Some think it an improvement to put on a little sugar, and pour a little vinegar on before boiling. Some like to boil turnips, potatoes, and cabbage with it. In that case, they must be peeled, and the potatoes soaked two hours. =To boil Partridges or Pigeons.=—Cleanse and rinse the insides with soda-water, and then with pure water. Wrap them in a damp floured cloth; put them into boiling water which is salted at the rate of a heaping tea-spoonful to a quart; also, two tea-spoonfuls of sugar and a salt-spoonful of pepper. Simmer them twenty minutes to half an hour. When done, make a sauce of butter rubbed into flour and half a cup of milk; put the birds into a dish and pour on this sauce. Some would add cut parsley, or other flavors. =To boil Ducks.=—Let them lie in hot water two hours. Then wrap in a cloth dredged with flour; put them in cold water, salted at the rate of half a tea-spoonful for each pint. Add a tea-spoonful of sugar for each pint. Let them simmer half an hour; then take them up, and pour over them a sauce made of melted butter rubbed into flour, and seasoned with lemon-juice, salt, and pepper, and thinned with gravy or hot water. Wild ducks must be soaked in salt and water the night previous, to remove the fishy taste, and then in the morning put in fresh water, which should be changed once or twice. =To boil a Turkey.=—Make a stuffing for the craw of chopped bread and butter, cream, oysters, and the yelks of eggs. Sew it in, and dredge flour over the turkey, and put it in hot water to boil, with a spoonful of salt in it, and enough water to cover it well. Let it simmer for two hours and a half, or, if small, less time. Skim it while boiling. It will look nicer if wrapped in a cloth dredged with flour while cooking. Serve it with drawn butter, in which are put some oysters. CHAPTER VII. ROAST AND BAKED MEATS. The beef of an ox is best, and the next best is that of a heifer. The best pieces for roasting are the second cut of the sirloin, the second cut of the ribs, and the back part of the rump. The art of roasting well consists in turning the meat often, to prevent burning, and basting often, to make it juicy. Never dredge flour into gravies, as it makes lumps. Strain all gravies. =Brown Flour for Meat Gravies.=—This is used to thicken meat gravies, to give a good color. It is prepared by putting flour on a tin plate in a hot oven, stirring it often until well browned; it must be kept, corked, in a jar, and shaken occasionally. =Roast Beef.=—A piece of beef weighing ten pounds requires about two hours to roast in a tin oven before a fire. Allow ten minutes for each pound over or under this weight. Have the spit and oven clean and bright. They should have been washed before they grew cold from the last roasting.