Bread Soup.
A few raw beef-bones and trimmings, spoken of yesterday. Bones, bits of skin, gristle, etc., left from Sunday’s roast when you have cut off the meat for the cannelon.
- 1 pint of stock.
- 1 onion.
- 2 stalks of celery.
- Bunch of sweet herbs.
- 4 quarts of cold water.
- 1 lb. stale bread-crusts, the drier the better, provided they are not mouldy or sour.
- Salt and pepper.
- 2 tablespoonfuls of butter.
Crack the bones, chop meat and vegetables; put on in the water, and boil slowly down to two quarts. Strain the liquor; let it cool; take off all the fat, season, and return to the pot with the stock. Boil up and skim; put in the crusts; stew, covered, half an hour. Take it from the range and beat in the butter, taking out indissoluble bits. Then simmer, in a vessel set within another of boiling water, half an hour.
As you will see, by a careful perusal of these directions, the preparation of this soup requires little actual expenditure of time. I beg, therefore, that you will “gather up the fragments” from larder and bread-box, and give your family a hot, nourishing, “comforting” dish of porridge, if it is wash-day.