Chicken Gumbo.
[Mrs. E. A. Wilburn's Recipe.]
For the stock, take two chickens and boil in a gallon of water until thoroughly done and the liquid reduced to half a gallon. Wipe off 11⁄2 pounds of green okra, or if the dry is used, 1⁄2 pound is sufficient, which cut up fine and add to this stock while boiling; next add 11⁄2 pounds of ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped fine, adding also 1⁄2 coffee cupful of rice; let these boil for six hours, adding boiling water when necessary; then take out the chickens, carve and fry them brown in clear lard; into the fat put 1 large white onion, chopped fine, adding 2 tablespoonfuls of flour. Just before serving, put the chicken, boned and chopped, with the gravy thus prepared, and add to the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
Fresh Oyster Soup.
Take 25 or 30 small Eastern and 50 California oysters; wash clean, and put into a kettle over the fire, with a little over a pint of water. As soon as they open pour into a pan and take the oysters from the shells, pouring the juice into a pitcher to settle. If the oysters are large, cut in two once; return the juice to the fire, and when it boils put in a piece of butter worked in flour; season with pepper and salt, and let it boil slowly for two minutes; put in a cupful of rich milk and the oysters, along with a sufficient quantity of chopped crackers, and let the liquid boil up once. Should you need a larger quantity of soup, add a can of good oysters, as they will change the flavor but little. In my opinion nutmeg improves the flavor of the soup.
Fish Chowder.
Take 4 pounds of fresh codfish—the upper part of the fish is best; fry plenty of salt pork cut in small strips; put the fat in the bottom of the kettle, then a layer of the fried pork, next a layer of fish; follow with a layer of potato sliced—not too thin—and a layer of sliced onions, seasoned with plenty of salt and pepper; alternate these layers as long as the material holds out, topping off with a layer of hard crackers. Use equal parts of water and milk sufficient to cook, which will not require more than three-quarters of an hour, over a good fire. Great care should be taken not to scorch in the cooking.
[Clam Chowder may be made according to the foregoing formula, substituting 3 pints of clams for the fish.]
Clam Soup.
Take 50 small round clams; rinse clean, and put in a kettle with a pint of water; boil for a few minutes, or until the shells gape open; empty into a pan, pick the meat from the shells, and pour the juice into a pitcher to settle; chop the clams quite small; return the juice to the fire, and as soon as hot, work in a good-sized lump of butter, with a little flour, and juice of the clams; stir in a teacup of milk; season with black pepper, and after letting this boil for two minutes, put in the clams, adding at the same time chopped cracker or nudels, and before taking up, a little chopped parsley.