Fish must be cooked as soon as possible after it is caught. If, however, there is more than can be eaten in one day, the superfluous part should be boiled for 5 minutes, even if it is to be fried afterwards--it can be dried: but nearly all fish is very nice stewed like eels, with the same sauce; parboiled fish is as good this way as if it were quite fresh. It is said that Condy’s fluid will perfectly cleanse meat or fish just beginning to taint on the outside; but prevention is much better than cure. Never allow any meat or fish to lie if you can hang it up. Game and poultry should be drawn, but not plucked or skinned, dried inside, and hung head upward. Milk is the most troublesome article in the larder, and really wants a little safe to itself. It “takes up” the slightest suspicion of taint, and becomes most objectionable without turning sour. City people, at any rate, should boil the milk as soon as it comes in, from April to December. Then it should be strained into a clean flat pan, which must be scalded and rinsed with, first, a little soda, and then clean water, every time it is used. It is a help to mistress and maid to have two pans--one brown, one white--to use on alternate days, so as to ensure time for purification. Country milk a little sour may be used for a pudding, or to make scones (½ pint to 1 lb. of oatmeal or brown meal, into which you have mixed ¼ oz. soda carbonate); but the milk which has been rattled about from 2 A.M. to 8 or 9 generally seems good for nothing when stale. In case of serious illness in hot weather, or when a young child’s nourishment is in question, ice is necessary. In default of “professional” apparatus, tie up as much ice as half a yard of flannel will hold, pass a stout lath through the string, and lay it across a metal tub; oval is more convenient than round. The ice will hang down and drip in the middle of the tub, and jugs of milk, bottles of soda water, or anything else will stand at the ends. Cover the tub, stick and all, with a thick board, and that with a damp, almost wet cloth. The milk may be boiled first, but must, of course, be cold before it is put with the ice. A damp cloth, without ice, keeps things much cooler than they are when uncovered. Cheese, uncut, only needs to be kept dry. After it is cut, it should be wrapped in a buttered paper scraped almost dry. Butter may be rendered less troublesome in summer by being covered with a huge flower-pot large enough to enclose the plate and rest in a tray in which there is some cold water. Leaving butter in water spoils it. Bread should be covered closely from the air. The pans want wiping once or twice a week, and then heating very hot; the bread must not be put in again until the pan is cold, nor warm bread ever covered up. Baker’s bread often acquires a most disagreeable smell and taste if these precautions are neglected.