GUMBO OR OKRA SOUP.
Fry out the fat of a slice of bacon or fat ham, drain it off, and in it fry the slices of a large onion brown; scald, peel and cut up two quarts fresh tomatoes, when in season (use canned tomatoes otherwise), and cut thin one quart okra; put them, together with a little chopped parsley, in a stew-kettle with about three quarts of hot broth of any kind; cook slowly for three hours, season with salt and pepper. Serve hot.
In chicken broth the same quantity of okra pods, used for thickening instead of tomatoes, forms a chicken gumbo soup.
TAPIOCA CREAM SOUP.
One quart of white stock; one pint of cream or milk; one onion; two stalks celery; one-third of a cupful of tapioca; two cupfuls of cold water; one tablespoonful of butter; a small piece of mace; salt, pepper. Wash the tapioca and soak over night in cold water. Cook it and the stock together very gently for one hour. Cut the onion and celery into small pieces, and put on to cook for twenty minutes with the milk and mace. Strain on the tapioca and stock. Season with salt and pepper, add butter and serve.
SOUPS WITHOUT MEAT.
ONION SOUP.
One quart of milk, six large onions, yolks of four eggs, three tablespoonfuls of butter, a large one of flour, one cup full of cream, salt, pepper. Put the butter in a frying pan. Cut the onions into thin slices and drop in the butter. Stir until they begin to cook; then cover tight and set back where they will simmer, but not burn, for half an hour. Now put the milk on to boil, and then add the dry flour to the onions and stir constantly for three minutes over the fire; then turn the mixture into the milk and cook fifteen minutes. Rub the soup through a strainer, return to the fire, season with salt and pepper. Beat the yolks of the eggs well, add the cream to them and stir into the soup. Cook three minutes, stirring constantly. If you have no cream, use milk, in which case add a tablespoonful of butter at the same time. Pour over fried croutons in a soup tureen.