Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Having had the shin-bone cracked, wash it, place it in the soup-kettle, and set it over a slow fire for about twenty minutes. Stir often. Now add the onions, sliced thin, and cook ten minutes longer, stirring frequently. Add the cold water, and when it comes to the boiling-point, skim. Simmer for two hours, and then add the carrot, turnip, and cabbage, all cut fine. Simmer two hours longer, and add the rice, potatoes, salt, and pepper. Cook one hour longer before serving. Barley may be used instead of rice ; but in that case it should be added with the cold water, as it requires a great deal of cooking. * Sago Soup. After freeing of fat all the bones that were left from a dish of roast beef, put them, with the tough, hard bits of meat, into the soup-kettle, together with a gallon of water, and boil gently for two hours ; then add half a cupful of sago, three cloves, a piece of stick cinnamon about three inches long, half a teaspoonful of pepper, one table-spoonful of salt, a large onion, two large slices of carrot, two of turnip, two of parsnip, two stalks of celery or a few leaves, a small leaf of sage, a sprig of parsley, one of thyme, and one of summer savory. Simmer gently for four hours. Taste to see if seasoned enough ; and if it be not, add salt and pepper. Mix two table-spoonfuls of corn-starch with a cupful of cold water, and stir into the soup. Cook half an hour longer ; then strain through a colander, and serve with strips of toasted bread. Mock Turtle Soup. The cooking must be begun the day before the soup will be wanted. A calf's head is one of the articles needed, but a part of it may be used for dishes other than the soup. The full list of materials required for six quarts of soup is as follows : A calf's head, a shin of veal weighing six pounds, an onion, two table-spoonfuls of chopped carrot, two of turnip, three stalks of celery if it may be had, a piece of stick cinnamon about three inches long, half a blade of mace, ten cloves, twenty pepper-corns, a bay leaf, a sprig of parsley, four tablespoonfuls of butter, six table-spoonfuls of arrowroot or corn-starch, one table-spoonful each of walnut, mushroom, and tomato ketchup (as ketchups vary in strength, more may be needed to give the soup the best possible flavor), two lemons, a quantity of cold water, a gill or more of Port, some salt and pepper, and, if one choose, some egg or force-meat balls. It may seem as if six quarts of soup were too large a quantity to make at one time ; therefore it may be well to say, in explanation, that a calf's head is sufficient for that quantity, and half of a head cannot be bought. Bear in mind that if all the soup be not wanted at one meal, the remainder will be good if warmed again. Have the butcher split and scrape the calf's head, and saw the bone of the shin of veal into several parts. Wash all carefully. Put the head into a large pan, and after covering it with cold water, soak it for two hours.