Cookery for Little Girls

by Olive Hyde Foster

CHAPTER III

Some Easy Soups

Every little cook should early be taught how to make a variety of soups, as many small quantities of food can be utilized in this way that otherwise might be wasted.

STOCK

Take, for instance, the bones and small trimmings from steaks, chops or a roast, and the remnant of a chicken. These, with a five-cent soup bone, will make the stock, which is the foundation for a great many kinds of soup. If part of the scraps have been fried or roasted, so much the better, as then the stock will be a delicate brown and have even a richer taste. The meat, cut in small cubes, with the bones well cracked, should be covered with twice the quantity of cold water and allowed to stand for several hours.

CLEAR VEGETABLE SOUP

Any kind of vegetables on hand can be put in at the same time, a small onion cut in slices, a little chopped carrot, turnip, a few string beans cut in inch lengths, half a cupful of peas, a couple of stalks of celery, a few sprigs of parsley, together with three or four cloves and salt and pepper to taste. If these vegetables with the meat fill the kettle one-third full, then it can be filled to the top with cold water. After standing several hours it should be placed where it will heat slowly and allowed to simmer for two hours, then strained and set aside to cool and let the grease come to the top. When it is cold the cake of fat can easily be lifted off.

CONSOMMÉ AND BOUILLON

Then to make the finest kind of perfectly clear soup, stir into each two quarts of cold stock the beaten white and crushed shell of one egg, place on the fire and keep stirring until it boils. Allow to cook without stirring for twenty minutes, after which set aside for ten minutes; skim and strain through a cheese-cloth bag. This may seem like a good deal of work, but if the soup is first boiled in the morning while cleaning up the kitchen and then clarified while getting dinner, it will not require much time nor trouble, and the result will be a delicious consommé or bouillon. It is called bouillon if made principally of beef with vegetables, and brown in color; it is consommé if made of uncooked meat and bones, including veal and chicken, and consequently light in color.

PLEASING VARIATIONS

Stock made thus can be simply reheated or changed to any desired kind of soup by the addition of a particular garnishing. For rice soup, either a few teaspoonfuls of uncooked rice or half a teacupful of cold boiled rice can be added; for vegetable soup a cupful of mixed vegetables cut in small pieces can be put in and boiled until tender. Macaroni, broken in inch lengths, washed and then cooked in the stock until it is done makes a nice change, called Italian consommé, while a cupful of tomatoes will convert it into a tomato soup. If the additions suggested are to be made, however, it is not necessary to clarify the stock. It takes common sense to make good soup, as well as time and patience, and one must learn to be guided by the taste if trying to use up left-overs instead of following a regular recipe.

Cream soups, however, do not require any stock, and so are easily and quickly made. They are delicious, too, and something any bright girl could make while her mother got up the rest of the dinner. They take the name of the kind of vegetable used, but all are put together in about the same way.

CREAM OF CELERY

For cream of celery take two cupfuls of diced celery, using the leaves, ends and coarse pieces not good enough to send to the table uncooked. Cover with two cupfuls of cold water, season with salt and allow to cook until tender—about twenty minutes. While this is boiling the little maid mixes in another pan two tablespoonfuls of melted butter with two tablespoonfuls of flour. Placing it over the fire, she adds three cupfuls of milk and stirs for five minutes while it boils. After seasoning with salt and pepper and a dash of red pepper, pour in the strained water from the cooked celery and boil all gently on the back of the stove for five minutes before serving.

PEA AND ASPARAGUS

For cream of pea soup, simply substitute two cupfuls of cooked peas that have been pressed through a colander. For cream of asparagus boil up first two cupfuls of the tough ends of the asparagus that would not do for the table, or take two cupfuls of the water used in cooking the asparagus for dinner and put with the thickened milk. But in order to avoid giving the family the same vegetable twice at a meal, it is best to save the asparagus water or the celery ends until another time, putting in the ice-box to keep fresh. We all like variety, and in this way it can be had without extra expense.

CREAM OF POTATO

Cream of potato soup is made by adding two scant cupfuls of mashed potato to the milk foundation given. Some people like the addition of a half-teaspoonful of onion juice to flavor or a tablespoonful of chopped bacon. If too thick it can be thinned with some of the boiling potato water.

It is advisable for the mother to have the child make a certain cream soup twice in close succession to be sure that she thoroughly understands the process, and then make each of the other kinds soon after, so that she will get used to using up whatever left-overs she finds on hand.

BLACK BEAN SOUP

Black beans make a particularly nice soup for a company dinner. To two cupfuls of the dried beans use four cupfuls of cold water and let stand over night. Next day add two cupfuls of boiling water and cook until the beans are perfectly tender, with one small chopped onion, three cloves, salt, pepper and a dash of cayenne. Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter, stir in two tablespoonfuls of flour, add a cupful of cold water; cook the same as the milk foundation and add to the beans after they have been put through a colander. Boil up well together, stirring to blend well. Put a couple of thin slices of hard-boiled egg and lemon in each plate and pour the hot soup in. If desired, the soup can be additionally flavored with a small wineglassful of sour wine.

CREAM OF TOMATO

Before leaving the soup question, let me say that the cream of tomato is made by heating two cupfuls of canned tomatoes to the boiling point, then straining, and after adding a good-sized pinch of soda, which must be stirred in well, poured slowly on to the milk foundation, prepared in another vessel. This must be served immediately, as it is not so good when allowed to stand.

Tossing Up a Salad

DELECTABLE GARNISHES

Instead of always serving the ordinary crackers, teach the child how to prepare some simple little extras for nice soups. Plain square crackers spread with butter, salted and then browned in the oven will taste quite different; another time let her grate the least bit of cheese over before the toasting. Or she can take stale bread, cut in long narrow strips, spread with butter, season with salt and pepper and bake a light brown in a slow oven. Croûtons, too, are a welcomed variety, made by cutting bread in half-inch cubes, dipping in melted butter and frying crisp. A few of these are scattered on top of each plate of soup just before sending to the table. Such extras require but little time, yet they mark the experienced cook; and if our small maid has been paying due attention to her directions (and consequently getting good results in her work,) she ought now to be so interested that she will be eager to try every new dish suggested and desirous of making the greatest possible number of dishes out of each particular kind of food.

Now let us review and see what we have out of the odds and ends that we found that we had on hand to start with, and what a luncheon it would make. We should have either a soup or the stuffed peppers for a first course, salad for a second, and the cheese crackers served with a small quantity of jam or preserves for a finish! Quite a nice meal, and one we need not hesitate to set before an unexpected guest. Besides, from any reasonable quantity of left-overs there would probably be enough for four people.

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