The housekeeper's companion

Corned Beef. — Salted and corned meats are put to boil in cold water. Buy corned beef from the round of a large, well-fed creature. Put to soak over night in cold water. Early in the morning wash and wipe, and put into the pot to boil. Cover twice deep with cold water, and set where it will heat up gradually and come to a very gentle boil. Take the scum off as it comes up. Boil four hours — a large solid piece may take from four to five — and be sure that it is tender when you take it off. If it is to be served hot for dinner, cook it in time to allow of removing it from the flour and letting it stand in the liquor it was boiled in until cooled down from the boil as far as will still be palatable. This makes it richer and more tender. Make a smooth drawn butter sauce to eat with it. If it is to be eaten cold, take it from the fire and from the pot as soon as done. With a knife and fork, chiefly with the fork, divide and shred it into small pieces; mix these, fat and lean — disregarding all undesirable bits — equally together; pack all down into a pan; set a pan, just a little smaller, inside, upon the meat, so as to press it down, and put a heavy weight — flatirons answer the purpose very well — into the upper pan, and set all away for some hours, or over night. It will cut in delicious, tender, marbled slices, and is excellent for a Sunday lunch with hot vegetables. Boiled Tongue. — Smoked tongue is best. Wash, and lay in cold water over night. Put on to boil in cold water, and boil, not furiously, but steadily, for four hours. Take out, peel off the skin, and put back into the hot liquor, and set away to grow cold. It may remain in the water through the rest of the day and over night, if not wanted sooner. Cut tongue in lengthwise slices, beginning at the outside of the bend. This makes a wonderful difference in tenderness and flavor. Boiled Veal. — Take out the bone from a fillet of veal. Make a stuffing, as for roast meat. Fill the place of the bone with the stuffing, and draw the ends of the meat as tight as possible with a needle and a coarse, strong thread. Scald and flour a cloth, as for boiled mutton, and sew or tie the meat in it tightly. Boil three hours, or until tender, trying with a knitting-needle. Make an oyster sauce, by soup recipe, to serve with it. Well cooked, it is much like boiled turkey similarly served. Boiled Mutton. — A shoulder of mutton will boil in an hour, or a little more. A leg will take from an hour and a half to two hours, according to size. Try with a knittingneedle, to ascertain when it is tender. Have a cloth to boil it in. Wring this out of scalding water, dredge it thickly with flour, and tie up the meat tightly in it. Put it into a large kettle of boiling water, and throw in two heaping tablespoonfuls of salt. When done, put it, rag and all, into a pan, and turn cold water over it enough to cover. Let it stand a few minutes, but not long enough to cool too much. Then take off the cloth, and send at once to table. Serve with it a smooth butter sauce, with capers separately. Boiled Lamb. — Same way, allowing about a fourth less time. It must depend upon the size, however. Eight minutes to the pound, then try it. To Choose Beef. — ^When beef is good it maybe known by