Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Put into a bowl one pint of Indian meal, one tablespoonful of sugar, and one teaspoonful of salt. Pour on this a pint of boiling water. Beat the mixture vigorously for eight or ten minutes, and then form it into small flat cakes about half an inch thick. Fry in fat for ten minutes if there be enough fat to immerse them, but for fifteen minutes if a frying-pan and only a little fat be used. * Corn Muffins. For a dozen and a half muffins use three gills of milk, one pint of flour, half a pint of corn meal, three tablespoonfuls of sugar, two of butter, three teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Mix the dry ingredients. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately. Add the milk to the dry mixture, then the eggs, and finally the butter, melted. Fill the muffin-pans two-thirds of the way to the brim, and bake for half an hour in a moderately quick oven. * Mix together thoroughly in a sieve, and rub through it, one pint of corn meal (white or yellow), one pint of flour, one-third of a cupful of sugar, three teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, and one teaspoonful of salt. After beating two eggs until they are very light, and adding a pint and a gill of milk to them, pour this mixture upon the dry one, and add two table-spoonfuls of melted butter. Beat both together quickly and thoroughly, and pour the preparation into buttered muffin-pans. Bake in a rather quick oven for thirty minutes. With the quantities prescribed, two dozen muffins can be made. The pans may be buttered and the dry ingredients mixed and rubbed through a sieve the night or day before, so the morning work need occupy but a few moments. Trenton Corn Muffins. This is rather an expensive receipt to follow, but muffins made by it are delicious. The materials are : a pint of milk, a cupful and two-thirds of sifted flour, a cupful of corn meal, either white or yellow, a scant halfcupful of sugar, one-third of a cupful of butter, three eggs, one teaspoonful and a quarter of soda, two teaspoonfuls and a half of cream-of-tartar, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Sift the flour, meal, salt, and cream-of-tartar twice together. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, and after beating the eggs well, add them to this cream. Dissolve the soda in the milk, and add to the mixture ; then add the remaining ingredients. Beat quickly and vigorously, and after pouring into well-buttered muffin-pans, bake for half an hour in a quick oven. A dozen large muffins can be made with the quantities of ingredients mentioned. * Rice Muffins. Mix together in a sieve, and then rub through it, one pint of flour, one table-spoonful of sugar, two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, and a level teaspoonful of salt. With the hands rub a generous table-spoonful of butter into the mixture. Beat two eggs till light, and add half a pint of milk to them ; then stir this mixture into the one first made, and beat very light. When the batter is smooth, add a cupful of cold cooked rice, and beat thoroughly. Bake in buttered muffin-pans for thirty-five minutes in a rather quick oven. * Hominy Muffins.