Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches

large stone jar, put in the eggs, and cover the jar closely. See that the eggs are always well covered with the lime-water, and lest they should break, avoid moving the jar. If you have hens of your own, keep a jar of lime-water always ready, and put in the eggs as they are brought in from the nests. Jars that hold about six quarts are the most convenient. It will be well to renew the lime-water occasionally. TO BOIL EGGS FOR BREAKFAST. The fresher they are the longer time they will require for boiling. If you wish them quite soft, put them into a sauce-pan of water that is boiling hard at the moment, and let them remain in it five minutes. The longer they boil the harder they will be. In ten minutes' fast boiling they will be hard enough for salad. If you use one of the tin egg-boilers that are placed on the table, see that the water is boiling hard at the time you put in the eggs. When they have been in about four or five minutes, take them out, pour off the water, and replace it by some more that is boiling hard; as, from the coldness of the eggs having chilled the first water, they will not otherwise be done enough. The boiler may then be placed on the table, (keeping the lid closed,) and in a few minutes more they will be sufficiently cooked to be wholesome. TO POACH EGGS. Pour some boiling water out of a tea kettle through a clean cloth spread over the top of a broad stew-pan; for by observing this process the eggs will be nicer and more easily done than when its impurities remain in the water. Set the pan with the strained water on hot coals, and when it boils break each egg separately into a saucer. Remove the pan from the fire, and slip the eggs one by one into the surface of the water. Let the pan stand till the white of the eggs is set; then place it again on the