Scald 1/2 lb. German lentils for a minute in boiling water, drain and put on with quantity of boiling water required. Fry some onions, celery, and tomatoes--if to be had--in a little butter till brown, and add. Simmer about 2 hours, and rub through a sieve. Add a little ground rice, cornflour, &c., to keep the pulp from settling to the bottom. A little milk or cream or ketchup may be added if liked.
Take any vegetables that may be in season, such as carrots, turnips, leeks, onions, and celery, and slice them up; put them into a saucepan with the haricot beans and the butter, and turn them all about till the butter is all absorbed; sprinkle over them a teaspoonful each of salt and sugar, add the peppercorns and the water, and boil until the vegetables are very soft.
Rub them through a sieve, return to the saucepan and make thoroughly hot, and it is ready to serve.
Take good strong stock (see pages 27 and 30), remove all fat from the surface, and for each quart of the stock allow the white and shell of one egg and a tablespoonful of water, well whipped together. Pour this mixture into a saucepan containing the stock; place it over the fire and heat the contents gradually, stirring often to prevent the egg from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. Allow it to boil gently until the stock looks perfectly clear under the egg, which will rise and float upon the surface in the form of a thick white scum. Now remove it and pour it into a folded towel laid in a colander set over an earthen bowl, allowing it to run through without moving or squeezing it. Season with more salt if needed, and quickly serve very hot. This should be a clear amber color.
Boil a large fowl in three quarts of water until tender (the water should never more than bubble). Skim off the fat, and add a teacupful of rice, and, also, a slice of carrot, one of turnip, a small piece of celery and an onion, which have been cooked slowly for fifteen minutes in two large table-spoonfuls of butter. Skim this butter carefully from the vegetables, and into the pan in which it is, stir a table- spoonful of flour. Cook until smooth, but not brown. Add this, as well as a small piece of cinnamon and of mace, and four whole cloves. Cook all together slowly for two hours. Chop and pound the breast of the fowl very fine. Rub the soup through a fine sieve; add the pounded breast and again rub the whole through the sieve. Put back on the fire and add one and a half table-spoonfuls of salt, a fourth of a teaspoonful of pepper and a pint of cream, which has come just to a boil. Boil up once and serve. This is a delicious soup.
If vegetables have been boiled with the meat the stock will be sufficiently flavoured; if not, boil an onion and carrot in it and strain out. Wash the celery thoroughly and cut it into pieces one inch long, put it into the boiling stock and boil for half an hour, then sprinkle in 1 oz of sago and stir until it is transparent. Pour in the milk and bring to boiling point; it is then ready to serve. This is an excellent soup for any one suffering from or subject to rheumatism or gout.
Half pint green peas, two shredded lettuces, one onion, a small bunch of parsley, two ounces butter, the yolks of three eggs, one pint of water, one and a half quarts of soup stock. Put in a stewpan the lettuce, onion, parsley and butter, with one pint of water, and let them simmer till tender. Season with salt and pepper. When done, strain off the vegetables, and put two-thirds of the liquor with the stock. Beat up the yolks of the eggs with the other third, toss it over the fire, and at the moment of serving add this with the vegetables to the strained-off soup.
Break open a good-sized cocoanut and grate sufficient of the white part till it weighs half a pound. Boil this in some stock, and after it has boiled for about an hour strain it off. Only a small quantity of stock must be used, and the cocoanut should be pressed and squeezed, so as to extract all the goodness. Add a little pepper and salt, and about half a grated nutmeg. Next boil separately three pints of milk, and add this to the strained soup. Thicken the soup with some ground rice, and serve. Of course, a little cream would be a great improvement. Serve with toasted or fried bread.
Cut up two onions and fry them till they are brown; you need not use butter, clarified fat will do very well. Clean your leeks, washing them well; cut them in pieces and fry them also; add any other vegetables that you have, two medium-sized potatoes, pepper, salt, and a little water. Let all simmer for three hours, and pass it through a fine sieve. Let there be more leeks than other vegetables, so that their flavor predominates. [Mme. Jules Segers.]
Twenty-five small clams, one quart of milk, half a cupful of butter, one table-spoonful of chopped parsley, three potatoes, two large table-spoonfuls of flour, salt, pepper. The clams should be chopped fine end put into a colander to drain. Pare the potatoes, and chop rather fine. Put them on to boil with the milk, in a double kettle. Rub the butter and flour together until perfectly creamy, and when the milk and potatoes have been boiling fifteen minutes, stir this in, and cook eight minutes more. Add the parsley, pepper and salt, and cook three minutes longer. Now add the clams. Cook one minute longer, and serve. This gives a very delicate soup, as the liquor from the clams is not used. Fish Chowder. Five pounds of any kind of fish, (the light salt-water fish is the best), half a pound of pork, two large onions, one quart of sliced potatoes, one quart of water, one pint of milk, two table-spoonfuls of flour, six crackers, salt, pepper. Skin the fish, and cut all the flesh from the bones. Put the bones onto cook in the quart of water, and simmer gently ten minutes. Fry the pork; then add the onions, cut into slices. Cover, and cook five minutes; then add the flour, and cook eight minutes longer, stirring often. Strain on this the water in which the fish bones were cooked and boil gently for five minutes; then strain all on the potatoes and fish. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer fifteen minutes. Add the milk and the crackers, which were first soaked for three minutes, in the milk. Let it boil up once, and serve. The milk maybe omitted, and a pint of tomatoes used, if you like.
Slice up the onions and carrot, and fry them in the butter with the peppercorns and sugar. Sprinkle over the flour and mix well together. Cut up the tomatoes and put them in, then pour over the boiling stock and stir until it boils. Simmer slowly for an hour. Rub through a sieve, return to the saucepan and make thoroughly hot, pour into a warm tureen, and serve with fried bread.
