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

While the soup simmers gently the cook should skim it with a spoon, and by this means the fat will be removed. Before sending the soup to table add to it a dessert-spoonful of sherry. The bead of garlic should be removed, and not served up in the soup, as it would be an extremely unpleasant thing for any person, especially if he did not like the flavour of garlic, to find a bead of garlic whole in his mouth. GINGER, CRYSTALLISED.— Crystallised ginger, though scarcely to be called a fruit, can yet be mixed with crystallised fraits, or it can be served as a dessert-dish by itself in a small glass dish. It is one of the few forms of crystallised provisions that may be said to be a gentleman’s dish, like olives. There are many persons who after dinner never touch fruit or sweets, but will yet be tempted with a piece of crystallised ginger, or a piece of preserved ginger, or an olive. Crystallised ginger is also a very nice preserved "fruit" for cleansing the palate after eating rich or sickly things. GINGER, ESSENCE OF. — Essence of ginger, like other strong essences, must be used with great caution. It is very powerful, and two or three drops are sufficient to flavour half a pint, or even a pint, of fluid. Essence of ginger can be used to make a good teetotal “ pickme-up.” To make this, squeeze a lemon into a tumbler, add to it a little syrup or a little sugar, and a quarter of a pint of water. Stir it up, and see that the sugar is thoroughly dissolved, and then strain it through a small strainer, to get rid of the pips and pieces of pulp of the lemon. Add to this three or four, or even more, drops of essence of ginger. A wineglassful of this will be found warming, refreshing, and invigorating. Of course it is a non-intoxicant. Essence of ginger can also be used for flavouring puddings, but care should be taken that the essence is mixed with some fluid previous to its being added to the pudding. Were the essence of ginger dropped into the pudding at random, it would be found that one little portion of the pudding would burn the mouth, while the rest would contain very little flavour of ginger at all. In making puddings, therefore, when essence of ginger is used, it should be added to milk or water before the fluid is used in mixing the pudding. When essence of ginger has been used for flavouring puddings, a little grated nutmeg added to it will also improve the flavour. Essence of ginger is also sometimes used for medicinal purposes, and is often very useful in helping to destroy a nasty flavour. I have known persons who take with the greatest difficulty codliver oil get rid of the unpleasant taste by rinsing their mouth with a little essence of ginger and water, though I think a still better means of taking the nasty taste out of the mouth is to have a number of small pieces of the yellow rind of lemon-peel cut very thin, and cram them hastily into the mouth and chew them. The lemon is so strong that it instantly takes away every other flavour. GINGER, GROUND. — Ground ginger is very useful for flavouring plain puddings. Plain ginger pudding is made with ground ginger, but a nigh-class ginger pudding is made with preserved ginger. A receipt for making this delicious pudding will be found under the heading of Ginger, Preserved. A no