S. (continued 3)

SOUPS. It has generally been considered as good economy to use the cheapest and most inferior kind of meat for broths and soups, and to boil it down till it is entirely destroyed, and hardly worth giving to the pigs. But this is a false frugality; and it is far better to buy good pieces of meat, and only stew them till they are tender enough to be eaten. Lean juicy beef, mutton, or veal, form the basis of good broth; and it is therefore advisable to procure those pieces which afford the richest succulence, and such as is fresh slain. Stale meat will make the broth grouty and bad tasted, and fat is not so well adapted to the purpose. The following herbs, roots, and seasonings, are proper for making and giving a relish to broths and soups, according as the taste may suit. Scotch barley, pearl barley, wheat flour, oatmeal, bread, raspings, peas, beans, rice, vermicelli, maccaroni, isinglass, potatoe mucilage, mushroom, or mushroom ketchup, champignons, parsnips, carrots, beet root, turnips, garlic, shalots, and onions. Sliced onions fried with butter and flour till they are browned, and then rubbed through a sieve, are excellent to heighten the colour and flavour of brown soups and sauces, and form the basis of most of the fine relishes furnished by the cook. The older and drier the onion, the stronger will be its flavour, and the quantity must be regulated accordingly. Leeks, cucumber, or burnet vinegar; celery, or celery seed pounded. The latter, though equally strong, does not impart the delicate sweetness of the fresh vegetable; and when used as a substitute, its flavour should be corrected by the addition of a bit of sugar. Cress seed, parsley, common thyme, lemon thyme, orange thyme, knotted marjoram, sage, mint, winter savoury, and basil. As fresh green basil is seldom to be procured, and its fine flavour is soon lost, the best way of preserving the extract is by pouring wine on the fresh leaves. Bay leaves, tomata, tarragon, chervil, burnet, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, mace, black pepper, white pepper, essence of anchovy, lemon peel, lemon juice, and Seville orange juice. The latter imparts a finer flavour than the lemon, and the acid is much milder. The above materials, with wine and mushroom ketchup, combined in various proportions, will make an endless variety of excellent broths and soups. The general fault of English soups seems to be the employment of an excess of spice, and too small a proportion of roots and herbs. This is especially the case with tavern soups, where cayenne and garlic are often used instead of black pepper and onion, for the purpose of obtaining a higher relish. Soups, which are intended to constitute the principal part of a meal, certainly ought not to be flavoured like sauces, which are only designed to give a relish to some particular dish. The principal art in composing a good rich soup, is so to proportion the several ingredients one to another, that no particular taste be stronger than the rest; but to produce such a fine harmonious relish, that the whole becomes delightful. In order to this, care must be taken that the roots and herbs be perfectly well cleaned, and that the water be proportioned to the quantity of meat, and other ingredients. In general a quart of water may be allowed to a pound of meat for soups; and half the quantity for gravies. If they stew gently, little more water need be put in at first, than is expected at the end; for when the pot is covered quite close, and the fire gentle, very little is wasted. Gentle stewing is incomparably the best; the meat is more tender, and the soup better flavoured. The cover of a soup kettle should fit very close, or the most essential parts of the broth will soon evaporate, as will also be the case with quick boiling. It is not merely the fibres of the meat that afford nourishment, but chiefly the juices they contain; and these are not only extracted but exhaled, if it be boiled fast in an open vessel. A succulent soup can never be made but in a well closed vessel, which preserves the nutritive parts by preventing their dissipation, yet the flavour is perhaps more wholesome by an exposure to the air. Place the soup kettle over a moderate fire, sufficient to make the water hot, without causing it to boil; for if the water boils immediately, it will not penetrate the meat, and cleanse it from the clotted blood and other matters, which ought to go off in scum. The meat will be hardened all over by violent heat, will shrink up as if it were scorched, and afford very little gravy. On the contrary, by keeping the water heating about half an hour without boiling, the meat swells, becomes tender, and its fibres are dilated. By this process, it yields a quantity of scum, which must be taken off as soon as it appears. After the meat has had a good infusion for half an hour, the fire may be improved to make the pot boil, and the vegetables be put in with a little salt. These will cause more scum to rise, which must be taken off immediately. Then cover the boiler very closely, and place it at a proper distance from the fire, where it is to boil very gently and equally, but not fast. Soups will generally take from three to six hours doing. The better way is to prepare them the evening before, as that will give more time to attend to the dinner the next day. When the soup is cold, the fat may much more easily and completely be removed; and when it is decanted, take care not to disturb the settlings at the bottom of the vessel, which are so fine that they will escape through a sieve. A tammis is the best strainer, the soup appears smoother and finer, and the cloth is easier cleaned than any sieve. If you strain it while it is hot, let the tammis or napkin be previously soaked in cold water; the coldness of the strainer will tend to coagulate the fat, and only suffer the pure broth to pass through. The full flavour of the ingredients can only be extracted by long and slow simmering, during which the boiler must be kept close covered, to prevent evaporation. Clear soups must be perfectly transparent, thickened soups about the consistence of cream; the latter will require nearly double the quantity of seasoning, but too much spice makes it unwholesome. To thicken and give body to soups and sauces, the following materials are used. Bread raspings, potatoe mucilage, isinglass, flour and butter, barley, rice, or oatmeal and water rubbed well together. Any of these are to be mixed gradually with the soup, till thoroughly incorporated, and it should afterwards have at least half an hour's gentle simmering. If it appears lumpy, it must be passed through a tammis or fine sieve. A piece of boiled beef pounded to a pulp, with a bit of butter and flour, and rubbed through a sieve, and gradually incorporated with the soup, will be found an excellent addition. If the soup is too thin or too weak, take off the cover of the boiler, and let it boil till some of the watery part of it has evaporated; or add some of the thickening materials before mentioned. When soups and gravies are kept from day to day, in hot weather, they should be warmed up every day, and put into fresh scalded pans or tureens, and placed in a cool cellar. In temperate weather, every other day may be sufficient.—It has been imagined that soups tend to relax the stomach; but so far from being prejudicial in this way, the moderate use of such kind of liquid food may rather be considered as salutary, and affording a good degree of nourishment. Soup of a good quality, if not eaten too hot, or in too great a quantity, is attended with great advantages, especially to those who drink but little. Warm fluids in the form of soup, unite with our juices much sooner and better, than those which are cold and raw. On this account, what is called Restorative Soup is the best food for those who are enfeebled by disease or dissipation, and for old people, whose teeth and digestive organs are impaired. After taking cold, or in nervous headachs, cholics, indigestions, and different kinds of cramps and spasms in the stomach, warm broth or soup is of excellent service. After intemperate eating, to give the stomach a holiday for a day or two, by a diet on mutton broth, is the best way to restore its tone. The stretching of any power to its utmost extent, weakens it; and if the stomach be obliged every day to do as much as it can, it will every day be able to do less. It is therefore a point of wisdom to be temperate in all things, frequently to indulge in soup diet, and occasionally in almost total abstinence, in order to preserve the stomach in its full tone and vigour.—Cheap soups for charitable purposes are best made of fat meat, well boiled with vegetables. Much unreasonable prejudice has prevailed on this subject, as if fat was unsuitable for such a purpose, when it is well known that the nutritious parts of animal and vegetable diet depend on the oil, jelly, mucilage, and sweetness which they contain. The farina of grain, and the seeds of vegetables, contain more of the nutritious and essential parts of the plant than any other, as is evident from the use of celery seed, the eighth part of an ounce of which will give more relish to a gallon of soup, than a large quantity of the root or stalk. On the same principle, the fat is the essence of meat, nearly so as the seeds of plants are of their respective species. To establish this fact, a simple experiment will be sufficient. Boil from two to four ounces of the lean part of butcher's meat in six quarts of water, till reduced to a gallon. Thicken it with oatmeal, and the result of the decoction will be found to be water gruel, or something like it. But dissolve the same quantity of the fat of meat in a gallon of water, thicken it over the fire with oatmeal, and the result will be a very pleasant broth, possessing the identical taste of the meat in a considerable degree, whether of beef or mutton. If some of the gelatinous parts of meat be added, the broth is then of a rich and nutritious quality, and can be made very cheap. For example: take from four to six ounces of barley, oatmeal two ounces, onions or leeks a small quantity; beef fat, suet, or drippings, from two to four ounces; celery seed half a spoonful, pepper and salt to give the soup a relish, and water sufficient to make a gallon. Boil the barley, previously washed, in six quarts of water, which when boiled sufficiently soft will be reduced to a gallon. It will be necessary to skim it clean in the course of the boiling, and to stir it well from the bottom of the boiler. The celery seed should be bruised, and added with the leeks and onions, towards the end of the process. The oatmeal is to be mixed in a little cold water, and put in about an hour before the soup is done. In the last place add the fat, melted before the fire, if not in a state of drippings, and season with pepper and salt. A few grains of cayenne would give the soup a higher relish. Wheat flour may be used instead of oatmeal, but in a smaller proportion. The addition of turnips, carrots, and cabbages, will be a considerable improvement. The intention of the oatmeal or flour is, by the mucilage they contain, assisted with barley broth, to unite the fat with the liquid, so as to form one uniform mass. Where the fat is suspended in the soup, and not seen floating on the top, by which it is rendered easier of digestion, and more readily convertible into good chyle, it is evident that it must be more palatable, as well as abundantly more nutritious. Some may think this kind of soup unwholesome, from the quantity of fat it contains; but a little reflection will shew the contrary. Suet puddings and dumplins are not unwholesome, neither are mutton drippings with potatoes or other vegetables. In short, fat is eaten daily by all ranks of people, in some way or other, in much larger quantities than is prescribed for soup. A labouring man would find no difficulty in eating as much suet at one meal, in a flour pudding, or as much drippings as is necessary for a gallon of soup, in a mass of potatoes or cabbages; while at the same time a quart of soup with a slice of bread, would be a very hearty meal. In no other way could meat drippings be applied to so good a purpose, as in the manufacture of a gallon of soup, sufficient to give a dinner to a whole family. The quantity of fat or drippings necessary for the soup is so small, that it may easily be spared from a joint of roast meat, while enough will remain for other purposes. When mutton dripping is made into soup, wheat flour is better than oatmeal; but the mucilage of potatoe is better still, requiring only one ounce to the gallon. When pork is roasted, peas should be used in preference to boiled barley, and the soup will be very superior in flavour to any that is made with the bones of meat, or combined with bacon. Fat pork is eaten daily in large quantities, in most of the counties of England; and in some parts, hog's lard is spread on bread instead of butter, besides the abundance of lard that is used by all ranks of people, in puddings, cakes, and pasties. Fat enters so much into the composition of our diet, that we could scarcely subsist without it; and the application of it to soups is only a different mode of using it, and certainly more frugal and economical than any other. It may readily be perceived how soups made from lean meat might be improved by the addition of a little fat, mixed up and incorporated with a mucilage of potatoes, of wheat flour, oatmeal, peas, and barley. But where a quantity of fat swims on the surface of the broth, made from a fat joint of meat, and it cannot from its superabundance be united with the liquid, by means of any mucilage, it had better be skimmed off, and preserved for future use; otherwise the soup will not be agreeable, for it is the due proportion of animal and vegetable substance that makes soup pleasant and wholesome. To make good soup of a leg of beef or an ox cheek, which is generally called stew, a pretty large quantity of the vegetable class ought to be added; and none seems better adapted than Scotch barley, by which double and treble the quantity of soup may be made from the same given weight of meat. One pint of well prepared leg of beef, or ox cheek soup, together with the fat, will make a gallon of good soup at the trifling expense of four-pence. In the same way soups may be made from the stew of beef, mutton, veal, or pork, choosing those parts where mucilage, jelly, and fat abound. Bacon is allowed to be a considerable improvement to the taste of veal, whether roasted or boiled; and it is the same in soup. When therefore veal broth is made for family use, two ounces of fat bacon should be added to every gallon, melted before the fire or in a fryingpan. The soup should then be thickened with flour, potatoe starch, and barley. The last article should seldom be omitted in any soup, it being so very cheap and pleasant, as well as wholesome and nutritious. Soup made of tripe is another cheap article. Boil a pound of well cleaned tripe in a gallon of barley broth, with onions and parsley, adding two ounces of bacon fat, with salt and pepper. This produces an extremely nutritious soup, from the gelatinous principle with which the tripe abounds. Cow heels, calves and sheep's feet, are also well adapted to the purpose. Excellent soups may be made from fried meat, where the fat and gravy are added to the boiled barley; and for that purpose, fat beef steaks, pork and mutton chops, should be preferred, as containing more of the nutritious principle. Towards the latter end of frying the steaks, add a little water to produce a gravy, which is to be put to the barley broth. A little flour should also be dredged in, which will take up all the fat left in the fryingpan. A quantity of onions should previously be shred, and fried with the fat, which gives the soup a fine flavour, with the addition of pepper, salt, and other seasoning. There would be no end to the variety of soups that might be made from a number of cheap articles differently combined; but perhaps the distribution of soup gratis does not answer so well as teaching people how to make it, and to improve their comforts at home. The time lost in waiting for the boon, and fetching it home, might by an industrious occupation, however poorly paid for labour, be turned to a better account than the mere obtaining of a quart of soup. But it unfortunately happens, that the best and cheapest method of making a nourishing soup, is least known to those who have most need of it. The labouring classes seldom purchase what are called the coarser pieces of meat, because they do not know how to dress them, but lay out their money in pieces for roasting, which are far less profitable, and more expensive in the purchase. To save time, trouble, and firing, these are generally sent to the oven to be baked, the nourishing parts are evaporated and dried up, the weight is diminished nearly one third, and what is purchased with a week's earnings is only sufficient for a day or two's consumption. If instead of this improvident proceeding, a cheap and wholesome soup were at least occasionally substituted, it would banish the still more pernicious custom of drinking tea two or three times a day, for want of something more supporting and substantial. In addition then to the directions already given, the following may be considered as one of the cheapest and easiest methods of making a wholesome soup, suited to a numerous family among the labouring classes. Put four ounces of Scotch barley washed clean, and four ounces of sliced onions, into five quarts of water. Boil it gently for one hour, and pour it into a pan. Put into a saucepan nearly two ounces of beef or mutton drippings, or melted suet, or two or three ounces of minced bacon; and when melted, stir into it four ounces of oatmeal. Rub these together into a paste, and if properly managed, the whole of the fat will combine with the barley broth, and not a particle, appear on the surface to offend the most delicate stomach. Now add the barley broth, at first a spoonful at a time, then the rest by degrees, stirring it well together till it boils. Put into a teacup a dram of finely pounded cress or celery seed, and a quarter of a dram of finely pounded cayenne, or a dram and a half of ground black pepper or allspice, and mix it up with a little of the soup. Put this seasoning into the whole quantity, stir up the soup thoroughly, let it simmer gently a quarter of an hour, and add a little salt. The flavour may be varied by doubling the portion of onions, or adding a clove of garlic or shalot, and leaving out the celery seed. Change of food is absolutely necessary, not only as a matter of pleasure and comfort, but also of health. It may likewise be much improved, if instead of water, it be made of the liquor that meat has been boiled in. This soup has the advantage of being very soon made, with no more fuel than is necessary to warm a room. Those who have not tasted it, cannot imagine what a savoury and satisfying meal is produced by the combination of these cheap and homely ingredients.

SOUP WITH CUCUMBERS. Pare and cut the cucumbers, then stew them with some good broth, and veal gravy to cover them. When done enough, heat the soup with the liquor they were stewed in, and season it with salt. Serve up the soup garnished with the cucumbers. These will be a proper garnish for almost any kind of soup.

SOUP A L' EAU. Put into a saucepan holding about three pints, a quarter of a cabbage, four carrots, two parsnips, six onions, and three or four turnips. Add a root of celery, a small root of parsley, some sorrel, a bunch of white beet leaves and chervil, and half a pint of peas tied in a piece of linen. Add water in proportion to the vegetables, and stew the whole for three hours. Strain off the broth, add some salt, heat it and serve it up, garnished with the vegetables.

SOUP GRAVY. Take some good juicy lean beef, free from sinews or other offal substance; or take the lean of a neck, or loin, or the fleshy part of a leg of mutton, or well-grown fowl, in the proportion of a pound of meat to a quart of water to beef, and rather less to mutton or fowl. Cut the meat in pieces, and let it stew very gently till the pure gravy is fairly drawn from the meat, without extracting the dregs. The time required for this will vary according to the quantity, the proper degree of heat being of course longer in penetrating the larger portion. From an hour and a half to three hours, at discretion, will allow sufficient time for any quantity that is likely to be wanted at once for soup, at least in private families. When done, strain the gravy through a hair sieve into an earthen pot, and let it stand till cold. Take off the fat, and pour the gravy clear from the sediment at the bottom.

SOUP MAIGRE. Melt half a pound of butter into a stewpan, shake it round, and throw in half a dozen sliced onions. Shake the pan well for two or three minutes, then put in five heads of celery, two handfuls of spinach, two cabbage lettuces cut small, and some parsley. Shake the pan well for ten minutes, put in two quarts of water, some crusts of bread, a tea-spoonful of beaten pepper, and three or four blades of mace. A handful of white beet leaves, cut small, may be added. Boil it gently an hour. Just before serving, beat in two yolks of eggs, and a large spoonful of vinegar.—Another. Flour and fry a quart of green peas, four sliced onions, the coarse stalks of celery, a carrot, a turnip, and a parsnip. Pour on three quarts of water, let it simmer till the whole will pulp through a sieve, and boil in it the best of the celery cut thin.—Another way. Take a bunch of celery washed clean and cut in pieces, a large handful of spinage, two cabbage lettuces, and some parsley; wash all very clean, and shred them small; then take a large clean stewpan, put in about half a pound of butter, and when it is quite hot, slice four large onions very thin, and put into your butter; stir them well about for two or three minutes; then put in the rest of your herbs; shake all well together for near twenty minutes, dust in some flour, and stir them together; pour in two quarts of boiling water; season with pepper, salt, and beaten mace: chip a handful of crust of bread, and put in; boil it half an hour, then beat up the yolks of three eggs in a spoonful of vinegar; pour it in, and stir it for two or three minutes; then send it to table.

SOUP WITH ONIONS. Blanch some small white onions in scalding water, peel off the first skin, and stew them in a little broth. When ready, lay them in a row round the edge of the dish intended for the soup. To keep them in their place, put a thin slip of bread rubbed with white of egg round the rim of the dish, and set the dish for a moment over a stove to fasten the bread. Slips of bread may be used in this manner to keep all kinds of garnishing to soups in their proper place.

SOUP A LA REINE. Blanch and beat very fine in a marble mortar, three quarters of a pound of sweet almonds, with the white part of a cold roasted fowl. Slice to these the crumb of four small rolls, and then strain to it three quarts of good veal gravy, boiled with a blade of mace. Simmer these all together for a quarter of an hour, then rub them through a tammis, season it with salt, give it a boil, and serve it up with a small tea-cupful of cream stirred into it, and the slices of crust cut off the rolls laid on the top.—Another way. Have ready a strong veal broth that is white, and clean scummed from all fat; blanch a pound of almonds, beat them in a mortar, with a little water, to prevent their oiling, and the yolks of four poached eggs, the lean part of the legs, and all the white part of a roasted fowl; pound all together, as fine as possible; then take three quarts of the veal broth, put it into a clean stew-pot, put your ingredients in, and mix them well together; chip in the crust of two French rolls well rasped; boil all together over a stove, or a clear fire. Take a French roll, cut a piece out of the top, and take out all the crumb: mince the white part of a roasted fowl very fine, season it with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and a little beaten mace; put in about an ounce of butter, and moisten it with two spoonfuls of your soup strained to it; set it over the stove to be thoroughly hot: cut some French roll in thin slices, and set them before the fire to crisp; then strain off your soup through a tammis or a lawn strainer, into another clean stew-pot; let it stew till it is as thick as cream; then have your dish ready; put in some of your crisp bread; fill your roll with your mince, and lay on the top as close as possible; put it into the middle of your dish, and pour a ladleful of your soup over it; put in your bread first, then pour in your soup, till your dish is full. Garnish with petty patties; or make a rim for your dish, and garnish with lemon raced. If you please, you may send a chicken boned in the middle, instead of your roll; or you may send it to table with only crisp bread.

SOUP A-LA SAP. Boil half a pound of grated potatoes, a pound of beef sliced thin, a pint of grey peas, an onion, and three ounces of rice, in six pints of water till reduced to five. Strain it through a cullender, pulp the peas into it, and return it into the saucepan with two heads of sliced celery. Stew it tender, add pepper and salt, and serve it with fried bread.

SOUR BEER. If beer be brewed ever so well, much will depend on the management afterwards, to prevent its becoming sour or vapid. Different conveniences of cellarage will materially affect beer. If the cellar is bad, there should not be more than six weeks between brewing and brewing. Where beer is kept too long in a bad cellar, so as to be affected by the heat of the weather, it will putrefy, though ever so well bunged. Hops may prevent its turning sour, but will not keep it from becoming vapid. It should be well understood, that there is no certainty in keeping beer, if not brewed at the proper season. In winter there is a danger of wort getting too cold, so as to prevent the process of fermentation; and in the summer, of its not being cool enough, unless brewed in the dead of night. In temperate weather, at the spring or autumn, the spirit of the beer is retained, and it is thereby enabled to work the liquor clear; whereas in hot weather, the spirit quickly evaporates, leaving the wort vapid and flat, unable to work itself clear, but keeping continually on the fret, till totally spoiled. This is the obvious reason for the use of sugar, prepared for colour, because sugar will bear the heat better than malt; and when thoroughly prepared, possesses such a strong principle of heat in itself, as to bid defiance to the hottest temperature of the air, and to render its turning sour almost impossible. Clean casks are also essential to the preservation of good beer. To keep the casks sweet and in order, never allow them to remain open; but whenever the beer is drawn off, bung them up tight with the lees within them. In a good cellar they will never spoil. Should the casks get musty, the following method will remedy the evil. Soak them well for three or four days in cold water, then fill them full of boiling hot water; put in a lump or two of lime, shake it thoroughly till quite dissolved, let the casks stand about half an hour, then wash them out with cold water, and they will be clean and sweet. If still apprehensive of the beer getting flat or sour, put into a cask containing eighteen gallons, a pint of ground malt suspended in a bag, and close the bung perfectly. This will prevent the mischief, and the beer will improve during the whole time of drawing it. When beer has actually turned sour, put in some oyster shells, calcined to whiteness, or a little powdered chalk. Either of these will correct the acidity, and make it brisk and sparkling. Salt of tartar, or soda powder, put into the beer at the time of drinking it, will also destroy the acidity, and make it palatable.

SOUR KROUT. Take some full-grown hard cabbages of the closest texture, and cut them into slices about an inch thick, opening them a little, that they may receive the salt more effectually. Rub a good deal of salt amongst them, lay them into a large pan, and sprinkle more salt over them. Let them remain twenty-four hours, turning them over four or five times, that every part may be alike saturated. Next day put the cabbage into a tub or large jar, pressing it down well, and then pour over it a pickle made of a pint of salt to a quart of water. This pickle must be poured on boiling hot, and the cabbage entirely covered with it. Let it stand thus twenty-four hours longer, when it will have shrunk nearly a third. Then take the cabbage out, and put it into a fresh tub or jar, pressing it down well as before, and pour over it a pickle made as follows. To one quart of the salt and water pickle which had been used the day before, put three quarts of vinegar, four ounces of allspice, and two ounces of carraway seeds. This must be poured on cold, so as to cover the cabbage completely. Let it stand one day loosely covered, and then stop it down quite close.

SOUR SAUCE FOR FISH. Boil two blades of mace in a wine glass of water, and half as much sharp vinegar, for a quarter of an hour. Then take out the mace, and put in a quarter of a pound of butter, and the yolk of an egg well beaten. Shake these over the fire one way till the sauce is properly thickened, without suffering it to boil.

SOUSE FOR BRAWN. Boil a quarter of a pint of wheat bran, a sprig of bay, and a sprig of rosemary, in two gallons of water for half an hour, adding four ounces of salt. Strain it, and let it cool. This will do for pig's feet and ears, as well as brawn.

SOUSED STURGEONS. Draw and divide the fish down the back, and then into pieces. Put the fish into salt and water, clean it well, bind it with tape, and boil it very carefully in vinegar, salt, and water. When done lay it to cool, and pack it up close in the liquor it was boiled in.

SOUSED TRIPE. Boil the tripe, but not quite tender; then put it into salt and water, which must be changed every day till it is all used. When the tripe is to be dressed, dip it into a batter of eggs and flour, and fry it of a good brown.

SOY. To make English soy, pound some walnuts when fit for pickling, in a marble mortar, very small. Squeeze them through a strainer, let the liquor stand to settle, and then pour off the fine. To every quart of liquor put a pound of anchovies, and two cloves of shalot. Boil it enough to make the scum rise, and clear it well. Add two ounces of Jamaica pepper, a quarter of an ounce of mace, and half a pint of vinegar. Boil it again, until the anchovies are dissolved and the shalot tender, and let it stand till the next day. Then pour off the fine, and bottle it for use. Strain the thick through a sieve, and put it by separately. When used for fish, put some of the soy to the usual anchovies and butter, or to plain butter.

SPANISH CARDOONS. Cut them three inches long, leaving out any that are hollow and green. Boil them in water half an hour, and then put them into warm water to pick them. Stew them with some broth, with a spoonful of flour mixed in it. Add salt, onions, roots, a bunch of sweet herbs, a dash of verjuice, and a little butter. When they are well done take them out, and put them into a good cullis, with a little broth. Boil them half an hour in this sauce to give them a flavour, and then serve them up. Let the sauce be neither too clear nor too thick, and of a fine light colour.

SPANISH FLUMMERY. Scald a quart of cream, with a little cinnamon or mace. Mix this gradually into half a pound of rice flour, and then stir it over a gentle fire till it acquires the thickness of jelly. Sweeten it to the taste, and pour it into cups or shapes. Turn it out when cold, and serve it up. Cream, wine, or preserves eat well with it, or it may be eaten alone as preferred. Oatmeal may be used instead of rice.

SPANISH FRITTERS. Cut the crumb of a French roll into square lengths, of the thickness of one's finger, nutmeg, sugar, pounded cinnamon, and an egg. When well soaked, fry the fritters of a nice brown; and serve with butter, wine, and sweet sauce.

SPANISH PUFFS. Boil a stick of cinnamon, a piece of lemon peel, and a little sugar, in three quarters of a pint of water for ten minutes. Let it cool, then add three eggs well beaten, and shake in three large spoonfuls of flour. Beat these well together, add three more eggs, and simmer the whole over the fire, till it thickens almost to a paste. Drop this with a tea-spoon into boiling lard, and fry these little puffs of a delicate light brown.

SPANISH SAUCE. Put some gravy into a saucepan with a glass of white wine, and the same of good broth. Add a bunch of parsley and chives, two cloves of garlic, half a bay leaf, a pinch of coriander seed, two cloves, a sliced onion, a carrot, half a parsnip, and two spoonfuls of salad oil. Stew these for two hours over a very slow fire. Skim off the fat, pass the sauce through a tammis, season it with pepper and salt, and use it with any thing as approved.

SPARERIB. Baste it with a very little butter and flour; and when done, sprinkle it with dried sage crumbled. Serve it with potatoes and apple sauce.

SPARROW. A mischievous destructive bird in corn-fields, and which should mostly be destroyed. It is observed, that were all the farmers in a neighbourhood to agree to their destruction, by offering rewards for their heads, their numbers might be lessened; and that were the practice general, surely the whole race might be extirpated. It is supposed that six-pence a dozen the first year, nine-pence the second, and a shilling the third year, would nearly reach their complete extirpation. To enforce which it should be considered how soon twelve sparrows destroy twelve penny-worth of wheat. In Kent, they use a species of trap, which is very effectual in taking them. It consists of a small wicker basket, resembling a fruit-sieve of the London markets, with a cover of the same material fitted to it, and formed on the principle of the fish-pot, and the vermin trap, into which the entrance is easy, but the return difficult. These traps, which are an ordinary article of sale in the markets of the district, are constituted of brown unpeeled oziers. The diameter about two feet; the depth nine inches; the cover is somewhat dishing, with a tunnel or inverted cone, in the centre, reaching to within an inch of the bottom of the basket; the aperture or entrance, formed by the points of the twigs, of which the tunnel is constructed, being about an inch and a half in diameter. And the usual bait is wheat scattered in the basket. The number caught at once, is frequently more than theory would suggest; the contentions of a few that have entered, seldom failing to bring others to the combat. These mischievous birds, however, soon grow too cunning to be taken in any sort of trap to any extent, which has a chance of extirpating and destroying the race; consequently some more effectual and certain plan, such as that suggested above, or some other, which is better and more fully adapted to the purpose, must be had recourse to in order to completely exterminate them, and prevent the injury they do annually to the farmer, in the destruction of his wheat and other crops. Though these are only small birds, they destroy vast quantities of grain, much more than has indeed been commonly supposed. It is stated to have been calculated to have amounted to a hundred sacks of wheat besides the oats and barley, in the course of only one season, in a township of no very great extent in the north-western part of the kingdom. Where rewards or sums of money are paid for the taking or destroying them, no advantages are gained, except where there are sufficiently ample and proper regulations entered into and enforced, the whole district, parish, or township, becomes partakers in the business. No languid or half measures will do any thing useful, or to the purpose, in this sort of undertaking. It is not improbable, but that these destructive birds might be greatly extirpated and thinned down in their numbers, by the use of some tasteless infusion of a strongly poisonous nature, either to the ears of the grain at the time of harvest, or to the naked grain in the winter season, when they are extremely eager for food, as they are constantly found to remain hovering about houses or other buildings, where the effects of such trials might easily be ascertained. If such a method should succeed, the whole race might readily, and with great facility and certainty, be exterminated.

SPASMS. An involuntary and painful contraction of the muscles may arise from various causes, and require different modes of treatment. But if no medical assistance be at hand, the application of volatile liniments to the part affected, a clyster with a little laudanum in it, or the warm bath, may be tried with advantage.

SPERMACETI OINTMENT. This is made of a quarter of a pint of fine salad oil, a quarter of a pound of white wax, and half an ounce of spermaceti, melted over a gentle fire, and kept stirring till the ointment is cold.

SPICES. As it regards health, spices are generally improper; but black pepper, ginger, and cayenne, may be esteemed the best. Nutmegs, cloves, mace, cinnamon, and allspice, are generally productive of indigestion and headach, in persons of a weakly habit.

SPIDERS. These industrious insects are generally loathed and destroyed, though they are extremely useful in reducing the quantity of flies, and serve as a very accurate barometer for the weather. When they are totally inactive, it is a certain sign that rain will shortly follow; but if they continue to spin during a shower, it indicates that the rain will soon be over, and that calm and fine weather will succeed. If the weather be about to change, and become wet or windy, the spider will make the supporters of his web very short; but if the threads be extended to an unusual length, the weather will continue serene for ten or twelve days, or more, according to the length of the threads which support the web. The red spider however is very injurious and destructive to different sorts of plants and fruit-trees, especially in forcing houses. It is found particularly so to those of the forced French bean, melon; peach, vine, cherry, currant, and some other kinds. The generation and production of this insect are greatly caused and promoted by the dry warm heat that is constantly kept up in the houses which contain these sorts of plants and trees, and there are many other circumstances which combine in bringing it forth. It is an insect which has no wings, and the female is oviparous. Several different methods have been attempted in order to the removal and destruction of it. Constant daily watering, or washing the trees, are said to have the power of subduing it, but in the execution of the work, care is always to be taken that every part of the leaves be wetted, otherwise the insects shelter and save themselves in the dry parts, and are preserved from the effects of the water. Moisture conveyed in some way or other is certainly found to be the most destructive, of any thing yet discovered, of these pernicious insects, as well as many others that infest hot-houses. Throwing weak lime-water in a plentiful manner on the under sides of the leaves, where these insects are commonly found, will, for the most part, soon destroy them. The following directions have been given for the destruction of this sort of spider, when it becomes injurious to melon plants; and the same may probably be found useful for those of the forced French bean, and some other similar kinds. In cases of dry weather, and with a dry heat, melon plants are very subject to be infested with the red spider; and the appearances of it may constantly be long noticed before the insects can be seen with the naked eye, by the leaves beginning to curl and crack in their middle parts. Whenever they are discovered to be in this state or condition, and there is fine warm sunny weather, the watering of them all over the leaves, both on the under and upper sides, is advised; a watering-pot, with a rose finely perforated with holes, or a garden-engine, which disperses the water in a fine dew-like manner, being employed for the purpose. The work should be performed about six o'clock in the morning, and the plants be shaded with mats about eight, if the sun shine with much power, shutting the frames down closely until about eleven; and then admitting a small quantity of fresh air, letting the mats remain until about three in the afternoon, when they should be wholly taken away. The shade which is thus afforded by the mats prevents the leaves of the plants from being scorched or otherwise injured by the action of the heat of the sun while they are in a wet cooled down state. Where a southerly breeze prevails, watering them again about three in the afternoon is recommended, shutting them up close as before, to keep the heat in, which causes a strong exhalation of the moisture, and is greatly destructive of the spiders. In all these waterings, the water is to be thrown as much and as finely as possible on the under sides of the leaves, where the insects mostly lodge; the vines or stems of the plants being gently turned in that intention, taking great care not to injure them, by which means the water is capable of being easily thrown over the whole of the under sides of the leaves, it being done in a gentle manner, in the modes already suggested, so as not to wash up the mouldy matters unto the plants: the lights and sides of the frames which contain the plants, should also, at the same time, have water plentifully thrown on and against them. When these waterings are finished, the vines or stems of the plants are to be carefully laid down again in their former positions. And if the day be sunny, the mats may be let remain, as already directed, until the leaves of the plants become perfectly dry, air being admitted according to the heat that may be present at the time. It is likewise further advised as a precautionary measure, that, before the frames and lights, which are to contain plants of this sort, are employed, they should be well washed, both inside and out, first with clean water, and then with a mixture of soap-suds and urine; a brush or woollen rag being made use of in the operation; as by this method the ova or eggs of the spiders or other insects that may have been deposited and lodged in or on them, in the preceding season, may be cleared away and destroyed. The exhalations of the water which has been thrown upon the plants, and the frames or boxes that contain them, may also be useful in killing these insects, in other cases by keeping them in a close state. These washings should never, however, be performed in cold frosty seasons; and the water made use of in such cases should always be of the rain or soft kind.

SPINACH. This vegetable requires to be carefully washed and picked. When that is done, throw it into a saucepan that will just hold it, sprinkle it with a little salt, and cover it close. Set the pan on the fire, and shake it well. When sufficiently done, beat up the spinach with some butter, but it must be sent to table pretty dry. It would look well, if pressed into a tin mould in the form of a large leaf, which is sold at the tin shops. A spoonful of cream is an improvement.

SPINACH CREAM. Beat the yolks of eight eggs with a whisk or a wooden spoon, sweeten it well, and add a stick of cinnamon, a pint of rich cream, and three quarters of a pint of new milk. Stir it well, and then add a quarter of a pint of spinach juice. Set it over a gentle stove, and stir it constantly one way, till it is as thick as a hasty pudding. Put into a custard dish some Naples biscuits, or preserved orange, in long slices, and pour the mixture over them. It is to be eaten cold, and is a dish either for supper, or for a second course.

SPINACH AND EGGS. The spinach must be well washed, then throw a small handful of salt into a saucepan of boiling water, before the spinach is put in, and press it down as it boils. When it becomes tender, press it well in a sieve or cullender. Break the eggs into cups, and put them into a stewpan of boiling water. When done, take them out with a slice, and lay them on the spinach. Send them to table with melted butter.

SPINACH PUDDING. Scald and chop some spinach very fine, four ounces of biscuit soaked in cream, the yolks of eight eggs beat up, a quarter of a pound of melted butter, a little salt and nutmeg, and sugar to your taste; beat up all together, and set it over the fire till it is stiff, but do not let it boil; cool it, and bake it in puff-paste; or you may butter a bason, and boil it.—Another. Boil a pint of cream, with some lemon-peel, a blade of mace, half a nutmeg cut in pieces; strain it off, and stir it till it is cold, then boil a good handful of young spinach tender; chop it very fine; beat up eight eggs, leave out four whites, add some fine sugar pounded, and a glass of sack; mix all well together, put it into the dish, with a puff-paste at the bottom, and lay on the top candied orange and lemon cut in thin slices. Half an hour, or a little better, will bake it.

SPINACH SOUP. Shred two handfuls of spinach, a turnip, two onions, a head of celery, two carrots, and a little parsley and thyme. Put all into a stewpot, with a bit of butter the size of a walnut, and a pint of good broth, or the liquor in which meat has been boiled. Stew till the vegetables are quite tender, and work them with a spoon through a coarse cloth or sieve. To the vegetable pulp and liquor, add a quart of fresh water, salt and pepper, and boil all together. Have ready some suet dumplins the size of a walnut, and put them into a tureen, before the soup is poured over. The suet must be quite fresh, and not shred too fine.

SPIRITS. Good pure spirits ought to be perfectly clear, pleasant, and strong, though not of a pungent odour, and somewhat of a vinous taste. To try the purity of spirits, or whether they have been diluted with water, see whether the liquor will burn away without leaving any mixture behind, by dipping in a piece of writing paper, and lighting it at the candle. As pure spirit is much lighter than water, put a hollow ivory ball into it: the deeper the ball sinks, the lighter the liquor, and consequently the more spirituous.

SPIRITS OF CLARY. Distil a peck of clary flowers in a cold still, and then another peck of flowers, adding to them the distilled liquor. Put to this a bottle of sack or sweet wine, and another peck of flowers, and put all together into a glass still. Let it distil on white sugar candy, with the addition of a little ambergris.

SPIRITS OF LAVENDER. Take fourteen pounds of lavender flowers, ten gallons and a half of rectified spirits of wine, and one gallon of water. Draw off ten gallons by a gentle fire, or which is much better, by a sand-bath heat. To convert this into the red liquid known by the name of compound lavender spirits, take of the above lavender spirits two gallons, of Hungary water one gallon, cinnamon and nutmegs three ounces each, and of red saunders one ounce. Digest the whole for three days in a gentle heat, and then filtre it for use. Some add saffron, musk, and ambergris, of each half a scruple; but these are now generally omitted.

SPIRITS OF SAFFRON. Pick eight ounces of English saffron very clean, cut it fine, and steep it twenty-four hours in a gallon of the best white wine. Put it into an alembic with three gallons of water, draw it off gently so long as the saffron tastes, and sweeten it with white sugar candy. Dissolve the candy in some of the weaker extract, after the stronger part is drawn off, by setting it on the fire, and then mix the whole together.

SPITS. Roasting spits require to be kept bright and clean, and should be scoured with nothing but sand and water. If they are wiped clean, as soon as the meat is drawn from them, and while they are hot, a very little cleaning will be necessary. A very useful kind of spit is sold at the ironmongers, which sustains the meat without the necessity of passing it through, which is much to be preferred.

SPITCHCOCK EELS. Take one or two large eels, leave the skin on, cut them into pieces of three inches long, open them on the belly side, and clean them nicely. Wipe them dry, smear them over with egg, and strew on both sides chopped parsley, pepper and salt; a very little sage, and a bit of mace pounded fine and mixed with the seasoning. Rub the gridiron with a bit of suet, broil the fish of a fine colour, and serve with anchovy and butter sauce.

SPLINTERS. To run splinters, prickles or thorns, such as those of roses, thistles, or chesnuts, into the hands, feet, or legs, is a very common accident; and provided any such substance is immediately extracted, it is seldom attended with any bad consequences. But the more certainly to prevent any ill effects, a compress of linen dipped in warm water, may be applied to the part, or it may be bathed a little while in warm water. If the thorn or splinter cannot be extracted directly, or if any part of it be left in, it causes an inflammation, and nothing but timely precaution will prevent its coming to an abscess. A plaster of shoemaker's wax spread upon leather, draws these wounds remarkably well. When it is known that any part of it remains, an expert surgeon would open the place and take it out; but if it be unobserved, as will sometimes happen, when the thorn or splinter is very small, till the inflammation begins, and no advice can be at once procured, the steam of water should be applied to it at first, and then a poultice of bread and milk, with a few drops of peruvian balsam. It is absolutely necessary that the injured part should be kept in the easiest posture, and as still as possible. If this does not soon succeed, good advice must be obtained without delay, as an accident of this kind neglected, or improperly treated, may be the occasion of losing a limb. In this and all cases of inflammation, a forbearance from animal food, and fermented liquors, is always advisable.

SPONGE CAKE. Weigh ten eggs, add their weight in very fine sugar, and of flour the weight of six eggs. Beat the yolks with the flour, and the whites alone, to a very stiff froth. Mix by degrees the whites and the flour with the other ingredients, beat them well half an hour, and bake the cake an hour in a quick oven.—Another, without butter. Dry a pound of flour, and a pound and a quarter of sugar. Grate a lemon, add a spoonful of brandy, and beat the whole together with the hand for an hour. Bake the cake in a buttered pan, in a quick oven. Sweetmeats may be added if approved.

SPOONMEATS FOR INFANTS. It is something more than a human axiom, that milk is for babes; and as this forms the basis of nearly all the food from which their nourishment is derived, it is necessary to observe, that the best way of using it is without either skimming or boiling it. The cream is the most nutritious balsamic part of milk, and to deprive it of this is to render it less nourishing, and less easy of digestion, than in its pure state. In some particular cases skimmed milk may be preferable, but it may be adopted as a general rule, that new milk is the wholesomest and the best. If it stands any time before it is used, instead of taking off the cream, it should be mixed in with the milk. Boiling the milk, if it be only a little, fixes it, and entirely alters its qualities. As a proof of this, it will not afterwards afford any cream, but merely a thin skin. In this state it is hard of digestion, and therefore apt to occasion obstructions. It is most proper for food in its natural state, or when only scalded.—One of the first and simplest preparations for infants is Bread Pap, made by pouring scalding water on thin slices of good white bread, and letting it stand uncovered till it cools. The water is then drained off, the bread bruised fine, and mixed with as much new milk as will make it of a tolerable consistence. It is then warm enough for use, without setting it upon the fire. Sugar is very commonly put into this pap, but it is much better without it. The palate of the child will not require sugar in any kind of food, till habit makes it familiar.—Egg Pap is another suitable article for young children. Set a quart of spring water on a clear brisk fire. Mix two spoonfuls of fresh fine flour with the yolks of two or three eggs well beaten, adding a little cold water. When the water is ready to boil, stir in the batter before it boils, till of a sufficient thickness. Then take it off the fire, add a little salt, pour it into a basin, and let it cool of itself till it become about as warm as milk from the cow. If eggs cannot be procured, a small piece of butter may be added with the salt, and stirred in gently till well mixed, to prevent its oiling. Eggs however are to be preferred. This food is extremely wholesome, affords real nourishment, opens all the passages, breeds good blood and lively spirits, is pleasant to the palate, and grateful to the stomach. The frequent use of it purifies the blood and all the humours, prevents windy distempers and griping pain, both of the stomach and bowels. From all the ingredients bearing a resemblance to each other, no predominant quality prevails, so that it may justly claim the first place amongst all spoonmeats or paps, and as food for infants it is next to the milk of the breast. In some cases it is much better, on account of the various diseases to which suckling women are subject, and the improper food in which they too frequently indulge. No other ingredients should however be added to this kind of food, such as sugar, spices, or fruits, which tend only to vitiate the diet, and to render it less nutritious. This and other sorts of spoonmeat should be made rather thin than otherwise, and abounding with liquid, whether milk or water. All porridges and spoonmeats that are made thin, and quickly prepared, are sweeter, brisker on the palate, and easier of digestion, than those which are thick, and long in preparing. Food should never be given to children more than milk warm, and the proper way to cool it is by letting it stand uncovered to cool itself; for much stirring alters the composition, and takes off the sweetness. Covering it down too, keeps in the fumes that ought to go off, and by excluding the air, renders it less pure.—Flour Pap. To two thirds of new milk, after it has stood five or six hours from the time of milking, add one third of spring water, and set it on a quick clear fire. Make a batter of milk and fine flour, and just as the milk and water is ready to boil, pour in the batter, and stir it a few minutes. When it is ready to boil again, take it off, add a little salt, and let it stand to cool. A good spoonful of flour is sufficient to thicken a pint of milk, or milk and water. This will make it about the thickness of common milk porridge, which is what will eat the sweetest, and be the easiest of digestion. This kind of food affords substantial nourishment, it neither binds nor loosens the body, but keeps it in proper order, nourishes the blood, and tends to produce a lively disposition. Pap prepared in this way is far more friendly to nature than in the common way of boiling, and may be constantly eaten with much better effect, and without ever tiring or cloying the stomach.—Oatmeal Pap. Mix a pint of milk and water, in the proportion of two thirds milk and one third water, with a good spoonful of oatmeal, but it is best not to be too thick. Set it in a saucepan upon a quick clear fire, and when it is near boiling take it off. Pour it from one basin into another, backwards and forwards seven or eight times, which will bring out the fine flour of the oatmeal, and incorporate it with the milk. Then return it into the saucepan, set it upon the fire, and when it is again ready to boil take it off, and let it stand in the saucepan a little to fine, for the husky part of the oatmeal will sink to the bottom. When settled, pour it off into a basin, add a little salt, and let it stand to cool. This is an excellent pap, very congenial to a weak constitution, affording good nourishment, and easy of digestion.—Water Gruel. Take a spoonful and a half of fresh ground oatmeal, mix with it gradually a quart of spring water, and set it on a clear fire. When ready to boil take it off, pour it from one basin into another, backwards and forwards five or six times, and set it on the fire again. Take it off again just before it boils, and let it stand a little time in the saucepan, that the coarse husks of the oatmeal may sink to the bottom. Then pour it out, add a little salt, and let it stand to cool. When water gruel is made with grots, it must boil gently for some time. The longer it boils the more it will jelly; but moderation must be observed in this respect, for if it be very long boiled and becomes very thick, it will be flat and heavy. A mistaken idea very generally prevails, that water gruel is not nourishing; on the contrary, it is a light, cleansing, nourishing food, good either in sickness or in health, both for old and young.—Milk Porridge. Make some water gruel, and when it has stood awhile to cool, add to it about one third part of new milk without boiling. It may be eaten with or without salt. Milk porridge is exceedingly cleansing and easy of digestion, and is agreeable to the weakest stomach. There is also another way of making it, which some prefer. Stir a pint of water gradually into three large spoonfuls of fresh oatmeal, let it stand till clear, and then pour off the water. Put a pint of fresh water to the oatmeal, stir it up well, and leave it till the next day. Strain off the liquor through a fine sieve, and set it in a saucepan over a clear brisk fire. Add about half the quantity of milk gradually while it is warming, and when it is just ready to boil take it off, pour it into a basin, add a little salt, and let it stand to cool. This as well as the former porridge is very light, and proper for weak stomachs.—Indian Arrow Root is another excellent preparation for children. Put a dessert-spoonful of the powdered root into a basin, and mix with it as much cold new milk as will make it into a paste. Pour upon this half a pint of milk scalding-hot, stirring it briskly to keep it smooth. Set it on the fire till it is ready to boil, then take it off, pour it into a basin, and let it cool. This may be made with water instead of milk, and some cold milk mixed with it afterwards; or if the stomach be very weak, it will be best without any milk at all. Great care must be taken to procure the genuine arrow root, which makes a very strengthening and excellent food for infants or invalids.—Sago Jelly. Soak a large spoonful of sago for an hour in cold water, then pour off the water, add a pint of fresh water to the sago, and stew it gently till it is reduced to about half the quantity. When done, pour it into a basin, and let it cool.—Sago with Milk. Prepare a large spoonful of sago by soaking it for an hour in cold water, but instead of adding water afterwards, put in a pint and a half of new milk. Boil it gently till reduced to about half the quantity, then pour it into a basin, and let it cool.—Tapioca Jelly. Wash two good spoonfuls of the large sort of tapioca in cold water, and then soak it in a pint and a half of water for four hours. Stew it gently in the same water till it is quite clear. Let it stand to cool after it is poured out of the saucepan, and use it either with or without the addition of a little new milk.—Pearl Barley Gruel. Put two ounces of pearl barley, after it has been well washed, into a quart of water. Simmer it gently till reduced to a pint, then strain it through a sieve, and let it cool.—Rice Gruel. Soak two large spoonfuls of rice in cold water for an hour. Pour off the water, and put a pint and a quarter of new milk to the rice. Stew it gently till the rice is sufficiently tender to pulp it through a sieve, and then mix the pulp into the milk that the rice was stewed in. Simmer it over the fire for ten minutes, and if it appear too thick, gradually add a little more milk, so as not to damp it from simmering. When done, pour it into a basin to cool.—Rice Milk. To four large spoonfuls of whole rice, washed very clean in cold water, add a quart of new milk, and stew them together very gently for three hours. Let it stand in a basin to cool before it is used. Another way of making rice milk is boiling the rice first in water, then pouring off the water, and boiling the rice with milk. A better way perhaps is, after washing the rice well, setting it over the fire for half an hour with a little water to break it. Add a little at a time some warm milk, till it is sufficiently done, and of a proper thickness. Let it simmer slowly, and season it with salt and sugar; but for children the sugar had better be omitted.—Ground Rice Milk. Mix a large spoonful of ground rice into a batter, with two or three spoonfuls of new milk. Set a pint of new milk on the fire, and when it is scalding hot, stir in the batter, and keep it on the fire till it thickens, but it must not boil. It should be carefully stirred to prevent its burning, and cooled by standing by in a basin.—Millet Milk. Wash three spoonfuls of millet seed in cold water, and put it into a quart of new milk. Simmer it gently till it becomes moderately thick, and cool it in a basin till wanted for use. All those preparations which require some time in doing, also require the precaution of being carefully stirred, to prevent their burning.—Drinks for young children, in addition to their diet, are best made of milk and water, whey, barley water, pearl barley water, apple water, and toast and water. For Milk and Water, put one third of new milk to two thirds of spring water. This is best drunk cold; but if it must be warmed, it should be by putting warm water to cold milk. It ought not to be made more than milk warm. For Whey, take a quart of new milk before it is cold, and put in as much rennet as will turn it to a clear whey. Let it stand till it is properly turned, and pour it off through a cheesecloth without pressing the curd, that the whey may be the purer. It may be drunk cold, or just warmed by setting it before the fire for a little while. If new milk cannot be had, other milk must be warmed to the degree of new milk.—Barley Water is made of a handful of common barley well washed, and simmered in three pints of water, till of a proper thickness for use; but the longer the barley boils, the thinner the liquor will become. Pearl Barley Water is made of an ounce of pearl barley, heated in half a pint of water over the fire in order to clean it. The water is then poured off, and a quart of fresh water added to the pearl barley. Simmer it half an hour, and if it appears too thick, add more water, but let it be kept warm, as any quantity of cold water would damp it too suddenly, and thus tend to spoil it. Both this and barley water may be used cold, or milk warm.—Apple Water. Slice into a jug two or three sound ripe apples, and pour on them a quart of scalding hot water. Let it stand to cool, and it will be fit for use. The apples should not be pared, as it takes off their spirit.—Toast and Water is made of a slice of white bread toasted quite dry, and of a dark brown colour. It is then put into a jug, and spring water poured upon it. After an hour it is fit for use. As all these preparations, both of drinks and spoonmeats, become flat and good for little by long standing, it is better to make only such quantities of them at a time as will soon be used. When they are warmed up, no more should be done at once than is just sufficient for the occasion, as repeated warming injures the nutritious quality of every thing. When it can be avoided it is better not to set things on the fire to warm them up, but to place them before or on the side of the fire. Care however must be taken not to let them dry and scorch, as it makes them very strong and unwholesome. Some earthenware vessel should be used for this purpose, as less liable to produce an injurious effect. A very good method of warming things is by setting them in a basin over boiling water, or by placing them in it.

SPRAINS. These generally proceed from some external injury, attended with pain, swelling, and inflammation. A fomentation of vinegar, or camphorated spirits of wine, if applied immediately, will generally be sufficient: if not, a few drops of laudanum should be added. The fomentation should be frequently renewed, and the sprained part kept in a state of rest and relaxation.

SPRATS. When quite good and fresh, their gills are of a fine red, their eyes and whole body beautifully bright. After being scaled and cleaned, they should be fastened in rows by a skewer run through the heads; then broiled, and served up hot and hot.

SPRATS LIKE ANCHOVIES. Salt them well, and let the salt drain from them. In twenty-four hours wipe them dry, but do not wash them. Mix four ounces of common salt, an ounce of bay salt, an ounce of saltpetre, a quarter of an ounce of sal-prunella, and half a tea-spoonful of cochineal, all in the finest powder. Sprinkle it amongst three quarts of the fish, and pack them in two stone jars. Keep them in a cool place, fastened down with a bladder. These artificial anchovies are pleasant on bread and butter, but the genuine should be used for sauce.

SPRING FRUIT PUDDING. Peel and wash four dozen sticks of rhubarb, put them into the stewpan with a lemon, a little cinnamon, and sweeten the whole with moist sugar. Set it over the fire, and reduce it to a marmalade. Pass it through a hair sieve, add the yolks of four eggs and one white, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, half a nutmeg, and the peel of a lemon grated. Beat all well together, line the inside of a pie dish with good puff paste, put in the pudding, and bake it half an hour.

SPRING SOUP. Put a pint of peas into a saucepan with some chervil, purslain, lettuce, sorrel, parsley, three or four onions, and a piece of butter. Shake them over the fire a few minutes, add warm water in proportion to the vegetables, and stew them till they are well done. Strain off the soup, and pulp the vegetables through a tammis or sieve. Heat the pulp with three parts of the soup, mix six yolks of eggs with the remainder of it, and thicken it over the fire. When ready to serve, add this to the soup, and season the whole with salt.

SPROUTS. Before the sprouts of greens are boiled, trim and wash them very nicely, and drain them in a cullender. Then put them into boiling water, with some salt thrown in, and sprinkle a little more upon the sprouts. Boil them very fast, and clear off any scum that may arise. When the stalks are quite tender, drain the sprouts off directly into a cullender, or they will lose both their flavour and colour. Serve them up laid neatly in the dish with a fork, as that will not break them like a spoon. Borecole and Brussel sprouts, like all the cabbage species, should be boiled in plenty of water, changing it when about half done, and boiling them well.

SPRUCE BEER. Pour sixteen gallons of warm water into a barrel, with twelve pounds of molasses, and half a pound of the essence of spruce. When cool, add a pint of yeast, stir it well for two or three days, and put it into stone bottles. Wire down the corks, pack the bottles in saw dust, and the liquor will ripen in about a fortnight.

SQUAB PIE. Prepare apples as for other pies, and lay them in rows with mutton chops. Shred some onion, and sprinkle it among them, and also some sugar.—Another. Make a good crust, and sheet your dish all over; lay a layer of pippins, and strew sugar over them; cut a loin of mutton into steaks, season them with pepper and salt; lay a layer of steaks, then pippins; then lay some onions sliced thin on the apples, then the rest of your mutton, and apples and onions over all; pour in a pint of water, and lid your pye; let it be well baked.

STAFFORDSHIRE BEEF STEAKS. Beat them a little with a rollingpin, then flour and season, and fry them of a fine light brown, with sliced onions. Lay the steaks into a stewpan, and pour over them as much boiling water as will serve for sauce. Stew them very gently for half an hour, and add a spoonful of ketchup or walnut liquor, before they are served up.

STAFFORDSHIRE SYLLABUB. Put into a bowl a pint of cider, and a glass of brandy, with sugar and nutmeg. Pour into it some warm milk, from a large tea-pot, held up high, and moved over it.

STAINS BY ACIDS. Wet the injured part, and lay on some salt of wormwood; then rub it, without diluting it with more water. Or let the cloth imbibe a little water without dipping, and hold the part over a lighted match at a due distance. The spots will be removed by the sulphureous gas. Another way is to tie up some pearl ash in the stained part, then scrape some soap into cold soft water to make a lather, and boil the linen till the stain disappears.

STAINS IN MAHOGANY. If any kind of furniture get stained with ink, dilute half a tea-spoonful of oil of vitriol with a large spoonful of water, and touch the stained part with a feather dipped in the liquid. It must be watched, and not suffered to remain too long, or it will leave a white mark. It is better to rub it quick, and to moisten it again, if the stain be not entirely removed.

STAINING OF BONE. This article must first be prepared, by being steeped for several days in a mixture of roche alum, vitriol, verdigris, and copper filings, infused in white wine vinegar. When the ingredients are dissolved, the mixture may be boiled with the bone in it, and it will take a fine green colour. By infusing brazil wood, French berries, or indigo in the vinegar, with a little roche alum, either red, yellow, or blue may be produced. Either bone, ivory, or wood, may be coloured in this manner.

STAINING OF PARCHMENT. Paper or parchment may be stained of a green colour, by gradually dissolving some copper filings in aqua-fortis, or the spirits of salt, putting in the filings till the ebullition ceases. A solution of verdigris in vinegar, or the crystals of verdigris in water, will answer the same purpose. A fine crimson stain may be produced by a tincture of the Indian lake, made by infusing the lake several days in spirits of wine, and pouring off the tincture from the dregs. A beautiful yellow may be formed from the tincture of turmeric, made in the same way. If the colours be wanted of a deeper cast, arnatto or dragon's blood may be added to the tincture.

STAINING OF WOOD. To stain wood of a mahogany colour, put it into a mixture of oil of turpentine and pounded dragon's blood, and let it stand an hour over a slow fire. When taken off the fire, the wood may remain in the liquor all night. The dye may be made stronger or weaker, by using more or less of dragon's blood, and by a greater or less degree of digestion and boiling. The best wood for this purpose is plane tree, because it may easily be sawn and polished, and is beautifully veined and spotted. To stain wood a fine black, drop a little oil of vitriol into a small quantity of water, rub it on the wood, and hold it to the fire. It will then become a fine black, and receive a beautiful polish.

STALKS OF BEET LEAVES. Trim and well wash the stalks of green and white beet leaves, and boil them in water, moving them frequently, to prevent the upper ones from turning black. When done enough, drain them in a cullender. Make a white sauce with a little flour and water, a piece of butter, some pepper and salt, and a taste of vinegar. Thicken this over the fire, and put in the stalks to stew gently for a few minutes, to give them a flavour. If the butter oils, it is a sign that the sauce is too thick. In this case add another spoonful or two of water, and shake the stewpan till the sauce recovers it appearance.

STARCH is a substance which is extracted from wheaten flour, by washing it in water. All farinaceous seeds, and the roots of most vegetables, afford this substance in a greater or less degree; but it is most easily obtained from the flour of wheat, by moistening any quantity thereof with a little water, and kneading it with the hand into a tough paste: this being washed with water, by letting fall upon it a very slender stream, the water will be rendered turbid as it runs off, in consequence of the fecula or starch which it extracts from the flour, and which will subside when the water is allowed to stand at rest. The starch so obtained, when dried in the sun, or by a stove, is usually concreted into small masses of a long figure and columnar shape, which have a fine white colour, scarcely any smell, and very little taste. If kept dry, starch in this state continues a long time uninjured, although exposed to the air. It is not soluble in cold water; but forms a thick paste with boiling-hot water, and when this paste is allowed to cool, it becomes semi-transparent and gelatinous, and being dried, becomes brittle, and somewhat resembles gum. Starch, although found in all nutritive grains, is only perfect when they have attained maturity, for before this it is in a state approaching to mucilage, and so mixed with saccharine matter and essential oils, that it cannot be extracted in sufficient purity to concrete into masses. Wheat, or such parts of it as are not used for human food, are usually employed for manufacturing starch, such as the refuse wheat and bran; but when the finest starch is required, good grain must be used. This, being well cleaned, and sometimes coarsely bruised, is put into wooden vessels full of water to ferment: to assist the fermentation, the vessels are exposed to the greatest heat of the sun, and the water is changed twice a day, during eight or twelve days, according to the season. When the grain bursts easily under the finger, and gives out a milky white liquor when squeezed, it is judged to be sufficiently softened and fermented. In this state, the grains are taken out of the water by a sieve, and put into a canvas sack, and the husks are separated and rubbed off, by beating and rubbing the sack upon a plank: the sack is then put into a tub filled with cold water, and trodden or beaten till the water becomes milky and turbid, from the starch which it takes up from the grain. A scum sometimes swims upon the surface of the water, which must be carefully removed; the water is then run off through a fine sieve into a settling-vessel, and fresh water is poured upon the grains, two or three times, till it will not extract any more starch, or become coloured by the grain. The water in the settling-vessels being left at rest, precipitates the starch which it held suspended; and to get rid of the saccharine matter, which was also dissolved by the water, the vessels are exposed to the sun, which soon produces the acetous fermentation, and takes up such matter as renders the starch more pure and white. During this process, the starch for sale in the shops receives its colour, which consists of smalt mixed with water and a small quantity of alum, and is thoroughly incorporated with the starch; but this starch is unfit for medicinal purposes. When the water becomes completely sour, it is poured gently off from the starch, which is washed several times afterwards with clean water, and at last is placed to drain upon linen cloths supported by hurdles, and the water drips through, leaving the starch upon the cloths, in which it is pressed or wrung, to extract as much as possible of the water; and the remainder is evaporated, by cutting the starch into pieces, which are laid up in airy places, upon a floor of plaster or of slightly burnt bricks, until it becomes completely dried from all moisture, partly by the access of warm air, and partly by the floor imbibing the moisture. In winter time, the heat of a stove must be employed to effect the drying. Lastly, the pieces of dried starch are scraped, to remove the outside crust, which makes inferior starch, and these pieces are broken into smaller pieces for sale. The grain which remains in the sack after the starch is extracted, contains the husks and the glutinous part of the wheat, which are found very nutritious food for cattle. The French manufacturers, according to "Les Arts et Metiers," pursue a more economical method, as they are enabled, by employing an acid water for the fermentation in the first instance, to use the most inferior wheat, and the bran or husks of wheat. This water they prepare, by putting a pailful of warm water into a tub, with about two pounds of leaven, such as some bakers use to make their dough rise or ferment. The water stands two days, and is then stirred up, and half a pailful of warm water added to it; then being left to settle till it is clear, it is poured off for use. To use this water in the fermentation of the materials, a quantity of it is poured into a tub, and about as much fair water is poured upon it as will fill the tub half full: the remainder of the tub is then filled up with the materials, which are one half refuse wheat, and the other half bran. In this tub it continues to steep and ferment during ten days, or less, according to the strength of the leaven-water, and according to the disposition of the weather for fermentation. When the materials have been sufficiently steeped, or fermented, an unctuous matter, which is the oil of the grain, will be seen swimming on the surface, having been thrown up by the fermentation. This must be scummed off; and the fermented grain, being taken out of the tub, is put into a fine hair sieve, placed over a settling-tub, when fair water is poured upon it, and washed through the sieve into the tub; by which means the starch is carried through the sieve with the water, of which about six times the quantity of the grain are used. The water stands in the settling tub for a day, and becomes clear at top; when it is carefully laded out of the tub, leaving at the bottom a white sediment, which is the starch. The water which is taken off is sour, and is called sure water: this is the proper leaven for the first steeping of the materials. The starch now obtained must be rendered marketable; for which purpose, as much water is poured upon it as will enable it to be pounded and broken up with a shovel, and then the tub is filled up with fair water. Two days after this, the water is laded out from the tub, and the starch appears in the bottom, but covered over with a dark-coloured and inferior kind of starch, which is taken off, and employed for fattening hogs. The remainder of the sediment, which is good starch, is washed several times, to remove all the inferior starch; and when this is done, about four inches of thick starch should be found at the bottom of each tub: but the quantity varies, according to the goodness of the meal or bran which has been used. It is evident that the refuse wheat, when employed for making starch, ought to afford more, the whole being used, than the bran or husks; but the starch so extracted is always of an inferior quality to that which is extracted from the bran of good wheat, particularly in the whiteness of its colour. The starch in the different tubs is brought together into one, and there worked up with as much water as will dissolve it into a thin paste, which is put into a silk sieve, and strained through with fresh water. This water is settled in a tub, and afterwards poured off, but before it is so completely settled as to lose all its white colour: this renders the starch which is deposited, still finer and whiter; and the starch which is deposited by the water so poured off, is of a more common quality. The starch, thus purified, is taken out of the bottom of the tubs, and put into wicker-baskets, about eighteen inches long and ten deep, rounded at the corners, and lined with linen cloths, which are not fastened to the baskets. The water drips from the starch through the cloths for a day, and the baskets are then carried up to apartments at the top of the house, where the floor is made of very clean white plaster; and the windows are thrown open, to admit a current of air. Here the baskets are turned downwards upon the plaster-floor, and the linen cloths, not being fastened to the baskets, follow the starch, and when taken off, leave loaves, or cakes of starch, which are left to dry a little, and are then broken into smaller pieces, and left on the plaster-floor, till very dry. But if the weather is at all humid, the starch is removed from the plaster-floor and spread out upon shelves, in an apartment which is warmed by a stove, and there it remains till perfectly dry. The pieces are afterwards scraped, to remove the outside crust, which makes common starch; and the scraped pieces being again broken small, the starch is carried to the stove, and spread out to a depth of three inches, on hurdles covered with cloths. The starch must be turned over every morning and evening, to prevent it from turning to a greenish colour, which it would otherwise do. Those manufacturers who are not provided with a stove, make use of the top of a baker's oven to spread the starch upon; and after being thoroughly dried here, it is ready for sale. Starch may be made from potatoes, by soaking them about an hour in water, and taking off their roots and fibres, then rubbing them quite clean by a strong brush: after this they are reduced to a pulp, by grating them in water. This pulp is to be collected in a tub, and mixed up with a large quantity of clear water: at the same time, another clean tub must be provided; and a hair sieve, not too fine, must be supported over it by two wooden rails extended across the tub. The pulp and water are thrown into the sieve, and the flour of starch is carried through with the water; fresh water must then be poured on, till it runs through quite clear. The refuse pulp which remains in the sieve, being boiled in water, makes an excellent food for animals; and the quantity of this pulp is near seven-eighths of all the potatoes employed. The liquor which has passed through the sieve is turbid, and of a darkish colour, from the extractive matter which is dissolved in it. When it is suffered to rest for five or six hours, all this matter deposits or settles to the bottom, and the liquor which remains is to be poured off as useless; and a large quantity of fresh water is thrown upon the flour, and stirred up: it is then settled for a day, and the water being poured off, the flour will be found to have again settled in a whiter state. But to improve it, another quantity of water is poured on, and mixed up with it; in which state it is passed through a fine silk sieve, to arrest any small quantity of the pulp which may have escaped the first hair sieve. The whole must afterwards be suffered to stand quiet, till the flour is entirely settled, and the water above become perfectly clear; but if the water has any sensible colour or taste, the flour must be washed again with fresh water, for it is absolutely necessary that none of the extractive matter be suffered to remain with it. The flour, when thus obtained pure, and drained from the water, may be taken out of the tub with a wooden shovel, and placed upon wicker-frames covered with paper, to be dried in some situation properly defended from dust. When the manufacture of starch from potatoes is attempted in a large way, some kind of mill must be used to reduce them to a pulp, as the grating of them by hand is too tedious an operation. A mill invented by M. Baumé is very complete for this purpose. In its general structure it resembles a large coffee-mill: the grater consists of a cone of iron plate, about seven inches in diameter, and eight inches in height, the exterior surface of which is made toothed, like a rasp, by piercing holes through the plate from the inside. This cone is fixed upon a verticle axle, with a handle at the top to turn it by; and is mounted on the pivots of the axle, within a hollow cylinder of plate-iron, toothed withinside like the outside of the cone; the smallest end of the interior cone being uppermost, and the lower or larger end being as large as the interior diameter of the hollow cylinder. A conical hopper is fixed to the hollow cylinder, round the top of it, into which the potatoes are thrown; and falling down into the space between the outside of the cone and the inside of the hollow cylinder, they are ground, and reduced to a pulp, when the interior cone is turned round by its handle; and as the lower part of the cone is fitted close to the interior diameter of the cylinder, the potatoes must be ground to a fine pulp before they can pass through between the two. The machine, when at work, is placed in a tub filled with water; and as fast as the grinding proceeds, the pulp mixes regularly with the water, ready for the process before described. Poland starch is reckoned the best: its quality may be judged of by the fineness of the grain, its being very brittle, and of a good colour. The price of starch depends upon that of flour; and when bread is cheap, starch may be bought to advantage. If it be of good quality it will keep for some years, covered close, and laid up in a dry warm room. In the year 1796, lord William Murray obtained a patent for manufacturing starch from horse-chesnuts. The method was to take the horse-chesnuts out of the outward green prickly husk, and either by hand, with a knife or tool, or else with a mill adapted for the purpose, the brown rind was carefully removed, leaving the chesnuts perfectly white, and without the smallest speck. In this state the nuts were rasped or ground to a pulp with water, and the pulp washed with water through a coarse horse-hair sieve, and twice afterwards through finer sieves, with a constant addition of clear cold water, till all the starch was washed clean from the pulp which remained in the sieve; and the water being settled, deposited the starch, which was afterwards repeatedly washed, purified, and dried, in the same manner as the potatoe-starch before described. We are not informed if this manufacture has been carried into effect. The sour, nauseous, milky liquor obtained in the process of starch-making, appears, upon analysis, to contain acetous acid, ammonia, alcohol, gluten, and phosphate of lime. The office of the acid is to dissolve the gluten and phosphate of lime, and thus to separate them from the starch. Starch is used along with smalt, or stone-blue, to stiffen and clear linen. The powder of it is also used to whiten and powder the hair. It is also used by the dyers, to dispose their stuffs to take colours the better. Starch is sometimes used instead of sugar-candy for mixing with the colours that are used in strong gum-water, to make them work more freely, and to prevent their cracking. It is also used medicinally for the same intentions with the viscous substance which the flour of wheat forms with milk, in fluxes and catarrhs, under various forms of powders, mixtures, &c. A drachm of starch, with three ounces of any agreeable simple water, and a little sugar, compose an elegant jelly, of which a spoonful may be taken every hour or two. These gelatinous mixtures are likewise an useful injection in some diarrhœas, particularly where the lower intestines have their natural mucus rubbed off by the flux, or are constantly irritated by the acrimony of the matter.