Macaroni Soup.—(a) Take 4 oz. macaroni, break into small pieces, and simmer gently for ¼ hour in 1 pint water; then add a piece of butter the size of a small nutmeg, pepper, salt, and 1½ pint stock. A teaspoonful of chopped parsley or dried herbs can be added for flavouring; simmer another ½ hour, and serve.
(b) Boil 2 oz. macaroni (broken up in convenient pieces) in a pint of stock free from grease, to which add a good pinch of salt; when cooked (10-15 minutes), drain them and put them into the soup tureen containing 1 qt. well-flavoured clear stock boiling hot. Grated Parmesan to be handed round with it.
Milk Soup.—Peel 2 lb. potatoes and 2 leeks or onions (leeks are the best). Boil them together in 2 qt. boiling water to become tender. Pass all through a fine wire sieve and put it back as a purée into the stewpan. Add to this 2 oz. butter, let it melt, and then a pint milk; season to taste with a little pepper and salt; keep stirring it over the fire, and, when boiling, sprinkle in gradually 3 dessertspoonfuls of crushed tapioca; keep it boiling for another 10 minutes to cook the tapioca, and serve.
Mock Pea Soup.—Flavour some stock according to taste (a leaf or two of mint should not be forgotten), and thicken to consistency of thin cream, with some revalenta arabica; season with pepper and salt, and serve with it dice of crisp toast and some finely powdered mint on small dishes. A small piece of butter or a little thick cream may be added to the soup, if approved. It will be found a fair imitation of pea soup, is nutritious, easy of digestion, and may be acceptable in not seeming like an invalid dish. If no stock be at hand, a simpler edition of it may be made by making a cupful of revalenta, either with water or equal parts of milk and water, in the usual way. Stir to it Liebig to taste, and season with pepper and salt. Serve with or without the accompaniments given above.
Mock Turtle Soup (fausse tortue).—(a) Boil half a calf’s head with the skin on for ¾ hour. Remove eye, ear, and brains, cut the meat into squares 1½ in., put it into a large stewpan, add to it 2 oz. butter, 1 pint old Madeira, 1 gill veal broth, a small bundle of sweet herbs, a little sage, a small onion chopped very fine with one teaspoonful of white pepper, a little salt, a little cayenne, also a little allspice if liked. Stew gently till the meat is tender, keeping well covered; then add 2 qt. good veal stock, make some thickening with cold veal broth, flour, and herbs; boil, strain, and add to the soup. Take out the meat, boil the soup about 10 minutes, strain over the meat, add lemon juice and some forcemeat and egg balls. This is the simplest to have it good, but it may be made far richer.
(b) Take an ox foot, cleaned and split, 2 onions with their skins on to darken the soup, a few cloves, one tablespoonful of vinegar, peppercorns and salt to taste, a little celery seed, and carrots, and a small piece of turnip. Take out when the bones slip away easily, about 6 hours, strain through a sieve, then mix 2 tablespoonfuls of arrowroot, add a glass of sherry, let it boil, carefully stirring, add some forcemeat balls, and send to table. Forcemeat Balls.—One teaspoonful of sage, pepper and salt, one egg slightly beaten, ¼ lb. lean bacon or pork, a few breadcrumbs; mix altogether, the bacon to be finely minced, shape all into balls the size of marbles, and fry in boiling lard until a light brown; sufficient for 12 persons.
Mulligatawny Soup (au kari).—(a) Wash nicely a knuckle of veal in lukewarm water, and put it in to stew gently in 7 pints water, skim it carefully as it comes to the boil, and let it simmer for 1½ hour closely covered; take out the meat, strain the liquor into a stewpan, and have ready 2 lb. best end of a breast of veal cut up into pieces 1 in. square, without gristle or bone; slice 3 large onions into the stewpan, and fry them both together with about a ¼ lb. butter till they are a delicate brown colour; now add the veal liquor, and let it simmer 1 hour altogether, taking care to again skim it carefully on its coming to the boil. Take a little of the liquor and mix into it a good tablespoonful of curry powder, and a tablespoonful of flour; keep stirring until both are well mixed and quite smooth, adding to it a dust of cayenne, ½ teaspoonful of salt, a pinch of ground ginger and a little mace; stir this mixture gradually into the soup, keep it simmering (not boiling) ¼ hour longer, strain off the onions, serve very hot, with the pieces of meat in the soup; it should be perfectly smooth and the consistency of good cream; serve with rice as for curry. The squeeze of a lemon put into the tureen, and the soup poured on it, adds greatly to the flavour.
(b) Melt 2 oz. butter in a saucepan; cut 2 large onions into fine rings, and then stew them for 5 minutes in the butter, then add 2 qt. water, salt to taste, 2 slices of bacon cut into dice. Mix to a smooth paste 2 tablespoonfuls of curry powder and one of flour. Stir this into the soup, taking care that it is not lumpy, to prevent this stir till it boils. Joint the rabbit neatly, then cut again into medium-sized pieces; soak these thoroughly in salted water to get out the blood. Put them into the soup and stew gently for ¾ hour. Serve with boiled rice and mashed potatoes. If stock is used for this soup the butter is unnecessary. (B. Tremaine.)
Mussel Soup (de moules).—This is made by mixing a good fish or white veal stock with the half of the mussel liquor, and pouring this over a roux (made by rolling equal quantities of butter and flour together and putting it on the fire for 3 minutes). Stir this well together till it boils, and then let it simmer for ½ hour. Now put the mussels into a tureen, pour the soup over them, and stir in a liaison of yolk of egg and lemon juice.
Mutton Broth.—Fry 5 or 6 onions to a good brown colour in beef dripping, set them in a sieve to let the fat drain off them; cut 6 turnips and 3 or 4 carrots into pieces, add a bundle of sweet herbs, and a teaspoonful of salt. When these are all ready, take a large scrag, or two small ones, of neck of mutton, cut off the best pieces to fry, and make stock of the bones. Take the vegetables (fried), put them at the bottom of your pan, then add a layer of mutton, then vegetables, then mutton, till all is in; then put your stewpan shut close over a moderate fire, and let it stew ¾ hour, shaking it often to keep it from burning; then pour in 2 qt. stock, and let it stew as slowly as possible—scarcely to seem to stew. Put the best pieces of the meat and vegetables into the tureen, and then pour all the rest upon them through the sieve, so as to have a purée with the pieces floating in it.