Farm and home cook book and housekeeper's assistant

Trim and cut celery in small pieces and boil in a little salted water until tender. Melt 1 tablesp butter in a saucepan, add 2 tablesp flour, stir until light brown, then pour in slowly, stirring all the while, milk according to the amount of soup you wish to prepare. Boil a few minutes, then add the drained celery and serve at once with crisp crackers, or dice of toast. Odds and ends of celery can be used up to good advantage in this way. — [Mrs. A. W. S., Pa. Cream of Rutabaga Soup Mash 3 cups of boiled rutabaga, stir in 2 qts hot milk, and when boiling add 1 onion cut fine, 1 heaping tablesp butter, melted and blended with 1 tablesp flour. Season with salt and pepper to taste. — [Mrs. L. S., Minn. Ham and Vegetable Soup After all the good meat has been sliced off the ham, put the bone on to boil in plenty of water, and when the meat which adheres to it begins to get tender, add 3 or 4 small carrots cut fine, Vz head tender cabbage, cut fine, and a few potatoes, sliced. Cook until the vegetables are tender. — [Mrs. A. P. Neb. Beef Soup The best cuts for beef soup are from the rump, shoulder or plate, the latter being the cheaper grades of the sides and flank. Oxtails also make a strong, rich 'soup, and lean meat is better than fat meat, greasy soup being unwholesome. Always cook a few beef or veal bones with the soup, and a little piece of beef liver the size of an egg imparts a delicious flavor, which, however, cannot be recognized as liver. Soup requires long and slow boiling to extract the juice from the meat. If boiled too hard, the meat will be hard and tough and will not yield its juices. Put the meat and bone on with cold water, and when it comes to a boil, skim carefully and do not add salt until after you are through skimming. For 1 lb meat, allow 1 qt water, 1 small onion, a small stalk of celery, sprig of parsley, and 1 teasp rice may be added, if liked, or 1 small potato. Oxtails should be chopped into pieces and boiled 4 or 5 hours. If it should become necessary to add water to the soup while boiling, add boiling water, as the addition of lukewarm or cold water will stop the boiling and spoil the flavor. Be very careful not to over-salt. Before serving, strain the soup through a fine sieve. This soup is nice to serve clear, or to use as a foundation stock for other soups. — [Mrs. G., Wis. Beef and Tomato Soap Boil a good soup bone in about 1 gal cold water, with salt to taste, until the meat is nearly tender. Then add 1 pt tomatoes, % cup rice and 1 pt sliced potatoes, with 2 or 3 stalks of celery and a small onion, cut fine. — [B. O., Kan. Veal Soup Boil a veal bone about 3 hours, with potatoes, celery, onions and any other vegetable desired, but nothing acid, like tomatoes. When the vegetables are tender, strain the soup and let it come to a boil, and when ready to serve, add 1 pt milk and 2 well-beaten eggs. — [A. H. B., Mich. Mutton Soup with Tapioca