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

Next mix a dessert-spoonful of curry- powder, first moistening the curry-powder with a little water in a cup. Now take a small spoonful of arrowroot, and mix it with a little butter in a cup. Stir the curry-powder and oil in the frying-pan, and then gradually add the arrowroot and water. As soon as the whole mixture is as thick as gruel, add the pilchards, putting the curry sauce as much as possible on to them. Make the pilchards hot through, and then place them in their dish, and pour the contents of the frying-pan over them. If there is time, some boiled rice should be served with them. An improvement to this curry would be the addition of a little curry-paste, as well as curry-powder. Also, if there are any bay-leaves in the house, four or five of them should be boiled in the mixture and served up with the fish whole. PINEAPPLE SYRUP. — Of all the various syrups sold I think pineapple is the most delicious. There are few syrups that make a more refreshing drink on a hot day than this, and the nicest form is to mix it with iced sodawater. It can also be taken by itself in plain water, ice being a great im provement. I have already, under the headingsof “ AprieotSyrup” and “Red- Currant Syrup,” called attention to the very great importance of these syrups being more largely used throughout the country than they are at present, as forming probably that necessary substitute for intoxicating liquor which is the only means of preventing habits of drinking being acquired by the rising | generation. The first essential is that \ this substitute should be as cheap as the cheapest form of intoxicating fluid. That old or middle-aged men would take to these syrups is very improbable. But it is with the young that the cure is simplest. The old saying that prevention is better than cure is more applicable to this vice than to any other. Pineapple syrup is also sometimes used i for cooking purposes. A very delicious 1 pudding can be made from preserved pineapple, whether preserved in tins in j slices or preserved whole. This rich and high-class pudding is made exactly in the same way as ginger pudding is made from preserved ginger (see Ginger, Preserved), the only difference being that pineapple is used with the other ingredients instead of preserved ginger, and the pineapple syrup is used for making the sauce instead of the liquor in which the ginger was preserved. PINEAPPLES, CRYSTALLISED.— Crystallised pineapple is one of the most favourite forms of crystallised fruit; indeed it will be noticed that when a dish of crystallised fruits is handed round for dessert, containing slices of pineapple, almost invariably the pineapple is the fruit that is first selected. When, therefore, a dish of crystallised fruits is prepared, it is the truest hospitality to obtain if possible an excess of pineapple over the other fruits composing the dish. A rcallj’ good dessert consists in the variety of the dishes that will be eaten. Too often housekeepers are in the habit of serving their dessert on the system of having a variety of very pretty dishes to look at, but none of which they know will ever be eaten at all.