The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c

When lentils are added they should be soaked in water over night, and any stray ones that may be seen on the surface of the water should be thrown away, as the fact of their floating shows that they are bad. The lentils should be then boiled in the soup till they are quite tender. The soup can be served just as it is, or it can be sent up in the form of a purde by rubbing the whole through a wire sieve. Lentils can also be served whole as a vegetable. They should be boiled till they are tender, strained off, and then mixed with a piece of butter and a little pepper and salt. It will be found an improvement to add a spoonful of chopped parsley. Lentils can also be served, after being boiled, with olive oil. The dish in which they are served can also be rubbed with a bead of garlic ; chopped parsley and a little lemon juice can be added afterwards. Lentils are supposed to contain a great amount of nourishment, but they always require the addition of a certain amount of fat in some shape or other. When lentils are served at meals at which no meat is taken they can be mixed with oil or butter in the way we have mentioned. When animal fat is not objected to, a very good plan for cooldng lentils is to boil them in a small quantity of greasy stock. The liquor in which a leg of pork or a piece of pickled pork or ham has been boiled, and which will very often, owing to its saltness, be useless for other purposes, will be found extremely useful for boiling lentils. Where dishes do not contain any fat in themselves there is always a craving for it in some shape or other. For instance, boiled fish seems almost to ask for melted butter. It may have been observed that very often — or at least it was so many years ago, though the custom may be now discontinued — whenever a fish dinner was given it terminated in a course of beans and bacon. The beans and bacon closing the meal was almost a scientific method of causing the food to contain all the essential properties of nourishment. There are French lentils and Egyptian lentils, but they do not differ very much either in quality or appearance. When serving lentils in oil, of course it is essential that the oil should be fresh and pure. People in this country have often a strong objection to oil in any form, but it is very much owing to the fact that a great part of the oil which they are accustomed to take has been kept too long. When oil is perfectly pure, like very good butter, it is almost tasteless. Boiled lentils, mixed with a little butter, pepper, and salt, can be served with boiled bacon, pork, etc. LIMES, WEST INDIA, PICKLED.— West India limes can be obtained pickled in vinegar in bottles. They are very similar to pickled lemons, and of course are somewhat acid. They are well adapted to the taste of those persons who are fond of acids, and are popular throughout the whole of Germany. They are sometimes eaten at the commencement of dinner as an appetiser, in the same way as pickled gherkins, cucumbers, etc. LIMES IN SYRUP. — Limes when preserved in syrup form a very delicious sweet. They are also very wholesome, especially when fresh fruit cannot be obtained. In long sea voyages they form an excellent dessert-dish, and they also possess considerable cooling properties.