Miss Corson's practical American cookery and household management

in brine for twenty-four hours, and then wiped, and sprinkled with fine salt. Pack the butter down tight and close, and cover the top layer with a cloth wet in brine and sprinkled thickly with fine salt. If the tub is not filled at the first packing, when more butter is ready to put in, remove the cloth, rinse it in cold water, wipe or wash off with cold water any salt which may have fallen upon the butter, pack in what is ready, and again cover it as before with the wet cloth and salt. A good brine for butter can be made as follows : Dissolve in a gallon of cold water as much fine salt as it will receive, — that is, until salt can be seen upon the bottom of the vessel containing the brine ; then put it over the fire, with an ounce of sugar and a level teaspoonful of powdered saltpetre, and let it boil up ; after that, cool it, strain it. and use it. AS the excellence of a dinner depends as much upon the quality of its materials as upon the skill of the cook, it is incumbent on the good housekeeper to have some knowledge of marketing. If a good cook can do better with poor materials than a poor cook with the best supplies, how great will be the satisfaction in a repast which supplements judicious selection with perfect cookery ! The skilled marketer must have experience, but even the youngest beginner can gain some advantage from such clear and explicit description as is presented in this chapter. The complaint is often made, that the pictures of meat given in cookery-books do not resemble the meat as it appears in market. The pictures given in this work have been carefully engraved from photographs taken from sides of meat ready to be exposed for sale. The lines which indicate the different joints represent the average lines employed in cutting meat by butchers in various parts of the country : relatively the difference is so slight, that in giving lessons in the cutting of meats, in many places, only unimportant variations have been observed, and even these concerned the names rather than the actual forms of the cuts. Individual butchers may vary their cutting-lines a few inches, but the main ones given in the several engravings are accurate enough to serve as a general guide to marketers. Before entering upon the detail of meat marketing, a few words may be well said upon the importance of freshness in food of all kinds, and especially when several kinds are used for making one dish, such as a soup or a stew. The least taint in any ingredient will impair the flavor of the dish, and often produce temporary discomfort or positive illness ; therefore the marketer should not be tempted to purchase wilted vegetables, or meat upon the verge of spoiling, because the price may be low. In fact, the rule may be accepted, that fair goods command a fair price ; the only notable exception being when marketing- days occur only two or three times a week, or at the end of the week, when the food is sold at a reduction towards the close of the day, by dealers who do not wish to take the risk of keeping it. •■Street-peddlers seldom have fresh wares, even if they give good measure ; because they generally buy at a low rate, from dealers whose supplies are upon the verge of spoiling.