Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

When the hour for cooking the croquettes comes, form the mixture into balls or cylinders, using about a tablespoonful for each. Sprinkle a board lightly with crumbs, and roll the croquettes into perfect shapes on it. Next pour the beaten egg into a soup-plate. Lay the croquettes in the plate, one at a time, and with a spoon dip up some of the egg mixture and pour it over each croquette. Lift the croquette by slipping a knife under it, and place it on a thick bed of crumbs. Roll it lightly until every part is covered with crumbs; then roll it to a clean part of the board. When all are finished, make the sauce, the receipt for which is given on the next page. Butter the bottom of a shallow cake-pan. Put a thin layer of the sauce in the bottom ; then lay the croquettes in the pan, being careful that they do not touch each other. Baste them with the sauce, and then put the pan into a very hot oven. Cook until brown, — say for ten minutes. At the end of the first five minutes baste again with the sauce. Serve on a hot dish, with the remaining sauce poured around them. If the croquettes are for breakfast, all the work except the baking may be done the day before. These croquettes may be put into a frying-basket instead of a pan, and kept in boiling fat for a minute and a half, when they will be found to be perfectly brown and much more creamy than when baked. But people who do not relish fried food, or cannot digest it easily, may find baked croquettes very palatable. Brown Sauce for Croquettes. — Put two table-spoonfuls of butter into a frying-pan with one slice of onion, one of carrot, one clove, and a bay leaf. Cook all together until the butter begins to turn brown ; then add one table-spoonful of dry flour, and stir until it turns dark brown. Now draw the pan back, and gradually add one generous cupful of stock. Add also a level teaspoonful of salt and one-fifth of a teaspoonful of pepper. Cook for five minutes j then strain, and it will be ready for use. Aspic de Foie Gras, This should be made in a small round or oval border mould, although any mould will do. For one of the smallest jars of foie gras, use half the rule for aspic jelly, one truffle, and the white of one hard-boiled egg. Place the mould in a pan, and surround it with ice and a little water. Pour the liquid jelly into the mould to the depth of half an inch. Let this stand until it hardens ; then decorate it with the white of the egg and the truffle, which have been cut in thin slices and stamped out with fancy vegetable cutters. Moisten these with a little liquid jelly, and let them stand about ten minutes, so that the jelly may harden and hold them in place. Next gently pour in another layer of jelly, about one-fourth of an inch thick ; let this harden. Scrape all the fat from the foie gras, and dip it for half a minute into hot water. Wipe it dry, and cut it in slices and then in pieces about an inch square. Spread a layer of these over the congealed jelly ; cover this with liquid jelly, and wait until the jelly begins to harden before adding the second layer of foie gras.