Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Pare, and chop rather coarse, enough cold boiled potatoes to make a quart. Put them into a stew-pan with one teaspoonful of flour, one of salt, and one-fourth of a teaspoonful of pepper. Mix these materials lightly, and add a scant pint of sweet milk. Set the stew-pan into another containing boiling water, and cook the mixture until it gets boiling hot, — say about twelve minutes; then add a table-spoonful of butter, and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley. Remove the stew-pan from the water, and set it where its contents will boil up once. Taste, to be sure that there is enough seasoning ; then serve. * Potatoes au TGratin. Butter a gratin dish or a stone-china platter, and spread upon it a quart of cold potatoes cut into cubes. Dredge well with salt and pepper, and sprinkle a teaspoonful of fine-chopped parsley over the dish. Cover with a pint of cream sauce, and place in the oven for ten or twelve minutes. In that time the potatoes should become slightly browned. Serve at once. To Make the Sauce. — Put two table-spoonfuls of butter into the frying-pan, and when melted, add a table-spoonful of flour. Stir until the mixture is smooth and frothy ; then draw back to a cooler part of the stove, and gradually add a pint of milk. Season with salt and pepper, and boil for a moment. Hashed and Browned Potatoes. For six people use one quart of cold boiled potatoes, cut into cubes, two table-spoonfuls of butter, one of flour, a level table-spoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, and one cupful of stock. Sprinkle half the salt and pepper on the potatoes. Put one table-spoonful of the butter on the stove in a frying-pan, and when it becomes hot, put in the flour. Stir until smooth and brown; then gradually add the stock and the remaining salt and pepper. Cook for three minutes ; then add the potatoes, and cook for five minutes, stirring three or four times with a fork, and being careful not to break them. Now put the second table-spoonful of butter on the stove in another frying-pan, and when it becomes hot, turn the potatoes into this pan, spreading them lightly. Cook for ten minutes on a rather hot part of the stove, being careful that they do not get burned. When the mixture becomes browned, fold it like an omelet, and turn out on a hot dish. It is better to have the potatoes a little under-boiled for this dish, as they will keep their shape. Follow the rule carefully. * Hashed and Browned Potatoes, in Cream Sauce. Use for six persons one quart of cold boiled potatoes, cut into cubes, one slice of onion, two sprigs of parsley, one slice of carrot, three table-spoonfuls of butter, one level table-spoonful of salt, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of pepper, two scant table-spoonfuls of flour, one pint of milk, and one cupful of grated bread crumbs. Beat the flour and two table-spoonfuls of the butter together, in a saucepan. Add the onion, parsley, carrot, and half the salt and pepper. Heat the milk, and pour it gradually upon the contents of the saucepan ; then set the pan on the stove. When the milk begins to boil, set the pan back where the milk will only simmer for five minutes.