Soy or _shoyu_ is in general use throughout the East, particularly in China and Japan, that from the latter country being acknowledged the finest made. One authority states that our word ketchup is derived from the Chinese name for soy, _kitjap_. The basis of soy, the soy bean, has been cultivated in Japan since the earliest dynasties, and is to-day one of their important crops. The different varieties of the soy bean produce three kinds of soy known as the black, the green and the white. The process of making soy consists in first boiling the beans and mixing them with parched barley and wheat, coarsely ground. This _barm_ is fermented and when the whole mixture is covered with fungi it is mixed with brine of a certain strength, which has already been boiled and allowed to cool. This mixture is then kept for fermentation about twenty-five months. It is stirred with a wooden paddle twice a day during winter, three times a day in summer and, when sufficiently fermented, is put through a soy press. It is then heated to 130 degrees Fahrenheit and, after becoming cold again, is put up in bottles and casks. It may be preserved for any length of time. In appearance it resembles Worcestershire sauce and from a nutritive point of view is superior to any other sauce in our markets. Soy is manufactured in every part of Japan, no fewer than 10,682 firms being engaged in making it in 1891. It is eaten by the entire Japanese population with every meal and, besides being a sauce, is sufficient as a salt. Used upon fish, beef-steaks and meats, generally, it gives a relish that is impossible to the choicest of cookery otherwise. In Japan it is used by all classes excepting the extremely destitute, who cannot afford to buy it. Tabasco is a popular sauce, the chief ingredient of which is the pulp of the red pepper. This, a species of chili, came originally from Central America and through cultivation, largely carried on in the South, its strength and flavor have been greatly improved. The sauce is extremely hot with chilis and, as it keeps well in any climate, it is liked by connoisseurs. There are on the market numerous preparations known as salad dressings. They are useful in cases of inexperience or emergency, but are by no means equal to the freshly made mayonnaise of the home kitchen. There is real art in preparing a good mayonnaise and a Spanish proverb reads: “Four persons are necessary to the making of a salad dressing: a spendthrift for oil, a miser for vinegar, a counsellor for salt and a madman to stir it all up.”