Paris now adopt this plan, which is stated to be certainly superior to any other in use.

Mr. Donovan (who wrote two volumes on Domestic Economy in Lardner's Cyclopædia) recommends the following method as efficacious in preserving both the aroma and bitter quality of the coffee. The whole water to be used is to be divided into two parts. One part cold is to be poured upon the coffee, and merely brought to a boiling point, when the liquid, being allowed to settle a little, is to be poured off. The remaining half of the water, at a boiling temperature, is then to be poured upon the grounds, and kept boiling for about three minutes; and after a few moments' subsidence the clear part is to be poured off, and mixed with the former liquor. The object in this method is, first to extract by a kind of infusion the aroma of the coffee, by bringing the liquid to the boiling point; and secondly, to extract the latter property by decoction.

The Cocoa of Trinidad is the variety chiefly consumed in this country; but when made into flake or rock, it is often adulterated with sugar and flour: genuine cocoa is sold at from 10d. to Is. per lb.; the articles with which it is adulterated, at from 11⁄2d. to 5d. Chocolate is manufactured from cocoa, sugar, and various starches; Maranta arrow-root being used for the better sorts of chocolate: vanilla and cinnamon are the flavouring. The French and Italians excel in its preparation.

Storing Fruit.-There are several methods of storing apples. Those intended for keeping should be carefully gathered by hand, when they are quite ripe, in dry weather. They should be spread singly on a floor in an open room for about ten days, and then stowed in an airy place, with a layer of dry wheaten straw beneath each layer of apples. They may be kept the whole year round by being immersed

in corn, which receives no injury from their contact. Mr. Cobbett found it best to wrap fine apples, each in a piece of paper, and pack them away in a chest: they should be gathered quite ripe, and carefully, as the slightest bruise will lead to rottenness. The following is a German mode of storing this fruit: The apples should be left as long as possible on the trees, till frost is expected; when the fruits are gathered, they should be placed in large tuns, and filled with dry sand: during the summer the sand ought to be dried, by exposing it to the rays of the sun. After the bottom of the tun is covered with some sand, a layer of apples is put upon it; having filled the space between the apples, and covered them sufficiently with sand, an additional layer of apples is placed, again covered with sand; and so the packing is continued until the tun is full. The peculiar advantages of this mode are: 1. The sand excludes the air, which is essentially requisite for their duration; 2. The sand prevents the loss of flavour in the apples, therefore their aroma is preserved, and the humidity, or 'sweat,' which appears on all apples, is quickly absorbed by the dry sand.

Oranges and Lemons.-Dry small sand, and when cold, strew it between layers of oranges or lemons with the stalk downwards, taking care they do not touch each other.

Filberts may be kept upwards of two years by packing them, when quite ripe and dry, with their husks on, in earthen jars; spread a layer of salt over the fruit, tie them over with brown paper, and keep them in a dry cool cellar. Filberts and walnuts may also be kept through the winter, in an earthenware-pan covered with a piece of wood and a heavy weight, the pan being buried in the earth. chestnuts with walnuts, and both will keep sound.

Mix

Pears. In some parts of Germany, winter pears are kept packed in wooden boxes or casks, interlaid with clean, sweet

straw, closely shut down, and placed in a room out of the reach of frost. The fruit requires examination monthly, when the specked pears should be taken out. Pears may

also be kept by tipping their stalks with sealing-wax.

Grapes. Take an air-tight cask, and put into it a layer of bran dried in an oven, or of ashes well dried and sifted. Upon this place a layer of grapes, well cleaned, and gathered on a dry day, before they are quite ripe. Proceed thus with alternate layers of bran and grapes till the barrel is full. To restore the grapes to their freshness, cut the end of the stalk of each bunch, and put it in wine, as flowers are placed in water.

Cox's Plum has been kept twelve months by wrapping it in soft paper, and storing it in a dry room.

CURING, PICKLING, SAUCES, WINE

MAKING, ETC.

URING MEAT.-Meat intended for salting in winter should hang a few days, to make it tender ; but in summer it may be salted as soon as killed. It should then be wiped dry, the kernels and pipes should be taken out, and the holes should be filled up with salt. The art of salting meat is to rub the salt in thoroughly and evenly; first rubbing in half the salt, and after a day or two the remainder. Bay-salt gives a sweeter flavour than any other salt. Sugar, in curing meat, produces mellowness and richness; by some, sugar is used to rub meat previous to salting. Saltpetre is now but little used but for giving a red colour, in the proportion of half an ounce, and the same quantity of sugar, to every pound of salt. The meat should be kept covered with the brine, and turned and rubbed daily. In frosty weather, the salt should be warmed, in order to ensure its penetrating and mixing with the juices of the meat.

Hams.-When the hams have lain three days, rub them with an ounce of saltpetre each; and when they have lain a week from the time of killing the pig, lay them in the following pickle: 1 lb. of bay-salt, 1 lb. of coarse sugar, one handful of common salt, boiled in half a pint of vinegar;

pour it over the hams boiling-hot, and then rub as soon as you can with the hand. Let them lie a month, turning them daily.

Bacon.-The following is the method of curing bacon in Yorkshire :-After being killed it is allowed to hang twentyfour hours previous to being cut up; then rub one pound of saltpetre on a twenty-stone pig (of 14 pounds to the stone), and one and a half or two stones of common salt, taking care that it is well rubbed in; it is then laid in a tub kept for the purpose. After having laid a fortnight, it is turned over, and a little more salt applied, say half a stone; it then remains a fortnight longer in the pickle-tub; it is then taken out and hung up in the kitchen, where it remains two months to dry; but should the winter be far advanced, and dry weather set in, a shorter period may suffice. After being taken from the top of the kitchen, the inside is washed over with quicklime and water, to preserve it from the fly; it is then removed into a room not used by the family, away from heat, and where it will be kept perfectly dry, and is ready for use as wanted. The smoking system is not generally adopted at York. The above mode never fails, if done with care; the saltpetre and salt should be of the best quality, for upon those articles depend the success in producing a good article for the table. The whitewash not only preserves the bacon from the fly, but also prevents it from being rancid, which it would otherwise become.

Smoke-drying is effected by hanging the flitches and hams for two or three weeks in a room heated by stoves, or in a smoke-house, in which they are exposed for the same length of time to the smoke arising from the slow combustion of the sawdust of oak or other hard wood. The latter mode of completing the curing process has some advantages over the other, as by it the meat is subject to