Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

that it does not require greasing, and therefore there is no smoke nor odor from the cooking of the cakes, — a great consideration when the dining-room is located where the odors and smoke from the kitchen are likely to reach it. One objection to the soapstone griddle is that the cakes and muffins baked on it are not quite so tender as those baked on the iron griddle. Of iron griddles there are two kinds. First, there is the common one made of cast-iron, with very little polish. A good-sized griddle of this class can be bought for less than a dollar. Then there is a thick, highly polished kind, the surface looking like steel, which will cost three or four times as much. If one can afford it, it will pay to buy the better griddle. It is so thick and smooth that the heat is more uniform than on the thinner and cheaper iron. Cast-iron roll and gem pans are very heavy, and it takes some use to get them smooth; but they can be heated thoroughly before a mixture is put into them, — which at times is a great consideration, — and no difficulty arises when a thin mixture is used. The Kussianiron pans are not made tight, and cannot be used when the mixture is thin enough to run freely ; therefore, if a housekeeper can have but one kind of pan, it will be wise to have the cast-iron kind. A common short-handled cast-iron frying-pan that can be put in the oven, is a necessity. After a little [illustration: Frying-pan] service it becomes smooth, and is useful for hash, spider corn-cake, baked omelets, etc. There are three other varieties of frying-pans, which come in sets, and a housekeeper should have some of the pans in at least two sets. The most common is that called the French polished fry-pan, though it really is not a French pan. It is smooth, light, well made, and cheap. These pans may be used for various purposes. They are so smooth that the materials do not stick to them, and therefore there is little danger of burning. They are convenient to make sauces in, or for use in frying vegetables for soups or garnishes, or, indeed, for any kind of frying when the articles are not to be immersed in fat. They answer also for omeletpans. In brief, these pans are the most useful of all utensils. They are made in many sizes. The prices range from twenty cents upward. It will be found a good investment to get a set of these pans, beginning at zero, and going as high as No. 4 or 5. The regular French pans have much deeper sides, and are of finer finish. The objection to them is that the handles are rather short, which is especially inconvenient in making omelets. For an omelet-pan there is nothing in the market that compares with the pans of English hammered ware. They are very similar in shape to the French polished pans, but are much heavier, and the handles are longer. The marks of the hammer give the pans a rather rough appearance, but this roughness is not the slightest obstacle to perfect work. The only objection to the pans is the unfinished edges, which are sharp, and sometimes cut one's hands when washing them. The sizes and prices are about the same as those of the French polished pans.