Page:The White House Cook Book.djvu/46

 34 SOUPS.

CREAM OF SPINACH.

PICK, wash and boil enough spinach to measure a pint, when cooked, chopped and pounded into a soft paste. Put it into a stew- pan with four ounces of fresh butter, a little grated nutmeg, a tea- spoonful of salt. Cook and stir it about ten minutes. Add to this two quarts of strong stock (see pages 27 and 30) ; let boil up, then rub it through a strainer. Set it over the fire again, and, when on the point of boiling, mix with it a tablespoonful of butter, and a tea- spoonful of granulated sugar.

CHICKEN CREAM SOUP.

AN old chicken for soup is much the best. Cut it up into quarters, put it into a soup kettle with half a pound of corned ham, and an onion ; add four quarts of cold water. Bring slowly to a gentle boil, and keep this up until the liquid has diminished one-third, and the meat drops from the bones ; then add half a cup of rice. Season with salt, pepper and a bunch of chopped parsley.

Cook slowly until the rice is tender, then the meat should be taken out. Now stir in two cups of rich milk thickened with a little flour. The chicken could be fried in a spoonful of butter and a gravy made, reserving some of the white part of the meat, chopping it and adding

it to the soup.

PLAIN ECONOMICAL SOUP.

TAKE a cold roast-beef bone, pieces of beefsteak, the rack of a cold turkey or chicken. Put them into a pot with three or four quarts of water, two carrots, three turnips, one onion, a few cloves, pepper and salt. Boil the whole gently four hours ; then strain it through a col- ander, mashing the vegetables so that they will all pass through. Skirn off the fat, and return the soup to the pot. Mix one tablespoon- ful of flour with two of water, stir it into the soup and boil the whole ten minutes. Serve this soup with sippits of toast.

Sippits are bits of dry toast cut into a triangular form.

A. seasonable dish about the holidays.

OX-TAIL SOUP.

Two ox-tails, two slices of ham, one ounce of butter, two carrots, two turnips, three onions, one leek, one head of celery, one bunch of savory herbs, pepper, a tablespoonful of salt, two tablespoonfuls of catsup, one-half glass of port wine, three quarts of water.

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