Soup Without Stock

To make this the housewife need have little experience of her own, provided she follows the directions carefully. Most soup without stock is quickly made and, therefore, commends itself highly to the cook who is pressed for time.

Tomato Soup

For this take equal parts of tomato and water. If fresh tomatoes are available, pour boiling hot water upon them to loosen the skins, and having removed these by plunging the tomatoes quickly into cold water after they have stood one minute in the hot water, cut the tomatoes in slices to more accurately measure them, and allow as above. Gook the water and tomato rather slowly for half an hour, and strain through a fine wire sieve, such as is commonly used for sifting flour, pulping through all the soft part of the vegetable and leaving only the seeds in the sieve. Return to the fire, and season with butter, salt and pepper. Thicken the soup with a little cornstarch wet in some of the soup, allowing one table-spoonful of starch to every three pints of soup. Boiled rice, macaroni or vermicelli may be added, with good effect.

Mock-Bisque Soup

One pint of tomato.

One quart of milk.

One large table-spoonful of butter.

One large table-spoonful of corn-starch.

One-quarter tea-spoonful of soda.

One tea-spoonful of sugar.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Boil the tomatoes alone half an hour, adding the seasoning and soda. When the tomatoes are soft, pulp them through a fine sieve as directed in the preceding recipe. Heat the milk in a farina-kettle, or in a tin pail set in a kettle of water, and when it is scalding thicken it With the corn-starch wet with a little cold milk. If ready to serve, add the boiling milk to the tomatoes, stir and dish at once. This soup must not go on the fire after the milk and tomatoes are put together or the milk will curdle. If the soup is made before it is needed, let the tomato and milk remain in separate vessels, and mix them just before sending to table.

Crab And Tomato Bisque

is made like the above, except that a pint of crab meat is added to the milk, and after the milk is thickened and cooked three minutes, the whole is turned into the tomatoes. Canned crab meat may be used when the fresh is not available.

Bean Soup

One pint of beans. Two quarts of water. One table-spoonful of butter. Salt and pepper to taste.

The "scarlet runners " are the best beans for soup. Soak the beans over night in three quarts of cold water, ' and next morning drain and add two quarts of water. Cook the beans slowly for three hours, stirring frequently; and when they are soft, pulp them through a fine wire sieve, leaving only the skins in the sieve. Return to the kettle, add the seasoning, cook ten minutes longer, and serve. Dish with toasted or fried bread.

Corn Soup

One can of corn, or

One pint cut fresh from the cob.

Two and a-half pints of milk.

Three table-spoonfuls of butter.

Two table-spoonfuls of flour,

One table-spoonful of chopped onion,

Two eggs (the yolks only).

Salt and pepper to taste.

Mash the corn as fine as possible and cook it fifteen minutes in one quart of the milk placed in a double boiler. Cook the onion in the butter in a frying-pan for ten minutes, then add the flour, and cook until the mixture becomes frothy, being careful not to brown it. Stir this into the corn and milk, add salt and pepper, and cook ten minutes longer. At the end of this time rub the soup through a fine sieve and return it to the fire. Beat the yolks of the eggs well, add to them the half pint of milk remaining, and stir the liquid into the soup. Cook one minute longer, stirring all the time, and serve at once. When fresh corn is at hand, many cooks break the cobs into small pieces and boil them thirty minutes in enough water to cover them, and they add this water to the corn while cooking in the milk. There should in no instance be more than a pint of this liquid for the above quantity, and three table-spoonfuls of flour will be added instead of two, to give the soup the desired consistence.