Virginia Cookery-book

Differs from gumbo only in not having the meat fried which is put into it, and in the vegetables not being strained out. Okra and tomatoes may be put in plentifully, or in lesser quantity, according to circumstances. Half a dozen pods of tender okra and six or eight moderate-sized tomatoes will flavor beef soup nicely, if you are dependent upon a city market ; but if you can draw upon a large country garden for supplies, a quart of each will be none too many. Red pepper should always be put in, to suit the taste of your family; com, Irish potatoes, and Lima beans are also acceptable additions to this soup,' and even rice comes not amiss. The meat also may be varied according to family convenience ; for a shin-bone of fresh beef, two pounds of any coarse, lean part of the animal, or the carcasses of any cold fowl or joint of meat of any kind, will answer almost equally well for a dish that may be found acceptable daily all the summer through, if the cook has any knack at utilizing the materials that are always at hand during that season for making a good and yet economical dish of soup. Ox-tail Soup. Divide the ox-tail by joints and wash it, scraping well ; put it on the fire in a gallon of water directly after breakfast ; when it has boiled a while add one onion, chopped, and two carrots, sliced in rings, with a farther seasoning of salt, pepper, and four blades of mace ; when nearly ready to serve skim off the grease carefully, cut two slices of bread into dice, toast them, fry, and put into the bottom of the tureen. Also have ready three hard-boiled eggs, slice them up, and throw into the soup just as you dish it. Green-pea Soup. Put on early in the day one quart of peas in a gallon of water, with one pound of beef, fowl, or giblets, a quarter of a pound of lean bacon, a bunch of parsley, thyme, and celery-tops tied up ; suffer all to boil together until the peas are soft enough to pass through a colander. This should be done three hours before dinner. Return your peas into the pot ; strain to them the water in which they were boiled ; skin the bacon, and let that only of the meat stay in the soup, and stew gently till dinner is ready; then put pepper and salt to your taste, and a lump of butter the size of a partridge-egg. Also, if the green celery is omitted, as must be the case sometimes. add half a teaspoonful of bruised celery-seed. It will be a great improvement. Squirrel Soup. Even persons who find squirrel positively distasteful as meat regard it as supplying delightful material for soup. Three squirrels are none too much to allow for making a tureen full of soup. Put them on, with a small tablespoonful of salt, directly after breakfast, in a gallon of cold water. Cover the pot close and set it on the back part of the stove to simmer gently, not boil. Add vegetables just the same as you do in case of other meat-soups in the summer season, but especially good will you find com, Irish potatoes, tomatoes, okra, and Lima beans. Strain the soup through a coarse colander when the meat has boiled to a rag, so as to get rid of the squirrels' troublesome little bones. Then return to the pot, and after boiling a while longer thicken with a piece of butter rubbed in flour. Celery and parsley leaves chopped up are also considered an improvement by many, and those who like it thick as gumbo add a spoonful of powdered sassafras-leaves. Toast two slices of bread, cut them into dice an inch square, fry them in butter, put them into the bottom of your tureen, and then pour the soup boiling hot upon them. Tomato Soup.