Great Soup Recipes

CREAM OF CELERY SOUP – Cut into small pieces the green portions from three heads of celery, making, in all, twelve or fourteen stalks. Cover with a pint of cold water, bring slowly to boiling point and simmer gently for half an hour. Drain and press through a colander, using as much of the celery as you can press through. Add to this one pint of milk. Put the whole into a double boiler. Rub together one tablespoonful of butter and two of flour, and stir them carefully into the soup. Stir and cook until smooth. Add a teaspoonful of celery, salt, a dash of white pepper, and the soup will be ready to serve.

SHANK SOUP – When you buy a shank, have the butcher cut it into several pieces, and split open the thickest part of the bone. Boil it three or four hours and set it aside. The next day, take off the fat, and if you do not wish to eat the meat in the soup, take that out also; add vegetables, etc., as in the preceding receipt. To add macaroni, take a handful, cut it small, wash, and boil it half an hour, then put it into the soup an hour before serving.

CARROT SOUP – Slice up eight or nine large carrots, and stew them in three quarts of common soup, until quite tender ; then rub through a sieve, mix well, season with salt and pepper, and add sufficient browning to make it look well. It should be made the day before it is used.

TOMATO SOUP – Put three pints of tomatoes, stewed, strained, and sweetened,two quarts of meat liquor (the fat being removed). Add an onion, salt, and pepper, and water if too thick. With more seasoning, and a bit of butter, it is good without meat liquor.

ASPARAGUS – Cut half a pound of fat bacon into thin slices, place at the bottom of a stewpan, then add five pounds of lean beef cut into dice, and rolled in flour ; cover the pan close, stirring occasionally until the gravy is drawn, then add two quarts of water, and half a pint of ale. Cover, stew gently for an hour, with some whole pepper and salt. Strain off the liquor, and skim off the fat. Add some spinach, cabbage-lettuce, white beet leaves, sorrel, a little mint, and powdered sweet marjoram ; let these boil up in the liquor, then put in the green tops of asparagus cut small, boil till all is tender, and serve hot.

CLAM CHOWDER – Twenty-five chopped clams, 6 sliced onions, 10 sliced potatoes; try out three slices of salt pork, cut in dice in the pot in which you make the chowder, fry brown, and then on that put a layer of onions, then potatoes, then clams, and repeat till all is used ; one quart of water and all the clam juice ; no salt, little pepper ; cook slowly two hours, stir very little and carefully.