The Rural cook book

Salmon Bisque.— One pint of oyster liquor and one of hot water heated together. When it boils stir in two cupfuls of finely minced salmon, seasoning with pepper, salt and a little chopped parsley. In another saucepan put one cupful of milk and heat to scalding, with a pinch of soda; stir into this two tablespoon fuls of butter, rubbed with one tablespoonful of flour and a half cupful of pounded cracker. Add one egg well beaten and stir and cook for a moment. Mix the fish and milk mixtures, cook a few moments, pour into soup tureen and serve hot Scotch Broth. — One-half cup pearl barley, two pounds neck of mutton, two quarts cold water, one-fourth cup each of turnip, carrot, onion and celery chopped small, two tablespoons butter, one tablespoon flour, two teaspoonfuls salt, one saltspoon parsley chopped fine. Soak barley over night. Remove fat and skin from mutton, scrape meat from bones and cut in dice. Put bones on to boil in one pint cold water, the meat in separate pot with three pints water. Let the latter cook quickly. Skim when it begins to boil ; add barley ; skim again. Fry the chopped vegetables in the hot butter five minutes, drain, add to the meat, simmer three hours. Strain the water in which the bones were simmered, set aside for a moment. Put in the saucepan the butter left from frying the vegetables, melt and add the flour. When smooth, pour in gradually the liquid from the bones. Add to the broth, add salt, parsley and onehalf saltspoon pepper, simmer 10 minutes and serve. As this broth is served without straining it is always well to boil bones separately. Split Pea Soup. — Wash a pint of split peas and cover with tepid water, adding a pinch of soda, and let remain over night to swell. In the morning put them in a kettle with three quarts of cold water, adding half a pound of lean salt pork cut into slices, also a teaspoonful of salt and a little pepper. Cook slowly for three hours, stirring occasionally till the peas are all dissolved, adding a little more boiling water to keep up the quantity as it boils away. Strain through a colander. Serve with small squares of toasted bread. Squirrel Soup. — Allow one larKc or two small squirrels, well washed and jointed, to two quarts of cold water and two teaspoonfuls (level) of salt. Put to cook directly after breakfast in a stone pipkin or enameled kettle. Cover closely and set on the back of the range to simmer — not' boil. After two hours add the com from two ears, two small Irish potatoes, one-half cupful of Lima beans, three sprigs of parsley, three celery stalks and one-half cupful of sliced okra. Keep closely covered, and as the water evaporates add enough to keep the original two quarts. When the squirrels have cooked to rags strain through a coarse colander to remove the troublesome little bones. Return to the soup kettle, cover and continue to simmer until nearly time to serve. Then thicken with » dessertspoonful of butter rolled in a dessertspoonful of flour. Those who like may add a teaspoonful of powdered sassafras leaves. Have two slices of toast cut into inch squares, fried in butter and placed in the bottom of a hot tureen. Pour over them the soup, boiling hot, and serve immediately. Purie of Tomatoes. — Cook the contents of a can of tomatoes for 15 minutes, then rub through a colander. Return to the fire and season with salt and pepper to taste, and a little sugar. Rub three tablespoonfuls of butter into one tablespoonful of cornstarch, and stir this smooth paste into the strained tomatoes. Cook, stirring steadily, until smooth and thick. Have ready heated in a saucepan a quart of rich milk into which has been stirred a pinch of baking soda. To this add, gradually, the thickened tomato liquor, beating the milk constantly as you do so. Serve immediately, putting a great spoonful of unsweetened whipped cream on the surface of each plate of soup.