Put on one three-pound chicken to boil in six quarts cold water. Take one and one-half or two pounds of beef and the same quant.i.ty thick part of veal, put in a baking-pan, set in the stove and brown quickly with just enough water to keep from burning. When brown, cut the meat in pieces, add this with all the juice it has drawn, to the chicken soup.

Set on the back of the stove, and cook slowly all day. Set in a cold place, or on ice over night, and next morning after it is congealed, skim off every particle of fat.

Melt and season to taste when ready to serve. Excellent for the sick.

When used for the table, cut up carrots and French peas already cooked can be added while heating.

If cooked on gas stove, cook over the simmering flame the same number of hours.

CONSOMMe

Take three pounds of beef, cut in dice and cover with three quarts of cold water. Simmer slowly for four hours. The last hour add one-half cup each of carrots, celery, onion, and season with one-half teaspoon of peppercorns and one tablespoon of salt. Strain, cool, remove fat and clear (allowing one egg-sh.e.l.l broken fine and the slightly beaten white of one egg to each quart of stock). Add to the stock, stir constantly until it has reached the boiling point. Boil two minutes and serve.

CHICKEN SOUP, No. 1

Take one large chicken, cook with four quarts of water for two or three hours. Skim carefully, when it begins to boil add parsley root, an onion, some asparagus, cut into bits. Season with salt, strain and beat up the yolk of an egg with one tablespoon of cold water, add to soup just before serving. This soup should not be too thin. Rice, barley, noodles or dumplings may be added. Make use of the chicken, either for salad or stew.

CHICKEN SOUP, No. 2

Take the carca.s.s of a cold, cooked chicken and break into small pieces.

Add one-half cup of chopped celery and one onion chopped fine. Cover with cold water; simmer slowly for two hours. Strain, add salt and pepper to taste.

CHICKEN BROTH

Cut the chicken into small pieces and place it in a deep earthen dish; add one quart of water; cover it and set over a kettle of boiling water, letting it steam until the meat of the chicken has become very tender.

Strain off the broth and let it stand over night. In the morning remove the fat and return the liquid to the original earthen dish.

JULIENNE SOUP

Have soup stock ready. Boil in water until tender one cup green peas, three carrots cut up in small pieces, and some cabbage chopped fine.

Brown two tablespoons of flour in a skillet in hot fat, then stir in the vegetables. Fry some livers and gizzards of fowls, if handy, and add, then stir in the strained soup stock.

RICE BROTH

May be made either of beef or mutton, adding all kinds of vegetables.

Boil one-half cup of rice separately in a farina kettle. Strain the beef or mutton broth. Add the rice and boil one-half hour longer, with potatoes, cut into dice shape; use about two potatoes; then add the beaten yolk of an egg. Strained stock of chicken broth added to this soup makes it very palatable and nutritious for the sick.

MOCK TURTLE SOUP

Take one calf"s head, wash well; put on to boil with four and one-half quarts of water; add two red peppers, onions, celery, carrots, cloves, salt to taste, and a little cabbage; boil six hours; also, have ready some meat stock; the next day put fat in a skillet with two large tablespoons of flour; let it brown; then, take the calf"s head and cut all the meat from it in pieces; add the calf"s tongue, cut in dice.

Slice hard-boiled eggs, one gla.s.s of sherry; and one lemon sliced; put all in the stock; allow it to come just to a boil.

MUTTON BROTH

Cut three pounds of neck of lamb or lean shoulder into small pieces; cover closely and boil with three quarts of water, slowly, for two hours; add two tablespoons well-washed rice to the boiling soup. Cook an hour longer, slowly; watch carefully and stir from time to time.

Strain and thicken it with a little flour; salt and pepper to taste.

Particularly nice for invalids.

MULLIGATAWNY SOUP

Add to three quarts of liquor, in which fowls have been boiled, the following vegetables: three onions, two carrots, and one head of celery cut in small dice. Keep the kettle over a high heat until soup reaches the boiling point; then place where it will simmer for twenty-five minutes. Add one tablespoon of curry powder, one tablespoon of flour mixed together; add to the hot soup and cook five minutes. Pa.s.s through a sieve. Serve with small pieces of chicken or veal cut in it.

FARINA SOUP

When the soup stock has been strained and every particle of fat removed, return it to the kettle to boil. When it boils hard stir in carefully quarter of a cup of farina, do this slowly to prevent the farina from forming lumps. Stir into the soup bowl the yolk of one egg, add a teaspoon of cold water. Pour the soup into the bowl gradually and stir constantly until all has been poured into the bowl. Serve at once.

GREEN KERN SOUP

Soak one-half cup of green kern in a bowl of water over night. Put on two pounds of soup meat, add a carrot, an onion, a stalk of celery, a sprig of parsley, one or two tomatoes, a potato, in fact any vegetable you may happen to have at hand. Cover up closely and let it boil slowly over a low heat three or four hours. Put the green kern on to boil in water slightly salted, as it boils down keep adding soup stock from the kettle of soup on the stove, always straining through a hair sieve, until all has been used. Serve as it is or strain through a colander and put pieces of toasted bread into the soup.

Another way of using the green kern is to grind it to a powder.

NOODLE SOUP

For six persons, select a piece of meat off the neck, about two and one-half pounds; add three quarts of water, an onion, one celery root, two carrots, a large potato, some parsley, three tomatoes and the giblets of poultry. Cook in a closely covered kettle, letting the soup simmer for four or five hours. Remove every bit of sc.u.m that rises.

Strain; add salt and remove every particle of fat; put in noodles; boil about five minutes and serve at once. If allowed to stand it will become thick.

MUSHROOM AND BARLEY SOUP

Take one quart of hot bouillon, add a quarter pound barley which has been boiled in water; and one ounce of dried mushrooms which have been thoroughly washed and cut in pieces, an onion, carrot, bayleaf, parsley and dill. Boil all these and when the vegetables are nearly tender, remove from soup, add the meat from the bouillon, cut up in small pieces, let soup come to a boil and serve.

OXTAIL SOUP

Wash two large oxtails and cut into pieces. Cut one onion fine and fry in one tablespoon of drippings. When brown, add oxtails to brown, then put into soup kettle with four quarts cold water. Add one tablespoon of salt, one tablespoon of mixed herbs, four cloves, four peppercorns.

Simmer for three or four hours. Skim off fat, strain. Vegetables cut into fancy shapes and boiled twenty minutes may be added.

GREEN PEA SOUP

Make your soup stock as usual, adding a pint of washed pea-pods to the soup. Heat a tablespoon of drippings, put in the peas, with a little chopped parsley, cover closely and let simmer; keep adding soup stock when dry. When the peas are tender put into the strained soup. Season with one teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of sugar, add drop dumplings to this soup before serving.

PIGEON SOUP

Make a beef soup, and an hour before wanted add a pigeon. Boil slowly, with all kinds of vegetables, provided your patient is allowed to have them. Strain, add the beaten yolk of an egg, salt to taste.