Lentil Soup
| 1 cupful lentils 2 cupfuls milk 3 tablespoonfuls Crisco 3 pints stock or water 1 onion 1 carrot | 2 stalks celery 1 tablespoonful flour 1 bay leaf Salt and pepper to taste 1/4 cupful cream Croutons |
Wash lentils; soak twenty-four hours; drain well. Cut onion, carrot and celery into small pieces, then put them into a saucepan with Crisco, cover, and cook gently for fifteen minutes. Add stock and simmer 2 hours, then rub through sieve. Return to pan, add milk, seasonings, and bring to boil. Moisten flour with 1/2 cupful milk or stock, add it to soup and simmer five minutes. Season to taste and add cream. Serve with croutons of fried or toasted bread.
Lentils are a small leguminous seed, not so generally known as beans, but an excellent nitrogenous food, containing about 25 per cent. protein, more than 50 per cent. starch, with over 2 per cent. fat. They are not used as much as they ought to be.
Croutons are made by cutting bread into tiny cubes and browning through and through in hot oven or putting into a frying pan with 2 tablespoonfuls Crisco and browning well. If latter is used great care must be used as the croutons will brown easily.
Lobster Bisque
| 1 can lobster 1 cupful breadcrumbs 1 quart milk 1 quart water 1 tablespoonful flour | 1/4 cupful Crisco Salt, pepper, red pepper, and grated nutmeg to taste Squares fried bread Thin lemon slices |
Open a can of lobster of good quality, take out best pieces and cut into small squares without tearing; put them aside. Place remains of lobster in mortar or basin, and pound quite smooth with Crisco. Soak bread in water, adding flour, and seasonings, and put all on fire in soup pot with pounded lobster and Crisco; stir till it boils, and boil for fifteen minutes; then pass it through sieve, add milk and pieces of lobster, and return to the pot till it boils up. Serve with small squares of fried bread, and send thin slices of lemon to table with it. This is an excellent soup, and can of course be made with fresh lobster.
Norfolk Puree
| 1/2 cupful barley, pearl 1 quart water 3 pints white stock 1/2 cupful cream 1 yolk of egg | 2 tablespoonfuls Crisco 4 tablespoonfuls cooked carrot balls 4 tablespoonfuls cooked peas Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste Diced toast or fried bread |