POT-AU-FEU
(French family soup)
Ingredients.—4 lbs. of brisket of beef, the legs and neck of a fowl, ½ a cabbage, 2 leeks, 1 large onion, 2 carrots, a bouquet-garni (parsley, thyme, bay-leaf), 1 dessert-spoonful of chopped parsley, 4 cloves, 12 peppercorns, 1 tablespoonful of salt, ½ lb. of French bread, 6 quarts of cold water.
Put the meat and water into a stock-pot or boiling pot; let it come gently to boiling point, and skim well. Wash and clean the vegetables, stick the cloves in the onion, tie up the cabbage and leeks, and put all in with the meat. Add the carrots cut into large pieces, the bouquet-garni, peppercorns, and salt, and let the whole simmer gently for 4 hours. Just before serving cut the bread into thin slices, place them in a soup tureen, and add some of the carrot, leeks, and onions cut into small pieces. Remove the meat from the pot, season the broth to taste, and strain it into the soup tureen. Sprinkle the chopped parsley on the top, and serve. The meat and remaining vegetables may be served as a separate course; they may also be used up in some form for another meal. Or the meat and vegetables may be served and the broth put aside and used on the following day as "Croute-au-pot."
ONION SOUP
(Soupe à l'Oignon)
Slice or chop two medium-sized onions; let them colour an instant in 1 oz. of butter; add a tablespoonful of flour; make a brown thickening. The onions must on no account be allowed to burn. Add 2½ quarts of water, salt, and a pinch of pepper; stir on the fire until it boils; let it cook five minutes. Cut some slices of bread very fine (like a leaf); dry them in an open oven. Place in the tureen a layer of bread, a layer of grated cheese, until the tureen is half full. Pass the soup through a sieve into the tureen. Allow a few minutes to well soak the bread; at the same time the soup must not be allowed to get cold. If onions are not objected to do not strain them off.