English and French cookery

Italian, Australian, Cape Wines, etc. — Good Italian wines are procurable at reasonable rates. There is no lack of wine in Italy, and those imported by Cirio and Co. are genuine and wholesome. Australian wines are no doubt very good ; but with labour in that colony at 10s. a day it is difficult to imagine how they can ever seriously compete with the produce of the older vineyards. Cape wines are being energetically introduced, and some of the cheaper varieties are likely to acquire popularity. No mention has yet been made of a very wholesome sound wine which is, compared to other wines, exceedingly cheap, viz. Marsala. For drinking with water it is indeed a capital wine. Aerated and Table Waters. — Good ‘waters’ are retailed at such reasonable prices that it is unprofitable, as well as unwise, to drink inferior qualities. It would require many pages to explain how it is that so seemingly simple drinks as- soda water, lemonade, ginger beer, etc., vary so widely in quality ; but it may be accepted as a fact that, for example, the difference between a good bottle of soda water and an inferior one is as great as the proverbial distinction between chalk and cheese. In the purity of the water, the scrupulous cleanliness of the bottles, the quality of the corks and of the materials employed in the manufacturing process, and in the skill displayed in generating and incorporating the carbonic gas, there is ample room for the exercise of care, or the reverse, and of a proper liberality or a pernicious economy.Good aerated waters enable many persons to enjoy and profit by 'spirits'’ who could not otherwise drink them. They also considerably increase the digestibility of wines. Soda water and milk is a well-known drink. To make it in perfection the milk should be nearly boiling. Ginger beer is good only when put up in stoneware bottles. The following are a few approved recipes : Claret Cup. — Pour a bottle of claret into a large jug, and add 2 glasses of sherry, brandy, or any wine, spirit, or liquor that may be preferred, and 1 glass of maraschino. Put in the thin rind of a lemon and 2 tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Let it stand for \ hour till the sugar is dissolved, then put in a sprig of borage, balm, or verbena, or a little sliced cucumber. Just before using, add a bottle of soda or seltzer water and a large piece of ice. Sliced nectarines, peaches, or raspberries may be used instead of lemon-rind. Where a hurried cup is desired, a few drops of Langdale’s essence of claret cup will supply the principal flavouring ingredients. • This article deserves a place in every cup-loving household. _ Mulled Claret. — Put 1 drachm of cinnamon, 1 drachm of ground ginger, and 1 drachm of cloves into a saucepan, with a teacupful of cold water, 3 ounces of loaf sugar, and the thin rind of h orange. Boil all to a syrup, removing the scum as it rises ; then add 1 bottle of claret. Take the wine from the fire just before it boils, and serve at once.