How To Make Nouilles. (An Elegant Substitute For Vermicelli.)

Wet, with the yolks of four eggs, as much fine, dry, sifted flour as will make them into a firm, but very smooth paste. Roll it out as thin as possible, and cut it into bands of about an inch and a quarter in width. Dust them lightly with flour, and place four of them one upon the other. Cut them obliquely in the finest possible strips; separate them with the point of a knife, and spread them on writing paper, so that they may dry a little before they are used. Drop them gradually into the boiling soup, and in ten minutes they will be done.

Various other forms may be given to this paste at will. It may be divided into a sort of riband maccaroni; or stamped with small confectionary cutters into different shapes.

Vegetable Vermicelli. (Vegetables Cut Very Fine For Soups.)

Cut the carrots into inch lengths, then pare them round and round in ribbons of equal thickness, till the inside is reached; next cut these ribands into straws, or very small strips; celery is prepared in the same way; and turnips also are first pared into ribands, then sliced into strips: these last require less boiling than the carrots, and attention must be paid to this, for if broken, the whole would have a bad appearance in soup. The safer plan is to boil each vegetable separately, till tolerably tender, in a little pale broth (in water, if this be not at hand), to drain them well, and put them into the soup, which should be clear, only a few minutes before it is dished. For cutting them small, in other forms, the proper instruments will be found at the hardware-shops.

* The fourth part of one of these dried onions (des oignons brulés), of moderate size is sufficient for a tureen of soup.

Vermicelli Soup. (Potage Au Vermicelle.)

Drop very lightly, and by degrees, six ounces of vermicelli, broken rather small, into three quarts of boiling bouillon, or clear gravy soup; let it simmer half an hour* over a gentle fire, and stir it often.. This is the common French mode of making vermicelli soup, and we can recommend it as a particularly good one for family use. In England it is customary to soak, or to blanch the vermicelli, then to drain it well, and to stew it for a shorter time in the soup: the quantity, also, must be reduced quite two ounces, to suit modern taste.

Bouillon, or gravy-soup, 3 quarts; vermicelli, 6 ozs.; 30 minutes. Or, soup, 3 quarts; vermicelli, 4 ozs.; blanched in boiling water, 5 minutes; stewed in soup, 10 to 15 minutes.