Cold Soup, Russian Style

Cut into quarter inch squares, one salted cucumber and two fresh ones, free of their peel and seeds, (one pound in all), put these into a soup tureen on the ice; add the meat from sixty crawfish, or one pound of the meat from a lobster's claws, cut in quarter inch squares of the same dimension as the cucumbers; and half a pound of braized sturgeon or salmon cut in quarter inch squares; put all these on ice until ready to serve. Have one quart of sour cream, strain it through a tammy, also two quarts of kwass, and stir into it a few pieces of very clean ice, also the cucumbers and lobster laid aside; season with salt and a pinch of powdered sugar, and serve separately on a plate some hard boiled eggs, cut in four and sprinkled over with chervil and fennel.

Kwass.-In order to make twelve bottles of kwass, procure two pounds of rye, two pounds of wheat, and one pound of hulled barley; pour tepid water over all, and when these grains are swollen, add four pounds of rye flour, and mix well together with tepid water, so as to form a paste neither too thin nor too thick. Put this into a large earthen pot, into a hot oven, and let it brown. After this has cooked five hours, pour it into a pail or barrel and mix in with it twelve bottlefuls of cold water; let rest for twenty-four hours, then decant the liquid and clarify it with a quarter of a pound of yeast mixed with a third of a bottleful of Madeira wine; rest again for five hours, and remove the clear part, and with this liquid fill up the bottles, setting one dry Malaga raisin into each one, then cork, tie, and keep the bottles in a cool place.