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Show Two pounds coarse lean beef, chopped as for beef tea, three pounds of bones-beef, mutton, veal or poultry-cracked to pieces, one carrot, one turnip, one half onion-all peeled and sliced. Parsley or other sweet herbs minced fine, three quarts of cold water, two tablespoonfuls of rice, a cup of stewed tomato (if convenient), salt and pepper. Put meat, bones, vegetables and herbs into a pot, and pour in the cold water. Cover the vessel, and let it heat very slowly at the side or back of the range. It should not begin to boil under an hour. Then move to a warmer position, but not where it will boil fast at any time, and cook, still covered, for at least four hours. Turn into an earthenware bowl or crock, throw in a little salt and let it stand all night in a cool place. Next day, take off every particle of grease from the top. An hour before dinnertime, return the coup to the pot and heat to a gentle boil. Strain out meat, bones, etc., through a fine collander, if you have not a soup-strainer. (You can get one of these useful little utensils for ten cents). Set again over the fire, season as you like; boil once to throw up the scum; remove this, and add the rice, which should have been already cooked tender in a very little water. Simmer fifteen minutes and pour into the tureen. This soup will not be a thick broth, but will taste well and be nourishing, holding, as it does, all the strength of meat, bones and vegetables. Should there be more than enough for one day, return the surplus, before adding the rice, to the bones and meat, and strain again when needed. |