Part 7

1 pt. chopped cabbage 1 tablespn. chopped onion 1 pt. water 2 level tablespns. butter 1½ level tablespn. flour 1 pt. boiling milk chopped parsley

Cook cabbage and onion in the water 20-25 m. leaving ½ pt. of liquid. Blend butter and flour and pour hot milk over; boil, add cooked cabbage and chopped parsley. Heat. Serve.

=Milk Stew of Oyster Plant=

Cook 1 qt. of sliced oyster plant in a small quantity of water. Add salt when nearly tender; drain, add rich milk to liquor to make 1 qt. Pour over oyster plant, heat, add salt. Turn into tureen containing ¼ cup heavy cream, or 1 tablespn. butter.

=Cream Stew of Oyster Plant=

Cook oyster plant in water and add heavy cream.

=Oyster Plant and Celery Soup=

Equal quantities sliced oyster plant and celery cooked; water, cream, with or without a little flour to thicken, salt.

=Oyster Plant and Corn Soup=

⅔ qt. (1 bunch) sliced oyster plant ¼ cup corn 3½ cups water ¾-1 tablespn. flour ½ cup cream, salt

Cook oyster plant, drain, add water to liquor to make 3½ cups. When boiling, thicken and add corn, oyster plant and cream, with salt. Heat, serve.

BISQUES

=Bisque of Corn=

1 pt. corn 2½ pts. water 1 tablespn. flour 1-1½ tablespn. butter ½-¾ cup cream, whipped

Heat butter, add flour, then hot water; stir into corn with salt; heat, turn over whipped cream in soup tureen and send to table at once.

Butter may be omitted, and the water thickened with flour.

=Bisque of Cucumber=

2 tablespns. raw nut butter 1 pt. water, salted 2 small onions, sliced 4 large cucumbers, grated ½-1 teaspn. celery salt 1 pt. rich milk 1 level tablespn. flour ¼-½ cup cream salt

Cook onion in nut milk (made by blending raw nut butter and water) until tender, add the cucumbers and cook 5 m., add celery salt and milk, thicken with flour; rub through colander, add salt, milk or water to thin if necessary, and cream, whipped or plain. Serve immediately.

=★ Milk and Tomato Bisque=

1 pt. chopped cabbage 1 pt. milk 1 tablespn. butter 2 teaspns. flour 1 qt. stewed tomatoes, strained 1 tablespn. flour ½ cup cream salt

Cook cabbage 20-25 m., in just enough water to cook it tender. Add milk, heat, strain. Heat butter and the 2 teaspns. of flour and add cabbage flavored milk.

Thicken tomato with 1 tablespn. of flour and add thickened milk just before serving. Add salt the last thing. Turn over whipped cream in soup tureen or serve the cream by teaspoonfuls on each plate of soup. Cream may be omitted.

Milk may be flavored with onion instead of cabbage, or not flavored at all, but the cabbage gives an exceptionally fine flavor to the combination. Equal quantities of milk and tomato may be used, or twice as much milk as tomato, remembering to thicken both milk and tomato (if all the flour is put into the milk it makes it too thick to blend well with the tomato), to combine just before serving, and to add the salt last.

=Milk and Tomato Bisque, with Eggs--Starchless=

1½ cup rich milk ½ cup water ½ tablespn. oil or melted butter 2 eggs 1 cup strained tomato salt

Cook milk, water, oil and eggs the same as a boiled custard. Remove from fire, add the hot tomato gradually, stirring, then salt. Serve at once.

=★ Nut and Tomato Bisque=

⅓ cup roasted nut butter 1 cup rich strained tomato 3 cups water salt

Stir butter smooth with tomato, add boiling water, heat and add plenty of salt. This soup requires no flavoring, but onion, garlic, mint, caraway, or a delicate flavoring of thyme, are all nice with it.

=★ Nut and Tomato Bisque No. 2=

2 tablespns. raw nut butter cooked in water ½ to 1 hr., instead of the roasted nut butter. Flavor with onion, garlic, or delicately with thyme, if desired.

=Bisque of Spinach=

2 qts. spinach 3 pts. milk 1-1½ tablespn. oil or melted butter 1½ tablespn. flour 1½ tablespn. chopped onion 1-3 stalks celery ¾ teaspn. celery salt salt

Heat milk, onion and celery in double boiler for 20 m., strain, pour liquid over oil and flour heated (without browning) in saucepan; add salt and celery salt and turn on to spinach (which has been cooked and chopped fine or rubbed through a colander) gradually, stirring. Serve hot.

CHOWDERS

Many of the chowders are almost a “full meal” in themselves. I can think of no luncheon more delightful than a nut chowder with finger croutons, beaten biscuit or whole wheat wafers, with fruit or other not too rich, dessert.

Raw nut butter may be used in all these chowders in place of butter or oil, giving a meaty flavor.

A smaller proportion of liquid may be used when desired. The vegetable strainings left from a consommé, rubbed through the colander, make an excellent foundation for chowders.

=★ Seashore Chowder--Corn=

1 pt. to 1 qt. milk 1 pt. water 1 pt. corn grated or chopped 2-3 tablespns. oil or melted butter 5 small onions sliced 1 qt. potato in small pieces (not slices)

Heat oil (without browning) in kettle, add onions, simmer 10 m., then add the water, boiling, with salt and potatoes. Cook until potatoes are just tender, not soft; add the milk, hot, and then the corn. Heat to boiling and serve with crackers. When fresh grated corn is used, of course it should be cooked in a double boiler for 10-15 m. before adding to chowder.

The chowder may be thickened a trifle if the larger quantity of milk is used, but the smaller is the usual quantity. Sometimes only one-half as much potato as of corn is used.

Dried corn chopped after soaking makes an unusually fine chowder.

Water and cream are better than milk.

A little browned flour is thought by some to be an improvement.

Fine chopped trumese gives the chowder a little more of the seashore effect.

=Corn and Carrot Chowder--Unusually Fine=

1-1½ tablespn. oil or melted butter 1 medium onion, sliced 1 cup carrot in small, thin pieces 1 pt. water ¾-1 cup corn 2½-3 cups rich milk salt

Heat onion and carrot in oil, add water, cook tender, add hot milk, and corn with salt. Heat.

½-¾ cup of tomato may be added for variety.

=★ Nut Chowder=

2-3 tablespns. raw nut butter 1 medium onion, sliced fine ½ cup carrot in small pieces (fancy shapes if convenient) ½ cup finely-sliced celery 1 cup stewed tomato 1 cup nutmese, shredded or in dice ½-1 cup trumese, shredded or in dice 2 hard boiled eggs, shredded parsley, chopped or picked into small pieces ½-1 cup cream water salt

Rub nut butter smooth with water, add the tomato and more water; cook ½ hour. Cook together carrots and onion and add without draining to nut butter stock. Cook celery till perfectly tender and add with the water in which it was cooked; add salt, nutmese and trumese, eggs, parsley and cream, with more water if required. Let stand a few minutes and serve.

One cup of oyster plant with the water in which it was cooked is a great improvement. ½ cup of turnip in dice, cooked by itself and drained, and a few pieces of cooked red beet, in fancy shapes, may be added just as the chowder goes to the table.

=Potato and Onion or Celery Chowder=

2 tablespns. raw nut butter 1 pt. potato in small pieces 1 pt. water 2 or 3 onions, sliced

Rub nut butter smooth with water, heat to boiling, add salt and onions, cook 10 m., add potatoes and cook until tender. Finish with water and cream, or water alone. 1 cup finely-sliced celery may be cooked with the potato instead of the onion, and chopped parsley added at the last.

Nut butter may be omitted and cream used.

=★ Tomato Cream Chowder=

2-3 tablespns. oil or butter 2 large onions, sliced 1 pt. stewed tomato 1 pt. thin cream sauce Salt

Simmer onion, carefully, in oil until tender, add tomato, heat and add cream sauce with necessary salt. Onion may be cooked in a small quantity of salted water and oil omitted.

Add stewed celery for Celery and Tomato Chowder.

=★ Oyster Plant Chowder=

1½ tablespn. oil or butter 1 large onion, sliced 1 pt. potato, in small pieces 1 pt. oyster plant, partly cooked 1½ pt. water (including that in which the oyster plant was cooked) 1½ pt. rich milk or thin cream salt, crackers

Simmer onion in oil, add water, potato and oyster plant, with salt; cook; add hot milk and more salt if necessary. Pour over split or whole crackers in tureen.

=★ Another=

Leave out potato and use more oyster plant and onion.

=String Bean and Celery Chowder=

1 part cooked celery and 2 parts string beans with rich milk, thickened a trifle. Salt.

=Celery, Onion and Corn Chowder=

Equal parts celery and corn. Cook onion and celery in butter (or salted water only), add water, then milk and cream, corn and parsley. Heat. Serve.

=Rice and Vegetable Chowder (of things on hand)=

split peas soup string beans celery in tomato tomato and okra soup hard boiled eggs boiled rice

Slice hard boiled eggs, mix all ingredients, heat and serve.

=★ Royal Vegetable Chowder=

a few mashed green or yellow split peas carrot onion canned peas canned asparagus tips tomato parsley milk, a little cream, a little

A little canned okra when convenient.

PURÉES

The term “purée,” as used in this connection, means a _thick soup_ of ingredients rubbed through a fine colander. Thicker purées of cooked nuts, fruits, legumes or vegetables are served as true meat dishes, entrées, side dishes or relishes, according to their nature.

=Almond Purée--small quantity=

Very nourishing and digestible for invalids.

Rub 2 tablespns. of almond butter smooth with 1-1⅓ cup of water. Just boil up over the fire (or cook in double boiler till thick), add salt, serve. The proportion of water may be varied

=Split Peas Purée=

1 cup split peas 3-4 tablespns. raw nut butter ½ large bay leaf a few celery tops or ¼ teaspn. celery seed in piece of muslin a pinch of sage 1 small onion, sliced salt water 1 tablespn. butter ½ tablespn. flour 1 teaspn. grated onion

Cook peas, raw nut butter, bay leaf, celery tops and onion all together in salted water, rub through colander, turn on to butter and flour which have been heated together (or the butter and flour may be rubbed together and stirred into the purée), add necessary water, salt, sage and the teaspoon of fresh grated onion; simmer for 5 m. Serve with strips of bread, or finger croutons. The teaspoon of onion at the last is very important.

=Purée of Potatoes=

Boil potatoes cut in small pieces, sliced onion, stalks of celery and a sprig of parsley in plenty of salted water till potatoes are tender. Rub through colander, reheat, thicken just enough to hold the ingredients together, turn over whipped cream in the tureen and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Raw nut butter gives a fine flavor to this purée, cook it with the potatoes and use less or no cream.

=Purée of Sago=

¼ cup sago 1 pt. water ¼ small bay leaf 1 large stalk of celery, crushed, or a few celery tops 1 medium onion, sliced a sprig of parsley 1¼-1½ pt. milk salt yolk of 1 small egg ¼ cup cream chopped parsley if desired

Wash sago and cook with bay leaf, celery, parsley and onion in the water until clear; add hot milk, rub through colander, add salt and keep hot. Just before serving, beat together the yolk of the egg and the cream, stir several spoonfuls of hot soup into the mixture, turn all into the soup, stir well, but do not boil, add chopped parsley, serve at once.

OUR FAMOUS SOUPS

This is the list of soups, made from left-overs, for which people most often ask our recipes.

They are from a small institution, with a family of from twenty-five to thirty members.

The cream is usually a little from the top of the can, but it gives the finishing touch.

The ingredients are usually heated together and put through the colander.

No. 1--Seashore chowder with fine trumese and nutmese, and onion and tomato stew.

No. 2--Nut and tomato bisque, with remains of above, put through colander.

No. 3--Asparagus on toast put through colander; milk, consommé, a trifle of tomato,--oyster flavor.

No. 4--Consommé, strainings from consommé, chick peas, trumese and gravy from trumese pie.

No. 5--Cream of asparagus soup, dry Lima beans and dried corn succotash, consommé, baked beans, green peas, milk and cream.

No. 6--Baked beans, Lima beans, cream of peas soup, milk.

No. 7--Strainings from consommé, put through colander, thin cream, tomato.

No 8--Left-overs from above, string beans, lentils, milk; thickened a little.

No. 9--Consommé of nut butter instead of stock, lentils, water, cream.

No. 10--Left-over from above, tomato, creamed onions.

No. 11--Consommé, spinach water, carrots, onions, garlic, tomato, chopped parsley.

No. 12--Left-over from above, baked beans, skimmed milk.

No. 13--Carrot water, onions, garlic, tomato, browned flour, beans, bay leaf. This tasted like beans with tomato sauce.

No. 14--Corn chowder, peas and tomato soup, pilau, milk and water.

No. 15--Baked beans, string beans, milk and cream.

No. 16--Cream of peas soup, lentil, spinach water, tomato, a little consommé.

FRUIT SOUPS

Served with nuts, nut wafers or popped corn, are very refreshing often, for luncheon or supper.

And when something must be served in the evening, those not too tart, may be served with cocoanut crisps, pastry in fancy shapes, cookies or sponge cakes and nuts.

Fruit soups are served hot, in cups, and cold or slightly frozen, in glasses.

Sea moss, sago or tapioca (⅓ to ½ cup sago and ¼ to ⅓ cup tapioca to each 3 pts. of soup) make the most suitable foundations for them.

Honey instead of cane sugar may be used to sweeten.

The white of egg beaten, sweetened a trifle and flavored delicately with rose, lemon or orange may be put on to each cup in roses with a pastry tube or dropped on by teaspoonfuls.

Whipped cream may be used with some.

Berries, pieces of orange or slices of banana are sometimes served in the soup.

Odds and ends of sauces can be utilized, and in the summer, all sorts of fresh fruits.

Thin slices of Brazil nuts, crisp toasted almonds, English walnuts, pecans or hickory nuts are suitable accompaniments.

=Strawberry and Pineapple Soup=

⅓-½ cup of sago or ¼-⅓ cup of tapioca 2½ cups strawberry juice ¼ cup lemon juice 1½ cup pineapple juice sugar, if necessary salt

Put sago or tapioca into the inner cup of a double boiler with 1 cup of warm water. Soak sago 1 hr., tapioca 10 m. to 2 hrs., according to the kind. When soaked, pour 1 cup of boiling water over, add a little salt and cook until transparent. Add strawberry, pineapple and lemon juice, and sugar to make delicately sweet. Heat to just below the boiling point and serve at once, or cool.

Small pieces of pineapple make a pleasant addition.

Cherry or currant juice may be used in place of the strawberry.

If too thick, a little water or juice may be added.

Other suitable fruit juices may be substituted for the ones given: with those of strong and positive flavor a larger proportion of water may be used. Of course, with some tart juices, no lemon juice would be required.

=Cherry Soup=

¼ cup tapioca, 3 cups water, 1 pt. juice from dark red canned or stewed cherries. Flavor with oil of lemon or orange rind if desired.

May add some of the cherries just before serving.

=Sea Moss Fruit Soup=

2 cups diluted red raspberry juice 2 level teaspns. sea moss farine if soup is to be served cold, or 5 if warm ⅓ cup orange juice 3 or 4 teaspns. lemon juice 2 tablespns. sugar flavored with the oil of the orange

Stir moss into cold fruit juice, heat in double boiler 25-30 m., stirring often; add lemon and orange juice and sugar, stir till sugar is dissolved. Serve warm or cold.

=Scandinavian Fruit Soup=

½ cup sago 5 cups water 1 cup cooked prunes in pieces ½ cup stewed raisins ½ cup tart fruit juice ½-1 cup sugar

Soak sago in 1 cup warm water, add the quart of water boiling. with salt, and cook until sago is transparent. Add other ingredients, heat, serve.

Dried peaches, apricots or apples may be used sometimes. Grape, currant or cranberry are suitable juices.

=Grape Juice Cream Soup=

1 pt. water 1 cup Concord grape juice 4 tablespns. raisins 4 tablespns. currants 2 tablespns. finely-sliced citron 2 tablespns. sugar ½ cup cream

Stew raisins, currants and citron together, add other ingredients, heat, serve.

Excellent without cream.

=Raisin and Almond Broth--small quantity=

Stew 1 tablespn. raisins cut fine, in 1 cup of water ½ to 1 hour. Add 2 teaspns. almond butter stirred smooth with 2 tablespns. of water, a trifle of salt and a little sugar if desired or allowed.

=Blueberry and Cocoanut Soup=

Steep grated cocoanut in rich blueberry juice in a not too hot place for 20 m. Strain. Add sugar as required and a little lemon juice if necessary, with or without dairy cream. Serve cold with sponge cake or cookies. Rich cocoanut milk may be used instead of grated cocoanut.

=Tomato and Raisin Soup=

1 cup seeded raisins; stew till tender. Drain and add to the liquid, water to make 1½ cup, 1½ cup strained tomato, salt, 4 tablespns. cream with 2 teaspns. sugar.

SOUP GARNISHES AND ACCOMPANIMENTS

=Croutons=

Of all the accompaniments to soups, croutons (crusts of bread) are perhaps the most desirable as well as most practical. To make them, cut slices of bread, not too fresh, into any desired shapes, dry, slowly at first, in a warm oven, then gradually increase the heat until they are of a delicate cream color, for such soups as bean, Swiss lentil or bouillon; but for cream soups, dry to crispness without browning.

A favorite shape is made by cutting rather thin loaves of bread into half inch slices, laying 3 or 4 together and cutting them diagonally across the narrow way of the slice. This gives dainty strips, convenient and attractive. The most common way is to cut slices straight across each way, leaving the bread in dice.

=Miscellaneous=

Croutons, however, are not suitable for very delicate flavored soups, such as cream of corn or cream of rice. For these, there is nothing equal to dainty cream or nut-shortened sticks, or little soup crackers.

Cook some of the small Italian pastes (you can be sure that they are Italian only by buying them of the Italian dealer himself), vermicelli, soprafini, ditalini, acini di pepe, or others, in boiling salted water until tender (from 10 to 15 m.), drain and add to suitable soups in the proportion of one ounce to ¾-1 qt. of soup.

Add a few kernels of popped corn to each plateful of corn soup.

Roll lettuce leaves in tight rolls and cut off in slender rings; pick up with the fingers and drop into hot soup; or cut lettuce with vegetable cutter, round or in any not too fine shapes and scatter into plates of soup as served.

Cut left-overs of pie crust into fancy shapes. Bake and drop into each plate of soup in serving. They must not stand in the soup long or they will dissolve.

=Dice Royale=

Coat ¾ in. dice of bread with beaten egg. Bake just before serving. Serve a few in each dish of soup, or throw into tureen just before sending to table. May roll cubes in finely-chopped onion or parsley.

=Cream Soup Balls=

1 large tablespn. oil ½ cup pastry flour 1 cup boiling water ⅜ teaspn. salt 4 tablespns. finely-sliced celery, or ¼ teaspn. celery salt 2 teaspns. chopped parsley (parsley may be omitted)

Heat oil in frying pan until hot, not brown. Add half the flour and rub to a paste, then add boiling water gradually, stirring until smooth. Stir in remainder of flour dry.

When the sauce is smooth and creamy and well cooked, remove from the fire, cool a little, and stir in celery, parsley and salt. The mixture will be very stiff.

Stand in cool place until perfectly cold, then shape into balls 1¼ to 1½ in. in diameter, or cones 1½ in. at the base, or cubes of 1¼ in., or sticks 3½ to 4 in. in length by ¾ of an inch in diameter. Roll in fine zwieback or cracker crumbs, then in beaten egg (add salt and a tablespoon of water to each egg), then in crumbs again.

Place on oiled tins a short distance apart, and set in cool place till 15 m. before serving, then put into a quick oven and bake until a delicate brown and cracked a little. Serve immediately.

If baked too long or too slowly, they will not keep their shape.

This makes 12 to 14 balls. ½ a beaten egg may be added when the celery is, but the balls are more creamy without it.

The balls may be made the day before required, kept in the ice box and baked at serving time.

Variation No. 1. Use 2 tablespns. of small pieces of hickory or other nut meats instead of the celery.

Variation No. 2. Use 2 tablespns. of black walnut meal (made by rubbing meats through a fine colander with a potato masher), and a little onion.

Variation No. 3. Use ¼ to ⅜ teaspn. grated lemon rind, instead of other flavorings.

Variation No. 4. Use chopped trumese, with sage and onion in place of the celery.

The savory balls are used with the plainer soups, and vice versa; or if both soups and balls are highly seasoned, use contrasting flavors; for instance, the balls with lemon rind in Nut French soup.

The egg balls should be used with care as they destroy the flavor of many soups. They, poached eggs, and hard-boiled yolks of eggs are especially suitable for some cream soups.

=★ Soup Balls--Choux batter=

1 cup water 2 tablespns. butter or oil 1 cup pastry flour 4 eggs

Heat water and oil to boiling, stir flour in dry, stirring and beating well with batter whip. When nearly cold, add eggs, one at a time, mixing well, until all are in. Beat for 5 m., stand in ice box for from 1 to 12 or more hours. Drop small quantities from point of spoon into boiling soup, or bake or boil in tiny balls, flattened.

Excellent baked, but unusually fine boiled, so delightfully free from stickiness or doughiness.

=Egg Balls=

Rub 4 poached yolks of eggs to a paste. Beat with salt and the white of 1 raw egg. Form into balls ¾ to 1 in. in diameter. Roll in browned flour No. 1, bake just before serving. May beat white of egg first.

The raw yolk is sometimes used in place of the white. The balls may be boiled for 5 m. in the soup, instead of being baked.

=★ Royal Paste=

Beat together 4 eggs, ½ cup thin cream, ½ teaspn. salt. Pour into oiled tin, place in pan of water; bake slowly until firm. Turn from molds at once.

When paste is to be cut into fancy shapes with vegetable cutters it should not be over ¼ in. deep in the pans; but if for dice, it may be any depth.

This quantity is sufficient for 6 qts. of soup.

I often tint parts of paste with vegetable or fruit colors, spinach green, parsley, carrots or cranberries.

The left-overs from cutting may be chopped for another soup or a roast.

Use 1½ tablespn. of cream for 1 egg.

Royal may be flavored with onion juice. A little very fine chopped parsley may be added to it before baking.

Consommé is sometimes used in place of cream.

4 yolks of eggs and 1 white may be used instead of 4 whole eggs with the same quantity of liquid, and rich milk will do instead of cream, but the paste will not be as tender.

=Spun Eggs=

Break eggs into cup (2 for each quart of soup). Leave whole and turn slowly into rapidly boiling soup, beating briskly with fork or wire batter whip, until egg is in white and yellow shreds. Boil up well and serve soup at once. Or, beat eggs and let them stand until the froth subsides, then add to the soup in the same way.

=Thickening for Potato Soup=

1 tablespn. flour ½ cup cold water yolks 2 eggs

Blend flour and water, add to boiling soup, boil up well.

Turn some of the hot soup slowly on to the beaten yolks, stirring, add them to the soup, do not boil, serve at once.