SOUP MAKING

To make stock. Wash and cut the meat into small pieces or gash it frequently; crack the bone; let meat and bone soak in the cold water while preparing the seasonings; then add the seasonings, boil the stock ten minutes and put it into a cooker for from nine to twelve hours. When cooked, pour it through a wire strainer and set it away to cool. When cold, it should be kept in a refrigerator or other cold place. Be careful that the pail is well filled, or the soup will cool with the long cooking and may sour. If too small a quantity is cooked to fill the pail or pan it should be set over hot water. The cake of fat which forms on top when the stock is cold should not be removed until the soup is to be made, as it seals the stock and keeps out air and germs, thus helping to preserve it. When soup is to be made, the fat is taken off, the stock heated, and any desired seasonings or additions are put in.

To clear soup stock. Remove the fat, taste the stock, and if it needs more seasoning add it before the clearing. Put into each quart of the cold stock the slightly beaten white of one egg and one crushed egg-shell. Wash the egg before breaking it. Stir the stock constantly while heating it. Let it boil two minutes and set it in a cooker for one-half hour or more. Remove the scum and strain it through two thicknesses of cheese-cloth laid in a colander.

To remove fat from hot soup or broth. Skim off all that can be taken off with a spoon. With a succession of small pieces of soft brown paper take off the rest as if you were using blotting paper on the surface of the soup. When no spotted appearance is seen on the papers, the fat is all removed.

To bind soups. This name is given to the process of thickening cream soups and purées, the liquid and solid part of which would separate unless bound together. Melt the butter, and when it is liquid add usually an equal quantity of flour and rub them together till well blended. They are then added to the soup and stirred constantly till perfectly mixed. If the proportion of flour is greater than that of the butter it will be better to add a little of the soup to the flour and butter in a separate saucepan as for making [white sauce], and when enough has been added to make a smooth sauce, it may be poured into the soup.

Brown Stock No. 1

Prepare the meat as directed for making [stock], brown one-third of it in a frying pan with the fat. Wash the vegetables, scrape or pare them, and cut them in small pieces. Put all the ingredients together and bring them to a boil. When they have boiled for ten minutes put them into a cooker for from nine to twelve hours. Unless there is a large quantity of soup it is not safe to leave it more than twelve hours, lest it grow cold and sour; but nine or more quarts may safely be left for fifteen hours or more, provided the kettle is at least two-thirds full. Pour it through a wire strainer and cool it as rapidly as possible.

Brown Stock No. 2

Do not use salt or smoked meats for soup stock, or any parts of meat which have become charred or blackened in the cooking. Very little of these would be enough to destroy the good flavour of soup.

Cut from the bones all the meat that is easy to get off. Tough ends from steak or roasts should be cut off before they are cooked, and saved for soup or stews. Cut meat for making soup in small pieces. Separate the bones at the joints and crack them if they are large. Soak the meat in the water while preparing the seasoning. Put all the ingredients together and bring them to a boil. Boil them for ten minutes and put them into a cooker for from nine to twelve hours, standing the pan or pail in a large pail of boiling water, unless this recipe fills the cooker pail. Strain the stock through a wire strainer, and cool it as rapidly as possible.

White Stock No. 1

Cook chicken or fowl according to the directions given on [page 131] for stewed chicken. The water in which the chicken was cooked makes white stock.

White Stock No. 2

Prepare the meat as directed for making [stock]. Pare and slice the onion; cut the celery in pieces. If celery cannot easily be obtained, substitute dried celery leaves, using three or four sprays, or use celery seed.

Put all the ingredients together, let them boil for ten minutes, and put them into a cooker for from nine to twelve hours. Set the pail or pan in a larger cooker-pail of boiling water unless the soup nearly fills the cooker-pail.

Bouillon

Prepare the meat as directed for making [brown stock]. Use the marrow fat for browning the meat. Boil all together for ten minutes and put them into a cooker for from nine to twelve hours. Strain the stock through a wire strainer and cool it. When cold, remove the fat and clear the soup as directed on [page 59]. Serve in bouillon cups with crisp crackers.

Serves fifteen to twenty persons.

Beef Broth

Wash and chop the meat fine, removing any pieces of fat. Add the salt and let the meat soak for one hour in a cold place. In a small cooker-pail or pan set over a larger cooker-pail of hot, but not boiling water, heat the broth till it registers 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Slip the pails into a cooker for one-half hour. Strain the broth through a coarse wire strainer, remove all fat by the directions on [page 59], and serve it immediately in a heated cup; or it may be chilled, or frozen to the consistency of mush.