The household gas cookery book

Red Cabbage. — Take off the outside leaves of a firm cabbage, cut it into quarters, remove the stalks and cut it across in very thin slices ; lay these on a dish and strew them with salt (not too much of it, or it will spoil the colour), cover with another dish and leave them until next day, then turn into a colander to drain ; put them in a jar. Boil sufficient vinegar to well cover the cabbage, allowing to each quart 1 oz. each of black pepper and allspice, J oz. of ginger (well bruised), and a little salt and cayenne. A little cochineal boiled with the vinegar adds to the appear¬ ance of this pickle, or use one beetroot very thinly sliced. SAUCES. \ Melted Butter. — For the want of comprehension, few things suffer in the kitchen more than sauces. Many persons fail to understand that beyond colour there can be any difference in them. Everyone who wishes to become accomplished in the art of cooking should make themselves cognisant in the thickening, which lies at the bottom of every sauce. To carefully melt the butter and add the sifted flour in the same careful manner will save a great deal of future trouble. What can be more unpleasant than lumps in the sauce which is expected to be eaten ? and yet the formation of any may be prevented, and a creamy smoothness the result if carefully stirred over heat not too intense. Watchfulness is also necessary if white sauce is de¬ sired, that its colouring may be prevented, and also burning is not allowed for brown sauce. The con¬ sistency may be regulated by the varying of propor¬ tions of flour and butter. “Gruesome paste ” would not be an inappropriate term for that which is often sent to table under the inviting epithet of “melted butter.” Water set on to boil, or perhaps a little milk, an indefinite quantity of flour “thrown in,” a piece of butter, rubbed up with a little milk until the whole is considered to be smooth, a hasty stir round is given, and the next performance is to “pop” it into a cold sauce boat, where the “pasty mass” solidifies, and the uncooked flour is ready, awaiting its turn to confer indigestion to those who are beguiled to “try it.” There is a possibility that it may have been “run through a strainer,” but even then, though flour is cheap, and waste considered of no consequence, sauce made in this manner cannot be appetising. Melted Butter. — Ingredients : i oz. butter, £ oz. flour, i gill of milk, i gill of hot water, 3 white peppercorns, a little salt. Melt the butter in a stewpan, then mix the flour smoothly in it, add the seasoning,' and gradually stir in the gill of water and gill of milk. Let it come to the boil, stirring it all the time, and then let it simmer for ten minutes, so as to thoroughly cook the flour. Strain and serve. For a thicker sauce add J oz. more flour. Having acquired the practice of making it properly, it can be varied considerably. A teaspoonful to a tablespoonful (according to taste) of anchovy added to half a pint of the above makes a very good anchovy sauce.