Mode.--Boil the peas, and rub them through a sieve; add the gravy, and then stew by themselves the celery, onions, lettuce, and asparagus, with the water. After this, stew altogether, and add the colouring and cream, and serve.Time.--Peas 2-1/2 hours, vegetables 1 hour; altogether 4 hours. Average cost per quart, 1s. [Illustration: ASPARAGUS.]
ASPARAGUS.--The ancients called all the sprouts of young vegetables asparagus, whence the name, which is now limited to a particular species, embracing artichoke, alisander, asparagus, cardoon, rampion, and sea-kale. They are originally mostly wild seacoast plants; and, in this state, asparagus may still be found on the northern as well as southern shores of Britain. It is often vulgarly called, in London, sparrowgrass; and, in it's cultivated form, hardly bears any resemblance to the original plant. Immense quantities of it are raised for the London market, at Mortlake and Deptford; but it belongs rather to the classes of luxurious than necessary food. It is light and easily digested, but is not very nutritious.
BAKED SOUP.
115. INGREDIENTS.--1 lb. of any kind of meat, any trimmings or odd pieces; 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 oz. of rice, 1 pint of split peas, pepper and salt to taste, 4 quarts of water.
Mode.--Cut the meat and vegetables in slices, add to them the rice and peas, season with pepper and salt. Put the whole in a jar, fill
up with the water, cover very closely, and bake for 4 hours. Time.--4 hours. Average cost, 2-1/2d. per quart. Seasonable at any time.
Sufficient for 10 or 12 persons.
Note.--This will be found a very cheap and wholesome soup, and will be convenient in those cases where baking is more easily performed than boiling.
BARLEY SOUP.
116. INGREDIENTS.--2 lbs. of shin of beef, 1/4 lb. of pearl barley, a large bunch of parsley, 4 onions, 6 potatoes, salt and pepper,
4 quarts of water.
Mode.--Put in all the ingredients, and simmer gently for 3 hours. Time.--3 hours. Average cost, 2-1/2d. per quart.
Seasonable all the year, but more suitable for winter. [Illustration: BARLEY.]
BARLEY.--This, in the order of cereal grasses, is, in Britain, the next plant to wheat in point of value, and exhibits several species and varieties. From what country it comes originally, is not known, but it was cultivated in the earliest ages of antiquity, as the Egyptians were afflicted with the loss of it in the ear, in the time of Moses. It was a favourite grain with the Athenians, but it was es-
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teemed as an ignominious food by the Romans. Notwithstanding this, however, it was much used by them, as it was in former times by the English, and still is, in the Border counties, in Cornwall, and also in Wales. In other parts of England, it is used mostly for malting purposes. It is less nutritive than wheat; and in 100 parts, has of starch 79, gluten 6, saccharine matter 7, husk 8. It is, however, a lighter and less stimulating food than wheat, which renders a decoction of it well adapted for invalids whose digestion is weak.
BREAD SOUP. (Economical.)
117. INGREDIENTS.--1 lb. of bread crusts, 2 oz. butter, 1 quart of common stock.
Mode.--Boil the bread crusts in the stock with the butter; beat the whole with a spoon, and keep it boiling till the bread and stock are well mixed. Season with a little salt.
Time.--Half an hour. Average cost per quart, 4d. Seasonable at any time.
Sufficient for 4 persons.
Note.--This is a cheap recipe, and will be found useful where extreme economy is an object. [Illustration: QUERN, or GRINDING-MILL.]
BREAD.--The origin of bread is involved in the obscurity of distant ages. The Greeks attributed its invention to Pan; but be-fore they, themselves, had an existence, it was, no doubt, in use among the primitive nations of mankind. The Chaldeans and the Egyptians were acquainted with it, and Sarah, the companion of Abraham, mixed flour and water together, kneaded it, and covered it with ashes on the hearth. The Scriptures inform us that leavened bread was known to the Israelites, but it is not known when the art of fermenting it was discovered. It is said that the Romans learnt it during their wars with Perseus, king of Macedon, and that it was introduced to the "imperial city" about 200 years before the birth of Christ. With them it no doubt found its way into Britain;
but after their departure from the island, it probably ceased to be used. We know that King Alfred allowed the unfermented cakes to burn in the neatherd's cottage; and that, even in the sixteenth century, unfermented cakes, kneaded by the women, were the only kind of bread known to the inhabitants of Norway and Sweden. The Italians of this day consume the greater portion of their flour in
the form of polenta, or soft pudding, vermicelli, and macaroni; and, in the remoter districts of Scotland, much unfermented bread is still used. We give a cut of the quern grinding-mill, which, towards the end of the last century, was in use in that country, and which
is thus described by Dr. Johnson in his "Journey to the Hebrides:"--"It consists of two stones about a foot and half in diameter;
the lower is a little convex, to which the concavity of the upper must be fitted. In the middle of the upper stone is a round hole, and
on one side is a long handle. The grinder sheds the corn gradually into the hole with one hand, and works the handle round with the other. The corn slides down the convexity of the lower stone, and by the motion of the upper, is ground in its passage." Such a primitive piece of machinery, it may safely be said, has entirely disappeared from this country.--In other parts of this work, we shall have opportunities of speaking of bread and bread-making, which, from its great and general use in the nourishment of mankind, has emphatically been called the "staff of life." The necessity, therefore, of having it both pure and good is of the first importance.
CABBAGE SOUP.
118. INGREDIENTS.--1 large cabbage, 3 carrots, 2 onions, 4 or 5 slices of lean bacon, salt and pepper to taste, 2 quarts of me-dium stock No. 105.
Mode.--Scald the cabbage, exit it up and drain it. Line the stewpan with the bacon, put in the cabbage, carrots, and onions; moisten with skimmings from the stock, and simmer very gently, till the cabbage is tender; add the stock, stew softly for half an hour, and carefully skim off every particle of fat. Season and serve.
Time.--1-1/2 hour. Average cost, 1s. per quart. Seasonable in winter.
Sufficient for 8 persons.
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[Illustration: CABBAGE SEEDING.]
THE CABBAGE.--It is remarkable, that although there is no country in the world now more plentifully supplied with fruits and vegetables than Great Britain, yet the greater number of these had no existence in it before the time of Henry VIII. Anderson, writing under the date of 1548, says, "The English cultivated scarcely any vegetables before the last two centuries. At the commencement of the reign, of Henry VIII. neither salad, nor carrots, nor cabbages, nor radishes, nor any other comestibles of a like nature, were grown in any part of the kingdom; they came from Holland and Flanders." The original of all the cabbage tribe is the wild plant
sea-colewort, which is to be found wasting whatever sweetness it may have on the desert air, on many of the cliffs of the south coast of England. In this state, it scarcely weighs more than half an ounce, yet, in a cultivated state, to what dimensions can it be made to grow! However greatly the whole of the tribe is
