This thickened milk is the foundation for many forms of fish and vegetable purees.  A pint of green pease, boiled, mashed, and added; or asparagus or spinach in the same proportions can be used. Lobster makes a puree as delicious as that of salmon.  Dry the “coral” in the oven; pound it fine, and add to the milk before straining, thus giving a clear pink color.  Cut all the meat and green fat into dice, and put into the tureen, pouring the hot milk upon it.  Boiled cod or halibut can be used; but nothing is so nice as the salmon, either fresh or canned.  For a Puree of Celery boil one pint of cut celery in water till tender; then add to boiling milk, and rub through the sieve.  For Potato Puree use six large or ten medium sized potatoes, boiled and mashed fine; then stirred into the milk, and strained; a large tablespoonful of chopped parsley being put in the tureen.  For a Green-Corn Soup use the milk without straining; adding a can of corn, or the corn cut from six ears of fresh boiled corn, and an even tablespoonful of sugar, and boiling ten minutes. Salsify can also be used, the combinations being numberless, and one’s own taste a safe guide in making new ones.

TURTLE-BEAN SOUP.

Wash and soak over-night, in cold water, one pint of the black or turtle beans.  In the morning put on the fire in three quarts of cold water, which, as it boils away, must be added to, to preserve the original quantity.  Add quarter of a pound of salt pork and half a pound of lean beef; one carrot and two onions cut fine; one tablespoonful of salt; one saltspoonful of cayenne.  Cover closely, and boil four or five hours.  Rub through a colander, having first put in the tureen three hard-boiled eggs cut in slices, one lemon sliced thin, and half a glass of wine.  This soup is often served with small sausages which have been boiled in it for ten minutes, and then skinned, and used either whole or cut in bits.  Cold baked beans can also be used, in which case the meat, eggs, and wine are omitted.

PEA SOUP.

One quart of dried pease, washed and soaked over-night; split pease are best.  In the morning put them on the fire with six quarts of cold water; half a pound of salt pork; one even tablespoonful of salt; one saltspoonful of cayenne; and one teaspoonful of celery-seed.  Fry till a bright brown three onions cut small, and add to the pease; cover closely, and boil four or five hours.  Strain through a colander, and, if not perfectly smooth, return to fire, and add a thickening made of one heaping teaspoonful of flour and an even one of butter, stirred together with a little hot water and boiled five minutes.  Beans can be used in precisely the same way; and both bean and pea soups are nicer served with croutons, or a thick slice of bread cut in dice, and fried brown and crisp, or simply browned in the oven, and put into the tureen at the moment of serving.