of opening sardines, and have never experienced any inconvenience whatever? The simple reason is that the sardines are preserved in oil, and that the oil prevents the action of the air on the metal. To explain my meaning, you may try the following experiment:—Take two bright knives; dip one in water and the other in thick oil. Leave the two knives for three or four days. The one dipped in water will be covered with rust, owing to the action of the air on the metal (perhaps some of you are sufficiently acquainted with chemistry to know what I mean by saying that the metal oxidises); the knife that has been dipped in oil, on being wiped, will be found as bright as it was before, owing to the action of the air being prevented on the metal by the oil. Space will not allow of my giving a list of all the nice little delicacies that are now preserved in tins, but I will mention a few—potted beef, ham, tongue, chicken, turkey, etc. Then there are pork patties in tins, savoury patties, Oxford brawn, while, if you wish to have what may be termed higher class delicacies, there is _paté de foie gras_, as well as truffled woodcock, lark, snipe, plover, partridges, quails, etc., all of which are sold in tins, the tins being rather more than half-a-crown a piece. If we take one of these tins and open it in the ordinary manner, leaving the tin half on as a lid, it is by no means an elegant-looking dish, whereas if we cut the tin entirely round the edge and take the top off, then make a little hole the other side in order to let the air get in, we can turn the whole of the contents of the tin out in a shape exactly as we could turn jelly out of a copper mould. The tin of potted beef, if that is what we have, can be turned out on an ornamental piece of paper placed in the middle of a dish. The dish can then be ornamented with a little bright green parsley, and a little cut lemon, and can be made to look really appetising. In fact, there is no more excuse for sending potted meat to table in the tin than there would be for sending a mould of jelly to table in the mould. What would you say if you were asked out to a dinner were the man to hand round the mould of jelly in the mould, and you were to scoop it out with a spoon? and yet this is what you have virtually done over and over again at breakfast. [Illustration: IN THE KITCHEN.] I will now give you a list of the different kinds of soups that can be obtained in tins, and will explain how to make brown roux, which is used for improving every kind of thick soup, and also show how thin soups may be improved. The following soups may be obtained in tins: real turtle soup, game, grouse, oyster, hare, chicken broth, giblet, hotch potch, kidney, mulligatawny, mock turtle, ox cheek, ox tail (thick and clear), tomato, cressy, gravy, green pea, julienne, mutton broth, Palestine, bouilli, vegetable, venison, and vermicelli.