Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

If the family consist of eight or ten persons, a quart of dry pea beans will be sufficient to cook. Use also a pound of salt pork, a table-spoonful of molasses, a generous table-spoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of mustard, and one-fourth of a teaspoonful of soda. Examine the beans carefully, removing all that are not good, and all foreign substances ; then wash them carefully. Let them soak over night in a pan containing two gallons of cold water. In the morning pour off this water, and rinse the beans in cold water ; then put them in a stew-pan with six quarts of cold water. Score the rind of the pork, cutting it into little squares, and being careful not to cut deeper than the rind. Put the pork into the stew-pan with the beans, and set on the stove. Heat slowly to the boiling-point, and simmer for a quarter of an hour from the time they begin to boil. At the end of the fifteen minutes turn the beans into a colander, and drain off all the water. Pour cold water over them to rinse them thoroughly. Put half the beans into an earthen pot, and then put in the pork, rind side up. Now put in the remainder of the beans. Mix the molasses, mustard, salt, and soda with one quart of boiling water, and pour over the pork and beans. If the liquid does not wholly cover the beans, add more boiling water. There should be only enough to come to the top of the beans. Cover the pot, and cook the beans slowly for ten hours. Boiling water should be added from time to time when it is found that there is not enough to cover the beans. At serving-time turn out on a flat dish, and place the pork in the centre. If the beans have been properly cooked, each will be whole, yet all will be tender and have a rich reddish color. Care and slow cooking alone will give this result. * Stewed Beans. Wash one quart of beans (scarlet runners are the best), and soak them over night. In the morning set them on the fire with half a pound of mixed salt pork. They can be cooked in four hours, but will be better cooked an hour longer. If the pork should not flavor it enough, season with a little salt. BRIOCHE PASTE. DISHES made of brioche paste are not often found in this country except at the foreign pastry-shops. It is a pity that this should be the case, for they are light and healthful. There appears to be an idea that they are difficult to make, but they are not more so than many which are quite common in every household. Care must be taken that the ingredients are used in the proper proportion, and that the paste is properly worked, raised, chilled, and baked. If this be done, the cakes will be as good as those found in any of the first-class shops in New York. In Paris a man got rich by making a specialty of warm loaves of brioche. In New York there are several small pastry-shops, kept by Frenchmen, where plain brioche loaves are for sale on Saturdays, and there is a large demand for them. It is hoped that many readers will try the simple rules given in this article. With the plain paste there can be made the plain loaf, baba, wine cakes, rum cakes, Savarin, fritters, Munich cakes, etc. These various cakes are made by the addition of fruits and flavors, and by changes of shape and in the modes of cooking. To Make the Paste.