cheapest and most inferior kind of meat for broths and soups, and to
boil it down till it is entirely destroyed, and hardly worth giving to
the pigs. But this is a false frugality; and it is far better to buy
good pieces of meat, and only stew them till they are tender enough to
be eaten. Lean juicy beef, mutton, or veal, form the basis of good
broth; and it is therefore advisable to procure those pieces which
afford the richest succulence, and such as is fresh slain. Stale meat
will make the broth grouty and bad tasted, and fat is not so well
adapted to the purpose. The following herbs, roots, and seasonings, are
proper for making and giving a relish to broths and soups, according as
the taste may suit. Scotch barley, pearl barley, wheat flour, oatmeal,
bread, raspings, peas, beans, rice, vermicelli, maccaroni, isinglass,
potatoe mucilage, mushroom, or mushroom ketchup, champignons, parsnips,
carrots, beet root, turnips, garlic, shalots, and onions. Sliced onions
fried with butter and flour till they are browned, and then rubbed
through a sieve, are excellent to heighten the colour and flavour of
brown soups and sauces, and form the basis of most of the fine relishes
furnished by the cook. The older and drier the onion, the stronger will
be its flavour, and the quantity must be regulated accordingly. Leeks,
cucumber, or burnet vinegar; celery, or celery seed pounded. The latter,
though equally strong, does not impart the delicate sweetness of the
fresh vegetable; and when used as a substitute, its flavour should be
corrected by the addition of a bit of sugar. Cress seed, parsley, common
thyme, lemon thyme, orange thyme, knotted marjoram, sage, mint, winter
savoury, and basil. As fresh green basil is seldom to be procured, and
its fine flavour is soon lost, the best way of preserving the extract is
by pouring wine on the fresh leaves. Bay leaves, tomata, tarragon,
chervil, burnet, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, mace, black
pepper, white pepper, essence of anchovy, lemon peel, lemon juice, and
Seville orange juice. The latter imparts a finer flavour than the lemon,
and the acid is much milder. The above materials, with wine and mushroom
ketchup, combined in various proportions, will make an endless variety
of excellent broths and soups. The general fault of English soups seems
to be the employment of an excess of spice, and too small a proportion
of roots and herbs. This is especially the case with tavern soups, where
cayenne and garlic are often used instead of black pepper and onion, for
the purpose of obtaining a higher relish. Soups, which are intended to
constitute the principal part of a meal, certainly ought not to be
flavoured like sauces, which are only designed to give a relish to some
particular dish. The principal art in composing a good rich soup, is so
to proportion the several ingredients one to another, that no particular
taste be stronger than the rest; but to produce such a fine harmonious
relish, that the whole becomes delightful. In order to this, care must
be taken that the roots and herbs be perfectly well cleaned, and that
the water be proportioned to the quantity of meat, and other
ingredients. In general a quart of water may be allowed to a pound of
meat for soups; and half the quantity for gravies. If they stew gently,
little more water need be put in at first, than is expected at the end;
for when the pot is covered quite close, and the fire gentle, very
little is wasted. Gentle stewing is incomparably the best; the meat is
more tender, and the soup better flavoured. The cover of a soup kettle
should fit very close, or the most essential parts of the broth will
soon evaporate, as will also be the case with quick boiling. It is not
merely the fibres of the meat that afford nourishment, but chiefly the
juices they contain; and these are not only extracted but exhaled, if
it be boiled fast in an open vessel. A succulent soup can never be made
but in a well closed vessel, which preserves the nutritive parts by
preventing their dissipation, yet the flavour is perhaps more wholesome
by an exposure to the air. Place the soup kettle over a moderate fire,
sufficient to make the water hot, without causing it to boil; for if the
water boils immediately, it will not penetrate the meat, and cleanse it
from the clotted blood and other matters, which ought to go off in scum.
The meat will be hardened all over by violent heat, will shrink up as if
it were scorched, and afford very little gravy. On the contrary, by
keeping the water heating about half an hour without boiling, the meat
swells, becomes tender, and its fibres are dilated. By this process, it
yields a quantity of scum, which must be taken off as soon as it
appears. After the meat has had a good infusion for half an hour, the
fire may be improved to make the pot boil, and the vegetables be put in
with a little salt. These will cause more scum to rise, which must be
taken off immediately. Then cover the boiler very closely, and place it
at a proper distance from the fire, where it is to boil very gently and
equally, but not fast. Soups will generally take from three to six hours
doing. The better way is to prepare them the evening before, as that
will give more time to attend to the dinner the next day. When the soup
is cold, the fat may much more easily and completely be removed; and
when it is decanted, take care not to disturb the settlings at the
bottom of the vessel, which are so fine that they will escape through a
sieve. A tammis is the best strainer, the soup appears smoother and
finer, and the cloth is easier cleaned than any sieve. If you strain it
while it is hot, let the tammis or napkin be previously soaked in cold
water; the coldness of the strainer will tend to coagulate the fat, and
only suffer the pure broth to pass through. The full flavour of the
ingredients can only be extracted by long and slow simmering, during
which the boiler must be kept close covered, to prevent evaporation.
Clear soups must be perfectly transparent, thickened soups about the
consistence of cream; the latter will require nearly double the quantity
of seasoning, but too much spice makes it unwholesome. To thicken and
give body to soups and sauces, the following materials are used. Bread
raspings, potatoe mucilage, isinglass, flour and butter, barley, rice,
or oatmeal and water rubbed well together. Any of these are to be mixed
gradually with the soup, till thoroughly incorporated, and it should
afterwards have at least half an hour's gentle simmering. If it appears
lumpy, it must be passed through a tammis or fine sieve. A piece of
boiled beef pounded to a pulp, with a bit of butter and flour, and
rubbed through a sieve, and gradually incorporated with the soup, will
be found an excellent addition. If the soup is too thin or too weak,
take off the cover of the boiler, and let it boil till some of the
watery part of it has evaporated; or add some of the thickening
materials before mentioned. When soups and gravies are kept from day to
day, in hot weather, they should be warmed up every day, and put into
fresh scalded pans or tureens, and placed in a cool cellar. In temperate
weather, every other day may be sufficient.--It has been imagined that
soups tend to relax the stomach; but so far from being prejudicial in
this way, the moderate use of such kind of liquid food may rather be
considered as salutary, and affording a good degree of nourishment. Soup
of a good quality, if not eaten too hot, or in too great a quantity, is
attended with great advantages, especially to those who drink but
little. Warm fluids in the form of soup, unite with our juices much
sooner and better, than those which are cold and raw. On this account,
what is called Restorative Soup is the best food for those who are
enfeebled by disease or dissipation, and for old people, whose teeth and
digestive organs are impaired. After taking cold, or in nervous
headachs, cholics, indigestions, and different kinds of cramps and
spasms in the stomach, warm broth or soup is of excellent service. After
intemperate eating, to give the stomach a holiday for a day or two, by a
diet on mutton broth, is the best way to restore its tone. The
stretching of any power to its utmost extent, weakens it; and if the
stomach be obliged every day to do as much as it can, it will every day
be able to do less. It is therefore a point of wisdom to be temperate in
all things, frequently to indulge in soup diet, and occasionally in
almost total abstinence, in order to preserve the stomach in its full
tone and vigour.--Cheap soups for charitable purposes are best made of
fat meat, well boiled with vegetables. Much unreasonable prejudice has
prevailed on this subject, as if fat was unsuitable for such a purpose,
when it is well known that the nutritious parts of animal and vegetable
diet depend on the oil, jelly, mucilage, and sweetness which they
contain. The farina of grain, and the seeds of vegetables, contain more
of the nutritious and essential parts of the plant than any other, as is
evident from the use of celery seed, the eighth part of an ounce of
which will give more relish to a gallon of soup, than a large quantity
of the root or stalk. On the same principle, the fat is the essence of
meat, nearly so as the seeds of plants are of their respective species.
To establish this fact, a simple experiment will be sufficient. Boil
from two to four ounces of the lean part of butcher's meat in six quarts
of water, till reduced to a gallon. Thicken it with oatmeal, and the
result of the decoction will be found to be water gruel, or something
like it. But dissolve the same quantity of the fat of meat in a gallon
of water, thicken it over the fire with oatmeal, and the result will be
a very pleasant broth, possessing the identical taste of the meat in a
considerable degree, whether of beef or mutton. If some of the
gelatinous parts of meat be added, the broth is then of a rich and
nutritious quality, and can be made very cheap. For example: take from
four to six ounces of barley, oatmeal two ounces, onions or leeks a
small quantity; beef fat, suet, or drippings, from two to four ounces;
celery seed half a spoonful, pepper and salt to give the soup a relish,
and water sufficient to make a gallon. Boil the barley, previously
washed, in six quarts of water, which when boiled sufficiently soft will
be reduced to a gallon. It will be necessary to skim it clean in the
course of the boiling, and to stir it well from the bottom of the
boiler. The celery seed should be bruised, and added with the leeks and
onions, towards the end of the process. The oatmeal is to be mixed in a
little cold water, and put in about an hour before the soup is done. In
the last place add the fat, melted before the fire, if not in a state of
drippings, and season with pepper and salt. A few grains of cayenne
would give the soup a higher relish. Wheat flour may be used instead of
oatmeal, but in a smaller proportion. The addition of turnips, carrots,
and cabbages, will be a considerable improvement. The intention of the
oatmeal or flour is, by the mucilage they contain, assisted with barley
broth, to unite the fat with the liquid, so as to form one uniform
mass. Where the fat is suspended in the soup, and not seen floating on
the top, by which it is rendered easier of digestion, and more readily
convertible into good chyle, it is evident that it must be more
palatable, as well as abundantly more nutritious. Some may think this
kind of soup unwholesome, from the quantity of fat it contains; but a
little reflection will shew the contrary. Suet puddings and dumplins are
not unwholesome, neither are mutton drippings with potatoes or other
vegetables. In short, fat is eaten daily by all ranks of people, in some
way or other, in much larger quantities than is prescribed for soup. A
labouring man would find no difficulty in eating as much suet at one
meal, in a flour pudding, or as much drippings as is necessary for a
gallon of soup, in a mass of potatoes or cabbages; while at the same
time a quart of soup with a slice of bread, would be a very hearty meal.
In no other way could meat drippings be applied to so good a purpose, as
in the manufacture of a gallon of soup, sufficient to give a dinner to a
whole family. The quantity of fat or drippings necessary for the soup is
so small, that it may easily be spared from a joint of roast meat, while
enough will remain for other purposes. When mutton dripping is made into
soup, wheat flour is better than oatmeal; but the mucilage of potatoe is
better still, requiring only one ounce to the gallon. When pork is
roasted, peas should be used in preference to boiled barley, and the
soup will be very superior in flavour to any that is made with the bones
of meat, or combined with bacon. Fat pork is eaten daily in large
quantities, in most of the counties of England; and in some parts, hog's
lard is spread on bread instead of butter, besides the abundance of lard
that is used by all ranks of people, in puddings, cakes, and pasties.
Fat enters so much into the composition of our diet, that we could
scarcely subsist without it; and the application of it to soups is only
a different mode of using it, and certainly more frugal and economical
than any other. It may readily be perceived how soups made from lean
meat might be improved by the addition of a little fat, mixed up and
incorporated with a mucilage of potatoes, of wheat flour, oatmeal, peas,
and barley. But where a quantity of fat swims on the surface of the
broth, made from a fat joint of meat, and it cannot from its
superabundance be united with the liquid, by means of any mucilage, it
had better be skimmed off, and preserved for future use; otherwise the
soup will not be agreeable, for it is the due proportion of animal and
vegetable substance that makes soup pleasant and wholesome. To make good
soup of a leg of beef or an ox cheek, which is generally called stew, a
pretty large quantity of the vegetable class ought to be added; and none
seems better adapted than Scotch barley, by which double and treble the
quantity of soup may be made from the same given weight of meat. One
pint of well prepared leg of beef, or ox cheek soup, together with the
fat, will make a gallon of good soup at the trifling expense of
four-pence. In the same way soups may be made from the stew of beef,
mutton, veal, or pork, choosing those parts where mucilage, jelly, and
fat abound. Bacon is allowed to be a considerable improvement to the
taste of veal, whether roasted or boiled; and it is the same in soup.
When therefore veal broth is made for family use, two ounces of fat
bacon should be added to every gallon, melted before the fire or in a
fryingpan. The soup should then be thickened with flour, potatoe starch,
and barley. The last article should seldom be omitted in any soup, it
being so very cheap and pleasant, as well as wholesome and nutritious.
Soup made of tripe is another cheap article. Boil a pound of well
cleaned tripe in a gallon of barley broth, with onions and parsley,
adding two ounces of bacon fat, with salt and pepper. This produces an
extremely nutritious soup, from the gelatinous principle with which the
tripe abounds. Cow heels, calves and sheep's feet, are also well adapted
to the purpose. Excellent soups may be made from fried meat, where the
fat and gravy are added to the boiled barley; and for that purpose, fat
beef steaks, pork and mutton chops, should be preferred, as containing
more of the nutritious principle. Towards the latter end of frying the
steaks, add a little water to produce a gravy, which is to be put to the
barley broth. A little flour should also be dredged in, which will take
up all the fat left in the fryingpan. A quantity of onions should
previously be shred, and fried with the fat, which gives the soup a fine
flavour, with the addition of pepper, salt, and other seasoning. There
would be no end to the variety of soups that might be made from a number
of cheap articles differently combined; but perhaps the distribution of
soup gratis does not answer so well as teaching people how to make it,
and to improve their comforts at home. The time lost in waiting for the
boon, and fetching it home, might by an industrious occupation, however
poorly paid for labour, be turned to a better account than the mere
obtaining of a quart of soup. But it unfortunately happens, that the
best and cheapest method of making a nourishing soup, is least known to
those who have most need of it. The labouring classes seldom purchase
what are called the coarser pieces of meat, because they do not know how
to dress them, but lay out their money in pieces for roasting, which
are far less profitable, and more expensive in the purchase. To save
time, trouble, and firing, these are generally sent to the oven to be
baked, the nourishing parts are evaporated and dried up, the weight is
diminished nearly one third, and what is purchased with a week's
earnings is only sufficient for a day or two's consumption. If instead
of this improvident proceeding, a cheap and wholesome soup were at least
occasionally substituted, it would banish the still more pernicious
custom of drinking tea two or three times a day, for want of something
more supporting and substantial. In addition then to the directions
already given, the following may be considered as one of the cheapest
and easiest methods of making a wholesome soup, suited to a numerous
family among the labouring classes. Put four ounces of Scotch barley
washed clean, and four ounces of sliced onions, into five quarts of
water. Boil it gently for one hour, and pour it into a pan. Put into a
saucepan nearly two ounces of beef or mutton drippings, or melted suet,
or two or three ounces of minced bacon; and when melted, stir into it
four ounces of oatmeal. Rub these together into a paste, and if properly
managed, the whole of the fat will combine with the barley broth, and
not a particle, appear on the surface to offend the most delicate
stomach. Now add the barley broth, at first a spoonful at a time, then
the rest by degrees, stirring it well together till it boils. Put into a
teacup a dram of finely pounded cress or celery seed, and a quarter of a
dram of finely pounded cayenne, or a dram and a half of ground black
pepper or allspice, and mix it up with a little of the soup. Put this
seasoning into the whole quantity, stir up the soup thoroughly, let it
simmer gently a quarter of an hour, and add a little salt. The flavour
may be varied by doubling the portion of onions, or adding a clove of
garlic or shalot, and leaving out the celery seed. Change of food is
absolutely necessary, not only as a matter of pleasure and comfort, but
also of health. It may likewise be much improved, if instead of water,
it be made of the liquor that meat has been boiled in. This soup has the
advantage of being very soon made, with no more fuel than is necessary
to warm a room. Those who have not tasted it, cannot imagine what a
savoury and satisfying meal is produced by the combination of these
cheap and homely ingredients.
SOUP WITH CUCUMBERS. Pare and cut the cucumbers, then stew them with
some good broth, and veal gravy to cover them. When done enough, heat
the soup with the liquor they were stewed in, and season it with salt.
Serve up the soup garnished with the cucumbers. These will be a proper
garnish for almost any kind of soup.
SOUP A L' EAU. Put into a saucepan holding about three pints, a quarter
of a cabbage, four carrots, two parsnips, six onions, and three or four
turnips. Add a root of celery, a small root of parsley, some sorrel, a
bunch of white beet leaves and chervil, and half a pint of peas tied in
a piece of linen. Add water in proportion to the vegetables, and stew
the whole for three hours. Strain off the broth, add some salt, heat it
and serve it up, garnished with the vegetables.
SOUP GRAVY. Take some good juicy lean beef, free from sinews or other
offal substance; or take the lean of a neck, or loin, or the fleshy part
of a leg of mutton, or well-grown fowl, in the proportion of a pound of
meat to a quart of water to beef, and rather less to mutton or fowl. Cut
the meat in pieces, and let it stew very gently till the pure gravy is
fairly drawn from the meat, without extracting the dregs. The time
required for this will vary according to the quantity, the proper degree
of heat being of course longer in penetrating the larger portion. From
an hour and a half to three hours, at discretion, will allow sufficient
time for any quantity that is likely to be wanted at once for soup, at
least in private families. When done, strain the gravy through a hair
sieve into an earthen pot, and let it stand till cold. Take off the fat,
and pour the gravy clear from the sediment at the bottom.
SOUP MAIGRE. Melt half a pound of butter into a stewpan, shake it round,
and throw in half a dozen sliced onions. Shake the pan well for two or
three minutes, then put in five heads of celery, two handfuls of
spinach, two cabbage lettuces cut small, and some parsley. Shake the pan
well for ten minutes, put in two quarts of water, some crusts of bread,
a tea-spoonful of beaten pepper, and three or four blades of mace. A
handful of white beet leaves, cut small, may be added. Boil it gently an
hour. Just before serving, beat in two yolks of eggs, and a large
spoonful of vinegar.--Another. Flour and fry a quart of green peas, four
sliced onions, the coarse stalks of celery, a carrot, a turnip, and a
parsnip. Pour on three quarts of water, let it simmer till the whole
will pulp through a sieve, and boil in it the best of the celery cut
thin.--Another way. Take a bunch of celery washed clean and cut in
pieces, a large handful of spinage, two cabbage lettuces, and some
parsley; wash all very clean, and shred them small; then take a large
clean stewpan, put in about half a pound of butter, and when it is quite
hot, slice four large onions very thin, and put into your butter; stir
them well about for two or three minutes; then put in the rest of your
herbs; shake all well together for near twenty minutes, dust in some
flour, and stir them together; pour in two quarts of boiling water;
season with pepper, salt, and beaten mace: chip a handful of crust of
bread, and put in; boil it half an hour, then beat up the yolks of three
eggs in a spoonful of vinegar; pour it in, and stir it for two or three
minutes; then send it to table.
SOUP WITH ONIONS. Blanch some small white onions in scalding water, peel
off the first skin, and stew them in a little broth. When ready, lay
them in a row round the edge of the dish intended for the soup. To keep
them in their place, put a thin slip of bread rubbed with white of egg
round the rim of the dish, and set the dish for a moment over a stove to
fasten the bread. Slips of bread may be used in this manner to keep all
kinds of garnishing to soups in their proper place.
SOUP A LA REINE. Blanch and beat very fine in a marble mortar, three
quarters of a pound of sweet almonds, with the white part of a cold
roasted fowl. Slice to these the crumb of four small rolls, and then
strain to it three quarts of good veal gravy, boiled with a blade of
mace. Simmer these all together for a quarter of an hour, then rub them
through a tammis, season it with salt, give it a boil, and serve it up
with a small tea-cupful of cream stirred into it, and the slices of
crust cut off the rolls laid on the top.--Another way. Have ready a
strong veal broth that is white, and clean scummed from all fat; blanch
a pound of almonds, beat them in a mortar, with a little water, to
prevent their oiling, and the yolks of four poached eggs, the lean part
of the legs, and all the white part of a roasted fowl; pound all
together, as fine as possible; then take three quarts of the veal broth,
put it into a clean stew-pot, put your ingredients in, and mix them well
together; chip in the crust of two French rolls well rasped; boil all
together over a stove, or a clear fire. Take a French roll, cut a piece
out of the top, and take out all the crumb: mince the white part of a
roasted fowl very fine, season it with pepper, salt, nutmeg, and a
little beaten mace; put in about an ounce of butter, and moisten it with
two spoonfuls of your soup strained to it; set it over the stove to be
thoroughly hot: cut some French roll in thin slices, and set them before
the fire to crisp; then strain off your soup through a tammis or a lawn
strainer, into another clean stew-pot; let it stew till it is as thick
as cream; then have your dish ready; put in some of your crisp bread;
fill your roll with your mince, and lay on the top as close as possible;
put it into the middle of your dish, and pour a ladleful of your soup
over it; put in your bread first, then pour in your soup, till your dish
is full. Garnish with petty patties; or make a rim for your dish, and
garnish with lemon raced. If you please, you may send a chicken boned in
the middle, instead of your roll; or you may send it to table with only
crisp bread.
SOUP A-LA SAP. Boil half a pound of grated potatoes, a pound of beef
sliced thin, a pint of grey peas, an onion, and three ounces of rice, in
six pints of water till reduced to five. Strain it through a cullender,
pulp the peas into it, and return it into the saucepan with two heads of
sliced celery. Stew it tender, add pepper and salt, and serve it with
fried bread.