FRIED TARTS

Materials. — 4. stale farthing cakes ; milk, 1 teacupful , jam, 2 oz. ; dripping, 2 oz.

Directions.— Cut each cake in half, thin-ways ; warm the milk, and pour it over the cakes. Make the dripping hot in a frying-pan ; fry them a light brown ; spread each with jam before serving.

Bread, neatly cut, or stale roll, can be used instead of these cakes, if desirable. It is useful to know a few nice dishes which can quickly be added to a dinner, if needed ; this takes only ten minutes to make, and is generally liked.

You will now learnhow to cook a chop or steak, the rules lor which will be found at the end of the lesson. Never fry a chop : this is a common mistake, the meat is then hard and unwholesome. All chops and steaks must be cooked on a gridiron ; a double wire gridiron can be bought for tenpence, and is invaluable to a good cook.

The first thing to be thought of is the fire. A bright

l6 THREE COURSES FOR THREEPENCE.

coal fire, covered with small bits of coke or cinder, and sprinkled with salt, is the best to cook a chop. The fire should be prepared beforehand, and the gridiron made quite hot over it, before the meat touches it, or it will stick. The other rules require no explanation ; but remember, in serving anything for an invalid, that every article on the tray must be perfectly fresh and clean.

Probably more lives are lost every year from ignorance of both good cooking and nice serving (for the sick), than those that are lost in battle. Invalids cannot eat common food ; yet ofien their lives depend on the nourishment they can take. Therefore, no pains should be spared to make their meals look nice, as well as taste nice ; for this will tempt a delicate appetite, and enable the patient to enjoy food. A small portion, hot, and well cooked (on a clean cloth, with a bright knife and fork, and a neat salt-cellar), will often save a life which, without attention to these little things, would be unable to rally.