on a sieve; and send up melted butter with them, which some put into small cups, so that each guest may have one.

Stewed Onions.

The large Portugal onions are the best; take off the top eoats of half a dozen of these, taking care not to cut off the tops or tails too near, or the onions will go to pieces ;) and put them into a stew-pan broad enough to hold them, without laying them atop oi one another, and just cover them with good broth.

Put them over a slow fire, and let them simmer about two hours; when you dish them, turn them upside down, and pour the sauce over.

To stew Sorrel for Fricandeau and roast Meat.

Wash the sorrel; and put it into a silver vessel, or stone jar, with no more water than hangs to the leaves. Simmer it as slow as you can; and when done enough, put a bit of butter, and beat it well.

Frying Herbs, as dressed in Staffordshire.

Clean and drain a good quantity of spinage leaves, two large handfuls of parsley, and a handful of green onions. Chop the parsley and onions, and sprinkle them among the spinage. Set them all on to stew with some salt, and a bit of butter the size of a walnut: shake the pan when it begins to grow warm, and let it be closely covered over a slow stove till done enough. It is served with slices of broiled calves' liver, small rashers of bacon, and eggs fried; the latter on the herbs, the other in a separate dish.

To preserve several Vegetables to eat in the Winter.

For French beans, pick them young, and throw into a little wooden keg a layer of them three inches deep; then sprinkle them with salt, put another layer of beans, and do the same as high as you think proper, alternately with salt, but not too much of this. Lay over them a plate, or cover of wood, that will go into the keg, and put a heavy stone on it. A pickle will rise from the beans and salt. If they are too salt, the soaking and

boiling will not be sufficient to make them pleasant to the taste. When they are to be eaten, cut, soak, and boil them as if fresh.

Carrots, Parsneps, and Beet-roots, should be kept in layerl of dry sand for winter use; and neither they nor potatoes should be cleared from the earth. Potatoes should be carefully kept from frost.

Store-onions keep best hung up in a dry cold room.

Artichoke bottoms, slowly dried, should be kept in paper bags; and truffles, morels, lemon-peel, &c. in a dry place, ticketed.

Small close cabbages, laid on a stone floor before the frost sets in, will blanch and be very fine, after many weeks' keeping.

To dry Sweet and Savoury Herbs.

All vegetables are in the highest state of perfection, and fullest of juice and flavour, just before they begin to flower: the first and last crop have neither the fine flavour nor the perfume of those which are gathered in the height of the season; that is, when the greater part of the crop of each species is ripe.

Take care they are gathered on a dry day, by which means they will have a better colour when dried. Cleanse your herbs well from dirt and dust, cut off the roots, separate the bunches into smaller ones, and dry them by the heat of a stove, or in a Dutch oven before a common fire, in such quantities at a time, that the process may be speedily finished, i.e. kill'em quick, says a great botanist. By this means their flavour will be best preserved. There can be no doubt of the propriety of drying herbs, &c. hastily, by the aid of artificial heat rather than by the heat of the sun. In the application of artificial heat, the only caution requisite is to avoid burning; and of this, a sufficient test is afforded by the preservation of the colour. The common custom is, when they are perfectly dried, to put them into paper bags, and lay them on a shelf in the kitchen, exposed to all the fumes, steam, and smoke, &c. thus they soon lose their flavour. The best way to preserve the flavour of aromatic plants, is to pick off the leaves as soon as they are dried, and to pound them and put them through a hair sieve, and keep them in well stopped buttles.

Basil is in the best state for drying from the middle of August, and three weeks after.

Knotted Marjoram, from the beginning of July, and during the same.

Winter and Summer Savory, the latter end of July, and throughout August.

Thyme, Lemon Thyme, and Orange Thyme, during June and July.

Mint, latter end of June, and during July.

Sage, August and September.

Tarragon, June, July, and August.

Chervil, May, June, and July.

Burnet, June, July, and August.

Parsley, Fennel, Elder Flowers, and Orange Flowers, during May, June, and July.

Herbs nicely dried are a very acceptable substitute when fresh one? cannot be got,—but, however carefully dried, the flavour and fragrance of the fresh herbs is incomparably finer.

SALADS.

Observations on Salads.

SALADS are proper to be eaten at all times and seasons of the year, and are particularly to be recommended from the beginning of February to the middle or end of June. They are in greater perfection, and consequently more powerful, during this period than at other seasons, in cleansing, opening obstructions, and sweetening and purifying the blood. For the fre quent eating of herbs prevents that pernicious and almost general disease the scurvy, and all windy humours which offend the stomach.

Then again from the middle of September till December, and indeed all the winter, if the weather be mild and open, all green herbs are welcome to the stomach, and very who!?some. For though herbs have not so much vigour, nor are 60 opening and cleansing in the winter as in the spring, yet all such herbs as grow, and continue fresh and green, retain also their

true natural virtues and qualities; and being eaten as salad-, and seasoned as they ought, have in a degree the same operations as at other seasons of the year.

The

It is a necessary consequence of cold weather, that the heat of the body is driven more inward than in warm weather, as the cold of the atmosphere repels it from the surface. Hence arises a great appetite for solid, strong, fat, and succulent foods, and strong drinks, which, where discretion, order, and temperance are wanting, lays the foundation for diseases that commonly show themselves in the summer following. frequent eating of herbs and salads in the winter will, in a great measure, prevent these ill effects; for notwithstanding a prejudice that is too common against eating herbs in the winter, a salad well ordered and seasoned, if the weather prove mild and open, is as exhilarating, (being eaten only with good well made bread) and will warm the stomach as much, as two or three glasses of wine, and is far more pleasant and natural. The one produces an effect in unison with all the operations of the human frame, which thus go on in their regular course; the other stimulates them for the moment to a hurried unnatural action, 'which is soon over, and succeeded by cold languor. There is a much greater excellency in all green herbs in the winter than most people imagine. They are particularly salutary for old persons, and such as are subject to stoppages or shortness of breath, who, instead of an onion, may use a clove of garlic in their salads, which is one of the best wajs of eating it, and it will open, cheer, and warm the stomach, which gives a general animation to the whole system.

Onions both young and full grown, shalots, garlic, and chives, are all used as seasonings to salads; and red beet-root boiled, and cold, is often sliced into them.

Salad is a very compound dish with our neighbours the French, who always add to their salad mixtures, black pepper, and sometimes savoury spices. The Italians mince the white meat of chickens into this sauce The Dutch, cold boiled turbot, or lobster; or add to it a spoonful of grated Parmesan or old Cheshire cheese, or mince very fine a little tarragon, or chervil, burnet, or young onion, celery, or pickled gherkins, &c. Joan Cromwell's grand salad was composed of equal parts of almonds, raisins, capers, pickled cucumbers, shrimps, and boiled turnips.

The wholesomest way of eating salads is with bread only, in preference to either bread and butter, bread and cheese, or bread and meat, though any of these may be eaten with it, when the salad is seasoned only with salt and vinegar.

Salads of all kinds should be very fresh, or, if not to be procured thus, should be well refreshed in cold spring water. They should be very carefully washed and picked, and drained quite dry in a clean cloth.

In dressing small herbs, or lettuce, it is best to arrange them properly picked and cut, iu the salad dish; then to mix the sauce in something else, and pour it to the salad down the side of the dish, so as to let it run to the bottom, and not to stir it up till used at table. This preserves the crispness of the

salad.

With celery and endive the sauce should be poured upon them, and the whole well stirred together to mix it equally.

Lettuce, endive, and celery, may be eaten with salt only; and if well chewed, which all salads should be, often agree better than when mixed with seasonings.

If mustard in salad sauces occasions sickness, or otherwise disagrees, Cayenne pepper will often prove an excellent substitute for it.

Salad Mixture.

If the herbs be young,—fresh gathered,—trimmed neatly, and drained dry, and the sauce maker ponders patiently over the following directions, he cannot fail obtaining the fame of being a very accomplished salad-dresser.

Boil a couple of eggs for twelve minutes, and put them in a basin of cold water for a few minutes; the yolks must be quite cold and hard, or they will not incorporate with the ingredients. Rub them through a sieve with a wooden spoon, and mix them with a table-spoonful of water, or fine double cream; then add two table-spoonfuls of oil or melted butter; when these are well mixed, add by degrees a tea-spoonful of salt, or powdered lump sugar, and the same of made mustard; when these are smoothly united, add very gradually three table-spoonfuls of vinegar, rub it with the other ingredients till thoroughly incorporated with them; cut up the white of the egg, and garnish the top of the salad with it. Let the