COLOURING FOR BROTH, SOUP, GRAVIES, AND MADE DISHES.
The substance employed for colouring soups, gravies, broths, and other dishes, requiring a brown colour, is burnt sugar. This imparts to the dish a fine yellowish brown tinge, without giving any sensible flavour to the dish. Eight ounces of powdered lump sugar, and two or three table spoonfuls of water, are suffered to boil gently in an iron pan, till the mass has assumed a dark brown colour, which takes place when all the water is evaporated, and the sugar begins to be partly charred by the action of the heat. The mass is then removed from the fire, and about a quarter of a pint of water is gradually added to effect a solution. The fluid thus obtained is of a syrupy consistence, and of a fine dark brown colour; a small quantity gives to broth, soup, or gravy, a bright orange colour, without altering sensibly the flavour of the dish. Some cooks add to it mushroom catsup and port wine.
STOCK FOR MAKING EXTEMPORANEOUS BROTH, SOUP, OR GRAVY.
The name of stock is given to meat jelly produced from a decoction of meat, so highly concentrated that the fluid, when cold, exhibits an elastic tremulous consistence.
The meat is slowly boiled in water, with the customary seasonings, as pot herbs, or esculent roots, and the decoction skimmed, and continued to simmer till it is charged with a sufficient quantity of animal matter to form a jelly when cold; this degree of concentration is known by removing, from time to time, a portion of the fluid, and suffering it to cool. When the decoction has been so far concentrated, it is strained off through a sieve and suffered to repose, that the insoluble part, if any, may subside. When this has been effected, the clear fluid is suffered to cool, which causes the fatty matter it contains to become collected at the surface, where it forms a cake or crust, which is to be removed. The substance underneath is a tremulous jelly; it is called first stock, or long broth, (Le grand bouillon of the French kitchen). If the jelly be not transparent it is re-melted by a gentle heat, and clarified by the addition of the white of eggs added to it, as soon as it is liquified. This substance becoming coagulated at the boiling heat, entangles with it the parts mechanically diffused through the jelly, and rises to the top as a dense scum. It may then be removed by a skimmer. The name of second-stock (Jus de bœuf of the French) is given to a more concentrate jelly of meat made in a similar manner. It is chiefly employed as the basis of all savoury made dishes and rich sauces, whilst the former serves for making extemporaneous soups. Second stock is usually prepared in the following manner:—Put into a stew-pan about half a pound of lean bacon or ham, a few carrots and onions, two or three cloves, about six or eight pounds of lean beef, and a shin of beef of about the same weight, break the bone, and having scored the meat, suffer it to simmer over a very gentle fire, with about two quarts of first stock, or better put it into an oven, and suffer it to stew, till the liquid assumes a light brown colour. When this has taken place, add to the mass six quarts of boiling water, suffer it to boil up gently, and remove the scum as it rises; and suffer it to evaporate till reduced to about three quarts, then strain it through a sieve, and clarify it as before directed.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHOICE OF MEAT.
The flesh of animals which are suddenly killed when in high health, so far as the palate is concerned, is not yet fit for the table, although fully nutritious and in perfection for making soup; because sometime after the death, the muscular parts suffer contraction—their fibres become rigid. When this has taken place, the flesh is not long in experiencing the commencement of those chemical changes which terminate in putrefaction; and it is of the utmost importance, in domestic economy, to take care that all large joints of meat be in this intermediate state when they are cooked: for no skill in the culinary art will compensate for negligence in this point, as every one must have often experienced to his great disappointment.
The degree of inteneration may be known by the flesh yielding readily to the pressure of the finger, and by its opposing little resistance to an attempt to bend the joint. Poultry also thus part readily with their feathers; and it would be advisable to leave a few when the bird is plucked, in order to assist in determining their state.
The following wholesome advice on this subject we copy from Doctor Kitchiner:[30]—“When you order meat, poultry, or fish, tell the tradesman when you intend to dress it, and he will then have it in his power to serve you with provision that will do him credit, which the finest meat, &c. in the world, will never do, unless it has been kept a proper time to be ripe and tender. If you have a well-ventilated larder, in a shady, dry situation, you may make still surer, by ordering in your meat and poultry, such a time before you want it as will render it tender, which the finest meat cannot be, unless hung a proper time, according to the season and nature of the meat, &c. but always till it has made some very slight advance towards putrefaction.”
[30] The Cook’s Oracle.