Part 25

Boil half a cupful of well-washed rice in boiling water for twelve minutes; drain off the water, pour over it one quart of stock and cook until the rice is tender; then rub through a strainer and return to the fire; beat the yolks of two eggs, add to them half a cup of cream, and this to the soup and stir for one minute; do not allow it to boil; add more seasoning if necessary, and serve.

Okra soup

Into a quart of chicken stock stir two slices of corned ham, minced, a chopped onion and two dozen okra. Add a pint of strained tomatoes and boil all until the okra is tender. Season to taste and serve.

Red tomato soup

Skim all grease from a quart of beef stock and turn into it a can of tomatoes, or a quart of fresh tomatoes, peeled and sliced. Bring to a boil and simmer steadily for an hour. At the end of this time rub the soup through a sieve and return to the fire with a heaping teaspoonful of sugar, a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour, a teaspoonful of onion juice, the same quantity of kitchen bouquet, and pepper and salt to taste. Add a half-cupful of boiled rice, simmer five minutes and serve with squares of toasted bread.

Tomato and bean soup

Put beef-bones over the fire with half a sliced carrot, two stalks of refuse celery and a grated onion. Pour in three pints of cold water; simmer slowly in a covered pot four hours, until the liquid is reduced to one-half. Turn bones and soup into a bowl and let all get perfectly cold. Skim off the fat, strain out the bones and rub the vegetables through a colander back into the liquor. Season this to your taste with salt and pepper, bring to a boil, add a cupful of stewed tomato and one of baked beans and cook half an hour longer before rubbing all hard through the colander into another saucepan. Stir in a teaspoonful of butter rubbed up with one of flour, to prevent wateriness in the soup, also a little chopped parsley. Boil up sharply for one minute and turn upon tiny squares of fried or toasted bread laid in the bottom of the tureen.

This is an excellent way of using up left-overs of stewed tomatoes and baked beans.

Carrot soup

Wash and clean one dozen half-grown carrots. Slice thin, then place them in a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of butter, a little salt and sugar and cook slowly, turning often until the carrots begin to color. Add a pint of rich broth and allow them to boil gently to a glaze; then put the carrots through your vegetable press; return to the saucepan, simmer until smoking-hot and serve.

Sorrel soup

Chop the sorrel into bits and boil tender in a quart of mutton stock. Rub through a colander and return to the fire. Thicken a pint of hot milk with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Cook one minute, or until it is smooth and free from lumps, when stir in slowly the sorrel soup. Season to taste and serve. The French are particularly fond of sorrel soups.

Succotash soup

Remove the strings from string beans, cut the beans into inch lengths and shred each inch into thin strips. Grate the kernels from six ears of corn, and boil the cobs for twenty minutes in a quart of cleared beef stock. Remove the cobs and boil the grated corn and shredded beans in the stock for twenty-five minutes. Now make a pint of tomato sauce, thickening it and seasoning it as usual, and pour the stock, corn and beans gradually upon this. Season all to taste, and serve very hot, without straining.

You may make this soup in winter from canned corn and string beans.

Spinach soup

Pick over, wash and stem half a peck of spinach, and put over the fire in the inner vessel of a double boiler, with boiling water in the outer, and cook tender. Rub through your vegetable press back into the saucepan; add a pint of good stock; season with salt, pepper, a teaspoonful of sugar and a pinch of mace; bring to a quick boil to keep the color, stir in a tablespoonful of butter rolled in a teaspoonful of flour, and cook one minute.

Celery soup

Is good made in the same way, also cauliflower.

Lettuce soup

Treat as directed in spinach soup. Cook very quickly and add a dash of lemon juice.

Farmer’s chowder

Parboil and slice six fine potatoes; fry half a pound of sweet salt pork (chopped) and when it begins to crisp add a minced onion and cook to a light brown. Pack potatoes, pork and onion in a soup kettle, sprinkling each layer with pepper and minced parsley. Add the hot fat; cover with a pint of boiling water and simmer thirty minutes. Turn into a colander and drain the liquor back into the kettle. Have ready a pint of hot milk into which has been stirred a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour; add to the liquor, cook one minute, return the potatoes to the kettle and serve.

VEGETABLE SOUPS WITHOUT MEAT

Split pea soup

Soak a large cup of split peas all night, then put them over the fire with two quarts of water and bring to a boil. Simmer gently until the peas are soft. Rub through a colander, return to the fire, thicken with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into two of butter and season with pepper, celery salt and onion juice. Stir to a smooth purée, pour into the tureen and throw a handful of dice of fried bread upon the surface of the soup.

Green pea broth (No. 1)

Drain the liquor from a can of peas, cook them until very soft, then rub through a colander. Thicken a quart of milk with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into two of butter, stir the mashed peas into this, boil up once, stirring steadily; season with salt and a teaspoonful of sugar, and serve.

Green pea broth (No. 2)

Drain a can of peas and lay the peas in cold water for one hour. Add two cupfuls of cold water, one teaspoonful of sugar, and one slice of onion; boil twenty minutes and rub through a vegetable press. Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter, add one of flour, mixed with one teaspoonful of salt and one-eighth of a teaspoonful of pepper. Stir into the boiling mixture and add two cupfuls of scalded milk heated with a bit of soda. Strain before serving.

“Linsen,” or lentil soup

Pick over and wash one cupful of lentils, soak three hours, and put them on to cook in one quart of boiling water. Let them cook very slowly until soft, and the water reduced one-half. Rub the pulp through a strainer, add one pint of milk and when boiling thicken with one tablespoonful of flour cooked in a tablespoonful of butter. Season with paprika, salt and a little sugar, and serve with croutons.

A good green pea soup

One quart of shelled peas, two cupfuls of milk, two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour, one-half teaspoonful, each, of salt and white sugar, and half as much white pepper, one quart of boiling water.

Wash the pods well when you have shelled the peas and put the pods over the fire in the boiling water; cook fifteen minutes, strain and press the softened pods into the water and return to the fire with the raw peas. Cook until soft, when run through your vegetable press back into the saucepan with the water. Have ready a roux made by heating the butter and stirring into it in the frying-pan the flour. Have the milk hot in another vessel, add the roux, cook two minutes. Season the pea-broth and pour into the tureen. Stir in the thickened milk and serve, pouring upon croutons of fried bread.

Squash soup

One cupful of cold boiled squash, run through a colander, one quart of milk, heated, with a pinch of soda, one teaspoonful, each, of salt and of sugar, a quarter as much pepper and a pinch of mace, two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour, one tablespoonful of onion juice and two of minced celery.

Make a roux of butter and flour, and stir into the hot milk. Beat together the squash, celery and seasoning until light; heat quickly in a saucepan, stirring all the time. When very hot, put into the tureen, turn in the milk, stirring all well together, and serve.

Turnip soup

Make as directed in last recipe.

Rice and tomato soup

Peel and cut up a dozen ripe tomatoes and boil to a pulp in a quart of salted water. Strain, return to the fire, and add two tablespoonfuls of butter rubbed to a paste with the same quantity of flour; pepper, salt and sugar to taste, a tablespoonful of minced parsley and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Cook for ten minutes, then stir in a cupful of boiled rice.

Corn and tomato soup

Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan, put into it two fine-cut onions, one bay leaf and six whole black peppers; cook five minutes without browning; add one tablespoonful of flour, stir and cook two minutes; then one can of tomatoes, one tablespoonful of sugar, one teaspoonful of salt, one-quarter teaspoonful of white pepper; stir often and cook ten minutes. Next comes one pint of boiling water; cook five minutes, rub the tomatoes through a sieve into a clean saucepan and add one can of corn, put it into the soup and boil fifteen minutes; mix the yolks of two eggs with a half cupful of cream or milk, stir into the soup, and serve at once.

Corn chowder

Cut the kernels from a dozen ears of green corn. Peel and mince two onions and fry them brown in three tablespoonfuls of butter in a deep saucepan. Now put in the corn, four broken pilot biscuits and half a dozen parboiled and sliced potatoes. Season with pepper, salt and a tablespoonful of minced parsley, and cover with a quart of boiling water. Let all cook gently for three-quarters of an hour, then stir in slowly a cupful of boiling milk, thickened with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Turn at once into a heated tureen. A delightful summer soup.

Artichoke soup

Wash, pare and quarter one dozen large Jerusalem artichokes and lay in cold water for an hour. Put over the fire with enough cold water to keep them from burning and cook five minutes after they begin to boil. Drain off the water, put the artichokes into the inner vessel of the double boiler with one quart of milk and a pinch of soda, and cook until tender. Press the pulp through your vegetable press; put it again into the boiler and thicken with one tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, first cooked together to a white roux. Season with salt and cayenne and serve with fried bread dice.

Vermicelli soup

(Contributed)

Bring to a boiling point two quarts of soup stock. Add four ounces of vermicelli and boil hard for twenty minutes. Season with pepper and salt and serve at once.

Macaroni soup

(Contributed)

Cook one ounce of macaroni in boiling water for twenty minutes. Drain and cut into little rings. Bring one quart of stock to the boiling point. Add the macaroni and let simmer five minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Lima bean soup

(Contributed)

Cook the beans in thin soup stock until they fall to pieces. Pass through the purée strainer. Add enough thin cream or rich milk to make the soup the proper consistency. Season to taste, reheat and serve at once.

Noodles for soup

Beat an egg with a pinch of salt, then stir into it gradually enough flour to enable you to knead it to a firm dough. Lay this on the floured pastry board, roll very, very thin, and cut into strips of a half-inch in width. Leave these long strips on the board for a few minutes until so dry that they may be rolled up loosely, as tape is rolled. These can be dried in a colander near the range and kept for soup. They are to be dropped into the boiling soup and cooked for fifteen minutes. You may keep them in a tin box in a dry place for days.

Croutons

Cut stale bread into dice less than half an inch square; fry in hot dripping or butter to a delicate brown; take up with a split spoon and shake free of fat in a colander.

Egg soup

In a double boiler heat a quart of milk into which you have stirred a pinch of soda and a minced onion. Rub to a paste a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour and stir into the milk. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

Lay six poached eggs in the bottom of a tureen and when the white soup is smooth and cream-like, pour it carefully upon the eggs.

FISH SOUPS

Red snapper soup

Heat a quart of white stock to a boil. Stir in two cupfuls of the cold cooked fish, freed of skin and bones, and minced finely. Add pepper, salt, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley and a great spoonful of butter. Heat a cupful of milk to boiling, thicken it with a white roux and a half cupful of fine cracker crumbs. When the fish has cooked in the soup for five minutes, stir the liquid into the thickened milk and serve.

Clam chowder

Chop a half-pound of fat salt pork; put a layer of the pork in the bottom of the pot, cover with a layer of clams, sprinkle with a little minced onion and parsley, and put in a layer of split and soaked Boston crackers. Proceed in this way until seventy-five clams are used, then sprinkle with pepper and salt and cover with cold water. Bring slowly to the boil and simmer for an hour. Drain off the liquid and return to the fire. Thicken with a lump of butter rolled in flour, and add a cupful of tomato juice. Return the other ingredients to the pot, bring to the boil, and send to the table.

“Long” clam chowder

Chop a quart of “long,” or soft clams, peel six potatoes and slice thin; mince a quarter of a pound of fat salt pork fine; tie up in a cheese-cloth bag six whole allspice and the same number of whole cloves. Put the minced pork into the pot and fry it crisp; remove the pork and fry a small sliced onion in the pot to a light brown. Now put in the potatoes and a can of tomatoes, the spice bag, a quart of cold water and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Cook for four hours. At the end of three and a half hours add the clams and four pilot biscuits that have been soaked in milk. Serve very hot.

Scallop chowder

Scallops treated as directed in the foregoing recipe make a delicious chowder. Add more cayenne than when clams are used, scallops being the richer fish of the two.

Clam soup

Fifty fine clams, with the liquor that runs from them. One quart of water. One cupful of milk and two well-beaten eggs. Pepper and salt to taste. Pinch of soda in the milk. Two tablespoonfuls of butter.

Put the minced clams, liquor and water in a saucepan; simmer gently (but not boil) about one and a half hours. The clams should be so well-cooked that you seem to have only a thick broth; season with butter, pepper and salt, and pour into a tureen in which a few slices of well-browned toast have been placed. Beat the eggs very light, add slowly the milk, scalding hot, beat hard a minute or so, and when the soup is removed from the fire stir the egg and milk into it.

Oyster soup

Three dozen oysters and one quart of their juice. One quart of milk. Two tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in one of flour. Paprika, or cayenne, and salt to taste. A pinch of mace. Pinch of soda in the milk.

Scald the liquor in one saucepan and the milk in another. Make a roux of butter and flour and add the scalding milk gradually, stirring to a smooth mixture. Now put this with the hot oyster juice; add the oysters and cook until they “ruffle,” not an instant afterward.

Send crackers and sliced lemon around with it.

A fine crab soup

(A Maryland recipe.)

Boil one dozen large crabs; let them get cold, and extract the meat. Meanwhile chop a pound of salt pork and boil half an hour, _fast_. Cool suddenly, take off the grease from it, turn the liquor into a saucepan and heat. Put the crab-meat into this and simmer thirty-five minutes. Have ready a pint of rich, unskimmed milk, scalding hot. Beat the yolks of three eggs light and pour the milk gradually upon them, stirring all the time. Turn into the inner vessel of a double-boiler, and when the boiling point is reached add the crabs and the liquor in which they were cooked.

Remove from the fire, but leave the inner vessel in the boiling water for five minutes after you have added a tablespoonful of finely-minced parsley.

Eel soup

Two pounds of eels, cleaned and cut into inch-lengths; two tablespoonfuls of butter cooked to a roux with one of flour; three pints of water, one sliced onion, a pinch of mace and a larger of cayenne; salt to taste; dripping for frying; one tablespoonful of minced parsley. Juice of a lemon.

Heat the dripping hissing hot and fry the sliced onion in it. Now put in the eels when you have wiped them dry, and fry on both sides to a light brown. Turn all into a covered saucepan, pour in the cold water and cook slowly for an hour. Season then, stir in the roux; simmer three minutes, put in the lemon juice and serve.

Catfish soup

May be made in the same way.

Chicken broth

Cover a jointed fowl with cold water and boil until tender. Set aside the liquor in which the fowl was boiled until very cold. Remove meat and bones, and skim, removing every particle of fat. Put two quarts of this chicken-stock on the fire, season with salt and a little white pepper, bring to a boil and stir in six tablespoonfuls of rice that has been soaked for an hour in cold water. Add a little onion juice and cook until the rice is soft. Now stir in a tablespoonful of minced parsley and cook for ten minutes longer. Heat a pint of milk into which a pinch of baking soda has been stirred. Cook together a heaping tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, and when they bubble, pour upon them the pint of heated milk, stirring until you have a smooth white sauce. Into this beat gradually two well-whipped eggs. Stir over the fire for half-a-minute, and pour the egg and milk mixture into a heated tureen. Into this pour slowly, beating steadily, the chicken soup. Season to taste and serve at once.

A “left-over” fish bisque

Rid cold baked or boiled or broiled fish of bones and skin. Pick into fine bits with a silver fork. Get from your fish-merchant for a few cents a pint of oyster liquor. Put over the fire with a generous lump of butter, pepper and salt. Bring to a boil, add the fish, cook one minute and stir in a scant cupful of crumbs soaked in milk. Simmer for three minutes and serve. Pass sliced lemon with it.

FISH

Baked red snapper

A fish that is earning, and honestly, much popularity. It would have all it deserved if it were always cooked properly. It is not a fish with which one can take liberties.

Draw, clean and wipe a five-pound red snapper and wash inside and out with salad oil and lemon. Make a stuffing as follows: One well-beaten egg, one-half cupful of powdered cracker and one cupful of oysters, drained and chopped. Season with one teaspoonful of onion juice, one tablespoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of salt, one-eighth teaspoonful of paprika and one tablespoonful of minced parsley, and moisten with cream and oyster liquor. It should be quite moist. Fill the fish and sew the edges together with fine white cotton.

Put a layer of minced fat pork on the grating of your covered roaster, lay a few slices of tomato and onion on the pork, then the fish on this. Dredge the top with salt and flour, and put on more minced pork. Place it in a hot oven, add a cupful of boiling water, and cover. Baste often, and add more water after each basting. Bake about one hour. Remove to a hot dish and serve with sauce Hollandaise.

Boiled red snapper

Clean, wash, wipe dry and sew up in coarse white mosquito netting. Put it into boiling water deep enough to cover the fish, and which has been salted and flavored with lemon juice. Let the water come to the boiling point, then reduce the heat so it will merely bubble. Simmer about half an hour. Lift carefully from the water, drain and unwrap; put it into a hot dish. Garnish with parsley and serve with tomato sauce or with sauce Hollandaise.

Steamed red snapper

Cover the bottom of your steamer with sliced tomatoes, and on these strew minced onion. Clean, wash and dry the fish; lay upon the prepared bed and steam slowly at least one hour for a fish weighing four pounds. Open the steamer once, and turn the fish very carefully. Serve with oyster sauce or with sauce tartare.

Baked bluefish

Clean, wash and wipe a large bluefish. Lay it in a baking-pan, dash over it a cupful of boiling salted water, and bake, covered, for an hour, basting it often to prevent burning. When tender and brown, transfer the fish to a hot dish, and keep it warm while you set the pan containing the gravy in which it was cooked on the range and thicken it with browned flour, adding to flavor it a pinch of salt, one of pepper, a tablespoonful of catsup and a little good table sauce. Lay slices of lemon about the fish on the platter, and serve the sauce from a gravy-boat.

Broiled bluefish

Clean, wash, wipe and split down the back; dust with salt and pepper and broil over a clear fire. Transfer to a hot dish and cover with a mixture of butter, lemon juice and very finely-minced parsley, rubbed to a cream. Cover and set over hot water for five minutes before serving.

Pass Parisienne potatoes with it.

Boiled black bass with cream gravy

Put in a pot enough slightly salted water to cover the fish, add a gill of vinegar, an onion, eight whole peppers and a blade of mace. Sew up the fish in a piece of thin cheese-cloth fitted snugly to it. Lay in the water; bring very slowly to the simmering point, and then boil steadily, allowing twelve minutes to each pound of the fish. When done remove the cloth, lay the fish on a platter garnished with sliced lemon, and serve with the cream gravy given below.

Cream gravy for black bass

Cook together a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, and when blended strain slowly upon them a cupful of the water in which the bass was boiled, and stir until smooth and thick. Season to taste with celery salt and white pepper, and stir in a gill of cream to which a pinch of baking-soda has been added. Make very hot, but do not boil, and as soon as hot remove from the fire.

Baked sea bass with shrimp sauce

Clean, wipe and anoint abundantly, inside and out, with a mixture of salad oil and vinegar. Set on ice for an hour to let the “marinade” mellow the fish.

Have ready half a pound of rindless fat pork, cut as thin as shavings. Lay half upon the bottom of your covered bakepan, put the fish upon them, and spread the upper side with the rest. Pour a little hot water in the pan to generate steam; cover and bake one hour, if the fish be large, basting three times with butter and water. Transfer to a hot dish, and set over hot water while you make the sauce.

Shrimp sauce for baked bass

Strain the gravy left in the pan, and stir in a brown roux made by heating a great spoonful of butter in a frying-pan and working in a tablespoonful of browned flour. Add four tablespoonfuls of boiling water to gravy and roux, or enough to bring it to the consistency of cream, then the juice of half a lemon, cayenne or paprika to taste; lastly, half a can of shrimps, chopped fine. Boil one minute, pour some over the fish, the rest into a gravy-boat.

Stuffed sea bass

Clean, wipe and lay for an hour in a marinade of salad oil and vinegar. Fill with a forcemeat of minced salt pork and chopped champignons. Fresh mushrooms are, of course, better, if you can get them. Bake upon shavings of fat salt pork as directed in last recipe. When it has baked forty minutes, cover with fresh tomatoes, peeled and sliced thin, and half a sweet green pepper, minced. Drop bits of butter upon the tomatoes, and bake twenty minutes longer.

Take up the fish and keep hot while you strain the gravy left in the pan, rubbing the tomatoes and pepper through a colander; stir in a tablespoonful of butter, rolled in flour, add a teaspoonful of sugar and two of onion juice, with hot water if too thick; boil one minute; pour half over the fish, the rest into a sauce-boat.

Muskelonge

The coarse pickerel of the northern rivers and lakes are very nice, cooked as above directed. Bluefish may be treated in the same way.

Baked shad