Favorite Dishes : a Columbian Autograph Souvenir Cookery Book

into the tureen, sprinkle in two tablespoonfuls of filé. Serve always with rice. _To Prepare Filé for Gumbo_.--Gather sassafras leaves, as late as possible in the season, before they turn red. Dry them in the shade and open air. When perfectly dry, pound thorn, sift the powder and bottle it Keep tightly corked. GUMBO SOUP. From MRS. VIRGINIA T. SMITH, of Connecticut, Alternate Lady Manager. Fry three rather thin slices of salted pork; and three large onions in the some fat. Fry also a chicken of medium size, after which put pork, onions, chicken and a half pound of _lean_ ham, into a dinner kettle containing four quarts of boiling water. When the mixture begins to boil, add one quart of gumbo, the corn cut from two ears, three tomatoes, and two VERY small red peppers. Add boiling water as it needs and cook slowly five or six hours, after which strain and serve with bread "crunchers" cut in dice. CHICKEN GUMBO WITH OYSTERS. From MRS. ALICE B. CASTLEMAN, of Kentucky, Alternate Lady Manager. Take a young chicken or a half grown one; cut up; roll it in salt, pepper and flour, and fry it a nice brown, using lard or drippings as if for a fricassee. Cut up a quart of fresh green okra and take out the chicken and fry the okra in the same lard. When well browned, return the chicken to the pot and boil. Add to it a large slice of ham--a quarter of a pound will be about right for this gumbo. Pour on to the chicken, ham and okra half a gallon of boiling water and let it boil down to three pints. Ten minutes before serving, pour into the boiling soup two dozen fine oysters, with half a pint of their liquor; let it come to a good boil and serve with well-boiled rice._--La Cuisine Creole._ OKRA SOUP. From MISS FLORIDA CUNINGHAM, of South Carolina, Lady Manager. Two quarts of okra out very fine in three quarts of water, in which put a large shank of beef, and boil one hour. Then