N.B. Celery, or carrots, or turnips, shredded, or cut in squares (or Scotch barley,--in the latter case the soup must be rather thinner), or cut into bits about an inch long, and boiled separately, and thrown into the tureen when the soup is going to table, will give another agreeable variety, and may be called _celery and pease soup_. Read _Obs._ to No. 214
[207-*] The French call this "_soup maigre_;" the English acceptation of which is "_poor and watery_," and does not at all accord with the French, which is, soups, &c. made without meat: thus, turtle, the richest dish that comes to an English table (if dressed without meat gravy), is a maigre dish.
[209-*] We copied the following receipt from _The Morning Post_, Jan. 1820.
210 lbs of beef, fore-quarters, 90 lbs. of legs of beef, 3 bushels of best split pease, 1 bushel of flour, 12 bundles of leeks, 6 bundles of celery, 12 lbs. of salt, 11 lbs. of black pepper.
These good ingredients will make 1000 quarts of nourishing and agreeable soup, at an expense (establishment avoided) of little less than 2-1/2_d._ per quart.
Of this, 2600 quarts a day have been delivered during the late inclement weather, and the cessation of ordinary employment, at two stations in the parish of Bermondsey, at one penny per quart, by which 600 families have been daily assisted, and it thankfully received. Such a nourishment and comfort could not have been provided by themselves separately for fourpence a quart, if at all, and reckoning little for their fire, nothing for their time.
[214-*] Some lovers of _haut goût_ fry the tails before they put them into the soup-pot.
[216-*] Fowls' or turkeys' heads make good and cheap soup in the same manner.
[218-*] To this fine aromatic herb, turtle soup is much indebted for its spicy flavour, and the high esteem it is held in by the good citizens of London, who, I believe, are pretty generally of the same opinion as Dr. Salmon. See his "_Household Dictionary and Essay on Cookery_," 8vo. London, 1710, page 34, article 'Basil.' "This comforts the heart, expels melancholy, and cleanses the lungs." See No. 307. "This plant gave the peculiar flavour to the _original Fetter-lane sausages_."--GRAY'S _Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia_, 8vo. 1821 p. 52.