SPRING SOUP.—Take a shin of beef, a piece of mutton, and two pounds of beef. Cut, in the shape of dice, some vegetables, such as cabbage, lettuce, tarragon, chevril, asparagus, young peas, and cucumbers. Cut the asparagus an inch long; and a few French beans, and a cauliflower, cut small. Season with a little cayenne pepper, salt, ginger, mace, and a little nutmeg.
BARLEY SOUP.—Take four or five pounds of good boiling beef, and place it in a saucepan, with three quarts of cold water ; have ready, boiled well, half a pound of good pearl barley, add it to the soup. Season with a little ginger, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and chopped vegetables. Rice soup may be made in the same way.
MOCK TURTLE SOUP.—Get a calf's head, with the skin on, but cleaned from the hair. Half boil it; take all the meat off in square pieces; break the bones of the head, and boil them in some good veal and beef broth to make it richer; fry some shalot and flour enough to thicken the gravy; stir this into the browning, and give it one or two boils; skim it carefully, and then put in the head; put in a pint of Madeira wine, and simmer till the meat is quite tender. About ten minutes before you serve, put in some chives, parsley, cayenne pepper, and salt to your taste; also, two squeezes of lemon, two spoonfuls of mushroom ketchup, and one of soy. Pour the soup into the tureen. Forcemeat balls and yolks of hard boiled eggs. There are various ways of making this soup, but I choose this as preferable.
TO MAKE A GOOD FRIMSEL (OR NOODLE) SOUP.—Take a piece of thick brisket, about five or six pounds for a large family, and a knuckle of veal, and put in a saucepan, with water sufficient to cover the meat, about, for that quantity of meat, two and a half quarts of water, with an onion, celery, parsley, a little pepper, ginger, and mace. Some persons use saffron, dried and pounded, just a small pinch; boil for three hours. Take out the meat, and strain the soup; then return it to the saucepan. Have ready some vermicelli or frimsels, and let the soup come up to a boil; then throw in, lightly, the frimsels, and boil for ten minutes. Two ounces of flour and one egg, with a pinch of salt and ginger, will make sufficient frimsels; or two eggs and a quarter of a pound of flour, for a large family.
NOODLE SOUP.—Prepare soup, as in directions for soups. Take two eggs and beat them well with a little salt. Stir the eggs into a pound of flour, until you make as stiff paste as you can; roll out into two or three cakes, as thin as possible; the thinner the better. Flour the board and pin while rolling. After one piece is rolled lay it on a clean place to dry, and so on, till all the pieces are rolled out. Half an hour will suffice to dry them. After this, fold each cake in one long roll, and cut with a very sharp knife in shreds as fine as possible. Shake these separately and let them dry a little. After your soup is ready and strained drop the noodles in very lightly, and boil for fifteen minutes. If you have more than is required at the same time, they can be put away in a cool, dry place for a few days; but they are always best fresh made.
JULIENNE SOUP.—Take some carrots and turnips, and cut them ribbon-like; a few heads of celery, some leeks and onions, and cut them round. Boil them till tender; then put them in some clear gravy soup; brown thickening. In summer you may add green peas, asparagus tops, French beans or some grated carrots.
MUTTON SOUP.—Take a scrag of mutton, put it in a saucepan, with a small piece of beef, and three quarts of water, some pepper, ginger, a little mace and salt. Let it come to a boil, and then skim it quite clean, and put in some turnips and onions, and let all boil together until tender. Take out the turnips and mash them with some pepper and salt, and add to the soup some flour to thicken.
POTATO SOUP.—Take a piece of boiling meat, with some scraps of mutton; cut up some potatoes in slices, and four or five onions, and let them all stew together, with two quarts of water. Add pepper, salt, and ginger.
MULLIGATAWNEY SOUP.—Divide a calf's head, well cleaned, and a cow's heel, and put them in a saucepan, with two quarts of water. Let them boil till tender. When cool, cut the meat from the bones in slices, and fry them in melted fat, or drippings from the roast meat, or fat skimmed from soup. Stew the bones of the head and heel for four hours. Strain, and let it get cold, then skim off the fat. When done, cut four or five onions in slices, and fry them brown; then add two tablespoonfuls of curry powder, half a teaspoonful of cayenne pepper, a tablespoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of turmeric; (it is an improvement that can be dispensed with;) add all these ingredients to the soup. Boil gently for two hours, then add one tablespoonful of Harvey's sauce, and dish up hot.
OLD PEA SOUP.—Take a quart of split peas, soak over night, and put them in a saucepan with the same water, after having washed and picked them clean, with some pepper, ginger, mace, and salt, a bone of cold roast beef, or a piece of shin, or boiling meat, and boil until all is tender. Fry some stale bread, and cut up in small shapes, and some mint, dried and rubbed fine.
A GOOD WAY TO MAKE POTATO SOUP.—Take stock of soup, a pound, sliced thin; boil a half pound of potatoes, a pint of green peas, an onion, and three ounces of rice in the stock. Strain it through a colander; then pulp the peas to it, and turn it into the saucepan again with two heads of celery, sliced. Stew it tender, and add pepper and salt; served up with fried bread.
VEGETABLE SOUP.—Take half a pound of butter, and put it into a stewpan; then cut up some lettuce, a sprig or two of mint, two or three onions, some pepper, salt, a pint and a half of young peas, a little parsley, and two or three young turnips. Let them stew in their own liquor, near a gentle fire, half an hour; then pour two quarts of water to the vegetables, and stew them two hours. Take a little flour and make it smooth in a cup of water. Boil it with the rest fifteen or twenty minutes and serve it.
OX-TAIL SOUP.—Cut up two tails into joints, after they have been ushered, or cleansed from the blood. Then take some clear stock, and put them in a saucepan and let them boil until tender. Skim off all the grease; then add some carrots, cut in pieces, and some very small onions. Do not over-stew it. Season with cayenne pepper, whole ginger, whole mace, salt, nutmeg, a tablespoonful of Harvey's sauce, and dish up with the tails in the tureen.
SAGO SOUP.—Take a piece of brisket, of three or four pounds, and put it in a saucepan, with two quarts of water, an onion fried in fat, a few sweet herbs and parsley, a teaspoonful of black pepper, a little cloves, mace, allspice, and some salt. Then take out the meat, and strain the soup. Return the soup to a clean pan, and thicken it with a quarter of a pound of sago. Let it boil tender. Dish up with sippets of toast or fried bread.
NICE BUTTER SOUP, (for the (nine tag) nine days of lamentation.)—Take a peck of nice young peas, and place then in a saucepan, with two quarts of cold water to cover them. Cut up some young turnips, carrots, parsley, onions, and cauliflower into very small pieces, with some pepper, ginger, mace, and a good lump of butter; let .them all simmer together. When done, put in some drop dumpling, made in this way: take four eggs, well beaten, one pound of flour, one pint of milk, and thicken as a batter, with some salt, ginger, and parsley, chopped, and drop them in the soup. Boil the dumplings gently for a quarter of an hour.
OCHRE SOUP.—Prepare a chicken or piece of nice brisket, as that always makes most delicious soup, with about two dozen ochres, six tomatoes, six onions, thyme, parsley, salt and red pepper; set them all in a saucepan, with two quarts of cold water; the ochre can be powdered, and thicken the soup with it; celery can be used if preferred.
OCHRE SOUP, OE GUMBO.—Ochre soup is much used in the South. Ochre should be grown in a warm, rich soil, and picked for use when in its soft, milky state, like corn; it colors the soup, if allowed to grow firm before picking. Have a good soup prepared, with chicken, and stir into it the ochre, which thickens it and forms into a jelly, which is very pleasant; slice a chicken that has been cooked into shreds, add to it slices of salt beef cut into small pieces, put them over the fire; add chopped celery, onions, spices, if liked, and thicken with the ochre; stew for three hours.
MATZO CLEIS SOUP. (For Passover.)—Set your soup as in other soups. Soak two matzos, or crackers, in cold water, and then fry two or three chopped onions in some suet fat; squeeze and strain the soaked matzos, beat it up with three or four eggs and the meal; add the onions and chopped parsley and mix all together with some pepper, salt, ginger, and nutmeg grated, and make it into round balls, pretty stiff, and boil for ten minutes, not more, or they will break.
DROP DUMPLINGS FOR SOUP.—Two eggs, well beaten, with half a pound of flour, and sufficient water to make a middling thick batter, a little salt and chopped parsley; drop dumplings in the soup, ten minutes before dishing. Cook over a gentle fire.
TO KEEP SOUP FROM SOURING.—Do not use any metal dishes to keep soup in. Pans used for this purpose should be scalded every day, and changed. In preparing soup, if too weak, do not cover the pot in boiling.
A PEPPER POT.—In a pint and a half of water put such vegetables as you wish. In summer, peas, lettuce, spinach and two or three onions. In winter, carrots, turnips, onions and celery. Cut them very small and stew them with a couple of pounds of mutton and a piece of nice beef; season with salt and cayenne, and a few small suet dumplings boiled in it. Instead of mutton, you may use chicken. Pepper pot may be made of various things. A small quantity of rice and a good spoonful of cayenne pepper can be boiled with the whole.
FORCEMEAT FOR SOUPS.—Take some cold meat, cut it in small pieces, and season; make a paste of egg and flour, see frimsels; cut the paste in small pieces, and put the forcemeat in ; then fold them in the shape of three-cornered hats, and place in the soup; boil for ten minutes.