acon, sausages, &c., should be dry fried. Chops and steaks, too, are
often dry fried, but they are best when broiled; and of broiling I must
speak to you another day."

"We shall easily remember that wet frying is using plenty of fat, and
dry frying is using very little fat," said Mary.

"Of course you will. And now for the kind of fat you are to use. There
are four kinds of fat used in frying--dripping, oil, butter, and lard.
Of these, dripping is the best and lard is the worst."

"But please, ma'am, lard is generally used, is it not?" said Mary,
looking astonished.

"Indeed it is," replied Mrs. Herbert, "and this is the mistake which is
made. Those who do not know have a great scorn for dripping. They sell
it for a small sum to get it out of the way, and when they have done so
they buy lard. Yet lard is more apt to make food taste greasy than any
fat which can be used."

"What is the dripping made from, then?" said Margaret.

"From little odds and ends of fat, either cooked or uncooked, left from
joints, and 'rendered,' that is, melted down; also from the fat which is
skimmed from the top of the water in which meat is boiled. I should like
you little folk to remember that one of the surest signs of cleverness
in cookery is that nothing is wasted, and one of the most certain ways
of preventing waste is to look after the fat. A good cook will not allow
as much as half an inch of fat to be wasted. She will collect the scraps
together and melt them down gently, and so she will never need to buy."

"Just as cook has put those pieces of fat together there, ready for us
to melt down?"

"Yes; and now we will go on to render them down, shall we? First we cut
them up in very small pieces. We then put them into an old, but
perfectly clean, saucepan, with a quarter of a pint of water to each
pound of fat. We then put the lid on the saucepan, and boil gently for
about an hour, or till the water has boiled away, when we take the lid
off, and stew the fat again until the pieces acquire a slight colour,
when the fat is ready to be strained through a jar. We must not forget
to stir the fat occasionally, to keep it from burning, and also to let
it cool slightly before straining, for fear of accident; for boiling fat
is very hot, more than twice as hot as boiling water."

"Supposing we have no pieces of fat, mother, what shall we do then?"

"We must buy some. Those who like beef fat will find ox flare excellent
for the purpos