Warne's model cookery and housekeeping book : containing complete instructions in household management / compiled and edited by Mary Jewry.

piece of tin over the middle strainer to pre- vent the coffee from filling up the holes ; pour in three teacupfuls of boiling water. The breakfast-cup should be filled up with boiling milk. Chocolate. Time, ten or twelve minutes. 3. Four ounces of the cake ; two gills of water ; one pint of milk. Scrape up about a quarter of a pound of the chocolate cake into a saucepan with two gills of water; set it on the fire ; stir it con- stantly with a wooden spoon until it is rather thick, then work it very quickly with the spoon. Stir in a pint of boiling milk by degi'ces, and serve it. Cocoa Nibs. (Dr. Todd.) Time, five hours. 4. A quarter of a pound of cocoa nibs ; three quarts of water. A quarter of a pound of cocoa nibs to three quarts of water, to be boiled down to ■ two quarts and a half. The nibs to be : strained after five hours' boiling. If they ; are allowed to remain in the cocoa, it be- I comes bitter and unpalatable. Oatmeal Porridge. Time, half an hour. S- Two ounces of oatmeal ; one pint of ' water ; half a pint of cold milk. Put a pint of warm water into a stew- ;pan over the fire, and as it boils dredge in : the oatmeal with your left hand, and stir with the right. When it is made, turn it ; into a soup-plate, adding a little salt or a ; little sugar, according to taste. Send it to table with a jug of hot milk, which should :be added to it by degrees for eating. Toast. This simple addition to the breakfast- • table is seldom supplied in perfection. If the cook were aware of tlie principle and aim of toasting, it is quite possible that we should be spared the daily infliction of tough ' toast, burnt toast, greasy toast, &x. Now the aim of toasting bread is to get ■out of it the remainder of water contained in it, which renders it less digestible than well-made toast. But if, as is generally done, the slice of bread be hurriedly exposed to a hot fire, and the exterior of the bread be toasted mearly black, this intention is defeated, as I the heat will then produce no effect on the interior of the slice, which remains as moist *is ever. Charcoal is a bad conductor of Laeat; the over-toasted surface is nothing more or less than a thin layer of charcoal, which prevents the heat from penetrating through the bread. Neither will butter pass through the hard surface ; it will re- main on it, and if exposed to heat to melt it in, it will dissolve and run over it in the form of rancid oil. This is why buttered toast is so often unwholesome. Now if you would have an eatable slice of toast do not allow one spot of the exterior to be burned or chaiTcd. Chest- nut-brown is too dark for good toast—s.pale golden colour is-all that is required. The method to toast bread perfectly is this :— Warm the slice for one minute on each side by the fire without attempting to toast it. Then turn the first warmed side to the fire, and, holding it at a little distance, move it gently about till it is all over of a pale golden brown. By this means the whole of the water may be drawn out of it, and it will be changed from dough, which has always a tendency to acetous fermenta- tion in the stomach, to the pure farina of wheat, which is. far easier of digestion, especially for invalids. As it is turned to pure farina, the dough and gluey nature will be gone, every part will be equally warm, and no part so hotly dry as to turn the butter to oil on the surface. The dried farina will allow the butter to penetrate every part of it. There is greater advantage in this than may at first sight appear. Butter, in masses, however good, is too heavy for the stomach ; but butter divided with sufficient minuteness, and not suffered to oil, makes a valuable addition to our nourishment. The properly toasted bread absorbs the butter, and both butter and farina are in a state of very minute divi- sion, the one serving to expose the other to the free action of the gastric fluid in the stomach, and "that this fluid shall pene- trate the whole mass of the food, and act upon it in small portions, is the grand secret of healthful digestion." When a slice of toast is sucll made, it is impossible to find anything lighter of diges- tion. Take care that the fire for toasting be clear and hot, and the bars clean from blacks. As bad toast is generally made from the cook not having sufficient time to bestow on the making, we advise all persons who can afford it to buy the Toaster and Trivet, shown in our Kitchen Utensils, by which four rounds of toast may be done at the same time, while other duties occupy tlie attention of the servant.