Sister Anne’s Soup.
12 potatoes, pared and quartered; 1 onion, sliced; tablespoonful of minced parsley; 1 cup of unskimmed milk (cream is still better); 2 tablespoonfuls of butter; 1 tablespoonful of corn-starch, wet with cold milk; 1 teaspoonful of sugar; 2 quarts of boiling water; pinch of soda in the milk.
Parboil the potatoes ten minutes; throw off the water, and put on two quarts of boiling water. Cook in this one hour with the onion, replenishing from the kettle as it boils away. Then rub through a fine colander, season with pepper, salt, and parsley, and re-heat. When it bubbles up, stir in the butter and corn-starch; boil up, add the hot milk, and serve.