This section is from the book "The Complete Cook", by J. M. Sanderson. Also available from Amazon: The Complete Cook.
To make a tureen full, take two middling sized onions, cut them in half, and cross your knife over them two or three times; put two ounces of butter into a stew-pan; when it is melted, put in the onions, stir them in the pan till they are of a light brown; cut into pieces three pounds of umskinned eels, put them into your stew-pan, and shake them over the fire for five minutes; then add three quarts of boiling water, and when they boil, take the scum off very clean, and then put in a quarter of an ounce of the green leaves (not dried) of winter savoury, the same of lemon-thyme, and twice the quantity of parsley, two drachms of allspice, the same of black pepper; cover it close, and let it boil gently for two hours, skim it clean and strain it off. To thicken it, put three ounces of butter into a clean stew-pan; when it is melted stir in as much flour as will make it of a thick paste, then add the liquid by degrees, let it simmer for ten minutes, and pass it through a sieve, then put your soup on in a clean stew-pan, and have ready some little square pieces of fried fish of nice light brown - either eels, soles, plaice, or skate, win do, the fried fish should be added about ten minutes before the soup is served up. Force meat balls are sometimes added. Excellent fish-soup may be made of cod's head, or skate, or flounders, boiled in no more water than will cover them, and the liquor thickened with oatmeal, etc.
90. Gourd Soup should be made of full-grown gourds, but not those that have hard skins; slice three or four, and put them into a stew-pan with two or three onions and a good bit of butter, set them over a slow fire till quite tender, be careful not to let them burn; then add two ounces of crust of bread, and two quarts of good consomme, season with salt and cayenne pepper; boil ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, skim off all the fat, and pass it through a tamis when quite hot. Serve up with fried bread.
 
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