=Soup Stock= is made from cheap, tough cuts. The meat should be cut
in small pieces and soaked in cold water for half an hour to draw
out the juices. Bone is added for the sake of the gelatine which it
contains, and which will give body to the soup. A good proportion is 1
pound each of meat and bone to each quart of water. Use a kettle with
a very tight cover and simmer slowly for a number of hours. Stock is
better when made the day before it is to be used.
=Soup Stock.=—1 pound lean beef, 1 pound bone (or 2 pounds of shin),
1 quart cold water, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon peppercorns, 2
cloves, 2 allspice berries, 1 sprig parsley, 1 teaspoon mixed herbs,
1 tablespoon each kind chopped vegetable. Prepare meat as above, soak
in water ½ hour, heat slowly and simmer 3 hours, add vegetables and
seasonings, simmer 1 hour longer, and strain. Next day remove cake of
fat.
To clear stock beat white 1 egg till frothy, add with broken shell to
above stock when cold (after fat is removed); heat slowly and stir
constantly. Boil 10 minutes without stirring; set aside 10 minutes;
strain through 2 thicknesses cheese-cloth dipped in cold water.
=Soups with Pastes or Vegetables.=—Prepare and clear stock as above.
In salted water boil macaroni, vermicelli, barley, rice, tapioca, or
other vegetables or dry material until done; drain and add to the
clear soup and simmer together 10 minutes. Proportion, ½ cup cooked
material to 1 quart stock. Vegetables should be boiled in salted
water, cut in shapes, and added to stock in same proportion.
=Tomato Soup with Stock.=—1 quart stock, 1 can tomatoes, salt, pepper,
and sugar to taste. Stew and strain tomatoes; add to boiling stock,
season, and simmer 10 minutes.
=Tomato Soup without Stock.=—Stew together for 10 minutes 1 can
tomatoes, 1 pint water, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, 5 cloves,
½ teaspoon peppercorns, 1 tablespoon chopped onion, 1 tablespoon
chopped parsley. Rub through sieve, return to fire, and thicken with 1
tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon flour rubbed together and stirred
in.
=Mock Bisque Soup.=-½ can tomatoes, 1½ tablespoons butter, 1½
tablespoons flour, 1 quart milk, salt and pepper. Stew and strain
tomatoes; scald milk in double boiler and thicken with the flour and
butter; season tomatoes well and reheat. Take both from fire and mix
together; if tomatoes are acid add pinch of soda. If mixed on fire
soup is apt to curdle.
=Scotch Broth.=—Soak ½ cup pearl barley overnight. Cut 2 pounds neck
of mutton in bits, add 2 quarts water, soak 1 hour. Heat slowly, skim,
add barley, skim again; simmer 1 hour, add ½ cup each diced onion,
carrot, turnip, celery fried for 5 minutes in 1 tablespoon dripping.
Simmer 3 hours. Season well, thicken a little with flour, add 1
tablespoon chopped parsley, and serve.
=Consommé.=—1 chicken, 3 pounds lean beef, 1 onion, 1 turnip, 2
carrots, bunch sweet herbs, 7 quarts cold water, ½ cup sago soaked in
cold water, pepper and salt. Cut beef in strips and disjoint chicken,
slice vegetables, chop herbs, put all on with water to cook slowly for
6 hours. Take out chicken and beef; salt and pepper and put into jar.
Strain soup, pulping vegetables through a sieve. Season and divide it,
pouring ½ on meat in jar, and setting in pot of hot water to cook,
covered, 2 hours more. Heat the rest and skim; put in sago, simmer for
½ hour, then pour out. When 2 hours have passed, pour out stock in
bowl; when cold put on ice.
=Bean Soup.=—Soak quart white beans overnight; in morning pour off
water; add fresh, and set over fire until skins will easily slip off;
throw them into cold water, rub well, and skins will rise to top,
where they may be removed. Boil beans till perfectly soft, allowing 2
quarts water to 1 quart beans; mash beans, add flour and butter rubbed
together, also salt and pepper. Cut cold bread into small pieces,
toast, and drop on soup when you serve.
=Family Soup.=—Time, 6 hours; 3 or 4 quarts pot liquor, _i. e._, the
water in which mutton or salt beef has been boiled. Any bones from
dressed meat, trimmings of poultry, scraps of meat or 1 pound gravy
beef, 2 large onions, 1 turnip, 2 carrots, a little celery seed tied
in a piece muslin, bunch savory herbs, 1 sprig parsley, 5 cloves, 2
blades mace, a few peppercorns, pepper and salt to taste. Put all your
meat-trimmings, meat-bones, etc., into stewpan. Stick onions with
cloves, add them with other vegetables to meat; pour over all the pot
liquor; set over slow fire and let simmer gently, removing all scum as
it rises. Strain through fine hair-sieve.
=Clam Soup.=—Boil juice of clams, make a little drawn butter and mix
with the juice; stir till it boils, chop up clams and put them in;
season to taste with pepper, salt, and little lemon juice; cream or
milk is to be added. Boil over slow fire 1 hour.
=Soups of Dried Peas or Beans.=—Pick and soak split peas, dried green
peas, or black or white beans overnight. Drain, measure, add 4 times
as much cold water; to each quart of water, ½ onion. Simmer slowly
till soft. Rub through sieve. Return to fire, season with salt and
pepper; for each quart thicken with 1 teaspoon each butter and flour.
Boil up again for a few minutes. Black bean soup should also have
a pinch of mustard and a little lemon juice added, and slices of
hard-boiled egg.
=Croutons.=—Trim crust from stale bread and cut in ½-inch dice. Fry
golden brown in a little butter or in a kettle of smoking-hot fat.
Drain and serve hot with soups. Instead of frying they may be browned
in the oven.
=Ox-tail Soup.=—1 ox-tail, 2 pounds lean beef, 4 carrots, 3 onions,
thyme and parsley, pepper and salt to taste, 4 quarts cold water.
Cut tail into joints, fry brown in good dripping. Slice onions and 2
carrots and fry in the same, when you have taken out the pieces of
tail. When done tie the thyme and parsley in lace bag, and drop into
the soup-pot. Put in the tail, then the beef cut into strips. Grate
over them 2 whole carrots, pour over all the water, and boil slowly
4 hours; strain and season; thicken with brown flour wet with cold
water; boil 15 minutes longer and serve.
[Illustration: (Decorative Design)]