Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

bran. In buying graham, select that containing a rather fine bran, which does not separate readily from the flour when shaken in the hand. The Health Food Company makes an excellent graham j and when there is any doubt as to the quality of the ordinary graham, it would be wise to purchase that sold by this company. The price is much higher than that of the ordinary article. There are many mills which supply the pure article, but there are so many which do not that one is often at a loss to know where to get the best. The mills at Akron, Ohio, make an excellent graham, and also a good quality of oatmeal. Fine granulated meal is a fine quality of graham, manufactured by the Health Food Company. It makes delicious bread and muffins. Corn Meal. Corn meal, past and present, is an interesting subject. The changing quality of this meal is a source of much annoyance to the housekeeper of to-day. Rules which always worked to perfection in the past are now as uncertain as the weather. The old process of making corn meal was to take corn which had dried naturally for a few months, and crush it between mill-stones. This gave a sweet-flavored but uneven meal, some parts being as fine as flour, while others were rather coarse ; besides, there was a considerable amount of coarse bran. As the corn was not entirely free of moisture, and was heated in being crushed between the mill-stones, it could not be relied upon to keep good ; a few weeks was as long a time as it was expected to remain sweet. It is to be regretted that this delicious meal has passed away. About fifteen or twenty years ago the granulated meal began to appear in the market. It was sweet, dry, and of even texture, being cut instead of being ground between stones. The corn was thoroughly dried before being sent to the mill ; at first it was kept for two or three years, until all the moisture had evaporated. This new kind of meal was very satisfactory, because it was of uniform quality and would keep for any length of time. If the manufacturers had been content to follow this process up to the present time, housekeepers would have been well pleased ; but the drying of the corn was not rapid enough for the millers, who soon began to use kilns. At the outset of the new departure the corn was dried slowly and at a low temperature, and the meal was nearly as good as that made by the original method. But the time for drying has been reduced more and more, until now the grains of the corn meal are as hard as the grains of hominy, and it is rather hard to distinguish between the two. Then, too, the meal is ground much finer than formerly. All these changes in the meal have damaged it considerably, and it is almost impossible to get the moist, sweet corn-bread of years gone by. If in using old receipts for corn bread, oneeighth of the quantity of meal called for be omitted, the bread will be nearer what it should be than it will if all the meal be used. Hominy, Grits, etc.