1 pint oysters. 1/2 pint water. 1 quart rich milk. 1/2 teaspoonful salt.
Drain off the oyster juice, add the water, boil it for one minute, and skim it well. Heat the milk and mix it with this; drop in the oysters and cook one minute, or till the edges begin to curl, and it is done. This soup is not thickened at all; but if you like you may add two tablespoonfuls of finely powdered and sifted cracker-crumbs.
This Margaret made from beef extract, before she learned to use the fresh beef.
2 teaspoonfuls of extract, or 2 capsules. 1 quart of boiling water. 1/2 an onion, sliced. 1 stalk of celery. 1/2 teaspoonful salt. 2 shakes of pepper. 2 sprays of parsley.
Simmer this for twenty minutes, strain, and pour over six thin slices of lemon, one for each plate. Serve with hot crackers.
Make this same soup, and pour it over a half-pint of thick cream, well whipped. Do not put any lemon in it. Serve with hot crackers.
You can make meat soup, or stock, out of almost any kind of meat, cooked or raw, with bones or without. Many cooks never buy fresh meat for it, and others think they must always have it. It is best to learn both ways.
1 shin of beef. 5 quarts of water. 1 small tablespoonful of salt. 1 head celery, cut up. 1 onion. 1 carrot. 1 turnip. 1 sprig of parsley. 2 bay-leaves. 6 whole cloves.
Wipe the meat and cut off all the bone. Put the bone in a clean kettle first, and then the meat on top, and pour in the water; cover, and let this stand on the back of the stove an hour, then draw it forward and let it cook. This will bring scum on the water in half an hour, and you must carefully pour in a cup of cold water and skim off everything which rises to the top. Cover the kettle tightly, and cook very slowly indeed for four hours; then put in the cut up vegetables and cook one hour more, always just simmering, not boiling hard. Then it is done, and you can put in the salt, and strain the soup first through a heavy wire sieve, and then through a flannel bag, and set it away to get cold, and you will have a strong, clear, delicious stock, which you can put many things in to have variety.
Slice one carrot, turnip, and one potato, and cut them either into small, even strips, or into tiny cubes, or take a vegetable cutter and cut out fancy shapes. Simmer them about twenty minutes. Meanwhile, take a pint of soup stock and a cup of water and heat them. Sprinkle a little salt over the vegetables and drain them; put them in the soup-tureen and pour the hot soup over.