GOOD CALF’S HEAD SOUP.
(Not expensive.)
Stew down from six to seven pounds of the thick part of a shin of beef with a little lean ham, or a slice of hung beef, or of Jewish beef, trimmed free from the smoky edges, in five quarts of water until reduced nearly half, with the addition, when it first begins to boil, of an ounce of salt, a large bunch of savoury herbs, one large onion, a head of celery, three carrots, two or three turnips, two small blades of mace, eight or ten cloves, and a few white or black peppercorns. Let it boil gently that it may not be too much reduced, for six or seven hours, then strain it into a clean pan and set it by for use. Take out the bone from half a calf’s head with the skin on (the butcher will do this if desired), wash, roll, and bind it with a bit of tape or twine, and lay it into a stewpan, with the bones and tongue; cover the whole with the beef stock, and stew it for an hour and a half; then lift it into a deep earthen pan and let it cool in the liquor, as this will prevent the edges from becoming dry or discoloured. Take it out before it is quite cold; strain, and skim all the fat carefully from the stock; and heat five pints in a large clean saucepan, with the head cut into small thick slices or into inch-squares. As quite the whole will not be needed, leave a portion of the fat, but add every morsel of the skin to the soup, and of the tongue also. Should the first of these not be perfectly tender, it must be simmered gently till it is so; then stir into the soup from six to eight ounces of fine rice-flour mixed with a quarter-teaspoonful of cayenne, twice as much freshly pounded mace, half a wineglassful of mushroom catsup,[[31]] and sufficient cold broth or water to render it of the consistence of batter; boil the whole from eight to ten minutes; take off the scum, and throw in two glasses of sherry; dish the soup and put into the tureen some delicately and well fried forcemeat-balls made by the receipt No. 1, 2, or 3, of Chapter [VIII.] A small quantity of lemon-juice or other acid can be added at pleasure. The wine and forcemeat-balls may be omitted, and the other seasonings of the soup a little heightened. As much salt as may be required should be added to the stock when the head first begins to boil in it: the cook must regulate also by the taste the exact proportion of cayenne, mace, and catsup, which will flavour the soup agreeably. The fragments of the head, with the bones and the residue of the beef used for stock, if stewed down together with some water and a few fresh vegetables, will afford some excellent broth, such as would be highly acceptable, especially if well thickened with rice, to many a poor family during the winter months.
[31]. Unless very good and pure in flavour, we cannot recommend the addition of this or of any other catsup to soup or gravy.
Stock: shin of beef, 6 to 7 lbs.; water, 5 quarts: stewed down (with vegetables, &c.) till reduced nearly half. Boned half-head with skin on stewed in stock: 1-1/2 hour. Soup: stock, 5 pints; tongue, skin of head, and part of flesh: 15 to 40 minutes, or more if not quite tender. Rice-flour, 6 to 8 oz.; cayenne, quarter-teaspoonful; mace, twice as much; mushroom catsup, 1/2 wineglassful: 10 minutes. Sherry, 2 wineglassesful, forcemeat-balls, 20 to 30.
SOUP DES GALLES.
Add to the liquor in which a knuckle of veal has been boiled the usual time for table as much water as will make altogether six quarts, and stew in it gently sixpennyworth of beef bones and sixpennyworth of pork-rinds. When the boiling is somewhat advanced, throw in the skin of a calf’s head; and in an hour afterwards, or when it is quite tender, lift it out and set it aside till wanted. Slice and fry four large mild onions, stick into another eight or ten cloves, and put them into the soup after it has stewed from six to seven hours. Continue the boiling for two or three hours longer, then strain off the soup, and let it remain until perfectly cold. When wanted for table, take it quite clear from the fat and sediment, and heat it anew with the skin of the calf’s head cut into dice, three ounces of loaf sugar, four tablespoonsful of strained lemon-juice, two of soy, and three wineglassesful of sherry; give it one boil, skim it well, and serve it as hot as possible. Salt must be added to it sparingly in the first instance on account of the soy: a proper seasoning of cayenne or pepper must not, of course, be omitted.
This receipt was given to the writer, some years since, as a perfectly successful imitation of a soup which was then, and is still, she believes, selling in London at six shillings the quart. Never having tasted the original Soupe des Galles she cannot say how far it is a correct one; but she had it tested with great exactness when she received it first, and found the result a very good soup prepared at an extremely moderate cost. The pork-rinds, when long boiled, afford a strong and flavourless jelly, which might be advantageously used to give consistence to other soups. They may be procured during the winter, usually at the butcher’s, but if not, at the porkshops: they should be carefully washed before they are put into the soup-pot. When a knuckle of veal cannot conveniently be had, a pound or two of the neck and a morsel of scrag of mutton may instead be boiled down with the beef-bones; or two or three pounds of neck or shin of beef: but these will, of course, augment the cost of the soup.
POTAGE À LA REINE.
(A Delicate White Soup.)
Should there be no strong veal broth, nor any white stock in readiness, stew four pounds of the scrag or knuckle of veal, with a thick slice or two of lean ham, a faggot of sweet herbs, two moderate-sized carrots, and the same of onions, a large blade of mace, and a half-teaspoonful of white peppercorns, in four quarts of water until reduced to about five pints; then strain the liquor, and set it by until the fat can be taken entirely from it. Skin and wash thoroughly, a couple of fine fowls, or three young pullets, and take away the dark spongy substance which adheres to the insides; pour the veal broth to them, and boil them gently from three quarters of an hour to an hour; then lift them out, take off all the white flesh, mince it small, pound it to the finest paste, and cover it with a basin until wanted for use. In the mean time let the bodies of the fowls be put again into the stock, and stewed gently for an hour and a half; add as much salt and cayenne, as will season the soup properly, strain it off when sufficiently boiled, and let it cool; skim off every particle of fat; steep, in a small portion of it, which should be boiling, four ounces of the crumb of light stale bread sliced thin, and when it has simmered a few minutes, drain or wring the moisture from it in a clean cloth, add it to the flesh of the chickens, and pound them together until they are perfectly blended; then pour the stock to them in very small quantities at first, and mix them smoothly with it; pass the whole through a sieve or tammy, heat it in a clean stewpan, stir to it from a pint to a pint and a half of boiling cream, and add, should it not be sufficiently thick, an ounce and a half of arrow-root, quite free from lumps, and moistened with a few spoonsful of cold milk or stock.
Remark.—This soup, and the two which immediately follow it, if made with care and great nicety by the exact directions given here for them, will be found very refined and excellent. For stock: veal, 4 lbs.; ham, 6 oz.; water, 4 quarts; bunch of herbs; carrots, 2; onions, 2; mace, large blade; peppercorns, 1/2 teaspoonful; salt: 5 hours. Fowls, 2, or pullets, 3: 3/4 to 1 hour; stewed afterwards 1 to 1-1/2 hour. Crumb of bread, 4 oz.; cream, 1 to 1-1/2 pint; arrow-root (if needed), 1-1/2 oz.