Catherine Owen's new cook book ..

the following articles 1 bottle of capers, olives, gherkins, soy, anchovies tarragon vinegar. bottle of claret, '' white wine, ^' sherry for cooking, ^* brandy, ^' Harvey sauce, ^* walnut ketchup. And a package of compressed vegetables and a few bay leaves Ten dollars thus spent may seem a good deal of money to a young housewife trying to make her husband's salary go as far as it will ; but I assure her it is in the end an economy, especially in a small family, who are so apt to get tired of seeing the same thing, that it has to be What to Have in Your Store-room, 29 thrown or given away. With these condiments and others I have yet to mention you will have no trouble in using every scrap ; not using it and eating it from a sense of duty, and wishing it was something better, but enjoying it. With your store-room well provided, you can indeed go for gravy as if to the pump." Besides the foregoing list of articles to be bought of any good grocer, there are others which can be made at home to advantage, and once made are always ready. Mushroom powder I prefer for any use to mushroom catsup ; it is easily made and its uses are infinite. Sprinkled over steak (when it must be sifted) or chops, it is delicious. For ordinary purposes, such as flavoring soup or gravy, it need not be sifted. To prepare it, take a peck of large and very fresh mushrooms, look them over carefully that they are not wormy, then cleanse them with a piece of flannel from sand or grit, then peel them and put them in the sun or a cool oven to dry ; they require long, slow drying, and must become in a state to crumble. Your peck will have diminished by the process into half a pint or less of mushroom powder, but you have the means with it of making a rich gravy at a few minutes' notice. Apropos of gravies — that much-vexed question in small households — for without gravies on hand you cannot make good hash, or many other things that are miserable without, and excellent with it. Yet how difficult it is to have gravy always on hand every mistress of a small family knows, in spite of the constant advice to " save your trimming to make stock.'' Do by all means save your bones, gristle, odds and ends of meat of all kinds, and convert them into broth ; but even if you do, it often happens that the days you have done so no 30 Culture and Cooking. gravy is required, and then it sours quickly in summer, although it may be arrested by reboiling. In no family of three or four are there odds and ends enough, unless there is a very extravagant table kept, to insure stock for every day. My remedy for this, then, is to make a stock that will keep for months or years — in other words, glaze. So very rarely forming part of a housewife's stores, yet so valuable that the fact is simply astonishing ; with a piece of glaze, you have a dish of soup on an emergency, rich gravy for any purpose, and all with the expenditure of less time than would make a pot of sweetmeats.