The housekeeper's companion

Good New England Coffee. — For a family of six, take six large tablespoonfuls of best Java coffee, well browned and ground (not too fine), beat into it half an egg and one cup of cold water. After it is thoroughly beaten, let it stand half an hour well covered. Then put into coffee-pot, pour oti two and a half quarts of boiling water and put on the stove; stir once or twice at first, to prevent burning. Let it scald fifteen or twenty minutes. If desired to be very nice, beat up eight instead of six tablespoonfuls of coffee; put six in the pot to boil for twenty minutes, and about five minutes before it is done, throw in the rest and cover quickly. Cream and Milk for Coffee. — Sweet, rich cream, well beaten to free from lumps, is best for coffee, but boiling fresh milk is a good substitute. The white of an egg, thoroughly beaten and added (California coffee) to thin cream or rich milk, is also very fine. Tea. — ^Tea is made variously as the taste of people require. Black, green, Japan, and English breakfast, all require different methods. For green or Japan tea, scald the tea-pot and allow from one-half to one teaspoonful for each person, as the strength of the herb may indicate. Pour over this one-half a cup of boiling water, steep in a hot place (but do not let it boil) ten minutes, then turn in water at a keen boil, in proportion one quart to every three persons. English Breakfast, or Oolong. — Take two teaspoonfuls for three persons, and proceed as above, only letting the tea boil for ten minutes. An English gentleman, whose tea was quite famous, put it to steep in cold water, as soon as the one o'clock dinner was over, and left it steeping until supper time, when it was brought to a boil. Others put it on to steep when the fire is made for supper, and let it stand until the meal is announced; served boiling hot. Iced Tea. — To each glass of tea add the juice of half a lemon; fill up the glass with pounded ice, and sweeten. Chocolate. — Four heaping tablespoonfuls grated chocolate, one of sugar, and wet with one of boiling water; rub this smooth. Then stir into one pint of boiling water; then add one pint of boiling milk. Let this boil three minutes. It is greatly improved by milling, while boiling, with a Dover eggbeater. If desired sweet, add to the boiling milk one heaping teaspoonful of sugar. A dainty addition is two tablespoonfuls of whipped cream, that has been sweetened and flavored with vanilla, laid on the top of each cup. Stock and Seasoning.— The preparation called stock is, for some inscrutable reason, a stumbling-block to average cooks, and even by experienced housekeepers is often looked upon as troublesome and expensive. Where large amounts of fresh meat are used in its preparation, the latter adjective might be appropriate; but stock in reality is the only mode by which every scrap of bone or meat, whether cooked or uncooked, can be made to yield the last particle of nourishment contained in it. Properly .prepared and strained into a stone jar, it will keep a week, and is useful in the making of hashes and gravies as in soup itself.