummtoefi will keep a year.

PICKLES. 73

PEAHCES AND APRICOTS. — Take those of a full growth, bu» perfectly green. Put to a gallon of vinegar half an ounce of cloves, the same quantity of peppercorns, sliced ginger and mustard seed — add salt and boil the vinegar — then turn it on the peaches scalding hot. Tu.n thevmegar from them several limes. Heat it scalding hot, and turn it back while hot.

CUCUMBERS. — Gather those that are small and green, and 01 a quick growth. Turn boiling water on them as soon as pick- ed. Let them remain in it four or five hours, then put them in cold vinegar, with alum and salt, in the proportion of a table- spoonful of the former and a tea-cup of the latter, to every gal- lon of vinegar. When you have done collecting the cucumbers for pickling, turn the vinegar from the cucumbers, scald and skim it till clear, then put in the pickles, let them scald with- out boiling, for a few minuies ; then turn them while hot into the vessel you intend to keep them in. A few peppercorn? improve the taste of the cucumbers. Another method of pick ling cucumbers, which is good, is to put them in salt and wa ter, as you pick them — changing the salt and water once in three or four days. When you have done collecting your cu- cumbers for peeling, take them out of the salt and water, turn on scalding hot vinegar, with alum, salt and peppercorns in it.

MANGOES. — Musk melons should be picked for mangoes, when they are green and hard. They should be cut open after they have been in salt water ten days, the inside scraped out clean, and filled with mustard-seed, allspice, horseradish, small onions, &c., and sewed up again. Scalding vinegar poured up- on them.

To PICKLE GREEN PEPPERS. — The peppers must be pickled when half ripe, and the smallest ones chosen. Make a small hole at the top and another at the bottcwi of the pepper, and ex- tract the core and seeds. A penknife snouid be used in per- forming this operation. Simmer the peppers for a whole day in salt and water over a very moderate fire — stir them every once and awhile that those at the bottom may not burn. Leavti them over night to cool, and the next morning lay them gently into a jar, sprinkle a small quantity of mustard over them, and fill up the jar with cold vinegar.

BUTTERNUTS AND WALNUTS. — The nuts for pickling should be gathered as early as July, When a pin will go through them easily, they are young enough to pickle. Soak then; in salt and water a week — then drain it off. Rub them with a cloth, to get off the roughness. To a gallon of vinegar put a tea-cup of salt, a table- spoonful of powdered cloves and mace, nvxtd together, half an ounce of allspice, and peppercorn*

f4 sofrt*.

Boil the vinegar and spices, and turn it while hot on to the nufs, In the course of a week, scald the vinegar, and turn it hack on them while hot. They will be fit for use m the course of a fortnight.

BARBERRIES. — Barberries make very good pickles, an 1 are al- ways useful in ornamenting certain dishes. Leave the barber ries on the stem, lay them in a stone jar and fill it up with cold riaegar.

ONIONS. — Peel and boil them in milk and water ten minutes. To a gallon of vinegar put half an ounce of cinnamon and mace, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, a small tea-cup of salt, and half an ounce of alum. Heat the vinegar, together with the spi- ces, scalding hot, and turn it on to the onions, which should pre- viously have the water and milk drained from them. Cover them tight till cold.