Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

To make soup enough for eight or ten persons, use one can of tomatoes, three pints of stock, one ounce of ham. a table-spoonful of chopped onion, one of chopped carrot a sprig of parsley, a clove, two table-spoonfuls of butter, two of flour, half a teaspoonful of pepper, three level teaspoonfuls of salt, one teaspoonful of sugar, and a pint of stale bread, free of crust. Put the tomato, ham, parsley, and clove on to boil. Put the butter and vegetables in a small frying-pan, and cook slowly for fifteen minutes ; then skim the vegetables from the butter, and add them to the tomato. Stir the flour into the butter remaining in the pan, and cook until smooth and frothy, stirring all the while. Add this mixture, with the salt and pepper, to the tomato, and cook for forty minutes. Let the bread and stock simmer for half an hour. Strain the tomato mixture over this liquid, and then rub the soup through a fine sieve. Return it to the fire, and let it boil up once ; and after tasting, to make sure that it is properly seasoned, serve at once. : Purée of Spinach. In making this soup there will be used half a peck of spinach, a quart of stock, a pint of milk, half a pint of cream, three table-spoonfuls of butter, the same quantity of flour, a teaspoonful of sugar, and some salt and pepper. Wash the spinach until there is no sand visible, and put it into a stew-pan without water. Cover closely, and simmer for half an hour. Take up, chop very fine, and pound to a paste ; then rub through a puree sieve. Put the butter and flour into a stew-pan, and stir until the mixture is smooth and frothy ; then add the spinach, sugar, salt, and pepper, and stir for ten minutes. Gradually add the stock; and when the mixture begins to boil, add the hot milk and cream. Boil up once, and remove and rub through a fine sieve. Return to the fire ; and when the puree begins to boil again, serve with fried or toasted bread. Purée of Cauliflower. For this soup there will be required one good-sized cauliflower, three table-spoonfuls of butter, two tablespoonfuls of flour, a small onion, a stalk of celery, a bay leaf, a teaspoonful of sugar, one quart of white stock, — say chicken stock, — one pint of milk, half a pint of cream, and some salt and pepper. After ridding the cauliflower of its green leaves, let it soak, head down, in a pan of cold water for two hours ; then put it into a stew-pan, with one table-spoonful of salt and enough boiling water to cover it, and boil gently for twenty-five minutes. Drain off all the water, and after taking from the cauliflower enough little flowerets to make a scant pint, chop and pound the remainder. Put the butter into a stew-pan ; and when it becomes melted, add the onion and celery, cut fine, and the bay