Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Peel the onions, and boil them in plenty of water for one hour ; adding to eight onions, in the last half -hour, one table-spoonful of salt. Pour off the water at the end of the hour. Add enough milk to cover the onions ; then simmer for half an hour longer. At the end of that time put them in a dish, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add a table-spoonful of butter and a gill of the milk in which they were boiled. Unless milk be plentiful, it need not be used. The potatoes should be pared, and then soaked in cold water for an hour. Put them into a kettle, cover them with boiling water, and cook for half an hour. They should not be boiled rapidly. When they have been cooking for fifteen minutes, add salt in the proportion of a table-spoonful for every dozen potatoes. When these vegetables are done, drain off every drop of water. If the potatoes must wait a little time before serving, lay a coarse towel over them, and place the stew-pan on the back part of the stove, where its contents will keep hot. Making Pork Scraps. Pork scraps are made by cutting salt pork into cubes and frying them slowly for twenty minutes. At the end of that time draw the pan forward where the heat is greater. Stir the pork until it becomes brown and crisp ; then take from the fire at once. At serving-time make very hot. » Egg Sauce. Egg sauce is made by beating together half a cupful of butter and a table- spoonful of flour ; adding half a pint of boiling water ; setting the saucepan on the fire, and stirring until the sauce begins to boil ; immediately drawing the saucepan back, and adding half a teaspoonful of salt and half a salt-spoonful of white pepper ; chopping two hard-boiled eggs rather fine, — doing it with a plated knife or spoon, — and adding them to the mixture already prepared. Serving the Dinner. The fish, vegetables, and sauces being cooked, the dinner should be served in dishes which you are particular to have warm. There will be needed one large platter, four vegetable-dishes, and two sauce-boats. Place the whole fish, skin side up, on the platter, and garnish it with carrot, beet, and parsley. Dish the vegetables, and send everything to the table hot. In serving the fish slip the knife under the skin, and fold the skin back. Cut out a handsome piece of fish, and serve with either egg sauce or pork scraps. The fish may be skinned before it is sent to the table, but it will not keep so hot. Any fish left from the meal may be used for fish-balls or hash. If any beets be left, take them for a salad or pickle. Sometimes they are chopped fine and added to fish-balls or hash. Egg sauce and pork scraps often are disposed of in the same way. IN this chapter are given a few simple dishes for breakfast and tea. But they form only a small proportion of the entire number of this kind contained in the book. In the chapters on " Dishes of Eggs " and " Cheese Dishes " there are many good things for the breakfast and supper table, not to speak of various receipts elsewhere. * Peach Short-cake.