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

unlike meat, instead of losing in weight it weighs more. In many parts of the country, when tomatoes are ripe and plentiful, an exceedingly nice and very cheap dish can be made with the aid of sparghetti. In making a dish of it proceed as follows: Boil the sparghetti carefully in some plain water till it is tender. Now take it out, place it on a dish, add to it some pepper and salt, and a good brimming tablespoonful of conserve of tomato or tomato sauce, or some fresh tomatoes that have been baked in the oven with a little butter. Now shake over the whole some grated cheese. If Parmesan cheese can be obtained, all the better, but this is a very nice way of using up what are sometimes called heels of old cheese — that is, pieces next to the rind. Serve the dish thoroughly hot, and take care that the cheese is added while the macaroni is very hot, in order that the cheese itself may melt. When tossed lightly together the melted cheese should have a sort of cobwebby appearance, and look like threads when part of the sparghetti is lifted up in the air. A dish of this description served to families before, and not after, the roast leg of mutton, will, like fish, be a very great saving indeed, and will also have a very considerable effect on the weekly butcher’s bill. SPICES, VARIOUS.— When ground spices are used in the kitchen, it will, I think, be found more economical to buy them ready ground than to grind them at home. One difficulty in getting home-ground spices is that the mill used for grinding them requires such an enormous amount of cleansing before anything else can be ground in it. Cases have been too often known when the coffee-mill has been used for grinding spices, the effect of which has been to give a decided taste to the coffee afterwards ground in the mill, which perhaps had been used for grinding mace or Jamaica ginger. Those who have tasted it will know what I mean. The following spices, of which a description will be found under their respective headings, are now sold ready ground : — Cinnamon, nutmegs, mace, cloves, ginger, mixed spice, black and white pepper. STRASBURG PIES. — Strasburg pies can now be obtained preserved in tins, or rather terrines. These pies are very rich and very nice, and a little goes a long way. They have for very many years been considered a great delicacy, though, of course, their distinctive flavour is owing to the peculiar treatment to which the unfortunate geese are subjected during the latter part of their unhappy lives. These tins should not be opened till they are wanted. They are admirable for occasions such as picnics, etc. It will always be best before opening them to place them for half an hour in a little water in which a large lump of ice has been placed. By this means the rich fat by which the pie is surrounded is made harder and more eatable. When the pie has been exposed open to the heat of the sun, or even in a hot room, it becomes far less appetising than when in a cool state. Cooks would do very well to bear in mind how very important it is to guard against any of the remains of these pies being wasted, because these will assist them very considerably in making almost every kind of rich forcemeat.