Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Use a shin of beef weighing seven pounds (have the butcher break it into small pieces), four calves' feet, one gallon of water, one table-spoonful of salt, twenty pepper-corns, three cloves, a stick of cinnamon, and the whites of two eggs. Wash the calves' feet and shin of beef carefully. Put the meat and water into a large stew-pan. Heat slowly to the boiling-point, skimming carefully and frequently in the first half-hour. Boil gently for eight hours ; then strain through a fine sieve, and set away to cool. When cold, skim off the fat, and put the jelly into a stew-pan with the seasonings. Beat the whites of the eggs rather light, and add to them half a cupful of cold water. Beat well, and add to the contents of the stew-pan. Place the stew-pan on the fire, and stir the mixture frequently until it gets warm. Keep the pan on the hot part of the stove until the contents begin to bubble ; then draw it back immediately to a place where the jelly will keep heated to the boiling-point for half an hour. When this time has passed, strain the jelly through a napkin, and pour it into tumblers. Cool, cover, and set away in a cold place. It may be given to the patient cold, or be heated and served like soup. Heat a tumbler of this jelly ; add to it one tablespoonful of lemon juice, one gill of port, and a generous half-gill of sugar ; cool this liquid in little moulds, and you have port wine jelly, which is very nutritious. Any other kind of wine may be used, or, for a change, use fruit juice instead of wine. * Macaroni Soup. Boil two sticks of macaroni in one pint of water for half an hour. Drain it, and cut it into pieces half an inch long. Put these in a small saucepan with one tumbler of Charlotte Cushman jelly, and place on the fire to heat. A teaspoonful of onion juice may be added if the patient can bear it. Rice, tapioca, sago, or barley may be cooked and added in this way to the jelly.. * Rice Porridge. Wash one table-spoonful of rice, and put it into a stewpan with a scant pint and a half of water, Boil for fifteen minutes. Mix four table-spoonfuls of milk with one of flour. Add this and half a pint of milk to the rice, and cook for twenty minutes longer. Season with salt, — about a level teaspoonful. * Cracker Gruel. Four table-spoonfuls of powdered cracker, a scant halfpint of boiling water, half a pint of milk, and half a teaspoonful of salt are used to make this gruel. Pour the boiling water on the crackers. Add the milk and salt, and stir the mixture until it boils up once. * Graham Gruel. Put a pint of boiling water into a saucepan, and place on the fire. Mix four table-spoonfuls of cold water with one of graham meal, and stir into the boiling water. Cook for half an hour. When the mixture has been simmering for twenty minutes, add a scant half-teaspoonful of salt. Pour a gill of this gruel into a cup, and add half a gill of cream or milk. Serve hot. * Indian Meal Gruel.