Having been accidentally omitted in its proper place, we here insert a receipt for very fine mutton soup. Try it. If for a large family, take two necks of mutton of the best quality, and let the butcher disjoint it. To each pound of meat allow a quart of water. Put it into a soup-pot, with a slice of ham, which will render the soup sufficiently salt. Boil it slowly, and skim it well, till the scum ceases to appear. If you have no ham, season the meat, when you first put it in, with a tea-spoonful of salt. In the mean time prepare the vegetables, but do not put them in till the meat has boiled to rags, and all the scum has risen to the surface and been carefully removed. It is then time to strain out the shreds of meat and bone, return the soup to the pot, and add the vegetables. First, have ready the deep yellow outsides of three or four carrots grated, and stir them into the soup to enrich it, and give it a fine color. Next, add turnips, potatos, parsnips, salsify, celery, (including its green leaves from the top) and onions that have been already peeled and boiled by themselves to render them less strong. All the vegetables should be cut nicely into small pieces of equal size, (as for Soup à la Julienne.) You may add some boiled beets, handsomely sliced. And (if approved) strew in at the last a handful of fresh leaves of the marygold flower, which adds a flavor to some persons very agreeable. Put all these vegetables gradually into the soup, (those first that require the longest boiling,) and when they are all quite done the soup is finished. If well made, with a liberal allowance of meat and vegetables, and well boiled, it will be much liked—particularly if served as Julienne soup, for company.
NEW ENGLAND CREAM CHEESE.—
Take a large pan of rich unskimmed milk that has set in the dairy all night, and is from pasture-fed cows in the summer. Have ready a small tea-cup of rennet-water, in which a piece of rennet, from four to six inches square, has been steeping several hours. Stir the rennet-water into the pan of milk, and set it in a warm place till it forms a firm curd. Tie up the curd in a clean linen bag, and hang it up in the dairy with a pan under it to receive the droppings, till it drips no longer. Then transfer the curd to a small cheese mould. Cover it all over with a clean linen cloth, folded over the sides, and well secured. Put a heavy weight on the top, so as to press it hard. The wooden vessel in which you mould cream cheeses, should be a bottomless, broad hoop, about the circumference of a dinner plate. Set it (before you fill it with the curd) on a very clean table or large flat dish. Turn it every day for four days, keeping it covered thickly all over with fresh green grass, frequently renewed. When done, keep it in a dry cool place, first rubbing the outside with fresh butter. When once cut, use the whole cheese on that day, as it may spoil before the next. Send it to the tea-table cut across in triangular or pie pieces.
MOLASSES CANDY.—
Take three quarts of the best West India molasses—no other will do. Put it into a thick block-tin kettle, (or a bain-marie) and stir in a pound and a half of the best and cleanest brown sugar. Boil slowly and skim it well, (stirring it always after skimming,) and taking care that it does not burn. Prepare the grated rind and the juice of three large lemons or oranges, and stir them in after the molasses and sugar have boiled long enough to become very thick. Continue to boil and stir till it will boil no longer, and the spoon will no longer move. Try some in a saucer, and let it get cold. If it is brittle, it is done. Then take it from the fire, and transfer it immediately to shallow square tin pans, that have been well greased with nice fresh butter or sweet oil. Spread it evenly, and set it to cool.
While boiling, you may add three or four spoonfuls of shell-barks, cracked clean from their shells, and divided into halves. Or the same quantity of roasted pea-nuts or ground-nuts. With both nuts and lemon it will be very good.
