=Croutons=
Of all the accompaniments to soups, croutons (crusts of bread) are
perhaps the most desirable as well as most practical. To make them, cut
slices of bread, not too fresh, into any desired shapes, dry, slowly
at first, in a warm oven, then gradually increase the heat until they
are of a delicate cream color, for such soups as bean, Swiss lentil or
bouillon; but for cream soups, dry to crispness without browning.
A favorite shape is made by cutting rather thin loaves of bread into
half inch slices, laying 3 or 4 together and cutting them diagonally
across the narrow way of the slice. This gives dainty strips,
convenient and attractive. The most common way is to cut slices
straight across each way, leaving the bread in dice.
=Miscellaneous=
Croutons, however, are not suitable for very delicate flavored soups,
such as cream of corn or cream of rice. For these, there is nothing
equal to dainty cream or nut-shortened sticks, or little soup crackers.
Cook some of the small Italian pastes (you can be sure that they are
Italian only by buying them of the Italian dealer himself), vermicelli,
soprafini, ditalini, acini di pepe, or others, in boiling salted water
until tender (from 10 to 15 m.), drain and add to suitable soups in the
proportion of one ounce to ¾-1 qt. of soup.
Add a few kernels of popped corn to each plateful of corn soup.
Roll lettuce leaves in tight rolls and cut off in slender rings;
pick up with the fingers and drop into hot soup; or cut lettuce with
vegetable cutter, round or in any not too fine shapes and scatter into
plates of soup as served.
Cut left-overs of pie crust into fancy shapes. Bake and drop into each
plate of soup in serving. They must not stand in the soup long or they
will dissolve.
=Dice Royale=
Coat ¾ in. dice of bread with beaten egg. Bake just before serving.
Serve a few in each dish of soup, or throw into tureen just before
sending to table. May roll cubes in finely-chopped onion or parsley.
=Cream Soup Balls=
1 large tablespn. oil
½ cup pastry flour
1 cup boiling water
⅜ teaspn. salt
4 tablespns. finely-sliced celery, or
¼ teaspn. celery salt
2 teaspns. chopped parsley
(parsley may be omitted)
Heat oil in frying pan until hot, not brown. Add half the flour and rub
to a paste, then add boiling water gradually, stirring until smooth.
Stir in remainder of flour dry.
When the sauce is smooth and creamy and well cooked, remove from the
fire, cool a little, and stir in celery, parsley and salt. The mixture
will be very stiff.
Stand in cool place until perfectly cold, then shape into balls 1¼ to
1½ in. in diameter, or cones 1½ in. at the base, or cubes of 1¼ in.,
or sticks 3½ to 4 in. in length by ¾ of an inch in diameter. Roll in
fine zwieback or cracker crumbs, then in beaten egg (add salt and a
tablespoon of water to each egg), then in crumbs again.
Place on oiled tins a short distance apart, and set in cool place till
15 m. before serving, then put into a quick oven and bake until a
delicate brown and cracked a little. Serve immediately.
If baked too long or too slowly, they will not keep their shape.
This makes 12 to 14 balls. ½ a beaten egg may be added when the celery
is, but the balls are more creamy without it.
The balls may be made the day before required, kept in the ice box and
baked at serving time.
Variation No. 1. Use 2 tablespns. of small pieces of hickory or other
nut meats instead of the celery.
Variation No. 2. Use 2 tablespns. of black walnut meal (made by rubbing
meats through a fine colander with a potato masher), and a little onion.
Variation No. 3. Use ¼ to ⅜ teaspn. grated lemon rind, instead of other
flavorings.
Variation No. 4. Use chopped trumese, with sage and onion in place of
the celery.
The savory balls are used with the plainer soups, and vice versa; or if
both soups and balls are highly seasoned, use contrasting flavors; for
instance, the balls with lemon rind in Nut French soup.
The egg balls should be used with care as they destroy the flavor of
many soups. They, poached eggs, and hard-boiled yolks of eggs are
especially suitable for some cream soups.
=★ Soup Balls--Choux batter=
1 cup water
2 tablespns. butter or oil
1 cup pastry flour
4 eggs
Heat water and oil to boiling, stir flour in dry, stirring and beating
well with batter whip. When nearly cold, add eggs, one at a time,
mixing well, until all are in. Beat for 5 m., stand in ice box for from
1 to 12 or more hours. Drop small quantities from point of spoon into
boiling soup, or bake or boil in tiny balls, flattened.
Excellent baked, but unusually fine boiled, so delightfully free from
stickiness or doughiness.
=Egg Balls=
Rub 4 poached yolks of eggs to a paste. Beat with salt and the white
of 1 raw egg. Form into balls ¾ to 1 in. in diameter. Roll in browned
flour No. 1, bake just before serving. May beat white of egg first.
The raw yolk is sometimes used in place of the white. The balls may be
boiled for 5 m. in the soup, instead of being baked.
=★ Royal Paste=
Beat together 4 eggs, ½ cup thin cream, ½ teaspn. salt. Pour into oiled
tin, place in pan of water; bake slowly until firm. Turn from molds at
once.
When paste is to be cut into fancy shapes with vegetable cutters it
should not be over ¼ in. deep in the pans; but if for dice, it may be
any depth.
This quantity is sufficient for 6 qts. of soup.
I often tint parts of paste with vegetable or fruit colors, spinach
green, parsley, carrots or cranberries.
The left-overs from cutting may be chopped for another soup or a roast.
Use 1½ tablespn. of cream for 1 egg.
Royal may be flavored with onion juice. A little very fine chopped
parsley may be added to it before baking.
Consommé is sometimes used in place of cream.
4 yolks of eggs and 1 white may be used instead of 4 whole eggs with
the same quantity of liquid, and rich milk will do instead of cream,
but the paste will not be as tender.
=Spun Eggs=
Break eggs into cup (2 for each quart of soup). Leave whole and turn
slowly into rapidly boiling soup, beating briskly with fork or wire
batter whip, until egg is in white and yellow shreds. Boil up well and
serve soup at once. Or, beat eggs and let them stand until the froth
subsides, then add to the soup in the same way.
=Thickening for Potato Soup=
1 tablespn. flour
½ cup cold water
yolks 2 eggs
Blend flour and water, add to boiling soup, boil up well.
Turn some of the hot soup slowly on to the beaten yolks, stirring, add
them to the soup, do not boil, serve at once.
Whipped cream may be added to potato soup just before serving.
=Rice Timbales=
⅓ cup rice
1 cup water
½ teaspn. salt
½ teaspn. oil or melted butter
Soak rice in water for half an hour, add salt and oil, stir well and
steam without stirring, ¾ to 1 hour. Press into small oiled molds. Set
in a pan of hot water covered, for 10 m. Put one in the center of each
plate of soup, with or without a small leaf of parsley on top. Rice may
be boiled.
=Dumplings=
Cut bread or universal dough into small rounds or make into very small
balls; let rise and steam 20 m. or boil 10 to 15 m. in rich soup just
before serving, or boil in water and add to soup.
=Noodles=
I have had equally good success with all three of the following
combinations:--
4 eggs,
salt,
1¾-2 cups bread flour. (Always use bread flour.)
3 eggs,
2 tablespns. water,
salt,
1 teaspn. melted butter,
about 2 cups flour.
Yolks 4 eggs,
2 tablespns. water,
salt,
about 1¼ cup flour.
Beat eggs a little with salt, add water if used, and flour for stiff
dough. Knead on floured board until dry but not flakey.
Then cut into three or four pieces and knead each piece, without
more flour, until very smooth. Roll each piece as thin and as large
as possible, some say to the thickness of a fifty cent piece, hang
on clothes bars, away from the fire, turning often until dry but not
brittle.
Roll up without flour and cut into fine slices from the end; or fold in
1½ in. accordion pleats and cut fine, or cut into strips of any desired
width and cut these into narrow match-like pieces; or cut into rounds
or fancy shapes with vegetable cutters. If cut in the first two ways,
shake out upon a cloth or board and dry ½ to 1 hour.
Add noodles to boiling consommé and boil rapidly, stirring occasionally
with a fork, for 10 to 20 m., or until tender.
Serve soup at once or noodles will become pasty.
Noodles may be cooked in boiling salted water, drained and added to
soup, or cooked for 5 m. in water and finished in soup, giving a
clearer consommé.
Noodles may be cooked in Mother’s and Nut French soup, as well as in
bouillon or consommé.
Noodles may be dried thoroughly and stored in jars or close-covered
box, almost indefinitely; but will require a much longer cooking.
=★ Cream Noodles=
Beat 1 egg light, add 1 tablespn. milk and a pinch of salt; then beat
in 3-4½ tablespns. flour.
Turn slowly in a slender stream into rapidly boiling soup, stirring
constantly; boil up well and serve at once.
When the mixture is poured slowly from the point of a spoon, it will be
in shreds, and when cooked will be firm enough to hold its shape, but
not hard.
* * * * *
“Cooking is not drudgery--it is an art.... No one who stands by a hot
stove ever cooks. That party only waits. The cook is always on the _qui
vive_. In the exaltation and exhileration of his artistic services, he
forgets that the stove is hot.”
--_Dr. Harvey W. Wiley._