Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Wash the rice in three waters, and put it into a large stew-pan. Wash the okra carefully, and after cutting off the ends of the pods, cut the remaining parts into thin slices. Put the okra into the stew-pan with the rice. Place a coarse strainer over the stew-pan, and pour the liquid mixture through it ; then cover the soup, and let it simmer for an hour or more. Taste it, to ascertain whether there is a proper amount of seasoning, before serving. * Bean Soup. Use one pint of beans (scarlet runners are the best), two quarts of water, one table-spoonful of butter, onefourth of a teaspoonful of pepper, and one table-spoonful of salt. Wash the beans, and let them soak over night in three quarts of cold water. In the morning pour off the water, and put the beans in a soup-pot with two quarts of fresh cold water. Cook slowly for five hours, stirring frequently. Take the beans from the fire at the end of that time, and rub them through a sieve. Return them to the soup-pot, and after adding the salt, pepper, and butter, cook for twenty minutes longer. Serve with small squares of toasted or fried bread. * Scotch Pur6e. This is a substantial soup, being made of six large potatoes, two large onions, the yellow part of a mediumsized carrot, one pound of the neck of mutton, half a teaspoonful of pepper, two level table-spoonfuls of salt, one table-spoonful of butter, and three scant quarts of water. Cut most of the fat from the mutton, and then cut nearly all the meat from the bones. Put the meat and bones into a large stew-pan with the cold water, and after heating slowly to the boiling-point and skimming carefully, simmer for one hour. Scrape the carrot, and then grate the yellow part, not touching the heart. Chop the onion very fine, and slice the potatoes thin. When the meat has simmered for an hour, add the vegetables, and simmer for two hours more. At the end of that time add the pepper, salt, and butter, and cook half an hour longer. Kub through a coarse sieve, and serve hot. * Pea Soup. Pick over and wash a quart of dried peas, and soak over night in three quarts of cold water. In the morning pour off all this water, and put the peas into the soup-kettle with seven quarts of cold water, a pound of salt pork, three cloves, two large onions, and three stalks of celery, or, if you have no celery, one teaspoonful of celery salt. Boil gently for seven hours, stirring often, and at the end of that time rub the soup through a fine sieve. Return it to the kettle ; and after tying two sprigs of parsley and two bay leaves together, add them to the soup. Taste, to be sure there is seasoning enough, and add a pint of milk or cream. When the soup boils up, serve with toasted bread cut into dice. The milk may be omitted. St. Germain Soup. Two cans of peas, an onion, a bay leaf, a sprig of parsley, a bit of mace, a teaspoonful of sugar, a quarter of a teaspoonful of white pepper, one table-spoonful of salt, three of butter, three of flour, a pint of milk, and three pints of stock are what St. Germain soup calls for.