SPRING SOUP.--Unless your dinner hour is very late, the stock for this
soup should be made the day before it is wanted, and set away in a stone
pan, closely covered. To make the stock, take a knuckle of veal, break
the bones, and cut it into several pieces. Allow a quart of water to
each pound of veal. Put it into a soup-pot, with a set of calves-feet,
and some bits of cold ham, cut off near the hock. If you have no ham,
sprinkle in a table-spoonful of salt, and a salt-spoon of cayenne. Place
the pot over a _moderate_ fire, and let it simmer slowly (skimming it
well) for several hours, till the veal is all to rags and the flesh of
the calves-feet has dropped in shreds from the bones. Then strain the
soup; and if not wanted that day, set it away in a stone pan, as above
mentioned.
Next day have ready-boiled two quarts or more of green peas, (they must
on no account be old,) and a pint of the green tops cut off from
asparagus boiled for the purpose. Pound a handful of raw spinach till
you have extracted a teacup-full of the juice. Set the soup or stock
over the fire; add the peas, asparagus, and spinach-juice, stirring them
well in; also a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, divided into four
bits, and rolled in flour. Let the whole come to a boil; and then take
it off and transfer it to a tureen. It will be found excellent.
In boiling the peas for this soup, you may put with them half a dozen
sprigs of green mint, to be afterwards taken out.
Late in the spring you may add to the other vegetables two cucumbers,
pared and sliced, and the whitest part or heart of a lettuce, boiled
together; then well-drained, and put into the soup with the peas and
asparagus. It must be very thick with vegetables.
SUMMER SOUP.--Take a large neck of mutton, and hack it so as nearly to
cut it apart, but not quite. Allow a small quart of water to each pound
of meat, and sprinkle on a table-spoonful of salt and a very little
black pepper. Put it into a soup-pot, and boil it _slowly_ (skimming it
well) till the meat is reduced to rags. Then strain the liquid, return
it to the soup-pot, and carefully remove all the fat from the surface.
Have ready half a dozen small turnips sliced thin, two young onions
sliced, a table-spoonful of sweet-marjoram leaves picked from the
stalks, and a quart of shelled Lima beans. Put in the vegetables, and
boil them in the soup till they are thoroughly done. You may add to them
two table-spoonfuls of green nasturtian seeds, either fresh or pickled.
Put in also some little dumplings, (made of flour and butter,) about ten
minutes before the soup is done.
Instead of Lima beans, you may divide a cauliflower or two broccolis
into sprigs, and boil them in the soup with the other vegetables.
This soup may be made of a shoulder of mutton, cut into pieces and the
bones cracked.
AUTUMN SOUP.--Begin this soup as early in the day as possible. Take six
pounds of the lean of fine fresh beef; cut it into small pieces;
sprinkle it with a tea-spoonful of salt, (not more); put it into a
soup-pot, and pour on six quarts of water. The hock of a cold ham will
greatly improve it. Set it over a moderate fire, and let it boil slowly.
After it comes to a boil skim it well. Have ready a quarter of a peck of
ochras cut into very thin round slices, and a quarter of a peck of
tomatoes cut into pieces; also a quart of shelled Lima beans. Season
them with pepper. Put them in; and after the whole has boiled three
hours _at least_, take six ears of young Indian corn, and having grated
off all the grain, add them, to the soup and boil it an hour longer.
Before you serve up the soup remove from it all the bits of meat, which,
if the soup is sufficiently cooked, will be reduced to shreds.
You may put in with the ochras and tomatoes one or two sliced onions.
The soup, when done, should be as thick as a jelly.
Ochras for soup may be kept all winter, by tying them separately to a
line stretched high across the store-room.
WINTER SOUP.--The day before you make the soup, get a fore-leg or shin
of beef. Have the bone sawed through in several places, and the meat
notched or scored down to the bone. This will cause the juice or essence
to come out more freely, when cooked. Rub it slightly with salt; cover
it, and set it away. Next morning, early as possible, as soon as the
fire is well made up, put the beef into a large soup-pot, allowing to
each pound a small quart of water. Then taste the water, and if the salt
that has been rubbed on the meat is not sufficient, add a very little
more. Throw in also a tea-spoonful of whole pepper-corns; and you may
add half a dozen blades of mace. Let it simmer slowly till it comes to a
boil; then skim it well. After it boils, you may quicken the fire. At
nine o’clock put in a large head of cabbage cut fine as for cold-slaw; a
dozen carrots sliced; the leaves stripped from a bunch of
sweet-marjoram; and the leaves of a sprig of parsley minced fine. An
hour afterwards, add six turnips, and three potatoes, all cut into four
or eight pieces. Also two onions, which will be better if previously
roasted brown, and then sliced. Keep the soup boiling steadily, but not
hard, unless the dinner hour is very early. For a late dinner, there
will be time to boil it slowly all the while; and all soups are the
better for long and slow boiling. See that it is well skimmed, so that,
when done, there will be not a particle of fat or scum on the surface.
At dinner-time take it up with a large ladle, and transfer it to a
tureen. In doing so, carefully avoid the shreds of meat and bone. Leave
them all in the bottom of the pot, pressing them down with the ladle. A
mass of shreds in the tureen or soup-plate looks slovenly and
disgusting, and should never be seen at the table; also, they absorb too
much of the liquid. Let the vegetables remain in the soup when it is
served up, but pick out every shred of meat or bone that may be found in
the tureen when ready to go to table.
In very cold weather, what is left of this soup will keep till the
second day; when it must be simmered again over the fire, till it just
comes to a boil. Put it away in a tin or stone vessel. The lead which is
used in glazing earthen jars frequently communicates its poison to
liquids that are kept in them.
RABBIT SOUP.--Begin this soup six hours before dinner. Cut up three
large, but young and tender rabbits, or four small ones, (scoring the
backs,) and dredge them with flour. Slice six mild onions, and season
them with half a grated nutmeg; or more, if you like it. Put some fresh
butter into a hot frying pan, (you may substitute for the butter some
cold roast-veal gravy that has been carefully cleared from the fat,)
place it over the fire, and when it boils, put in the rabbits and
onions, and fry them a light brown. Then transfer the whole to a
soup-pot; season it with a very small tea-spoonful of salt, a
tea-spoonful of whole pepper, a large tea-spoonful of sweet-marjoram
leaves stripped from the stalks, and four or five blades of mace, adding
three large carrots in slices. Pour on, slowly, four quarts of hot water
from a kettle already boiling hard. Cover the soup-pot, and let it
simmer slowly (skimming it well) till the meat of the rabbits is reduced
to shreds, and drops from the bones, which will not be in less than five
hours, if boiled as gently as it ought. When quite done, strain the soup
into a tureen. Have ready the grated yolks of six hard boiled eggs, and
stir them into the soup immediately after it is strained, and while it
is very hot. Add, also, some bread cut into dice or small squares, and
fried brown in fresh butter. Or substitute for the fried bread, buttered
toast, with all the crust removed, and cut into very small bits or
mouthfuls.
Hare soup may be made in this manner. It is also an excellent way of
disposing of old fowls. A similar soup may be made of fresh-killed
venison.
For hare or venison soup, add, (after straining it,) about half an hour
before you take it up, two glasses of sherry or Madeira, and a lemon
sliced thin.
CHICKEN SOUP.--Cut up two large fine fowls, as if carving them for the
table, and wash the pieces in cold water. Take half a dozen thin slices
of cold ham, and lay them in a soup-pot, mixed among the pieces of
chicken. Season them with a very little cayenne, a little nutmeg, and a
few blades of mace, but no salt, as the ham will make it salt enough.
Add a head of celery, split and cut into long bits, a quarter of a pound
of butter, divided in two, and rolled in flour. Pour on three quarts of
milk. Set the soup-pot over the fire, and let it boil rather slowly,
skimming it well. When it has boiled an hour, put in some small round
dumplings, made of half a pound of flour mixed with a quarter of a pound
of butter; divide this dough into equal portions, and roll them in your
hands into little balls about the size of a large hickory nut. The soup
must boil till the flesh of the fowls is loose on the bones, but not
till it drops off. Stir in, at the last, the beaten yolks of three or
four eggs; and let the soup remain about five minutes longer over the
fire. Then take it up. Cut off from the bones the flesh of the fowls,
and divide it into mouthfuls. Cut up the slices of ham in the same
manner. Mince the livers and gizzards. Put the bits of fowl and ham in
the bottom of a large tureen, and pour the soup upon it.
This soup will be found excellent, and may be made of large old fowls,
that cannot be cooked in any other way. If they are so old that when the
soup is finished they still continue tough, remove them entirely, and do
not serve them up in it.
Similar soup may be made of a large old turkey. Also of four rabbits.
DUCK SOUP.--Half roast a pair of fine large tame ducks; keeping them
half an hour at the fire, and saving the gravy, the fat of which must be
carefully skimmed off. Then cut them up; season them with black pepper;
and put them into a soup-pot with four or five small onions sliced thin,
a small bunch of sage, a thin slice of cold ham cut into pieces, a
grated nutmeg, and the yellow rind of a lemon pared thin, and cut into
bits. Add the gravy of the ducks. Pour on, slowly, three quarts of
boiling water from a kettle. Cover the soup-pot, and set it over a
moderate fire. Simmer it slowly (skimming it well) for about four hours,
or till the flesh of the ducks is dissolved into small shreds. When
done, strain it through a sieve into a tureen over a quart of young
green peas, that have been boiled by themselves. If peas are not in
season, substitute half a dozen hard boiled eggs cut into round slices,
white and yolk together.
If wild ducks are used for soup, three or four will be required for the
above quantity. Before you put them on the spit to roast, place a large
carrot in the body of each duck, to remove the sedgy or fishy taste.
This taste will be all absorbed by the carrot, which, of course, must be
thrown away.
PIGEON SOUP may be made as above. It will require one dozen tame
pigeons, or two dozen wild ones.
Wild pigeons may be made very fat by catching them alive in nets, at the
season when they abound; clipping their wings to prevent their flying
away; putting them into a field where there is a stream of water
convenient for them to drink, or into a large yard; and feeding them
twice a day with corn. When fattened in this manner, they will be found
profitable articles for sale; the objection to wild pigeons being that
they are usually so poor and lean.
FINE CLAM SOUP.--Take half a hundred or more small sand clams, and put
them into a pot of hard-boiling water. Boil them about a quarter of an
hour, or till all the shells have opened wide. Then take them out, and
having removed them from the shells, chop them small and put them with
their liquor into a pitcher. Strain a pint of the liquor into a bowl,
and reserve it for the soup. Put the clams into a soup-pot, with a
gallon of water, and a half pint of the liquor; a dozen whole
pepper-corns, half a dozen blades of mace; but no salt, as the
clam-liquor will be salt enough; add a pint of grated bread-crumbs, and
the crusts of the bread cut very small; also a tea-spoonful of
sweet-marjoram leaves. Let the soup boil two hours. Then add a quarter
of a pound of fresh butter, divided into half a dozen pieces, and each
piece rolled slightly in flour. Boil it half an hour longer, and then
about five minutes before you take up the soup, stir in the beaten yolks
of three eggs.
As the flavour will be all boiled out of the chopped clams, it will be
best to leave them in the bottom of the soup-pot, and not serve them up
in the tureen. Press them down with a broad wooden ladle, so as to get
as much liquor out of them as possible, while you are taking up the
soup.
This soup will be better still, if made with milk instead of water; milk
being an improvement to all fish-soups.
EXCELLENT CLAM SOUP.--Take forty or fifty clams, and wash and scrub the
outsides of the shells till they are perfectly clean. Then put them into
a pot with just sufficient water to keep them from burning. The water
must boil hard when you put in the clams. In about a quarter of an hour
the shells will open, and the liquor run out and mix with the water,
which must be saved for the soup, and strained into a soup-pot, after
the clams are taken out. Extract the clams from their shells, and cut
them up small. Then put them into the soup-pot, adding a minced onion, a
saucer of finely chopped celery, or a table-spoonful of celery seed, and
a dozen blades of mace, with a dozen whole pepper-corns. No salt, as the
clam-liquor will be quite salt enough. If the liquid is not in
sufficient quantity to fill a large tureen, add some milk. Thicken the
soup with two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter rolled in flour. Let
it boil a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. Just before you take it
from the fire, stir in, gradually, the beaten yolks of five eggs; and
then take up the soup, and pour it into a tureen, the bottom of which
is covered with toasted bread, cut into square dice about an inch in
size.
FRENCH WHITE SOUP.--Boil a knuckle of veal and four calves’ feet in five
quarts of water, with three onions sliced, a bunch of sweet herbs, four
heads of white celery cut small, a table-spoonful of whole pepper, and a
_small_ tea-spoonful of salt, adding five or six large blades of mace.
Let it boil very slowly, till the meat is in rags and has dropped from
the bone, and till the gristle has quite dissolved. Skim it well while
boiling. When done, strain it through a sieve into a tureen, or a deep
white-ware pan. Next day, take off all the fat, and put the jelly (for
such it ought to be) into a clean soup-pot with two ounces of
vermicelli, and set it over the fire. When the vermicelli is dissolved,
stir in, gradually, a pint of thick cream, while the soup is quite hot;
but do not let it come to a boil after the cream is in, lest it should
curdle. Cut up one or two French rolls in the bottom of a tureen, pour
in the soup, and send it to table.
COCOA-NUT SOUP.--Take eight calves’ feet (two sets) that have been
scalded and scraped, but not skinned; and put them into a soup-kettle
with six or seven blades of mace, and the yellow rind of a lemon pared
thin. Pour on a gallon of water; cover the kettle, and let it boil very
slowly (skimming it well) till the flesh is reduced to rags and has
dropped entirely from the bones. Then strain it into a broad white-ware
pan, and set it away to get cold. When it has congealed, scrape off the
fat and sediment, cut up the cake of jelly, (or stock,) and put it into
a clean porcelain or enamelled kettle. Have ready half a pound of very
finely grated cocoa-nut. Mix it with a pint of cream. If you cannot
obtain cream, take rich unskimmed milk, and add to it three ounces of
the best fresh butter divided into three parts, each bit rolled in
arrow-root or rice-flour. Mix it, gradually, with the cocoa-nut, and add
it to the calves-feet-stock in the kettle, seasoned with half a grated
nutmeg. Set it over the fire, and boil it, slowly, about a quarter of an
hour; stirring it well. Then transfer it to a tureen, and serve it up.
Have ready small French rolls, or light milk biscuit to eat with it;
also powdered sugar in case any of the company should wish to sweeten
it.
ALMOND SOUP is made in the above manner, substituting pounded almonds
for the grated cocoa-nut. You must have half a pound of shelled sweet
almonds, mixed with two ounces of shelled bitter almonds. After
blanching them in hot water, they must be pounded to a smooth paste (one
at a time) in a marble mortar; adding frequently a little rose-water to
prevent their oiling, and becoming heavy. Or you may use peach-water for
this purpose; in which case omit the bitter almonds, as the peach water
will give the desired flavour. When the pounded almonds are ready, mix
them with the other ingredients, as above.
The calves’ feet for these soups should be boiled either very early in
the morning, or the day before.
SOUP-MEAT.--To make the soup _very good_, the meat (of which there
should be a large proportion, rather more than a pound to a quart of
water) must remain in, till it drops entirely from the bones and is
boiled to rags. But none of these fragments and shreds should be found
in the tureen when the soup is sent to table. They should all be kept at
the bottom of the pot, pressing down the ladle hard upon them when you
are dipping out the soup. If any are seen in the soup after it is taken
up, let them be carefully removed with a spoon. To send the soup to
table with bits of bone and shreds of meat in it, is a slovenly,
disgusting, and vulgar practice, and should be strictly forbidden; as
some indifferent cooks will do so to save themselves the trouble of
removing it. A mass of shreds left at the bottom of the tureen, absorbs
so much of the liquid as to diminish the quantity of the soup; and if
eaten is very unwholesome, all the nourishment being boiled out of it.
Mutton, however, need not be boiled to pieces in the soup, which will
have sufficient strength if the meat is left whole. A piece of loin of
mutton, that has been cooked in soup, is to many persons very palatable.
It is well worth sending to table.
SAUCE FOR MUTTON THAT HAS BEEN BOILED IN SOUP.--Mutton that has been
boiled in soup is very generally liked, particularly the loin. Take two
large boiled onions; cut them up, and put them into a saucepan with a
piece of fresh butter, slightly rolled in flour; a table-spoonful of
mustard, (French or tarragon mustard will be best); a very little salt
and cayenne; and some pickled cucumbers, chopped small; green nasturtian
seeds will be still better than cucumbers. Put all these ingredients
into a small saucepan, and add to them a little of the soup. Set the
sauce over the fire, and when it has come to a boil, take it off, and
keep it warm till the meat goes to table; then send it in a sauce-boat.
SUBSTITUTES FOR CAPER-SAUCE.--Take some pickled string-beans, or pickled
cucumbers, or gherkins; cut them into small bits, and put them thickly
into a sauce-tureen of melted butter, adding a spoonful of vinegar; or,
what is still better, the juice of a lemon Serve it up as sauce to
boiled mutton.
A still better substitute will be found in nasturtian seeds plucked from
the stems, and pickled by simply putting them (when green, but
full-grown) into a jar of cider-vinegar. Add a few table-spoonfuls of
these to the melted butter before it goes to table. Their flavour is
superior to that of capers.