soon as it is put down, and every quarter of an hour all the time it is roasting till the last half hour; then take off the paper and make some gravy for it, stir the fire and make it clear; to brown and froth it, sprinkle a little salt over it, baste it with butter, and dredge it with flour; let it go a few minutes longer till the froth rises, take it up, put it on the dish, etc. Garnish it with horse-radish scraped as fine as possible with a very sharp knife.

A Yorkshire pudding is an excellent accompaniment.

Ribs of Beef. The three first ribs, of fifteen or twenty pounds, will take three hours or three and a half; the fourth and fifth ribs will take as long, managed in the same way as the sirloin. Paper the fat and the thin part, or it will be done too much before the thick part is done enough.

Ribs of Beef Boned and Rolled.-When you have kept two or three ribs of beef till quite tender, take out the bones, and skewer it as round as possible (like a fillet of veal); before they roll it, some cooks egg it and sprinkle it with veal stuffing. As the meat is more in a solid mass, it will require more time at the fire than in the preceding receipt; a piece of ten or twelve pounds' weight will not be well and thoroughly roasted in less than four and a half or five hours. For the first half hour it should not be less than twelve inches from the fire, that it may get gradually warm to the center; the last half hour before it will be finished sprinkle a little salt over it, and if you wish to froth it, flour it, etc.

Mutton. As beef requires a large sound fire, mutton must have a brisk and sharp one; if you wish to have mutton tender it should be hung as long as it will keep, and then good eight-tooth, i. e., four years' old mutton, is as good eating as venison.

The Leg, Haunch, and Saddle will be the better for being hung up in a cool airy place for four or five days at least; in temperate weather, a week; in cold weather, ten days. A leg of eight pounds will take about two hours; let it be well basted.

A Chine or Saddle, i. e., the two loins, of ten or eleven pounds, two hours and a half. It is the business of the butcher to take off the skin and skewer it on again, to defend the meat from extreme heat, and preserve its succulence. If this is neglected, tie a sheet of paper over it; baste the strings you tie it on with directly or they will burn. About a quarter of an hour before you think it will be done take off the skin or paper, that it may get a pale-brown color, and then baste it and flour it lightly to froth it.

A Shoulder, of seven pounds, an hour and a half. Put the spit in close to the shank-bone, and run it along the blade-bone.

A Loin of Mutton, from an hour and a half to an hour and three quarters. The most elegant way of carving this is to cut it lengthwise, as you do a saddle. A neck, about the same time as a loin. It must be carefully jointed or it is very difficult to carve.

The Neck and Breast are, in small families, commonly roasted together. The cook will then crack the bones across the middle before they are put down to roast. If this is not done carefully they are very troublesome to carve. A breast, an hour and a quarter.

A Haunch, i. e., the leg and part of the loin of mutton. Send up two sauce-boats with it, one of rich-drawn mutton gravy, made without spice or herbs, and the other of sweet-sauce. It generally weighs about fifteen pounds, and requires about three hours and a half to roast it.

Mutton (venison fashion).-Take a neck of good four or five year old wether mutton, cut long in the bones; let it hang, in temperate weather, at least a week. Two days before you dress it, take allspice and black pepper, ground and pounded fine, a quarter of an ounce each, rub them together, and then rub your mutton well with this mixture twice a day. When you dress it, wash off the spice with warm water, and roast it in paste.

A Fillet of Veal, of from twelve to sixteen pounds, will require from four to five hours at a good fire; make some stuffing or forcemeat and put it under the flap, that there may be some left to eat cold, or to season a hash; brown it, and pour good melted butter over it. Garnish with thin slices of lemon, and cakes or balls of stuffing, or duck-stuffing, or fried pork sausages, curry sauce, bacon and greens, etc.

A Loin is the best part of the calf, and will take about three hours roasting. Paper the kidney fat and the back; some cooks send it up on a toast, which is eaten with the kidney and the fat of this part, which is more delicate than any marrow, etc. If there is more of it than you think will be eaten with the veal, before you roast it cut it out, it will make an excellent suet pudding; take care to have your fire long enough to brown the ends.

A Shoulder of Veal, from three hours to three hours and a half; stuff it with the forcemeat ordered for the fillet of veal in the under side.

Neck, best end, will take two hours. The scrag part is best made into a pie or broth. Breast, from an hour and a half to two hours. Let the caul remain till it is almost done, then take it off to brown it; baste, flour, and froth it.

Veal Sweet-bread.—Trim a fine sweet-bread, it cannot be too fresh; parboil it for five minutes, and throw it into a basin of cold water; roast it plain, or beat up the yolk of an egg, and prepare some fine breadcrumbs. When the sweet-bread is cold, dry it thoroughly in a cloth, run a lark-spit or a skewer through it, and tie it on the ordinary spit; egg it with a paste brush, powder it well with bread-crumbs, and roast it. For sauce, fried bread-crumbs round it, and melted butter with a little mushroom catsup and lemon-juice, or serve them on buttered toast, garnished with egg sauce or with gravy.

Lamb is a delicate and commonly considered tender meat; but those who talk of tender lamb, while they are thinking of the age of the animal forget that even a chicken must be kept a proper time after it has been killed, or it will be tough picking Woeful experience has warned us to beware of accepting an invitation to dinner on Easter Sunday; and, unless commanded by a thorough-bred gourmand, our incisors, molars, and principal viscera have protested against the imprudence of encountering young tough, stringy mutton under the misnomer of grass-lamb. To the usual accompaniments of roasted meat, green mintsauce or a salad is commonly added; and some cooks, about five minutes before it is done, sprinkle it with a little minced parsley.

Leg of five pounds, from an hour to an hour and a half.

Shoulder, with a quick fire, an hour.

Ribs, about an hour to an hour and a quarter; joint it nicely; crack the ribs across, and bend them up to make it easy to carve.

Loin, an hour and a quarter. Neck, an hour. Breast, three-quarters of an hour.

COOKING MEATS.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES.-"In the hands of an expert cook," says Majendie, "alimentary substances are made almost entirely to change their nature, their form, consistence, odor, savor, color, chemical composition, etc.; every thing is so modified, that it is often impossible for the most exquisite sense of taste to recognize the substance which makes up the basis of certain dishes. The greatest utility of the kitchen consists in making the food agreeable to the senses, and rendering it easy of digestion."

Boiling extracts a portion of the juice of meat, which mixes with the water, and also dissolves some of its solids; the more fusible parts of the fat melt out, combine with the water, and form soup or broth. The meat loses its red color, becomes more savory in taste and smell, and more firm and digestible. If the process is continued too long, the meat becomes indigestible, less succulent, and tough.

To boil meat to perfection, it should be done slowly, in plenty of water, replaced by other hot water as evaporation takes place; for, if boiled too quickly, the outside becomes tough; and not allowing the ready transmission of heat, the interior remains rare.

The loss by boiling varies, according to Professor Donovan, from 61 to 16 per cent. The average loss on boiling butchers' meat, pork, hams, and bacon, is 12; and on domestic poultry, is 142.

3

The loss per cent. on boiling salt beef is 15; on legs of mutton, 10; hams, 12; salt pork, 133; knuckles of veal, 83; bacon, 64; turkeys, 16; chickens, 133.

The established rule as regards time, is to allow a quarter of an hour for each pound of meat if the boiling is rapid, and twenty minutes if slow. There are exceptions to this; for instance, ham and pork, which require from twenty to twenty-five minutes per pound, and bacon nearly half an hour. For solid joints allow fifteen minutes for every pound, and from ten to twenty minutes over; though, of course, the length of time will depend much on the strength of the fire, regularity in the boiling, and size of the joint. The following table will be useful as an average of the time required to boil the various articles:

Roasting, by causing the contraction of the cellular substance which contains the fat, expels more fat than boiling. The free escape of watery particles in the form of vapor, so necessary to produce flavor, must be regulated by frequent basting with the fat which has exuded from the meat, combined with a little salt and water-otherwise the meat would burn, and become hard and tasteless. A brisk fire at first will, by charring the outside, prevent the heat from penetrating, and therefore should only be employed when the meat is half roasted.

The loss by roasting varies, according to Professor Donovan, from 14 3-5ths to nearly double that rate, per cent. The average loss on roasting butchers' meat is 22 per cent.; and on domestic poultry is 20.

The loss per cent. on roasting beef, viz., on sirloins and ribs together, is 19 1-6th; on mutton, viz., legs and shoulders together, 24 4-5ths; on fore-quarters of lamb, 223; on ducks, 27 1-5th; on turkeys, 20; on geese, 19; on chickens, 14 3-5ths. So that it will be seen by comparison with the percentage given of the loss by boiling, that roasting is not so economical; especially when we take into account that the loss of weight by boiling is not actual loss of economic materials, for we then possess the principal ingredients for soups; whereas, after roasting, the fat only remains. The average loss in boiling and roasting together is 18 per cent. according to Donovan, and 28 per cent. according to Wallace a difference that may be accounted for by supposing a difference in the fatness of the meat, duration and degree of heat, &c., employed.

The time required to roast various articles of food with a clear good fire is given below:

To roast properly, meat should be put a good distance from the fire, and brought gradually nearer when about half the time required for cooking it has elapsed; it should be basted frequently; and when nearly done, floured to make it look frothed. Old meats do not require so much dressing as young; and, if not fat enough, use a little dripping for basting. Veal and mutton require a little paper put over the fat, to preserve it from being burnt.

If roasting with a spit, be careful to have it well cleaned before running it through the meat, which should be done always in the inferior parts; but in many joints the spit will pass into the bones, and run

along them for some distance, so as not to stain or injure the prime part. Balance skewers will frequently be required.

Broiling requires a brisk rapid heat, which, by producing a greater degree of change in the affinities of the raw meat than roasting, generates a higher flavor, so that broiled meat is more savory than roast. The surface becoming charred, a dark-colored crust is formed, which retards the evaporation of the juices; and, therefore, if properly done, broiled may be as tender and juicy as roasted meat.

Baking does not admit of the evaporation of the vapors so rapidly as by the processes of broiling and roasting; the fat is also retained more, and becomes converted by the agency of the heat into an empyreumatic oil, so as to render the meat less fitted for delicate stomachs, and more difficult to digest. The meat is, in fact, partly boiled in its own confined water, and partly roasted by the dry hot air of the oven.

The loss by baking has not been estimated; and, as the time required to cook many articles must vary with their size, nature, &c., we have considered it better to leave that until giving the receipts for them.

Frying is of all methods the most objectionable, from the foods being less digestible when thus prepared, as the fat employed undergoes chemical changes. Olive oil in this respect is preferable to lard or butter. The crackling noise which accompanies the process of frying meat in a pan is occasioned by the explosions of steam formed in fat, the temperature of which is much above two hundred and twelve degrees. If the meat is very juicy it will not fry well, because it becomes sodden before the water is evaporated; and it will not brown because the temperature is too low to scorch it. To fry fish well, the fat should be boiling hot (six hundred degrees,) and the fish well dried in a cloth; otherwise, owing to the generation of steam, the temperature will fall so low that it will be boiled in its own steam, and not be browned. Meat, or, indeed, any article, should be frequently turned and agitated during frying, to promote the evaporation of the watery particles. We append Dr. Kitchener's directions for baking meats:

"Baking is one of the cheapest and most convenient ways of dressing a dinner in small families; and, I may say, that the oven is often the only kitchen a poor man has, if he wishes to enjoy a joint of meat at home with his family.

"I don't mean to deny the superior excellence of roasting to baking; but some joints, when baked, so nearly approach to the same when roasted, that I have known them to be carried to the table, and eaten as such with great satisfaction.

"LEGS and LOINS of PORK, LEGS of MUTTON, FILLETS of VEAL, and many other joints, will bake to great advantage, if the meat be good; I mean well-fed rather inclined to be fat; if the meat be poor, no baker can give satisfaction.

"When baking a joint of meat, before it has been half baked, I have seen it start from the bone, and shrivel up in a manner scarcely to be believed.

"Besides those joints above mentioned, I shall enumerate a few baked dishes which I can particularly recommend:

"A PIG, when sent to the baker prepared for baking, should have its