LENTIL SOUP.—­Take a breakfastcupful of green lentils and put them to soak in cold water overnight.  In the morning throw away any floating on the top.  Drain the lentils and put them in a stew-pan or saucepan with some stock or water, and add two onions, two carrots, a turnip, a bunch of parsley, a small teaspoonful of savoury herbs and a small head of celery.  If you have no celery add half a teaspoonful of bruised celery seed.  You can also add a crust of stale bread.  Let the whole boil, and it will be found that occasionally a dark film will rise to the surface.  This must be skimmed off.  The soup must boil for about four hours, or at any rate till the lentils are thoroughly soft.  Then strain the soup through a wire sieve, and rub the whole of the contents through the wire sieve with the soup.  This requires both time and patience.  After the whole has been rubbed through the sieve the soup must be boiled up, and if made from green lentils it can be coloured green with some spinach extract—­(vegetable colouring, sold in bottles).  If made from Egyptian (red) lentils, the soup can be coloured with a few drops of Parisian essence (burnt sugar).  In warming up this soup, after the lentils have been rubbed through a sieve, it should be borne in mind that the lentil powder has a tendency to settle, and consequently the saucepan must be constantly stirred to prevent it burning.  In serving the soup at table, the contents of the soup-tureen should be stirred with the soup-ladle before each help.

LENTIL PUREE A LA SOUBISE.—­This is really lentil soup, made as above, rather thick, to which has been added a puree of onions, made as follows:—­Slice up, say four large onions, and fry them brown in a little butter, then boil them in some of the broth of the soup till they are tender.  Rub them through a wire sieve and add them to the soup.

MACARONI SOUP (CLEAR).—­Take some macaroni and break it up into pieces about two inches long.  Boil them till they are tender in some salted water, drain them off and add them to some clear soup. (See CLEAR SOUP.)

MACARONI SOUP (THICK).—­Take an onion, carrot, a small head of celery and a very small quantity of turnip; cut them up and boil them in a very small quantity of water for about an hour.  Then rub the whole through a wire sieve, add a quart or more of boiling milk, throw in the macaroni, after breaking it up into pieces two inches long, and let the macaroni simmer in this till it is perfectly tender.  The soup should be thickened with a very little white roux, a bay-leaf can be boiled in the soup; a small quantity of cream is a great improvement.  Fried or toasted bread should be served with it.

MILK SOUP.—­Milk soup, as it is sometimes called in Germany, very much resembles English custard.  It is made by putting a quart of milk on the fire and thickening it with two yolks of eggs and a little flour, and sweetening it with sugar.  The soup is flavoured with either vanilla, lemon, laurel leaves, pounded almonds, cinnamon, chocolate, &c.  As a soup, however, it is not suited to the English palate.