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.