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

, It is somewhat similar to anchovy paste, only far milder. It is very cheap, and can be bought in sixpenny pots. A pot always in the house is very useful, as it enables us to turn out a nice cheap salad at a few minutes’ notice. In England, what are known as German— or, as we are going to introduce the flavour of bloater, to speak more correctly we should say Dutch — salads are far too much neglected. I will take a simple, but I fear a far too common, form of everyday waste. Suppose the dinner has consisted of a piece of boiled beef with carrots and turnips round it, while some potatoes and cauliflower have been handed with it. Now, when the joint goes downstairs what does the cook do with the remains ? She places the beef on a clean dish, and we trust pours off the liquor to help to make soup, unless the beef was too salt ; but the fag ends of the carrots, turnips (boiled whole), and one or two cold potatoes are too often absolutely wasted. They may sometimes be put in the stockpot, but this institution is not too common in the small households of middle-class families. ! Let us take a lesson from the land of canals, and make a salad as follows. (In Holland they use raw herrings ; bloater paste to my thinking is better, and certainly more wholesome.) Cut up the carrot and turnip into little pieces the same size as those in tins of macedoines. Pick out all the flower j part of the cold cauliflower, and when ■ quite cold put all these into a salad ! bowl. Next cut up the cold potatoes in ' slices, and spread each slice over with : bloater paste, after which the slices may ! be placed on one another, and cut across j first one way and then another, so that the pieces of potato are no bigger than i the cut carrot and cut turnip. Place these all together in the salad bowl, which, if the flavour is liked, can be first rubbed with a clove of garlic. (As a rule English people would not care for the flavour of bloater and garlic mixed. Abroad it would be liked. Were I to mix the salad for my own eating I should add garlic.) Then add to the salad a teaspoonful of finely chopped parsley, and, if it can be procured, peel an apple. J Cut it into four, and carefully remove I the core. Chop up the raw apple, and j add it to the salad, which can then bo dressed as follows : — Put a saltspoonful of salt and half a one of black pepper in a tablespoon, and fill it up with salad oil, stir it up with a spoon, and pour it over the salad. Add more oil if necessary (this, of course, depends on the quantity of salad). Then mix the salad thoroughly together, so that each piece gets oiled over before any vinegar is added. Then add half a tablespoonful of English vinegar, and mix the salad well together again. This is really a vory nice salad, rather appetising, and can be served with the cold boiled beef. How far better to utilise the remains of the vegetables than to throw them away. A small pot of bloater paste