Clam Soup.
- 50 clams, ready opened.
- 1 quart of milk.
- 1 pint of water.
- 3 tablespoonfuls of butter.
- 12 whole peppers.
- A few bits of red pepper pods.
- 6 blades of mace.
- Salt to taste.
- 1 stalk of celery, cut small.
- 1 tablespoonful rice-flour or corn-starch.
Drain off the liquor from the clams and put it over the fire in a large farina-kettle, with a pint of water, the peppers, mace, celery, and salt. When it has boiled ten minutes, strain and put back into the kettle with the clams. Shut the lid down closely, and boil, fast, thirty minutes. Heat the milk in another vessel, stir into it the rice-flour, wet up with cold water, and the butter. Pour into the kettle with the clams, take at once from the fire, pour into the tureen, in the bottom of which you have laid four or five Boston crackers, split. Cover, and wait five minutes before serving.