A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery

use it, when you first begin to cook the soup. One onion, peeled, sliced, and fried light brown in a tablespoonful of butter. You could also use the bones from ham, cold roast ham, cold boiled ham, or the bones of beef either raw or cooked, in the place of the onion, or in addition to the onion, as you like. Remember all those things give distinct flavors to the pea soup. If you put any kind of bones in, put them in with the peas at the beginning and boil them with the peas. SALT CODFISH, STEWED IN CREAM. Next take the recipe for salt codfish, stewed in cream. First, to freshen salt codfish; that, of course, is always the first thing you do with salt codfish, no matter how you finish. You can do that by soaking it over night in cold water; if it has any skin on it be sure to have the skin side up. If you put it in the water with the skin side down, the salt which soaks out of the fibre of the fish simply falls against the skin and stays there. The fish does not get any fresher. A great deal of codfish in these days is sent to the market without either skin or bone. Supposing we have the regulation dried codfish, we skin and bone it, then soak it over night in cold water, and next morning put it over the fire in more cold water, plenty of it, and put the kettle or pan containing the fish and the cold water on the back part of the stove, where it will heat very gradually. Do not let it boil at all, but keep it at a scalding heat. Do not more than let it simmer. The effect of the boiling on any salted fibre, whether it is fish or meat, is simply to harden it. Keep it at a scalding heat until the fish is tender. Of course that will depend upon the dryness of the fish. It may take a half hour, it may take an