742—Soupe Aux Cerises

Stone two-thirds lb. of small, fleshy cherries, and put twenty aside for garnishing purposes. Put the others into a sugar-boiler with two-thirds pint of hot water, a small strip of lemon rind, and a fragment of cinnamon, and set to boil quickly for eight minutes.

Also boil in another sugar-boiler one-half pint of Port or Bordeaux wine. Crush half of the cherry-stones in the mortar; put them into the boiled wine, and let them infuse, away from the fire.

Rub the cooked cherries through a fine sieve; dilute the purée with the juice thickened by means of one tablespoonful of fecula moistened with cold water; add the cherries put aside for the garnish, and one-half tablespoonful of castor sugar, and again set to boil for four minutes.

Complete the preparation with the infusion strained through muslin; pour it into the soup-tureen, and add a few biscottes.

For the sake of variety, lady’s-finger biscuits may be substituted for the biscottes.