SOUPS
It is a progressive age and the average American housewife is slowly coming to some appreciation of the nutritive value of soups as an article of daily food. As a rule of wide application, she does not yet credit how easy it is to prepare them. Some one says that the motto for the would-be soup-maker should be, “strong stock and no grease.” What might be a good soup is unpalatable if globules of grease float on the surface, and it takes a hungry man, without a fastidious taste, to enjoy it under these circumstances. See to it then that all meat-stocks are perfectly skimmed when very cold, that every vestige of fat may be removed.
A good soup stock
Four pounds of beef marrow bones, well cracked; one pound of coarse lean beef chopped as for beef-tea, and the same of lean veal; one large onion, one carrot, one turnip, six refuse stalks of celery, a cabbage leaf; seven quarts of cold water; prepare and salt to taste.
Put the meat and vegetables, the latter cut up small, into a large pot, cover with the water and set at the side of the range where it will not reach the scalding point under an hour. Keep closely covered and let it simmer, always scalding hot, never boiling hard, for six hours. Remove from the fire, season and set in a cool place until next day. Remove the fat, strain out bones and vegetables, pressing hard to extract all the nourishment and set away in the refrigerator until needed.
At least one dozen varieties of soups and broths can be founded upon this stock.
White stock
Put over the fire two pounds of the cheaper part of veal, cut into small pieces, or a well-cracked knuckle of veal, with three quarts of cold water, a sliced onion, a bay-leaf and a couple of stalks of celery cut into pieces. Let it come to a boil slowly, and simmer for five or six hours. Season with salt and pepper and set aside to get cold. Remove the fat, take out the bones and you will have a thick jelly. This can be heated, skimmed and, if desired, strained before it is used. It will be a strong and nutritious stock.
“Left-over” stock
Have a crock in your refrigerator expressly for this. Collect for it the bones of cooked meats from which the meat has been carved; the carcasses of poultry, bits of gristly roasts and steaks, cold vegetables, even a baked apple now and then. Twice a week, put all, cracking the bones well, into the stock-pot; cover deep with cold water and cook slowly until the liquid is reduced to half the original quantity. Season to taste, and strain, rubbing all through the colander that will pass.
By addition of barley, rice, tomatoes or, in fact, almost any vegetable or cereal, you may make excellent broths from this compound of “unconsidered trifles.”
Mock turtle soup
Boil a calf’s head until the meat leaves the bones. Leave it in the seasoned soup until next day, then take it out, scrape off the fat and remove the bones. Put the jellied stock over the fire with the bones, the ears, chopped, one grated carrot, one sliced onion, a bunch of soup herbs, a teaspoonful of allspice, a saltspoonful of paprika and salt to taste. Boil for one hour. Take from the fire, strain, thicken with two tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in as much browned flour, add two teaspoonfuls of kitchen bouquet, and, when the soup is thickened, drop in the tongue and parts of the cheek cut into dice. Add a gill of sherry and the juice of a lemon and pour upon forcemeat balls in a hot tureen. Make the forcemeat balls by rubbing the brains to a paste with the yolk of a hard-boiled egg, a little browned flour and the yolk of a raw egg. Roll them in brown flour and let them stand in a quick oven until lightly crusted over.
Veal and tapioca soup
Crack a knuckle of veal into six pieces and put over the fire with a cracked ham bone, if you have it. If not, use a half-pound of lean salt pork, chopped, or the soaked rind of salt pork or corned ham. Add a few stalks of celery, chopped. Cover with cold water, adding a quart for every pound of meat and bones. Cover, and bring slowly to the boil. Simmer then for five hours, or until the liquor is reduced to one-half the original quantity. Season with pepper, salt and onion juice and set away until next day, when remove the fat.
You have now a thick jelly. Set over the fire to melt. When you can pour it easily, strain out the bones and scraps of meat. Put half a cupful of tapioca to soak in a cupful of cold water for two hours. Measure a quart of your veal stock and put over the fire to heat. When the boil is reached, add the tapioca, a scant tablespoonful of kitchen bouquet, with a tablespoonful of finely minced parsley and cook fifteen minutes longer, boiling briskly.
Veal and sago broth
Make stock as directed in last recipe, adding, when it has been skimmed and strained, half a cupful of pearl sago, previously soaked for three hours in warm water. Simmer for half an hour. Have ready in a saucepan a cupful of hot milk, into which a bit of soda has been dropped; stir into it a tablespoonful of butter rolled in half as much flour, and when it has thickened, turn into the sago broth two minutes before removing it from the fire.
Veal and rice broth
To a quart of your veal stock add half a cupful of washed and soaked rice; cook for twenty minutes, fast, and mix with hot milk, thickened as directed in last recipe. Cook three minutes and serve.
Ox-tail soup
Cut a cleaned ox-tail at each joint and fry five minutes in butter or good dripping. Take out the meat and put into a warmed soup-kettle while you fry a sliced onion in the dripping left in the frying-pan. Turn this, with the fat, upon the pieces of ox-tail, rinse out the frying-pan with hot water and add this to the soup-kettle. Now cover with two quarts of cold water; slice a carrot thin, mince four stalks of celery and add these to the water. Cover closely and simmer for five hours. Season to taste and set aside until next day, remove the fat and strain the liquor from meat and vegetables. Pick out the best joints and return to the soup. Heat to a fast boil, skim, add kitchen bouquet to taste, and serve. There should be two or three joints in each portion. Some cooks slice two or three very small carrots, parboil them and put into the strained liquor with the joints before giving the last boil.
Clear brown soup
After making, cooling and skimming your stock as directed in the beginning of this chapter, measure out a quart; put over the fire and when lukewarm stir in the white of a raw egg. Bring quickly to a boil, stirring all the time. As soon as it bubbles, take from the fire, pour in a little very cold water and let it stand for three minutes. Then pour slowly off the dregs through a flannel bag, or a double cloth. Let it drip as you would jelly. When all has run through, return to the fire with a little soaked tapioca, or a handful of “manestra”, such as comes in shapes for soups; simmer five minutes, color with kitchen bouquet, or with caramel, and serve.
Clear soup with poached eggs
Make as directed above, but without tapioca or other cereal. Have ready as many neatly poached eggs as there will be people at table, and when the hot soup is in the tureen slip these carefully into it.
Caramel for coloring soups
Put two tablespoonfuls of sugar into a small tin cup and let it melt, then bubble over the fire. When you have a seething brown (not burnt) mass, pour in two tablespoonfuls of boiling water and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Put in enough to color your clear soup, but not enough to make it sweet.
Clear soup á la royale
To cleared soup made according to directions given for making and clearing stock, add minute squares of paste made thus:
Heat half a cupful of milk in a saucepan with a bit of soda. In a frying-pan cook a tablespoonful of butter and stir into it two of flour. Turn the milk gradually upon this, and, when well incorporated, a scant half-cupful of soup stock. In a bowl have ready two whipped eggs and pour upon them, stirring well, the hot mixture. Return to the fire, stir to a thick paste and pour upon a buttered platter to cool. Set on ice to harden for at least six hours before cutting into tiny blocks. The soup must not boil after they go in.
Glasgow broth
One quart of strong mutton stock, from which every particle of fat has been removed. The liquor in which a leg of mutton has been boiled will do well for this purpose. Boil it down for an hour before making the broth, as it should be strong.
One cupful of barley that has been soaked in tepid water for three hours. One large carrot, one turnip, two onions, four stalks of celery, half a cupful of green peas and the same of string-beans, parsley and four or five leek tops.
Cut the vegetables up small and parboil them for ten minutes. Drain and put over the fire in the stock. Simmer slowly for three hours. Have ready a good white roux made by heating a heaping tablespoonful of butter in a pan and stirring into it a tablespoonful of flour. Add a few spoonfuls of the soup to thin it, and stir into the broth. Boil one minute and serve.
This recipe, given to me in rhymes a century old by a distinguished professor in the University of Glasgow, is the genuine Scotch broth dear to the Scottish heart and stomach. It is nowhere as delicious as in the Highlands, but it is good everywhere.
Mulligatawney soup
(An East Indian recipe.)
Joint a large fowl, as for fricassee, and cut into small pieces a pound of lean veal. Slice two onions and fry them in butter; pare, quarter and core two sour apples. Put all these into a saucepan with six quarts of cold water. Add four cloves and four pepper corns, cover closely and let it simmer until the fowl is tender. Remove it and cut the meat from the bones into small pieces. Return the bones to the kettle and add one level tablespoonful of curry powder, one level teaspoonful, each, of salt and sugar mixed to a smooth paste with a little water.
Simmer another hour, or until reduced one-half, strain the soup, let it stand all night and remove the fat. Put it on to boil again, add the pieces of fowl and one cupful of boiled rice. This will make a large quantity of soup. Send around with it bananas, chilled by burying them in ice, for those who relish this accompaniment to curry dishes.
Chicken cream soup (No. 1)
Cut up a large fowl and beat with a mallet to crack the bones; pour in five quarts of cold water, cover closely and simmer for four hours more, until the chicken is perfectly tender. Take the meat off the bones, take out the skin. Return the soup to the fire with a part of the meat chopped fine, salt, pepper, a little boiled rice and butter rolled in flour. Just before taking from the fire add a small teacupful of cream heated with a pinch of soda; add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley and boil for one minute.
You may further enrich this excellent soup by beating up two eggs and stirring them into it just before taking from the fire. A still better way is to pour a little of the soup upon the eggs to avoid curdling, then add to the rest.
Chicken cream soup (No. 2)
(An English recipe)
One cupful of cold roast chicken, chopped as fine as powder; a pint of strong chicken broth; a cupful of sweet cream; half a cupful of bread or cracker-crumbs; three yolks of eggs; one teaspoonful of salt; one-half teaspoonful of pepper.
Soak the crumbs in a little of the cream. Bring the broth to boiling point and add the meat. Break the eggs, separating the yolks and whites. Drop the yolks carefully into boiling water and boil hard; then rub to a powder and add to the soup with the cream and the seasoning. Simmer ten minutes and serve hot.
Beef bouillon
Put together in an agate-lined saucepan two pounds of lean beef, minced; one-half pound of lean veal, also minced, and two pounds, each, of beef and veal bones, well cracked. Cover deep with cold water and bring slowly to a boil, then simmer for four hours. Season with salt, pepper and two teaspoonfuls of kitchen bouquet, then remove from the fire. When very cold and like a jelly, skim all fat from the surface of the soup and heat to enable you to strain out the bones and meat. Return to the fire, drop in the white of an egg and a crushed egg-shell, bring to a boil, drop in a bit of ice to check ebullition and, five minutes later, pour carefully, not to disturb the dregs, through a colander lined with white flannel. You may now heat it to scalding, add a glass of sherry and eat it hot, or set on ice when cold until you can have it as “iced-bouillon.” It is good in either way.
Bouillon á la russe
Make as just directed and serve in cups, laying a delicately poached egg upon the surface of the steaming liquid.
Chicken bouillon (No. 1)
Cut a large fowl into pieces; put into a porcelain-lined kettle and cover with cold water. Set at the side of the range and simmer for four hours. Season with celery salt, pepper and onion juice, and set away to cool. When cold skim off the fat and strain out the bones and meat. Return to the fire, and when hot, add a quarter of a box of gelatine that has soaked for an hour in a gill of water. When the gelatine is dissolved, take the soup from the fire, strain through a cheese-cloth bag, and serve it when you have reheated it, or set aside to cool, afterward keeping it in ice, when you may enjoy delicious “iced and jellied chicken bouillon.”
Chicken bouillon (No. 2)
Cut a four-pound fowl into pieces and put it over the fire with four quarts of cold water. Bring very slowly to the boiling point, and simmer gently for three hours, or until the meat is so tender that it slips from the bones. Add half of a sliced onion and three stalks of celery, and simmer for an hour longer. Turn into a bowl and set in a cold place for some hours. When thoroughly chilled remove the fat from the surface of the soup, strain out the bones and skim. If the liquor is jellied after skimming it, set it on the fire long enough to melt the jelly from the bones. Strain through coarse muslin, letting it drip through, but not squeezing the bag. Put over the fire and, when lukewarm, throw in the unbeaten white and broken shell of an egg; stir to a quick boil and again strain through muslin after seasoning to taste.
Gumbo (No. 1)
(A Creole recipe)
Cut a fowl at every joint and fry for five minutes in good dripping or in butter. Remove the meat and put into a soup kettle. Cook two sliced onions in the fat left in the frying-pan. Put into the kettle with the chicken half a pound of lean salt pork, or corned ham, cut into small bits, and the fried onions. Add two quarts of cold water, and bring slowly to a boil, after which you should let it simmer two hours. Add, now, two dozen young okra pods, half a pod of green pepper, chopped, and half a can of tomatoes, or a pint of fresh, cut small, and simmer till the chicken is tender. Remove the larger bones, add salt to taste, and five minutes before serving add one pint of fine, sweet corn pulp, scraped from the cob, or one small can of canned corn, or one pint of oysters. Stir in a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour, boil a few minutes and serve. If fresh okra can not be obtained, use the canned.
Gumbo (No. 2)
This delicious soup may be made with oysters, or shrimps, or chicken. Brown one small onion in a heaping tablespoonful of butter. Add one quart of sliced okra, and fry it well, stirring all the time to prevent burning. Now add half a gallon of hot water and let it cook until simmered down to one quart. Add three ripe tomatoes and the chicken, or oysters, or shrimps. If the chicken is used it must have been previously stewed tender, in which case use the broth instead of the hot water. Season to taste with salt and cayenne, and serve with a tablespoonful of rice for each soup-plate.
Julienne soup
Cut into thin strips, and these into inch lengths, two carrots, one-half of a white turnip, two or three celery stalks, two small onions, a leaf or two of young cabbage, and a good handful of string beans. Put all together, with half a cupful of green peas, into cold salted water, and leave for half an hour. Turn, then, into your soup kettle with sufficient water to cover, and cook for fifteen minutes. Drain off the water, cover the vegetables with a quart of good soup stock or consommé, and cook gently for twenty-five minutes longer. Season with salt and pepper, add chopped parsley and kitchen bouquet to taste, and boil up once before serving. You may add tomatoes or not, as you like.
The stock should be strong.
French onion soup
To a quart of good stock allow six small onions that have been parboiled for ten minutes, and a cupful of fine, dry bread-crumbs. Let them simmer together for half an hour; rub the soup through a colander, pressing through as much of the onion and bread as possible. Put into a saucepan, rub one tablespoonful of butter and two of flour to a cream, and stir into the hot mixture until it thickens. Season with salt and pepper, add one pint of milk heated with a tiny bit of soda, boil up, and serve.
A homely, but a savory soup.
White barley soup
Soak a cupful of barley for several hours in enough water to cover it; then boil in a quart of veal stock until tender and clear. Season with a teaspoonful of onion juice, a tablespoonful of minced parsley, and with celery salt and white pepper to taste. Thicken a pint of scalding milk with a white roux, pour the hot soup slowly upon this and serve.
“Turkey rack” soup
(A Virginia recipe)
Break the carcass of a roast turkey served for yesterday’s dinner into pieces, removing all the stuffing; cover with two quarts of cold water and boil three hours, covered. Set aside until cold; skim and take out all the bones; chop the meat; add to the soup and meat the stuffing rubbed through a colander, a sliced onion and a stalk of celery, cut very small. Simmer for an hour; put a cupful of milk over the fire, not forgetting a pinch of soda; when hot, stir in a tablespoonful of butter rubbed into one of flour; mix with the soup, and boil one minute.
A white fowl soup
Cut an elderly chicken up as for fricassee, severing every joint. Put into the soup-kettle, allowing a quart of water for every pound. Add a sliced onion and three celery stalks. Set at the side of the range; bring slowly to the boil. Cook until the meat slips from the bones, if it takes all day. Set away with the meat in it until cold. Take off the fat. Warm sufficiently to allow you to strain it; take out the bones; cut the white meat into cubes, and keep hot over boiling water. Bring the soup to a boil, season with salt and white pepper, and throw into it, while boiling hard, half a cupful of rice. Cook fast for twenty-five minutes, or until the rice is very tender. Have ready in a saucepan a cupful of hot milk into which you have put a bit of soda; stir in a white roux made by cooking a tablespoonful of butter with one of flour, and add to the soup with a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Now, put in the meat cubes, boil one minute and serve.
A brown fowl soup
Prepare and cook chicken as just directed, and, when you have skimmed the soup and taken out the bones, cut all the meat into neat cubes; dry it between two cloths; pepper and salt, then dredge well with flour. Put into a frying-pan four tablespoonfuls of the fat you have taken from the soup and when it bubbles, add the pieces of chicken and toss them about until well browned. Remove the chicken and keep it hot. Into the fat left in the pan put one level tablespoonful of flour and stir until well mixed and slightly browned. Add by degrees sufficient soup to moisten to a smooth gravy, then strain it into the soup. Season to taste, put in the chicken dice, simmer five minutes, and serve. You may improve the color by adding a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet.
Beef juice for invalids
Chop two pounds of lean beef small. Put a layer of this meat in the bottom of a glass jar and sprinkle over it a little salt. Then add another layer and a little more salt, and so on until the meat has been used. Set in a kettle. The water in the kettle should be cold and be heated gradually to the boiling point, after which it should be left to simmer for three or four hours, or until the meat looks like bits of white rags with the juice completely drawn out. Let all get cold together, then skim, and strain out the meat, pressing it hard.
Beef tea
Chop three pounds of lean beef fine and leave in a quart of cold water for two hours. Set water and beef over a slow fire in a covered saucepan and simmer four hours. Set away all night with the meat in it. In the morning remove every bit of grease, and strain through coarse muslin, pressing hard. Season with pepper and salt.
BISQUES
The name is applied to a class of soups thickened into closer consistency than broth by the addition of minced meat and crumbs. When well made, they are popular at family dinners, and some kinds—such as oyster and lobster bisque—are admirable at dinner parties.
Care must be observed to keep the ingredients well together, and to season judiciously. Insipid panada is not a bisque. Still less is a “mess” compounded, not wisely, but so well as to remind one of a poultice.
Oyster bisque
Drain the liquor from a quart of oysters and make of it a quart of liquid by adding cold water. Into this stir the oysters, chopped fine, and put all into a porcelain-lined saucepan over the fire. Cook very gently for twenty minutes. Have heated a quart of milk, in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved, and half a cupful of cracker-crumbs, soaked. Cook together in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour. When they are perfectly blended pour upon them the quart of thickened boiling milk and stir until as smooth and thick as cream. Turn into this the oyster soup and season to taste with salt and pepper. Slowly pour a cupful of the soup upon the beaten yolks of two eggs, stirring constantly. When mixed, return the soup with the blended yolks to the saucepan, stir and pour at once into a heated tureen.
Lobster bisque
Two cupfuls of lobster meat, minced fine; one quart of boiling water and the same of milk; half a cupful of butter and a cupful of fine cracker-crumbs; paprika or cayenne and salt to taste; a teaspoonful of flour.
Rub the coral and a quarter of the meat to a paste; leave this in enough boiling water to cover it for half an hour. Then put the reserved chopped lobster into a saucepan, with the cracker-crumbs and half the butter; stir in the hot water and coral, etc., with the rest of the quart of boiling water. Cook gently half an hour in a double boiler after the water in the outer vessel begins to boil hard. Stir often. In another saucepan heat the milk (with a bit of soda) and the rest of the butter worked up with the flour. Boil one minute. Turn the lobster into the tureen; stir in the hot milk and serve at once.
Crab bisque
Is made in the same way.
Clam bisque
Thirty clams; one cupful of milk and half as much cream, or two cupfuls of milk; two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour; three eggs; a tablespoonful of onion juice; one cupful of boiling water; a pinch of soda in the milk; one cupful of cracker-crumbs.
Chop the clams and put over the fire in the boiling water. Simmer half an hour. Heat milk and cream in another saucepan with the soda and crumbs. Stir in the roux, boil one minute and pour gradually, beating all the time, upon the yolks, previously whipped smooth. Heat in a double boiler for two minutes, or until the water in the outer vessel boils hard, and turn into the tureen. Season the boiling mince of clams with salt, cayenne and minced parsley, add to the milk in tureen and cover the surface with the whites of the eggs beaten to a standing froth.
In serving, dip the ladle deep into the bisque, but see that each plate is mantled by the meringue.
Chicken bisque
Joint the fowl and cover with cold water, a quart for each pound. Put in a large minced onion and three stalks of celery, minced fine. Cover and cook slowly until you can slip the flesh from the bones. Let all get cold together; skim, take out bones and meat, and chop the latter fine. Return the soup to the fire and heat in another vessel a cupful of milk (dropping in a bit of soda). Thicken this with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed into a teaspoonful of flour, and add a tablespoonful of minced parsley. When the soup has reached a fast boil, stir into it the chopped chicken with a cupful of cracker-crumbs soaked in warm milk; boil one minute, beat in the milk and butter and pour out.
Corn bisque
Drain the liquor from a can of corn. Chop the corn very fine, put it over the fire in a quart of salted water and simmer gently for an hour. Rub through a colander, return to the fire with the water, add a teaspoonful of sugar, and when this melts, two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed into two of butter. Stir until smooth and pour slowly upon a pint of heated milk. Season with salt and pour the soup gradually upon two beaten eggs. Send immediately to the table.
Cheese bisque
Into a pint of milk put a pinch of soda, and bring to the scalding point. To this add a cupful of stock (chicken or mutton or lamb) in which an onion has been boiled, and a cupful of water in which rice has been cooked until you can run it through a strainer. Cook together in a good-sized saucepan two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour. When they are thoroughly blended and bubble pour on them the white soup and stir until it thickens to the consistency of cream. Now beat in a half cupful of grated cheese. Have ready in a bowl two well-whipped eggs, and on these pour, a little at a time, a cupful of hot soup, beating steadily to prevent curdling. Return the cupful of soup with the eggs to the soup on the fire, beat for half a minute, season with salt and pepper, and serve. Odd, but very good when properly made.
Salmon bisque
Open a can of salmon and turn out the contents several hours before making the soup. With a silver fork pick the fish to pieces and take out all bits of bone and skin. Put the fish into an agate saucepan, put on it enough boiling water to cover it, and let it simmer gently for half an hour. Drain off the water and break the fish to a soft mass.
Dissolve a pinch of soda in a pint of milk and heat in a double boiler with a half cupful of cracker-crumbs. Stir into it a pint of well-seasoned veal stock, and thicken with two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed into two of butter. When thick and smooth, stir in the minced fish, season with salt and paprika, and serve. This is very good when made of boiled fresh salmon.
Bisque of halibut or cod
Boil a pound of firm fresh fish in two waters, and mince it fine, freeing it from all bits of skin or bone. Have ready a quart of white stock, stir the fish into it and season with salt, pepper and a spoonful of minced parsley. Cook together two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour, pour upon this a cupful of milk, stir until it thickens, and put with the fish and stock. Boil up once and put into the tureen. A half cupful of powdered cracker-crumbs should be added just before the soup is mixed with the milk.
Tomato bisque (No. 1)
Two cupfuls of fresh tomatoes, chopped fine; one pint of strong stock or skimmed gravy; one cupful of fine crumbs soaked for half an hour in hot milk; one teaspoonful of white sugar; one tablespoonful of onion juice; pepper and salt to taste; one tablespoonful of butter cooked to a roux with one of flour; chopped parsley; cook together five minutes, run through a vegetable press, stir in the stock and seasoning, and return to the fire. Simmer twenty minutes and add the soaked crumbs and parsley; cook together five minutes, stir in as much baking-soda as will lie upon a dime and send in at once.
You may use canned tomatoes for this recipe if you have not fresh.
Tomato bisque (No. 2)
Stir one quart can of tomatoes with a half-teaspoonful of soda for half an hour. Boil half a gallon of fresh milk; add to it a quarter of a pound of butter, pepper and salt. Mash the tomatoes through a colander and stir them into the boiling milk; add a teacupful of rolled crackers; serve immediately. If the milk is put into the tomatoes it will curdle.
CREAM SOUPS
N. B.—See to it that the milk of which they are made is fresh, and always drop in it before heating a pinch of baking-soda to avoid the danger of curdling. A curdled cream soup is a culinary solecism, and should never be put into delicate stomachs. After the soup is ready for the table do not allow it to stand on the part of the range where it may come to a boil.
Cream of spinach soup
Wash a half peck of spinach and put it into a saucepan with a scant quart of water. Boil until tender, then chop very, very fine, and run through a sieve. It should be like a soft green paste. Cook together a tablespoonful of flour and one of butter and pour upon them a quart of hot milk. Stir until smooth, add the spinach, boil up once, season and serve.
Cream of beet soup
Boil the young beets in salted water for an hour. Lay in cold water until cool enough to handle. Scrape off all the skin and chop the beets very fine. Turn the beets and the juice which has exuded from them into a pint of mutton stock, and simmer for fifteen minutes. Rub through a fine colander or a coarse soup-strainer and keep hot at the side of the range. Cook together two teaspoonfuls of butter and two of flour, and pour upon them a pint of milk. Stir until thick and smooth, then add slowly the beet and mutton purée. When very hot, season with salt and white pepper and serve.
Tomato cream soup (No. 1)
Cut up a dozen ripe tomatoes and stew tender in a pint of water. Rub through a strainer and thicken with three teaspoonfuls of corn-starch rubbed to a paste with a tablespoonful of butter. Season with salt, pepper and sugar, and pour slowly upon the mixture a quart of scalding milk, to which a pinch of soda has been added.
Tomato cream soup (No. 2)
Cook a quart of tomatoes soft and rub them through a colander, or drain the liquid from a can of tomatoes. Heat it over the fire, cooking with it a pinch of soda and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Cook together in another saucepan a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour until they bubble, and then pour upon them a pint of hot milk. Stir until it thickens, salt and pepper the tomato to taste, and mix with it the thickened milk. Add half a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce and serve at once.
Cream of celery soup
Cut a bunch of celery into small bits and put it over the fire in enough water to cover it. Stew until very tender; rub through a colander, and stir into it a pint of hot veal or other white stock. Cook together two tablespoonfuls of butter and the same of flour, and pour slowly upon them a pint of hot milk in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved. When thick and smooth, add gradually, stirring constantly, the celery and stock. Season with pepper and celery salt, and serve.
Onion cream soup
Into a quart of mutton stock slice six large onions and simmer for an hour. Rub through a colander, return to the fire, and thicken with two tablespoonfuls of flour, rubbed to a paste with two of butter. Bring a half pint of milk to the boiling point and stir it into the soup. Season with salt, white pepper and a tablespoonful of minced parsley.
Potato cream soup (No. 1)
Mash ten large boiled potatoes, beat them to a soft mass with a half pint of cream, and season to taste with salt, pepper and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Heat a pint of milk to scalding, stir it into a quart of heated veal stock and thicken with a white roux. Now beat in the mashed potato, boil up once, stirring constantly, add a handful of chopped parsley, and serve.
Potato cream soup (No. 2)
Boil and mash six good-sized potatoes. Heat a pint of milk to the boiling point and stir into it a tablespoonful of butter, rubbed into the same quantity of flour. When the milk is smooth and thick beat into it slowly the mashed potatoes and stir to a cream-like soup. Season to taste with pepper, salt and onion juice, and just before removing from the fire add a teaspoonful of finely minced parsley.
Cream of corn soup
Grate the corn from a dozen ears and put over the fire in a quart of water. Simmer for three-quarters of an hour. Now add salt and pepper to taste and a teaspoonful of granulated sugar. Rub to a paste two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour and thicken the corn soup with this. Have ready heated a quart of milk, pour this gradually upon a beaten egg, turn into a heated tureen and stir in the corn purée.
Cream of asparagus soup
Cut the stalks of a bunch of asparagus into half-inch lengths, and boil slowly for an hour in three cups of salted water. When the stalks are tender, drain through a colander, pressing and rubbing the asparagus that all the juice may exude. Return the liquid to the fire and keep it hot while you cook together in a saucepan a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour, and pour upon them a quart of milk. Stir until smooth, and add the asparagus liquor slowly with a cupful of asparagus tips, already boiled tender. Have ready beaten the yolks of two eggs, pour the hot soup gradually upon these, stirring all the time; return to the fire for just a half minute, season to taste and serve.
Cream of pea soup
Open a can of peas, turn off the liquor and pour over them enough cold water to cover them. At the end of half an hour drain the peas, put them into a saucepan with a pint of water and boil until they are reduced to a pulp. Rub through a colander and add a teaspoonful of granulated sugar. Thicken a pint of rich milk with a teaspoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter, and stir the pea purée into this. Cook for a minute, season to taste, and turn into a heated tureen. Have ready a handful of dice of fried bread to throw upon the surface of the soup just before it is sent to the table.
Tapioca cream soup
Soak two tablespoonfuls of tapioca in a gill of cold water for six or eight hours. Heat a pint of well-seasoned mutton stock to boiling and stir the tapioca into this. Boil until the tapioca is clear, then slowly add a pint of scalding milk, in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved. Season to taste, and pour the soup very gradually upon the beaten yolks of three eggs. Turn into a heated tureen and serve.
Cream cheese soup
Boil an onion for fifteen minutes in a pint of veal stock, then strain it out and return the stock to the fire. Heat a pint of milk to scalding, thicken with two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed into one of butter, season with white pepper and celery salt, and add to the veal stock. Stir in slowly the beaten yolks of two eggs, then four tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese and serve.
Cream of lettuce soup
Make as you would cream of spinach soup, but boil ten minutes only. It is very good and more delicate than spinach.
Cream of sago soup
Soak half a cupful of sago for three hours in enough tepid water to cover it. Pour a cupful of boiling water upon it, and simmer in an inner boiler until very soft. Now add three cupfuls of hot milk, into which two tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in flour have been stirred. Beat up well, put in celery salt, pepper and a little onion juice; stir up and beat from the bottom for two minutes; pour gradually upon two beaten eggs; set in boiling water for two minutes, and pour out.
VEGETABLE SOUPS WITH MEAT
Potato purée
Peel and slice a quart of good “old” potatoes. Put them into the soup kettle with a large sliced onion, three stalks of celery cut into inch pieces, a quarter of a pound of butter, and pepper and salt to taste; stew slowly until reduced to a pulp, add a quart of good stock; simmer a few minutes longer, run through a colander into another saucepan and let it boil gently for five minutes. Just before ready to serve add a pint of hot cream, a piece of butter and a tablespoonful of minced parsley.
Bean soup
Soak three cupfuls of dried white beans for eight hours. Drain, cover them with two quarts of boiling water, and boil until the beans are tender and broken to pieces. Rub them and the water in which they have been boiled through a sieve and return to the fire. Add a quart of stock, in which a ham or a piece of corn beef has been boiled. If this is too salt, add other soup stock with it. Boil for an hour, season to taste; stir in a tablespoonful of butter rolled in one of flour and put into the tureen. Put a handful of croutons or dice of fried bread on the surface of the soup.
Mock-turtle bean soup
Make as you would white bean soup, adding, at the last, a tablespoonful of butter rolled in one of browned flour, and when it has boiled one minute, a glass of sherry.
Have in the tureen three tablespoonfuls of hard-boiled egg, cut into dice, and a lemon, peeled and sliced as thin as paper. It is a surprisingly good imitation of mock turtle soup.
Bean and tomato soup
Soak a quart of beans for eight hours. Drain and soak an hour longer in warm water. Drain and put into a soup pot with a gallon of cold water, and bring slowly to a boil. Add a half pound of fat salt pork, chopped, two sliced onions and a bay leaf. Let all simmer gently for four hours. At the end of that time run and press the soup through a sieve, and return it to the pot with a quart of canned tomatoes seasoned, and sweetened with two teaspoonfuls of granulated sugar. Boil for half an hour, strain the soup through a colander and return to the fire, while you thicken it with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into the same quantity of butter. Boil up once and serve.
Split pea soup
This soup may be made of dried split green or yellow peas. Soak a large cupful of the peas all night, drain, cover with two quarts of water and bring to a boil. Simmer gently until the peas are soft, then rub through a colander and return to the fire, thicken with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter and season with pepper, celery, salt and onion juice. Stir until very smooth, turn into a heated tureen, throw in a handful of dice of fried bread and serve.
Celery soup
Wash the celery, cut it into inch lengths and boil it in enough water to cover it until so soft that it can be rubbed through a colander. After passing it through the colander, return to the fire with a pint of white stock. Scald a pint of milk, stir into it a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, and when thick and smooth, add slowly the stock seasoned with white pepper and celery salt. Beat for a half-minute and serve.
Green pea purée (No. 1)
Shell two quarts of peas and leave in cold water. Wash the pods and put them over the fire to boil in a quart of veal or mutton stock. Boil for twenty minutes, then drain out the pods and return the stock to the fire. Drain the water from the peas, and when the stock boils again, turn them into this. Add a pinch of soda and boil until the green pellets are reduced to a soft mass. Rub the pulp and liquid through a colander, return to the fire and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Have heated in another saucepan a half pint of rich milk. Pour this slowly into a bowl containing a beaten egg; whip all together, and gradually add the peas-purée. Do not return the soup to the fire after it has been poured upon the milk and egg, or it may curdle.
Green pea purée (No. 2)
Boil a quart of shelled peas tender in salted hot water with a young onion, a few sprigs of parsley and six mint leaves. Rub through a colander and return to the fire, adding half a cupful of good stock, salt, pepper and a lump of sugar. When it has boiled two minutes stir in a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour, cook one minute longer and pour upon croutons of fried bread-dice in the tureen.
Savory potato soup
Crack a good marrow-bone well and put over the fire with three pints of cold water, a small sliced carrot, a stalk or two of celery and a grated onion. Cook slowly until boiled down to one-half the original quantity. Set aside until cold; remove the fat, take out the bones, and rub the vegetables through a colander back into the soup. Heat quickly to a boil, and pour upon your mashed potato, gradually, working in smoothly as you go on. Turn into a double boiler and when again hot put in a great spoonful of chopped parsley. Have ready in another saucepan a good cupful of hot water, in which has been dropped a pinch of soda. Stir into this a teaspoonful of butter, rubbed up in one of corn-starch. Cook three minutes, add to the potato soup, stir briskly for half a minute and put into the tureen. If properly seasoned this is a delicious family broth.
Browned potato soup
Peel and cut into quarters twelve potatoes, put three tablespoonfuls of beef dripping in a soup pot and fry in it the potatoes and a sliced onion. When brown, add two quarts of water and simmer until the potatoes are soft and broken. Rub through a colander, return the purée to the pot, thicken with two tablespoonfuls of browned flour rubbed to a paste with a great spoonful of butter, stir until smooth, add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste and serve.
It is very good.
Savory rice soup
Boil half a cupful of well-washed rice in boiling water for twelve minutes; drain off the water, pour over it one quart of stock and cook until the rice is tender; then rub through a strainer and return to the fire; beat the yolks of two eggs, add to them half a cup of cream, and this to the soup and stir for one minute; do not allow it to boil; add more seasoning if necessary, and serve.
Okra soup
Into a quart of chicken stock stir two slices of corned ham, minced, a chopped onion and two dozen okra. Add a pint of strained tomatoes and boil all until the okra is tender. Season to taste and serve.
Red tomato soup
Skim all grease from a quart of beef stock and turn into it a can of tomatoes, or a quart of fresh tomatoes, peeled and sliced. Bring to a boil and simmer steadily for an hour. At the end of this time rub the soup through a sieve and return to the fire with a heaping teaspoonful of sugar, a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour, a teaspoonful of onion juice, the same quantity of kitchen bouquet, and pepper and salt to taste. Add a half-cupful of boiled rice, simmer five minutes and serve with squares of toasted bread.
Tomato and bean soup
Put beef-bones over the fire with half a sliced carrot, two stalks of refuse celery and a grated onion. Pour in three pints of cold water; simmer slowly in a covered pot four hours, until the liquid is reduced to one-half. Turn bones and soup into a bowl and let all get perfectly cold. Skim off the fat, strain out the bones and rub the vegetables through a colander back into the liquor. Season this to your taste with salt and pepper, bring to a boil, add a cupful of stewed tomato and one of baked beans and cook half an hour longer before rubbing all hard through the colander into another saucepan. Stir in a teaspoonful of butter rubbed up with one of flour, to prevent wateriness in the soup, also a little chopped parsley. Boil up sharply for one minute and turn upon tiny squares of fried or toasted bread laid in the bottom of the tureen.
This is an excellent way of using up left-overs of stewed tomatoes and baked beans.
Carrot soup
Wash and clean one dozen half-grown carrots. Slice thin, then place them in a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of butter, a little salt and sugar and cook slowly, turning often until the carrots begin to color. Add a pint of rich broth and allow them to boil gently to a glaze; then put the carrots through your vegetable press; return to the saucepan, simmer until smoking-hot and serve.
Sorrel soup
Chop the sorrel into bits and boil tender in a quart of mutton stock. Rub through a colander and return to the fire. Thicken a pint of hot milk with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Cook one minute, or until it is smooth and free from lumps, when stir in slowly the sorrel soup. Season to taste and serve. The French are particularly fond of sorrel soups.
Succotash soup
Remove the strings from string beans, cut the beans into inch lengths and shred each inch into thin strips. Grate the kernels from six ears of corn, and boil the cobs for twenty minutes in a quart of cleared beef stock. Remove the cobs and boil the grated corn and shredded beans in the stock for twenty-five minutes. Now make a pint of tomato sauce, thickening it and seasoning it as usual, and pour the stock, corn and beans gradually upon this. Season all to taste, and serve very hot, without straining.
You may make this soup in winter from canned corn and string beans.
Spinach soup
Pick over, wash and stem half a peck of spinach, and put over the fire in the inner vessel of a double boiler, with boiling water in the outer, and cook tender. Rub through your vegetable press back into the saucepan; add a pint of good stock; season with salt, pepper, a teaspoonful of sugar and a pinch of mace; bring to a quick boil to keep the color, stir in a tablespoonful of butter rolled in a teaspoonful of flour, and cook one minute.
Celery soup
Is good made in the same way, also cauliflower.
Lettuce soup
Treat as directed in spinach soup. Cook very quickly and add a dash of lemon juice.
Farmer’s chowder
Parboil and slice six fine potatoes; fry half a pound of sweet salt pork (chopped) and when it begins to crisp add a minced onion and cook to a light brown. Pack potatoes, pork and onion in a soup kettle, sprinkling each layer with pepper and minced parsley. Add the hot fat; cover with a pint of boiling water and simmer thirty minutes. Turn into a colander and drain the liquor back into the kettle. Have ready a pint of hot milk into which has been stirred a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour; add to the liquor, cook one minute, return the potatoes to the kettle and serve.
VEGETABLE SOUPS WITHOUT MEAT
Split pea soup
Soak a large cup of split peas all night, then put them over the fire with two quarts of water and bring to a boil. Simmer gently until the peas are soft. Rub through a colander, return to the fire, thicken with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into two of butter and season with pepper, celery salt and onion juice. Stir to a smooth purée, pour into the tureen and throw a handful of dice of fried bread upon the surface of the soup.
Green pea broth (No. 1)
Drain the liquor from a can of peas, cook them until very soft, then rub through a colander. Thicken a quart of milk with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into two of butter, stir the mashed peas into this, boil up once, stirring steadily; season with salt and a teaspoonful of sugar, and serve.
Green pea broth (No. 2)
Drain a can of peas and lay the peas in cold water for one hour. Add two cupfuls of cold water, one teaspoonful of sugar, and one slice of onion; boil twenty minutes and rub through a vegetable press. Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter, add one of flour, mixed with one teaspoonful of salt and one-eighth of a teaspoonful of pepper. Stir into the boiling mixture and add two cupfuls of scalded milk heated with a bit of soda. Strain before serving.
“Linsen,” or lentil soup
Pick over and wash one cupful of lentils, soak three hours, and put them on to cook in one quart of boiling water. Let them cook very slowly until soft, and the water reduced one-half. Rub the pulp through a strainer, add one pint of milk and when boiling thicken with one tablespoonful of flour cooked in a tablespoonful of butter. Season with paprika, salt and a little sugar, and serve with croutons.
A good green pea soup
One quart of shelled peas, two cupfuls of milk, two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour, one-half teaspoonful, each, of salt and white sugar, and half as much white pepper, one quart of boiling water.
Wash the pods well when you have shelled the peas and put the pods over the fire in the boiling water; cook fifteen minutes, strain and press the softened pods into the water and return to the fire with the raw peas. Cook until soft, when run through your vegetable press back into the saucepan with the water. Have ready a roux made by heating the butter and stirring into it in the frying-pan the flour. Have the milk hot in another vessel, add the roux, cook two minutes. Season the pea-broth and pour into the tureen. Stir in the thickened milk and serve, pouring upon croutons of fried bread.
Squash soup
One cupful of cold boiled squash, run through a colander, one quart of milk, heated, with a pinch of soda, one teaspoonful, each, of salt and of sugar, a quarter as much pepper and a pinch of mace, two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour, one tablespoonful of onion juice and two of minced celery.
Make a roux of butter and flour, and stir into the hot milk. Beat together the squash, celery and seasoning until light; heat quickly in a saucepan, stirring all the time. When very hot, put into the tureen, turn in the milk, stirring all well together, and serve.
Turnip soup
Make as directed in last recipe.
Rice and tomato soup
Peel and cut up a dozen ripe tomatoes and boil to a pulp in a quart of salted water. Strain, return to the fire, and add two tablespoonfuls of butter rubbed to a paste with the same quantity of flour; pepper, salt and sugar to taste, a tablespoonful of minced parsley and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Cook for ten minutes, then stir in a cupful of boiled rice.
Corn and tomato soup
Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan, put into it two fine-cut onions, one bay leaf and six whole black peppers; cook five minutes without browning; add one tablespoonful of flour, stir and cook two minutes; then one can of tomatoes, one tablespoonful of sugar, one teaspoonful of salt, one-quarter teaspoonful of white pepper; stir often and cook ten minutes. Next comes one pint of boiling water; cook five minutes, rub the tomatoes through a sieve into a clean saucepan and add one can of corn, put it into the soup and boil fifteen minutes; mix the yolks of two eggs with a half cupful of cream or milk, stir into the soup, and serve at once.
Corn chowder
Cut the kernels from a dozen ears of green corn. Peel and mince two onions and fry them brown in three tablespoonfuls of butter in a deep saucepan. Now put in the corn, four broken pilot biscuits and half a dozen parboiled and sliced potatoes. Season with pepper, salt and a tablespoonful of minced parsley, and cover with a quart of boiling water. Let all cook gently for three-quarters of an hour, then stir in slowly a cupful of boiling milk, thickened with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Turn at once into a heated tureen. A delightful summer soup.
Artichoke soup
Wash, pare and quarter one dozen large Jerusalem artichokes and lay in cold water for an hour. Put over the fire with enough cold water to keep them from burning and cook five minutes after they begin to boil. Drain off the water, put the artichokes into the inner vessel of the double boiler with one quart of milk and a pinch of soda, and cook until tender. Press the pulp through your vegetable press; put it again into the boiler and thicken with one tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, first cooked together to a white roux. Season with salt and cayenne and serve with fried bread dice.
Vermicelli soup
(Contributed)
Bring to a boiling point two quarts of soup stock. Add four ounces of vermicelli and boil hard for twenty minutes. Season with pepper and salt and serve at once.
Macaroni soup
(Contributed)
Cook one ounce of macaroni in boiling water for twenty minutes. Drain and cut into little rings. Bring one quart of stock to the boiling point. Add the macaroni and let simmer five minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
Lima bean soup
(Contributed)
Cook the beans in thin soup stock until they fall to pieces. Pass through the purée strainer. Add enough thin cream or rich milk to make the soup the proper consistency. Season to taste, reheat and serve at once.
Noodles for soup
Beat an egg with a pinch of salt, then stir into it gradually enough flour to enable you to knead it to a firm dough. Lay this on the floured pastry board, roll very, very thin, and cut into strips of a half-inch in width. Leave these long strips on the board for a few minutes until so dry that they may be rolled up loosely, as tape is rolled. These can be dried in a colander near the range and kept for soup. They are to be dropped into the boiling soup and cooked for fifteen minutes. You may keep them in a tin box in a dry place for days.
Croutons
Cut stale bread into dice less than half an inch square; fry in hot dripping or butter to a delicate brown; take up with a split spoon and shake free of fat in a colander.
Egg soup
In a double boiler heat a quart of milk into which you have stirred a pinch of soda and a minced onion. Rub to a paste a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour and stir into the milk. Season with pepper and salt to taste.
Lay six poached eggs in the bottom of a tureen and when the white soup is smooth and cream-like, pour it carefully upon the eggs.
FISH SOUPS
Red snapper soup
Heat a quart of white stock to a boil. Stir in two cupfuls of the cold cooked fish, freed of skin and bones, and minced finely. Add pepper, salt, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley and a great spoonful of butter. Heat a cupful of milk to boiling, thicken it with a white roux and a half cupful of fine cracker crumbs. When the fish has cooked in the soup for five minutes, stir the liquid into the thickened milk and serve.
Clam chowder
Chop a half-pound of fat salt pork; put a layer of the pork in the bottom of the pot, cover with a layer of clams, sprinkle with a little minced onion and parsley, and put in a layer of split and soaked Boston crackers. Proceed in this way until seventy-five clams are used, then sprinkle with pepper and salt and cover with cold water. Bring slowly to the boil and simmer for an hour. Drain off the liquid and return to the fire. Thicken with a lump of butter rolled in flour, and add a cupful of tomato juice. Return the other ingredients to the pot, bring to the boil, and send to the table.
“Long” clam chowder
Chop a quart of “long,” or soft clams, peel six potatoes and slice thin; mince a quarter of a pound of fat salt pork fine; tie up in a cheese-cloth bag six whole allspice and the same number of whole cloves. Put the minced pork into the pot and fry it crisp; remove the pork and fry a small sliced onion in the pot to a light brown. Now put in the potatoes and a can of tomatoes, the spice bag, a quart of cold water and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Cook for four hours. At the end of three and a half hours add the clams and four pilot biscuits that have been soaked in milk. Serve very hot.
Scallop chowder
Scallops treated as directed in the foregoing recipe make a delicious chowder. Add more cayenne than when clams are used, scallops being the richer fish of the two.
Clam soup
Fifty fine clams, with the liquor that runs from them. One quart of water. One cupful of milk and two well-beaten eggs. Pepper and salt to taste. Pinch of soda in the milk. Two tablespoonfuls of butter.
Put the minced clams, liquor and water in a saucepan; simmer gently (but not boil) about one and a half hours. The clams should be so well-cooked that you seem to have only a thick broth; season with butter, pepper and salt, and pour into a tureen in which a few slices of well-browned toast have been placed. Beat the eggs very light, add slowly the milk, scalding hot, beat hard a minute or so, and when the soup is removed from the fire stir the egg and milk into it.
Oyster soup
Three dozen oysters and one quart of their juice. One quart of milk. Two tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in one of flour. Paprika, or cayenne, and salt to taste. A pinch of mace. Pinch of soda in the milk.
Scald the liquor in one saucepan and the milk in another. Make a roux of butter and flour and add the scalding milk gradually, stirring to a smooth mixture. Now put this with the hot oyster juice; add the oysters and cook until they “ruffle,” not an instant afterward.
Send crackers and sliced lemon around with it.
A fine crab soup
(A Maryland recipe.)
Boil one dozen large crabs; let them get cold, and extract the meat. Meanwhile chop a pound of salt pork and boil half an hour, fast. Cool suddenly, take off the grease from it, turn the liquor into a saucepan and heat. Put the crab-meat into this and simmer thirty-five minutes. Have ready a pint of rich, unskimmed milk, scalding hot. Beat the yolks of three eggs light and pour the milk gradually upon them, stirring all the time. Turn into the inner vessel of a double-boiler, and when the boiling point is reached add the crabs and the liquor in which they were cooked.
Remove from the fire, but leave the inner vessel in the boiling water for five minutes after you have added a tablespoonful of finely-minced parsley.
Eel soup
Two pounds of eels, cleaned and cut into inch-lengths; two tablespoonfuls of butter cooked to a roux with one of flour; three pints of water, one sliced onion, a pinch of mace and a larger of cayenne; salt to taste; dripping for frying; one tablespoonful of minced parsley. Juice of a lemon.
Heat the dripping hissing hot and fry the sliced onion in it. Now put in the eels when you have wiped them dry, and fry on both sides to a light brown. Turn all into a covered saucepan, pour in the cold water and cook slowly for an hour. Season then, stir in the roux; simmer three minutes, put in the lemon juice and serve.
Catfish soup
May be made in the same way.
Chicken broth
Cover a jointed fowl with cold water and boil until tender. Set aside the liquor in which the fowl was boiled until very cold. Remove meat and bones, and skim, removing every particle of fat. Put two quarts of this chicken-stock on the fire, season with salt and a little white pepper, bring to a boil and stir in six tablespoonfuls of rice that has been soaked for an hour in cold water. Add a little onion juice and cook until the rice is soft. Now stir in a tablespoonful of minced parsley and cook for ten minutes longer. Heat a pint of milk into which a pinch of baking soda has been stirred. Cook together a heaping tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, and when they bubble, pour upon them the pint of heated milk, stirring until you have a smooth white sauce. Into this beat gradually two well-whipped eggs. Stir over the fire for half-a-minute, and pour the egg and milk mixture into a heated tureen. Into this pour slowly, beating steadily, the chicken soup. Season to taste and serve at once.
A “left-over” fish bisque
Rid cold baked or boiled or broiled fish of bones and skin. Pick into fine bits with a silver fork. Get from your fish-merchant for a few cents a pint of oyster liquor. Put over the fire with a generous lump of butter, pepper and salt. Bring to a boil, add the fish, cook one minute and stir in a scant cupful of crumbs soaked in milk. Simmer for three minutes and serve. Pass sliced lemon with it.