Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

This is a famous Southern dish. When fresh okra cannot be obtained, one can of the article may be substituted. The chickens may be a year or more old. Onefifth of a teaspoonful of cayenne may be used instead of white pepper, if preferred. The dish is so substantial that it is sufficient for a dinner, with vegetables, and a light dessert. Oyster Gombo. Use one large chicken or two small ones, three tablespoonfuls of butter, four table-spoonfuls of flour, one quart of oysters, two quarts of boiling water, two sprigs of parsley, two of thyme, three teaspoonfuls of salt, half a teaspoonful of white pepper, one-eighth of a teaspoonful of cayenne, and one scant teaspoonful of powdered sassafras. Draw, singe, and wash the chickens. Wipe them, and then cut into joints. Eoll these pieces in the flour. Put the butter on the fire in the frying-pan ; and when it becomes hot, put in the chicken, and cook until brown on all sides. Take the chicken from the frying-pan and put it in a large stew-pan with the boiling water. Put into the frying-pan any flour remaining from that in which the chicken was rolled, and stir until smooth and frothy. Add this mixture to the chicken and water. Now add the salt and pepper and the parsley and thyme, tied in a bunch. Simmer for two hours. See if the bones will slip from the chicken ; if they will not, simmer until they will ; then take out the herbs. Mix the powdered sassafras with half a cupful of cold water, and stir into the stew-pan. Now add the oysters. Let the contents of the kettle boil up once, and then serve in a tureen. A dish of rice should accompany the gombo. Okra Soup. This is a palatable and substantial soup. It is made of a quart of okra, a fowl, a quarter of a pound of salt pork, half a can of tomato, an onion, two generous quarts of boiling water, four table-spoonfuls of flour, two generous table-spoonfuls of butter, three teaspoonfuls of salt, and half a teaspoonful of pepper. The tomato is not absolutely indispensable. Wash the fowl, and cut it into joints and other pieces convenient to handle. Slice the pork, and fry it brown ; then remove it, and put the meat into the fat. Fry until brown, and then put into a soup-pot. Wash the okra carefully, and cut it into slices. Cut the onion fine, and cook it in the frying-pan for two minutes ; then put in the okra, and after cooking for ten minutes, transfer it to the soup-pot. Put the butter and flour into the frying-pan, and stir until brown. Pour two quarts of boiling water into the soup-pot, and then stir in the browned flour. Add the tomato and seasoning, and after covering the soup, let it simmer for two hours and a half. At the end of that time remove the bones of the fowl, and serve the soup without straining. Okra-and-Rice Soup. The materials required are two quarts of chicken stock, one quart of green okra, one uncooked tomato or four table-spoonfuls of stewed tomato, two table-spoonfuls of chopped onion, two of flour, three of butter, onefourth of a cupful of rice, half a teaspoonful of pepper, three teaspoonfuls of salt. Cook the butter and onion together for three minutes ; then add the flour, and stir until smooth and brown. Heat the stock, and add this mixture to it ; then add the tomato, salt, and pepper, and simmer for an hour.