A guide to modern cookery

OF THE FOUR PRECEDING RECIPES A large variety of this kind of soups may be prepared by using the quantity prescribed of salep, buckwheat, oatmeal, barley-meal, &c. These soups derive a particular and agreeable flavour from their cohering element. The chief point to be remembered in their preparation is their consistence, which should be that of a thin cream. When too thick, these soups are pasty and disagreeable; when too thin, they are insipid; hence the desirability of aiming at a happy medium. Their garnish is exceedingly variable, the more preferable forms being small bread dice fried in clarified butter, pressed; peeled tomatoes cut into dice and tossed in butter; small _printaniers_, _brunoises_, _juliennes_, _paysannes_, or well-poached rice. Thus, from the typical recipe of these soups, a whole series may be prepared, which need not be gone into separately here. 647—PURÉE DE POIS AUX CROÛTONS Wash three-quarters of a pint of split peas in cold water and put them into a stewpan with one quart of cold water, a little salt, and one-half lb. of raw ham. Set to boil, skim, and add two oz. of _mirepoix_, the minced green leaves of three leeks, a fragment of thyme and bay, salt, and one-half oz. of sugar. Set to cook very gently. Rub through tammy, bring the purée to the proper consistence by means of white consommé, despumate it sufficiently, and add butter to it when dishing up. Garnish with two tablespoonfuls of small bread dice fried in butter. 648—PURÉE DE POIS FRAIS, otherwise SAINT-GERMAIN The two following methods may be employed, viz.:— (1) Cook quickly one and one-quarter pints of fresh peas, just shelled, in boiling, salted water. Drain them, pound them in a mortar, moisten the purée with one pint of white consommé, and rub it through tammy. Bring it to the proper degree of heat, and add butter when about to serve. Prepared in this way, the purée should be of a perfect shade. (2) Stew one and one-quarter pints of fresh peas in one and one-half oz. of butter, a little lettuce _chiffonade_, one and one-half oz.