Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Wash, scrape, and grate enough carrots to fill a quart measure, and turn into a soup-pot with the stock, onion, salt, and pepper. Heat to the boiling-point, and set back where the soup will simply simmer for one hour. At the end of that time put the butter into a small fryingpan, and when it becomes hot, add the flour. Stir the mixture until it gets smooth and frothy ; then add to the contents of the soup-pot. Boil for ten minutes. Pour the soup into a fine sieve, and after removing the onion, rub as much of the carrot as possible through the sieve. Return the strained mixture to the soup-pot, and add the milk or cream. Boil up once, and serve. It adds to the appearance and flavor of the soup to stir the beaten yolks of four eggs into the cold cream or milk before turning it into the soup-pot. But if eggs be used, great care must be taken to prevent the soup from boiling after the addition is made. Simply allow it to get hot, for boiling would curdle the eggs and mar the appearance of the dish. Puree of Carrots. For this soup use one quart of the red part of the carrot, grated, one quart of white stock, one quart of milk, one pint of boiling water, one pint of stale bread, free of crust, two teaspoonfuls of sugar, three level teaspoonfuls of salt, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of pepper, and four table-spoonfuls of butter. Put the grated carrot, the pint of boiling water, the butter and sugar into a stew-pan, and after covering closely, let them simmer for one hour ; then add the bread and stock, and cook for an hour longer. At the end of that time take the pan from the stove, and rub its contents first through a puree sieve, and then through a fine French sieve. Add the salt and pepper ; and after reserving half a cupful of the milk, add the remainder, which should be hot. Return the soup to the fire, and let it boil up once ; then add the egg yolks, after beating them in the cold milk that was set aside. Cook for one minute, stirring all the while, and serve immediately afterward. With the materials given in this receipt, two quarts of soup may be made, — enough for ten or twelve persons. SOUPS. 141 * Tomato Soup. Put a gallon of water into the soup-pot, and add to it the bones and gristle left from a roast of mutton or any other roast. Boil until the liquid is reduced to two quarts ; then strain, and set in a cool place. At the end of an hour skim off all the fat, and return the stock to the soup-pot, adding to it a can of tomatoes, four cloves, half a teaspoonful of pepper, a table-spoonful of salt, and a grain of cayenne. Put on to boil. In the mean time put four table-spoonfuls of butter into the frying-pan, and when it has become melted, add an onion, two slices of carrot, two of turnip, and four stalks of celery, all cut fine. Cook slowly for a quarter of an hour ; then draw the vegetables to the side of the pan, and after pressing the butter from them, put them into the soup. Into the butter remaining in the frying-pan put four table-spoonfuls of flour, and stir until smooth and frothy; then add to the soup, being careful to scrape every particle of the mixture out of the pan. Let the soup simmer for half an hour. Taste, to ascertain whether there is enough seasoning. Strain, and serve with fried bread.