Modern cookery, in all its branches

MILK AND CREAM. Without possessing a dairy, it is quite possible for families to have always a sufficient provision of milk and cream for their consumption, provided there be a clean cool larder or pantry where it can be kept. It should be taken from persons who can be depended on for supplying it pure, and if it can be obtained from a dairy near at hand it will be an advantage, as in the summer it is less easy to preserve it sweet when it has been conveyed from a distance. It should be poured at once into well-scalded pans or basins kept exclusively for it, and placed on a very clean and airy shelf, apart from all the other contents of the larder. The fresh milk as it comes in should be set at one end of the shelf, and that for use should be taken from the other, so that none njay become stale from being misplaced or overlooked. The cream should be removed with a perforated skimmer (or skimming-dish as it is called in dairy-counties) which lias been dipped into cold water to prevent the cream, when thick, from adhering to it. Twelve hours in summer, and twentyfour in winter, will be sufficient time for the milk to stand for “ creaming," though it may often be kept longer with advantage. Between two and three pints of really good milk will produce about a quarter of a pint of cream. In frosty weather the pans for it should be warmed before it is poured in. If boiled when first brought in, it will remain sweet much longer than it otherwise would ; but it will then be unfit to serve with tea ; though it may be heated afresh and sent to table with coffee ; and used also for puddings, and all other varieties of milk-diet. DEVONSHIRE, OR CLOTTED CREAM. From the mode adopted in Devonshire, and in some other counties, of scalding the milk in the following manner, the cream becomes very rich and thick, and is easily converted into excellent butter. It is strained into large shallow metal pans as soon as it is brought into the dairy and left for twelve hours at least in summer, and thirty-six in cold weather. It is then gently carried to a hot plate — heated by a fire from below — and brought slowly to a quite scalding heat but without being allowed to boil or even to simmer. AVhen it is ready to be removed, distinct rings appear on the surface, and small bubbles of air. It must then be carried carefully back to the dairy, and may be skimmed in twelve hours afterwards. The cream should be well drained from the milk— which will be very poor— as this is done. It may then be converted into excellent butter, merely by beating it with the hand in a shallow wooden tub, which is, we are informed, the usual manner of making it in small Devonshire dairies. DU LAIT A MADAME.