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.