_A Green Peas Soup_ may be made by taking six or eight cucumbers pared and sliced, the blanched part of as many lettuces, a sprig of mint, two or three onions, a little parsley, some white pepper and salt, a full pint of young peas, and half a pound of butter. Let these ingredients stew gently in their own liquor for an hour. Then have in readiness a quart of old peas, boiled tender. Rub them through a cullender, and put to them two quarts of strong beef gravy. When the vegetables are sufficiently tender, mix all together, and serve up the soup very hot. This receipt is very suitable for the country, where vegetables are abundant. In this respect you have a great advantage over the dwellers in towns; and you will find it easy to make a great variety of soups, by boiling any kind of vegetable till it is tender, afterwards rubbing it through a coarse sieve, so as to make what the French call a _purée_, and then mixing it with beef gravy or stock, as before directed. A _purée_ of old peas or carrots makes an excellent soup. I have only to add to my chapter on soups, that it is an excellent plan to have the bones of a sirloin of beef or roast leg of mutton, the remains of a hare, or, in fact, any thing of that kind, put into a large deep earthen pan, with rather more than enough water to cover them, a couple of carrots sliced, and perhaps a leek or an onion. The pan should then be carefully tied down, or have a cover fitted on it, and it should be put into an oven after the bread has been drawn, and suffered to remain all night. This makes an excellent _consommé_ or stock for any kind of brown soup: and it is a good plan to have a stock of this kind prepared every time there has been a baking of bread, so as to leave the oven in a proper state; as it not only saves the purchase of fresh meat for soup, but makes an excellent use of food that, under other circumstances, would very probably be wasted or given to the dogs. The liquor in which veal or fowls have been boiled should always be saved, and when cold, after the fat has been removed, it should be poured off clear from the sediment and used as a stock for white soups; and the scrag end of a neck of mutton, the root of a tongue, and various other portions of beef and mutton, which would be unsightly if sent to table, should, also, always be stewed down for brown soups. In the latter case, if the stock made in this manner looks pale or dingy, it may have a rich colour given to it by the following composition or _Roux_, which is also useful for made dishes and sauces. Put a quarter of a pound of lump sugar into a pan, and add a quarter of a pint of water, with half an ounce of butter. Set it over a gentle fire, stirring it with a wooden spoon till it appears burnt to a bright brown colour; then add some more water. When it boils, skim, and afterwards strain it; and then put it into a bottle, which should be kept closely corked till the composition is wanted for use.