Take two pounds of tomatoes, remove stalks and wipe well. Get a large bowl full of boiling water, and drop four tomatoes at a time therein, leaving for twenty seconds; remove quickly. Do this until all the tomatoes have been dealt with. This is done in order to remove the skins easily.

Peel tomatoes and cut in two; remove seeds. Take a stew-pan to hold four quarts of liquid, put therein two ounces of butter, one onion finely chopped and melt together for three minutes to heat only but not to color, otherwise the soup will be spoiled, adding one teaspoonful of castor sugar, and a little salt; remove from the fire and add large tablespoonful of flour. Drop all the tomatoes into the mixture, mix well together with two tablespoonfuls of Mirepoix. Then add two quarts of meat stock (not clarified), boil briskly, stirring all the while, then allow to boil gently for one hour. Skim off grease from time to time and then pass through very fine sieve, return to stew-pan, season with pepper and salt or Tabasco, and if not thick enough a little arrow-root or fecule diluted in a little cold water will slightly thicken and add to the smoothness.

If color not rich enough, add cochineal, drop by drop, until deep enough, bring to boil and serve.

This may be improved by adding the crushed carcase of a chicken to the soup ten minutes before serving, enriching the flavor to a remarkable degree.