Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

In order to make a timbale large enough for eight persons, use eight large potatoes, one table-spoonful of salt, four table-spoonfuls of butter, half a teaspoonful of white pepper, three eggs, one cupful of hot milk, and one-third of a cupful of crumbs. Pare the potatoes, and, putting them into a stew-pan with boiling water enough to cover them, cook them for half an hour. Put the milk on to heat. Pour all the water from the potatoes, and mash them until fine and light. Add half the butter and all the salt and pepper. Beat the mixture a little, and gradually add the milk, beating all the time. Finally add the eggs, well beaten. Butter a charlotte mould or any other plain mould with the remaining two spoonfuls of butter, and sprinkle the bottom and sides with the crumbs, having as many as possible cling to the butter. Pack the mould with the potato, and place in a moderate oven for half an hour. Let it stand for ten minutes after it comes from the oven ; then turn out the contents very gently on a flat dish. * Potato Balls. With a vegetable-scoop, cut two quarts of balls out of raw potatoes, and put them into cold water. A quarter of an hour before serving-time, put them into a saucepan with boiling water enough to cover, and cook for twelve minutes. After pouring off all the water, dredge the balls with salt, and let them stand on the back of the range to dry off. * Potato Balls with Cream Sauce. Pare a number of large round potatoes, and cut balls from them with a vegetable-scoop. A dozen potatoes will give about sixty balls, if the largest scoop be used. Cover the balls with boiling water, and cook them twelve minutes ; then pour off the water, and add to the balls a pint of boiling milk. Into this stir two table-spoonfuls of butter mixed with one of flour, and also a seasoning of salt and pepper. Boil up once, and serve. A teaspoonful of chopped parsley improves the appearance of the dish. There is another nice mode of serving potato balls. When all the water has been drained from them, add a teaspoonful of lemon juice, half a teaspoonful of salt one-quarter of a teaspoonful of white pepper, and three table-spoonfuls of butter, mixed with one teaspoonful of chopped parsley. This mode is particularly nice when the potato balls are to accompany some dish of fish. There should be no delay in serving. • * Potato Cakes. These are made by shaping into small flat cakes cold mashed potatoes left from a previous meal, putting them on a buttered tin, spreading them lightly with soft butter, and placing them in a hot oven for a quarter of an hour. Serve at once. * Roasted Potatoes. If the cooking be perfect, roasted potatoes are an excellent accompaniment of roast beef ; but if it be faulty, and the potatoes come from the oven hard and dry, this mode of cooking is not likely to be a favorite. The potatoes should be large. Pare them, and cover with boiling water; and after fifteen minutes' cooking, take them out and drain them. Now put them into the dripping-pan containing the roast beef, and cook for twenty-five minutes. Baste several times with the beef gravy. Serve the potatoes as a garnish around the roast. * Saratoga Potatoes.