TURBOT, when good, is thick, firm, and plump; and the nose, and fins all round the belly, tinged with a pink colour; but if it has lost this beautiful tinge, or if the belly be changed from a yellowish white to a blueish cast, the fish is either stale or poor, or both. SOLES are to be chosen by these rules, particularly as to the pink tinge round their bellies and under their noses.

COD FISH should be thick at the neck, having the gills red, the flesh very white, firm, hard, and clear, and the eyes bright.

HADDOCK are to be chosen by these rules. The shortest fish are the best.

SALMON should be chosen for its small head and thick neck; its scales should be bright, and its gills and flesh of a fine red colour. The Thames and Severn Salmon are mostly esteemed.

SKATE, MAIDS, and THORNBACKS are all of one species; they ought to be white and thick. The two latter should be kept a day, or perhaps two, to make them tender, and Skate may be kept longer. The maiden Skate and the young male, or Thornback, are the best; but large, old Skate, is generally coarse and rank.

FLOUNDERS, PLAICE, &c. should be stiff and firm, with bright, full eyes. If flabby, these and all other kinds of fish are certainly stale. The Thames Flounders are reckoned best, in London, because they may be had alive, or nearly so, and they are always best when dressed as soon as caught.

HERRINGS, PILCHARDS, WHITINGS, SPRATS, &c.—These may be classed together. The largest are the best. Their gills should be of a fine red, their fins stiff, their eyes bright, and their flesh, when best, is bright and firm. As the Herrings emigrate, in immense shoals, from the northern regions, they are in the greatest perfection on their first arrival on the coasts of Scotland, the North of Ireland, and the Isle of Man. On the coast of the German Ocean also, even so far south as Yarmouth,

they are taken in great quantities, remarkably fat and fine, and full of spawn; but before they reach the southern coast of England, they become poor and thin, and are then known by the denomination of Shotten-Herrings.

MACKEREL look beautifully bright when first caught. These and WHITINGS should be dressed as soon as possible.

FRESH WATER FISH.

PIKE and JACK are taken in rivers; they are very dry eating, and require much seasoning and sauce. CARP, TENCH, and PERCH, are best eaten as soon as caught; the latter is not so much esteemed as the two former.

SMELTS, when fresh, have a fiue bright appearance, firm flesh, and a fragrant smell, like a cucumber.

GUDGEONS, ROACH, and DACE, and most other river fish, must be chosen by the rules already given.

BUTTER, CHEESE, and EGGS.

BUTTER should be chosen by the taste and smell. -The best fresh butter is the Epping, and next the Cambridge; sometimes the potted weekly Dorset is very good. Of tub butter, the Welch is best, the Dutch next, and the Irish worst. In examining tub-butter, and particularly the Irish, look at and smell to the outside next the cask, which is often white in appearance like tallow, and quite rank in smell.

CHEESE. Of the common kinds, Cheshire, North Wiltshire and double Gloucester, are the best. Cheese of the first making, in May, is usually brought to Market in August. Factors have a pernicious practice of sticking brass pins into cheese, which gives it the appearance of blue mould and old age. That cheese which has a smooth, moist coat,

is generally good. Spanish annotto is often used to give the rind a beautiful red colour.

EGGS.---If fresh, will feel warm when the tongue is applied to the biggest end; but if stale, it will be cold. An egg, when quite fresh, will sink at once when put into cold water; but if rotten, it will swim.

All VEGETABLES are best if dressed as soon as gathered; and are in their greatest perfection just before they begin to flower.

Most ARTICLES FOR PICKLING will be in their prime in July and Aug.; but walnuts not later than the middle of July; and mushrooms and white cabbage in Sept. and October.

HERBS, of all kinds, should be gathered in a dry day; and when the roots are cut off, and the herbs are perfectly well cleaned from dust, &c. they should be divided into small bunches and dried very quick by the heat of a stove, or in a Dutch oven before a common fire, rather than by the heat of the sun, taking care that they be not burnt. When dry put them into bags, and hang them up in a dry place; or pound them and sift them through a hair sieve, and keep the powder in bottles closely stopped.

SWEET AND SAVORY HERBS are best in season from May to Aug. according to their kinds. The flavour and fragance of fresh herbs are much finer than of those that are dried

PASTRY, &c.

Here follow a great variety of the most useful and approved RECEIPTS IN DOMESTIC ECONOMY, which are chiefly appropriate to the Housekeeper's department; consisting of directions for making PASTRY, CONFECTIONARY, PRESERVES, PIC KLES, PERFUMERY, COSMETICS, BRITISH WINES, various

articles of DISTILLATION, FAMILY MEDICINE, and many MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS of general utility.

OBSERVATIONS ON PASTRY.

An adept in making pastry, never leaves any part of it adhering to the board used in making it. It is best when rolled on marble or slate. In hot weather the butter should be put in cold water to make it firm; and if the pastry be made early in the morning, and preserved from the air till baked, it will be the better. Salt butter, if good and well washed, makes a fine flaky crust.

Preserved fruit for pastry need not be baked; but the crust should be baked in a tin shape, or on a tin and cut out according to taste.

ON MAKING CAKES..

Currants should be nicely washed, dried in a cloth, andthen set before the fire. If not quite dry they will make the cake heavy. The cake will be the lighter if a dust of flour be thrown on the currants and then shaken.

Eggs should be beaten very long, the whites and the yolks apart, after which they must be strained -Sugar should be rubbed to a powder, on a clean board, and sifted through a fine hair or lawn sieve. Lemon-peel should be pared quite thin, and beaten, with a little sugar, in a marble mortar, to a paste; and then mixed with a little wine or cream, so as to mix easily with the other ingredients. After all the articles are put together in the pan, they should be thoroughly beaten for a long while, as the lightness of the cake greatly depends on their being well incorporated. Yeast, in either black or white plum cakes, makes them require less butter and eggs, and yet be equally light and rich. The dough when made should be set to rise by the fire. If the oven be not quick the batter will not rise, and the cake will be heavy: if you think it too quick, put some paper over the cake to prevent its being burnt.

1. A RICH PLUM CAKE.

Take one pound of fresh butter, one pound of sugar, one pound and a half of flour, two pounds of currants, a glass of brandy, one pound of sweetmeats, two ounces of sweet almonds, ten eggs, a quarter of an ounce of allspice, and a quarter of an ounce of cinnamon.

Melt the butter to a cream, and put in the sugar. Stir it till quite light, adding the allspice, and pounded cinna mon; in a quarter of an hour take the yolk of the eggs, and work them in, two or three at a time; and the whites of the same must by this time be beaten into a strong snow quite ready to work in; as the paste must not stand to chill the butter, or it will be heavy, 'work in the whites gradually; then add the orange-peel, lemon, and citron, cut in fine stripes, and the currants, which must be mixed in well, with the sweet almonds. Then add the sifted flour and a glass of brandy. Bake this cake in a tin hoop in a hot oven

for three hours, and put twelve sheets of paper under it to keep it from burning.

2. A GOOD PLAIN CAKE.

The following is a receipt for making a good plain cake, to be given to children, at breakfast, instead of buttered bread.

Take as much dough as will make a quartern-loaf (either made at home, or procured at the baker's), work into this a quarter of a pound of butter, a quarter of a pound of moist sugar, and a handful of caraway seeds. When well worked together, pull into pieces the size of a golden pippin, and work it together again. This must be done three times or it will be in lumps, and heavy when baked.

3. ICEING FOR CAKES.

Put one pound of fine-sifted, treble refined sugar into a basin, and the whites of three new-laid eggs; beat the sugar and eggs up well with a silver spoon until it becomes very white and thick; dust the cake over with flour, and then brush it off, by way of taking the grease from the outside, which prevents the iceing from running; put it on smooth with a palette knife, and garnish according to fancy: any ornaments should be put on immediately; for if the iceing get dry, it will not stick on. Set it in a cool oven to harden.

4. A RICH SEED CAKE.

Take a pound and a quarter of flour well dried, a pound of butter, a pound of loaf sugar, beat and sifted, eight eggs and two ounces of caraway seeds, one grated nutmeg, and its weight in cinnamon. Beat the butter into a cream, put in the sugar, beat the whites of the eggs and the yolks separately, then mix them with the butter and sugar. Beat in the flour, spices, and seed, a little before sending it away. Bake it two hours in a quick oven.

5. A PLAIN POUND CAKE.

Beat one pound of butter in an earthen pan until it is like a fine thick cream, then beat in nine whole eggs till quite light. Put in a glass of brandy, a little lemon peel, shred fine, then work in a pound and a quarter of flour; put it into the hoop or pan and bake it for an hour. A pound plum cake is made the same with putting one pound and a half of clean washed currants and half a pound of candied lemou peel.

6. RATAFIA CAKES.

Beat half a pound each of sweet and bitter almonds in fine orange, rose, or ratafia water, mix half a pound of fine pounded and sifted sugar with the same, add the whites of four eggs well beaten to it, set it over a moderate fire in a