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Oatmeal Puree
1 1/2 cups cooked oatmeal; 2 small onions, chopped; 1 cup celery, chopped; 1 pint milk; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/2 saltspoon white pepper; 1 teaspoon chopped parsley.
Boil the onion and celery in a pint of water until nearly done; add the oatmeal mush and continue to cook until all is soft, adding more boiling water if it becomes too thick. Strain through a rather coarse strainer, pressing the pulp through with a spoon. Add the milk, bring to a boil, then add the butter and other seasoning, sprinkling in the chopped parsley just before serving. This makes a good nursery soup, either with or without the addition of a teaspoonful of extract of beef. If liked, a blade of mace may be cooked in before straining.
A thickened vegetable puree that uses leftover porridge as its body, in place of a roux or potato. It comes together in about half an hour and yields roughly a quart, enough for four small bowls.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so half a saltspoon is a scant eighth of a teaspoon of white pepper. It is meant to season without showing, in keeping with the soup's intended eaters.
- Cooked oatmeal"Oatmeal mush" here is plain cooked porridge, of the sort left from breakfast; the recipe does not say what grade of oat. The 1 1/2 cups is the cooked mush, not dry oats measured before.
- Consistency is the whole jobOatmeal keeps swelling as it cooks and sets firm as it cools, which is why the recipe allows more boiling water if the pot becomes too thick. Aim for something thinner than you want at table, since it will tighten in the tureen.
- StrainingThe coarse strainer and spoon do the work of a food mill; a china cap or the coarse plate of a mill gives the same slightly grainy body. A blender produces a smoother, gluier result, as oat starch turns slick under high-speed blades, so pulse briefly if you use one.
- Extract of beefThis was a commercial meat concentrate of the Liebig or Bovril type. A teaspoon of a modern beef concentrate or a strong bouillon paste stands in; add it with the milk and taste before adding the full teaspoon of salt, since concentrates are salty.
- Blade of maceA blade is a piece of the dried aril that surrounds nutmeg, and it is stronger than it looks. One blade is plenty for this quantity; a pinch of ground mace is the nearest substitute, added late so it does not dominate.
- The milkBring it just to a boil, as the recipe directs, and add the butter and seasoning after that.