Cookery for beginners

Next day skim off the fat, strain the broth from the chicken, shaking the colander to do this well, and put aside the meat for croquettes or a scallop. Set three pints of the broth over the fire with a teaspoonful of chopped onion, season with salt arid pepper, and let it boil half an hour. Line a colander with a thick cloth, and strain the liquid, squeezing the cloth to get the flavor of the onion. Return the strained soup to the saucepan, with a tablespoonful of minced parsley, and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, scald in a farina kettle a cupful of milk, dropping into it a bit of soda the size of a pea. Stir into this when hot, a tablespoonful of cornstarch wet up with cold milk. When it thickens scrape it out into a bowl in which you have two eggs whipped light. Beat all together well, and stir in, spoonful by spoonful, a cupful of the boiling soup. Draw the soup pot to one side of the range, stir in the contents of the bowl, and let it stand — but not boil — three minutes before pouring into the tureen. Chicken and Rice Soup Is made as white chicken soup, but with the addition of four tablespoonfuls of rice, boiled soft, and added to the chicken liquor at the same time with the parsley. Then proceed as directed, with milk, eggs, etc. Tomato Soup. Add a quart of raw tomatoes, peeled and sliced, or a can of stewed tomatoes, and half a small onion to a quart of stock, and stew slowly one hour. Strain and rub through a colander and set again over the fire. Stir in a tablespoonful of butter cut up and rubbed into a tablespoonful of flour. A tablespoonful of cornstarch wet up with cold water. Season to taste with pepper and salt, boil once more and pour out. ■ Bean Soup. Soak one pint of dried beans all night in lukewarm water. In the morning add three quarts of cold water, half a pound of nice salt pork, cut into strips, half an onion chopped, and three stalks of celery, cut small. Set at one side of the fire until it is very hot, then where it will cook slowly, and let it boil four hours. Stir up often from the bottom, as bean-soup is apt to scorch. An hour before dinner, set a colander over another pot and rub the bean porridge through the holes with a stout wooden spoon, leaving the skins in the colander. Return the soup to the fire, stir in a tablespoonful of butter rubbed in a tablespoonful of flour, and simmer gently fifteen minutes longer. Have ready in the tureen a double handful of strips or squares of stale bread, fried like doughnuts in dripping, and drained dry. Also, half a lemon, peeled and sliced very thin. Pour the soup on these and serve. A Soup Maigre (without Meat). Twelve mealy potatoes, peeled and sliced. One quart of tomatoes — canned or fresh. One half of an onion. Two stalks of celery. One tablespoonful of minced parsley. Four tablespoonfuls of butter, cut up and rolled in flour. One tablespoonful of cornstarch wet and dissolved in cold water. One lump of white sugar. Three quarts of cold water will be needed. Parboil the sliced potatoes fifteen minutes in enough hot water to cover them well. Drain this off and throw it away. Put potatoes, tomatoes, onion, celery and parsley on in three quarts of cold water, and cook gently two hours. Then rub them all through a colander, return the soup to the pot, drop in the sugar, season to taste with pepper and salt, boil up once and take off the scum before adding the floured butter, and when this is dissolved, the cornstarch. Stir two minutes over the fire, and your soup is ready for the table. Very good it will prove, too, if the directions be exactly followed. When celery is out of season, you can use instead of it, a little essence of celery, or, what is better, celery salt. lO HEATS.