Readers of Thackeray will remember the little dinner at Timmins, when the
hired _chef_ shed such consternation in the bosom of little Mrs Timmins
by his outrageous demands for 'a leg of beef, a leg of veal, and a ham', on
behalf of the stock-pot. But the 'Reform' housekeeper need be under no
apprehension on that score, for she can have the choicest and most wholesome
materials fresh from the garden to her _pot-au-feu_, at a trifling
cost. Of course it is quite possible to be as extravagant with vegetarian
foods as with the other, as when we demand forced unnatural products out of
their season, when their unwholesomeness is matched only by their cost. No
one who knows what sound, good food really is, will dream of using
manure-fed tomatoes, mushrooms at 3s. per lb.; or stringy tough asparagus,
at 5s. or 10s. a bunch, when seasonable products are to be had for a few
pence.

The exact quantities are not always specified either, in the following
recipes, as that too has to be determined by individual requirement, but as
a general rule they will serve four to six persons. The amount of
vegetables, &c., given, will be in proportion to 3 pints, i.e. 12 gills
liquid. Serve all soups with croutons of toast or fried bread.


White Stock.

The best stock for white soups is made from small haricots. Take 1 lb. of
these, pick and wash well, throwing away any that are defective, and if
there is time soak ten or twelve hours in cold water; put on in clean
saucepan--preferably earthenware or enamelled--along with the water in which
soaked (if not soaked scald with boiling water, and put on with fresh
boiling water), some of the coarser stalks of celery, one or two chopped
Spanish onions, blade of mace, and a few white pepper-corns. If celery is