Take a hundred clams, well washed, and put them into a large pot of boiling water. This will cause the shells to open. As they open take them out, and extract the clams, taking care to save the liquor. Mix with the liquor a quart of water, (or what will be much better, a quart of milk,) and thicken it with butter rolled in flour. Add a large bunch of parsley tied up, and a large table-spoonful of whole pepper. Put the liquid into a pot over a moderate fire. Make some little round dumplings (about the size of a hickory nut) of flour and butter, and put them into the soup. When it comes to a boil, put in the clams, and keep them boiling an hour. Take them out before you send the soup to table. When the soup is done, take out the bunch of parsley. Have ready some toasted bread cut into small squares or dice. Put it into the soup before you send it to table. You may make oyster soup in a similar manner.
Wipe the meat with a warm damp cloth, and put it into a saucepan with the vegetables; bring to the boil and stew very gently for two hours. Take it up and remove all the bones, put it between two boards and stand some heavy weights on it till quite cold. Then cut into neat- shaped pieces, egg and bread crumb them; fry a good colour. Boil the peas by recipe given elsewhere. Pile the mutton on a dish and put the peas round. A breast of lamb is exceedingly nice done in this way; it may be cut off before the quarter is roasted. The liquor in which the meat was cooked makes excellent soup.
Light-coloured and dry cheese is necessary for this somewhat peculiar soup, but the best cheese of all is, undoubtedly, Gruyere. Grate half a pound of cheese and spread a layer of this at the bottom of the soup-tureen. Cover this layer of cheese with some very thin slices of stale crumb of bread. Then put another layer of cheese and another layer of bread till all the cheese is used up. Next take about two tablespoonfuls of brown roux, melt this in a small saucepan, and add two tablespoonfuls of chopped onion. Let the onion cook in the melted roux over the fire, and then add a quart of water, and stir it all up till it boils, adding pepper and salt and a few drops of Parisian essence (burnt sugar) to give it a dark brown colour. Now pour the boiling soup over the contents of the soup-tureen, and let it stand a few minutes so that the bread has time to soak, and serve.
Take three or four small cauliflowers, or two large ones, soak them in salt and water, and boil them in some water till they are nearly tender. Take them out and break the cauliflower so that you get two or three dozen little pieces out of the heart of the cauliflower, somewhat resembling miniature bouquets. Put the rest of the cauliflower back into the water in which it was boiled, with the exception of the green part of the leaves, with an onion and some of the white part of a head of celery. Let all boil till the water has nearly boiled away. Now rub all this through a wire sieve, onions, celery, cauliflower, and all; add to it sufficient boiling milk to make the whole of the consistency of pea soup. Add a little butter, pepper, and salt; throw in those little pieces of cauliflower that had been reserved a minute or two before serving the soup. It is an improvement to boil two or three bay-leaves with the milk, and also a very great improvement indeed to add a little boiling cream. Fried or toasted bread should be served with the soup.
2 cups baked or boiled soy beans 1-1/2 tablespoons molasses 2 tablespoons butter or drippings 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon vinegar Pepper to taste 1 egg 1 scant cup breadcrumbs
When the beans are placed on to boil, put tablespoon fat and half an onion with them. After draining well, put through the foodchopper, keeping the liquid for soup stock. Mix all the ingredients, beating the egg white before adding. Form into balls or cylinders, dip in the leftover egg yolk, to which a few drops of water have been added, and then coat with stale bread or cracker crumbs. Be sure the croquettes are well covered, then fry brown. Serve with cream sauce or with scalloped or stewed tomatoes. With a green salad, this is a complete meal.
Take a leg and shin of beef to ten gallons of water, boil it very tender, and when the broth is strong, strain it out, wipe the pot, and put in the broth again; slice six penny-loaves thin, cutting off the top and bottom; put some of the liquor to it, cover it up, and let it stand a quarter of an hour, and then put it in your pot, let it boil a quarter of an hour, then put in five pounds of currants, let them boil a little, and put in five pounds of raisins, and two pounds of prunes, and let them boil till they swell; then put in three quarters of an ounce of mace, half an ounce of cloves, two nutmegs, all of them beat fine, and mix it with a little liquor cold, and put them in a very little while, and take off the pot, and put in three pounds of sugar, a little salt, a quart of sack, and a quart of claret, the juice of two or three lemons; you may thicken with sagoe instead of bread, if you please; pour them into earthen pans, and keep them for use.
Wash the peas well in cold water, and put them into a saucepan with the vegetables sliced up, the peppercorns and the water. Bring to the boil and boil steadily for four hours, then rub through a sieve and return to the saucepan. Season well with salt, and stir in 1 oz butter or dripping. Bring to the boil and pour into a warm tureen. Send some dried mint and fried bread to table with it. This is a very nourishing soup, particularly if it is made with stock instead of water; it is very suitable for the cold season.
1 lb. of sorrel, 1 large Spanish onion, 3 pints of water, 1 oz. of butter, pepper and salt to taste, 1/2 lb. of Allinson wholemeal bread cut into small dice. Pick, wash, and chop up the sorrel, chop up the onion, and boil both with the water, butter, pepper, and salt until the onion is quite tender. Place the bread in the soup-tureen and pour the soup over it. Cover it up, and let the bread soak for a few minutes before serving.
This is an essentially Flemish soup. One uses carp, eels, tench, roach, perches, barbel, for the real waterzoei is always made of different kinds of fish. Take two pounds of fish, cut off the heads and tails, which you will fry lightly in butter, adding to make the sauce a mixed carrot and onion, three cloves, a pinch of white pepper, a sprig of parsley, one of thyme, a bay-leaf; pour in two-thirds of water and one-third of white wine till it more than covers the ingredients and let it simmer for half- an-hour. Then the pieces of fish must be cut an equal size, and they are placed to cook quickly in this liquor for twenty minutes. Five minutes before serving add a lemon peeled and cut into slices and the pips removed. Some people bind the sauce with breadcrumbs grated and browned. You serve, with this dish, very thin slices of bread and butter. For English tastes, the heads and tails should be removed when dressing the dish.
Put two quarts of dried white beans to soak the night before you make the soup, which should be put on as early in the day as possible. Take two pounds of the lean of fresh beef--the coarse pieces will do. Cut them up and put them into your soup-pot with the bones belonging to them (which should be broken in pieces), and a pound of lean bacon, cut very small. If you have the remains of a piece of beef that has been roasted the day before, and so much underdone that the juices remain in it, you may put it into the pot and its bones along with it. Season the meat with pepper only, and pour on it six quarts of water. As soon as it boils, take off the scum, and put in the beans (having first drained them) and a head of celery cut small, or a tablespoonful of pounded celery seed. Boil it slowly till the meat is done to shreds, and the beans all dissolved. Then strain it through a colander into the tureen, and put into it small squares of toasted bread with the crust cut off.
