Wash and scrape the celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, put it into the pint of boiling salted water and cook until very soft. Mash in the water in which it was boiled. Cook the onion with the milk in a double boiler 10 minutes and add it to the celery. Rub all through a strainer and put on to boil again. Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour and cook until smooth, but not brown, then stir it into the boiling soup. Add the salt and pepper; simmer 5 minutes and strain into the tureen. Serve very hot.
EGGS.
While eggs are nutritious and valuable as food they should not be used too freely, as they are a highly concentrated form of food. The albumen (white) of egg is one of the most valuable tissue builders. Much depends upon the manner in which they are cooked. Eggs fried in fat or hard boiled are very indigestible. Do not use an egg until it has been laid some hours, as the white does not become thick till then and cannot be beaten stiff. Eggs should be kept in a cool dark place, and handled carefully in order to avoid mixing the white and yolk, which causes the egg to spoil quickly.
Boiled Eggs.
Have the water boiling in a saucepan. Put in the eggs and move to the back of the stove where the water will keep hot, about 175 or 180 F., for from 8 to 10 minutes. If the back of the stove is too hot, move to the hearth. The white should be of a soft, jelly-like consistency, the yolks soft but not liquid. An egg to be cooked soft should never be cooked in boiling water.
Hard Boiled Eggs.
Cook eggs for 20 minutes in water just below the boiling point. The yolk of an egg cooked 10 minutes is tough and indigestible; 20 minutes will make it dry and mealy, when it is more easily penetrated by the gastric fluid.
Poached Eggs.