Cookery for beginners

•*If she had even warmed it up, I should not have felt so forlornly homesick," she said. "But cold eel-pie! Think of it!" I confess to heartfelt sympathy with the complainant. There is a suggestion of friendliness and home-comfort in the " goodly smell " of a steaming-hot entrie set before family or guest. It argues forethought for those who are to be fed. We have the consciousness that we are expected and that somebody has cared enough for uS to make ready a visible welcome. Pale slices of cold mutton, and thin slabs of corned beef cannot, with the best intentions on the part of the caterer, convey this. The summing up of this lecture, is: Neither despise unlikely fragments left over from roast, baked or boiled, nor consider them good enough as they are without "rehabilitation." We will begin with a dish the mention of which provokes a sneer more often than any other known to civilization. Hash. Rid cold corned or roast beef of fat, skin and gristle, and mince it in a wooden tray with a sharp chopper until the largest piece is not more than an eighth of an inch square. With two cupfuls of this mix a cupful of mashed potato rubbed smooth with a potato beater or wooden spoon. Season well with pepper and salt if the beef be fresh, if corned use the salt sparingly and pepper well. Set a clean frying-pan on the stove with a cupful of beef gravy in it from which you have skimmed all the fat. Clear soup will do if you have no gravy. If you have neither, pour into the pan a half-pint of boiling water and stir into this three tablespoonfuls of butter. When the butter-water (or gravy) reaches the boil, add a half-teaspoonful of made mustard. Then put in the meat and potato and stir — scraping the bottom of the pan to prevent sticking — for five minutes, or until you have a bubbling-hot mass, not stiff, nor yet semiliquid. It must have been brought to boiling heat and kept at it about five minutes, cooking so fast that you have to stir and toss constantly lest it should scorch. Heap on a hot dish, and eat from hot plates. Hash Cakes. Having prepared the hash as above set it aside until cold, when mould into flat cakes as you would sausage meat, and roll in flour. Heat nice beef-dripping to a boil in a fryingpan, lay in the cakes, and fry to a light brown on both sides. Beef Croquettes. You can make these of the cold hash by moulding it into rolls about three and a half inches long, and rather more than an inch in diameter. Roll these over and over on a floured dish or board to get them smooth and regular in shape; flatten the ends by setting each upright on the floury dish, and put enough dripping in the pan to cover them as they lie on their sides in it. It should be very hot before they go in. Roll over carefully in the fat as they brown, not to spoil the shape. Do not put too many in the pan at once ; as fast as they are done take them up and lay in a hot colander until all are ready. Arrange neatly on a heated flat dish and serve, . A Mutton Stew. Cut slices of cold mutton half an inch thick, trim away fat and skin and divide the lean meat into neat squares about an inch across. Drop a piece of onion as large as a hickorynut in a cupful of water and boil fifteen minutes. Strain the water through a bit of muslin, squeezing the onion hard to extract the flavor. Allow this cupful of water to two cupfuls of meat. If you have less mutton use less water; if more increase the quantity of liquid. Pour the water into a clean saucepan and when it boils add two full tablespoonfuls of butter cut into bits and rolled over and over in browned flour until no more will adhere to the butter.