Soups are made from the water in which some vegetables have been boiled and thickened with the pulp of the vege- tables, mashed fine and sifted. Milk or cream is added to improve the flavor and make them more nutritious. The liquid and vegetable pulp should be blended with a little flour, or other starchy thickening, to keep them from sepa- rating. Celery, tomatoes, green peas, green corn, carrots, and parsnips may be used for soup in the same general way as the potatoes. They are valuable foods, enabling one to utilize the water and mineral salts in the vegetable. Such soups are named from the vegetable used. GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR VEGETABLE SOUPS MADE WITHOUT STOCK Prepare the vegetable; cook potatoes, cauliflower or artichokes in boiling water and discard water ; cook others in cold water, let it cook nearly all out ; mash, press through sieve, add white sauce (one cup to each pint of pulp and water for most fresh green vegetables, also for canned vege- tables ; and one pint of sauce for each pint of pulp from spinach, tomatoes and other succulent vegetables). Season with salt and pepper ; dilute with hot milk if too thick ; add beaten egg, or more pulp if too thin. Serve with toasted crackers. Recipe, No. 98. White Sauce for Soups Melt two tablespoons butter in a saucepan; cook it in two tablespoons flour. Add gradually one cup hot milk 178 VEGETABLE SOUPS 179 or cream. Season with one half teaspoon salt and one fourth teaspoon white pepper✪ White Sauce for Soups. In making a white sauce, be careful to cook the flour in the hot butter, without browning them ; but cook and stir until the mixture becomes slightly thinner. The high tem- perature of the butter changes the flour into dextrine, which, being soluble, may be diluted with the hot liquid and yet remain smooth. Add the liquid hot, that it may boil quickly and cause the cell walls to burst and the starch grains to swell; and add gradually that the sauce may be stirred, while it is like a thick paste, until it is smooth. If all the liquid be poured on at once, or the mixture be not stirred tlioroughly while it is thick, the sauce will be lumpy. Enough liquid must be used to swell all the flour, and make the sauce of the desired consistency. The usual proportion is one table- spoon of fat and two tablespoons of flour to one cup of liquid ; and by varying these proportions, and using different liquids and seasonings, a great variety of gravies and sauces may be made with this general rule as the foundation. Cooking the flour in the hot butter or fat cooks it thor- oughly ; for the fat, when it stops bubbling, is much hotter than boiling water. When done in this way the flour never has a raw, uncooked taste, and the butter or fat is absorbed by the flour instead of floating on the surface of the sauce. Recipe, No. 99. Potato Soup 3 potatoes. 1 tsp. salt. 1 pt. of milk or half milk and 1 spk. white pepper. half water. | tbsp. flour. 1 tsp. chopped onion. ^ tbsp. dripping✪ Potato Soup.

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Soups are made from the water in which some vegetables have been boiled and thickened with the pulp of the vege- tables, mashed fine and sifted. Milk or cream is added to improve the flavor and make them more nutritious. The liquid and vegetable pulp should be blended with a little flour, or other starchy thickening, to keep them from sepa- rating. Celery, tomatoes, green peas, green corn, carrots, and parsnips may be used for soup in the same general way as the potatoes. They are valuable foods, enabling one to utilize the water and mineral salts in the vegetable. Such soups are named from the vegetable used. GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR VEGETABLE SOUPS MADE WITHOUT STOCK Prepare the vegetable; cook potatoes, cauliflower or artichokes in boiling water and discard water ; cook others in cold water, let it cook nearly all out ; mash, press through sieve, add white sauce (one cup to each pint of pulp and water for most fresh green vegetables, also for canned vege- tables ; and one pint of sauce for each pint of pulp from spinach, tomatoes and other succulent vegetables). Season with salt and pepper ; dilute with hot milk if too thick ; add beaten egg, or more pulp if too thin. Serve with toasted crackers. Recipe, No. 98. White Sauce for Soups Melt two tablespoons butter in a saucepan; cook it in two tablespoons flour. Add gradually one cup hot milk 178 VEGETABLE SOUPS 179 or cream. Season with one half teaspoon salt and one fourth teaspoon white pepper. In making a white sauce, be careful to cook the flour in the hot butter, without browning them ; but cook and stir until the mixture becomes slightly thinner. The high tem- perature of the butter changes the flour into dextrine, which, being soluble, may be diluted with the hot liquid and yet remain smooth. Add the liquid hot, that it may boil quickly and cause the cell walls to burst and the starch grains to swell; and add gradually that the sauce may be stirred, while it is like a thick paste, until it is smooth. If all the liquid be poured on at once, or the mixture be not stirred tlioroughly while it is thick, the sauce will be lumpy. Enough liquid must be used to swell all the flour, and make the sauce of the desired consistency. The usual proportion is one table- spoon of fat and two tablespoons of flour to one cup of liquid ; and by varying these proportions, and using different liquids and seasonings, a great variety of gravies and sauces may be made with this general rule as the foundation. Cooking the flour in the hot butter or fat cooks it thor- oughly ; for the fat, when it stops bubbling, is much hotter than boiling water. When done in this way the flour never has a raw, uncooked taste, and the butter or fat is absorbed by the flour instead of floating on the surface of the sauce. Recipe, No. 99. Potato Soup 3 potatoes. 1 tsp. salt. 1 pt. of milk or half milk and 1 spk. white pepper. half water. | tbsp. flour. 1 tsp. chopped onion. ^ tbsp. dripping.

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