The Raleigh cook book

Cream of Celery Soup.—Cream of Celery Soup may be made as Cream of Corn Soup. Use roots, tough stalks and white leaves of celery. Boil thirty minutes and press through a colander. Green-Pea Soup.—1 pint shelled peas; 1 quart water; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon flour ; 2 cups milk. SOUPS. Cook peas in water until soft; remove, press through colander. Put butter in pan and let melt, add flour and stir until smooth; have milk hot, and add to butter and flour. Place in double boiler and cook half hour; add the pulp of the peas. Season to taste. Croutons.—Cut stale bread in one-third inch slices and remove crusts. Spread thinly with butter. Cut slices in one-inch squares or finger lengths; put in pan and bake until delicately browned, or fry in deep fat. Noodles.—2 eggs; flour. Beat eggs slightly, add a little salt, and flour enough to make very stiff dough. Knead and roll out as thin as possible. Allow dough to dry for an hour, then cut in fancy shapes, using sharp knife or French vegetable cutter. Dry, and when needed cook twenty minutes in boiling salted water; drain and add to soup. Noodles may be served as a vegetable with cream sauce, or with cheese. FISH. Planked Fish.—Split open a firm fish and remove backbone. Lay on well-buttered plank or fish sheet and dredge with flour, salt and pepper and spread with soft butter. Bake in a hot oven, then surround fish with a thick border of well seasoned mashed potatoes and return to the oven to brown. Garnish with lemon and parsley or radishes and parsley and serve. Baked Shad.—After cleaning, make a dressing of bread crumbs, salt, pepper, butter and parsley, and mix this up with the beaten yolk of egg; stuff the fish with it, and sew it up or fasten a string around it. Pour over it a little water and some butter and bake as you would a fowl. A shad will require from an hour to an hour and a quarter to bake. Garnish with slices of lemon, watercress, etc. Dressing for Baked Shad.—Boil up the gravy in which the shad was baked, put in a large tablespoon of catsup, a tablespoon of brown flour which has been wet with cold water, and the juice of a lemon. Serve in a sauce boat. To Broil Fish.—Any small fish or the steaks of a large fish are nice broiled. Prepare as for frying, rub the bars of the gridiron with butter, then place the fish skin down; do not turn until nearly done, and broil slowly. Turn up and lay in a dish with butter, pepper and salt. To Fry Shad or Small Fish.—The fish should be cleaned, washed well in cold water, and immediately wiped dry, inside and out, with a clean towel, and then sprinkled with salt. Have the lard or dripping boiling hot before putting in the fish. The fish may be rubbed over with flour or meal before frying. Codfish Ball.—Shred fish and soak in cold water one hour ; take out and put on stove in boiling water a few minutes; then drain and mix with an equal quantity of Irish potatoes, a small piece of butter, pepper to taste, beaten egeh, and roll in cracker or meal and fry in a little lard. Deviled Crabs.—1 pint crab meat; 3 hard-boiled eggs; lemon; salt and pepper; butter or cream. Take one pint of crab meat, either fresh or canned; cut in fine bits, add one-third as much bread ‘crumbs, two or three chopped hardboiled eggs, and lemon juice; season with pepper, salt and butter or cream. Clean the shells nicely and fill with the mixture, sprinkle over with bread crumbs and small bits of butter, and brown in oven. These may be served in ramekins.