Page:The English housekeeper, 6th.djvu/129

Rh another head of celery, and 3 turnips and carrots in pretty shapes. Boil slowly till done, then serve the soup.

Should soak the night before, and if old, again in the morning, in lukewarm water. Allow 1½ lb. to 4 quarts of soft water, with 3 lbs. of lean sinewy beef, or fresh trimmings of meat, poultry, or roast beef bones, a small piece of pickled pork, the shank of a bacon or mutton ham, or the root of a tongue a little salted, and soaked and washed; also 2 carrots, 2 turnips, and 6 rather small onions. Scum well, as soon as it boils, and stir the peas up from the bottom; add another quart of boiling water, or the liquor of any boiled meat. (Pot liquor should always be saved for peas soup.) Let it simmer till the peas will pulp. Then strain through a coarse sieve. Take the onions out from the pulp, and put the latter back into the soup, with a fresh head of celery, or a large tea-spoonful of celery seed, tied in muslin, and some salt and pepper. Simmer it, if thin, three-quarters of an hour, to thicken it; then put it into the tureen, let it stand covered a few minutes, and remove the fat which will have gathered on the top. Shake dried mint or parsley over the soup, and serve with dice of toasted bread.—This soup may be made in a very economical way, by the means of pot liquor, roast beef bones, fragments of meat, and fresh clarified dripping. The liquor in which a leg of pork has been boiled, should be saved for peas soup.—Very little pieces of boiled pork may be served in peas soup, also cucumbers cut and fried, or bacon cut and fried. A pickled herring is used to give flavour, when there is no pot liquor. Peas soup is very good quite maigre; the water must be soft, and the peas boiled long and slowly, before they are pulped.

Scrape and wash six large carrots, and peel off the outsides quite thick; put these into a soup-kettle, with a large head of celery, an onion cut thin, two quarts of soft water, or pot liquor, and, if you have them, roast beef bones. After this has been boiled and scummed, set it by the fire, keep it close covered and simmer it gently two hours.