Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Chop a quart of clams rather fine, and putting them into the soup-pot with a quart of chicken stock, simmer for an hour. Cut an onion fine, and put it into a small frying-pan with three table-spoonfuls of butter. Cook slowly for a quarter of an hour, being careful not to brown ; then draw the onion to the side of the pan, and after pressing out all the butter, put the onion into the soup-pot with the clams. Put two table-spoonfuls of flour into the butter remaining in the small frying-pan, and stir until smooth and frothy ; then stir this mixture into the soup. Add a bay leaf, a sprig of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a blade of mace, a table-spoonful of salt, and a quarter of a teaspoonful of white pepper. Simmer for ten minutes ; then remove the herbs and spice, and rub the soup through a puree sieve. Return to the souppot, and heat to the boiling-point. Add a pint of cream ; and when the bisque has been once again heated to the boiling-point, put it back until serving-time. Beat the yolks of four eggs thoroughly, and add a pint of cold cream to them. Draw the soup forward, and let it boil. Stir the new mixture into it, and cook for two minutes, stirring all the while. Taste, to be sure that there is enough seasoning ; and if there be not enough, add salt and pepper. Serve immediately. This soup must not boil after the yolks of the eggs are added. Toasted crackers or toasted bread may be served with it, but it is so delicate that the accompaniments should be prepared very carefully, or omitted. Crab-and-Tomato Bisque. Use for this soup one quart of milk, one pint of cooked and strained tomatoes, half a pint of crab meat, two table-spoonfuls of flour, two of butter, one teaspoonful and a half of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, and a scant half-teaspoonful of soda. Put the milk, except half a cupful, on the stove in a double-boiler. Mix the cold milk with the flour, and stir into the boiling milk. Cook for ten minutes. Put the tomatoes on to cook in a saucepan. When they have been boiling for five minutes, stir in the soda ; and continue stirring until there is no froth on the vegetable. Strain the tomatoes, and add to them the butter, salt, and pepper. Add the crab meat to the mixture of milk and flour, and after cooking for three minutes, stir the contents of the double-boiler into the stew-pan. Serve at once. When it is inconvenient to use fresh crab meat, canned meat may be taken instead. Crab Bisque. * For eight persons use eighteen hard-shell crabs, one quart of chicken or veal stock, one quart of cream, one pint of stale bread, free of crust, two table-spoonfuls of butter, one of flour, one small slice of carrot, one large slice of onion, two bay leaves, one stalk of celery, a sprig of parsley, a bit of mace, a slight grating of nutmeg, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of white pepper, one-tenth of a teaspoonful of cayenne, and three teaspoonfuls of salt. Put half of the meat of the crabs and all of the claws into a stew-pan. Add the spice, vegetables, herbs, and half the stock, and place the pan where its contents will simmer gently for forty minutes. Ten minutes later put the bread and the remaining stock into another stew-pan, and set the pan where its contents will simmer gently for thirty minutes.