After the stock has been properly made there is comparatively little trouble attending the preparation of any kind of soup desired; and it may be proceeded with at once, by the addition of spices, vegetables and other articles, or may be postponed till another day, and for another occasion.

The variety of soups is illimitable and can be increased almost indefinitely, as it requires but a new combination of materials to entitle a soup to a distinctive name, and as grotesque a one as its originator may choose to bestow upon it.

All soups, however, can be classified and arranged under five heads, viz.:

To one or the other of these divisions everything in the nature of soup belongs; and a little intelligent thought will enable the cook to select the materials adapted to, and appropriate for use in each division.

FLAVOR AND COLOR OF SOUP.

The flavor of the solid material, either animal or vegetable from which a soup takes its name, should always predominate when the soup is served, and only such spices should be added in its preparation as have a tendency to bring out, and perfectly develop the flavor of the dominant article.

This proposition holds good, and should be conformed to also, in regard to the color; so far, at least, as to prohibit the introduction of dark colored vegetables, spices, etc., into light colored soups.

REMOVING THE GREASE.

Before using stock for soup, the first thing to be done is to remove from it all superfluous grease. When it is to be used without being permitted to cool, a little cold water poured into it as soon as strained, will cause the grease to rise to the surface so it can be skimmed off without difficulty. If it is set aside till cold, the grease will form in a cake on the top of the stock, and can be taken off when convenient, but, as it excludes the air, it is better to let it remain till the stock is needed.

CLASS ONE.

PLAIN SOUPS.

Plain soup, in its strictest sense, is either simple or compound stock seasoned with salt, or with salt and pepper. The addition of some of the grains or grain products, generally improves the flavor and increases the nutritive value of any simple soup or broth, but does not take it out of the category of plain soup.

Prominent among, and strikingly illustrative of this class of soups, is

PLAIN CHICKEN SOUP.

The flesh of the fowl from which the stock is to be made, should, with the exception of the breast, be cut into small pieces, and the bones broken. The breast, with the skin as perfect as possible, should be placed in the pot whole, on top of the prepared material, and removed as soon as tender. To each quart of stock, when strained and skimmed, add an ounce of rice, and let simmer three-quarters of an hour, then add the breast of the chicken, cut in dice, a little minced parsley, and salt and pepper to taste. Plain chicken soup is much improved if about a pound of round steak be cut up and cooked with the fowl.

To this soup add a pint of sweet cream, thicken with flour, and flavor highly with celery, and the product will be a much admired white soup—cream of celery soup;—or if the celery and cream be omitted, the addition of half a teaspoonful of curry powder will transform it into a choice Mulligatawny soup.

CLASS TWO.

CLEAR SOUPS.

Clear soup is made from simple or compound stock, by straining and clarifying. It can be seasoned with salt, pepper and other condiments, or with salt and pepper alone. In the preparation of clear soups, herbs, spices and vegetables are frequently cooked with the stock, and strained out, and the soup then clarified. All soups that are made with a foundation of clarified stock, or that have clear soup for a base, can be thickened with arrow root, corn starch and similar articles, or flavored with various vegetables, cereals, etc., without losing their distinctive name or character, provided care be taken to use only such articles as will not injure the clearness of the soup. As excellent illustrations of this class of soups take—

No. 1.—AMBER SOUP.

Put a gill each of sliced onion, carrot, turnip and parsnip, fried to a delicate brown, together with the bits of ham or bacon with which they were fried, into a soup kettle; add to them a sprig each of parsley and thyme, half a bay leaf, two cloves, five pepper corns, and cover with five quarts of plain or compound stock. Simmer gently for an hour, strain, remove the grease, and clarify. Heat to boiling point, season with salt and pepper, add a tablespoonful of caramel and serve. If properly made, and carefully strained and clarified, this soup will be as transparent as amber.

No. 2.—TOMATO SOUP.

To four quarts of clear soup, add a quart of strained stewed tomato, a teaspoonful of sugar, a tablespoonful each of corn starch and butter stirred together, and salt and pepper to taste. Boil a few minutes and serve.

No. 3.—JULIENNE SOUP.

To four quarts of clear soup, add a gill each of carrot, parsnip, turnip, celery, string beans, core of lettuce, and a small onion, cut into thin pieces about an inch in length, and simmer gently until all the vegetables are tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and ten or fifteen minutes before serving the soup, put into it a few water cresses or some sorrel leaves. If all the vegetables are not readily obtainable, one or more of them can be omitted without serious detriment to either the flavor or title of the soup.

CLASS THREE.

VEGETABLE SOUPS.

Vegetable soup is made by cooking vegetables in either simple or compound stock; or a special stock may be prepared by adding water or milk to the juice extracted from vegetables. A vegetable soup may contain but a single vegetable; or it may contain a variety of vegetables, and be of any color desired. The vegetables may be cooked a longer or shorter time, and left in, or strained out of the soup according to taste or fancy.

No. 1.—PLAIN VEGETABLE SOUP.

To three quarts of stock add a gill each of sliced carrot, turnip, parsnip and onion, and simmer gently till tender. Half an hour before serving, add a stalk of celery cut in small pieces, or two or three sprigs of parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

A number of plain vegetable soups quite different in character can be very readily compounded by using a greater or smaller variety of vegetables, or by adapting the combination to the season and the appetite.

No. 2.—ONION SOUP.

Fry in an ounce of butter or clarified drippings, till a light brown, two or three large onions sliced thin; then add two ounces of flour and stir till about the same color. Mix thoroughly with a pint of cold stock, place over the fire in a soup kettle, and when it comes to a boil pour in a quart of boiling milk into which three boiled potatoes, mashed to a smooth paste have been stirred. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot. Water can be used instead of stock in this soup, if more convenient, and the soup still be delicious.

No. 3.—DRIED PEA SOUP.

Soak for several hours, or over night, a pint of dried peas in two quarts of cold water. Drain and put to cook in four quarts of cold water, with a quarter of a pound of breakfast bacon or salt pork, fried to a light brown. As soon as the water boils skim carefully, cover closely and let simmer gently three or four hours, or until the peas are very tender. Strain and return the soup to the kettle, add a teaspoonful of sugar, two quarts of stock, and, when boiling, a tablespoonful each of flour and butter. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with toasted bread cut in dice.Pea soup can be made in this manner without the bacon or pork, in which case it is advisable to use a cup of sweet cream instead of the butter, and to season delicately with celery. Sweet corn is a very desirable mixture for pea soup, and sugar may be dispensed with when it is used. The addition of a little crushed spinach juice will convert this into a nice green pea soup.

If the spinach juice be omitted, and a cup of dark rich gravy, a spoonful of caramel, and a flavoring of herbs and spices be substituted, the entire character of the soup will be so changed that it must be transferred to the list of mixed soups.

CLASS FOUR.

WHITE SOUPS.

Veal, chicken, fish, oysters and other shell fish furnish the stock for most white soups, and cream or milk enters largely into the composition of many of them. One of the leading characteristics of white soups is the prohibition of everything that has a tendency to color; hence, comparatively few vegetables, herbs and spices are legitimately permissible in their composition as seasoning and flavoring. With certain restrictions, however, a greater number can occasionally be introduced with appropriateness, and sometimes be given even a prominent place.

An illustration is furnished in

No. 1.—CREAM OF ASPARAGUS SOUP.

Cut off, about an inch in length, the points of two bunches of asparagus, and simmer them gently until tender in water sufficient to cover them, to which a teaspoonful of salt has been added. Boil the stalks of the asparagus twenty minutes in three pints of white stock or water, then strain and thicken the liquid with a tablespoonful of flour, let it boil two minutes, and add a pint of sweet cream and the asparagus points with the water in which they were cooked. Season with salt and pepper, and serve hot.

No. 2.—CORN SOUP.

A delicious white soup can be made by simmering a pint of sweet corn in a quart of white stock for fifteen minutes, then adding a quart of boiling milk and a small piece of butter, and seasoning with salt and pepper.

No. 3.—A RICH WHITE SOUP.

Simmer for an hour in three quarts of white stock a gill each of white turnip, onion and celery cut in small pieces, together with a blade of mace. Strain, thicken with two ounces of flour, boil two minutes, add half a pint of sweet cream and season with salt and pepper. When about to boil stir in the well beaten yolks of three eggs, and serve.

CLASS FIVE.

MIXED SOUPS.

Delicacy in seasoning and flavoring is pre-eminently the distinguishing mark of a fine soup of any kind; but to mix, mingle and combine many different articles of food so as to produce a soup whose flavor is distinct from any single ingredient entering into its composition, yet embodying the best qualities of each, is the true criterion of merit in a mixed soup.

Nearly all soups are in a certain sense mixed soups; but plain, clear, vegetable and white soups, have distinctive characteristics by which they can be recognized, and their genuineness established, while the individuality of a mixed soup must be evolved from the harmonious adjustment of seemingly discordant materials, and depends in a great measure upon the good judgment, discriminating taste and artistic skill of the person who prepares it.

An illustration of a mixed soup that can not be placed under any other division is

No. 1.—MOCK TURTLE SOUP.

Ingredients:

A calf’s head, a beef soup bone, five quarts cold water, one onion, one turnip, one carrot, one half stalk celery, one half bunch parsley, one bay leaf, one lemon, five cloves, ten allspice, ten pepper corns, one fourth nutmeg, two teaspoons of salt, a little cayenne pepper, two ounces butter, one ounce flour—a glass of wine to each quart of soup.

Put the head after removing the brains with the spices in the soup kettle, and cover with three quarts of cold water to which half a teaspoonful of salt has been added.

When it boils skim carefully and let simmer four or five hours, removing the meat as soon as tender. Strain and set aside till next day. Put the beef bone and vegetables in the soup kettle and cover with two quarts of cold water to which half a teaspoonful of salt has been added, and simmer four hours, removing the scum as it rises. Soak the brains in cold salt water an hour, tie in a linen cloth and boil gently twenty minutes in salted water. Plunge an instant in cold water to render white and firm. Cook two ounces butter and one ounce of flour in a sauce pan till very brown. Put both soup stocks together in the kettle, after all grease and settlings have been removed, also the meat from the head cut in small dice, and the yolks of a dozen hard boiled eggs, and when it boils add the brains cut in small pieces. Put the lemon, cut in thin slices, in a heated tureen, with a gill of wine for each quart of soup; pour the boiling soup on them, and serve.

No. 2.—SAVE-ALL SOUP.

Collect the scraps left from breakfast and dinner, for instance, a half pint of soup, a gill of gravy, a half pint of mashed turnip or potato, a little macaroni cooked with cheese, a sour baked apple or broiled chop or steak, etc., etc.; put them in the stock pot or soup kettle with sufficient cold water, simmer for an hour, removing any scum that rises, then strain and set aside. Next day remove the grease, put the soup to cook, and when it boils, season with salt and pepper, and if it seems to need other seasoning add a pinch Of thyme, or celery seed, or a teaspoonful of sugar. It is sometimes well to put half a bay leaf and two or three cloves in the kettle with the scraps. The flavorings and spices required in a mixed soup of this description depend greatly upon the nature of the scraps used. If they are mostly light and delicate, thyme, mace, celery, or parsley can be added; if dark and heavy, cloves, bay leaf, sweet marjoram or a little Worcestershire sauce, or walnut or other catsup can be used more appropriately. Sometimes an ounce each of butter and flour cooked together in a saucepan till browned, and then added to the soup, give it the very thing it lacks; or it may be that the flour stirred with a gill of cold sweet cream is what is needed to make it a perfect soup.

To select and harmonize the materials for a mixed soup is one of the best evidences of culinary capacity; and the cook who can do this successfully, is qualified to prepare a soup of the most complex as well as one of the simplest character, without regard to its name or class.

OYSTER SOUPS.

These all belong to the white soup class, but they occupy so anomalous a position—an oyster soup being simply an oyster stew with additional liquid, and a thickening of flour—that they deserve special mention.

TO STEW OYSTERS.—No. 1.

Rinse a quart of oysters in cold water, drain through a sieve. Put a piece of butter the size of an egg in a stew pan, and when melted add a pint of milk and let it come to a boil; add the oysters, and the moment the edges curl remove from the fire; season with salt and pepper. Serve with small crackers, or on thin slices of buttered toast.

TO STEW OYSTERS.—No. 2.

Pour a pint of cold water over a quart of oysters, stir well and drain; put the liquor in a stew pan greased with butter; when it boils, skim, add the oysters, season to taste with butter, salt and pepper, and cook and serve as in No. 1.In changing an oyster stew to a soup, the thickening and extra liquid should be added and cooked before the oysters are put into it.

POTAGES, PUREES AND CONSOMMES.

These are French terms used to designate different kinds of soups; but they are applied so indiscriminately as to possess very little significance, even for culinary adepts; and the dividing line between a potage, a puree, a consomme, and an ordinary soup, is so imaginary as to be indistinct to plain every-day people. But as a foreign or grotesque name does not detract from the quality of a good thing, those who prefer to call a soup a potage, a puree or a consomme, can do so with impunity, and not legally infringe on the domain of any professional cook.

HOW TO SCALD SOUP.

To scald stock or soup properly, it must be brought to the boiling point and thoroughly heated. Its liability to ferment and grow sour is only increased by merely re-warming it.

WHEN TO ADD FLAVORING.

Vegetables when used merely to flavor soups should be simmered only long enough to extract their juices; and aromatic spices, orange and lemon juice, and other liquid flavorings whose subtle essences are driven off by heat, should be added barely a sufficient length of time before the soup is served, for them to blend and harmonize with the other materials—in fact it is usually better to put them in the tureen and pour the soup over them just before it goes to the table.

ORDER OF ADDING VEGETABLES.

Where several kinds of vegetables are used in the preparation of a soup, care should be taken to put those that require most cooking in the kettle first; and, if possible, to limit the simmering of each kind to the time actually necessary to cook it tender.

BROWNING VEGETABLES.

Breakfast bacon and ham give a peculiarly fine flavor to many soups, and when they are used the vegetables added to such soups should be browned in the fryings of the meat; but when neither bacon nor ham is used, the vegetables should be browned in butter, as in most cases they impart a richer flavor to the soup, if nicely browned in a little grease before being added.

VEGETABLES, ETC., ADAPTED TO SOUPS.

While nearly all kinds of vegetables, herbs, spices and cereals can be appropriately used at pleasure in clear, vegetable and mixed soups, those specially adapted to white soups are: cauliflower, potato, white turnip, onion, celery, salsify, cresses, capers, olives, parsley, thyme, rice, macaroni, vermicelli, tapioca, sago, mace, and red and white pepper.

TO CLARIFY SOUPS.

To each gallon of soup add, while cold, the whites and shells of two eggs beaten with a little cold water, simmer for fifteen minutes, removing the scum as it rises, and then strain through a flannel cloth or bag.

CARAMEL.

Preparations for coloring and flavoring soups can be obtained at almost any grocery by those who wish to use them. But caramel, which is innocent and cheap, is one of the best coloring materials, and is easily prepared:—

Stir half a pound of sugar and a spoonful of water in a saucepan over the fire till a bright brown, then add half a pint of water, boil a few minutes and strain. Caramel made in this manner will keep a considerable length of time if put in an air-tight jar or bottle.

THICKENING FOR SOUPS.

When flour, corn starch, farina or arrow root are to be used as thickening for soups they should be stirred to a smooth paste with cold milk, cream, or butter, and then added to the boiling soup. If the flour is desired brown it should be cooked with butter before it is added to the soup.

ADDITIONS TO SOUPS.

Eggs cooked in a variety of ways, croutons, noodles, dumplings, force meat balls, and a dozen other articles that are manufactured for the purpose, are used according to fancy as additions to soups. Some of them are cooked in the soup and served with it, and some are cooked separate and put in the tureen or the individual plates, and the soup poured over them.

CROUTONS.

A bit of toasted or fried bread is called in French a crouton; and croutons, which are simply bits of bread toasted or fried brown, are very nice in a variety of soups. The bread can be toasted in the ordinary way and used dry, or it can be buttered, cut in dice and toasted brown in the oven, or fried brown in butter or drippings. The best way of serving croutons is to put a spoonful of them in each plate and pour the hot soup over them.

NOODLES.

The noodle is one of the traditional articles for serving in soups. It is a general favorite and is easily made:

To three eggs, two tablespoonfuls of water, and a pinch of salt, add flour enough to make a stiff dough. Work and knead fifteen or twenty minutes, roll to a very thin sheet, dust lightly and evenly with flour, and roll up compactly. Then with a thin sharp bladed knife cut into very thin slices and let dry for a couple of hours before putting in the soup. They will cook in five minutes. Or,

Beat an egg very light, add flour until stiff enough to roll into little crumbs the size of wheat or rice grains, drop into boiling soup and cook a few minutes.

DUMPLINGS.

A very delicate dumpling for soup can be made of biscuit dough, raised with either yeast or baking powder, in this manner: roll the dough thin, cut into dice, roll under the hand on a floured board, and steam for twenty minutes; put in the tureen and pour boiling soup over them.

But the most delicate of dumplings are made of light bread crumbs, suet or marrow, egg and seasoning. These can be varied in seasoning to suit any soup. This is a good combination for a clear, white or delicate soup of any kind. Mix well, but lightly, a tablespoonful uncooked beef marrow and half a pint bread crumbs, seasoned with salt, pepper, grated lemon peel and mace; add one well beaten egg, roll into balls in the hands, and drop into the boiling soup. They should be served as soon as they rise to the surface.

FORCE MEAT BALLS.

To four parts cooked veal, and one part suet minced together, add four parts bread crumbs and season with salt, pepper, powdered cloves and sweet herbs. Bind together with beaten egg, make into small balls and fry brown. These are much used in mock turtle and other heavy soups.

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