Part 5

When done season and add hot milk and 1 cup cream. This is very fine.

In making this soup without meat omit the tomatoes and use string beans instead.

Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are. Brillat Savarin.

Chestnut Soup

1 qt. chestnuts (Spanish preferred) 1 pint chicken stock 2 tablespoons flour 1 teaspoon sugar salt and paprika to taste

Cover chestnuts with boiling water slightly salted. Cook until quite soft and rub through coarse sieve, add stock, and seasoning; then thicken with flour blended with water.

Let simmer five minutes and serve at once.

In case stock is not available milk can be used with a little butter added.

Peanut Butter Broth

1 pt. fresh sweet milk 1 pt. water 1 1/2 tablespoons peanut butter 1 tablespoon catsup Salt, pepper or other season to taste.

Pour liquid with peanut butter into double boiler; dissolve butter so there are no hard lumps. Do not let milk boil but place on moderately hot fire.

Just before serving add the catsup and seasoning.

Soup for Invalids

Cut into small pieces one pound of beef or mutton or a part of both. Boil it gently in two quarts of water. Take off the scum and when reduced to a pint, strain it and season with a little salt. Give one teacupful at a time.

Peanut Soup

Peanut soup for supper on a cold night serves the double duty of stimulating the gastric juices to quicken action by its warmth and furnishing protein to the body to repair its waste. Pound to a paste a cupful of nuts from which the skin has been removed, add it to a pint of milk and scald; melt a tablespoon of butter and mix it with a like quantity of flour and add slowly to the milk and peanuts; cook until it thickens and season to taste.

Chestnuts, too, make a splendid soup. Boil one quart of peeled and blanched chestnuts in three pints of salt water until quite soft; pass through sieve and add two tablespoons of sweet cream, and season to taste. If too thick, add water.

Mock Oyster Soup

The oyster plant is used for this delicious dish--by many it is known as salsify. Scrape the vegetable and cut into small pieces with a silver knife (a steel knife would darken the oyster plant). Cook in just enough water to keep from burning, and when tender press through a colander and return to the water in which it was cooked. Add three cups of hot milk which has been thickened with a little butter and flour and rubbed together and seasoned with salt and white pepper. A little chopped parsley may be added before serving. 1/2 cup cream instead of all milk greatly improves taste.

French Oyster Soup

1 quart oysters 1 quart milk 1 slice onion 2 blades mace 1/3 cup flour 1/3 cup butter 2 egg yolks salt and pepper

Clean oysters by pouring over 3/4 cup cold water. Drain, reserve liquor, add oysters, slightly chopped, heat slowly to boiling point and let simmer 20 minutes; strain.

Scald milk with onion and mace. Make white sauce and add oyster liquor. Just before serving add egg yolks, slightly beaten.

Split Pea Soup (Green or Yellow)

1 1/2 pints split peas (green or yellow) 2 1/4 quarts water 2 small onions 1 carrot 1 parsnip (if at hand) 1 cup milk 1/2 cup cream 1 teaspoon salt (more if liked) Pepper and paprika to taste 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

Soak 1 1/2 pints of split peas over night; next day add 2 1/4 quarts water and the vegetables, cut fine; also the sugar, salt and pepper and cook slowly three hours; now mash through sieve. If it boils down too much add a little water. After putting through sieve place on stove and add hot milk and cream. If it is not thin enough to suit add more milk.

Stock may be used if same is available.

Black Bean Soup