Cassell's dictionary of cookery

is to be washed in water, and a fine thin skin that covers it to be taken off with a small brush: or, by dipping in hot water, it will come off with a coarse linen cloth. When a sufficient quantity of the roots is thus cleaned, they are to be spread on a tin jjlate, and set into an oven heated to the degree of a breadoven, where they are to remain six, eight, or ten minutes, in which time they will have lost their milky whiteness, and have acquired a transparency like that of horn, but without being diminished in size. "WTien they are arrived at this state, they may be removed to another room to dry and harden, which will be done in a few days ; or they may be finished in a very slow heat in a few hours. I have tried both ways with success. The orchis suited for the purpose grows spontaneously throughout the whole kingdom. It flourishes best in a dry sandy, barren soil. As the method of cultivating this root is so easy, I hope it will encourage the cultivation of so nutritive a vegetable. Its quahty of thickening water is to that of fine flour nearly as two and a half to one, with this difference, that the jellj' of saioop powder is clear and transparent, whereas that of flour is turbid and white." Dr. Percival, in his " Medical and Experimental Essays," mentions that a mixture of mucilage of saioop with flour makes an excellent bread. Salpicons. — Salpicons are elegant little trifles composed of a mixture of poultry, game, fish, forcemeat, sweetbreads, ham, tongue, or foie gras, together with mushrooms, trufiles, artichokes, &c. The various materials should be cooked separately, cut into dice, and heated in thick brown or white sauce, wliichever is most suitable for them. The remains of meat and vegetables are frequently served in this waj\ Salpicons may either be served in a dish, with the different ingredients divided by small sippets into compartments, then covered over ■with bread-crumbs, and browned ; or they may be put into little patties, and served on a napkin neatly garnished with parsley. The latter is the more usual method. To prepare these patties, make some good puff paste ; stamp it into small rounds with a cutter, two inches in diameter, put these on ice for a few minutes, then brush them over with beaten egg to glaze them. Dip a smaller cutter into hot water, and stamp the rounds through onethird of the thickness of the pastry. Bake the patties in a quick oven. When they are done, lift off' the cover which was fonned by the smaller cutter, and smooth the pastry. Have ready whatever is to form the contents of the patties. Heat it in sauce, but on no account allow it to boil, or the meat will be hard ; fill the patties, put on the covers again, and serve. In large families, where a number of dishes are constantly prepared, the cost of salpicons consists principally in the trouble they take to prepare. Time to bake, fifteen to twenty minutes. Salsify. — Salsify, which is the root of a plant sometimes called the "Oyster Plant" and "Purple Goat's Beard," is excellent when cooked. It is not so generally known as it deserves to be. It is understood to possess