SOUPS.
Reading edition
Stock.
The foundation—so to speak—and first great essential in compounding every variety of appetizing, and at the same time wholesome and nourishing soups, is the stock. In this department, as in some others, the French cooks have ever been pre-eminent. It was said of this class in the olden time that so constantly was the "stock"—as this foundation has always been termed—replenished by these cooks, that their rule was never to see the bottom of the soup kettle. It has long been a fixed fact that in order to have good soup you must first have good stock to begin with. To make this stock, take the liquor left after boiling fresh meat, bones, (large or small, cracking the larger ones in order to extract the marrow,) bones and meat left over from a roast or broil, and put either or all of these in a large pot or soup kettle, with water enough to cover. Let these simmer slowly—never allowing the water to boil—taking care, however, to keep the vessel covered—stirring frequently, and pouring in occasionally a cup of cold water, and skimming off the scum. It is only where fresh meat is used that cold water is applied at the commencement; for cooked meat, use warm. The bones dissolved in the slow simmering, furnish the gelatine so essential to good stock. One quart of water to a pound of meat is the average rule. Six to eight hours renders it fit for use. Let stand over night; skim off the fat; put in an earthen jar, and it is ready for use. Every family should keep a jar of the stock constantly on hand, as by doing so any kind of soup may be made from it in from ten to thirty minutes.
General Directions for Making Soup.
Having prepared your stock according to the foregoing directions, take a sufficient quantity, when soup is required, and season, as taste may dictate, with sweet and savory herbs—salpicant, celery salt, or any other favorite seasoning—adding vegetables cut fine, and let the same boil slowly in a covered vessel until thoroughly cooked. If preferred, after seasoning the stock, it may be thickened with either barley, rice, tapioca, sago, vermicelli, macaroni, farina or rice flour. A roast onion is sometimes added to give richness and flavor. It is a well-known fact that soups properly prepared improve in flavor and are really better on the day after than when first made. By substituting different materials, garnitures, flavorings and condiments, of which an endless variety is available, the intelligent housewife may be able to furnish a different soup for every day of the year. In following these, as in all other directions for every department of cookery, experience will, after all, be found the great teacher and most valuable aid and adjunct to the learner of the art.
Calves'-Head Soup.
Take a calf's head of medium size; wash clean, and soak it an hour or more in salted water; then soak a little while in fresh, and put to boil in cold water; add a little salt and a medium-sized onion; take off the scum as it rises, and as the water boils away add a little soup stock; when quite tender take the meat from the bone, keeping the brain by itself; strain the soup, and if you think there is too much meat, use a portion as a side-dish dressed with brain sauce; do not cut the meat too fine—and season the soup with allspice, cloves and mace, adding pepper and salt to taste; put back the meat, and taking one-half the brain, a lump of butter, and a spoonful of flour, work to a thin batter, stirring in claret and sherry wines to taste, and last of all add a little extract of lemon, and one hard-boiled egg, chopped not too fine; if desirable add a few small force-meat balls.
[Turtle soup may be made in the same manner.]
Ox-Tail Soup.
Take one ox-tail and divide into pieces an inch long; 2 pounds of lean beef cut in small pieces; 4 carrots; 3 onions sliced fine; a little thyme, with pepper and salt to taste, and 4 quarts cold water; boil four hours or more, according to size of the ox-tail, and when done add a little allspice or cloves.
Okra Soup.
One large slice of ham; 1 pound of beef, veal or chicken, and 1 onion, all cut in small pieces and fried in butter together until brown, adding black or red pepper for seasoning, along with a little salt, adding in the meantime, delicately sliced thin, sufficient okra, and put all in a porcelain kettle. For a family of four use 30 pods of okra, with 2 quarts water, over a steady, but not too hot fire; boil slowly for 3 or 4 hours; when half done add 2 or 3 peeled tomatoes.
Chicken Gumbo.
[Mrs. E. A. Wilburn's Recipe.]
For the stock, take two chickens and boil in a gallon of water until thoroughly done and the liquid reduced to half a gallon. Wipe off 11⁄2 pounds of green okra, or if the dry is used, 1⁄2 pound is sufficient, which cut up fine and add to this stock while boiling; next add 11⁄2 pounds of ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped fine, adding also 1⁄2 coffee cupful of rice; let these boil for six hours, adding boiling water when necessary; then take out the chickens, carve and fry them brown in clear lard; into the fat put 1 large white onion, chopped fine, adding 2 tablespoonfuls of flour. Just before serving, put the chicken, boned and chopped, with the gravy thus prepared, and add to the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
Fresh Oyster Soup.
Take 25 or 30 small Eastern and 50 California oysters; wash clean, and put into a kettle over the fire, with a little over a pint of water. As soon as they open pour into a pan and take the oysters from the shells, pouring the juice into a pitcher to settle. If the oysters are large, cut in two once; return the juice to the fire, and when it boils put in a piece of butter worked in flour; season with pepper and salt, and let it boil slowly for two minutes; put in a cupful of rich milk and the oysters, along with a sufficient quantity of chopped crackers, and let the liquid boil up once. Should you need a larger quantity of soup, add a can of good oysters, as they will change the flavor but little. In my opinion nutmeg improves the flavor of the soup.
Fish Chowder.
Take 4 pounds of fresh codfish—the upper part of the fish is best; fry plenty of salt pork cut in small strips; put the fat in the bottom of the kettle, then a layer of the fried pork, next a layer of fish; follow with a layer of potato sliced—not too thin—and a layer of sliced onions, seasoned with plenty of salt and pepper; alternate these layers as long as the material holds out, topping off with a layer of hard crackers. Use equal parts of water and milk sufficient to cook, which will not require more than three-quarters of an hour, over a good fire. Great care should be taken not to scorch in the cooking.
[Clam Chowder may be made according to the foregoing formula, substituting 3 pints of clams for the fish.]
Clam Soup.
Take 50 small round clams; rinse clean, and put in a kettle with a pint of water; boil for a few minutes, or until the shells gape open; empty into a pan, pick the meat from the shells, and pour the juice into a pitcher to settle; chop the clams quite small; return the juice to the fire, and as soon as hot, work in a good-sized lump of butter, with a little flour, and juice of the clams; stir in a teacup of milk; season with black pepper, and after letting this boil for two minutes, put in the clams, adding at the same time chopped cracker or nudels, and before taking up, a little chopped parsley.
Clam Chowder.
One hundred small clams chopped fine; 1⁄2 pound fat salt pork put in pot and fried out brown; 2 small or 1 large onion, and 1 tomato chopped fine. Put all in the pot with the clam juice and boil for two hours, after which add rolled crackers and 1 pint hot milk, letting it boil up. Season with salt and pepper, adding a little thyme if agreeable to taste.
Baked Beans and Bean Soup.
Take three pints of white peas or army beans; wash very clean; soak eight hours; rinse and put to boil with plenty of water, hot or cold, with 11⁄2 pounds beef soup-meat and 1⁄2 pound of salt pork, letting these boil slowly, and skimming as the scum rises. Stir frequently, as the beans are apt to scorch when they begin to soften. When soft enough to be easily crushed with the thumb and finger, season with plenty of black pepper and salt; after five minutes have elapsed fill a nice baking pan—such a one as will do to set on the table—pour in the liquid until it nearly covers the beans, score the pork and put it half-way down in the beans, and bake in a slow fire until nicely browned.
When the remaining beans are boiled quite soft rub them through a colander into the soup; add 1 pint of milk, and season with ground cloves or mace. Just before taking up cut some toast the size of the end of a finger and add to the soup. Pepper sauce gives a nice flavor.
Dry Split-Pea Soup.
Soak one quart dry or split peas ten or twelve hours, and put on to boil in 1 gallon of water, with 1 pound soup-beef, and a small piece of the hock end of ham, nicely skinned and trimmed, (but if you do not have this at hand supply its place with a small piece of salt pork;) season with salt, pepper and a little ground cloves, adding a little curry or sweet marjoram; boil slowly until quite tender; rub the peas through a colander, adding a little rich milk. This soup should be rather thick. Cut bread in pieces the size of the little finger, fry in butter or lard, and put in the tureen when taken up.
Tomato Soup.
To one gallon good beef stock add 11⁄2 dozen ripe tomatoes, or 1 two-pound can; 2 carrots, 2 onions and 1 turnip cut fine; boil all together for an hour and a half, and run through a fine tin strainer; take a stewpan large enough to hold the liquid, and put it on the fire with 1⁄2 pound of butter worked in two tablespoonfuls of flour; after mixing well together add a tablespoonful of white sugar; season with salt and pepper to taste, stirring well until the liquor boils, when skim and serve. The above quantity will provide sufficient for a large family.
Celery Soup.
To make good celery soup take 2 or 3 pounds of juicy beef—the round is best, being free from fat. Cover with cold water, and boil slowly for three or four hours. An hour before taking from the fire take 1 pound or more of celery, cut 4 or 5 inches long, taking also the root cut thin, and salting to taste, boil until quite tender; then take out the celery, dressing with pepper and salt or drawn butter. If you have some soup stock put in a little, boil a few minutes and strain. This is a most palatable soup, and the celery, acting as a sedative, is one of the best things that can be used for quieting the nerves.
Pepper-Pot.
Take thick, fat and tender tripe; wash thoroughly in water in which a little soda has been dissolved; rinse well, and cut in strips half the length of your little finger; after boiling ten minutes, put in a colander and rinse with a little hot water; then, adding good soup stock, boil until tender; season with cayenne pepper and salt, a little Worcestershire or Chutney sauce, and some small pieces of dough made as for nudels. Should the soup not be thick enough add a little paste of butter and flour; you may also add curry if you are fond of it.
This soup was popular in the Quaker City fifty years ago, and has never decreased in favor among the intelligent inhabitants.
Egg-Balls for Soup
Boil 3 eggs seven minutes, and mash the yolks with one raw egg, a tablespoonful of flour and a little milk; season with pepper, salt, and parsley or summer savory; make into balls and boil two or three minutes, and put in the soup just before serving. Excellent for both pea and bean soup.
Nudels.
Rich nudels undoubtedly form the best thickening for nice, delicate soups, such as chicken, veal, oyster and clam. Nudels are made with flour, milk and eggs, and a little salt, mixed to stiff dough, rolled as thin as possible, and cut in fine shreds the length of the little finger. In all soups where nudels are used, a little chopped parsley should be added just before taking up.