Potage is the modern word for soup, and is used in bills of fare
everywhere.
Three kinds of liquor are used to make potages: broth, milk, and water.
Besides the liquor, meat, fish, and vegetables are used.
The richest potages are made with _consomme_ and some other compounds;
such as bread, Italian pastes, vegetables, etc.
_Consomme_ means rich broth; literally, it means consumed, perfect, that
is, properly reduced and partly consumed, as it is the case in making
it. _Consomme_ is broth reduced to a certain point, according to want or
taste.
_Broth._--Broth is to good cooking what wheat is to bread. Dishes (with
some exceptions) prepared without broth are, to those prepared with it,
what rye or corn bread is to wheat bread. Broth, and especially
_consomme_, are to old age what milk is to the infant. Broth is called
_bouillon_ in France, and _stock_ in England. The word _pot-au-feu_
means the meat, vegetables, seasonings, spices, and the "pot" or
soup-kettle itself, _i. e._, every thing made use of in making broth.
The popular meaning of the term in France is, the soup and the beef and
vegetables served as _releves_; and, with the working-classes, the only
thing (with bread, wine, and fruit) composing the family dinner. The
French army is fed on this _pot-au-feu_ three hundred and sixty days in
the year.
It is a great mistake to believe that bones or veal make good broth; by
boiling or simmering bones or veal, you obtain a gelatinous liquid, but
not a rich broth with a pleasant flavor. When properly made, broth is
clear. If milky, it has been made with bones, veal, or very inferior
beef.
_Broth for Potages._--Take three pounds of good, lean, fresh beef, from
any part except the shin. There must not be more than two ounces of bone
to a pound of meat, and the less bone the better. Place the meat in a
soup-kettle or iron saucepan lined with tin, with three quarts of cold
water and salt, and set it on a good fire. After about thirty minutes,
the scum or albumen of the meat will gather on the surface, and the
water will commence boiling. Now place the kettle on a more moderate
fire, add one gill of cold water, and begin to skim off the scum, which
will take only a few minutes. Then add one middle-sized carrot, half as
much turnip, one middle-sized leek, a stalk of celery, one of parsley, a
bay-leaf, one onion with two cloves stuck in it, and two cloves of
garlic. Keep the kettle between simmering and boiling heat for about
five hours. Dish the meat with carrot, turnip, and leek around it, and
serve it as a _releve_. Strain the broth, and it is ready for use.
If the broth is required to be richer, use more beef and less water, but
follow the same process; if weaker, use more water and less beef, but
still follow the same process.
_Broth for Sauces and Gravies._--Place in a soup-kettle or saucepan
fresh bones of beef, mutton, lamb, veal, or poultry--of either, or of
all; also, bones of the same meats from roasted pieces; also trimmings
of the same, if very fresh, with one quart of cold water to every pound
of bones or meat; skim it like the preceding, add the same vegetables
and seasonings, and simmer for at least six hours. Then skim off very
carefully all the fat on the surface, pass the remainder through a
strainer or a sieve, and it is ready for use. This broth is certainly
very inferior to the preceding one, but it is excellent for sauces and
gravies, and is very cheaply made. It may be used for potages also; but,
as we have said above, it is very gelatinous, and cannot be compared
with the highly nutritious beef-broth.
Broth that is not to be used immediately must be cooled quickly after
being strained, as the quicker it is cooled the longer it keeps. As soon
as cold, put it in a stone jar or crockery vessel, and place it in a
cool, dry, and dark place. It will keep three or four days in winter,
but only one day in summer. If the weather is stormy, it will not keep
even for twelve hours; it turns sour very quickly.
I do not put parsnips or thyme in broth, the taste of these two
vegetables being too strong. They really neutralize the fine aroma of
broth. Even in this nineteenth century there are some pretty good cooks
who put thyme and parsnip in broth, but they do it by routine. Routine
is in every thing the greatest enemy of progress. Ancient cookery used
to put in the _pot_ (old name for soup-kettle) a burnt onion to give an
amber color to the broth. This has exactly the same effect as thyme and
parsnip, giving it a bad taste, and neutralizing the flavor given to the
broth by the osmazome of the meat. When broth of an amber color is
desired, add to it a few drops of burnt sugar, the receipt for making
which will be found elsewhere.
_Consomme._--There are two ways of making _consomme_: one is to make
broth as above, with the exception that five pounds of lean beef,
instead of three, are used with three quarts of water, and simmered from
seven to eight hours, instead of five, the vegetables and seasonings
being the same; or by boiling broth gently till properly reduced.
The other way is to roast, until they are only one-third done, one, two,
or three fowls, not under two years old; then place them in a
soup-kettle with three pounds of lean beef; wet with three quarts of
cold water; skim off as above directed; add the same vegetables and
seasonings as for broth for potages. After having simmered the whole for
three hours, the fowl or fowls must be taken out of the kettle, and the
rest is to be simmered for about three hours longer. The meat,
vegetables, and seasonings are then taken from the kettle or saucepan;
the liquor is strained, and that liquor is the best _consomme_ that can
be made; or by boiling the same, gently, in three quarts of good broth,
you make _consomme_ also.
The reason for directing to use one, two, or three fowls is, that the
more fowls used, the better and richer the broth. The fowls after having
been thus used may be prepared in salad, and make a very excellent dish.
One pound of beef is enough to make broth for a potage for three or four
persons.
Always use fresh meat; meat with a venison taste or tainted would spoil
if not entirely destroy the broth.
_To clarify Broth._--If not as clear as wanted, beat the white of an egg
with a gill of cold broth, and turn into the broth; boil gently about
ten minutes, and strain through a cloth or towel.
Any kind of potage made with broth may be made with _consomme_. It may
also be made with water, adding butter. With _consomme_ it is richer,
and with water much inferior, than with broth.
When a rump-piece is used to make broth, it is better to bone it first,
and take it from the soup-kettle after three or four hours; it is served
as a _releve_, or prepared as cold beef. The broth is finished as
directed; the bones and vegetables being kept on the fire longer than
the meat.
Chicken and turkey broth are often called _potage de sante_ (potage of
health).
_Chicken._--Roast or bake till turning yellow, a chicken over two years
old. Put it in a soup-kettle with three pints of water, and set it on a
rather slow fire; skim off the scum, add a middling-sized onion, a leek,
a few stalks of chervil if handy, a middling-sized head of lettuce, and
salt; simmer about three hours. Take out the chicken and vegetables,
skim off the fat, strain, and use. This broth is excellent for a weak
stomach, and is easy of digestion. The chicken is served in salad.
_Turkey._--Procure a rather old turkey and roast or bake it till about
one-third done; put it in a soup-kettle with about a pint of water to a
pound of meat, and set it on a rather slow fire. As soon as the scum
comes on the surface, skim it off carefully; then add two onions, two
leeks, two or three heads of lettuce, a small handful of chervil if
handy, and salt. Simmer about five hours.
Use the broth as chicken-broth above, and serve the turkey in salad.
_Fish_ (also called _a la Lucullus_).--Slice three middling-sized
onions and fry them with one ounce of butter till turning yellow; add
three or four pounds of fish (bass, pike, trout, salmon, and the like),
any fish having a firm and compact flesh, of one or several kinds; add
also two carrots, two onions, and one leek, all sliced; four stalks of
parsley, one of thyme, one clove of garlic, a bay-leaf, one clove, six
pepper-corns, salt; cover the whole with cold water, set on a good but
not brisk fire, boil gently for about two hours. If the water is boiling
away, add some more; then strain, and use.
This broth may be used for _bisque_ and fish sauces, instead of
beef-broth.
It may be made rich; for instance, instead of three pounds of fish, use
six, seven, eight pounds, or more, and seasonings in proportion.
Louis XV. was on a visit to the monastery of Saint Denis one day during
Lent; after having walked all over the grounds and gardens, he was
offered a cup of broth by the superior.
Being a little fatigued, he took the cup and drank the whole at one
draught.
In going back to Versailles, one of his suite, who did not like the
monk-superior, adroitly alluded to the cup of broth, and managed to
persuade the king that the monk had done it on purpose; that is, had
made the king partake of meat-broth, when it was forbidden by the
Church.
The next day the monk-superior was sent for and brought before the king.
On hearing the object of the summons, he asked the king if the broth had
indisposed him. Being answered in the negative, he begged to be allowed
to prepare the same broth before the king himself, which he did, and
from that time till his death the king used to send several hundred
pounds of fish during Lent to the monks of Saint-Denis.
_Frog._--Skin and put the hind-legs of two dozen of frogs in cold water
for an hour; drain and put them in a saucepan, and set it on a slow
fire; stir now and then till they are turning yellow, then take them off
and chop the flesh rather fine; put back in the pan with a carrot
sliced, a stalk of celery and one leek, both chopped, a little salt, and
cover the whole with water. Simmer for about two hours; mash the whole
through a colander, add butter which you stir and mix in, and it is
ready for use.
This broth, taken warm before retiring, is excellent for persons having
a cough or cold.
It is also excellent for consumptive persons, and is only second to
snail-broth.
_Another._--Take the hind-legs of fifty well-skinned green frogs, put
them in cold water and a little salt for half an hour--drain them; then
put them in a crockery kettle, with a leek, half a carrot, two stalks of
celery, a middling-sized parsnip, a turnip, two onions, one clove of
garlic, two ounces of fat bacon, a little salt, and white pepper; cover
the whole well with cold water, set on the fire, simmer gently about
four hours; strain, pour on _croutons_, and serve.
The hind-legs of the frogs are taken from the strainer, placed on a
dish, and served at breakfast the next day, with a white sauce, or in
fricassee, as a chicken.
_Game._--Roast or bake, till about one-third done, two prairie-hens, and
put them in a soup-kettle with about one pound of lean beef, salt, and
five pints of water. Set the kettle on a rather slow fire, skim off the
scum when it gathers on the surface, and then add half a carrot, two
stalks of parsley, one of celery, one onion with a clove stuck in it, a
bay-leaf, six pepper-corns, and two cloves of garlic. Simmer about three
hours, and take the birds out of the kettle; simmer then two hours
longer; strain, and the broth is ready for use.
Game-broth is warming and stimulating; it may be taken alone, or
prepared with _croutons_, rice, vermicelli, or other Italian pastes, the
same as beef-broth.
The prairie-hens are served in _salmis_, and the beef is served as
boiled beef.
_Snail._--Clean and prepare twenty-five snails as directed. Put them in
a saucepan, with a carrot, an onion, and a head of lettuce, all chopped,
a small handful of chervil, a few leaves of sorrel, and a little salt;
cover the whole with three pints of cold water. Boil slowly for about
three hours, strain the broth, add a little butter to it, and it is
ready for use.
A tumblerful of this broth, taken warm before retiring, is certainly the
best thing for a consumptive person.
It is also excellent for a cough.
Just salt the snails to taste, and eat them as they are, warm or cold.
_Veal._--Procure two pounds of veal, from the neck or breast piece. Put
the meat in a soup-kettle with two quarts of cold water and a little
salt; set it on a good fire, and skim off the scum as soon as it gathers
on the surface. When skimmed, add a head of lettuce, a leek (and a few
stalks of chervil if handy); simmer for about three hours; strain, and
use.
This broth, as well as chicken and turkey broth, is excellent for
convalescent persons.
It may be made richer by putting a little more meat, according to taste;
but generally the physician gives directions.
_Another._--Soak a calf's liver in cold water for two hours, clean and
wash it well; put it in a soup-kettle with about three pints of cold
water, salt, boil gently for an hour and a half, and then add a handful
of water-cresses; simmer fifteen minutes longer, strain and use.
_Another._--Proceed as above in every particular, except that you use a
handful of chervil instead of water-cresses.
_Another._--Use three or four leeks instead of water-cresses, and
proceed as above for every other particular.
The last three especially make a very refreshing drink, and are a great
relief in some cases of fever.
_Vegetable Broth_ (called also _Bouillon Maigre_).--Scrape, clean, and
slice three carrots and three turnips, peel three onions; fry the whole
with a little butter till it turns rather yellow; and then add two
plants of celery cut in pieces, three or four leeks, also cut in pieces;
stir and fry the whole for about six minutes. When fried, add also one
clove of garlic, salt, pepper, two cloves, two stalks of parsley, a
little nutmeg grated; cover with about three quarts of water. Keep on a
rather slow fire, skim off the scum carefully, and then simmer for about
three hours. Strain, and use.
This liquor is called vegetable broth, and is used instead of broth in
time of Lent by persons who do not want to use beef-broth.
_Another._--Proceed as above, and with the same vegetables till they are
fried. Then add salt, pepper, two cloves of garlic, four stalks of
parsley, three cloves, a little nutmeg grated, two quarts of white beans
previously soaked in cold water for twenty-four hours, and five or six
quarts of water. Skim it as above; simmer for about four hours; strain,
and use.
The beans, carrots, turnips, and leeks may be mashed through a colander
and served in _puree_.
_Another._--Proceed as above in every particular, with the exception
that instead of using beans, you use peas, lentils, chestnuts, or samp.
Peas and lentils are soaked in water only for four or five hours.
Chestnuts must be shelled. Some other vegetables may be added, according
to taste, and also according to the nature of the vegetables.
_Another._--Clean and put in a bowl a head of lettuce, a handful of
sorrel, same of chervil, same of purslane, and all chopped fine; pour
over nearly a quart of boiling water, add two ounces of butter, cover
the bowl with a wet towel; leave thus half an hour, and strain.
When cold it makes a very refreshing drink, and is taken morning and
evening with salt, to taste.
It may also be taken warm.
_A la Minute, or made quickly._--Cut four ounces of fat salt pork in
dice and set it on the fire in a saucepan; stir, and when it is turning
rather brown add one onion chopped, and half a middling-sized carrot,
sliced; stir, and when they are partly fried, add also two pounds of
lean beef cut in small dice; stir and fry for five minutes. Then pour in
it about three pints of boiling water, salt, boil gently about forty
minutes. Strain, and use.
The beef may be served with the broth, or separately as an _entree_,
with a _piquante_, _ravigote_, or Robert sauce.
_Bisque of Lobster._--Boil one or several lobsters as directed, and when
cold split the tail in two, lengthwise, take the flesh out of the shell,
remove the black vein that is on the back, take out the meat of the two
large claws, and keep the flesh of the claws and tail for the following
day's breakfast.
For a _bisque_, nothing is thrown away but the head, stomach, and black
vein. The head is the part immediately under the eyes; the stomach is a
small, round pouch immediately behind the head; and the vein runs from
the stomach to the end of the tail.
Put all the rest, shell, small claws, all the matter found in the large
shell (green, white, or yellow), in a mortar and pound well. Then put a
tablespoonful of butter in a saucepan, set it on the fire, and when the
butter is melted, put what is in the mortar in, stir with a wooden spoon
for about ten minutes, then add one pint of warm broth, stir for about
twenty minutes, and strain. Put the liquor back on the fire with about
four ounces of toasted bread, boil five minutes, and mash through a
colander. Put the liquor back again on the fire, add one quart of broth,
boil gently ten minutes, and turn into the soup-dish.
While it is boiling, chop fine the coral-piece of the lobster or
lobsters, knead it with a piece of butter of about the same bulk, then
rub both through a wire sieve; put them in the soup-dish with _croutons_
and about two or three ounces of the flesh of the lobster cut in very
small dice. Turn the broth into the soup-dish also, and as directed
above, and serve warm.
When there is no coral in the lobster or lobsters, knead a hard-boiled
yolk of egg with butter in its stead.
Use one, two, three, or more lobsters, according to how much soup is
wanted. It is not costly, because the flesh, or most of it, is kept to
make a salad the next day, for breakfast or lunch.
The salad might be served the same day at dinner, but lobster is a
rather heavy food, and it is more prudent not to eat any late in the
day.
_Bisque of Lobster a la Colbert._--Make a _bisque_ as above, and while
it is on the fire, poach as directed as many eggs as there will be
persons at dinner; put them in the soup-dish instead of _croutons_, and
serve as above.
_Of Crabs._--Proceed as for a bisque of lobster in every particular,
except that you use hard-shell crabs instead of lobster.
_The same a la Colbert._--Add to the above as many poached eggs as you
have guests.
_Of Craw-fish (Bisque d'Ecrevisses)._--Our readers who have been in
Europe will certainly remember the name of one of the best soups that
can be made. It is made of craw-fish the same as with lobster, and is
certainly more delicate than a _bisque_ of lobster or of crabs. (See
Craw-fish for other particulars.)
A _bisque_ of craw-fish may also be served _a la Colbert_ the same as a
_bisque_ of lobster.
_Bouillabaisse._--The real _bouillabaisse_ is made in Marseilles; they
make an imitation of it in Bordeaux, and in many other parts of France
and the Continent; but, like a Welsh rarebit prepared out of Wales, it
is very inferior to the real one. However, we will give the receipt to
make it here, and as good as possible with the fish that can be
procured.
Put a gill of sweet-oil in a tin saucepan and set it on a sharp fire;
when hot, add two onions and two cloves of garlic sliced; stir so as to
partly fry them, and then take from the fire. Put also in the pan three
pounds of fish, such as haddock, halibut, turbot, white-fish--of all if
possible, but at least of two kinds; also a dozen muscles, just blanched
and taken from the shell (some put them whole, properly cleaned). The
fish is cut in pieces about two inches long. Then add one gill of
Catawba or Sauterne wine, a bay-leaf, two cloves, two slices of lemon,
the juice of a tomato, salt, pepper, a pinch of saffron, cover with
cold water, and set the pan back on a brisk fire. After about thirty
minutes add a teaspoonful of chopped parsley; boil ten minutes longer,
and it is done.
The pieces of fish are then placed on a dish and served.
Put in a deep dish, and to be served at the same time, some slices of
bread, over which you turn the sauce through a strainer.
One slice of bread and one piece of fish is served to each person, also
some sauce.
It is put in two different dishes, to avoid breaking the pieces of fish.
There are over a hundred ways of making a _bouillabaisse_; the above is
one of the best.
There are also about as many ways of spelling the same.
A _bouillabaisse_ is served as a soup.