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Poor Man's Soup

Slice two onions, and cut four ounces of bacon into dice. Fry these in two ounces of good beef dripping until they are lightly browned. Add a large carrot, a turnip, a leek, and three or four outer sticks of celery, all cut into this pieces. Fry for a few minutes longer. Pour in six quarts of water. Let the liquid boil, then throw in a little more than a pint of split peas, which have been soaked for several hours in cold water. Simmer the soup gently until the peas are reduced to a pulp. Press through a sieve. Return the soup to the saucepan, mix with it two table-spoonfuls of salt, one of sugar, one of dried mint, half a table-spoonful of pepper, and half a pound of flour mixed smoothly with a pint of water. Boil half an hour longer, and serve. If preferred, the mint can be served separately at table, and taken or not according to individual taste. Time, varying with the freshness of the peas, usually about four hours. Sufficient for twelve or fourteen people. Probable cost, 1d. per quart.