Mrs. Lincoln's Boston cook book

1 quart can tomatoes. 1 pint hot water. 1 tablespoonful sugar. 1 teaspoonful salt. 4 cloves. 4 peppercorns, or 1 saltspoonful white pepper. 1 tablespoonful butter. 1 tablespoonful chopped onion. 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley. 1 tablespoonful cornstarch. Put the tomatoes, water, sugar, salt, cloves, and peppercorns on to boil in a porcelain stewpan. Put the butter in a small saucepan, and when it bubbles put in the onion and parsley. Fry five minutes, being careful not to burn it. Add the cornstarch, and when well mixed stir it into the tomato. Let it simmer ten minutes. Add more salt and pepper if needed. Strain, and serve with plain boiled rice, or croutons, or toasted crackers. : Mock Bisque Soup. 3^ can tomatoes. 1 tablespoonful cornstarch. 1 quart milk. 1 teaspoonful salt. 3^3 cup butter. 3^ saltspoonful white pepper. Stew the tomatoes until soft enough to strain easily. Boil the milk in a double boiler. Cook one tablespoonful 148 The Boston Cook Book. of the butter and the cornstarch together in a small saucepan, adding enough of the hot milk to make it pour easily. Stir it carefully into the boiling milk, and boil ten minutes. Add the remainder of the butter in small pieces, and stir till well mixed. Add salt and pepper and the strained tomatoes. If the tomatoes be very acid, add half a saltspoonful of soda before straining. Serve very hot. Many would use more tomatoes, but it is more delicate with a small quantity. saltspoonful cayenne. Soak the beans over night. In the morning pour off the water, and put them on to boil in two quarts of cold water. Slice the onion and fry it in one tablespoonful of the butter. Put it with the beans. Add a bit of celery root, if you have it. Simmer four or five hours, or until the beans are soft. Add more cold water as it boils away, — about half a cup every half-hour, — to check the boiling and soften the beans, leaving about two quarts when done. Rub the beans through a strainer, put the soup on to boil again, and add the salt, pepper, and mustard. When boiling, thicken it with the flour and butter which have been cooked together. This will prevent the beans from settling. Season to taste. Cut the lemon and eggs into thin slices, put them into the tureen, and pour the hot soup over them. Serve with croutons. Many think tomatoes are an improvement. If that flavor be desired, add to the above half a can of tomatoes, before straining. Others think it is not just right unless a quarter of a pound of salt pork, or some bones and odds and ends of meat, have been boiled with it. The beans are sometimes boiled to quite a thick pulp, and after sifting made of the proper consistency by thinning with brown Black Bean Soup. 2 teaspoonfuls salt. 1 saltspoonful pepper. 1 pint black beans. 2 quarts cold water. 1 small onion. 1 saltspoonful mustard. 1 tablespoonful flour. 2 tablespoonfuls butter. 1 lemon. 2 hard-boiled eggs. The Boston Cook Book. soup stock, and seasoned more highly with the addition of ground herbs, spices, force-meat balls, and wine. It is then not unlike Mock Turtle Soup.