Select about one dozen roots of salsify. Scrape them and throw at once into cold water to prevent discoloration. Cut the salsify crosswise into thin slices. Put them into one quart of cold water and add about two ounces of codfish. This is best in one solid piece. Simmer gently for thirty minutes and remove the codfish. Have ready one pint of milk heated in a double boiler. Add it to the salsify, then stir in carefully one tablespoonful of butter and two of flour that have been rubbed to a smooth paste. Season with salt and pepper. Then, just as you take it from the fire, add another teaspoonful of butter, cut into pieces, and it is ready to serve.
Boil three good-sized cucumbers, cut them into slices and cover them with one quart of white stock. Simmer gently for twenty minutes. Then press through a sieve. Soak two tablespoonfuls of pearl tapioca in one pint of milk in a cold place for one hour. Stand this in a double boiler and heat slowly until the tapioca is perfectly clear. Heat the cucumber mixture; add a teaspoonful of salt, teaspoonful of onion juice and quarter teaspoonful of pepper. Turn into the hot milk. Have ready in the tureen the yolks of two eggs, well-beaten. Pour the soup over gradually.
Put one pound of finely-chopped meat into one pint of cold water, beat it for about a minute with an egg beater, and let it stand for thirty minutes, while you prepare the flavoring. Stir one tablespoonful of beef extract into a quart of boiling water. Add a tablespoonful of grated onion and one bay leaf. Now bring the meat to boiling point. Strain in a colander. Beat the white and shell of one egg with two tablespoonfuls of cold water. Put the soup you have strained from the meat over the fire, and when boiling add to the egg mixture, bring to boiling point and strain through two thicknesses of cheese cloth. Then add this to the beef extract mixture, season with teaspoonful of salt and quarter teaspoonful of pepper, and it is ready to serve.
This may be served with two tablespoonfuls of boiled rice or boiled macaroni, or with fresh rings of cucumbers. To prepare these rings cut a large cucumber into slices crosswise. With a round cutter stamp them out just as much as you can to remove the skin, and then with a smaller cutter stamp out the seeds. Throw these rings into boiling salted water and boil for twenty minutes; strain and put in the soup. Or this soup may be served à la Royal.
Beat two eggs until well mixed; add two tablespoonfuls of stock, half teaspoonful of salt and a quarter teaspoonful of pepper. Now add two tablespoonfuls of milk or cream, and turn into a small buttered basin or mold. Stand this mold in a pan of boiling water and cook gently, either in the oven or on the top of the stove, until the custard is "set." When cold cut into blocks or into fancy shapes. Put this in the tureen and pour over the soup.
Wash well a half cup of rice. Put it into a quart of water and boil rapidly for thirty minutes. Then press it through a purée sieve and add to it the salmon from a one pound can, removing first all the bones, skin and oil. Now press this again through a sieve; add a teaspoonful of salt, bay leaf, tablespoonful of grated onion and half teaspoonful of pepper. Stand it over the back part of the stove until it is steaming hot. Heat one quart of milk in a double boiler. Rub together two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour. Stir this carefully into the milk and stir until perfectly smooth and thick. Then add a level teaspoonful of salt; turn this mixture into the other, remove the bay leaf, bring to scalding point, and serve. If you like this soup a little deeper color, add a few drops of cochineal. Halibut may be used in precisely the same way, of course, keeping the soup perfectly white.