Culinary jottings

" Put about a pint of water in a sauce-pan with a pinch of salt, a piece of butter the size of an egg, a table-spoonful of sugar, and the rasped peel of three lemons — when the whole boils, throw in gradually sufficient flour to form a thick paste, then let it remain ten minutes, and work into it, off the fire, two eggs complete, and the yolks only of two more, the whites of which you reserve for whisking to a froth : add the froth, let it rest awhile, and then proceed to fry by dropping pieces of it the size of a walnut into boiling fat. The paste will swell in the process of frying, and if the fat be sufficiently heated hollow balls of a fine golden colour will be produced. Serve them piled upon a dish, with a plentiful dusting of powdered white sugar." (G. C.) In this country it will be better to use a few drops of lemon essence than the rasped peel of a lime ; and any essence, such as vanilla, ratafia, almond, &c., may be used as a change. If you omit the lemon and the sugar, and stir in with the flour a good allowance of finely grated Parmesan, you will achieve a " heignet souffle au Parmesan/' a truly toothsome savoury entremets ; and if you cook them plainly, without cheese, and only seasoned with pepper and salt, you will have a beignet which, when eaten with salt, pepper, mustard, and fresh butter, forms a savoury entremets not to be despised. Salads. In an early chapter of these jottings, I observed that amongst the accessories of an artistic dinner, a good salad, though not entered in the menu perhaps, was still expected to be present. On the continent we find the salad handed to us, as a matter of course, with the "rôt." "Poulet au cresson — salade" is, of course, a familiar item in the French menu. This custom is being fast adopted in England by those who are quick to mark that which their neighbours do well. There can be no doubt whatever that this method of dressing raw vegetables, if correctly done, is wholesome, and a singularly commendable staple of diet for people who live in hot climates. There are ailments to which the Englishman seems to be especially prone, which are comparatively unknown by Spaniards and Italians with whom raw vegetables, and oil are daily food. A careful study then, of what we can do in India in this branch of cookery, is worthy of every man's attention. We all know that a salad demands two things : — its vegetable foundation, and its dressing, both of which may be a good deal varied. First, as regards the foundation of a salad. This may be composed of cooked, as well as of raw materials : the vegetables principally employed being, lettuces (cabbage, and coss), endive, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, parsley, young radishes, garden-cress, and water-cress, in the latter condition; and in the former, beet-root, French beans, flageolets, potatoes, artichokes, cauliflower, turnip-tops, asparagus, cabbage, vegetable marrow, and young carrots. With cold cooked country vegetables, I have made capital salads ; young brinjals, the mollah-keeray, bandikai, country beans, greens of sorts, and little pumpkins gathered very 3'oung, are all worthy of treatment in this way.