Split Pea Soup - Dried

One gallon of water, one quart of split pease soaked over night, one pound of salt pork, cut into bits an inch square, one-half pound beef. Put over the fire, and boil slowly for two hours, or until the quantity of liquor does not exceed two quarts. Pour into a colander, and press the pease through it with a wooden or silver spoon. Return the soup to the pot, adding a small head of celery, chopped up, a little parsley, or, if prefered, summer savory or sweet marjoram. Have ready three or four slices of stale bread, which have been fried in butter until they are brown; cut into slices and scatter them upon the surface of the soup after it is poured into the tureen.

Potato Soup

Two quarts of water, five medium-sized potatoes, one fourth of a head of cabbage, three medium-sized onions, yolks of two eggs, two tablespoonfuls of flour, one pint of sweet milk, piece of butter the size of an egg. Put the water into a kettle, pare, wash and slice the potatoes, chop the onions, and cut the cabbage very fine; put them all into the kettle, and boil till tender; then mash all together, fine. Add more water if needed; beat the yolks very light and add them to the milk, with the flour previously rubbed to a smooth paste with a little cold milk. Stir this into the boiling soup. Butter, pepper, and salt to taste.

Vermicelli Soup

Four pounds lamb, from which every particle of fat has been removed, one pound of veal, one slice of corned ham. five quarts of water. Cut up the meat, cover it with a quart of water, and set it back on the range to heat very gradually, keeping it covered closely. At the end of an hour, add four quarts of boiling water, and cook until the meat is in shreds. Season with salt, sweet herbs, one chopped shallot, teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, and when these have boiled in the soup for ten minutes, strain and return to the fire. Have ready about a third of a pound of vermicelli, which has been boiled tender in clear water. Add this; boil up once, and pour out. In all recipes in which ham is mentioned as seasoning, reference is made to corned, not smoked pork. The smoke imparts an undisguisable, and to many, an unplesant flavor, especially to delicate soups and ragouts.

Onion Soup

Put into a sauce-pan butter size of an egg. Clarifyed grease, or the cakes of fat saved from the top of stock, or soup. When very hot, add two or three large onions, sliced thin; stir, and cook them well until they are red; then add a full one-half teacupful of flour. Stir this also until it is red, watching it constantly that it does not burn. Pour in about one pint of boiling water; add pepper and salt. Mix it well and let it boil a minute; then pour it into the soup-kettle, and place it at the back of the range until almost ready to serve. Add then one and a half pints of boiling milk, and two or three well mashed boiled potatoes. Add to the potatoes a little of the soup at first, then more, until they are smooth, and thin enough to put into the soup-kettle. Stir well and smoothly together; taste, to see if the soup is properly seasoned with pepper and salt, as it requires plenty, especially of the latter. Let it simmer a few moments. Put pieces of toasted bread in the bottom of the tureen. Pour over the soup, and serve very hot.