The thorough good cook

Make the stock as directed for beef broth (No. 17), but brown the meat a little more, and, when ready, put with it two pounds of rump steak, cut rather small and browned in a frying-pan, but drained from the frying-fat. Simmer the steak in the soup for an hour ; strain it ; add a small glassful of catsup, with salt, pepper, and a dust of cayenne ; slip toasted sippets into the tureen, and skim off the fat. Serve the soup with the steak in it. Without the steak, this is plain brown soup. 66. Lord Warden Soup. Take a knuckle of veal, or two or three short shanks; boil about four hours, with some whole white pepper, a little mace, salt, two onions, and a small slice of lean ham ; strain it, and, when cold, take off all the fat and sediment; beat up the yolks of six eggs, and mix them with a pint of cream or good rich milk ; then pour the boiling soup upon it by degrees, stirring well ; and if the gristle is liked, add the best part of it. 67. Fotage a la Diable. Having prepared a broth, fortify it, not with cayenne pepper or curry powder, but with whole chillies tied up in a silk bag, which boil up with the stock. Meanwhile, prepare as many slices, including crust, of a French roll as there are guests; plunge these circular slices of bread in the broth for a minute or two, and press out excessive moisture with the flat of a knife ; butter them well on both sides, and sprinkle them plentifully with grated Parmesan cheese ; then place them in a stew-pan with just enough butter to prevent them from burning, and "jump" them (to *' jump " is equivalent to the French term " sauter ") lightly till they begin to take colour. Then place them in the bottom of a tureen and pour the broth over them. 68. Beef and Cabbage Soup. This is the natural soup of the whole of European Russia, eaten by all classes. There is an expensive and there is a cheap way of preparing it. You have already been told (page 3) that this soup has a name the pronunciation of which, in Russ, sounds precisely like a sneeze. Its name is " Stcht." Prepare a good stock-pot of broth made of beef and bacon, and a duck ; chop two onions, which fry with butter in a stew-pan ; mix with two tablespoonfuls of flour, which fry for five minutes ; dilute with the prepared broth, which you have previously passed through a tammy ; then stir the liquid until boiling ; remove it to a corner of the stove, skim the fat, and let it slowly cook for an hour. Meanwhile, blanch two fine crisp cabbages, cut in quarters, put into a stew-pan, the bottom of which is spread with moderately fat bacon ; add a few young carrots and parsley, and a leek or two cut into oblong pieces ; let them braise together in the bacon fat. When done, drain them carefully through a sieve and put them into the tureen with the remainder of the broth, with a few fillets of duck and some little blocks of the boiled beef and lean bacon. Skim your fat off the soup, and add three pinches of chopped green fennel ; have ready a butter-boat of half-sour cream, which pour into the soup when served. If you are afraid of the cholera, you can, of course, omit the sour cream. 69. The Jacobin's Pottage.