Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

With two quarts of the clear soup use two table-spoonfuls of pearl barley. Wash it in the same way rice is washed, and put it on the stove with three pints of cold water. Cook gently for five hours, adding a heaping teaspoonful of salt when four hours have passed. Strain the barley, rinse with cold water, and treat the same as rice. Consommé with Macaroni. Break half a dozen sticks of macaroni into pieces about two inches long, and boil them for twenty minutes in one quart of water. Add a teaspoonful of salt when the first fifteen minutes have passed, and treat in every particular the same as rice. Any kind of Italian paste may be used in the same way. Consommé with Profiteroles. Make profiteroles by the rule given under " Garnishes." Pour the soup into the tureen, and then add the profiteroles. Half a pint of the little balls will be enough for three pints of soup. Consommé with Force-meat Balls. Prepare chicken force-meat as directed in " Garnishes." Form into balls about the size of a cherry. Drop them into a pint of clear boiling stock that is set back where it will not boil up. Cook for five minutes, then put them into the tureen and pour in three pints of hot consomme. Serve at once. One cupful of the force-meat will make a generous allowance of balls. Save for sauces the stock in which they were boiled. Consommé with Quenelles. Make some chicken or veal force-meat as directed. Butter the bottom of a small saucepan. Dip two teaspoons in hot water, and after filling one with the forcemeat, turn the contents into the other spoon. This will give the quenelles their shape. Drop them in the buttered pan. When all are done, cover with hot stock, and place where they will keep hot without boiling. Proceed as for consomme with force-meat balls. Consommé with Green Peas. For six persons use one pint of green peas. Boil them in salt and water ; then drain them, and put them in a stew-pan with three pints of consomme. Cover, and cook gently for five minutes. In winter use one cupful of the best French peas. Turn them into a strainer, and pour cold water over them. Drain well, and proceed the same as with fresh peas. Consommé with Asparagus Tops. Cut the delicate green tops from a bunch of asparagus. Wash them, and put them in a stew-pan with a pint of boiling water and a teaspoonful of salt. Cook for fifteen minutes ; then drain them, and put them in a stew-pan with three pints of consomme. Cook gently for five minutes, and serve immediately afterward. Consommé with Poached Eggs. For six persons provide three pints of consomme and six eggs. Have the consomme hot. Butter the bottom of a large frying-pan, and put six small muffin-rings in it. Put in enough boiling water to cover the rings. Add one table-spoonful of vinegar and one of salt. Draw the pan to the side of the range where the water will just bubble at one side of the pan. Break the eggs into the rings, being careful not to break the yolks, and cook until the whites are rather firm. It will take about three minutes.