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Some Kitchen Kinks: Tarragon

Tarragon Vinegar.

Strip about three ounces of leaves from the branches of tarragon; put into a quart fruit jar and fill with good vinegar. Close and let stand for about twenty days, then strain.

The best vinegar to use for this purpose is white wine vinegar, but good cider vinegar will also answer. The best time to make tarragon vinegar is about the last of August, when the plants are large and vigorous.

Tarragon vinegar may be used for salads and sharp sauces, when the fresh herb is not available.

Butter with Vegetables.

It is almost universally conceded that vegetables require the addition of fat in order that they may be at their best, and there is no fat which is so suitable as butter for the majority of vegetables, judged by the texture of the dish and also by the flavor.

The American housekeeper has a way of looking upon the use of butter, milk, cream, and eggs in the preparation of vegetables, soups, and sauces as if these ingredients were simply "trimmings" and not food.

But it should be remembered that these articles are valuable foods and naturally increase the food value of the dish of which they form a part.

They are all wholesome, and, although almost always more expensive than the vegetable foods with which they are combined, their use in reasonable quantities is certainly to be recommended.

Increasing the cost of the dish by the free use of butter, cream, etc., APPENDIX may after all be economy if the increase is intelligently made, and the vegetable soups, purées, etc., made "hearty" as well as appetizing by the addition of butter, eggs, etc., are combined with smaller quantities of meat and with light and simple desserts.

Savory Drippings.

As a substitute for butter in seasoning vegetables there is nothing better than sweet, savory drippings. Not all meats supply fats that are savory in the sense in which the word is employed here. The following fats may be employed alone or in combination for seasoning vegetables: The fat from fried sausages, ham, bacon, and pork, and from roast pork, veal, and chicken. Fats trimmed from poultry, veal, pork, and ham may be fried out carefully and saved for use in cooking vegetables. Such fats have a flavor which comes from seasoning, as in sausage, from smoke, as in ham and bacon, or from brown material, as in roast meat. The fat skimmed from the water in which poultry has been boiled and the fats skimmed from the gravies of most roast meats may be clarified and also employed in the preparation of vegetables for the table. Great care must be taken that all these fats are clean and sweet, and that the temperature at which they are fried out shall not be so high as to impair the flavor. Burned or scorched fat is not only unpleasant in flavor, but is a frequent cause of indigestion.

When rendering the trimmings of fat meat, add a small onion or a shallot (do not cut them), a few leaves of summer savory and thyme, a teaspoonful of salt, and a little pepper. This seasoning is enough for half a pint of fat. Keep the drippings covered, and in a cool, dry place.