Vermicelli Soup.
- 6 lbs. of beef-shin, meat chopped and bones cracked.
- 2 onions.
- 2 carrots.
- 2 turnips.
- 6 large tomatoes.
- Bunch of herbs.
- Pepper, salt, and 1 tablespoonful mushroom catsup.
- ¼ lb. vermicelli, broken small.
- 6 quarts of water.
Put meat, bones, and sliced vegetables and herbs on in the water early in the day, and stew gently five hours. Strain and season. Set aside two quarts of stock, with the bones and meat, highly seasoned, until to-morrow, keeping upon the ice. Boil and skim the rest; add the vermicelli; simmer fifteen minutes, and pour out. Put in the catsup after the soup goes into the tureen.
Beefsteak.
Flatten with the broad side of a hatchet, and broil quickly about ten minutes over a clear, hot fire. Lay between two hot dishes, with salt, pepper, and a great lump of butter upon it to draw the juices to the surface, for five minutes before serving.
Young Onions.
Cut off stems and tops, skin and cook them in plenty of boiling water for fifteen minutes. Have ready another saucepan with a large spoonful of butter melted in it, but not hissing hot. Put in the onions, with a little chopped parsley, and let them warm slowly ten minutes. Then add a cup of milk in which have been stirred salt, pepper, and half a teaspoonful of corn-starch. Simmer all for three minutes, stirring several times, and pour out.
Spinach.
Boil in hot, salted water twenty minutes. Drain well, and chop fine. Put into a saucepan with a good spoonful of butter, a little sugar, salt and pepper, a dust of nutmeg, and a few teaspoonfuls of milk, and beat until all resolve themselves into a smooth, soft paste.
Potato Puffs.
Mash and whip the potatoes very light with milk, butter, salt and pepper; lastly, the frothed white of an egg. Pile irregularly within a bake-dish, and set in the oven until light and delicately browned. Glaze with butter before taking it from the oven.
Strawberries and Cream.
Cap, but do not wash the berries. Never put berries that need washing upon the table as an uncooked dessert. Pile in a glass bowl, and pass sugar and cream with them.
Mother’s Cup-Cake.
Please see “Breakfast, Luncheon and Tea,” page 322.