ANGLICA, a condiment much used in the confectionery department of the kitchen; it is the stalk of a plant like celery, which grows in our gardens, and is also found wild. When gathered, it is dried, preserved, and candied. Rouen, in France, is very celebrated for it.

VANNILLA is used chiefly to impart flavour to various articles in confectionery; it possesses also a very beautiful smell, which has caused it to be used in scenting different perfumes, and thus diminished its use in the kitchen. It is the produce of a climbing tree like ivy, having a large leaf and black flower, which leaves a pod containing black peas; the form of the pod is like a scimitar, from which it takes its name, being in Spanish vargarila.

When covered with tin-foil, and kept in a moist place, it will become covered with flakes of silver. It denotes the best quality, and is fit for use; it will do to be infused several times.

SUGAR is the concentrated juice of a plant which grows in hot climates, and is also to be obtained from other trees and vegetables, especially from beet-root. It is used very extensively in cookery, it imparting a mellow flavour to all dishes; it is of an antiseptic nature, and ought to be employed more abundantly in preserving of animal substances than what it is. This condiment was unknown to the ancients, who employed honey in place of it. The way it is used in the kitchen is explained in the receipts.

ORANGE is the fruit the produce of a tree originally a native of China, but now grown extensively in all warm climates. The juice of this fruit is a sweet acid, differing greatly in flavour to the lemon; its peel is of use in cookery, and the juice in many dishes of a sweet character for dessert. The Seville and Malta oranges are a variety of this fruit.

ORANGE-FLOWER, a distillation from the flower, is used a greal deal

in cookery.

VERJUICE is the juice of a grape of that name, and of other unripe ones, and on the continent was used to a great extent, until the introduction of the lemon. The grape is gathered unripe, and pressed, and allowed to ferment, and then put into large vats to mature; the older it is, the better the flavour. In England, it has been made from a species of crab-apple, and becomes that known in commerce as malic acid. It enters into the composition of several of the sauces in use at the present day; if pure, it preferable for several dishes to vinegar.

may be

OLIVE is a fruit not much used in this country in cookery; it grows on a low tree with long narrow leaves, rough underneath; the fruit contains a long and small kernel; the flesh of the fruit, when pressed, yields the oil known as olive oil. This is a most valuable article in cookery; it ought to be tasteless and inodorous, but when long exposed to the air becomes rank and unfit for use.

ARROW-ROOT is the powder of the root of a tree growing in very warm and moist climates, of about two to three feet in height, known in botany as the maranta arundinarea. In some countries, the flour of this root is mixed with that of Indian corn, and makes excellent bread. It is produced in the same way as the starch from potatoes.

TAPIOCA is also a starch, produced from the roots of a Brazilian plant called Cassava, a very elegant and handsome plant, with beautiful white and pink flowers. Though so handsome in its exterior, yet the plant in itself is one of the most poisonous in existence; it is now becoming general in use, as it is found, when mixed with a little wine or spirit, to be an excellent stimulant to an invalid, without possessing any heating qualities. It should always be well washed in water, and then boiled until it becomes transparent, when it should be well stirred, and whatever is required to be mixed with it should be added. It will, when mixed with other flour, make very good bread.

SALSOP is another root of a plant called orchis morio, a native of the East, where it is used as an article of food to a great extent; it is reduced to powder, and readily dissolves in boiling water. It is a light, pleasant drink, and, to persons of a feverish constitution, is exceedingly wholesome.

SAGO is another of these starches, similar to Tapioca, made from the pith of the palm-tree, a native of the Indies. It is prepared precisely in the same way as the Tapioca.

SOY is obtained from the seed or fruit of an Indian plant, called dolichos soja, or soya; it is produced in a very similar way to ketchup; it enters greatly into use in the variety of sauces that are made for the table, it being of a very strong, sweet-bitter taste; it should only be used in moderation in cookery.

CHETNEY is a production of the East Indies, which, of late years, has come considerably into use; it is the mixing together of a variety of fruits,

and allowing them to ferment until they become acid: some spices are then mixed with them-they are then bottled for use; the older it is, the better it becomes. That which is made in the Vale of Cashmere is considered the best; it is endeavoured to be imitated in this country, with little success.

CURRY-POWDER is another of those Indian condiments which have latterly come so much into use, and it is only to be regretted that it is not cheaper than it is, so as to allow it to be more generally used, as it is one of those stimulating condiments which would be invaluable to the poor; its use would prevent the habit of taking other stimulants which produce intoxication.

LEMON is the fruit of a tree a native of the South of Europe and the Indies; it is a most valuable production, not only in the way it is used in cookery, but to the health of the human race. Its juice, when diluted with water, and sweetened, is one of the most refreshing and wholesome, that it is possible to take. The peel contains an essential oil, which imparts a strong pungent flavour to those dishes to which it is added. The true flavour of this fruit can only be had when fresh and ripe. At the time of Henry VIII., this fruit was a great rarity, and used to be partaken of at dessert with a quantity of sugar mixed with it.

The LIME is a species of lemon, the juice of which is more acid.

The CITRON is also another species; the juice is sweeter.

VINEGAR derives its name from the French vin aigre, or sour wine, and is known in chemistry as acetic acid. This antiseptic liquor can be produced from all herbs, plants, vegetables, and fruits, which produce sugar, and even that singular production of nature known as honey, and of which their juices will go into fermentation. Their juices, when first expressed, are called wine, or syrup; they undergo a fermentation known as the vinous, after which, when exposed to a certain degree of heat, enter into the acetous fermentation, and produce that acid pungent liquor known as vinegar. Of late years, it has also been produced by the distillation of wood, more particularly oak, and known as pyroligneous acid, which is intensely acid, and highly stimulating. When employed in cookery, it should be used very judiciously, and with great care. The best vinegar is that which contains the least vegetable matter, such as colouring, &c., and which has the strongest acid taste, without being hot.

The different flavoured vinegars may be made by infusion, without the aid of heat, of the different substances from which the flavour is required.

BOUQUET is a term often used in this book: when expressed alone, without naming the herbs which compose it, means parsley, &c.

BOUQUET GARNI means a variety of herbs, and, when mentioned, the herbs which are composed are also named.

BAIN MARIE, or, as it is called in the English kitchen, Beauméré Pan, is a pan which contains water kept at a boiling state, in which are placed the other saucepans, &c., so that the contents should not be acted upon too strongly by the fire. This term is old, having its origin with the alchymists, who, finding that sea-water boiled at a high temperature, and did not evaporate so quickly, used a pan containing sea-water (maris, in French, of the sea); hence the term Bain Marie, or Sea-Water Bath.

WATER.

UPWARDS of 730,000 diurnal revolutions has this earth made round that grand luminary the sun, since one of its chief elements, Water, attracted the attention of a celebrated philosopher, Hippocrates, who wrote upon the difference observable in that element. At a later period, Celsus gave directions for examining the specific gravity; and Pliny attempted to direct his readers how to distinguish the salubrious from that which is unwholesome. In the middle ages, when the monomania existed for finding the philosopher's stone and the elixir vitæ, considerable progress was made in discovering its constituent parts. But till the time of Boyle, or towards the close of the seventeenth century, no means had been discovered of analyzing water, or of pronouncing with certainty on its nature and properties.

WATER, which in the general way is thought so lightly of, is one of those elements used in cookery which is of the most important character. The best receipts in cookery may often be spoilt in consequence of the water, as it is by it that the flavour of everything is extracted, and upon the quality of the water much depends the nature of that extract. It is only of late years that the economy of water has attracted the attention of the scientific; and I am fearful that the cook has not given it that attention which so important a subject deserves.

Good potable water ought to contain to part of its volume of atmospheric air; of this, one is atmospheric air, and the rest carbonic acid gas, and the specific gravity is from 1,00016 to 1,00030; when the solid contents exceed this, the water is what is termed hard, and is less fitted for cookery, and dissolving of soap or other domestic purposes. The solid contents in five quarts of water, or 10lbs., ought not to exceed 9.65 grs., and in the following proportions:

with four cubic inches of carbonic acid gas, and two of oxygen gas. also contain a little sulphate of lime.

It may

Many towns have their favourite teas-that is, what is admired in one is disapproved in another; this results solely from the water with which it is made.

Having latterly been employed upon several experiments with this useful element for the Sanatory Commission, and which experiments I am now carrying out with water from various parts of England, I have been exceedingly surprised at the results of these experiments, and upon the difference which exists in the waters of this metropolis, resulting from the nature of the soil through which the water percolates, or from the source whence supplied; but as this is not the place to give the particulars of those experiments, I shall merely state that the general result was, that I found there existed a difference between hard and soft water, to the extent of nearly onethird, in making of tea, or as 4lb. of tea is to 6lb.; and in vegetables of all kinds a difference perfectly astonishing, more particularly in roots, and none, perhaps, more than in the potato; the difference was even perceptible in the cutting of it, and the flavour of the water, as well as its hardness, was absorbed by that root. In herbs, the aroma and flavour cannot be extracted, even when adding soda to the water, which seems to make it only artificial; and green vegetables lose not only their colour, but their flavour, from being boiled in hard water, and soda, when added, destroys their colour. Upon meat it has a very singular effect, as hard water will not extract the juices or gravy, but causes it to enter and bind the gelatinous