ROUND THE TABLE

a tomato. Truffles may be tbe diamonds of the kitchen, as some writer calls them ; and I am not prepared to deny the fact, for they are very expensive, and they are passing good to eat. Everybody’s purse, however, is not equal to truffles as a regular article of food, nor will truffles go well with all and every disk. Tomatoes, on the contrary, are cheap enough ; they can be preserved even in this country at small cost, so as to be available all the year round, and, barring white soups and sauces, there is not a savoury dish to which the judicious addition of their flavour is not a considerable improvement.

What is called tomato sauce in this country is only a libel on the real article. Vinegar, in quantities more or less large, and cayenne pepper are used in the preparation of it, and, as might be expected, these things overpower completely and kill that pleasant acid taste, quite sui generis, to which is mainly due the great charm of the tomato.

In some shops you can buy preserved tomato sauce made in France, and this will be found very good if it is really of Gallic origin, a fact easily ascertained by opening a bottle and tasting it. If it tastes of tomatoes it is good French tomato sauce ; if the compound is very acid and hot to the mouth — in other words, if vinegar and cayenne predominate — then it is the British form — to be avoided.

Good French tomato sauce, however, is not very cheap ; and as tomatoes can be bought in London — at a certain season of the year — at a very moderate rate, those who choose to take the trouble can provide themselves with a sufficient stock of good wholesome tomato sauce, if they will attend to the following directions. To ensure perfect success the tomatoes should be gathered quite ripe on a bright sunny day, about one or two o’clock in the after-

VEGETABLES.

noon. Those who have no garden to grow tomatoes in, or, having a garden, look out in vain for a bright sunny day, must manage as best they can. Cut up the to- matoes into quarters, and put them into a saucepan with salt quant, suff., a good handful of basil, and three or four cloves of garlic. A little water should be put into the saucepan to prevent the tomatoes catching. When they are thoroughly done, turn them out upon a hair sieve, and wait till all the water has drained from them. Throw away this water, and proceed to pass the tomatoes through the sieve. The pulp thus obtained is put into a saucepan to boil for about half an hour, and a moderate quantity of black pepper may be added to it according to taste. When the sauce is quite cold put it into wide- mouthed bottles, cork tightly, and tie up each cork with string or wire ; dip the neck of each bottle into melted rosin, and you may then put them away to be used when required. The bottles should be of moderate size, for, once opened, the sauce will no longer keep good.

If, before putting on the wire, the bottles of sauce are placed upright in a large vessel full of cold water, and this is put on the fire until the water boils, the preserva- tion will be more certain still, and the sauce will keep good any length of time. Care must be taken, however, not to remove the bottles from this bain-marie until the water has become perfectly cold.

Another way consists in letting the tomato pulp reduce in a saucepan until it assumes the appearance of a very thick paste — care being taken to 6tir it constantly ; when cool it is put away like jam in pots, and will keep any length of time. This is what is called conserva in Italy, only in that country the tomato pulp is reduced to the consistency of a thick paste by the action of the sun