Cookery and housekeeping

The sago must be thoroughly washed and simmered in the water till it is transparent and tender. It is then to be mixed into the boiling stock, or broth, and the cream. Lastly, the yolks are to be stirred in. The best v/ay to produce a smooth soup is to stir the eggs one by one into a teacupful of the broth, and then stir that into the soup. The cream may be omitted. The stock may be made without vegetables, if for an invalid. 90 BISQUE. Bisque, or Crayfish Soup. Wash four dozen crayfish and put them in a stewpan with sliced carrots and onions, pepper, salt, fine herbs, some stock, and a glass of sherry. Boil for ten minutes ; then take out the meat from the tails to be used as garnish in the bisque. Simmer in stock \ lb. of rice ; put the crayfish, shells, and rice in a mortar, and pound the whole to a pulp ; add the liquid, &c., in which the crayfish were boiled, and pass through a tamis ; warm in the bain-marie, and add a little cream or butter to give smoothness. The meat from the tail is to be cut into pieces the size of a large pea, and just warmed in the soup. Crotatons of bread cut in dice are to be dried, or slightly browned in the oven, and handed with the bisque. This soup is too rich to admit of the croutons being fried. The soup can be made with lobsters or prawns. The shell of the body alone must be pounded with the meat. Nudel Soup. (German Recipe.) Beat two eggs well, and make into a firm paste with flour ; knead it well, and divide it into two equal parts ; make of each a little loaf, and roll it out thin ; dry these, but do not let the paste harden ; roll it up and cut into small pieces about the size of a gooseberry (nudeln) ; scatter them separately into boiling salt and water, and boil quickly. Strain off the water, and boil them again in brown or white broth previously prepared ; season to taste, and serve after it has simmered for a quarter of an hour. QUEEN'S SOUP. 91 This soup is stronger if the mideln, instead of being boiled in salt water, are put straight into the soup ; but then the soup is naturally not so clear. Queen's Soup. Skin and clean out the inside oi three fowls or chickens ; wash them in warm water ; stew for . an hour with sufficient strong veal broth to cover the meat, and a bunch of parsley. Take out the fowls, and soak the crumb of a small loaf in the liquor ; cut the meat off; take away the skin, and pound the flesh in a mortar, adding the soaked crumb and the yolks of five hard-boiled eggs ; rub this through a coarse sieve or tamis, and put into it a quart of cream that has been previously boiled. Purees. As this expression is used in three senses, it is necessary to explain and define what is meant by each. All purees are the result of boiling or stewing the fruit, vegetable, or cereal, in broth or water, and passing the mixture through a more or less fine sieve or tamis. If the puree is to be served separately as a vegetable, not as a soup, it must be almost solid. If it is to be used for soup, it is diluted with broth or stock, and other additions, till the mixture is of the consistency of thick cream. Or if the puree is to be used as sauce, a different thickness or thinness is required ; not uniform, but 92 PUREES.