Know Your Onions - some extracts

To whet your appetite, here are some extracts from "Know Your Onions".


BABY
A thing on account of which its mother should never go to the opera, consequently need never have a new hat.

BABY, HOW TO PACIFY A CROSS
In the midst of its screaming, press your finger gently and repeatedly across the cartilage of that useful organ, the nose, and in less than two minutes it will be asleep. The eastern paper from whence this important discovery is derived, says "in one minute," but we allow two, to prevent any disappointment.

BACHELOR'S PUDDING, A
Four ounces of grated bread, the same of currants and apples, two ounces of sugar, three eggs, a little essence of lemon, and ground cinnamon; boil it three hours.

BACON CAKES
Cut three quarters of a pound of streaked bacon in very thin slices, and put them into a stewpan for half an hour over a slow fire; then put a quartern and a half of flour on a pie-board; make a hole in the middle, and pour into it the melted fat of the bacon, a little salt, and some water; knead the paste, and let it stand an hour to rise; then put in the slices of bacon at small distances from each other, so as with the paste to form a cake. Bake it an hour.

BACON
is an extravagant article in housekeeping; there is often twice as much dressed as need be; when it is sent to table as an accompaniment to boiled poultry or veal, a pound and a half is plenty for a dozen people. A good German sausage is a very economical substitute for bacon; or fried Pork sausage.

BACON,
is the sides of killed hogs, soaked in brine, and then dried in a smoky situation. In general, it is very difficult of digestion.

BACON, RELISHING RASHERS OF
If you have any cold bacon, you may make a very nice dish of it by cutting it into slices about a quarter of an inch thick; grate some crust of bread, and powder them well with it on both sides; lay the rashers in a cheese-toaster, - they will be browned on one side in about three minutes:- turn them and do the other. These are a delicious accompaniment to poached or fried eggs:- the bacon having been boiled first, is tender and mellow. - They are an excellent garnish round veal cutlets, or sweet-breads, or calf's head hash, or green peas, or beans, &c.

BACON, TO DRY
Cut the leg of a young hog with a piece of the loin, and rub it well once a day, for three days, with salt-petre powdered, and brown sugar; then salt it well to look red; let it lie for five or six weeks, and then hang it up to dry.

BACON, CURING OF HAM AND
It is simply to use the same quantity of common soda as saltpetre - one ounce and a half of each to the fourteen pounds of ham or bacon, using the usual quantity of salt. The soda prevents that hardness in the lean of the bacon which is so often found, and keeps it quite mellow all through, besides being a preventive of reast. This receipt has been very extensively tried among my acquaintance for the last fifteen years, and invariably approved.

BADGER
An inhabitant of British woods now becoming extremely rare. The flesh of the badger, although strong, is sometimes eaten.

BALD
A medicine, "warranted to bring the hair out," took the hair all out of a gentleman's head at Galena, leaving him entirely bald.

BALDNESS,
an incurable result of advanced age; but, in temporary cases, may be relieved by washing the part with a mixture of equal parts of juice of burdock-root, honey, and spirits. The vulgar nostrum of bears' grease is a disgrace to the intelligence of the age.

BALDNESS
The decoction of boxwood, successful in cases of baldness, is thus made:- Take of the common box, which grows in garden borders, stems and leaves four large handfuls, boil in three pints of water, in a closely covered vessel, for a quarter of an hour, and let it stand in a covered earthenware jar for ten hours or more; strain, and add an ounce and a half of Eau de Cologne, or lavender water, to make it keep. The head should be well washed with this solution every morning.

BALM
(Melissa officinalis.) This hardy herbaceous plant has a citron scent and aromatic flavour. It is cultivated now only for making a grateful drink for the sick.

BALM WINE
To four gallons and a half of water add twenty pounds of lump sugar, and boil it gently for an hour; after which put it into a tub to cool. Then bruise two pounds of the tops of green balm, and put them with a little yeast into a barrel, and when the water in which the sugar has been boiled is nearly cold pour it on the balm. After stirring it well together let it stand for twenty-four hours, during which time it must be frequently stirred; bung it up, and after six weeks bottle it off, and put a small lump of sugar into each bottle. It improves with age.

BANG
Take a pint of cider, and add to a pint of warm ale; sweeten with treacle or sugar to taste, grate in some nutmeg and ginger, and add a wineglassful of gin or whisky.

BARBERRIES WHOLE
Tie the stalks of the barberries neatly and tastefully on some small thin strips of clean white wood, leaving about an inch uncovered at one end. Simmer them in some good syrup two successive days, covering them with it each day when cold. When they are quite clear they have been simmered enough. On the third day put a layer of them out of the syrup into a new sieve, and dip it quickly into hot water to take off any syrup still adhering. Lay them before the fire on a clean cloth to drain, while you do some more in the same way. When all are ready, have some double-refined sugar, well powdered and sifted, and sift all over them till they are quite white. Lay them on reversed sieves in a slightly warm oven, turning several times, and keeping warm till they are dry, watching them carefully.

BARBERRY DROPS
The black tops must be cut off, and then roast the fruit before the fire till it is soft enough to pulp with a silver spoon through a sieve into a china bowl. Then set the basin in a saucepan of water, the top of which will just fit it, and stir it till it grows thick. When cold put to every pint a pound and a half of sugar - the best double-refined, pounded, and sifted through a fine sieve. Beat the sugar and juice together for three hours if you have a large quantity, but two hours will generally suffice. Drop the preserve on sheets of white paper whatever size you please. During some seasons the barberries are riper and require less sugar, of which you may judge when it is well mixed by its stiffness. If it runs when dropped there is not enough sugar. A dry room will suffice to dry them. Be careful to touch the fruit only with silver or wood, as any other metal injures the fine colour.

BARLEY PUDDING
Take a pound of pearl-barley well washed, three quarts of new milk, one quart of cream, and half a pound of double refined sugar, a grated nutmeg, and some salt; mix them well together, then put them into a deep pan, and bake it; then take it out of the oven, and put into it six eggs, well beaten, six ounces of beef marrow, and a quarter of a pound of grated bread; mix all well together, then put it into another pan, bake it again, and it will be excellent.

BARLEY WATER
1. Pick clean, and wash well a handful of common barley, then simmer gently in three pints of water with a bit of lemon-peel. Prepared thus, it does not nauseate like pearl-barley water.
2. Take two ounces and a half of pearl barley: wash well, then add half a pint of water, and boil for a little time, throw away the liquor, pour four imperial pints of boiling water on the barley, boil down to two pints, strain, flavour with sugar, and lemon-peel, if wished.

BARLEY WATER COMPOUND
Boil two pints of barley water, and a pint of water together, with two ounces and a half of sliced figs, half an ounce of liquorice root sliced and bruised, and two ounces and a half of raisins. Reduce to two pints, and strain.

BARLEY-WATER WITH HONEY
Add the juice and rind of one lemon to one tablespoonful of honey, and two teacupfuls of barley; put it into a jug, and pour a quart of boiling-water upon it.

BARONESS'S PUDDING
Three-quarters of a pound of suet, three-quarters of a pound of flour, three-quarters of a pound of raisins (weighed after stoning), and a pinch of salt. Mix well with new milk, and boil in a cloth four hours and a half. We can confidently recommend this pudding, and would advise our subscribers to try it as soon as they possibly can.

BASIL
(O. cymum.) There are two kinds, the Sweet-scented (O. basilicum), and the Dwarf-bush (O. minimum). The young leaf-tops are the parts made use of in soups and salads, their flavour resembling that of cloves.

BASTINGS
1, fresh butter; 2, clarified suet; 3, minced sweet herbs, butter, and claret, especially for mutton and lamb; 4, water and salt; 5. cream and melted butter, especially for flayed pig; 6, yolks of eggs, grated biscuit, and juice of oranges.

BATH BUNS
A quarter of a pound of flour, four yolks and three whites of eggs, with four spoonfuls of solid fresh yeast. Beat in a bowl, and set before the fire to rise; then rub into one pound of flour ten ounces of butter, put in half a pound of sugar, and caraway-comfits; when the eggs and yeast are pretty light, mix by degrees all together, throw a cloth over it, and set before the fire to rise. Make the buns, and when on the tins, brush over with the yolk of egg and milk; strew them with caraway-comfits; bake in a quick oven.

BATH PUDDING
Thicken one pint of milk with two table-spoonfuls of flour; boil, and let stand till cold; add four or six eggs, a piece of butter, an ounce of almonds (half bitter), a little lemon-peel, the juice of one ditto, and a quarter pound of loaf-sugar. Bake in cups.

BATTER PUDDING WITHOUT EGGS
Mix six spoonfuls of flour with a small portion of a quart of milk; and when smooth add the remainder of the milk, a teaspoonful of salt, two teaspoonfuls of grated ginger, and two of tincture of saffron; stir altogether well, and boil it an hour. Fruit may be added or not.

BATTER PUDDING
Take a quart of milk, mix with six table-spoonfuls of flour, six well-beaten eggs, a table-spoonful of powdered ginger, and a tea-spoonful of salt; flour a cloth that has been wet, or butter a basin and put the batter into it, tie tight, and plunge it into boiling water, the bottom upwards. Boil for an hour and a quarter, and serve with plain melted butter, or sweet sauce. If according to taste, half a pound of well-washed currants may be added.

BATTER PUDDING, BOILED
One pint and a half of milk, the whites and yolks of four eggs, beaten apart and then together. Take ten tablespoonfuls (not heaped ones) of very well-dried best flour (and you cannot be too particular on this point, as the success of your pudding depends on the goodness of the flour), and mix it gradually and very smoothly with the eggs and milk. Butter a basin well, and pour in the batter, tying a well-floured cloth over it, and putting it carefully into boiling water. You must keep twirling it about until you think it is set.

BAZAAR;
an ornamental market-place, adopted in England for the purpose of getting multiplied rents from large buildings, otherwise useless, and serving as a covered promenade for idle persons.

BEASTINGS
The first milk given by a cow after calving; much prized in the North of England, and used for puddings, &c.; but treated with disgust in the West, and given to pigs.

BED CLOTHES
The perfection of dress, for day or night, where warmth is the purpose, is that which confines around the body sufficient of its own warmth, while it allows escape to the exhalations of the skin. Where the body is allowed to bathe protractedly in its own vapours we must expect an unhealthy effect upon the skin. Where there is too little ventilating escape, insensible perspiration is checked, and something analogous to fever supervenes; foul tongue, ill taste, and lack of morning appetite betray the evil.

BED, TO ASCERTAIN WHETHER AIRED
Introduce a glass goblet between the sheets for a minute or two, just when the warming-pan is taken out; if the bed be dry, there will only be a slight cloudy appearance on the glass, but if not, the damp of the bed will assume the more formidable appearance of drops, the warning of danger.

BED, TO HEAT
To heat a bed at a moment's notice, throw a little salt into the warming-pan and suffer it to burn for a minute previous to use.

BED ROOMS
should not be scoured in the winter time, as colds and sickness may be produced thereby. Dry-scouring, upon the French plan, which consists of scrubbing the floors with dry brushes, may be found more effective than can at first be imagined. If a bed-room is wet scoured, a dry day should be chosen - the windows should be opened, the linen removed, and a fire should be lit when the operation is terminated.

BEECH-TREE LEAVES
The leaves of the beech-tree, collected at autumn, in dry weather, form an admirable article for filling beds for the poor. The smell is grateful and wholesome; they do not harbour vermin, are very elastic, and may be replenished annually without cost.

BEEF CAKES, FOR A SIDE-DISH OF DRESSED MEAT
Pound some beef that is under-done, with a little fat bacon or ham; season with pepper, salt, and a little shallot or garlick; mix them well; and make it into small cakes three inches long, and half as wide and thick; fry them until a light brown, and serve them in a good thick gravy.

BEEF (COLD) BROILED IN PAPER
Soak some slices of cold beef in a marinade made of oil or butter, parsley, shallots, mushrooms, pepper and salt; roll the pieces in paper with this sauce, rub the paper with butter, broil on a slow fire, and serve in the paper.

BEEF COLLARED
Choose the thin end of the flank of fine mellow beef, but not too fat; lay it into a dish with salt and saltpetre, turn and rub it every day for a week, and keep it cool. Then take out every bone and gristle, remove the skin of the inside part, and cover it thick with the following seasoning cut small: a large handful of parsley, the same of sage, some thyme, marjoram, and penny-royal, pepper, salt, and allspice. Roll the meat up as tight as possible, and bind it, then boil it gently for seven or eight hours. A cloth must be put round before the tape. Put the beef under a good weight while hot, without undoing it; the shape will then be oval. Part of a breast of veal rolled in with the beef, looks and eats very well.

BEEF COLLOPS
Take the fillet from the under part of a rump of beef, cut it into small thin slices, and fry them till three parts done; then add to them slices of pickled cucumbers, small mushrooms stewed, blanched oysters, some good seasonal cullis, and stew them till tender.

BEEF
A miniature round of beef may be made of a rib of beef. Take out the bone, and wrap the meat round like a fillet of veal, securing it with two or three wooden skewers; place in strong pickle for four or five days, and then put it in hot water, and simmer the usual time.

BEEF A-LA-VINAIGRETTE
Cut a slice of underdone boiled beef three inches thick, and a little fat; stew it in half a pint of water, a glass of white (not sweet) wine, a bunch of sweet herbs, an onion, and a bay-leaf; season it with three cloves pounded, and pepper till the liquor is nearly wasted away, turning it once. When cold, serve it. Strain off the gravy, and mix it with a little vinegar for sauce.

BEEF BONES, ROAST
furnish a very relishing luncheon or supper, prepared with poached or fried eggs and mashed potatoes, as accompaniments. Divide the bones, leaving good pickings of meat on each; - score them in squares, pour a little melted butter on them, and sprinkle them with pepper and salt; put them on a dish; set them in a Dutch-oven for half or three quarters of an hour, according to the thickness of the meat; keep turning them till they are quite hot and brown; - or broil them on the gridiron. Brown them, but don't burn them. Serve with Grill sauce.

BEEF BOUILLI
This is beef boiled, or rather stewed, without previous salting, but seasoned in the cooking, and with the addition of roots and herbs. It is perhaps the best way of dressing the brisket and rands of beef, the blade bones and neck.
The meat may be done whole, or cut in pieces about four inches long and two broad. To 3 or 4 lbs. of meat, add three or four each of large carrots, turnips, onions, or leeks, all sliced, with two ounces of oatmeal, and pepper and salt. At bottom of the vessel in which the stew is to be baked or boiled, lay full half the vegetables; then the meat, oatmeal, and seasoning; the remainder of the vegetables at top. Put as much liquor as will cover the whole, and one quart more. Keep the vessel closely shut, and let the whole stew gently for full four hours.

BEEF BRISKET
may be baked, the bones being removed, and the holes filled with oysters, fat bacon, parsley, or all three in separate holes, these stuffings being chopped and seasoned to taste. Dredge it well with flour, pour upon it half a pint of broth, bake three hours, skim off the fat, strain the gravy over the meat, and garnish with cut pickles.

BEEF CAKES
Take the part of the beef used for steaks, cut it into pieces, then beat it well in a marble mortar, until it is very fine. Take especial pains to free it from all bits of skin and fat. Then add to it good beef suet, well chopped and carefully picked, in the proportion of a quarter of a pound of suet to each pound of meat, season to your taste with mace, cloves, nutmeg, white pepper, and a little salt, all well pounded, and also lemon-thyme, sweet marjoram, mountain thyme, and parsley, dried and chopped. To these add one good sized onion finely minced. Blend the whole mass very thoroughly, and make into small cakes, and fry them over a brisk fire. If your meat and suet are quite fresh, and you make it in the winter, this will keep good for a fortnight, if pressed closely down in a jar.

BEEF RED, LIKE HAM, TO CURE
Two ounces of saltpetre, one ounce of baysalt, one ounce of salt prunella, a few grains of cochineal, a quarter of a pound of coarse sugar, and plenty of coarse salt. Rub and turn it every day for a month. To be cooked in dripping, with a paste over it.

BEEF MINCED
Cut into small dice remains of cold beef; and gravy reserved from it on the first day of its being served should be put in the stewpan with the addition of warm water, some mace, sliced eschalot, salt, and black pepper. Let the whole simmer gently for an hour. A few minutes before it is served, take out the meat and dish it; add to the gravy some walnut catsup, and a little lemon juice or walnut pickle. Boil up the gravy once more, and, when hot, pour it over the meat. Serve it with bread sippets.

BEEF OR MUTTON LOBSCOUS
Mince, not too finely, some cold roast beef or mutton. Chop the bones, and put them in a saucepan with six potatoes peeled and sliced, one onion, also sliced some pepper and salt; of these make a gravy. When the potatoes are completely incorporated with the gravy, take out the bones, and put in the meat; stew the whole together for an hour before it is to be served.

BEEF RISSOLES
Mince and season cold beef, and flavour it with mushroom or walnut catsup. Make of beef dripping a very thin paste, roll it out in thin pieces, about four inches square; enclose in each piece some of the mince, in the same way as for puffs, cutting each neatly all round: fry them in dripping of a very light brown. The paste can scarcely be rolled out too thin.

BEEF OLIVES
Cut some handsome steaks, flatten them well with a roller, dredge them well with a small quantity of white pepper and salt, have some forcemeat made with the fat and lean of veal mixed together, a small bit of lean ham or bacon, parsley, a few bread-crumbs, all beaten in a mortar, and mixed up tightly, fastening with a skewer; dip them in crumbs of bread, and fry them of a pale brown; dish them with brown sauce.

BEEF (RUMP) STEAK AND ONION SAUCE
Peel and slice two large onions, put them into a quart stewpan, with two table-spoonfuls of water; cover the pan close, and set on a slow fire till the water has boiled away, and the onions have got a little browned, - then add half a pint of good broth, and boil till they are tender; strain the broth from them, and chop them very fine, and season it with mushroom catchup, pepper, and salt; put the onion into it, and let it boil gently for five minutes, pour it into the dish, and lay over it a broiled rump steak. If instead of broth you use good beef gravy, it will be superlative.

BEEF, PLAIN BOILED*
For six rations, put in a canteen saucepan 6 lb. of well-soaked beef, cut in two, with three quarts of cold water; simmer gently three hours, and serve. About a pound of either carrots, turnips, parsnips, greens or cabbages, or dumplings may be boiled in it. *This recipe is from our personal friend, A. Soyer, forwarded from the Barrack Hospital, at Scutari.

BEEF. HOW TO STEW FRESH BEEF, PORK, MUTTON, AND VEAL*
Cut or chop two pounds of fresh beef into ten or twelve pieces; put these into a saucepan with one and a half teaspoonfuls of salt, one teaspoonful of sugar, half a teaspoonful of pepper, two middle-sized onions sliced, half-a-pint of water. Set on the fire for ten minutes until forming a thick gravy. Add a good tablespoonful of flour, stir on the fire a few minutes; add a quart and a half of water; let the whole simmer until the meat is tender. Beef will take from two hours and a half to three hours; mutton and pork, about two hours; veal, one hour and a quarter to one hour and a half; onions, sugar, and pepper, if not to be had, must be omitted; it will even then make a good dish; half-a-pound of sliced potatoes or two ounces of preserved potatoes; ration vegetables may be added, also a small dumpling.
*This recipe is from our personal friend, A. Soyer, forwarded from the Barrack Hospital, at Scutari.

BEEF, STEWED BRISKET
Stew in sufficient water to cover the meat; when tender, take out the bones, and skim off the fat; add to the gravy, when strained, a glass of wine and a little spice tied up in a muslin bag. (This may be omitted). Have ready either mushrooms, truffles, or vegetables boiled, and cut into shapes. Lay them on and round the beef; reduce part of the gravy to glaze, lay it on the top, and pour the remainder into the dish.

BEEF TENDER, TO MAKE TOUGH
To those who have worn down their teeth in masticating poor old tough cow beef, we will say that carbonate of soda will be found a remedy for the evil. Cut the steaks, the day before using, into slices about two inches thick, rub over them a small quantity of soda, wash off next morning, cut it into suitable thicknesses, and cook to notion. The same process will answer for fowls, legs of mutton, &c. Try it, all who love delicious, tender, dishes of meat.

BEEF TONGUE
Take a green tongue, stick it with cloves, and boil it gently for three hours; then brush it over with the yolk of an egg, dredge it well with bread-crumbs, and roast it, basting it well with butter. When dished, serve it with a little brown gravy flavoured with a glass of wine, and lay slices of currant-jelly round it. A pickled tongue, well washed, may be dressed the same way, and udders also. If both should be at hand at the same time, skewer the tongue and udder together when roasting.

BEEF, HUNG
Take a piece of flank of beef, throw a little water over it, and let it drain for a day or two, then rub it with salt and a small quantity of saltpetre with a little cochineal finely powdered, repeat this every day for a week or ten days, let it remain another week in the pickle, and let it be smoked, and it will be fit for use and will make a good relish for breakfast.

BEEF, HUNTING
To thirty pounds of beef, six ounces of saltpetre, six ounces of ground allspice, six ounces of ground black pepper, half a pound of coarse brown sugar. Mix these ingredients, and rub well into the beef; let it lie ten hours. Then add one pound of common salt. It is to be well rubbed all over every day for a fortnight. Then put it into an earthen pan, and put suet, well shred, at the top and bottom; cover with a flour-and-water paste, tie brown paper over it, and bake it in a slow oven for ten hours. The round is the most suitable for this purpose.

BEEF, POTTED
Take a piece of lean beef, and rub it well over with saltpetre, and let it lie one night. Then take it out and salt it well with common and bay salt. Put it into a vessel just fit for it, cover it with water, and let it lie four days. Then wipe it well with a cloth, and rub it well with pepper. Put it down, drained from all liquor, in a pot or pan, with a paste over it, and let it bake for six hours at least. Then take it up, pick it free from all skin and strings, and pound it very thoroughly in a stone or marble mortar till it is very fine and shows no fibre. Then season it to your taste with nutmeg, cloves, and mace, all finely powdered and sifted. Pour to it a little melted butter, and work or knead it to a smooth paste. When quite cold, put clarified butter over, and tie it down close.

BEEF, POTTED
Take cold boiled beef (the lean half of the round is the best adapted for the purpose), remove all the skinny parts, mince it fine, and pound it in a mortar with fresh butter till quite smooth, seasoning with nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne, a little mace, and salt if requisite. Press very closely into small flat pots; clarify some fresh butter and pour over the top, and when cold, paper as jams and jelly, omitting the brandy.

BEEF, PRESSED
Salt a piece of the thin part of the flank, the top of the ribs, or a piece of the brisket, with salt and saltpetre for five days. Boil until very tender, then place between two boards, with a heavy weight upon the top one, and let it remain until cold. Serve as it is, and garnish with parsley.

BEEF, HEART, ROASTED
Wash it carefully, stuff with the following stuffing, roast well, and serve with rich gravy and currant-jelly sauce: - Chop two ounces of beef suet very fine, and mix with three ounces of bread crumbs, a little parsley, marjoram, lemon thyme, pepper, salt, half a drachm of nutmeg, a drachm of grated lemon-peel, and one shalot shred fine. When well mixed, add an egg beaten up, and mix well again until of a good consistence.

BEEF-STEAK PIE
Take two or three pounds of steak, according to the size of the dish, trim part of the fat off, divide in slices, boil it for about half an hour, as it will eat much better than when not boiled. When boiled, lay it in a dish bordered with paste, season with pepper and salt, and pour in the water you boiled it in in sufficient quantity to keep the meat moist. Lay on the cover, and join it well to the rim; make an incision in the cover in the middle. Let the pie bake in an hot oven for an hour and a half.

BEEF-TEA, INSTANTANEOUS
Take a pound of gravy beef, and quickly cut it into small fragments, sprinkle on it a pinch of salt, throw it into a saucepan, pour on it half a pint of cold water, and set it on a fire; then toast a slice of bread, grate on it a little nutmeg, and the moment the contents of the saucepan begin to simmer, strain the liquor on to the toast, and its quality will be found to be admirable. The beef may then be stewed in the usual way for a further supply. Cold water should be used in all cases.

BEER
In the cellars of Barclay, Perkins & Co., are no less than 116 huge vats, containing beer in a condition for use. These average 2,000 barrels of 36 gallons each, and the largest contains 3,400 barrels; so that there are actually always 232,000 barrels of beer on hand.

BEER
Small - an undrinkable drink, which if it were set upon a cullender to let the water run out, would leave a residuum of - nothing. Of whatever else it may be guilty, it is generally innocent of malt and hops.

BEER
Several beer-house keepers at West Bromwich were lately fined each £50 for using grains of Paradise in their brewing. Samuel Meldon was also fined £50 for having in his possession a mixture of burnt sugar and sulphuric acid - for mixing with the beer, to give it a deep colour and an appearance of strength.

BEER - "OUR BEER" ADULTERATED WITH COCULUS INDICUS
In 1850 this country imported 2,359 hundredweight of Coculus Indicus. At the very outside not more than one hundredweight is used for medicinal purposes; the balance therefore has to be accounted for by "the publicans and sinners." Either by oversight or indifference the Government allows this substance to come in nearly duty free; by so doing the country probably suffers a loss of £130,000 a-year, as will appear from the following facts. One pound of Coculus is equal in its stimulating effects to the spirit derived from four bushels of malt; consequently the quantity of Coculus imported in the year above mentioned took the place of more than 1,050,000 bushels of malt, the duty on which would have produced the sum stated. Without entering into any discussion as to the morality of these proceedings, we cannot but think it unfair to tax malt at 2s. 7d. per bushel, while Coculus pays only a duty of 1d. per pound!

BEER
In 1857 the importation of cocculus indicus, an intoxicating and baleful narcotic used to poison beer with, was only 68 cwt., it had increased in ten years to 689 cwt., and last year [1868] reached no less than 1,064 cwt., notwithstanding there was a duty of 5s. per cwt. on it.

BEER, BROWN SPRUCE
Pour four gallons of cold water into a nine-gallon barrel, then add four gallons more, quite boiling, and six pounds of molasses, with about eight or nine table-spoonfuls of the essence of spruce, and on its getting a little cooler, the same quantity of good ale yeast. Shake the barrel well, then leave with bung out for three days; bottle in stone bottles, cork well, wire carefully, pack in sand, and it will be fit to drink in two weeks.
White spruce beer is made with sugar instead of treacle.

BEER,
for the table. Take 8 bushels malt, 8 lbs. hops, 8 lbs. sugar, made into colour, and Spanish liquorice 8 oz., treacle 10 lbs. The produce is 10 barrels.

BEER, TREACLE
Take a pound and a half of hops, and boil in 36 gallons of water for an hour, then add 14 pounds of treacle, and a little yeast to work it; ferment, and bottle.

BEETLES, TO EXTERMINATE
1. Place a few lumps of unslaked lime where they frequent. 2. Set a dish or trap containing a little beer or syrup at the bottom, and place a few sticks slanting against its sides, so as to form a sort of gangway for the beetles to climb up by, when they will go headlong into the bait set for them. 3. Mix equal weights of red lead, sugar, and flour, and place it nightly near their haunts. This mixture made into sheets forms the beetle wafers sold at the oil shops.

BEET-ROOT
It is of recent cultivation in England. Margraff first produced sugar from the white beet-root, in 1747. M. Acard produced excellent sugar from it in 1799; the chemists of France at the instance of Buonaparte, largely extracted sugar from the beet-root in 1800. A refinery of sugar from beet-root was lately erected at the Thames-bank, Chelsea.

BEETROOT SALAD
Wash the beetroot very carefully, so as not to break it in the least, or the juice will run out and leave it almost colourless. Then lay it in boiling water, and boil it until sufficiently tender. Pare them, cut them into slices about half an inch thick, and either cut them into dice, or stamp them out with a small cutter. Arrange neatly in a flat dish, and pour over them a dressing composed of one tablespoonful of best sweet oil, two of the best vinegar, and salt to taste. Garnish your dish with strips or rings of the whites of hard-boiled eggs.

BERGAMOT,
a fragrant essence extracted from a species of the citron: also the denomination of a coarse tapestry made with flocks of silk, wool, and hair, supposed to have been invented by the inhabitants of Bergamo.

BETEL,
a kind of long pepper which grows in the East Indies.

BEVERAGES, NATIONAL
All Europe has chosen its prevailing beverage. Spain and Italy delight in chocolate; France and Germany, Sweden and Turkey, in coffee; Russia, Holland, and England, in tea; while poor Ireland makes a warm drink from the husks of the cocoa, the refuses of the chocolate mills of Italy and Spain. All Asia feels the same want, and in different ways has long gratified it. Coffee, indigenous in Arabia or the adjoining countries, has followed the banner of the prophet wherever his false faith has triumphed. Tea, a native of China, has spread spontaneously over the hill country of the Himalayas, the table-lands of Tartary and Tibet, and the plains of Siberia - has climbed the Altais, overspread all Russia, and is equally despotic in Moscow as in St. Petersburg. In Sumatra, the coffee-leaf yields the favourite tea of the dark-skinned population, while Central Africa boasts of the Abyssinian chaat as the indigenous warm drink of its Ethiopian peoples. Everywhere un-intoxicating and non-narcotic beverages are in general use - among tribes of every colour, beneath every sun, and in every condition of life.

BILES [BOILS]
These should be brought to a head by warm poultices of camomile flours, or boiled white lily root, or onion root; by fermentation with hot water, or by stimulating plasters. When ripe, they should be discharged by a needle, or the lancet. But this should not be attempted, until they are fully proved. Constitutional treatment. - Peruvian bark and port wine, and sea-bathing are desirable. Purgatives, diuretics, &c.

BIRDS, QUADRUPEDS, &c., FOR STUFFING
Large animals should be carefully skinned with the horns, skull, tail, hoofs, &c., entire. Then rub the inside of the skin thoroughly with a mixture of salt, pepper, and alum, and hang up to dry. Large birds may be treated in the same way, but should not be put into spirits.
Small birds may be preserved as follows:- Take out the entrails, open a passage to the brain, which should be scooped out though the mouth; introduce into the cavities of the skull and the whole body some of the mixture of salt, alum, and pepper, putting some through the gullet and whole length of the neck; then hang the bird in a cool, airy place - first by the feet, that the body may be impregnated by the salts, and afterwards by a thread through the under mandible of the bill, till it appears to be sweet; then hang it in the sun, or near a fire: after it is well dried, clean out what remains loose of the mixture, and fill the cavity of the body with wool, oakum, or any soft substance, and pack it smooth in paper.

Large fishes should be opened in the belly, the entrails taken out, and the inside well rubbed with pepper, and stuffed with oakum. Small fishes may be put in spirit, as well as reptiles, worms, and insects (except butterflies and moths). Insects of fine colours, should be pinned down in a box prepared for that purpose, with their wings expanded.

BIRGHTRING DUMPLINGS
Half a pound of flour, half a pound of beef suet, half a pound of raisins and currants mixed, a quarter of a pound of treacle or sugar, a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, a little salt, and as much milk as will make it into a very soft dough. Boil three hours in a buttered shape.

BISCUIT JELLY,
is made by boiling 4 ozs. of fine biscuits in 2 quarts of water to half; then strain and boil to a pint. Afterwards add sugar, port, and cinnamon-water. It is excellent in diarrhoea, dysentery and delicate digestion.

BISCUIT,
is made chiefly for consumption at sea, and for this purpose is baked twice, and for long voyages four times.

BISCUITS
Weigh eight eggs, an equal weight of sugar, and the weight of four in flour; beat up the yolks of five, and put them in an earthen vessel with some rasped lemon-peel and the sugar, beat them together for a long time, then add the whites of eleven eggs also well beaten, then mix in the flour by degrees, pour this into paper cases of whatever form and size you please; strew powder sugar over them, and bake in a cool oven.

BISCUITS, CINNAMON
Half a pound of dry flour, one pound of lump sugar, finely sifted; one pound of butter, sixpennyworth of powdered cinnamon. The whole to be mixed with a glass of brandy or rum, then rolled very thin, and baked in a quick oven.

BISCUITS, DESERT
Three-quarters of a pound of flour, a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar, the peel of a lemon grated, half a teacupful of cream, two eggs, leaving out the whites. Roll them out thin, cut them in whatever shape you think proper, and bake them in a quick oven.

BISCUITS, DROP SPONGE
Half a pound of flour, six ounces of loaf sugar, three eggs, leaving out one white. Beat sugar and eggs together twenty minutes, then add the flour.

BISCUITS, EXCELLENT AND CHEAP
Flour, half-quartern, (as the divisions of flour are differently expressed, it may be better to say two lbs. or rather more) arrow-root, a large table-spoonful; carbonate of ammonia, a small tea-spoonful finely powdered; butter, one ounce; new milk, half-a-pint; boiling water, rather less than a quarter-of-a-pint. Method of mixing - rub the arrow-root and ammonia into the flour dry; dissolve the butter in the hot water, then add the milk, and gradually mix the whole with the flour. Well beat the dough, till it is thoroughly mingled and tough. Roll out very thin; cut out in rounds, and stab with a docker. A docker is a hoop of tin or brass, in which is set a frame of points, something like a harrow; so it serves at once to cut the dough in rounds and mark the biscuits. Those who have not such an article, may cut with a glass or canister-lid, and pierce with a fork. A few minutes in an oven the proper heat for bread, will bake sufficiently. If desired, six ounces of loaf sugar finely powdered, and one ounce of caraway seeds, may be mixed with the dry flour. In that case, allow rather less liquid, as the sugar dissolving adds to the moisture.
N.B. The above will make a large quantity of biscuits.

BISCUITS, GINGER
Eight ounces of flour, four ounces of butter, four ounces of sifted sugar, half an ounce of ginger finely powdered. Mix the whole with one egg, and roll them out quite thin, and cut them with a wineglass. Bake them in a moderate oven.

BISCUITS, PIC-NIC
Take two ounces of fresh butter, and well work it with a pound of flour. Mix thoroughly with it half a salt-spoonful of pure carbonate of soda; two ounces of sugar; mingle thoroughly with the flour; make up the paste with spoonfuls of milk; it will require scarcely a quarter of a pint. Knead smooth, roll a quarter of an inch thick, cut in rounds about the size of the top of a small wine-glass; roll these out thin, prick them well, lay them on lightly floured tins, and bake in a gentle oven until crisp. When cold put into dry canisters. Thin cream used instead of milk, in the paste, will enrich the biscuits. Caraway seeds or ginger can be added, to vary these at pleasure.

BISCUITS, ROCK
One pound of flour, half a pound of butter, half a pound of sugar, half a pound of currants. Work the butter to a cream, add the sugar and three eggs. Mix all well together with a fork, put it on tin plates, and bake them in a moderate oven. They will keep good for twelve months.

BISCUITS, THE QUEEN'S
Take a pound and a half of flour, a pound and a half of fine sugar, the whites of twenty-four, and the yolks of eighteen eggs, put in coriander seeds beaten small at discretion; mix these well together, and make them into a soft paste, add a little soft yeast or not. Lay this paste on paper, or in crusts about two inches broad, and four inches long, set them in a moderate oven, and when they begin to turn brown, take them out, and lay them on paper, in a dry place.

BISCUITS, WINE
Take of flour half a pound; butter four ounces; sugar, four ounces; two eggs; carbonate of ammonia, one drachm; white wine enough to mix a proper consistence, and cut out with a glass.

BISCUITS (HARD)
Warm two ounces of butter in as much skimmed milk as will make a pound of flour into a very stiff paste, beat it with a rolling pin, and work it very smooth. Roll it very thin, and cut into biscuits, prick and bake for about six minutes.

BISHOP
is mulled wine, made with Burgundy.

BISHOP
Take three smooth-skinned and large Seville oranges, and grill them to a pale brown colour over a clear slow fire; then place in a small punch-bowl that will about hold them, and pour over them half a pint from a bottle of old Bordeaux wine, in which a pound and a quarter of loaf sugar is dissolved; then cover with a plate, and let it stand for two days. When it is to be served, cut and squeeze the oranges into a small sieve placed above a jug containing the remainder of the bottle of sweetened Bordeaux, previously made very hot, and if when mixed it is not sweet enough, add more sugar. Serve in hot tumblers.
Some persons make Bishop with raisin or Lisbon wine, and add mace, cloves, and nutmegs, but it is not the proper way.
Cardinal is made the same way as Bishop, substituting old Rhenish wine for the Bordeaux.

Pope is made the same as Bishop, substituting "Tokay" for Bordeaux.

BITING THE NAILS
This is a habit that should be immediately corrected in children, as, if persisted in for any length of time, it permanently deforms the nails. Dipping the finger-ends in some bitter tincture will generally prevent children from putting them to the mouth; but if this fails, as it sometimes will, each finger-end ought to be encased in a stall until the propensity is eradicated.

BITTERS FOR PROMOTING APPETITE
Take two ounces of gentian roots, two ounces of quassia chips, and half-an-ounce of bitter orange peel (to be procured of any herbalist) - let each simmer separately for an hour, then strain and mix together. Take a small wineglassful about eleven o'clock a.m.

BLACK CLOTH CLOTHES, TO CLEAN
Clean the garments well, then boil four ounces of logwood in a boiler or copper containing two or three gallons of water for half an hour; dip the clothes in warm water, and squeeze dry, then put them into the copper and boil for half an hour. Take them out, and add three drachms of sulphate of iron; boil for half an hour, then take them out, and hang them up for an hour or two; take them down, rinse them in three cold waters, dry well and rub with a soft brush which has had a few drops of olive oil rubbed on its surface. If the clothes are threadbare about the elbows, cuffs, &c., raise the nap with a teazel or half worn hatter's card, filled with flocks, and when sufficiently raised, lay the nap the right way with a hard brush. We have seen our old coats come out with a wonderful dash of respectability after this operation.

BLACK CURRANT VINEGAR
To four pounds of fruit, very ripe, put three pints of vinegar. Let it stand three days; stir occasionally. Squeeze and strain the fruit. After boiling ten minutes, to every pint of juice add one pound of lump sugar. Boil twenty minutes.
This recipe will be valuable in July, to those who have an abundance of black currants. The beverage is far superior to raspberry vinegar as a summer drink, and invaluable for sore throat.

BLACK CURRANT JELLY
To each pound of picked fruit, allow one gill of water; set them on the fire in the preserving-pan to scald, but do not let them boil; bruise them well with a silver fork, or wooden beater, - take them off and squeeze them through a hair-sieve; and to every pint of juice allow a pound of loaf or raw sugar: boil it ten minutes.

BLACK CAPS
Divide and core some large apples, put them in a shallow pan, add some powdered white sugar, and bake them. Mix a wine glassful of white wine, the same of water, one clove, a little grated lemon-peel, and sugar to taste; boil gently, and strain over them when in the dish. Black the tops of each with a salamander.

BLACK HOG PUDDING
Catch the blood of a hog; to each quart of blood put a large tea-spoonful of salt, and stir it without ceasing until it is cold. Simmer half a pint or a pint of Emden groats in a small quantity of water till tender; there must be no gruel. The best way of doing it is in a double saucepan, so that you need not put more water than will moisten them. Chop up (for one quart of blood) one pound of the inside fat of the hog, and a quarter of a pint of bread crumbs. A table-spoonful of sage, chopped fine, a tea-spoonful of thyme, three drachms each of allspice, salt, and pepper, and a tea-cup full of cream. When the blood is cold, strain it through a sieve, and mix to it the fat, then the groats, and then the seasoning. When well mixed put it into the skin of the largest guts, well cleansed; tie it in lengths of about nine inches, and boil gently for twenty minutes. Take them out when they have boiled a few minutes, and prick.

BLACK PUDDINGS
A farm-house dish, made when pigs are killed. The netlings, or entrails of the animal, after being well cleansed, are stuffed with a mixture of groats, chopped sage, or spice, and some of the blood of the slaughtered pig. After the ends of these stuffed rolls have been well secured with string, they are placed in a large pot to boil.

BLACKBERRY CORDIAL
The following is said to be not only an excellent and pleasant beverage, but a cure for diarrhoea, &c.:- Recipe - To half a bushel of blackberries, well mashed, add ¼ lb. of allspice, 2 ounces of cinnamon, 3 ounces of cloves. Pulverise well, mix, and boil slowly until properly done. Then strain or squeeze the juice through homespun or flannel, and add to each pint of the juice one pound of loaf sugar. Boil again for some time; take it off, and while cooling add half a gallon of best cognac brandy. Dose.- For an adult, half a gill; for a child, a teaspoonful or more, according to age. As the blackberry season is at hand, this cordial should not be neglected to be made by every family. It is simple, good, and easily made.

BLACKBERRY WINE
Gather when ripe, on a dry day. Put into a vessel, with the head out, and a tap fitted near the bottom; pour on them boiling water to cover them. Mash the berries with your hands, and let them stand covered till the pulp rises to the top and forms a crust, in three or four days. Then draw off the fluid into another vessel, and to every gallon add one pound of sugar; mix well, and put it into a cask, to work for a week or ten days, and throw off any remaining lees, keeping the cask well filled, particularly at the commencement. When the working has ceased, bung it down; after six to twelve months it may be bottled.

BLACKBERRIES
are very beneficial in cases of dysentery. The berries are healthful eating. Tea made of the roots and leaves is good; and syrup made from the berries excellent.

BLACKING
is manufactured in England to the extent of 11,500 tons; its average price is about £7 per ton.

BLACKING FOR LEATHER SEATS, &c.
Beat well the yolks of two eggs and the white of one; mix a table-spoonful of gin and a tea-spoonful of sugar, thicken it with ivory black, add it to the eggs, and use as common blacking; the seats or cushions being left a day or two to harden. This is good for dress boots and shoes.

BLACKING, TO MAKE
Three ounces of ivory black; two ounces of treacle; half an ounce of vitriol; half an ounce of sweet oil; quarter of a pint of vinegar, and three-quarters of a pint of water. Mix the oil, treacle, and ivory black gradually to a paste; then add the vitriol, and, by degrees, the vinegar and water. It will produce a beautiful polish.

BLACK, BRUNSWICK, FOR VARNISHING GRATES
Melt four pounds of common asphaltum and add two pints of linseed oil, and one gallon of oil of turpentine. This is usually put up in stoneware bottles for sale, and is used with a paint brush. If too thick, more turpentine may be added.

BLANC Manger,
a kind of Jelly made of Calves Feet, and other Ingredients, with pounded Almonds, &c.

BLANCMANGE WITH FRUIT
Boil an ounce and a half of isinglass, and when quite dissolved, strain it. Let it cool for half an hour, skim, and pour it free from sediment into another pan; then whisk with it a table-spoonful of cedrat, and half a pound of currant jelly, strawberry or raspberry jam; and when it begins to jelly, fill the moulds.

BLANCMANGE
To one ounce of picked isinglass, put a pint of water, boil it till the isinglass is melted, with a bit of cinnamon; put to it three quarters of a pint of cream, two ounces of sweet almonds, six bitter ones blanched and beaten, a bit of lemon-peel, sweeten it, stir it over the fire, let it boil, strain and let it cool, squeeze in the juice of a lemon, and put into moulds; garnish to your fancy.

BLANCMANGE
One ounce and a quarter of isinglass, three ounces of loaf sugar powdered, one ounce of sweet almonds and ten bitter ones, the peel of one lemon put to one quart of new milk, or a pint and a half of new milk and half a pint of good cream. Boil all these carefully together until the isinglass and sugar are completely dissolved, and it tastes sufficiently of the almonds, and then strain it through a muslin into a delicately-clean jug, adding very gradually a tablespoonful of best rose water. Let the mixture nearly cool entirely before you pour into the mould, as you can then leave all the sediment behind.

BLANCMANGE, THE INVALID'S
Three pints of new milk, three ounces of the best isinglass, sweeten to your taste, and flavour with a stick of cinnamon and a bay leaf. When the isinglass is dissolved, and it is flavoured enough, strain through a muslin, and, letting it settle first, pour into two small moulds, keeping one in ice till the other is consumed.

BLEACHING STRAW BONNETS, &c.
Wash them in pure water, scrubbing them with a brush. Then put them into a box in which has been set a saucer of burning sulphur. Cover them up, so that the fumes may bleach them

BLISTERED FEET. REMEDY FOR BLISTERED FEET FROM LONG WALKING
Rub the feet, at going to bed, with spirits mixed with tallow dropped from a lighted candle into the palm of the hand.

BLISTERS, MANAGEMENT OF
Spread the plaster thinly on paper or linen, and rub over it a few drops of olive oil. In this way the blister acts speedily, and with less irritation than usual.

BLOND (TO CLARIFY) FOR THE TABLE
Whip the whites of four eggs in a large pipkin, and put the blond to them; set the whole on the fire on a stewpan; continue to whip till near boiling, when it will have become white. Then put it in the stove, with fire over and under. When quite clear, strain it through a sieve.

BOAR'S HEAD
Let it be well singed, and rubbed with a piece of prick, to take off the hair; then scrape it with a knife and clean it well: this done, bone it, and cut out the two jawbones, and cut off the snout; slit it underneath, so that it may stick to the skin on the top, and take away the brain and tongue; then take some salt, and rub it into all parts of the flesh; put the head together again, and wrap it up, and tie it in a napkin; then put it into a large saucepan of hot water, with some leaf fat of a hog, two bay leaves, all sorts of sweet herbs, coriander, and aniseed, salt, nutmeg, and cloves, pounded, rosemary and an onion; when it is half boiled, add to it a quart of wine, and keep it boiling for twelve hours. You may also boil the tongue in the same liquor; when it is ready, let it cool in its own liquor; when cold, put it on a dish, and serve it cold, either whole, or in slices.

BOARDS, TO SCOUR
Lime, one part, sand three parts, soft soap, two parts. Lay a little on the boards with the scrubbing brush, and rub thoroughly. Rinse with clean water, and rub dry. This will keep the boards of a good colour, and will also keep away vermin.

BOILED EGGS
A youth with a turn for figures had five eggs to boil, and being told to give them three minutes each, boiled them a quarter of an hour altogether.

BOLOGNA SAUSAGES
Take equal quantities of bacon, fat and lean, beef, veal, pork, and beef suet; chop them small, season with pepper, salt, &c., sweet herbs, and sage rubbed fine. Have a well-washed intestine, fill, and prick it; boil gently for an hour, and lay on straw to dry. They may be smoked the same as hams.

BOOTS AND SHOES
should be cleaned frequently, whether they are worn or not, and should never be put to stand in a damp place, nor be put too near to the fire to dry. In cleaning, be careful to brush the dirt from the seams, and not to scrape it with a knife, or you will cut the stitches. Let the hard brush do its work thoroughly well, and the polish will be all the brighter.

BOOT TOPS
Clean boot tops with one ounce of white vitriol, and one ounce of oxalic acid, dissolved in a quart of warm water. Apply with a clean sponge. Or, sour milk one pint, gum arabic, half an ounce, juice of a lemon, white of an egg, and one ounce of vitriol well mixed.

BOOT-TOP LIQUID
Oxalic acid and white vitriol of each one ounce, water one and a half pint. To be applied with a sponge to the leather, previously washed, and then washed off again. This preparation is poisonous.

BORAGE
A wayside plant sometimes introduced to the garden for its mucilaginous, emollient properties, as a remedy in pectoral affections. With wine, water, lemon, and sugar, its leaves are steeped for a cool tankard or claret cup.

BORAGE
Its young leaves, smelling somewhat like cucumber, are sometimes used in salads, or boiled as spinach. Being aromatic, its spikes of flowers are put into negus and cool tankards.

BOTHY
The lodgings assigned to young gardeners in the northern part of the kingdom; and miserable hovels they often were, and, in some cases, still are.

BOTTLES
There is no easier method of cleaning glass bottles than putting into them fine coals, and well shaking, either with water or not, hot or cold, according to the substance that fouled the bottle. Charcoal left in a bottle or jar for a little time will take away disagreeable smells.

BRAIN CAKES
Clean, wash, blanch, and soak the brains, then beat them up with a little white pepper, and salt, a sage-leaf or two scalded and finely chopped, and the yolk of an egg: make them into small cakes or fritters, and fry them.

BRAMBLE, WINE FROM THE
Five measures of the ripe fruit, with one of honey, and six of water, boiled, strained, and left to ferment, then boiled again and put in casks to ferment, produce excellent wine.

BRANDY,
a spirit distilled from wine and other liquors. It is prepared in many of the wine countries of Europe particularly in the south of France. In distilling brandy the strong heavy wines are accounted the best: and it is expected that all wines used for this purpose should yield one sixth of their quantity of spirit. Brandy is naturally clear; and the different shades of colour which it has, arise chiefly from the addition of burnt sugar, sanders wood and other matters. Brandy may be also made of beer, cyder, sugar, molasses, grain, &c.

BRASS ORNAMENTS, TO CLEAN
Wash the brass work with roche alum boiled to a strong ley, in the proportion of an ounce to a pint. When dry, it must be rubbed with a fine tripoli.

BRAWN
The flesh of a boar prepared in a peculiar manner.

BRAWN,
the flesh of a boar pickled. The flitches only are made use of for this purpose: and the bones being taken out the flesh is sprinkled with salt and laid to drain; then salted more and rolled up hard. After this it is boiled till it becomes very tender, and when completely cold it is put into a pickle made of salt, water, and wheat bran.

BRAWN, MOCK
Boil some calves' feet very tender, take the meat off the bones, and have ready part of the belly-piece of pork, salted with common salt and saltpetre for a week. Boil the pork separately till nearly done, take out any bones, and roll the calves' feet and pork together very tightly, using a strong cloth and some coarse tape. Boil till very tender, and hang up in the cloth till cold. After which keep it in the sousing liquor, which is made in this way: boil a quarter of a peck of wheat bran, a sprig of bay leaves, and one of rosemary, in two gallons of water with four ounces of salt, for half an hour. Strain it, and let it get cold before using it.

BREAD
During the siege of Paris by Henry IV, owing to the famine which then raged, bread, which had been sold whilst any remained for a crown a pound, was at last made from the bones of the charnel-house of the Holy Innocents, A.D. 1594. In the time of James I the usual bread of the poor was made of barley; and now in Ireland, cod-fish, beaten to powder, is made into bread; and the poor use potato-bread in many parts of Ireland. Earth has been eaten as bread in some parts of the world: near Moscow is a portion of land whose clay will ferment when mixed with flour. The Indians of Louisiana eat a white earth with salt; and the Indians of the Oronooko eat a white unctuous earth.

BREAD
A great increase on home-made bread, even equal to one-fifth, may be produced by using bran water for kneading the dough. The proportion is three pounds of bran for every twenty-eight pounds of flour, to be boiled for an hour, and then strained through a hair-sieve.

BREAD, TO DISCOVER WHETHER BREAD IS ADULTERATED WITH ALUM
The bread must be soaked in water, and to the water in which it has been soaked a little of the solution of muriate of lime must be added; upon which, if any alum be present, the liquid will be pervaded with milkiness; but if the bread be pure the liquid will remain limpid.

BREAD-AND-BUTTER-PUDDING
Grease a dish well with butter, then sprinkle in a good thick layer of currants, well washed and picked; add some brown sugar, and cover with thin slices of light white bread until the dish is filled by alternate layers of currants, sugar and bread. Boil a pint of new milk, add four well-beaten yolks of eggs, a little nutmeg and grated lemon-peel; pour into the dish containing the bread, &c., and let it stand for an hour, then bake in a moderate oven. A paste may be put round the edge of the dish, but it is not necessary.

BREAD (CHEAP AND EXCELLENT KIND)
Simmer slowly, over a gentle fire, a pound of rice in three quarts of water, till the rice has become perfectly soft, and the water is either evaporated or imbibed by the rice: let it become cool, but not cold, and mix it completely with four pounds of flour; add to it some salt, and about four table-spoonfuls of yeast. Knead it very thoroughly, for on this depends whether or not your good materials will produce a superior article. Next let it rise well before the fire, make it up into loaves with a little of the flour - which, for that purpose, you must reserve from your four pounds - and bake it rather long. This is an exceedingly good and cheap bread.

BREAD CHEESECAKES
Slice a penny loaf as thin as possible, pour on it a pint of boiling cream. When well soaked, beat it very fine, add eight eggs, half a pound of butter, a grated nutmeg, half a pound of currants, a spoonful of brandy or white wine. Beat them up well together, and bake in raised crusts or patty-pans.

BREAD, FANCY
The Court of Queen's Bench have decided against the bakers the much-vexed question whether or not cottage loaves are "fancy bread" within the meaning of the Sale of Bread Act (6 and 7 Victoria, cap. 37), and, therefore, exempt from the requirement of being sold by weight. The judges considered it proved that at the date of the Act cottage loaves were uncommon, and, being more expensive to produce, were pointed at in the phrase "fancy bread," but at the present day the phrase is not properly applicable to such loaves in consequence of their having in the interim become quite common. As cottage bread is rather more expensive to make than batch bread, the baker can recoup himself by advancing the price, but he should be compellable to sell by weight whatever kinds of bread are in common and ordinary use.

BREAD ICE, BROWN
Grate as fine as possible stale brown bread, soak a small proportion in cream two or three hours, sweeten, and ice it; but keep stirring, that the bread may not sink.

BREAD INSPECTOR
A "Bread Inspector" has been appointed at Stockport, to check the fraudulent and cruel practice of selling short-weight bread to the poor.

BREAD PUDDING
Take one quart of milk, add to it six ounces of powdered lump sugar, boil it, and pour while hot into a dish containing a pound of bread, pounded finely, and two ounces of fresh butter. Set it aside for half an hour, and then stir into it six beaten eggs and a little nutmeg; pour into a basin, and tie a cloth over it; let it boil for an hour and a half, and serve with brandy sauce.

BREAD PUDDING, BROWN
Half a pound of stale brown bread, grated, half a pound of currants, about the same quantity of chopped suet, sugar, and nutmeg; mix with four eggs. Boil in a cloth, or basin that exactly holds it, for three or four hours. A spoonful of brandy improves the flavour.

BREAD PUDDING, ELEGANT
Take light white bread, and cut in thin slices. Put into a pudding-shape a layer of any sort of preserve, then a slice of bread, and repeated until the mould is almost full. Pour over all a pint of warm milk, in which four beaten eggs have been mixed; cover the mould with a piece of linen, place it in a saucepan with a little boiling water, let it boil twenty minutes, and serve with pudding sauce.

BREAD, PULLED
Take from the oven an ordinary loaf when it is about half baked, and with the fingers, while the bread is yet hot, dexterously pull the half-set dough into pieces of irregular shape, about the size of an egg. Don't attempt to smooth or flatten them - the rougher their shapes the better. Set upon tins, place in a very slow oven, and bake to a rich brown. This forms a deliciously crisp crust for cheese. If you do not bake at home, your baker will prepare it for you, if ordered. Pulled bread may be made in the revolving ovens. It is very nice with wine instead of biscuits.

BREAD, SUPERFINE
Superfine bread should not be eaten by one who prefers health and clearness of intellect to indigestion, constipation, and stupidity. Fine bread will kill a healthy dog in seven weeks, whereas, if he is kept on coarse bread (having, of course, access to water in either case,) he thrives perfectly well for any desirable length of time. Food may be too rich as well as insufficient in nutrition.

BREADSTUFFS, THE BEST SUBSTITUTE FOR
Professor Johnston, in "The Chemistry of Common Life," thus discourses on a dish common in Ireland and farm-houses generally, named kol-cannon. The potato, says he, is poor in gluten - the cabbage is unusually rich in this ingredient; mix the two, and you approach the composition of wheaten bread. Beat the potatoes and boiled cabbage together, put in a little pork fat, salt, and pepper, and you have a kol-cannon which has all the good qualities of the best Scotch oatmeal, and to many would be more savoury and palatable. Take a pot-bellied potato-eater and feed him on this dish, and he will become not only stronger and more active, but he will cease to carry before him an advertisement of the kind of food he lives on.

BREAKFAST DISH, A NEW
Common ship biscuits are really admirable adjuncts to the breakfast table, not in their original brick-like state, but previously steeped for an hour or two in cold water, or covered for ten minutes with boiling water, and then toasted and buttered are equal to muffins, and, indeed, to our palate, preferable. We consider them a delicacy when well dressed, and served to the table hot with tea or coffee.

BREAKFAST ROLLS
One pint of new milk, three ounces of salt butter, warm both together till melted; two eggs well beaten up, a little salt, three table spoonfuls of barm; these to be added to the milk, and, when cold, strained, and as much flour as is necessary worked into it. It should be made the night before it is baked.

BREAKFAST, DINNER, OR SUPPER, A GOOD
Put one pound of rice and one pound of Scotch barley into two gallons of water and boil them gently for four hours over a slow fire; then add four ounces of treacle, and one ounce of salt, and let the whole simmer for half-an-hour. It will produce sixteen pounds of good food.

BREATH -
air received into the lungs by many young men of fashion, for the important purposes of smoking a cigar, and whistling a tune.

BREATH, OFFENSIVE
For this purpose, almost the only substance that should be admitted at the toilette is the concentrated solution of chloride of soda. From six to ten drops of it in a wine glass full of pure spring water, taken immediately after the operations of the morning are completed.

In some cases the odour arising from carious teeth is combined with that of the stomach. If the mouth be well rinsed with a teaspoonful of the solution of the chloride in a tumbler of water, the bad odour of the teeth will be removed.

BREATH, FOR THE
Persons who suffer from difficulty of breathing and oppression of the chest, will find great relief from the following simple contrivance. A tea-kettle is to be kept boiling, either over a fire, or over a common night-lamp or nursing-candlestick. A tin tube is to be fitted on to the spout of the tea-kettle, of such length and form as to throw the steam in front of the sick person, who will then breathe in it. This prevents the distressing sensation occasioned by inhaling the cold night air, which will be felt by persons suffering from asthma or water on the chest, and which is not obviated by either clothing or fire.

BREATH, FOR SHORTNESS OF
Take of sulphuric ether half-an-ounce, camphor six grains - mix. Dose: one teaspoonful when required.

BREATH TAINTED BY ONIONS
Leaves of parsley, eaten with vinegar, will prevent the disagreeable consequences of eating onions.

BREWERS
There are about 1700 public brewers in England, about 200 in Scotland, and 250 in Ireland: these are exclusively of retail and intermediate brewers, of which there are in England and Wales about 1400; there are, besides, 28,000 victuallers, &c. who brew their own ale. In London, there are about 100 wholesale brewers, many of them in immense trade.

BREWIS
is made of crusts and dry pieces of bread, soaked a good while in hot milk, mashed up, and eaten with salt. Above all do not let crusts accumulate in such quantities that they cannot be used. With proper care, there is no need of losing a particle of bread.

BRISTOL-WATERS,
mineral waters of the lowest temperature of any in England, being the fourth in degree amongst the waters which are esteemed warm. The waters of Bath are the first, Buxton the second, and Matlock the third. The constituent parts of Bristol water are carbonic acid gas, lime and magnesia, besides the muriatic and vitriolic acids.

BROCHETTE,
in cookery, a particular mode of frying chickens.

BROTH, FISH
Cut onions, carrots and parsnips, into slices, then put them into a stewpan with a piece of butter, and set them stewing with juice of onions. When these are brown, put them into the stewpan, and give them two or three turns; let the whole be moistened with a clear purée; then put in a bunch of parsley, chives, sweet herbs, cloves, and some mushrooms. Let all these boil together for one hour; then strain them through a sieve into another kettle, and use it to simmer fish-soup. Note, that carp is the best fish to make fish-soup.

BROTH JELLY
Take a joint of mutton, a capon, a fillet of veal, and three quarts of water; put these into an earthen pan, and boil them over a gentle fire till reduced to half; then squeeze all together, and strain the liquor through a napkin.

BROTH WHITE
Boil a fowl, and when it is done enough, take it up, and put it into a dish; then boil your cream with a blade of mace, and thicken it with eggs; then put in the marrow of one beef bone, and take some of the broth, and mingle them together; put to it a spoonful of white wine, and let it thicken on the fire; then put the fowl hot out of the broth, set it on a chafing-dish of coals, and serve it.

BROWNING FOR CAKES
Half a pound of moist sugar, two ounces of butter; add a little water. Simmer till brown. A little of this mixture will give a rich brown colour to cakes.

BUBBLE AND SQUEAK
Cut slices from a cold round of beef; let them be fried quickly until brown, and put them into a dish to keep hot. Clean the pan from the fat; put into it greens and carrots previously boiled and chopped small; add a little butter, pepper, and salt; make them very hot, and put them round the beef with a little gravy. Cold pork boiled is a better material for bubble-and-squeak than beef, which is always hard; in either case the slices should be very thin and lightly fried.

BUFFET,
was anciently a little apartment separated from the rest of the room by slender wooden columns, for the disposing of china, glass, &c.

BUGS
Spirits of naphtha rubbed with a small painter's brush into every part of a bedstead is a certain way of getting rid of bugs. The mattress and binding of the bed should be examined, and the same process attended to, as they generally harbour more in these parts than in the bedstead. Three pennyworth of naphtha is sufficient for one bed.

BULLACE CHEESE
Take your fruit when they are full ripe, and put them into a pot. To every quart of bullace put a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar, roughly broken small. Bake them in a moderate oven till they are quite soft, and then rub them through a hair sieve. To every pound of pulp add half-a-pound of loaf sugar beaten fine, and then boil it an hour and a half over a slow fire, keeping it stirred all the time. Then pour it into potting pots, and when cold put brandy-paper and tie down. Store it in a dry place and it will keep for months, cutting out very clear and bright.

BULLACE TART
Place a small cup in the centre of the dish, and place the fruit, picked and washed, round it, heaped up in the centre; add enough sugar, and cover with a light paste, which should be rather rich.

BUNIONS
may be checked in their early development by binding the joint with adhesive plaster, and keeping it on as long as any uneasiness is felt. The bandaging should be perfect, and it might be well to extend it round the foot. An inflamed bunion should be poulticed, and larger shoes be worn. Iodine, twelve grains; lard or spermaceti ointment, half an ounce, makes a capital ointment for bunions. It should be rubbed on gently twice or thrice a-day.

BUNION
A fruit between a plum and a peach.

BURDOCK (bardana major.)
The young shoots, stripped, are eaten as asparagus.

BURNET
(Poterium sanguisorba). Small, or Upland Burnet. Used in cool tankards, soups, and salads.

BURN
The first application to a burn should be sweet oil, putting it on immediately, till other remedies can be prepared.

BURNS, CURE FOR
Of all applications for a burn, we believe that there are none equal to a simple covering of common wheat-flour. This is always at hand; and while it requires no skill in using, it produces most astonishing effects. The moisture produced upon the surface of a slight or deep burn is at once absorbed by the flour; and forms a paste which shuts out the air. As long as the fluid matters continue flowing, they are absorbed and prevented from producing irritation, as they would do, if kept from passing off by oily or resinous applications; while the greater the amount of those absorbed by the flour, the thicker the protective covering. Another advantage of the flour covering is that next to the surface it is kept moist and flexible. It can also be readily washed off, without further irritation in removing. It may occasionally be washed off very carefully, when it has become matted and dry, and a new covering be sprinkled on.

BURNS, A TRIED RECIPE FOR
Keep on hand a saturated solution of alum, (four ounces in a quart of hot water,) dip a cotton cloth in this solution, and lay it immediately on the burn. As soon as it shall have become hot or dry, replace it by another, and thus continue the compress as often as it dries, which it will, at first, do very rapidly. The pain immediately ceases, and in twenty-four hours under this treatment the wound will be healed, especially if the solution be applied before the blisters are formed. The astringent and drying qualities of the alum completely prevents them. The deepest burns, those caused by boiling water, drops of melted metal, phosphorus, gunpowder, fulminating powder, &c. have all been cured by this specific.

BURNS AND SCALDS, A CURE FOR
Four ounces of powdered alum put into a pint of cold water. A piece of rag to be dipped into this liquid, to be applied to the burn or scald - frequently changed during the day. This is a rapid cure.

BURNT BUTTER FOR SAUCE
Put half a pound of butter into a stew-pan; when it is burning brown, you must keep dredging in some flour; add six anchovies boned, four shallots chopped, some whole pepper of both kinds, and a little mace. You must keep shaking it as you put the flour in, and stirring it all till it is a thick paste. Keep it well closed down in a jar to thicken and flavour gravies.

BURNT CREAM
Boil a pint of cream with a stick of cinnamon, and some lemon-peel; take it off the fire, and pour it very slowly into the yolks of four eggs, stirring till half cold; sweeten, and take out the spice, &c.: pour it into the dish; when cold, strew white pounded sugar over, and brown it with a salamander.

BUTTER, BAD
may be improved greatly by dissolving it thoroughly in hot water; let it cool, then skim it off, and churn again, adding a little good salt and sugar. A small quantity can be tried and approved before doing a larger one. The water should be merely hot enough to melt the butter, or it will become oily.

BUTTER IN WINTER , YELLOW
Put in yolks of eggs, just before the butter comes near the termination of the churning. This has been repeatedly tried, and makes very fine, sweet butter.

BUTTER, RANCID
This may be restored by melting it in a water bath, with some coarsely powdered animal charcoal (which has been thoroughly sifted from dust), and strained through flannel.

BUTTER, SALT
may be freshened by churning it with new milk in the proportion of a pound of butter to a quart of milk. Treat the butter in all respects in churning as fresh. Cheap earthenware churns for domestic use may be had at any hardware shop.

BUTTERY,
a room in the houses of gentlemen, belonging to the butler, where he keeps the utensils belonging to his office.