The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory Part 10

_Soupe Maigre._ No. 2.

Take of every vegetable you can get, excepting cabbage, in such quant.i.ty as not to allow any one to predominate; cut them small and fry them brown in b.u.t.ter; add a little water, and thicken with flour and b.u.t.ter.

Let this stew three hours very gently; and season to your taste. The French add French rolls.

_Soupe Maigre._ No. 3.

Half a pound of b.u.t.ter, put in a stewpan over the fire, and let it brown. Cut two or three onions in slices, two or three heads of celery, two handfuls of spinach, a cabbage, two turnips, a little parsley, three cabbage lettuces, a little spice, pepper and salt. Stew all these about half an hour; then add about two quarts of water, and let it simmer till all the roots are tender. Put in the crust of a French roll, and send it to table.

_Soupe Maigre._ No. 4.

Cut three carrots, three turnips, three heads of celery, three leeks, six onions, and two cabbage lettuces in small pieces; put them in your stewpan with a piece of b.u.t.ter, the size of an egg, a pint of dried or green peas, and two quarts of water, with a little pepper and salt.

Simmer the whole over the fire till tender; then rub it through a sieve or tamis; add some rice, and let it simmer an hour before you serve it up.

_Soupe Maigre._ No. 5.

Take three carrots, three turnips, three heads of celery, three leeks, six onions, two cabbage lettuces; cut them all in small pieces, and put them in your stewpan, with a piece of b.u.t.ter about the size of an egg, and a pint of dried or green peas, and two quarts of water. Simmer them over the fire till tender, then rub through a sieve or tamis. Add some rice, and let it simmer an hour before you serve it up.

_Soupe Sante, or Wholesome Soup._

Take beef and veal cut in thin slices; put sliced turnips, carrots, onions, bacon, in the bottom of your stewpan; lay your meat upon these, and over it some thin thyme, parsley, a head or two of celery. Cover the whole down; set it over a charcoal fire; draw it down till it sticks to the bottom; then fill up with the above stock. Let it boil slowly till the goodness is extracted from your meat; then strain it off. Cut and wash some celery, endive, sorrel, a little chervil, spinach, and a piece of leek; put these in a stewpan, with a bit of b.u.t.ter. Stew till tender, then put this in your soup; give it a boil up together, and skim the fat off. Cut off the crust of French rolls; dry and soak them in some of your soup; put them into it, and serve your soup.

_Spanish Soup._

Put the scrag end of a neck of veal, two calves' feet, two pounds of fresh beef, one old fowl, into a pot well tinned, with six quarts of water, and a little salt, to raise the sc.u.m, which must be very carefully taken off. Let these boil very gently two hours and a half, till the water is reduced to four quarts; then take out all the meat, strain the broth, and put to it a small quant.i.ty of pepper, mace, cloves, and cinnamon, finely pounded, with four or five cloves of garlic. A quarter of an hour afterwards add eight or ten ounces of rice, with six ounces of ham or bacon, and a drachm of saffron put into a muslin bag. Observe to keep it often stirred after the rice is in, till served up. It will be ready an hour and a half after the saffron is in.

You should put a fowl into it an hour before it is ready, and serve it up whole in the soup.

This soup will keep two or three days.

_Turnip Soup._

Make a good strong gravy of beef or mutton; let it stand till cold; take off all the fat; pare some turnips and slice them thin; stew them till tender, then strain them through a sieve; mix the pulp with the gravy, till of a proper thickness:--then add three quarters of a pint of cream; boil it up, and send it to table.

_Veal Soup._

Take a knuckle of veal, and chop it into small pieces; set it on the fire with four quarts of water, pepper, mace, a few herbs, and one large onion. Stew it five or six hours; then strain off the spice, and put in a pint of green peas until tender. Take out the small bones, and send the rest up with the soup.

_Vegetable Soup._ No. 1.

Take a quart of beef jelly and the same quant.i.ty of veal jelly: boil it, have some carrots and turnips, cut small, previously boiled in a little of the jelly; throw them in, and serve it up hot.

_Vegetable Soup._ No. 2.

Take two cabbage and two coss lettuces, one hard cabbage, six onions, one large carrot, two turnips, three heads of celery, a little tarragon, chervil, parsley, and thyme, chopped fine, and a little flour fried in a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter (or less will do). Then add three quarts of boiling water; boil it for two hours, stir it well, and add, before sending it to table, some crumbs of stale bread: the upper part of the loaf is best.

_Vegetable Soup._ No. 3.

Let a quant.i.ty of dried peas (split peas), or haricots, (lentils) be boiled in common water till they are quite tender; let them then be gradually pa.s.sed through a sieve with distilled water, working the mixture with a wooden spoon, to make what the French call a _pure_: and let it be made sufficiently liquid with distilled water to bear boiling down. Then let a good quant.i.ty of fresh vegetables, of any or all kinds in their season, especially carrots, lettuces, turnips, celery, spinach, with always a few onions, be cut into fine shreds, and put it into common boiling water for three or four minutes to blanch; let them then be taken out with a strainer, added to and mixed with the _pure_, and the whole set to boil gently at the fire for at least two hours. A few minutes before taking the soup from the fire, let it be seasoned to the taste with pepper and salt.

The soup, when boiling gently at the fire, should be very frequently stirred, to prevent its sticking to the side of the pan, and acquiring a burnt taste.

_Vegetable Soup._ No. 4.

Cut two potatoes, one turnip, two heads of celery, two onions, one carrot, a bunch of sweet herbs; put them all into a stewpan; cover close; draw them gently for twenty minutes, then put two quarts of good broth, let it boil gently, and afterwards simmer for two hours. Strain through a fine sieve; put it into your pan again; season with pepper and salt, and let it boil up.

_Vegetable Soup._ No. 5.

Take four turnips, two potatoes, three onions, three heads of celery, two carrots, four cabbage lettuces, a bunch of sweet herbs, and parsley.

The vegetables must be cut in slices; put them into a stewpan, with half a pint of water; cover them close; set them over the fire for twenty minutes to draw; add three pints of broth or water, and let it boil quickly. When the vegetables are tender rub them through a sieve. If you make the soup with water, add b.u.t.ter, flour, pepper, and salt. Let it be of the thickness of good cream, and add some fine crumbs of bread with small dumplings.

_Vermicelli Soup._

Break the vermicelli a little, throw it into boiling water, and let it boil about two minutes. Strain it in a sieve, and throw it into cold water: then strain and put it into a good clear consomme, and let it boil very slowly about a quarter of an hour. When it is going to table, season with a little salt, and put into it a little crust of French roll.

_West India Soup, called Pepper Pot._

A small knuckle of veal and a piece of beef of about three pounds, seven or eight pounds of meat in all; potherbs as for any other soup. When the soup is skimmed and made, strain it off. The first ingredient you add to the soup must be some dried ocre (a West India vegetable), the quant.i.ty according to your judgment. It is hard and dry, and therefore requires a great deal of soaking and boiling. Then put in the sp.a.w.n of the lobsters you intend for your soup, first pounding it very fine, and mixing it by degrees with a little of your soup cooled, or it will be lumpy, and not so smooth as it should be. Put it into the soup-pot, and continue to stir some time after it is in. Take about two middling handfuls of spinach and about six hearts of the inside of very nice greens; scald both greens and spinach before you put them to the soup, to take off the rawness; the greens require most scalding. Squeeze them quite dry, chop and put them into the soup; then add all the fat and inside egg and sp.a.w.n you can get from the lobsters, also the meat out of the tails and claws. Add the green tops only of a large bundle of asparagus, of the sort which they call sprew-gra.s.s, previously scalded; a few green peas also are very good. After these ingredients are in, the soup should no more than simmer; and when the herbs are sufficiently tender it is done enough. This soup is not to be clear, on the contrary thick with the lobster, and a perfect mash with the lobster and greens.

You are to put in lobster to your liking; I generally put in five or six, at least of that part of them which is called fat, egg, and inside sp.a.w.n, sufficient to make it rich and good. It should look quite yellow with this. Put plenty of the white part also, and in order that none of the goodness of the lobsters should be lost, take the sh.e.l.ls of those which you have used, bruise them in a mortar, and boil them in some of the broth, to extract what goodness remains; then strain off the liquor and add it to the rest. Scoop some potatoes round, half boiling them first, and put into it. Season with red pepper. Put in a piece of nice pickled pork, which must be first scalded, for fear of its being too salt; stew it with the rest and serve it.

_White Soup._ No. 1.

Take two chickens; skin them; take out the lungs and wash them thoroughly; put them in a stewpan with some parsley. Add a quart of veal jelly, and stew them in this for one hour over a very slow fire. Then take out the chickens, and put a penny roll to soak in the liquor; take all the flesh of the chickens from the bones, and pound it in a mortar, with the yolk of three eggs boiled hard. Add the bread (when soaked enough) and pound it also with them; then rub the whole finely through a sieve. Add a quart more jelly to the soup, and strain it through a sieve; then put the chicken to the soup. Set a quart of cream on the fire till it boils, stirring it all the time; when ready to serve, pour that into the soup and mix it well together. Have ready a little vermicelli, boiled in a little weak broth, to throw into the soup, when put into the terrine.

_White Soup._ No. 2.

Have good stock made of veal and beef; then take about a pound of veal, and the like quant.i.ty of ham, cut both into thin slices, and put them into a stewpan, with a pint of water and two onions cut small. Set it on the fire and stew it down gently, till it is quite dry, and of a rather light brown colour; then add the stock, and let it all stew till the veal and ham are quite tender. Strain it off into the stewpot; add a gill or more of cream, some blanched rice boiled tender, the quant.i.ty to your own judgment, the yolks of six eggs beaten up well with a little new milk: let the soup be boiling hot before the eggs are added, which put to it by degrees, keeping it stirring over a slow fire. Serve it very hot: to prevent curdling, put the soup-pot into a large pot of boiling water, taking care that not the least drop of water gets in, and so make it boiling hot.

_White Soup._ No. 3.

Cut one pound of veal, or half a fowl, into small pieces; put to it a few sweet herbs, a crust of bread, an ounce of pearl barley well washed.

Set it over a slow fire, closely covered; let it boil till half is consumed; then strain it and take off the fat. Have ready an ounce of sweet almonds blanched, pound them in a marble mortar, adding a little soup to prevent their oiling. Mix all together. When you send it up, add one third of new milk or cream, salt and pepper to taste.