Now put into a pan a nice piece of butter, according to the amount of meat you have, and, as soon as this melts, lay in a finely chopped shallot or a small onion, and let it brown delicately, keeping it stirred in the process. (Be careful your pan does not rest flat on the coals, or its contents will certainly catch.) Then turn into it the meat, etc, sprinkle it with a teaspoonful of fine flour, and keep it well stirred over the fire for five minutes, at all events (more if you have a rather large quantity of meat), then pour into it from half a gill of good stock upwards, according to quantity, and let it cook very gently over a slow fire for half an hour, when you add a tiny squeeze of lemon juice, and serve garnished with fried croutons, plain or spread with savoury butter. This may be varied by serving it in a wall of potato, either nicely mashed and browned, or served in the form of potato snow. Or, again, a little curry powder may be fried with the onion, the mince being prepared exactly as before, plus the curry powder, and served in a wall of rice; or tomato sauce, spinach, or mushroom puree, etc., can all be used as a change, or it may be served a l'italienne, i.e., with a wall of nicely boiled macaroni well mixed with grated cheese (equal quantities of Gruyere and Parmesan are nicest), black pepper, and a little salt, about ½oz. or so (for an average dish) of butter being sprinkled over it in little bits; arrange this on a hot dish, place the mince prepared as above, in the centre, cover it all with more macaroni, etc., and set it in the oven for four or five minutes, and serve very hot. (This last, by the way, is an excellent way of serving the otherwise unpro-ducible remains of any poultry, rabbits, or game, the livers of the birds tossed in butter, some bits of broiled ham or bacon, and a mushroom or two being all great additions, and helping out the dish.

This makes a decidedly appetising little dish out of the veriest scraps, as I can assert from frequent personal experience.) A wall of savoury rice used instead of the macaroni is also good. Any meat can be prepared in this way, and, if preferred, only one kind need be used; but the sausage meat is always a great improvement. The merits of mince are seldom appreciated from the lack of variety too often seen in its preparation. One version always stands out in my memory, from the fact that a friend suddenly turned up to share our meal on a day when our menu was distinctly scanty. Cook was a good soul, however, and rose to the occasion, and, to my amusement, the quaintest little fricassee helped out the broiled steak, which was our piece de resistance (we were but two in family in those days), which proved as palatable as it was attractive in appearance. When I questioned cook as to its origin, she laughed and told me that it was simply the meat scraped and cut from the remains of a joint which had already done duty twice, both in the dining room and the kitchen, and this meat she had mixed with scraps from the carcase of a fowl in the stock pot, a kidney left over from the morning's breakfast, and some tiny rolls of bacon. "And," she added, "I really had not time to mince the meat properly, so I just cut it into as neat shreds as I could." She had then taken a half cauliflower (cold) intended to serve as a gratin next day, had broken it up small, mixing it with the melted butter over from the fish, together with some grated cheese, salt, and pepper (both white and red), had arranged it round a hot dish, and stood it in the oven till hot, when she had poured her fricassee into the middle, covering it all with tomato sauce made in a hurry with half a bottle of French tomato puree, and a little stock from the stock pot.

I was afterwards entreated by our guest's wife for the recipe of "that lovely little French dish you had the other night."

Fritters, again, are an excellent way of using up remains of any sort, fish, flesh, or fowl, especially if a few scraps of vegetables are used with them. Most people who have stayed in Italy have learnt to appreciate a well made frittura. The meat should be as varied as possible, and should always be marinaded for an hour or so before use in oil, lemon juice, sliced onion, parsley, etc. (using a gill of best salad oil, the juice of one medium lemon, three or four sprays of parsley, one medium onion sliced, a bay leaf, and two or three peppercorns. This is sufficient for a good quantity of meat; for instance, a whole chicken when cut up would only need half the above). Scraps of chicken, pieces of cold cooked veal cut into pieces the size of a florin, remains of sweetbreads, brains, cold tongue, sliced vegetable marrow, cucumber, artichokes, potato, broken-up cauliflower, etc., can, all and any, be used in this way, and the greater the mixture the better the dish. Only remember the cook must know how to fry to perfection before attempting this frittura.

Frying is not by any means a difficult art, granted a little care and intelligence The three great points in fritter-frying are, good batter, plenty of friture (or frying fat), and a clear even fire.

If you go in for this style of cookery it is well worth while to invest in a proper frying kettle; as this is, however, often rather an expensive item it is just as serviceable to buy a pan known to ironmongers as a "fish pan," which is simply a two-handled rather shallow fish kettle without a lid, and usually sold with a wire drainer, as it is generally used for frying fish in. This costs but a few shillings even in seamless steel, and is of course cheaper (though naturally not so durable) if bought in seamed tin. (This pan, of a fairly large size, I have, by the way, frequently utilised as a bain-marie.) Having seen that your pan is perfectly clean and dry, put in whatever friture you choose, being careful to have it when melted fully two niches deep, but see that there is from two and a half to three inches space above this to prevent any chance of boiling over, or any such like accident. With regard to the frying fat to be used opinions differ; oil is, of course, the favourite friture abroad, but its price is somewhat prohibitive over here, though, like every other fat, it can be used more than once.

It, however, does not lend itself to economical use in the way other fats do, as once burnt there is no way of re-clarifying it.