A guide to modern cookery

CORMEILLES Parboil one and one-half lbs. of French beans and keep them very green. After having well drained them, stew them for ten or twelve minutes in one oz. of butter, moisten with one pint of white consommé, and add two medium-sized minced potatoes for the thickening. Set to cook gently, rub through tammy, rectify the consistence of the purée with a little boiled milk, despumate, and add butter when dishing up. Garnish with two tablespoonfuls of cooked French beans cut into narrow lozenges. This soup may also be prepared as a velouté or a cream. 639—PURÉE DE HARICOTS ROUGES, otherwise CONDÉ Put a heaped pint of red beans into cold water, set to boil slowly, skim, add three oz. of carrots, one small faggot, one onion stuck with a clove, and a bottleful of boiling red wine. Set to cook gently. Drain the beans and crush them in a mortar. Moisten the purée with a few tablespoonfuls of the cooking-liquor of the beans, rub through tammy, rectify the consistence of the purée with some white consommé, follow the procedure of all purées, and add butter when about to serve. Garnish with bread dice fried in butter. 640—PURÉE DE LENTILLES, otherwise CONTI Soak three-quarters of a pint of lentils in lukewarm water for two hours. Put them in a stewpan with two oz. of very lean breast of bacon, _blanched_, cooled, and cut into dice, and one quart of white consommé. Set to boil, skim, add three oz. of carrots, one onion, and one faggot, and cook very gently. Drain the lentils, pound them together with the bacon, moisten the purée with a few tablespoonfuls of cooking-liquor, and rub through tammy. Rectify the consistence with some reserved cooking-liquor, then treat the purée in the usual way and add butter when about to serve. Garnish with two tablespoonfuls of bread dice fried in butter and a pinch of chervil _pluches_. N.B.—It should be borne in mind that the aromatic garnish used in cooking dry vegetables of what kind soever should be withdrawn before pounding the latter, that they may be rubbed