From North Germany

Stone a cup of sour cherries and reserve to serve in the soup. Stew the juice with a pint of cherries in a quart of water and press through a fine sieve. Heat to the boiling point and thicken with a teaspoonful of cornstarch, diluted with water to pour, or mixed with one fourth a cup of sugar; let cook fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, pound the cherry stones and heat them with a cup of red wine just to the boiling point and strain the liquid into the soup; add the stoned cherries and serve with crackers or toast, sprinkled, if desired, with sugar. The soup may be served cold with sweet crackers soaked slightly on the edges with wine, then sprinkled with sugar. Macaroons and plain sweet crackers are also served. Fruit soups take the place of fruit as a first course at a luncheon or tea and may be made of almost any variety of fruit. The thickening is often omitted.