The "Queen" cookery books: Breakfast and Lunch Dishes

water must be absolutely boiling, and not only boiling, but just freshly brought to the boil. Water that has been allowed to boil a good while, even if kept religiously at the boiling point all the time, becomes flat, and a connoisseur can at once detect if the tea has been made wdih fresh or stale boiling water ; and this without casting the least doubt on the boiling of the liquid, a subject that is apt to breed disturbance between mistress and maid. Tea made with water that has not actually boiled is simply impossible ! Another fault in tea, though generally more en evidence at five o’clock tea-time than at breakfast, is stewed tea, t.e.,fea kept hot either at the side of the fire, or under a heavy cosy, the leaves being allowed to infuse in the boiling water till, instead of a delicate, fragrant beverage, it becomes a bitter, astringent, decoction of tannin, absolutely fatal to the digestion of any two-legged being less eupeptic than an ostrich ! Doctors could, an’ they would, tell some fearsome tales respecting the results of drinking such misused tea. With regard to the actual quantity of tea to be used the old rule “ one spoonful each and one for the pot,’’ is a very fair one, as long as the tea is good, and the spoon not too small. First rinse out the pot well with boiling water, then put in the leaves, and pour on it sufficient boiling water; now let it stand for three to five minutes, then at once pour off the liquid into a second pot (heated like the previous one), and now, if you care to, you may pour a second portion of boiling water on to the leaves, treating this in the same way, but as you value your own and your friends’ B 2 digestions, do not let the tea infuse! In former days when tea cost 18s. to 20s. a pound the spent leaves were handed over to the servants, who made a decoction by “ mashing,” or infusing them at the side of the fire, and the j3ot was kept literally “ on the hob,” for an indefinite time. Now this may have answered a hundred years or so ago, when “ nerves ” were confined to the “upper ten” (who could afford to use only the first brew, and W'ho moreover used China tea, which is far less strongly impregnated with tannin than the other kinds), and when the tea was simply the unsophisticated dried leaves of the plant in question ; but would to-day be little less than suicidal. Tea is a strong “ pick-me-up ” if made fresh and used at once, but if left to infuse indefinitely on the hob, as is the rule in the servants’ hall and the kitchen, you simply get a more or less strong infusion of tannin, which it may be observed is absolutely the same substance as is obtained from oak-bark in tanning leather ! Now surely no one needs wilfully to tan the coats of his stomach ! The Chinese method is to be recommended where a cup of tea is required in a hurry, and may be specially advised for the benefit of the unpunctual ones. For this either put a good spoonful of tea into the cup (having regard to the size of the cup), fill it up with freshly boiled water, let it stand covered for three minutes, and drink at once, or use one of the many strainers which fit on the top of the cup, and j)ut the tea into this, stand the cup itself in hot water, then pour the requisite boiling water through, cover down closely, leave for three minutes, then lift off