One teaspoon or tablespoon means a level teaspoon or tablespoon.

A tin, aluminum or glass measuring cup should be used for all measuring. These cups are marked off in quarters and thirds and insure accuracy.

Aluminum cooking utensils are the best for general use. They are expensive in the beginning, but outwear other kinds. They are light in weight and easily cleaned, and there is no enamel to chip off and poison the food.

Discolored pans and kettles, not aluminum, should be boiled in water to which a lump of washing soda has been added.

Scrupulous cleanliness and eternal vigilance are the essentials of all goodcooking.

If the oven becomes too hot while bread or cake is baking, it may be cooled by setting a pan of water in it

If bread or cake browns too quickly, cover with a piece of paper.

Pies should always be baked in a quick oven, with the greatest heat at the bottom.

Cakes will seldom stick if this direction is followed: Grease the pans carefully; dust lightly with flour; shake out the superfluous flour and pour in the mixture.

Muffins and gems will be lighter if baked in pans that have been thoroughly heated as well as greased.

Biscuit dough should be as soft as possible. Biscuits will be lighter and crisper if not allowed to touch each other on the baking tin.

Meat should never be put in cold water except in making soup, for cold water draws out the juices. Wipe with a wet cloth, or rinse and dry at once, and in cooking use boiling water.

Tomatoes that are too strongly acid are improved by a pinch of baking soda. The soda should always be added when they are to be mixed with milk or cream, to prevent curdling.

The white of eggs will whip more readily if a pinch of salt is added. The eggs should be as cold as possible.

Cream that is too thin to whip may be made to do so by the addition of an unbeaten white of egg.

When dipping articles in egg and cracker, dilute the egg with a tablespoon of water. Only the white may be used, if desired, but never only the yolk, as it is the albumen which is needed to form a coat which the grease cannot penetrate.

Almost any dish is made more inviting by a little garnishing. Parsley, water cress, slices of lemon, beat, onion, hard-boiled egg or maraschino cherry, small triangles of toast, potato balls, mashed potatoes pressed through a pastry tube-all these are useful and within reach of almost every cook. Paper doilies, paper cups, and paper frills for chops may also be used to good advantage: these may be bought at any stationer's.