=Salt Meats=: Streaky bacon should have white fat and dark-red lean—yellow fat is undesirable. It must smell lightly of smoke and have also a tang of salt. Salt pork must be very white and firm, the lean of it showing a dull-pale red. Hams must have white fat, thick and firm, and lean of a rich, clear red just the least inclined to purple. Look close around the bone; if the fat there is white and firm the ham is all right. It must, of course, have been well smoked. But too thick smoke, shown by a black-brown color, is undesirable. Corned beef should be clear red, firm, and clean-smelling. Dried beef should have a firm, dark outside and be a dark, clear red within. If it shaves to slivers partly transparent, it is very nearly perfect. =Poultry=: All poultry save capons can be too fat. But it had better be too fat than too lean. Choose light-colored fat and firm pinky-white flesh. See that combs are fresh-colored, leg joints flexible, and skin soft. Much hard, deep-yellow fat indicates age. Milk-fed poultry, so called, is mainly so called—it may have got milk, but much else went with it. With ducks and geese, pull open the eyelids; if the eyes are filmed the birds are likely to have been killed too long. Freezing injures the quality of poultry. Dry-picked poultry is much more desirable than that which is scalded. To test for age look at the legs—scaliness is a sure mark of age. Press hard upon the breast bone; in a young fowl it bends a little, in an old one it is rigid. =Keeping Fresh Meat and Poultry=: Never put meat or poultry in contact with ice, neither lay them flat in dish or pan. Put a rack under the meat, then set the pan in the refrigerator, first wiping the meat with a damp (not wet) cloth. This until cooking-time. Things to be kept several days should be well wiped, laid on waterproof paper, have lumps of charcoal put round and about, then wrapped, tied, put in cheesecloth bags, and hung where it is cool and airy. Lacking such hanging space, lay them on racks close to ice. =Salt Fish=: Keep salt fish, whether dry or in brine, well away from all else. A good place for them is a big box with a tight cover, the cracks filled inside with putty and covered outside with paper. Put a shelf across for boxes and cartons; stand kits on the floor. Hinge on the top as a door, and fasten with hook and staple. Set the box on short legs, else put bricks under the corners. =Things in Glass=: Glass jars, whether of preserves, fruit, or vegetables, had better be wrapped in paper, held on by a rubber band, and set so as not to touch. They should be kept where it is dark, dry, clean, and cool, on slat shelves or plank ones bored full of half-inch holes. Light, through its weird actinic rays, plays hob with flavors, and may even induce worse things. Yet jellies set in full sunlight for, say, ten days gain a richer texture and keep better ever after.