2 oz. of rice, 1 breakfastcupful of shelled green peas, 1 pint of milk, 1 quart of water, 1 oz. of butter. Boil the rice in the water for 10 minutes, add the peas, the butter and pepper and salt to taste. Let it cook until the rice and peas are tender, add the milk and boil the soup up before serving.
Take a white cabbage and slice it up, and throw it into some stock or water, with some leeks and slices of turnip. Boil the whole till the vegetables are tender, flavour with pepper and salt. This is sometimes called Cornish broth, though in Cornwall a piece of meat or bones are generally boiled with the vegetables. As no meat, of course, is used, too much water must not be added, but only sufficient liquor must be served to make the vegetables thoroughly moist. Perhaps the consistency can best be described by saying that there should be equal quantities of vegetables and fluid.
Prepare half a dozen parsnips, and boil them with an onion and half a head of celery in some stock till they are quite tender. Then rub the whole through a wire sieve, boil it up again, and serve. Sufficient parsnips must be boiled to make the soup as thick as pea soup, so the quantity of stock must be regulated accordingly. This soup is generally rather sweet, owing to the parsnips, and an extra quantity of salt must be added in consequence, as well as pepper. In Belgium and Germany this sweetness is corrected by the addition of vinegar. This, of course, is a matter of taste.
2 lbs. of artichokes, 1-1/2 lbs. of tomatoes (or three parts of a tin of tomatoes), 1 oz. of Allinson fine wholemeal, 1 oz. of butter, pepper and salt to taste, 1/2 dozen eschalots. Parboil the artichokes, drain them, and cut them into slices. Make tomato sauce as follows: Chop the eschalots up very finely, slice the tomatoes and stew both in 3/4 pint of water for 20 minutes, adding seasoning and the butter; thicken the sauce with the wheatmeal, rub through a sieve, pour it over the artichokes and stew both gently until the artichokes are quite tender; serve with potatoes.
Take four dozen chestnuts and peel them. This will be a very long process if we attempt to take off the skins while they are raw; but in order to save time and trouble, place the chestnuts in a stew-pan with a couple of ounces of butter. Place them on a slack fire and occasionally give them a stir. Heat them gradually till the husks come off without any difficulty. Having removed all the husks, add sufficient stock or water to the chestnuts, and let them boil gently till they are tender. Then pound them in a mortar and rub them through a wire sieve. Add a very little brown roux, if the soup is to be brown, and a few drops of Parisian essence (burnt sugar), or a little white roux and a little cream if the soup is to be white. Add also a little pepper and salt, sufficient butter to make the puree taste soft, and a little powdered sugar. Fried and toasted bread should be served with the soup.
1-1/2 pints of milk, 1 egg, 1 tablespoonful of Allinson fine wheatmeal, 1-1/2 oz. of sultanas, sugar to taste. Boil 1-1/4 pints of milk, add the sugar, beat up the egg with the rest of the milk and mix the wheatmeal smooth with it; stir this into the boiling milk, add the sultanas, and let the soup simmer for 10 minutes.
1 lb. of haricot beans, 1/2 lb. of onions, 1 lb. of turnips, 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery, 1 teaspoonful of mixed herbs, 1/2 oz. of parsley, 1 oz. of butter, 2 quarts of water, pepper and salt to taste. Cut up the vegetables and set them to boil in the water with the haricot beans (which should have been steeped over night in cold water), adding the butter, herbs, and seasoning. Cook all very gently for 3-1/2 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally. When the beans are quite tender, rub the soup through a sieve, adding more water if needed; return it to the saucepan, add the parsley chopped up finely, boil it up and serve.
Cut up some young turnips into small pieces, throw them into boiling water, let them boil for a few minutes, take them out and strain them, and put them into a stew-pan with about two ounces of fresh butter; add a little salt and sugar. Let them stew in the butter (taking great care that they don't turn colour) till they become soft, then add sufficient boiling milk to moisten them, so that when rubbed through a wire sieve the soup will be of the consistency of pea soup. Serve fried or toasted bread with the soup.
Macaroni is sometimes used to ornament the outside of puddings, either savoury or sweet. Suppose the pudding has to be made in a small round mould or basin. Some pipe macaroni is boiled in water till it is tender, and then cut up into little pieces a quarter of an inch in length. The inside of the mould is first thickly buttered, and then these little quarter-inch tubes are stuck in the butter close together; the pudding, for instance a custard pudding, is then poured into the mould and the mould steamed. When the pudding is turned out the outside of the pudding has the appearance of a honey-comb, and looks extremely pretty. The process is not difficult, but rather troublesome, as it requires time and patience.
