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instead of that of the fire. To use the conserva, a small quantity is dissolved in water. It makes very good sauce, but the taste is different from that of the fresh tomato, or of the preserved sauce, described above.

Another way of preserving tomatoes in countries where the heat of the sun is strong consists in splitting them in halves and exposing them to the sun, taking care to take them in at night, and to turn over each individual half at least once a day, until they are quite dry. To make the sauce from these they should be soaked in cold water for six or seven hours ; then boiled and passed through the sieve. The sauce thus obtained is slightly different in flavour from that made with conserve &, or with the fresh fruit.

To make sauce for present use the process is nearly the same as that for preserving ; but there are many varieties, and these are some of them :

1. Cut up the tomatoes and put them into a saucepan containinga little water, with some parsley, basil, marjoram, and thyme in judicious proportions, a clove of garlic, a laurel leaf or two, a few cloves, some salt, and some whole pepper ; when thoroughly done strain all the water off and pass through a hair sieve : put a piece of butter into a saucepan ; add to it, when melted, a spoonful of flour and the tomato pulp ; mix thoroughly, and when warm the sauce is ready for use.

Sauce for preserving may be flavoured as is the above, instead of in the simpler manner which I have given before.

2. Cut up and remove from each tomato the pips and watery substance they contain ; put them into a saucepan with plenty of butter, pepper, salt, a laurel leaf, and some thyme ; add a few spoonfuls of either stock, gravy or Spanish sauce; keep stirring on the fire until they are

VEGETABLES.

reduced to a pulp, when you pass them through a sieve, and your sauce is made.

3. Mince a small quantity of bacon and put it into a saucepan with sweet herbs, salt, pepper, a few cloves, some minced parsley, and a shallot; when these ingre- dients are quite warm, put in the tomatoes, cut up and bereft of their inside and pips ; let the whole simmer, stirring frequently, for half an hour or more ; when the tomatoes are quite dissolved, pass them through the sieve and serve.

Stuffed tomatoes make an excellent entremet de legumes. They may be stuffed with boiled rice or mashed potatoes, or with any farce of meat, fish, or poultry. The way to do it is this. Cut each tomato in halves, so as to cut across all the divisions there are in it ; empty it of the pips, &c., and fill up each half with the stuffing. Lay them in a buttered dish and bake. Another way consists in making an incision in each tomato, so as to be able to empty it ; you then fill it with the farce , put it together again, and bake.

Or they may be laid in a stewpan over slices of bacon, and stewed till done ; some stock and parsley, sweet herbs, &c., being added. The tomatoes are then care- fully taken out, and disposed on a dish ; and the sauce they have stewed in, being strained and freed from superfluous fat, is poured over them. It must be borne in mind that either to bake or to stew tomatoes as above takes very little time — ten minutes at most.

Here is yet another form : Empty the tomatoes as best you can without cutting them open too much and stuff them with the following composition : To some well-flavoured tomato sauce add bread crumbs until you bring it to a moderate consistency ; beat up some eggs, one for every three tomatoes to be stuffed ; mix the whole well