Split Pea Soup

1 cup dried split peas. 3 pints cold water. 1 tablespoonful butter. 1 tablespoonful flour.

½ teaspoonful sugar.

1 teaspoonful salt.

1 saltspoonful white pepper.

Pick over and wash the peas. Soak over night, or for several hours in cold water. Put them on to boil in three pints of fresh cold water, and let them simmer until dissolved, adding enough more water, as it boils away, to keep three pints of liquid in the kettle. Keep it well scraped from the sides of the kettle. When soft, rub through a strainer and put on to boil again. Add either water, stock, milk, or cream to make the consistency you wish. It should be more like a puree than a soup. Cook one large tablespoonful of butter and one of flour together, and add to the strained soup when boiling. Add the salt and pepper, and when it has simmered ten minutes, serve at once with fried dice of bread.

This is delicious made in this simple way. It must always be strained, and thickened with the flour and butter, or it will separate as it cools. It will be smooth, perfectly free from grease; and those who like the natural taste of the peas prefer it to any other way of cooking. Do not think you must boil more or less salt pork with it, as most receipts advise. It may be varied in many ways, by adding half a can of tomatoes before straining, or by boiling with the peas a small onion which has first been cut fine and fried in a little butter, or by adding any remnants of bone or meat, being careful to remove them before straining. Always use the split peas, as the hulls have been removed, and they cook much more quickly than the whole peas.

Green Pea Soup

1 quart green peas. 1 quart water. 1 pint milk. ½ teaspoonful salt.

¼ saltspoonful pepper. ¼ teaspoonful sugar. 1 tablespoonful butter. 1 tablespoonful flour.

Put the peas into one pint of boiling water, and cook until soft. Mash them in the water in which they were boiled, and rub through a strainer, gradually adding a pint of hot water, which will help to separate the pulp from the skins. Put on to boil again. Cook the butter and flour in a small saucepan, being careful not to brown it. Stir it into the boiling soup. Add the salt, sugar, pepper, and the milk, which should be hot, using enough milk to make it the consistency you prefer. This is a very good way to use peas that are old and hard, and unfit to serve as a vegetable, which is often the case with those that come from a market. When the pods are fresh, wash them thoroughly; allow more water, and boil them with the peas.

Green Corn Soup

6 ears sweet corn, or enough to make 1 pint raw pulp. Water to cover the ears. 1 pint milk, or cream. 1 teaspoonful salt.

½ saltspoonful white pepper. 1 teaspoonful sugar. 1 teaspoonful flour. 1 tablespoonful butter.

With a very sharp knife scrape the thinnest possible shaving from each row of kernels, and then, with the back of the knife, scrape out the pulp, leaving the hull on the cob. Break the cobs if long, and put them on to boil in enough cold water to cover them. Boil thirty minutes and strain. There should be about one pint of water after straining. Put the corn water on to boil again, and when boiling add the corn pulp. Cook fifteen minutes. Add the salt, pepper, sugar, and the boiling milk. Thicken it with one teaspoonful of flour and one tablespoonful of butter cooked together. Boil five minutes and serve at once.

Corn is better for soup when it is a little old for the table, and the pulp is thick rather than milky.

Vegetable Soup (Winter)

1 cup each of onion and carrot. 1 cup each of turnip and parsnip. 1 pint each of celery and potato. ¼ cup butter or drippings. 1 teaspoonful salt. 1 tablespoonful flour.

1 teaspoonful sugar. 1 saltspoonful white pepper. ¼ saltspoonful cayenne pepper. 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley. 1 slice of bread crust toasted very brown.

Cut the onion, carrot, turnip, parsnip, and celery into half-inch dice, reserving the onions to fry, and the potatoes to boil by themselves. Put the butter in a stew-pan or soup kettle, and when hot add the onions. After frying them carefully until colored but not burned, add the flour, and when well mixed pour on gradually a pint of hot water. Add the salt, pepper, sugar, bread, vegetables (except the potatoes), and enough boiling water to cover all. Let them simmer two hours. Boil the potatoes ten minutes, drain, and add them to the soup. When the vegetables are soft, rub all through a strainer. Add more salt and pepper if desired, and keep over hot water until ready to serve.

A summer vegetable soup may be made in a similar manner, using young onions, turnips, carrots, and cauliflower. Cut fine and parboil; then cover with fresh boiling water, simmer until soft, mash, strain, season, make quite thin with hot cream or milk, and pour this over a small quantity of tender green peas and asparagus tips, previously boiled.

Cherry Soup

Soups made from fruit juices only slightly sweetened, thickened with arrowroot and served cold in bouillon cups are quite acceptable in hot days. Allow one pint of water to a pint of fruit. Stew, mash, and sift the fruit, sweeten and thicken slightly, then boil till clear. Some fruits require a little lemon juice or wine. Add chipped ice and serve with zwieback or toasted wafers.