If it be practicable, get a friend in the country to procure you a quantity of lard, butter, and eggs, at the time they are cheapest, to be put down for winter use.  You will be likely to get them cheaper and better than in the city market; but by all means put down your winter’s stock.  Lard requires no other care than to be kept in a dry, cool place.  Butter is sweetest in September and June; because food is then plenty, and not rendered bitter by frost.  Pack your butter in a clean, scalded firkin, cover it with strong brine, and spread a cloth all over the top, and it will keep good until the Jews get into Grand Isle.  If you happen to have a bit of salt-petre, dissolve it with the brine.  Dairy-women say that butter comes more easily, and has a peculiar hardness and sweetness, if the cream is scalded and strained before it is used.  The cream should stand down cellar over night, after being scalded, that it may get perfectly cold.

Suet and lard keep better in tin than in earthen.

Suet keeps good all the year round, if chopped and packed down in a stone jar, covered with molasses.

Pick suet free from veins and skin, melt it in water before a moderate fire, let it cool till it forms into a hard cake, then wipe it dry, and put it in clean paper in linen bags.

Preserve the backs of old letters to write upon.  If you have children who are learning to write, buy coarse white paper by the quantity, and keep it locked up, ready to be made into writing books.  It does not cost half as much as it does to buy them at the stationer’s.

Do not let coffee and tea stand in tin.  Scald your wooden ware often; and keep your tin ware dry.

When mattresses get hard and bunchy, rip them, take the hair out, pull it thoroughly by hand, let it lie a day or two to air, wash the tick, lay it in as light and even as possible, and catch it down, as before.  Thus prepared, they will be as good as new.

It is poor economy to buy vinegar by the gallon, Buy a barrel, or half a barrel, of really strong vinegar, when you begin house-keeping.  As you use it, fill the barrel with old cider, sour beer, or wine-settlings, &c., left in pitchers, decanters or tumblers; weak tea is likewise said to be good:  nothing is hurtful, which has a tolerable portion of spirit, or acidity.  Care must be taken not to add these things in too large quantities, or too often:  if the vinegar once gets weak, it is difficult to restore it.  If possible, it is well to keep such slops as I have mentioned in a different keg, and draw them off once in three or four weeks, in such a quantity as you think the vinegar will bear.  If by any carelessness you do weaken it, a few white beans dropped in, or white paper dipped in molasses, is said to be useful.  If beer grows sour, it may be used to advantage for pancakes and fritters.  If very sour indeed, put a pint of molasses and water to it, and, two or three days after, put a half pint of vinegar; and in ten days it will be first rate vinegar.