Culinary jottings

The white stalls of the flower, if quite young, can be served exactly like asparagus, i. e. : — boiled, laid in a very hot dish, with plenty of butter melting over them, or maitre d'hotel butterif at hand, and assisted by " Dutch sauce." No toast is needed in this case. The cocoanut flower-pods can be obtained now and then at Madras, for the toddy-drawers cut them off when tapping the palms for sap. I can strongly recommend my readers to try both the dishes I have mentioned. Sardine toast, hereixg toast, cod's-roe toast, pilchard TOAST, SALMON TOAST, &c., <fec., are all nice, and very easily made. Trim the fish free from oil, skin, fins, bones, &c., and chop it up on a plate, give it a dust of Nepaul pepper, with a very little salt, and knead it up with a little butter. Put a pat of butter at the bottom of a sauce-pan, proceed as if to make a sauce blanche with a little milk, incorporate therewith the minced fish, add the yolk of an egg, and when thick enough and thoroughly hot, pour it upon slices of fried toast hot from the pan, and dish up quickly. The cold remains of all fish may be thus satisfactorily disposed of. " Buttered eggs" go wonderfully well with fish toasts, either laid as a top-dressing over the fish mince, or mingled with it ; and hard-boiled eggs may be cut up, and tossed with the fish in the saucepan just before serving. Cheese is another valuable ingredient in the hands of the toast-maker. Welsh rarebit, or " Ramakin toast" as it is called by Ramasamy, is universally familiar to native cooks, and is a dish upon which they generally fall back in an emergency, or when " Missis din't give arders" for any anything else. For a really good Welsh RAREBIT, you should have a sound fresh cheese, not overstrong, and proceed thus : — Grate two ounces of the cheese; mix with it an ounce of butter, a dessert-spoonful of mademustard, a little salt, a pinch of Nepaul pepper, and the yolks of two eggs. Mix well together in a basin, and work the mixture thoroughly smooth. Toast a couple of neat slices of bread very carefully, butter them on both sides, place them on a dish that will stand the oven, spread the cheese mixture over them pretty thickly, and bake for ten minutes. If you want a smooth yellow surface, neither too brown nor dry, place your toasts in a buttered pie-dish and spread a sheet of common white paper over them : after ten minutes baking in a really hot oven, they will be ready, so remove the paper and serve forthwith. A good plain Cheese toast, made as follows is not to be despised : — Cut a few very tliin slices of a nice fresh cheese, or grate two ounces of a hard dry one : put the cheese upon a small well buttered baking tin, and place it in the oven ; watch it carefully, and when it begins to dissolve, stir some butter into it, give it a dust of Nepaul pepper, and serve it upon crisply fried toasts quickly.