up (No. 439).

_Obs._ You will have three quarts of soup, as well coloured, and almost
as well flavoured, as if made with gravy meat.

N.B. To make this it requires nearly five hours. To fry the herbs
requires twenty-five minutes; to boil all together, one hour and a half;
to settle, at the least, two hours; when clear, and put on the fire
again, half an hour more.

_FISH SOUPS._--(No. 225.)

_Eel Soup._

To make a tureenful, take a couple of middling-sized onions, cut them in
half, and cross your knife over them two or three times; put two ounces
of butter into a stew-pan when it is melted, put in the onions, stir
them about till they are lightly browned; cut into pieces three pounds
of unskinned eels, put them into your stew-pan, and shake them over the
fire for five minutes; then add three quarts of boiling water, and when
they come to a boil, take the scum off very clean; then put in a quarter
of an ounce of the green leaves (not dried) of winter savoury, the same
of lemon thyme, and twice the quantity of parsley, two drachms of
allspice, the same of black pepper; cover it close, and let it boil
gently for two hours; then strain it off, and skim it very clean. To
thicken it, put three ounces of butter into a clean stew-pan; when it is
melted, stir in as much flour as will make it of a stiff paste, then add
the liquor by degrees; let it simmer for ten minutes, and pass it
through a sieve; then put your soup on in a clean stew-pan, and have
ready some little square pieces of fish fried of a nice light brown,
either eels, soles, plaice, or skate will do; the fried fish should be
added about ten minutes before the soup is served up. Forcemeat balls
(Nos. 375, 378, &c.) are sometimes added.

_Obs._ Excellent fish soups may be made with a cod's skull, or skate, or
flounders, &c. boiled in no more water than will just cover them, and
the liquor thickened with oatmeal, &c.

_Cheap Soups._--(No. 229.)

Among the variety of schemes that have been suggested for "bettering the
condition of the poor," a more useful or extensive charity cannot be
devised, than that of instructing them in economical cookery: it is one
of the most-important objects to which the attention of any real
well-wisher to the public interest can possibly be directed.

The best and cheapest method of making a nourishing soup, is least known
to those who have most need of it; it will enable those who have small
incomes and large families to