Catherine Owen's new cook book ..

Now, by way of valedictory, let me repeat that I do not think a lady's best or proper place is the kitchen ; but it is quite possible to have a perfectly served table, yet spend very little time there. Only that one little hour a day that Talleyrand, the busy man full of intrigue and statecraft, found time to spend with his cook, would insure your table being well served. For, after devoting say a few winter months to perfecting yourself in a few things, you will be able to teach your cook, who is often ambitious to excel if put in the right way. A word here about cooks. The knowledge that if they fail to do a thing well you will do it yourself, will often put them on their mettle to do their best ; while the feeling that you don't know, will make them careless. Il8 Culture and Cooking. Seryants have a great deal more amour propre than people imagine ; therefore, stimulate it by judicious praise and appreciation ; let them think that to send in a dish perfect, is a glory to themselves as well as a pleasure to you. While careful to remark when alone with them upon any fault that results from carelessness, be equally careful to give all the praise you can, and repeat to them complimentary remarks that may have been made on their skill. Servants are usually — such is the weakness of feminine nature, whether in the drawing-room or the kitchen — very sensitive to the praise or blame of the gentlemen of the family. Indulge poor humanity a little when you honestly can. PAET IL PRACTICAL RECIPES CHAPTER XVIII. BREAKFAST BREADS. Although breads were very fully treated of in the first part of this booK:, a few breakfast and tea-cakes more quickly made may not be out of place. SOUFPLEE ROLLS. Melt a tablespoonful of butter in half a pint of milk; Avhen blood-warm put in half a cake of compressed yeast, a beaten egg, two teaspoonfuls of sugar and a saltspoonful of salt. When the yeast is dissolved, stir in a cup and a-half of flour well dried and quite warm; beat two or three minutes ; it should be too thick for batter, and not thick enough for dough — so thick that you cannot take it up in a spoon at all; cover with a hot cloth, and set it in a warm place ; it will rise in about two hours ; if you have time, the texture will be better if you beat it down and let it rise again before putting it in the tins. They will be very good, however, if you simply stir it down well, and with a tablespoon dipped 1 20 Practical Recipes. in flour, fill small roll-pans with the batter rather more than half full ; let them rise till the pans are full, and then bake ten to fifteen minutes in a very quick oven; when pale-brown brush them over with a little syrup thinned with milk, and bake till quite brown ; be careful they do not burn — the syrup causes them to do so easily. SCOTCH SCOKES. Dissolve half a saltspoonful of soda and two ounces of butter or lard in a gill of warmed sour milk ; put ten ounces of flour and a little salt in a bowl ; pour the mixture in and make it into a stiff dough; roll it out into a round cake half an inch thick; mark it in eight sections and bake on a griddle fifteen to twenty minutes ; split and butter while hot. SCONES NO. 2.