The Cookery Blue Book

Boil slowly two hours, or until
the water is reduced one-half. Pour in a colander and press the peas
through; return to the kettle and add a small amount of celery chopped
fine. Fry three or four slices of bread quite brown in butter--cut in
squares when served.


=Grandmother Sawtelle's Pea Soup.=

Soak a quart of dried peas over night. In the morning put them on to
boil with fragments of fresh meat; also cloves, allspice, pepper and
salt. Let boil until soft, then strain through a colander. Have some
pieces of bread or crackers inch square, and put them into the oven to
dry without browning; a pint of bread to a quart of peas. Take 2/3 of a
cup of melted butter and put the bread in it; stir until the bread and
butter are well mixed, then put into the peas and it is done. If the
peas do not boil easily add a little saleratus.


=Green Pea Soup.=

Boil the pods first, then remove and boil peas in same water until soft
enough to mash easily. Add a quart of milk, and thickening made of a
tablespoonful of butter and 1 of flour. Boil a few minutes and serve.


=Celery Soup (for six persons).=

Boil a small cup of rice till tender, in 3 pints of milk (or 2 pints of
milk and 1 of cream); rub through a sieve, add 1 quart of veal stock,
salt, cayenne and 3 heads of celery grated fine.


=Cream of Celery Soup.=

4 teacups of chopped celery, 1 quart of milk; boil celery soft (saving
water it is boiled in); rub celery through fine sieve; mix celery and
milk. Take 1 heaping tablespoonful of flour, 1 even tablespoonful of
butter, 1 scant teaspoonful of salt. If desired, can boil celery in the
morning, then about half an hour before dinner take milk, flour, butter,
salt and celery and boil together, stirring constantly so it will cook
evenly. When the consistency of cream, it is ready for use.


=Ox-tail Soup.=

1 ox-tail, 2 pounds lean beef, 4 carrots, 3 onions and thyme. Cut tail
into pieces and fry brown in butter. Slice onions and 2 carrots, and
when you remove the tail from the pan put these in and brown also; then
tie them in a thin cloth with the thyme and put in the soup pot. Lay the
tail in and then the meat cut into small pieces. Grate over them the
remaining 2 carrots, and add 4 quarts of water, with salt and pepper.
Boil four to six hours. Strain five minutes before serving and thicken
with 2 tablespoonfuls of browned flour. Boil ten minutes longer.


=Mushroom Soup.=

1 pint of white stock, 2 tablespoonfuls butter, 1/4 teaspoon of pepper,
and 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoonful corn starch, 1 pint of milk;
heat milk. Mix butter and corn starch to cream, and add hot milk and
then stock. Boil 1 pound of mushrooms until soft, and then strain. Have
them ready and add to the soup, letting it stand to thicken. It is
improved by a little whipped cream added before serving.


=Soupe a l'Ognon.=

Put into a saucepan butter size of a pigeon's egg; add 1 pint of soup
stock. When very hot add 3 onions, sliced thin, then a full 1/2 teacup
of flour, stirring constantly that it may not burn. Add 1 pint boiling
water, pepper and salt, and let boil one minute, then placing on back of
range till ready to serve, when add 1 quart of boiling milk and 3 mashed
boiled potatoes. Gradually add to the potatoes a little of the soup till
smooth and thin enough to put into the soup kettle. Stir all well, then
strain. Put diamond-shaped pieces of toasted bread in bottom of tureen
and pour soup over it.


=Potato Soup.=

Boil and mash fine 4 large mealy potatoes; add 1 egg, a piece of butter
size of an egg, a teaspoonful of salt, 1 teaspoonful celery salt. Boil 1
pint of water and 1 pint of milk together and pour on potatoes boiling
hot. Stir it well, strain and serve.


=Asparagus (white) Soup.=

Cut off the hard, green stems from two bunches of asparagus and put them
in 2 quarts and a pint of water, with 2 pounds of veal (the knuckle is
the best). Boil in a closely covered pot three hours, till the meat is
in rags and the asparagus dissolved. Strain the liquor and return to the
pot with the remaining half of the asparagus heads. Let this boil for
twenty minutes more and add, before taking up, 2/3 of a teacup of sweet
cream, in which has been stirred a dessertspoonful of corn starch. When
it has fairly boiled up, serve with small squares of toast in the
tureen. Season with salt and pepper.


=Soup a la Minute (for six persons).=

Cut 4 ounces of fat salt pork in dice and set it on the fire in a
saucepan; stir, and when it is turning rather brown, add 1 onion
chopped, and 1/2 a medium-sized carrot sliced. When they are partly
fried, add 2 pounds of lean beef cut in small dice, and let fry five
minutes. Then pour in it about 3 pints of boiling water, salt and
pepper, and boil gently for three-quarters of an hour.


=Caramel, for Coloring Soups.=

Melt 1 cup white sugar in a saucepan till it is dark; add slowly 1 cup
cold water, stirring briskly, and boil till it thickens.