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

I remember very many years ago his telling me what a great improvement it was, in roasting a goodsized fowl, to proceed as follows : Take a large onion, cover it with butter, sprinkle it with cayenne pepper and salt, as well as a little black pepper. Place this onion inside the fowl, and if the fowl is cut, sew up the opening. Now roast the fowl in the ordinary way. As the fowl roasts the butter melts, and gets impregnated with the flavour of the onion, as well as with pepper, etc. This way of treating the onion gradually causes it to impregnate the meat, and 1 must say Soyer’s direction is well worth bearing in mind. This is a very nice method of treating a good-sized fowl, but I would not recommend it in the case of delicate spring chickens. Another of Soyer’s very simple receipts is for making ‘‘devilled toast.” He says : “ Toast a round of bread, cut quite an inch thick ; mix in the butter half a teaspoonful of cayenne, one teaspoonful of mustard, and one of relish or sauce. Spread it over the toast and serve very hot.” I may here add that, though Soyer probably refers to his own relish and sauce, the majority of sauces sold do admirably for the purpose, and I can particularly recommend Worcester sauce. SPANISH OLIVES.— See Olives. SPARGHETTI. — Sparghetti is a wellknown dish in Italy, in which country it precedes dinner, and takes the part of the suet dumpling given to schools before meat in the good old days. Sparghetti is not much known or appreciated in this country. The ordinary pipe macaroni is generally used for making it. There is, however, a certain kind of Italian paste sold, which is perhaps more suited for making sparghetti than any other kind. In any case English housekeepers would do well to study how far it is desirable in large households, especially where there are children, to have a large dish of sparghetti, or rice, cooked in the Italian fashion, known as "risotto," before the meat. It is to be regretted that sparghetti is not more commonly used in this country, eaten instead of fish, when fish cannot be obtained. The subject of fish as an article of every-day food is now daily becoming more and more one of interest Considering how important a part it will play in the future welfare of the country, it is to be trusted that the subject will never be allowed to drop. I would more especially speak with respect to the importance of making fresh-water fish an article of food, and bringing it generally under protective laws similar to those Which regulate salmon-fishing, etc. Sparghetti is an exceedingly cheap dish. It can, as a rule, be bought at about sixpence a pound ; and when a pound of sparghetti has been cooked,