that it be
attended to with the greatest nicety, for the most consummate skill in
the culinary preparation of it will not compensate for the want of
attention to this. (Read _obs._ to No. 68.) Meat that is _thoroughly
roasted_, or _boiled_, eats much shorter and tenderer, and is in
proportion more digestible, than that which is _under_-done.

You will be enabled to manage much better if your employers will make
out a BILL OF FARE FOR THE WEEK on the Saturday before: for example, for
a family of half a dozen--

_Sunday_ Roast beef (No. 19), and my pudding (No. 554).

_Monday_ Fowl (Nos. 16. 58), what was left of my pudding fried, and
warmed in the Dutch oven.

_Tuesday_ Calf's head (No. 10), apple-pie.

_Wednesday_ Leg of mutton (No. 1), or (No. 23).

_Thursday_ Do. broiled or hashed (No. 487), or (No. 484,) pancakes.

_Friday_ Fish (No. 145), pudding (No. 554).

_Saturday_ Fish, or eggs and bacon (No. 545).

It is an excellent plan to have certain things on certain days. When
your butcher or poulterer knows what you will want, he has a better
chance of doing his best for you; and never think of ordering BEEF FOR
ROASTING except for Sunday.

When the weather or season[56-*] is very unfavourable for keeping meat,
&c. give him the choice of sending that which is in the best order for
dressing; _i. e._ either ribs or sirloin of beef, or leg, loin, or neck
of mutton, &c.

Meat in which you can detect the slightest trace of putrescency, has
reached its highest degree of tenderness, and should be dressed without
delay; but before this period, which in some kinds of meat is offensive,
the due degree of inteneration may be ascertained, by its yielding
readily to the pressure of the finger, and by its opposing little
resistance to an attempt to bind the joint.

Although we strongly recommend that animal food should be hung up in the
open air, till its fibres have lost some degree of their toughness; yet,
let us be clearly understood also to warn you, that if kept till it
loses its natural sweetness, it is as detrimental to health, as it is
disagreeable to the smell and taste.

IN VERY COLD WEATHER, bring your meat, poultry, &c. into the kitchen,
early in the morning, if you roast, boil, or stew it ever so gently and
ever so long; if it be _frozen_, it will continue tough and unchewable.

Without very watchful attention to this, the most skilful cook in the
world will get no