The spirit of cookery

The tubers have to be peeled and sliced, and put immediately into water containing some flour in suspension to prevent their becoming discoloured. They are next to be stewed, say two dozen average tubers, in 4 oz. of fresh butter, and to be simmered slowly until they be done, without being browned in the least. Add two quarts of standard broth, a little sugar, celery, onion, and tincture of pepper, and boil until all be tender, then pass through a tammy, and boil up the puree. Compound Spinach Soup). — This soup contains besides the principal herb dry peas, green peas, and French beans, all as purees, and fried bread. Soup of Puree of Spinach. — The spinach has to be parboiled, pressed and comminuted ; it has to be stewed with butter, tincture of nutmeg, and salt. The addition of broth is preceded by that of some veloute sauce. Point with butter, sugar, and some glace. This soup is also called h la Beauvaux. Tomato Soup). — This soup, a favourite of the Americans, so that some call it à l'Américaine, is really expanded tomatosauce. The love-apples have to be stewed in a mirepoix roux of butter, flour, bacon, carrot, onion, tincture of pepper and cayenne, all fried together. The standard broth is then added. Two pounds of tomatoes in slices and two quarts of standard broth will make good soup for four, more diluted for eight, persons. The tomatoes have to pass the sieve, to retain peels and seeds, and become puree. Soups of Purges of Carrots, Turnips, and other Vegetables, called Soups a la Crecy. General Note. — There are a great many recipes for soups called à la Crécy in culinary literature, which have only this feature in common, namely, that they contain puree of SOUPS OF PUREES OF ROOTS, ETC. carrots. The original Crecy,* however, contained many vegetables ; indeed, for it were prescribed, as for jardiniere, toutes sortes de légumes,j which were to be parboiled, fried in butter, pounded, passed through a sieve, and thus transformed into a puree, to be mixed with prepared broth. Compared with this most comprehensive recipe all other recipes become more or less specializations in favour of carrots, until some hold puree of carrots only and soupe a la Crecy to be synonymous. Recipes which look much to the colour of the puree prescribe that the red or outer part only of the carrots should be taken, and the core be rejected. This selection is needless when other roots, such as turnips, are added. We should call the original Crecy soup, as the most complicated, compound carrot soup ; every plain one, carrot soup simply. For the production of puree, the carrots should be parboiled in water for ten minutes, and then stewed with fresh butter, sugar, salt and aromatic herbs, and ultimately boiled with standard broth. The soup of puree of carrots may receive an addition of green peas or of rice. The soups of puree of turnips are two in number, one called white, the other brown ; for the production of the latter, the turnips are browned during the braising, by frying and formation of glace j in the case of the white soup they are kept covered with broth during the whole process- of boiling. Turnips should always be parboiled in water, and the water should be poured away, as in their natural state they would yield too strong a flavour, and be difficult to digest.