Soupe Maigre No 1 Recipe

Take the white part of eight loaved lettuces, cut them as small as dice,

wash them and strain them through a sieve. Pick a handful of purslain

and half a handful of parsley, wash and drain them. Cut up six large

cucumbers in slices about the thickness of a crown-piece. Peel and mince

four large onions, and have in readiness three pints of young green

peas. Put half a pound of fresh butter into your stewpan; brown it of a

high colour, something like that of beef gravy. Put in two ounces of

lean bacon cut clean from the rind, add all your herbs, peas, and

cucumbers, and thirty corns of whole pepper; let these stew together for

ten minutes; keep stirring to prevent burning. Put one gallon of boiling

water to a gallon of small broth, and a French roll cut into four pieces

toasted of a fine yellow brown. Cover your stewpan, and let it again

stew for two hours. Add half a drachm of beaten mace, one clove beaten,

and half a grated nutmeg, and salt to your taste. Let it boil up, and

squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Send it to table with all the bread and

the herbs that were stewed in it.