OX-TAIL SOUP, IMITATION.—­Slice off the outside red part of two or three large carrots, and cut them up into small dice not bigger than a quarter of an inch square.  Cut up also into similar size a young turnip, and the white, hard part of a head of celery.  Fry these very gently in a little butter, taking care that the vegetables do not turn colour.  Make some soup exactly in every respect similar to that described in Imitation Mock Turtle.  Throw in these fried vegetables, and let the soup simmer gently by the side of the fire, in order for it to throw up its butter, which should be skimmed off.  In flavouring the soup, add only half the quantity of wine or lemon juice that you would use were you making Mock Turtle.

PALESTINE SOUP.—­(See ARTICHOKE SOUP.)

PARSNIP SOUP.—­Prepare half a dozen parsnips, and boil them with an onion and half a head of celery in some stock till they are quite tender.  Then rub the whole through a wire sieve, boil it up again, and serve.  Sufficient parsnips must be boiled to make the soup as thick as pea soup, so the quantity of stock must be regulated accordingly.  This soup is generally rather sweet, owing to the parsnips, and an extra quantity of salt must be added in consequence, as well as pepper.  In Belgium and Germany this sweetness is corrected by the addition of vinegar.  This, of course, is a matter of taste.

PEAR SOUP.—­Pare, core, and slice six or eight large pears.  Put them into a stew-pan with a penny roll cut into thin slices, half a dozen cloves, and three pints of water.  Let them simmer until they are quite tender, then pass them through a coarse sieve, and return the puree to the saucepan, with two ounces of sugar, the strained juice of a fresh lemon, and half a tumblerful of light wine.  Let the soup boil five or ten minutes, when it will be ready for serving.  Send some sponge-cake to table with this dish.

PEA SOUP, FROM SPLIT DRIED PEAS.—­Take a pint of split peas and put them in soak overnight in some cold water, and throw away those that float, as this shows that there is a hole in them which would be mildewy.  Take two onions, a carrot, a small head of celery, and boil them with the peas in from three pints to two quarts of water till they are tender.  This will be from four to five hours.  When the peas are old and stale even longer time should be allowed.  Then rub the whole through a wire sieve, put the soup back into the saucepan, and stir it while you make it hot or it will burn.  In ordinary cookery, pea soup is invariably made from some kind of greasy stock, more especially the water in which pickled pork has been boiled.  In the present instance we have no kind of fat to counteract the natural dryness of the pea-flour.  We must therefore add, before sending to table, two or three ounces of butter.  It will be found best to dissolve the butter in the saucepan before adding the soup to be warmed up, as it is then much less likely to stick to the bottom of the saucepan and burn.  Fried or toasted bread should be served with the soup separately, as well as dried and powdered mint.  The general mistake people make is, they do not have sufficient mint.