Cream Of Lentils

Soak one pint of lentils in cold water for four hours, then place them in a saucepan and boil with two quarts of water, one carrot, one onion, two ounces of salt pork, six whole peppers, a garnished bunch of parsley, one-half tablespoonful of salt and bones of one partridge. Cook for forty-five minutes, and then rub through a sieve; cut half the breast of a partridge in slices, place them in the soup tureen with one ounce of butter, pour over the puree, and serve with a handful of fried sippets of bread, suppressing the parsley.

Cream Of Lettuce

Wash well three good-sized heads of lettuce, drain, chop, place them in a saucepan with about one-fourth pound of butter and cook for five minutes, stirring lightly. Moisten with two quarts of broth, and season with one tablespoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of pepper, and one-half teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, add a garnished bunch of parsley and four or five ounces of well cleaned raw rice; cover the saucepan and cook for forty-five minutes; then remove the parsley, and strain through a fine sieve. Clean the saucepan well, pour the soup into it again, and let it come nearly to the boil, stirring meanwhile with a spatula. Pour in one pint of sweet cream, stir it a little more, and turn it into a hot tureen. Serve with sippets of toast or croutons of fried bread.

Cream Of Lima Beans

Put a lump of butter in a saucepan with half a pint of mirepoix, a little flour and the Lima beans, seasoned with salt. Moisten them with some white broth, and cook for thirty minutes. Strain them through a sieve, and serve with some cream and small croutons souffles.

Cream Of Mushrooms

Wash and peel one quart of fresh mushrooms, put them into a quart of boiling water, and boil until tender enough to rub through a sieve; stir them in two quarts of cream soup, as follows : take two tablespoonfuls each of butter and flour, and mix until they bubble, then stir in one quart of hot milk and boiling water, a teacupful at a time. When all the water and milk have been used season with salt and pepper.

Potato Cream Soup

Boil some veal bones in three quarts of water until it is reduced to two quarts, first placing in with the veal bones, a knuckle of ham or a slice of pickled pork and a bunch of vegetables. Then chop an onion very fine and put it in the soup; peel and boil two large potatoes, and when thoroughly cooked, drain and mash them, mixing in a little at a time, a breakfast cupful of cream or milk. Mix in the potato cream with the soup, and strain it through a colander into a soup tureen, seasoning it with salt, pepper and a tablespoonful of finely-chopped parsley and serve.

Cream Of Rice

Cut about one and one-half pounds of loin of veal into small pieces, put them into a stewpan with two quarts of milk, and nearly a breakfast cupful of well-washed rice; add a small onion, and season to taste with pepper and salt. Let the whole simmer at the side of the fire until the meat is very tender and the rice reduced to a pulp. Strain the soup through a fine hair sieve, then return it to the saucepan; when boiling, move it to the side of the fire and stir in the yolks of two eggs that have been beaten up with the juice of a lemon and strained. Turn the soup into a tureen and serve it while very hot, accompanied, if desired, with a plate of sippets of toast or small croutons of bread that have been fried to a delicate brown in butter.

Cream Of Sorrel

Steam three or four handfuls of well-washed sorrel with one ounce of butter. After cooking for ten minutes, rub through a sieve into a saucepan, add one pint of bechamel sauce, and one quart of white broth, season with one-half tablespoonful of salt, and one teaspoonful of pepper, and let it boil for, fifteen minutes. Thicken the soup with one teacupful of cream and the yolks of two raw eggs well-beaten together and serve with slices of bread or toast.

Cream Of Tapioca

Put a large slice of ham into a saucepan with one-fourth pound of butter, dust in one breakfastcupful of flour, and let the whole simmer for a few minutes; then pour in a little thick soup and stir it until the liquor is quite thick. Pour three quarts each of milk and good rich stock into a saucepan, strain the thickening into it, and add a blade of mace, one breakfast cupful of finely chopped onion, half that quantity each of carrots and turnips, also finely chopped, and finally a trifle more than one teacupful of tapioca. Boil very gently until the grains of tapioca are quite transparent, add one teaspoonful of minced parsley, salt and pepper to taste, pour the soup into a tureen, and serve.

Tomato Cream Soup

Peel and slice one quart of fresh, ripe tomatoes, pick carefully over one-half breakfast cupful of rice, and wash it well in cold water; rub two tablespoonfuls of butter to a smooth paste with one tablespoonful of flour; put the tomatoes over the fire in a soup kettle, with one quart of cold water, and let them heat gradually. When they are thoroughly heated add one more quart of cold water, and when this boils, put in the rice, one saltspoonful of pepper, and two teaspoonfuls of salt, and continue the boiling until the rice is tender, but not broken; then stir in the paste of flour and butter, one saltspoonful of bicarbonate of soda, and one pint of milk, or sufficient to make the soup as thick as cream. Allow the soup to boil for a few minutes to thoroughly cook the flour, and then serve without delay in a tureen.