Handbook of practical cookery

Potato Puree.— For this should be furnished : one pound of potatoes, one Bermuda onion, two leaves of celery, one and one half pints of whole stock, one gill of single cream, one ounce of butter, one half salt-spoonful of salt, and the same amount of pepper. So provided, put into the sauce-pan the potatoes, pared and sliced, the celery, onion, and butter, stirring all over the fire for five minutes, taking care that they do not discolour. Add now one pint of stock, and let it boil slowly until the potatoes are cooked, then pass all through a sieve, using the remaining one half pint of stock hot, to prevent the gluten of the potatoes from stiffening and clogging in the sieve. The sauce-pan should then be well washed and the puree returned to it, the cream, pepper, and salt added, and stirred until it boils. This should be served with fried bread or asparagus tips, arranging either in the tureen as before directed, and pouring the puree over. OYSTER SOUP X-LA-REINE. 23 NOTE. — By single cream, that is meant which arises in twelve hours. Double cream arises in twenty -four hours, and cream for butter in forty -eight hours. GENERAL NOTES ON PURGES. — These purges are intended to suffice for serving four persons; and the apparent inequality of liquids used will be found to correspond with the different lengths of time for boiling, which is, of course, the reducing process. If it should happen that the puree is thickened unduly by boiling too quickly, this fault may be remedied by adding more of the stock while it is being passed through the sieve. FIRST DIVISION. Oyster Soup k-la-Reine. — One quart of oysters, one pint of white stock, one half pint of cream, one and one half ounces of butter, one ounce of flour, one blade of mace, one grain of cayenne, one tea-spoonful of salt, and half as much pepper. Drain first the liquor from the oysters, and putting the liquor over the fire, bring it to the boiling-point. In a separate sauce-pan melt the butter, stir into it the flour, and pour in the stock. Add also the mace, pepper, cayenne, and salt, and let all boil for ten minutes, when the oysters should be added. "Watch the oysters closely, and when the leaves begin to shrivel, pour the soup into the tureen, and add thereto the cream, which must have been made boiling hot. NOTE. — The great difficulty to be surmounted in making this soup, is bringing the cream and liquor together without curdling, which is obviated by boiling each separately. Fish Chowder.— For this are required one large haddock, weighing about two pounds, three Bermuda onions, one quarter pound pork, six potatoes, one table-spoonful chopped parsley, one dessert-spoonful chopped thyme, one-fourth of a can tomatoes, one dessert-spoonful of salt, one tea-spoonful of pepper, one half wine-glassful of "Worcestershire sauce, two ounces of butter. When the haddock has been cleaned and well washed, place it in a sauce-pan, cover it well with cold water, add a pinch of salt, place the sauce-pan on the fire, and when the water in it boils remove the haddock. Remove from the haddock all skin and bone, throw them into the water in the sauce-pan, and allow the water to boil for twenty minutes very slowly.