Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Use one cupful of boiling water, half a cupful of butter, one cupful and three-fourths of flour, two table-spoonfuls of sugar, and five eggs. Put the water, sugar, and butter on the stove in a flat saucepan, and when they boil up, stir in all the flour at once. Beat well for four or five minutes ; then, when the mixture becomes cooled, break the eggs into a bowl, — but do not beat them, — and turn out the broken eggs upon the paste, about half at a time. Beat the new mixture for half an hour. When it becomes light, drop it on a tin sheet, allowing about a table-spoonful for each cake, and having the cakes about two inches apart. Bake for half an hour in a rather quick oven ; then cut open the sides of the cakes with a small sharp-pointed knife, and fill the cakes with cream made as follows : — Put a cupful and a half of milk on the stove in a double-boiler. Beat together two-thirds of a cupful of sugar, two table-spoonfuls of flour, two eggs, and onefourth of a teaspoonful of salt, and stir the mixture into the boiling milk. Cook for fifteen minutes, stirring often. When cold, flavor with one teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Doughnuts and Crullers. There seems to be a great diversity of opinion in regard to what are crullers and what are doughnuts. In some sections of the country only those cakes which are raised with yeast are called doughnuts, those made with soda and cream-of-tartar or baking-powder being called crullers. In other parts of the country fried cakes that are made with sugar, butter, flour, eggs, and some kind of flavoring are called crullers, and all kinds of fried cakes into the making of which enter a liquid and some substance for lightening the dough, like baking-powder or yeast, are called doughnuts. It seems as if this distinction should be observed. For frying doughnuts and crullers the fat should be about four inches deep, when it is melted in the kettle. Heat the lard slowly. When it is so hot that it hisses if a small piece of dough be dropped into it, it is ready for frying. If so hot that the dough turns dark brown in a minute, remove to a cooler place before putting in the doughnuts. Drop in but a few at a time. They will fall to the bottom at first, but should rise again almost immediately. When done, they should be drained on a sieve or in a colander, then removed to a dish to make room for the next batch. They must be handled lightly, and as little flour as possible should be used in cutting them out. Crullers. Use half a cupful of butter, one cupful of sugar, about three cupfuls of flour, three eggs, one nutmeg, and the grated yellow rind of a lemon. Beat the butter to a cream. Gradually beat the sugar into it ; then add the well-beaten yolks and the nutmeg and lemon. Next add the whites, beaten to a stiff froth. Beat in the flour, a little at a time. Sprinkle the moulding-board with flour. Put about half the dough on it and roll down to the thickness of half an inch. With a jagging-iron cut this into long narrow strips, and twist them into various shapes. Fry for about six minutes. Dropped Doughnuts.