Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Draw and clean a fowl weighing about five pounds. Remove the greater part of the fat. Cut the fowl into small pieces, and place it in a stew-pan, adding three pints of cold water. Place it on the fire, and heat slowly to the boiling-point. Skim carefully, and set back where it will simmer for three hours. At the end of that time add one small slice of carrot, one-fourth of a small onion, and one clove. Cook for half an hour longer, and then strain. Put the liquid in a cool place. When cold, skim off the fat. The liquid, when chilled, should be a firm jelly. Essence of chicken is used in making rich sauces and ragouts. A few spoonfuls of it are added to a sauce to give it increased smoothness and body. The cooked fowl used in making the essence may be served with a sauce. . . THIS is a branch of cookery which every housekeeper should understand perfectly. There are many simple sauces which can be made quickly .and of materials always at hand ; but for fine sauces there must be rich, clear stock, and a long, slow process of preparation. When a sauce is desired clear, smooth, and velvety, the saucepan must be placed on a part of the stove where the sauce will bubble at only one side. The saucepan must not be covered. In two hours' time the sauce will " clear," as it is termed ; that is, the butter will have separated from the other ingredients and will float on top, the flour and other ingredients will have combined and dissolved, and the sauce will have a semitransparent appearance. All fine sauces, such as Spanish, supreme, mushroom, etc., must be cleared in this manner. When cooking butter and flour together for a thickening, be sure, tthat the butter is hot before the flour is added. When the flour is added, be sure to stir constantly until the liquid is added. If the sauce is to be white, the liquid must be added to the butter and flour before the mixture begins to brown,—that is, while it is still frothy. When the sauce is to be brown, the flour and butter must be cooked together until as brown as a chestnut. These preparations of butter and flour are termed brown and white roux, although as roux really means "russet," it can hardly be applied with propriety to a white thickening. One of the mistakes of the inexperienced cook in making a sauce with a thickening of butter and flour cooked together is that the liquid is added to the thickening before the temperature has been lowered. The pan in which the butter and flour are cooked should be drawn back to a cool part of the range, and the mixture should be stirred until partially cooled ; then may be added gradually the liquid, which should be cold, or nearly so, whenever possible. It should be remembered that a sauce must cook long enough to clear and have the butter separate and come to the top, where it can be skimmed off; or that the sauce should not boil more than ten minutes from the time the liquid is added. When a sauce is cooked less than ten minutes the butter does not separate from the other ingredients. Longer cooking causes the butter partially to separate from the other materials ; this makes the sauce greasy unless the cooking be continued long enough to make the separation complete.