receive orders for dinner, examine the provisions, and receive what may be required from the store room. She will, therefore, take care to have her kitchen and pantry in good order by that time. When she has received her mistress's instructions she will make the necessary arrangements, so that the dinners may be properly prepared at the exact hour desired; - punctuality is a valuable quality, but will never be attained by a young cook, without good management. She must often look at the clock, and consider her work, prepare her joint for the spit, her fish for the frying-pan, her herbs, seasoning, and so on, with forecast; for there are so many things to be attended to, that, without method and order, she will certainly forget some part of her duty, or be too late with the dinner.

Some mistresses kindly allow a cookery book in the kitchen; and, with such help, an intelligent girl may teach herself very fairly. I have known some girls, as soon as they have received the order for dinner, immediately study the cookery book, collect the necessary articles, such as flour, milk, butter, &c., from the pantry, and begin their work in a quiet orderly way, which is sure to succeed. When such a girl has finished one thing, she will clear away any litter, wipe down her table, wash her hands afresh, and begin something else in the same orderly manner. She will clean fish, truss poultry, and wash vegetables, in the scullery; and all such work will be over before the roasting and boiling begins. She will, however, take care to have the fire in proper order at the time the meat must be put down, and the oven the proper heat when the pie should be put in.

Extravagance in the use of coal is a common fault with cooks; it is a fault, however, that I hope you will avoid, for a faithful servant will be frugal. A good clear fire is necessary while cooking the dinner, and much time and coal may be saved by taking care not to allow the fire to get too low, while busy in the scullery and in preparations. If the fire is supplied regularly with coal, it will not be smoky when required for cooking; and as soon as the dinner is over, the grate should be screwed to a smaller size, and the fire made up for the evening, with clear, sifted cinders, backed with slack or fire balls.

For roasting, a clear brisk fire is necessary; for boiling, the fire need not be so strong. The grate should be widened so that the fire reaches a few inches beyond the width of the joint to be roasted; and the meat should be placed at a little

distance at first, and gradually drawn towards the fire as it warms through. A good rule is, that "the larger the joint, the further it should be kept from the fire, till nearly done.” Rather more than a quarter of an hour for each pound of meat, is the usual time allowed in roasting. The more meat is basted the better. Half an hour before it is done, draw the spit aside, rake out the ashes from the fire and make it clear, so as to brown the meat nicely. Be careful that no cinders fall into the dripping-pan.

As seasoning is rather a delicate part of cookery, I would advise young cooks to be very particular, and use but little salt and pepper: both can be added, if necessary; but the whole dinner may be spoiled by too much of either of these ingredients.

A joint of meat, to be boiled, should be covered with cold water, covered close down, and when it begins to boil, should be well skimmed, and then only simmered (that is, boiled very slowly). As the water boils away, more should be added, and the scum taken off thoroughly, as fast as it rises. The slower meat boils, the better it will be. The time usually allowed, is about twenty minutes for each pound of fresh meat, and more if the meat has been salted.

A thoughtful girl will never throw away the water in which meat has been boiled; because, if not needed in the family, a little oatmeal and a few vegetables added to it will make a comfortable meal for a poor family. A kind-hearted girl will be glad to ask her mistress to render such help to a poor neighbour.

It is very commonly said, that young girls are very extravagant and wasteful when they get into a comfortable place. Perhaps this is from ignorance: they may fancy, seeing abundance, instead of the poverty of their own homes, that there can be no need for economy; but this is a very great mistake. Extravagance and waste in the kitchen have brought many a family to want; and it is the cook's duty to take care that the provisions under her charge are neither used extravagantly, nor allowed to spoil by neglect. She should not allow pieces of bread to accumulate, nor too much beer to be drawn at once. She will take care that whatever is placed on the kitchen table for dinner be fairly cut and eaten, and such delicacies as are not intended for the kitchen she will at once put away safely in the pantry; and all honest servants will understand that such things are not to be touched. Very young servants, sometimes, are

strongly tempted to pick a little fruit from a tart, or a slice from a rice pudding; and fancy the little they take will not be missed. But, dear girls, remember that you are 66 to keep your hands from picking and stealing;" and watch against the beginnings of sin. The first temptation to dishonesty may be through the appetite. "Sin is sin, whether it be seen or not."

When the family dinner is sent in, the cook (if the servants are to dine after the family) will hasten to carry all her pots and pans to the scullery, tidy her hearth a little, and get the table ready for herself and fellow servants; for there is no reason why the kitchen dinner should not be taken as comfortably as the parlour one. After dinner, she will have plenty of hot water ready to wash up all the plates and dishes, saucepans, stewpans, &c. ; in short, every article that she has used in her day's work should now be thoroughly cleaned, dried, and put in its proper place, ready for use when required. All saucepans and iron pots should be scrubbed inside with fine sand, the outside soot scraped off, and all well rinsed in clean water, and then dried with a cloth. If a pot has been neglected, it should be cleansed by boiling it in soda and water, and then well scrubbed. The inside of copper vessels should be well attended to, as they are unsafe when the tinning is worn away: many frightful accidents have occurred from the carelessness of cooks in using copper stewpans in this state. They should be thoroughly dried after cleaning, as the damp creates a green rust, which is a strong poison. Immediately after roasting meat, a neat frugal servant will pour off and collect all the grease and fat from the dripping pans, and render it down at once into "purified dripping," and put it in her pantry for future use. She will never put away the spit without wiping it thoroughly while still warm.

All tin-ware should be cleaned with rotten-stone and oil. Jacks require to be oiled occasionally. Pewter mugs and plates should be scoured with wood-ashes, soda, or fine sand; then rinsed in clean water, and dried. Pieces of wash-leather should be used to polish tins, brass, &c.

The water in which plates and dishes are to be washed should be very hot; the dish-tub should be a good size, and nearly full of water: a clean tub of cold water also should be placed close to the hot-water tub, and every plate rinsed in it after well washing. A drainer is generally fixed to the scullery wall over the sink, in which the plates are put after

F

rinsing; and when the scullery work is done, a tidy cook will wipe all the plates with a clean dry cloth, and place them on her dresser shelves in the kitchen: they must always be dusted, however, before they are sent into the parlour. When every thing that has been in use has been cleaned and put in its place, the sink and dish-tubs scoured and left quite clean, the kitchen hearth swept, the tea-kettle put on, the floor swept, and all made neat, the cook will gladly take a large jug of water to her bed-room and thoroughly wash herself, change her cap and gown, and return to her clean kitchen, neat and comfortable, for her tea; after which she is seldom disturbed, but can quietly mend her clothes, knit stockings, or read. An experienced cook generally has good wages; but remember, a great deal of instruction and practice is necessary before a girl can justly be called a good cook. One word about needlework. In large establishments a cook is seldom required to do more than keep kitchen cloths and linen in order; but in families who dine early, some plain work may be required, though, from her hands being rough by her daily work, a cook is seldom so expert with her needle as the housemaid or nursemaid: she will, however, do her best to please her mistress and become a useful servant.

I will add one more hint. The cook who, in case of sickness in the family, will take as much pains in the simple diet she is ordered to prepare for the invalid, as she does in the more difficult branches of her art, will never fail to please her mistress, and be rewarded in feeling that she herself may be aiding in the restoration of a benefactor to health.

I. A. C.

FRIENDLY HINTS TO THE COOK.

Ir is advisable to have a dredging-box for salt as well as flour, for when strewed with the hand it is partially and imperfectly done. These boxes, as well as those for pepper and sugar, should be quite unlike in size or appearance, to prevent mistakes.

In making jelly, more lemon-juice is often used than

lemon-peel; therefore, having cut the peel very thin, put it on a plate in a cool oven, and, when dry, pound and bottle it, and it will be ready for puddings, &c.: unless dried nicely, lemon-peels soon get mouldy.

When stoning raisins, a basin of warm water should be kept at hand for frequently cleansing the knife.

A cook should be furnished with a pudding-bag, a quarter of a yard square, to be kept solely for boiling peas-pudding. When a general pudding-cloth is used, it often communicates a flavour to the peas.

All articles which are frequently required every day, such as bread, butter, flour, milk, eggs, lard, salt, pepper, &c. &c., should be kept in places allotted to each, and returned to them when not in use. All cooking utensils, also, should be

kept to their separate uses.

Always have plenty of water quite hot to wash your dishes in. There is no need of asking the character of a servant if you have ever seen her wash dishes in a little greasy

water.

Scour your rolling-pin and pasteboard as soon after using as possible, but without soap or any gritting substance, such as sand or brickdust: put them away perfectly dry.

You must not poke things out of sight, instead of cleaning them; and be very particular not to cut onions, garlic, or herbs with the knife you cut meat or bread with. Milk must not be put in a vessel used for greasy purposes; and do not put clear water into milky jugs or beer-jugs unwashed: in short, no vessel should be used for other purposes than its proper one. Never suffer any food to become cold in a metal vessel.

You must not throw away the fat which, when cold, accumulates on the top of liquors in which fresh or salt meat has been boiled: indeed you ought not to waste fat of any description, or any thing else; for bones and scraps that may not be required at your master's table may be made useful for the poor.

Do not do your dirty work at a dresser set apart for cleanly preparations. Take care to have plenty of kitchen cloths of all kinds, and pray keep them each to their separate uses.

Never employ, even if permitted to do so, any knives, spoons, dishes, cups, or any other articles, in the kitchen, which are used in the parlour. Silver spoons, in particular, should be taken care of, and always be washed separately in