Make it a rule to have all stores packed away in the store rooms and properly secured before leaving port. Sugar, salt, peas, beans, rice, biscuits, barley, and all similar stores should be stored in tanks whenever possible. If this class of stores are packed on the store room floor, there is a likelihood in the event of water being shipped aboard in bad weather of them getting wet and spoiled for the rest •of the voyage. Salt fish will keep good longer if the fins and skin are taken off before stowing away. When stowing this away, put a layer of straw between each fish to assist in keeping it dry. Once it becomes wet, salt fish will quickly go bad. It should be stowed on a shelf, away from any stores that are likely to spoil by absorbing the odour given out by the fish. Butter and milk will very quickly absorb the flavour of coffee, fish, cheese, or similar strong smelling stores. Eggs also absorb smells, but in a lesser degree. FLOUR.— Flour requires to be kept in a well lighted and well ventilated place and must not be packed with other stores on top of it. Flour should not be stored where there is any offensive odour. Flour does not improve after it has been kept for longer than one month. It has fully matured by that time and from then it will begin to deteriorate very slowly in quality. The action of plenty of fresh air and light retards deterioration. It sometimes happens on a long voyage that the flour becomes very hard and lumpy in the barrels, it has also a slightly acid flavour. Before using flour in this condition it must be sifted, and the air allowed to have free access to it. If you have a barrel of flour that has not become hardened, mix equal quantities of this with the sifted flour, and when making it up into bread have the dough risen and moulded into loaves ready for baking in the shortest possible time to get the best results. Flour will become mouldy f kept in a dark and badly ventilated store room. 20 EGGS. Eggs may be preserved in a variety of ways. They go bad because the shells are porous and the air can easily penetrate them. They lose weight by evaporation, and air takes the place of the moisture evaporated. Thus it is easy to understand that the hotter and drier the air the quicker will eggs decay. Here are two reliable ways to test if they are good. Put two quarts of water in a bowl and dissolve in it two tablespoonfuls of salt. Put the eggs in this solution. If they float, they are bad ; if they sink half way, they are stale ; if they sink to the bottom, they are fresh. Or, place the thin end of an egg against the tip of your tongue, if it feels cold, the egg is good ; if warm, the egg is stale, or bad. The cause of this difference is, in the case of the good egg, the albu- men, or white of egg, is in contact with the shell, and absorbs the heat from the tongue much quicker than the air bubble which is in the end of the stale egg. You will understand from the foregoing paragraphs that if we can exclude air from the eggs it will retard decay.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Make it a rule to have all stores packed away in the store rooms and properly secured before leaving port. Sugar, salt, peas, beans, rice, biscuits, barley, and all similar stores should be stored in tanks whenever possible. If this class of stores are packed on the store room floor, there is a likelihood in the event of water being shipped aboard in bad weather of them getting wet and spoiled for the rest of the voyage. Salt fish will keep good longer if the fins and skin are taken off before stowing away. When stowing this away, put a layer of straw between each fish to assist in keeping it dry. Once it becomes wet, salt fish will quickly go bad. It should be stowed on a shelf, away from any stores that are likely to spoil by absorbing the odour given out by the fish. Butter and milk will very quickly absorb the flavour of coffee, fish, cheese, or similar strong smelling stores. Eggs also absorb smells, but in a lesser degree. FLOUR.— Flour requires to be kept in a well lighted and well ventilated place and must not be packed with other stores on top of it. Flour should not be stored where there is any offensive odour. Flour does not improve after it has been kept for longer than one month. It has fully matured by that time and from then it will begin to deteriorate very slowly in quality. The action of plenty of fresh air and light retards deterioration. It sometimes happens on a long voyage that the flour becomes very hard and lumpy in the barrels, it has also a slightly acid flavour. Before using flour in this condition it must be sifted, and the air allowed to have free access to it. If you have a barrel of flour that has not become hardened, mix equal quantities of this with the sifted flour, and when making it up into bread have the dough risen and moulded into loaves ready for baking in the shortest possible time to get the best results. Flour will become mouldy f kept in a dark and badly ventilated store room. EGGS. Eggs may be preserved in a variety of ways. They go bad because the shells are porous and the air can easily penetrate them. They lose weight by evaporation, and air takes the place of the moisture evaporated. Thus it is easy to understand that the hotter and drier the air the quicker will eggs decay. Here are two reliable ways to test if they are good. Put two quarts of water in a bowl and dissolve in it two tablespoonfuls of salt. Put the eggs in this solution. If they float, they are bad ; if they sink half way, they are stale ; if they sink to the bottom, they are fresh. Or, place the thin end of an egg against the tip of your tongue, if it feels cold, the egg is good ; if warm, the egg is stale, or bad. The cause of this difference is, in the case of the good egg, the albumen, or white of egg, is in contact with the shell, and absorbs the heat from the tongue much quicker than the air bubble which is in the end of the stale egg. You will understand from the foregoing paragraphs that if we can exclude air from the eggs it will retard decay.

Sea Cookery