Soup, Green Pea. Ingredients.—3 pints of green peas, 1⁄4 lb. of butter, 2 or 3 thin slices of ham, 4 onions sliced, 4 shredded lettuces, the crumb of 2 French rolls, 2 handfuls of spinach, 1 lump of sugar, 2 quarts of medium stock.
Mode.—Put the butter, ham, 1 quart of the peas, onions and lettuces, to a pint of stock and simmer for an hour; then add the remainder of the stock, with the crumb of the French rolls, and boil for another hour. Now boil the spinach, squeeze it very dry, and rub it, with the soup, through a sieve, to give the preparation a good colour. Have ready a pint of young peas boiled; add them to the soup, put in the sugar, give one boil, and serve.
Time.—21⁄2 hours. Seasonable from June to the end of August. Sufficient for six persons.
⁂ It will be well to add, if the peas are not quite young, a little more sugar; where economy is essential, water may be used instead of stock for this soup, boiling in it likewise the peashells, and using rather a larger quantity of vegetables.
Soup, Hare. Cut down a hare into joints, and put it into a soup-pot or large stewpan, with about a pound of lean ham, in thick slices, 3 moderately sized mild onions, 3 blades of mace, a faggot of thyme, sweet marjoram and parsley, with about 3 quarts of good beef stock. Let it stew very gently for full three hours from the time of its first beginning to boil, and more if the hare be old. Strain the soup, and pound together very fine, the slices of ham and all the flesh of the back, legs, and shoulders of the hare, and put this meat into a stewpan with the liquor, in which it was boiled, the crumb of two French rolls, and half a pint of port wine. Set it on the stove to simmer twenty minutes; then rub it through a sieve, place it again on the stove till very hot, but do not let it boil; season it with salt and cayenne, and send it to table directly.
Ingredients.—Hare, 1; ham, 12 to 16 oz.; onions, 3 to 6; mace, 3 blades; faggot of savoury herbs; beef stock, 3 quarts; 2 hours.
Crumb of 2 rolls; port wine, 1⁄2 pint; little salt and cayenne; 20 minutes.
Soup, Hare, a less Expensive. Pour on two pounds of neck or shin of beef, and a hare well washed and carved into joints, one gallon of cold water, and when it boils and has been thoroughly skimmed, add 11⁄2 oz. of salt, 2 onions, 1 large head of celery, 3 moderate-sized carrots, a tablespoonful black peppercorns, and 6 cloves.
Let these stew gently for 3 hours, or longer, should the hare not be perfectly tender. Then take up the principal joints, cut the meat from them, mince, and pound it to fine paste, with the crumb of 2 penny rolls (or 2 oz. of crumb of household bread), which has been soaked in a little of the boiling soup, and then pressed very dry in a cloth; strain, and mix smoothly with it the stock from the remainder of the hare; pass the soup through a strainer, season it with cayenne, and serve it when at the point of boiling; if not sufficiently thick, add to it a tablespoonful of arrow-root, moistened with a little broth, and let the soup simmer for an instant afterwards. Two or 3 glasses of port wine, and 2 dozen of small forcemeat balls may be added to this soup with good effect.
Ingredients.—Beef, 2 lbs.; hare, 1; water, 1 gall.; salt, 11⁄2 oz.; onions, 2; celery, 1 head; carrots, 3; bunch of savoury herbs; peppercorns, 1 teaspoonful; cloves, 6; 3 hours or more. Bread, 2 oz.; cayenne, arrow-root (if needed) 1 tablespoonful.