Cauliflower Soup, without Meat.
1 fine cauliflower; 2 tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in 1 of flour; 1 onion; bunch of parsley; 2 blades of mace; 2 quarts of water; 2 cups of milk; pepper and salt; a pinch of soda in the milk.
Cut the cauliflower into bunches, reserving about a cupful of small clusters to put whole into the soup. Chop the rest, also the onion and herbs, and put on in the water, with the mace. Cook an hour, and rub through a colander. Return the purée, thus obtained, to the pot, and season with pepper and salt. As it boils, stir in the whole clusters, previously boiled tender in hot, salted water, and left to cool. When the soup is again hot, put in the floured butter; stir until this has thickened; pour into the tureen, and add the boiling milk. Pass sliced lemon and cream crackers with it.