A Summer Mélange Soup.
- 2 lbs. lean beef, chopped fine.
- 1 quart green peas.
- 1 quart tomatoes, peeled and sliced.
- 1 cucumber, sliced thin.
- 1 sliced onion.
- 1 pint of small string-beans, cut into pieces.
- 3 great spoonfuls of butter, rolled in flour.
- Pepper and salt.
- 4 quarts of cold water.
Put on the meat in the water, and cook, slowly, three hours, to extract every particle of nourishment from the beef. Peel and slice the vegetables, and lay all, except the tomatoes, in cold water for half an hour. At the end of the three hours, strain the soup; return to the pot and put in all the vegetables with salt and pepper. Stew for one hour, covered; stir in the butter and simmer half an hour longer before turning it out.
Rolled Beef.
Make your butcher take all the bones out of a rib-roast. (Keep them for to-morrow’s soup.) Make him also roll the meat into a round, and skewer it securely. Wash it all over with vinegar, then rub with hot butter mixed with minced onion and pepper, working this well between the folds of meat. Put into the dripping-pan, pour a cup of gravy from the boiling soup—before the vegetables are added—about the base, and a few spoonfuls of butter and water upon the top. Roast twelve minutes to the pound, basting freely and often. Towards the last, dredge with flour, and rub over with butter to make a brown froth. Pour off the fat from the gravy, strain what is left; add, if needed, a little boiling water; thicken with browned flour, and serve in a boat.
Boiled Onions.
Top and tail; skin and cook fifteen minutes in boiling fresh water. Throw this off, add more from the boiling tea-kettle; salt slightly, and boil until tender all through. Drain, butter well, and pepper and salt.
Stuffed Tomatoes.
Select large, smooth tomatoes; cut a piece from the top of each, and scoop out seeds and pulp. Chop fine what you have removed; season with butter, pepper, salt and sugar; add one-third as much bread-crumbs; work all well together, and fill the skins with the mixture. Replace the tops; put the rest of the stuffing between the tomatoes when you have set them close together in a bake-dish. Bake, covered, half an hour, in a moderate oven; then uncover and cook ten minutes longer, or until browned and soft.
Baked Omelette aux Fines Herbes.
Make this a course between soup and meat, passing bread and butter with it.
- 6 eggs.
- 1 cup of boiling milk.
- 1 teaspoonful of corn-starch, wet with cold milk.
- 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley, thyme, and sweet marjoram, mixed.
- Pepper and salt.
- Butter for the dish.
Beat the yolks light, and pour upon them the hot milk. Stir in the corn-starch, season, whip in the frothed whites, lastly, the herbs. Have ready a nice pudding-dish, well buttered. Set in the oven until hot; butter again, and pour in the omelette. Bake about twelve minutes, or until “set” in the middle, but not longer, or it will be a leathery puff. It should be very light. Send up—instantly.
Strawberries and Cream.
Orange Cake.
Serve as directed on Monday of last week.
The orange cake, if made on Friday or Saturday, will have kept perfectly well, if the cake-box—a tight one—containing it has been set in the refrigerator. For directions for making it please consult “Breakfast, Luncheon and Tea,” page 318.