Tomato Soup.
Peel and slice twelve large tomatoes, and stew twenty minutes. Rub through a colander to a pulp; season this with pepper, salt, and sugar. Take the fat from the top of your cold soup-stock, and put the latter over the fire. Simmer half an hour; strain out meat and bones. Boil and skim three minutes, and add the tomato sauce. Cook gently ten minutes; stir in a tablespoonful (even) of corn-starch wet with cold water. Boil up and pour out.
Boiled Leg of Mutton.
Cook in plenty of hot salted water, allowing twelve minutes to the pound. Take out when done, wipe carefully; dish, and rub all over with butter. Serve with caper sauce.
Caper Sauce.
Take a cupful of the liquor in which the meat has been boiled. Put on in a saucepan; boil and skim for a moment; stir in two tablespoonfuls of butter rubbed into a heaping teaspoonful of flour. Stir over the fire five minutes, add the juice of a lemon, pepper, and two dozen pickled capers—or, if you have not these, pickled nasturtium seed. Send to table in a boat. Save the rest of the pot-liquor for soup.
Mashed Potatoes.
Prepare as usual, whipping light with a fork, and heaping upon a hot dish.
Stewed Egg-plant.
Soak and stuff as directed on Thursday, Fourth Week in August, but instead of baking it, put on in a cupful of your soup-stock, and stew, closely covered, one hour, or until very tender. Take up and keep hot in a deep dish. Stir a lump of butter rolled in flour into the gravy; boil up and pour over the egg-plant.
Lima Beans.
Shell, and cook about forty minutes in boiling, salted water. Drain, pepper, salt and stir in a good lump of butter when dished.
Peach Fritters.
1 quart of flour; 1 cup of milk; ⅓ cup of yeast; 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar; 4 eggs; 2 tablespoonfuls of butter; a little salt; ripe, freestone peaches, pared and stoned.
Sift the flour into a bowl; work in milk and yeast, and let it rise five or six hours. Then, beat eggs and sugar light with butter, salt, and stir into the risen dough. Knead faithfully with your hands. Pull off bits nearly as large as an egg. Flatten and put in the centre of each a peach (pared), from which the stone has been slipped out through a slit in one side. Close the dough over it; make into a round ball, and lay upon a floured pan for the second rising. The balls must not touch each other. In an hour they should be light. Fry as you would doughnuts, but more slowly. Drain in a colander, and eat hot with brandy-sauce.