Culinary jottings

No matter what kind of meat you boil, you will find it improved by the addition of a few vegetables. Custom has ruled that we should put in carrots, and turnips, witli boiled beef ; turnips, or sweet onions, with boiled mutton ; onions with a rabbit, &c., yet true cooks add a judicious assortment of herbs, <tc., to every boiled dish. A large sweet onion, some celery, a carrot, parsley, a sprig of marjoram, or thyme, a little bag of flavouring materials such as a clove of garlic, a blade of mace, a few cloves, some whole peppers, and the peel of a lime, should always go into the pot with a boiling fowl. Unless you have tried them, you have no idea how these things improve the taste of boiled joints. It is a very capital plan to boil a fowl in the soup-stock. Herein you have the true essence of economy — no waste. The soup gains all the fowl loses in the boiling, whilst the fowl derives richness and flavour by being done in the stock. One lot of vegetables and herbs suflices for both, and absolutely nothing is thrown away but the muslin bag which contained the spices, garlic, &c.* I need hardly remind you that in suggesting this to RamasamY you will meet with opposition. He will tell you, in all probability, that "mixed, the fowl and soup-meat, cannot come the good taste," and when you insist upon a trial, he will go away sorrowful, for the broth produced in boiling a fowl in the ordinary way, is his perquisite (or rather we do not ask for it) and "mixed with rice only," makes, with a chilli or two, a bowl of " pish-pash." Nevertheless, the fact exists beyond a doubt that a fowl is vastly improved by being thus cooked : it remains for you to decide whether, as a matter of policy, it would be wise to vex " your best friend" by ordering so great an innovation. I confess that the man who, with his eyes open, wars against his chef, is generally the loser before the campaign is ended. Time in boiling meat can scarcely be fixed arbitrarily. If you follow the advice I have given, you will find fifteen to twenty minutes per pound a reliable allowance. Discretion and experience will enable you to decide what orders to give. Large and deep joints such as humps, legs of mutton and of pork, silverside of beef, and hams, will naturally require a more liberal allowance than fowls, tongues, galantines, bacon, rabbits, &c. There are few things that are boiled as important as the ham. So much depends on the cook's knowledge of the process, that many a ham is spoiled through ignorance. I think it advisable, therefore, to give you the followingrules which I hope will be found easy enough : It is of course a sine qua non that you soak the ham for twenty -four hours, changing the water at least three times (I am speaking of hams in canvas, or skin, not of those in * Tlie fowl should not be put into the soup-kettle until all skimming has been completed, and the soup brought to the boil. — W.