The home cook book

Take whatever tops you have from a bunch of celery, cut in small pieces and put in a saucepan with a couple of onions and four good-sized potatoes, all sliced. Pour on two quarts of water, cover tight and boil for an hour. Stir and beat well together, add a piece of butter the size of an egg, salt to taste, and serve with toasted pieces of bread cut small. Cream may be added, and a thickening of flour may also be put in if wished. But as pure maigre soup it is made as above. MILK SOUP Heat a quart of milk in a saucepan over a slow fire. Dissolve and work smooth three tablespoons of flour in quarter of a cup of cold milk. Dip a little hot milk into the cup, stir about with the cold, and then add gradually to the hot milk. Stir while it thickens and add a teaspoon of salt. Add a couple of hard-boiled eggs coarsely chopped, drop in a few small pieces of butter, and serve hot. Bread sticks and young, tender onions go well with this soup. MOCK BISQUE Cook half a can of tomatoes soft enough to strain. If you are using fresh tomatoes take a cup and a half when cooked. In another saucepan cook one tablespoon of flour in one tablespoon of butter and stir in one quart of milk. Season to your taste with salt and when ready to serve stir in a pinch of soda. Lastly, add the strained tomatoes and serve at once. MOCK OYSTER SOUP Wash and scrape ten salsify roots, and as you work put them in cold water to keep the roots from turning black. When they are cleaned, cut in small pieces and cover with boiling water. Boil till tender, which will be in from thirty minutes to an hour. Put the salsify through a colander or sieve and return to the saucepan with three cups of milk, and the water in which the salsify cooked, which will be boiled away to about a cupful. Add a small onion minced, half a teaspoon of salt, and when the soup boils stir in a tablespoon and a half of flour blended with a tablespoon of butter. Serve after the soup thickens with the flour, adding a dash of cayenne. OKRA CREAM SOUP Have a pint of okra cut in thin slices. Put it in a quart of salted water, boiling in a porcelain kettle, and cook till tender, nearly half an hour. Then add a quart of fresh milk, a large tablespoon of butter mixed with two tablespoons of flour and cook till the soup thickens. Add more butter if your taste demands, and also pepper. Serve hot with wafers or bread sticks, ORKA GUMBO WITH CRABS OR HALIBUT To a tablespoon of boiling beef dripping add quarter of a pound of minced boiled ham and two slices of minced raw bacon. When browned, add two tablespoons of sifted flour. Brown well. Add two minced onions and brown. Add one dozen thinly sliced spears of okra and fry the whole until the okra begins to brown. Then add one teacup of canned tomato, one pinch of thyme, a dash of cayenne pepper, and one bay leaf. Brown all thoroughly. Add one pint of raw crab meat which you have picked from the shells. Leave the meat of the claws in the claws, put them in the gumbo, and add one quart of boiling water. Allow the soup to boil for half an hour, cooking the crab thoroughly. Add two minced cloves of garlic and one teaspoon of minced parsley. Serve with rice.