Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Rinse the shrimps in cold water, and sprinkle them with salt and pepper, using about a generous teaspoonful of salt and a fourth as much pepper. Put the cream on the stove in the double-boiler. Rub the flour and butter together until creamy ; and when the pint of cream begins to boil, stir this mixture into it. Add the cayenne, some salt, and the shrimps, and taste the mixture to satisfy yourself that there is seasoning enough. Turn into one large escalop dish or several small shells. There will be fish and sauce enough to fill a dozen of the common-sized plated or china shells. Cover with the bread crumbs, place in a pan, and set in a hot oven. It will take about a quarter of an hour to cook them. The pan should be raised from the bottom of the oven, so that the top of the dish shall be subjected to greater heat than the bottom ; the object being to brown the crumbs without letting the sauce get so hot as to bubble. When it is possible to brown the dish under the grate or in a gas-broiler, it is better to do that than to put the dish into the oven, if the shrimps are to be cooked in the shell. Great or long-continued heat at the bottom is apt to make the dish less creamy, and to mar its appearance by causing the sauce to boil over at the edge. This is true of all escaloped dishes. Terrapin. One of the most popular dishes at fashionable dinners and suppers is terrapin stew. Gentlemen usually are especially fond of it. In some parts of the country only the rich can indulge in it ; but as the fish are abundant in many sections at some seasons, it is well that more should be known about them. Terrapin are found from Rhode Island to the Gulf of Mexico. They vary considerably in size and quality in different localities. In the fall and winter the finest cost from twenty-five to fifty dollars a dozen in the Northern markets ; at times, however, they may be had for about one-fourth of that sum. In the South they are comparatively cheap, and are usually larger than those found in the Northern markets. In winter terrapin often are kept in pens for weeks or months. The flesh is not so good after such captivity. Rough, hard spots will be found upon the under shells of terrapin that have been penned. The female is the more desirable, being larger and tenderer. There are two modes of killing terrapin. In the North, if the fish be small, the common way is to plunge them into boiling water, like lobsters. In the South the heads are cut off and the fish put in cold water for about half an hour, in order to draw out the blood. After boiling the terrapin, the work is finished in much the same way everywhere. The time of boiling varies with the age of the fish. If they be very young they may be cooked in half an hour, but when old they require about two hours' cooking to make them tender. Here is a good rule for cooking and cleaning: —