Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

The directions for making this dish may appear exceedingly complex, yet a beginner can do the prescribed work in an hour, and after a little experience in whipping cream, the work will not occupy more than half an hour. Soak half a package of gelatine in half a cupful of cold water for two hours. Select from a quart of strawberries a cupful of the largest and soundest, and put them aside. After sprinkling the remainder of the berries with half a cupful of sugar, cut them up with a spoon, and put them in a cool place. Put a quart of cream into a bowl or pail, andset in a pan of ice-water;, place a pan of granite-ware or tin, having a small bottom, in another containing ice-water ; then whip the cream, and, skimming off the froth, put it into the empty pan. When nearly all the cream has been whipped, pour off such portion as has become liquid again. If there be less than three quarts of whipped cream left in the pan, whip again till you obtain that quantity. Line two three-pint moulds with stale sponge cake or lady-fingers, and spread the whole strawberries, from the cup, on the bottom of each mould. Now pour half a cupful of boiling water over the soaking gelatine. Sprinkle three-fourths of a cupful of sugar and two table-spoonfuls of wine over the whipped cream ; then strain the gelatine upon it, and stir gently from the bottom of the pan until the mixture begins to thicken. When it has become so thick that it will scarcely run, put a layer of it into each mould ; then put in a layer of strawberries (those cut up and sugared), with their juice, and continue making these alternate layers until all the materials have been used. Let the last layer be one of cream. Place the charlotte in an ice-chest for an hour or more. When ready to serve, turn out on a flat dish, and form a border with strawberries which have been standing in sugar for about ten minutes, using a quart of the fruit and half a cupful of sugar. Cantaloupe Charlotte. Cut a thin sheet of stale sponge cake into strips long enough to run the length of a three-pint melon-mould, and lit these strips closely into such a mould. It is a good plan, yet not an absolute necessity, to dip their edges into the white of an egg that has been beaten a little, for this will keep the pieces of cake together. Make a cream of a generous quarter of a package of gelatine, a scant half-cupful of sugar, two table-spoonfuls of sherry, the yolks of two eggs, and two quarts of whipped cream. Soak the gelatine for two hours in one-third of a cupful of cold water. Have the whipped cream in a bright tin pan, and after placing it in another pan of icewater, — have plenty of ice, — sprinkle the sugar and pour the wine into it, and add the yolks of the eggs, well beaten. Pour a quarter of a cupful of boiling water over the gelatine, and when the latter is completely dissolved, strain the liquid into the cream. Stir the mixture at the bottom part of the pan until it begins to thicken, and then stir all the froth at the top into it. When the cream has become so nearly solid that it will scarcely flow, pour it into the lined mould. Set away on ice for two hours.