How To Keep Ice For A Sick-Room

Tie a piece of coarse white flannel over a pitcher, leaving a cup-shaped depression in the center of the pitcher. Place the broken ice in the flannel, and cover it tightly with thicker flannel. The ice may be kept in this way all night, and the water that drips from it may be poured off as wanted. The water should never be allowed to rise to the height of the bag, however.

How To Chop Suet

Cut the suet into pieces, remove the membrane, sprinkle the suet with flour, and chop it in a cool place. It will not become soft and sticky when treated in this way.

How To Make Claret Vinegar

Claret-wine when sour, may be made into excellent vinegar in this way. Place the wine in a small cask or jug, and add a pint of "mother" to every four quarts of wine. If this is not possible, a twenty-four inch square of common brown paper may be used ; but the vinegar will ripen less quickly than if the "mother" from other vinegar were available. Set the cask in the sun, uncorked ; and tie a piece of thin muslin cheese-cloth or tarlatan over the cork-opening. It should be ready to use in five or six weeks.

How To Make Tarragon Vinegar

Put two bunches of fresh tarragon in a quart preserv-ing jar, fill the jar with white-wine vinegar, cover tightly, and set it away in a cool, dark place for two or three weeks; then strain, and bottle. Fill the jar once more with fresh vinegar, and set it away. This will be ready to use in a month, but it .need not be strained until the first is used. This vinegar is delicious in any kind of salad and in many sauces.

How To Keep Food In The Ice-Chest

Foods that have little odor, and those that absorb odors readily should be placed at the bottom of the refrigerator, while all edibles possessing a strong odor should be kept on the top shelves. Sour milk or cream should be rigidly excluded from the ice-chest, and salad dressings, Tartar sauce and celery should be covered closely, or they will flavor everything that is shut in with them. Pineapples, strawberries and raspberries should not be placed in the common ice-chest with milk or cream. Butter, milk, cream and other delicate foods may be kept in the lower part of refrigerators in which there is a circulation of dry air, and the fruits, vegetables, etc., with stronger flavors and odors may be put on the top shelves. If this arrangement is carefully observed, there will be little danger of one sort of food absorbing the odor or flavor of another. A dish of powdered charcoal should always be kept on one of the top shelves of the refrigerator, as it is an excellent absorbent of odors. It should be changed every few days. The refrigerator should above all be maintained in a perfect state of cleanliness; and with the above precautions there need be no trouble in preserving all kinds of food in a properly wholesome condition. People who live in flats are especially dependent upon this mode of keeping food, and too much care and vigilance cannot be exercised to have the ice-chest always sweet and healthful.