Soup and Soup Making

by Emma P. Ewing

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.

CLASS TWO.

CLEAR SOUPS.

Clear soup is made from simple or compound stock, by straining and clarifying. It can be seasoned with salt, pepper and other condiments, or with salt and pepper alone. In the preparation of clear soups, herbs, spices and vegetables are frequently cooked with the stock, and strained out, and the soup then clarified. All soups that are made with a foundation of clarified stock, or that have clear soup for a base, can be thickened with arrow root, corn starch and similar articles, or flavored with various vegetables, cereals, etc., without losing their distinctive name or character, provided care be taken to use only such articles as will not injure the clearness of the soup. As excellent illustrations of this class of soups take—

No. 1.—AMBER SOUP.

Put a gill each of sliced onion, carrot, turnip and parsnip, fried to a delicate brown, together with the bits of ham or bacon with which they were fried, into a soup kettle; add to them a sprig each of parsley and thyme, half a bay leaf, two cloves, five pepper corns, and cover with five quarts of plain or compound stock. Simmer gently for an hour, strain, remove the grease, and clarify. Heat to boiling point, season with salt and pepper, add a tablespoonful of caramel and serve. If properly made, and carefully strained and clarified, this soup will be as transparent as amber.

No. 2.—TOMATO SOUP.

To four quarts of clear soup, add a quart of strained stewed tomato, a teaspoonful of sugar, a tablespoonful each of corn starch and butter stirred together, and salt and pepper to taste. Boil a few minutes and serve.