Harper's cook book encyclopædia

into halves, with a quart of pease in a saucepan, with hot water enough to cover them, and cook until the pease are soft. Remove the onion and press the pease through a colander. Boil in a saucepan one pint of chicken or veal stock, and add the mashed pease to it. Rub together two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour, moisten with a little cold milk, and add it to the soup with one cup of milk and one of whipped cream ; or the whole mixture may be beaten with a whip just before turning into Green-pea and Tomato Purée Julienne Soup the tureen. After adding the milk, season well with salt and pepper, and allow the soup to boil up once before serving. Green-pea and Tomato Purde without Meat. — Boil together in a quart of water a pint of pease and a half can of tomatoes, with half an onion. When these vegetables are very soft, rub through a colander, and return them, with the liquid in which they were boiled, to the fire. Rub together two table-spoonfuls of butter and one of flour, and stir into the boiling soup until it thickens. Add a scant teaspoonful of sugar, and pepper and salt to taste, and serve. Gumbo Filé with Oysters. — Take a large, fat chicken and a slice of ham, boil in two quarts of water, and season to taste. Take the liquor of fifty oysters and pour it into the bouillon. When the chicken is cooked, take it out of the soup ; strain the soup through a colander, and just before serving throw in the oysters, and let them cook five minutes till they are plump; take the soup -pot from the fire and stir in an after-dinner coffee- spoonful of the file powder and serve immediately. Serve with boiled rice. The file powder can be obtained from the prominent grocers. Italian Pastes, Soups with. — Macaroni is to be broken into even lengths of one to two inches, vermicelli is to be broken into even lengths of one and a half to three inches. Italian paste letters may be used as a variety. Allow a tablespoonful of vermicelli or macaroni to each guest ; or, by weight, oz. to each plate of soup. Blanch in hot water and drain; then simmer in the stock. These pastes differ in the time they require to swell, and experience only can fix the time required for that purpose. Rice and semolina may be used in the same way. Tapioca in pale, delicate-flavored stock, boiled so as to dissolve, gives a peculiarly nourishing soup, and is very wholesome and palatable. Jenny Lind Soup. — Take 2 ozs. of pearl sago, half a pint of water, one quart of stock or veal broth, half a pint of cream, and four yolks of eggs. The sago must be thoroughly washed and simmered in the water till it is transparent and tender. It is then to be mixed into the boiling stock, or broth, and the cream. Lastly, the yolks are to be stirred in. The best way to produce a smooth soup is to stir the eggs one by one into a teacupful of the broth, and then stir that into the soup. The cream may be omitted. The stock may be made without vegetables, if for an invalid.