Drain the liquor from fifty clams and put it over the fire with a pint of veal stock (chicken is even better), a teaspoonful of minced onion, the same of carrot dice, a bay leaf, a stalk of celery and a little chopped parsley. Cook fifteen minutes after it begins to boil, strain out the vegetables and add two tablespoon-fuls of soaked rice to the liquor. Cook twenty minutes, put in the clams chopped fine, and simmer twenty minutes more before putting into a tureen, where you have already a cupful of hot milk thickened with a tablespoonful of butter rolled in corn-starch. This mixture should have been cooked in a vessel set in boiling water for ten minutes before it went into the tureen. You may have a handful of croutons, i.e., fried bread dice, also in the tureen.

LOBSTER BISQUE. Meat of one boiled lobster, or a can of preserved lobster; one quart of milk; one quart of boiling water ; one cupful of rolled cracker; four tablespoonfuls of butter; pepper (cayenne) and salt. Pound the coral and other soft parts of the lobster to a paste, and simmer five minutes in the boiling water ; then rub through the colander back into the water. Cut the rest of the lobster-meat into dice, and pour into a saucepan with the cracker-crumbs. Pour the red water over them, and heat to a boil, when add pepper, salt, and the butter. Simmer, covered, half an hour, taking care it does not scorch. Heat the milk, with a pinch of soda, in another vessel, and after the lobster is in the tureen, pour this in, boiling hot. Pass sliced lemon with it.