SQUIRREL SOUP

Wash and quarter three or four good sized squirrels; put them on, with a small tablespoonful of salt, directly after breakfast, in a gallon of cold water. Cover the pot close, and set it on the back part of the stove to simmer gently, _not_ boil. Add vegetables just the same as you do in case of other meat soups in the summer season, but especially good will you find corn, Irish potatoes, tomatoes and Lima beans. Strain the soup through a coarse colander when the meat has boiled to shreds, so as to get rid of the squirrels' troublesome little bones. Then return to the pot, and after boiling a while longer, thicken with a piece of butter rubbed in flour. Celery and parsley leaves chopped up are also considered an improvement by many. Toast two slices of bread, cut them into dice one-half inch square, fry them in butter, put them into the bottom of your tureen, and then pour the soup boiling hot upon them. Very good.

TOMATO SOUP. No. 1.

Place in a kettle four pounds of beef. Pour over it one gallon of cold water. Let the meat and water boil slowly for three hours, or until the liquid is reduced to about one-half. Remove the meat and put into the broth a quart of tomatoes, and one chopped onion; salt and pepper to taste. A teaspoonful of flour should be dissolved and stirred in, then allowed to boil half an hour longer. Strain and serve hot. Canned tomatoes in place of fresh ones may be used.

TOMATO SOUP. No. 2.

Place over the fire a quart of peeled tomatoes, stew them soft with a pinch of soda. Strain it so that no seeds remain, set it over the fire again, and add a quart of hot boiled milk; season with salt and pepper, a piece of butter the size of an egg, add three tablespoonfuls of rolled cracker, and serve hot. Canned tomatoes may be used in place of fresh ones.

TOMATO SOUP. No. 3.

Peel two quarts of tomatoes, boil them in a saucepan with an onion, and other soup vegetables; strain and add a level tablespoonful of flour dissolved in a third of a cup of melted butter; add pepper and salt. Serve very hot over little squares of bread fried brown and crisp in butter.

An excellent addition to a cold meat lunch.

MULLAGATAWNY SOUP. (As made in India.)

Cut four onions, one carrot, two turnips, and one head of celery into three quarts of liquor, in which one or two fowls have been boiled; keep it over a brisk fire till it boils, then place it on a corner of the fire, and let it simmer twenty minutes; add one tablespoonful of currie powder, and one tablespoonful of flour; mix the whole well together, and let it boil three minutes; pass it through a colander; serve with pieces of roast chicken in it; add boiled rice in a separate dish. It must be of good yellow color, and not too thick. If you find it too thick, add a little boiling water and a teaspoonful of sugar. Half veal and half chicken answers as well.

A dish of rice, to be served separately with this soup, must be thus prepared: put three pints of water in a saucepan and one tablespoonful of salt; let this boil. Wash well, in three waters, half a pound of rice; strain it, and put it into the boiling water in saucepan. After it has come to the boil--which it will do in about two minutes--let it boil twenty minutes; strain it through a colander, and pour over it two quarts of cold water. This will separate the grains of rice. Put it back in the saucepan, and place it near the fire until hot enough to send to the table. This is also the proper way to boil rice for curries. If these directions are strictly carried out every grain of the rice will separate, and be thoroughly cooked.