TO DRY BEEF FOR SUMMER USE

THE best pieces for this purpose are the thin brisk- ets, or that part of the plate which is farthest from the shoulder of the animal, the round and rib pieces which are commonly used for roasting. These should not be cut with long ribs and the back-bones must be sawed off as close as possible, that the piece may lay flat in the dish. About the middle of February, select your beef from an animal well fatted with corn, and which, when killed, will weigh one hundred and fifty per quarter — larger oxen are always coarse. Salt the pieces as directed, let them lie one fortnight, then put them in brine, where they must remain three weeks: take them out at the end of the time, wipe them- quite dry, rub them over with bran, and hang them in a cool, dry, and, if possible, dark place, that the flies may not get to them: they must be suspended, and not allowed to touch any thing. It will be necessary, in the course of the summer, to look them over oc* casionally, and after a long wet season, to lay them in the sun a few hours. Your tongues may be dried in the same manner: make a little hole in the root, run a twine through it, and suspend it. These dried meats must be put in a good quantity of water, U>

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ak, the night before they are to be used. In boiling, it is absolutely necessary to have a large quantity of water to put the beef in while the water is cold, to boil steadily, skimming the pot, until the bones are ready to fall out; and, if a tongue, till the skin peels off with perfect ease: the skin must also be taken from the beef. The housekeeper who will buy good ox beef, and follow these directions exactly, may be assured of always having delicious beef on her table. Ancient prejudice has established a notion, that meat killed in the decrease of the moon, will draw up when cooked. The true cause of this shrinking, may be found in the old age of the animal, or in its diseased state, at the time of killing. The best age is from three to five years.

Few persons are aware of the injury they sustain, by eating the flesh of diseased animals. None but the Jewish butchers, who are paid exclusively for it, attend to this important circumstance. The best rule for judging that I have been able to discover, is the colour of the fat. When the fat of beef is a high shade of yellow, I reject it. If the fat of veal, mut- ton, lamb or pork, have the slightest tinge of yellow, I avoid it as diseased. The same rule holds good when applied to poultry.

TO CORN BEEF IN HOT WEATHER. TAKE a piece of thin brisket or plate, cut out the ribs nicely, rub it on both sides well with two large spoonsful of pounded saltpetre; pour on it a gill of molasses and a quart of salt; rub them both in; put it in a vessel just large enough to hold it, but not tight, for the bloody brine must run off ns it makes,

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or the meat will spoil. Let it be well covered, top, bottom and sides, with the molasses and salt. In four days you may boil it, tied up in a cloth with the salt, &c. about it: when done, take the skin off nicoly, and serve it up. If you have an ice-house or refrigerator/ it will be best to keep it there. A fillet or breast of veal, and a leg or rack of mutton, are excellent done in the same way.

IMPORTANT OBSERVATIONS ON ROAST- ING, BOILING, FRYING, &c.

IN roasting butchers' meat, be careful not to run the spit through the nice parts: let the piece lie in water one hour, then wash it out, wipe it perfectly dry, and put it on the spit. Set it before a clear, steady fire: sprinkle some salt on it, and when it becomes hot, baste it for a time with salt and water: then put a good spoonful of nice lard into the dripping-pan, and when melted, continue to baste with it. When your meat, of whatever kind, has been down some time, but before it begins to look brown, cover it with paper and baste on it; when it is nearly done, take off the peper, dredge it with flour, turn the spit for some minutes very quick, and baste all the time to raise a froth — after which, serve it up. When mutton is roasted, after you take off the paper, loosen the skin and peel it off carefully, then dredge and froth it up. Beef and mutton must not be roasted as much as veal, lamb, or pork; the two last must be skinned in the manner directed for mutton. You may pour a little melted butter in the dish with veal, but all the others must be served without sauce, and garnished with horse-radish, nicely scraped. Be careful not to let a

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particle of dry flour be seen on the meat — it has a very ill appearance. Beef may look brown, but the whiter the other meats are, the more genteel are they, and if properly roasted, they may be perfectly done, and quite white. A loin of- veal, and hind quarter of lamb, should be dished with the kidneys uppermost; and be sure to joint every thing that is to be separated at table, or it will be impossible to carve neatly. For those who must have gravy with these meats, let it be made in any way they like, and served in a boat. No meat can be well roasted except on a spit Burned by a jack, and before a steady clear fire — other methods are no better than baking. Many cooks are in the habit of half boiling the meats to plump them as they term it, before they are spitted, but it destroys their fine flavour. Whatever is to be boiled, must be put into cold water with a little salt, which will cook them regularly. When they are put in boiling water, the outer side is done too much, before the inside gets heated. Nice lard LS much better than butter for bast- ing roasted meats, or for frying. To choose butchers' meat, you must see that the fat is not yellow, and that the lean parts are of a fine close grain, a'lfvely colour, and will feel tender when pinched. Poultry should be well covered with white fat; if the bottom of the breast bone be gristly, it is young, but if it be a hard bone, it is an old one. Fish are judged by the liveliness of their eyes, and bright red of their gills. Dredge every thing with flour before it is put on to boil, and be sure to add salt to the water.

Fish, and all other articles for frying, after being nicely prepared, should be laid on a board and dredged with flour or meal mixed with salt: when it becomes

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dry on one side, turn it, and dredge the other. For broiling, have very clear coals, sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the pieces, and whew done, dish them, and pour over some, melted butter and chopped pars- ley— this is for broiled veal, wild fowl, birds or poul- try: beef-steaks and mutton chops require only a table-spoonful of hot water to be poured over. Slice an onion in the dish before you p-jt in the steaks or chops, and garnish both with rasped horse-radish. To have viands served in perfection, the dishes should be made hot, either by setting them over hot water, or by put'ing some in them, and the instan^ the meats are lafa in and garnished, put on a pewter dish cover. A dim °r looks ve; 7 enticing, when the steam rises from /ach dish on removing the covers, and if it be judi- cious/y ordered, will have a double relish. Profusion is not elegance — a dinner justly calculated for the company, and consisting for the greater part of small articles, correctly prepared, and neatly served up, will aiake a much more pleasing appearance to the sight, ajid give a far greater gratification to the appetite, than a table loaded with food, and from the multiplicity of dishes, unavoidably neglected in the preparation, and served up cold.

There should always be a supply of brown flour kept in readiness to thicken brown gravies, which must be prepared in the following manner: put a pint of flour in a Dutch oven, with some coals under it; keep constantly stirring it until it is uniformly of a dark brown, but none of it burnt, which would look like dirt in the gravy. All kitchens should be pro- vided with a saw for trimming meat, and also with larding needles.

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