The Toronto Cook Book

One quart milk, one pint canned tomatoes, or one pint stewed tomatoes, three teaspoons butter, one bay leaf, sprig of parsley, blade of mace, one teaspoon sugar, one-quarter teaspoon baking soda, two tablespoons flour. Put tomatoes on to stew with the bay leaf, parsley and mace ; let them stew fifteen minutes. Put milk on to boil in a double boiler. Rub butter and flour together; add to the milk when boiling and stir constantly until it thickens. Now press the tomatoes through a sieve, and if ready to use the soup, add the sugar and soda to the tomatoes, and then the boiling milk. Stir and serve at once. It must not go on the fire after mixing the milk with the tomatoes, or it will separate. If you are not ready let them stand on the fire separately and mix when wanted. The Toronto Cook Book Bean Soup One quart beans, half a pound salt pork, three quarts cold water, pepper, half a teaspoon bicarbonate of soda. Simmer for three hours. Pick over the beans, wash and soak them over night in cold water; scrape the pork clean and cut it into thin slices. Drain the beans and put them into a pot with cold water, and bicarbonate of soda. Cover the pot, heat gradually, and boil gently for thirty minutes; remove the scum as it rises. Turn off the water and replenish with six quarts of fresh boiling water. Cover, and boil slowly and gently for one and a half hours, stirring the beans frequently to prevent scorching, then put in the sliced pork. As soon as the beans become tender and crack, take out the pork and mash the beans into a paste with a wooden masher, while in the pot, or press them through a colander using a wooden masher. The skins of the beans will be left in the colander to be thrown away. Put the pork and beans back into the pot and complete the boiling. Season lightly and serve. This soup can be made richer by adding a half pound of lean beef for every quart of water. It is put into the pot with the pork. Bean soup is apt to burn, and great care must be taken to prevent it by not exposing it to too great a heat and by frequent stirring. If soda is not used a longer time will be required to make this soup. Puree of Potatoes Cook six pared potatoes in boiling salted water until tender and put through a potato press or sieve. Scald one quart of milk with half a small onion, cut in slices; remove the onion and stir half of the milk into the potato. In a saucepan melt one tablespoon of butter; add one tablespoon of flour and mix them; add gradually the remainder of the milk, stirring until smoothly thickened. Stir this into the prepared potato, bring all to the boiling point. Season well, simmer for five minutes; add one tablespoon of chopped parsley and serve. Pumpkin Soup Cut one pound of very ripe pumpkin into pieces about two inches square; cover them with half a pint of boiling salted water; when tender, drain, and put through the colander. Put the pulp into a saucepan with two ounces of butter. Leave it for a few minutes, then add to it, slowly, a pint of very hot milk. Slice half of a French roll into the soup tureen, crust and all; season the soup with a little salt and a pinch of sugar, and pour over the bread. Soups and Broths Chicken Broth