When meat is frozen it should be brought into the kitchen and laid at some distance from the fire, early in the morning; or soak the meat in cold water two or three hours before it is used; putting it near the fire, or into warm water, till thawed, should be avoided. Meats become tenderer and more digestible, as well as better flavoured by hanging. In summer two days is enough for lamb and veal, and from three to four for beef and mutton. In cold weather, the latter may be kept for double that time. Legs and shoulders should be hung _knuckle downwards_. An effectual way of excluding the fly is by using a wire meat-safe, or by covering the joints with a long loose gauze or some thin cloth, and hanging them from the ceiling of an airy room. Pepper and ginger should be sprinkled on the parts likely to be attacked by the fly, but should be washed off before the joint is put to the fire. A larder should always be placed on the north side of the house; the window may be closed with canvas, but wire is preferable. There should be a thorough draft of air through the room. Articles that are likely to spoil should not be kept in or laid upon wood. Warm, moist weather is the worse for keeping meat; the south wind is very unfavourable, and lightning very destructive; so that after their occurrence meat should be especially examined. BOILING.—This is the most simple of all processes of cooking. Regularity and attention to time are the main secrets. Much less heat is requisite to keep liquids boiling in copper and iron saucepans than in those made of tin. There is frequently a great waste of fuel in cooking, which arises from boiling liquids fast, when they only require to boil slowly. Count Rumford (the inventor of the Rumford stove) states, that more than half the fuel used in kitchens is wasted in the above manner. It is a sad waste to put fuel under a boiling pot. There is a degree of heat in water called the boiling point; and all the coals or wood in the world cannot make water hotter in an open vessel; _it can but boil_. By this waste, the cook not only loses time but spoils the cookery. The average time for boiling fresh meat is from eighteen to twenty minutes for every pound: thus, a joint weighing six pounds will require from one hour and three-quarters to two hours boiling. Salted meat requires rather more boiling, and water; fresh killed meat longer time: and all meats longer in cold than warm weather. It is, however, better to be guided, for time, by the thickness of the joint than by its weight. Dried or salted fish and meats require soaking in cold water before boiling. Meat and poultry will lose their flavour and firmness, if left in the water after they are done; as will also fish, which will break to pieces. The water in which fish, meat, or poultry has been boiled, should be saved; this pot-liquor, as it is called, may be made into soup.