LOBSTER SOUP. Boil the veal as for oyster soup. Break up a large lobster; remove the meat; break up the shell, and put it into a saucepan, with water enough to cover it; let this simmer while the soup boils; strain it, and add it to the soup. Cut the lobster up fine; put it into the pot, and boil it one hour. Grate the coral of the lobster; add it to the soup, (it adds a higher color to it ;) add, also, a little butter, braided in browned flour; a cup of wine, and the juice and peel of a lemon. Serve this hot, with lemons cut in halves, in a separate dish, for each person to flavor the soup according to their own taste. Instead of the lemon juice, a spoonful of vinegar can be used.

TOMATO SOUP. Boil the veal, as directed for oyster soup, or take some good soup stock. Cut up three onions, two carrots, and three turnips, and add them to the soup, with pepper, salt, and one to two dozen tomatoes; boil this two hours; strain it. Toast some bread very brown, and cut it into small dice; put them into tureen. Pour the soup, when ready to serve, on to the bread.

MUTTON BROTH. Boil a shoulder of mutton in four quarts of water; add one onion, two carrots and two turnips, one table-spoonful of salt, and one cup of rice; boil this one and one half hours. Chop up some parsley, and add it about five minutes before serving. The mutton may be sent to table with drawn butter and capers.

MUTTON BROTH. Take the water in which a leg of mutton has been boiled; add vegetables same as above.

OX TAIL SOUP may be made as in recipe for shin soup. Strain out the vegetables; mix a pint of thickening, and add it to the soup. Add pepper, salt, allspice, and tomatoes.

CHICKEN BROTH. Take your chicken; put it into a pot, with two quarts of water, a salt-spoon of salt, a little pepper, and a few sprigs of parsley; boil it; skim it well; let it simmer about one hour. You

can thicken the soup with a little flour, or rice, or vermicelli.

MACARONI SOUP. Boil a quarter of a pound of macaroni in one quart of water for ten minutes; strain it off, and throw the macaroni into two quarts of boiling stock; simmer it gently for half an hour; then serve it with grated cheese on a plate separately.

MEATS.

The name which has been given to extract of flesh is osmazome, from two Greek words, signifying a smell and broth, or soup. The high flavor and smell of soup, and a part of its nutritive qualities, is owing to this principle. Doubtless Liebig's suggestion will one day be put into practice, and the inhabitants of our cities and populous districts will be supplied with the true zest of the venison and caribou of the forests, and beef from the pampas of Southern America.

"Tenderness of flesh is influenced by a variety of circumstances; as age, sex, leanness or fatness, mode of slaughtering, and incipient decomposition.

The

flesh of young animals is more tender than that of old ones. The flesh of lean animals is generally finer than that of plump ones. Hunting, baiting, fighting, and whipping animals just before death augments the tenderness of their flesh. With the exception of the first, these barbarous and cruel practices are now justly exploded in most civilized countries. Another circumstance which promotes the tenderness of meat, is incipient decomposition; this is the reason why most animals are kept for some time after being killed, before they are eaten.

The meats of different animals are not equally digestible and nutritive, and the digestibility of the same kind of meat is by no means uniform in different individuals. Venison is easy of digestion. Occasionally mutton disagrees with some persons.

The cooking of food has for its more immediate object the gratification of the taste; but it can scarcely be doubted that its more remote end is the promotion of digestion. Nearly every substance possessing organized life is by civilized man cooked before it is eaten. By cooking, the destruction of organization is more or less effected. Its effect is not always to produce a chemical change in the food; it does not appear that roasting affects the composition of meats. Boiling produces some changes in them, and, in the case of farinaceous substances, breaks or splits the grains of starch. Frying, on account of the effect of heat on all fatty substances, renders meat more indigestible than any other method of cooking.

Among civilized nations, the pig is the only animal whose blood furnishes a distinct article of food. Mixed with fat, and highly seasoned, and enclosed in the prepared intestines, the blood of this animal forms the sausages sold at the shops, under the name of black puddings.

In Europe, cases are very frequent of persons being poisoned by eating bad sausages. When well prepared, they furnish a savory and nourishing food, but when the spices and salt are deficient, they undergo a peculiar kind of putrefaction, which begins at the centre of the sausage. They become pale in color, and more soft and greasy in those parts which have undergone putrefaction. In eating the imported Bologna sausages, this should be remembered; for if the seasoning had not been strong, or the smoking insufficient, or too late when applied, ill consequences must arise from eating them.

Professor Lindley, of England, says, "Cold meat is always in a state of decomposition. It is possible that this state may be communicated to the system of a feeble individual, and may be one of the sources of consumption."

Brains of animals differ from ordinary fats in their

chemical properties. They are, however, regarded as somewhat more digestible than common fat.

The tongue and heart of mammals are muscular organs, and in their dietetical properties agree with the flesh of the animals to which they belong.

Sweetbread is the thymus of the calf, and when plainly cooked, and moderately seasoned, forms an agreeable and suitable food for convalescents, but when highly dressed, it is improper for dyspeptics or invalids.

The liver of quadrupeds contains much oil, which renders it unwholesome food for the delicate. Moreover, it is rendered still more inappropriate by the mode of cooking it.

To choose Meats.

VENISON. If the flesh be smooth and close, and the fat be clear, bright, and thick, the animal is young; otherwise it is old. To judge of its sweetness, run a narrow, sharp knife into the shoulder or haunch, and you will know by the scent. Venison is easily digested. It possesses the qualities of looseness of texture, and is easily divided into particles, as are most of the wild meats and game.

BEEF. If the flesh of ox beef is young, it will have a fine, smooth, open grain, and a good red color. The fat should be white, not yellow. Ox beef is the richest and largest; but by some persons, heifer beef, if highly fed, is considered nicer. The grain of cow beef is closer, and the fat whiter, than that of ox beef; but the lean is not of so bright a red.

VEAL. Choose the meat of which the kidney is well covered with white, thick fat. The whitest meat is not the most juicy, as it is often made so by frequent bleeding. The flesh should be white, approaching to pink, and the fat firm. Veal should not be kept more than two days in summer, and four in winter. To be in full perfection, the kidneys ought to

be covered with fat, and the veins in the shoulder bright red or blue, showing it to be newly killed; any other color shows it to be stale. It is best from May to September.

MUTTON. Choose this by the fineness of its grain, good color, and well mixed with fat, which must be firm and white. It is not the better for being young. Wether mutton is the best; the meat of ewe mutton is of a paler color, and the fat yellow and spongy. If of a good breed and well fed, it is better for being old. To keep a loin, saddle, or haunch, the kidney fat should be removed, and the place rubbed with a little salt. Mutton is better to hang forty-eight hours after it is killed; it can be kept two or three weeks in winter.

LAMB. The vein in the fore quarter should be bluish and firm; if yellow or green, it is stale. To ascertain if the hind quarter is fresh, lift the kidney; if there is a faint smell, the meat is stale. If the eyes are sunk, the head is not fresh.

PORK. Pinch the lean, and, if young, it will break. If the rind is tough, and cannot be easily impressed with the finger, it is old. A thin rind is a merit in all pork. When fresh, the flesh will be smooth and cool; if clammy, it is tainted. What is called measly pork is very unwholesome, and may be known by the fat being full of kernels; which in good pork is never the

case.

BACON, OR CORNED PORK. If the rind is thin, the fat firm and of a red tinge, the lean tender, of a good color, and adhering to the bone, you may conclude it is good, and not old. If there are yellowish streaks in it, it is bad.

HAM. Stick a sharp knife under the bone; if it comes out with a pleasant smell, the ham is good.

When surloins of beef, or loins of veal or mutton, are purchased, part of the suet may be cut off for puddings, or to clarify. Drippings will baste every thing as well as butter, excepting fowls and game.