The Story of Crisco Part 7

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by Marion Harris Neil

SOUPS

An economical housewife may supply good gravy and thick soups at very little, if any, addition to the weekly expenses, as soups are an excellent method of using up sc.r.a.ps and bones from joints and vegetables that otherwise are wasted. Soup, if taken as the primary course of a substantial dinner, if well flavored and warm, acts as a stimulant in the stomach, exciting the gastric glands, and generally enabling that organ to perform its functions more easily. For this object the soup should be thin and not too much of it partaken, otherwise it dilutes the digestive juices too much. If it is to form the chief part of the meal, the soup will be more nutritious if thickened, especially so, if pulse--i.e. peas, beans, and lentils--is used as the thickening medium.

Stock is the liquid in which meat, bones, or vegetables have been cooked, and which contains an extract from these substances. It is used for soups, sauces, and gravies. Fresh or cooked bones or meat may be used. A stock pot may be kept on the stove, into which are put any sc.r.a.ps of meat, bones, gristle, or vegetable; at the end of the day it is strained, and all fat taken off. Bones and meat for stock must be broken into small pieces. Cold water should be used, and a little salt to extract the nutriment. The whole must be brought slowly to the boiling point; then, the temperature lowered, the fat and sc.u.m taken off. When wanted for clear soups the vegetables should be cleaned, but not cut up, or with the long cooking they may mash and thicken the soup. In hot weather it is better to leave out the vegetables, as the stock turns sour more quickly if vegetables have been used in its preparation. They can be cooked separately and added when using the stock.

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The soup should simmer for five or six hours to extract the gelatinous matters. If the stock is skimmed occasionally it will be much clearer.

Keep the lid on the stock pot to prevent loss by evaporation. The bones can be cooked again next day for a second stock, but the vegetables must be taken out. Care must be taken that nothing doubtful in freshness be put into the stock pot. Meat and bones should be well wiped with a damp cloth before using them. If onions be put in the soup unpeeled, simply washed and the root end cut off, they will help to color the soup. When using eggs for other dishes, if the sh.e.l.ls be washed before breaking them and added to the stock pot they will help to clear the soup. For clear soups care must be taken that nothing of a floury nature be added to the stock pot. Stock always should be strained before cooling. Never allow it to stand in stock pot all night. Clear gravy soup consists of the extractives, flavoring matters, and gelatine of meat and bones.

Consomme is a good stock made from beef, veal, and often fowl, and flavored with vegetables, cooled, freed from fat. It is clarified with whites and sh.e.l.ls of eggs, and chopped raw lean beef, and strained through a cloth. It should be brilliantly clear and of a pale brown color. Any fat floating on the stock may be removed by pa.s.sing a piece of kitchen or blotting paper over the surface. Soup left from a meal will keep better if strained from the vegetables that have been served in it. In hot weather, stock left over must be boiled each day, and poured into a clean basin to prevent its turning sour. In warm weather, soups with milk in their composition should have a pinch of baking soda added.

Thickenings for soup consist usually of yolks of eggs and cream beaten together in a basin, the boiling soup poured on slowly, stirring well at the same time. Soups thus thickened should not be allowed to boil again, otherwise they will curdle. Instead of eggs and cream, cornstarch and milk may be used to thicken the soup.

Asparagus Soup

40 heads asparagus 3 tablespoonfuls flour 3 tablespoonfuls Crisco 1/2 cupful cream 1 quart white stock 1 bunch herbs 1 bay leaf 4 sprigs parsley 2 egg yolks 1 blade mace Salt and white pepper to taste 1 onion

Take heads off asparagus, and put aside. Cut up stalks in slices, also onion, put these into saucepan with Crisco, herbs, parsley, bay leaf, and mace, and fry gently for fifteen minutes, add flour, then stock, and simmer slowly for 1-1/2 hours. Rub through sieve, add cream, yolks of eggs, and seasonings, reheat, but take care not to boil soup. Just before serving throw in asparagus tops, which should be first cooked in a little boiling stock.

Cheese Soup

4 tablespoonfuls grated cheese 3 quarts clear soup stock 1-1/2 cupfuls flour 4 tablespoonfuls Crisco 2 cupfuls cream 2 eggs Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste Finely grated cheese

Put flour into double boiler, add gradually cream, Crisco, 4 tablespoonfuls of grated cheese and paprika to taste, stir over fire till a smooth paste. Break in eggs, mix well, cook two minutes longer and allow to cool. Roll into b.a.l.l.s, when they are all formed, drop into boiling water and cook gently five minutes. Drain and put into soup tureen. Pour over boiling stock and serve with dish of finely grated cheese.

Cream of Tomato Soup

2 tablespoonfuls flour 1-1/2 tablespoonfuls Crisco 1 cupful milk 2-1/2 cupfuls strained tomato juice 1 teaspoonful celery salt Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste Pinch baking soda 1 tablespoonful tomato catsup

Blend Crisco and flour together in saucepan over fire, add milk and bring to boiling point. Heat tomato juice, tomato catsup and add soda and seasonings. Just before serving add Crisco mixture to tomato juice and stir till boiling. Serve hot. Another method, is to cook 1 quart can of tomatoes with 1 quart of water twenty minutes, then rub through sieve. Blend 2 tablespoonfuls Crisco with 2 tablespoonfuls flour, add 1 tablespoonful sugar, salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste, and 1 tablespoonful tomato catsup. Add pinch of baking soda to tomatoes, then add gradually to Crisco mixture. Just bring to boiling point and serve with tablespoonful whipped cream on top of each plate.

Fish Soup

1 lb. cod, or other white fish 2 tablespoonfuls Crisco 1 quart white stock, or half milk and half water 1 small carrot 1 small onion 1 stalk celery 3 parsley sprigs 1 blade mace 2 egg yolks 1/2 cupful cream 1 lemon 2 tablespoonfuls flour 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley

Dry toast

Wash and dry fish and cut into small pieces. Put into saucepan with stock, vegetables cut in small pieces, parsley and mace. Let these simmer for half hour, then strain off liquid. Melt Crisco in pan, stir in flour, then add fish liquor and stir till it boils. Draw it to the side of fire and let cool slightly. Beat yolks of eggs with cream, and, when soup has cooled, strain them in. Reheat soup without boiling it, to cook eggs. Season, and add few drops lemon juice and chopped parsley. Serve with small pieces of dry toast.

Lentil Soup

1 cupful lentils 2 cupfuls milk 3 tablespoonfuls Crisco 3 pints stock or water 1 onion 1 carrot 2 stalks celery 1 tablespoonful flour 1 bay leaf Salt and pepper to taste 1/4 cupful cream Croutons

Wash lentils; soak twenty-four hours; drain well. Cut onion, carrot and celery into small pieces, then put them into a saucepan with Crisco, cover, and cook gently for fifteen minutes. Add stock and simmer 2 hours, then rub through sieve. Return to pan, add milk, seasonings, and bring to boil. Moisten flour with 1/2 cupful milk or stock, add it to soup and simmer five minutes. Season to taste and add cream. Serve with croutons of fried or toasted bread.

Lentils are a small leguminous seed, not so generally known as beans, but an excellent nitrogenous food, containing about 25 per cent.

protein, more than 50 per cent. starch, with over 2 per cent. fat.

They are not used as much as they ought to be.

Croutons are made by cutting bread into tiny cubes and browning through and through in hot oven or putting into a frying pan with 2 tablespoonfuls Crisco and browning well. If latter is used great care must be used as the croutons will brown easily.

Lobster Bisque

1 can lobster 1 cupful breadcrumbs 1 quart milk 1 quart water 1 tablespoonful flour 1/4 cupful Crisco Salt, pepper, red pepper, and grated nutmeg to taste Squares fried bread Thin lemon slices

Open a can of lobster of good quality, take out best pieces and cut into small squares without tearing; put them aside. Place remains of lobster in mortar or basin, and pound quite smooth with Crisco. Soak bread in water, adding flour, and seasonings, and put all on fire in soup pot with pounded lobster and Crisco; stir till it boils, and boil for fifteen minutes; then pa.s.s it through sieve, add milk and pieces of lobster, and return to the pot till it boils up. Serve with small squares of fried bread, and send thin slices of lemon to table with it. This is an excellent soup, and can of course be made with fresh lobster.

Norfolk Puree

1/2 cupful barley, pearl 1 quart water 3 pints white stock 1/2 cupful cream 1 yolk of egg 2 tablespoonfuls Crisco 4 tablespoonfuls cooked carrot b.a.l.l.s 4 tablespoonfuls cooked peas Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste Diced toast or fried bread

Put barley into saucepan of cold water, bring to boil, let boil five minutes, then drain off water; this removes the slightly bitter taste.

Now put barley into saucepan with Crisco and water, let these boil gently until barley is tender, drain, and rub through sieve. Add stock to this puree and let simmer ten minutes. Beat yolk of egg with cream and when soup has cooled slightly, strain them in. Stir soup over fire a few minutes to reheat; but be careful that it does not boil, or it will curdle. Season carefully, add carrot b.a.l.l.s and peas, which should first be heated in a little stock or water. Serve with dice of toast or fried bread. If you do not possess a round vegetable cutter, cut the carrot into small dice. This is a particularly nouris.h.i.+ng soup. If you prefer a slightly cheaper variety, use milk instead of cream, and if you have no white stock use milk and water in equal proportions instead, and cook a carrot, turnip and onion in milk and water for twenty or thirty minutes.

Soup Verte

4 tablespoonfuls flour 3 tablespoonfuls Crisco 2 quarts stock 1 bunch parsley 1 lb. spinach 1 bunch parsley 1 teaspoonful sugar 2 egg yolks 1 lemon Salt and pepper to taste

Put stock into saucepan; add spinach and parsley, picked and thoroughly washed; let all boil twenty minutes; strain, rubbing puree through sieve. Return it all to saucepan, add Crisco and flour mixed together with cupful of water, sugar and strained juice of a quarter of lemon. Let boil five minutes. Beat yolks of eggs with 1/4 cupful water, add them gradually to soup off fire, and stir near fire until cooked. Soup must not boil after yolks are added. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Thick Rice Soup