4 lbs. mutton or lamb—_lean_—cut into small pieces.
1 gallon water.
½ teacupful rice.
Boil the unsalted meat for two hours, slowly, in a covered vessel.
Soak the rice in enough warm water to cover it, and at the end of this
time add it, water and all, to the boiling soup. Cook an hour longer,
stirring watchfully from time to time, lest the rice should settle and
adhere to the bottom of the pot. Beat an egg to a froth and stir into a
cup of cold milk, into which has been rubbed smoothly a tablespoonful
rice or wheat flour. Mix with this, a little at a time, some of the
scalding liquor, until the egg is so far cooked that there is no danger
of curdling in the soup. Pour into the pot, when you have taken out the
meat, season with parsley, thyme, pepper, and salt. Boil up fairly, and
serve. If allowed to stand on the fire, it is apt to burn.
This soup may be made from the liquor in which a leg of mutton has been
boiled, provided too much salt was not put in with it. It is especially
good when the stock is chicken broth. For the sick it is palatable and
nutritious with the rice left in. When strained it makes a nice white
table soup, and is usually relished by all.