Cookery and housekeeping

February ; but good in May and June. During the summer good stewed. Mostly eaten by poor of Midland counties. Excellent pickled or in patties. All crabs under 4j-inches across the broadest part of the shell, crabs in roe, and soft-shell crabs, are illegal. Best in the warm months. Mostly from Cornwall, Jersey, and Channel Islands. Much esteemed in France. Any lobster measuring less than 8 inches from the tip of beak to end of tail is illegal. Homard (French). Best in warm months. Sold largely for bait, also as food. Close time for deep-sea oysters, 15th June to 4th August. Close time for natives and seconds, 14th May to 4th August. No close time for American or Portuguese oysters. Becoming scarce and dear. In season all the year round. Finest from Holland and Scotland. Caught off south-west of England. There are two kinds : the 'Bunting,' brown colour, no beak, and the ' Red shrimp, ' with a saw beak. Obtainable nearly every month. Large numbers sold in the London streets ; used also extensively for bait for the long-line fishermen. CHAPTER XV. Sirloin of Beef. This joint is generally roasted as a whole, and a verylarge whole it is. A better plan is to take out the fillet, and to use it as a separate dish. Yorkshire pudding and horseradish sauce are to be served with roast beef. Ribs of Beef. This joint can be roasted whole, or it can be boned and rolled before roasting, and the bones can be put in the stock-pot for the commoner kind of broth. Or the long end can be sawn off, put in salt for a few days, and either boiled or braised. The ends of bone to be slipped out, and the meat pressed till cold. Beef k la Flamande. Braise a piece of brisket of beef in the usual way. Add to the sauce just before serving carrots, turnips, onions, lettuces, sprouts or cabbage, mushrooms, and a few stuffed tomatoes, all of which have been care- fully prepared according to the directions for each vegetable. Time required for braising about five hours. The piece of beef is sent up in a large dish, its sauce is poured round, and the vegetables are placed in little separate heaps. The sprouts must look green, and each heap must be neatly arranged. It is not necessary to provide all the above vegetables ; four kinds will be enough. Beef k la Mode. Take a piece of the silver side, or the piece called fillet by the butcher, and put it in a braising pan with a calf's foot cut up, some rind of bacon, a fried onion, a fried carrot, some fine herbs, and a glass of wine, or half a glass of brandy mixed with water, a pinch of salt, and two pinches of sugar. Cover very close, and let it braise for from six to eight hours, shaking the pan from time to time so that the meat may not adhere to the bacon which is placed at the bottom of the pan, introducing a little hot stock from time to time. The piece of beef must be well beaten before braising, and square slips of bacon may be thrust into the meat. Brisket of Beef. Trim a good-sized brisket, which is all the better for being slightly salted for twenty-four hours. Put it in the braising pan with enough weak broth to cover. Let it simmer for at least five hours. Take it out, and place, in the oven whilst you reduce the sauce. Prepare a garnish of vegetables to be served