Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

The time of boiling corn depends so much upon the age of the vegetable and the time that it has been picked that it is impossible to give a definite rule. Corn that is tender and freshly picked will cook in ten minutes. Some people cook it for only five, but that is hardly enough. When the corn is older it will take from fifteen to thirty minutes to cook. Remove the husks and the fine silk from the ears. Put the corn in a stew-pan with boiling water enough to cover it, and boil until done. Take it from the water, spread a napkin on a flat dish, and lay the corn on it. Draw the ends of the napkin up, so as to cover the corn. Serve at once. Sometimes the inner husks are left on the corn ; but the silk is of course removed. The corn may be served in the husks, or they may be removed after the corn is boiled. * Green Corn in Cream. Husk the corn, and boil it for ten minutes. Cool it a little. Draw a sharp knife down each row of kernels, thus cutting every kernel in two. Press the corn from the husks with the back of a knife. When all the corn is ready, put it in a saucepan, and to each pint add half a teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of sugar, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of pepper, one table-spoonful of butter, and three-fourths of a cupful of milk or cream. Simmer for ten minutes, and serve very hot. This is the most satisfactory mode of preparing the corn when it is at all old and hard. * Canned Corn. Put a can of corn in a stew-pan with three gills of milk, one teaspoonful each of salt and sugar, and one- fourth of a teaspoonful of pepper. Simmer for twenty minutes ; then add a generous table-spoonful of butter, and serve. * Lima Beans. These beans should stand in cold water for at least an hour before they are cooked, and at the time of cooking two quarts of boiling water should be allowed for each quart of beans. An hour's cooking probably will be sufficient. The beans should be seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter ; or white- or poulette sauce should be served with them. ; - Dried Lima beans, if used, should be soaked in cold water over night. Cook them for .two hours, and season them with salt and butter. * Succotash. Use a pint of shelled • beans, ten or a dozen ears of corn, half a pint of cream or niilk, two table-spoonfuls- of butter, one teaspoonful of salt, and one-fourth of a teaspoonful of pepper. Wash the beans, and boil them for an hour in clear water. Pour off the water at the end of that time, and put into the stew-pan a gill of boiling water, the milk or cream, and the corn cut from the cob. Heat the dish to the boiling-point, and then let it simmer for a quarter of an hour. After this time has passed, add the butter, salt, and pepper to the corn and beans ; then boil up once and serve. If the corn be fresh from the garden and very tender, from five to ten minutes' simmering will cook it sufficiently, whereas, if it be a trifle old, from twenty to thirty minutes' cooking may be required. * Escaloped Corn and Tomatoes.