Your instruction would not be complete if we omitted to tell you how to take care of food, both before and after cooking, and how to prevent the waste that is so often occasioned by lack of such knowledge.

It is a well-known fact that all albuminous substances when exposed to the air soon pass into a state of decomposition, or putrefaction. Milk sours ; eggs, fish, and meat putrefy; fruits and vegetables decay; butter, fat, and oils become rancid; preserves ferment; meal and flour become musty, and bread and cake mouldy. It is therefore quite important to know how to care for our food, so that it may be kept in good condition as long as possible.

As it is air, moisture, and warmth that occasion the change in food, these must be excluded. So it is well to have our store-rooms in a cool and dry part of the house, and to keep many of our materials in air-tight cans or jars. But even with all these precautions much food will be lost unless it is examined daily.

Nearly all groceries, such as rice, tapioca, raisins, meal, and grains of all kinds, are best kept in large, wide-mouthed bottles or jars. These are easily cleansed, and the contents are plainly seen, and may be kept air-tight. Small jars or bottles are suitable for soda, cream of tartar, spices, and other articles usually purchased in small quantities. Air-tight tin cans are suitable for tea, coffee, crackers, etc. Covered buckets are convenient for flour and sugar.

Keep the jars and boxes clean on the outside, and when they are empty, or at regular intervals, cleanse the inside. Be careful never to handle them with sticky or floured fingers.

Do not put moist articles in tin. Do not keep anything in paper bags; they break easily and give a very untidy appearance to a pantry. Empty the bags as soon as the stores are sent in from the market. Fold the bags and put them away neatly to use for other purposes.

Do not keep milk in a tin can. Pour it into a large-mouthed pitcher or jar, or into a shallow pan. All dishes in which milk is kept.must be thoroughly washed first in cold water, then in hot suds and scalded with clear boiling water and dried perfectly, or the milk will sour quickly. Keep anything that has a strong odor away from milk, cream, or butter, as these articles absorb odors readily.

Fruit should be kept uncovered in a cool, dark place. Examine it often and remove all decaying portions.

Salt fish has a disagreeable odor, and it should be cut into small portions and packed in glass jars. Onions and other strong vegetables should be kept covered in a dark cool place, and where there are no other foods.

Lemons should be put into a jar and covered with cold water, with a saucer over them to keep them under the water. They will keep fresh and juicy for a long time. The water must be changed twice a week. Lemon and orange peel may be dried and grated, or put into alcohol and used for flavoring. Cranberries may also be kept for some time, if covered with cold water. Extracts, spices, etc., should be kept air-tight that their strength be not wasted.

Meat and fish should be examined as soon as they come from the market and be wiped all over with a damp cloth. Then put them on a plate, never in paper, in a cool dark place, not on the ice, but near it. In warm weather examine the meat carefully, particularly in the folds and crevices, as sometimes there are minute eggs on it. The marrow, or soft, fatty substance, should be removed from the backbone in mutton and lamb; also the pink skin over the fat, and the thin shiny membranes under the chops and steaks, as these spoil quickly and then taint the whole piece.

Fresh vegetables should also be examined daily.

Dripping and other fats should be re-melted often, as they keep better in a solid than in a broken form.

Eggs should be wiped as soon as brought in, and the shells may then be used for clearing coffee.

Cooked food should not be shut up tightly when hot.

Clean and scald the bread and cake jars every other day, and never let the crumbs and broken pieces accumulate in the jars.

Remnants of food should never be put away on the large table dishes, but on small ones kept for that purpose. They should be utilized in some way as soon as possible. In preparing a breakfast or lunch see what use you can make of the " left overs " before you decide on using new material.

Cooked vegetables will sour quickly in hot weather, especially if seasoned with butter or milk. It is better to cook in small quantities and have just enough, than to have large portions left over.

Keep everything in a pantry absolutely clean ; the shelves washed and wiped dry, the crumbs removed; the molasses jug outside, free from stickiness; the lard and dripping pail free from grease. And be sure that no rancid fat, or wormy meal, or mould, or anything objectionable be allowed to remain there.

Inspect the refrigerator daily, and clean the spout and pan as well as the inside.

Suggestion to the Teacher.

The chapter on the Care of Food is inserted here merely as a matter of convenience. The information contained in it should be given in connection with the foods as they are used in the various lessons.