A year's cookery

2. Boil the brine with an additional handful of salt, and when it is cold put the thin flank of beef into it. 3. Put a breakfast- cupful of split peas to soak in cold water all night. March 1 3th. Breakfast. Luncheon. Dinner, Marrow Toast. Collared Tongue. Dry Toast. Brown and White Bread and Butter. Marmalade. Bread and Milk. Scalloped Oysters (made of tinned Oysters). Baked Plum Pudding. Pea Soup. Cold Beef. Salad. Baked Potatoes. Cocoa-nut Pudding. Cheese.] Marketing. For the Bay.— -A bundle of Rhubarb ; three heads of Lettuce ; one pennyworth of Beetroot ; a half-pennyworth of small salad ; Watercress ; one fine Cocoanut, or a tin of Desiccated Cocoa-nut, if there is none in the house ; 1 otatoes9 For To-morrow. — A good-sized dried Haddock ; a Melton Mowbray Pork Pie ; half or the whole of a Canadian Ham. If it be permitted, order three-pennyworth of Cream for the Rhubarb Pie on Sunday evening. Breakfast.— Marrow Toast (January 21st) ; Collared Tongue (January 2nd) ; Bread and Milk (January 25th). Luncheon. — Scalloped Oysters (April 27th) ; Baked Plum Pudding (February 25th). _ „ . „ _ Dinner.— Pea Soup (Lentil Soup, April 1st). Beef, boiled yesterday. Salad. — Pick off any decayed portions there may be, cleanse the vegetables, drain and dry them. The excellence of a salad consists to a considerable extent on its being thoroughly dry In a French kitchen the lettuces are not supposed to be washed at all; they are picked to pieces, and each leaf is cleaned separately with a soft napkin. In England, however, it is too frequently the custom to let the salad lie in water for two or three hours before it is wanted, “ to make it taste fresh,” and the result is the utter ruin of the salad. If any moisture is allowed to hang about the leaves, the dressing, instead of coating the salad, will sink to the bottom of the bowl like a sauce, and the preparation will taste hot and damp, instead of cool and refreshing. The easiest way of drying a salad when it must be washed (as is certainly the case very often) is to place it, a small portion at a time, in a clean dry towel, then, drawing the four corners of the cloth together shake it well to make the moisture leave the vegetable and sink into the cloth. When thoroughly dried, the leaves may be arranged in the salad bowl, due care being taken to make them look as pretty as possible, by contrasting the colours. The dressing ought not to be mixed with the vegetables until the last moment ; indeed, many people prefer that the business should be performed by one of the family at the table. Salad-dressings of various kinds are sold ready prepared. Many of them are very good ; but as a rule they are expensive, and it will be found that the true epicure prefers the simple cruet-sauce to the best of them. This for a bowl of salad may be made as follows. Put into the salad-spoon a small spoonful of salt and half a tea-spoonful of pepper. Mix the ingredients to a paste with a little vinegar, then add more vinegar to make a brimming spoonful. Toss the salad lightly, but very thoroughly, in this for a minute or two ; then add three table-spoonfuls of fine Lucca oil. Toss the salad first with the oil and then with its appropriate garniture, and serve. The garniture must vary with the time of year, and with the nature of the salad.