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

will keep good for some time after it is opened. A capital salad can always be made out of bloater paste with some cold potatoes and a tin of macedoines. (See Macedoines.) When lettuces cannot be obtained this is a good substitute. When lettuces are in season there is no harm in mixing some lettuce with the salad. In making these salads all kinds of cold vegetables can be used up in this way. Cold French beans and green peas, or Brussels sprouts and summer cabbage, can be turned to account. When cold cabbage is used don’t use garlic ; the flavours do not combine. Also when cabbage is used or any green vegetables put in extra pepper. When bloater paste is opened it should not be shut up in a sideboard with other provisions, as it is apt to impart its flavour. BOUILLI. — Bouilli is sold in tins, and consists of boiled beef, with a nice stock in which are carrots, celery, onions, etc. , and it is a very convenient form of having a good hot meal in the house, always ready at a few minutes’ notice, all that is necessary being to place the tin in boiling water for about twenty minutes or less, when the tin can be opened and the contents turned out and taken at once, as it requires no further cooking. Bouilli is one of the numerous forms of tinned meats which are found so useful in the present day by those who use “bachelor apartments.” There are many who know how pleasant it is to be able to have a nice hot supper ready at any moment, without giving trouble to servants at an unseasonable hour. All that is requisite is a small saucepan similar to those used for boiling eggs, and a gas-jet or a spiritlamp. Where gas is not laid on, and where there is no fire, these small spiritlamps will be found very useful and economical. They can be bought at one shilling each, including stand, and enable persons to make then’ tea themselves, boil their own eggs, and also to warm up a tin of soup or bouilli at any hour. A somewhat quicker method of warming up tins of soup or meat is to open the tin and turn the contents into a saucepan and warm it up. By keeping the tin in the boiling water, however, you retain more of the flavour and also avoid making the saucepan dirty, and those who are fated to live in cheap bachelor lodgings will appreciate the gain of this. A tin of bouilli can also be used for making a quick dish of haricot beef, especially where some cold vegetables nave been left in the shape of carrots, etc., from a joint on the previous day. Take an onion, slice it, and fry it a nice brown colour in a frying-pan in a little fat or butter. Pour off the liquor from the bouilli and add it to the onion, and thicken this with a little brown roux (see Brown Roux), or a little arrowroot or .plain flour, etc., and, if possible, when one of these two latter thickenings have been used, colour with a little browning, or Parisian Essence, or, still better, the West Indian Casaripe. When the gravy is sufficiently thick, add the meat and the remainder of the vegetables, taking care first of all to skim off as much fat as possible. Then make the meat hot through in the gravy, and serve. In warming all tinned meats care should be taken to avoid letting the meat boil, as when this is done it is apt to make it hard.