Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

After splitting six Boston butter crackers, soak them in cold water until they begin to swell ; then remove them from the water, and drain them on a plate. Butter the bottom of a flat baking-pan very lightly. Spread the crackers in this pan, crust side down, and put them in a hot oven for ten minutes. In that time they should turn a delicate brown. Remove them from the oven, butter them lightly, place them on a warm dish, and serve at once. It makes the crackers richer, of course, to soak them in milk instead of water. They are very nice served with oyster soup, panned oysters, fricasseed oysters, oysters in the shell, and oysters sauté*. The crackers may be toasted over the tire instead of in the oven. * French Toast. Cut from a loaf of baker's bread a dozen slices about one-third of an inch thick. Beat together two eggs and one-fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, and add a cupful and a half of milk. Put a part of the mixture in a soup plate, and dip a few slices of bread into it ; and continue adding a little mixture and dipping the slices until all the mixture has been used. Spread the bread on a platter, and let it stand for half an hour. At the end of that time rub the bars of a toaster lightly with butter, and toast the bread brown on both sides. Send to the table very hot. * Toasted Pilot Bread. Pilot bread is the large water cracker commonly used on board ships. It is hard, but has a sweet, nutty flavor. For six persons use eight or ten crackers. Put them in a dish, and cover with cold water. Let them soak for a quarter of an hour ; then remove them from the water, and spread on a large platter. They should stand for at least an hour or two. At supper-time butter the bars of a toaster and toast the crackers — a few at a time • — until they turn a delicate brown. Spread lightly with butter, and serve at once. Instead of using a toaster, the crackers may be put in a large baking-pan and set in a hot oven for ten minutes ; then buttered and served. These toasted crackers are especially good with broiled salt fish. Puff Paste. NEARLY all cooks and housekeepers find it a difficult thing to learn to make puff paste. Not that the work is complicated, but because there must be great delicacy and rapidity of touch. In the hundreds of rules given in the cook-books of all countries, the principles are the same, — a pound of butter to a pound of flour, with variations in the way of lemon juice, sugar, or egg given in one, and omitted in another. In making puff paste the object is to get as many distinct layers as possible. Each layer should be as thin as a sheet of note-paper. To insure this result, all the materials and utensils used must be very cold, and the work should be done in a cool room. The butter should be of good quality, and the flour, when possible, be made by the old process, or what is called "half-high milling." This flour is used a good deal at the West and Southwest. Flour made by the new, or high-milling, process is too granular to make perfect puff paste. Many cooks, however, say that they can make puff paste quite as good with the new as with the old-process flour. The writer's experience leads her strongly to recommend using only the pastry flour or the "half-high milling."