Part II.—When the soup is to be boiled six hours, two quarts of cold water must be allowed to every pound of meat; this will be reduced to one quart in boiling. Two gills of soup are usually allowed for each person at table when it is served as the first part of the dinner, and meats are to follow it. Care should be taken that the stock-pot boils slowly and constantly, from one side, as rapid and irregular boiling clouds and darkens the stock as much as imperfect skimming. Stock should never be allowed to cool in the stock-pot, but should be strained into an earthen jar, and left standing to cool uncovered, and all the fat removed, and saved to clarify for drippings; the stock is then ready to heat and use for soup, or gravy. When stock has been darkened and clouded by careless skimming and fast boiling, it can be clarified by adding to it one egg and the shell, mixed first with a gill of cold water, then with a gill of boiling soup, and stirring it briskly into the soup until it boils; then remove it to the back of the fire where it will not boil, and let it stand until the white and shell of the egg have collected the small particles clouding the soup; then strain it once or twice, until it looks clear.
2. Flavoring, thickening, and coloring soups.—The flavor of soup stock may be varied by using in it a little ham, anchovy, sausage, sugar, or a calf's foot. Herbs in the sprig, and whole spices should be used in seasoning, as they can easily be strained out. All delicate flavors, and wine, should be added to soup just before serving it, unless the contrary is expressly directed in the receipt, because boiling would almost entirely evaporate them: one gill of wine is usually allowed to every three pints of soup.
Soups which precede a full dinner should be less rich than those which form the bulk of the meal. Corn starch, arrow root, and potato flour are better than wheat flour for thickening soup. The meal of peas and beans can be held in suspension by mixing together dry a tablespoonful of butter and flour, and stirring it into the soup; a quarter of a pint of peas, beans, or lentils, is sufficient to make a quart of thick soup. Two ounces of macaroni, vermicelli, pearl barley, sago, tapioca, rice, or oatmeal, are usually allowed for each quart of stock.
If you wish to darken soup use a teaspoonful of caramel; but avoid burnt flour, carrot, and onion, as all these give a bad flavor. Caramel can be made from the following receipt; melt half a pound of loaf sugar in a thick copper vessel, stirring it frequently with a wooden spoon, and boiling it slowly until it assumes a rich brown color, but do not let it burn; when brown enough add one quart of cold water, stir well, and boil gently at the side of the fire for twenty minutes; then cool, strain, and bottle tight. In using the caramel add it just as you are about to serve the soup, or sauce colored with it.
3. Clear Soup, or Consommé. (Two quarts for eight persons.)—This is made by straining two quarts of stock, which has been cooled and freed from fat, through a piece of flannel or a napkin until it is bright and clear; if this does not entirely clear it, use an egg, as directed for clarifying soup; then season it to taste with salt, using at first a teaspoonful, and a very little fine white pepper, say a quarter of a saltspoonful; and color it to a bright straw color with caramel, of which a scant teaspoonful will be about the proper quantity. Consommé is sent to the table clear, but sometimes a deep dish containing poached eggs, one for each person, with enough consommé to cover them, accompanies it.
4. Poached Eggs for Consommé.—Break the eggs, which should be very fresh, into a deep sauce-pan half full of boiling water, seasoned with a teaspoonful of salt, and half a gill of vinegar; cover the sauce-pan, and set it on the back part of the fire until the whites of the eggs are firm; then lift them separately on a skimmer, carefully trim off the rough edges, making each egg a regular oval shape, and slip them off the skimmer into a bowl of hot, but not boiling water, where they must stand for ten minutes before serving.
5. Vermicelli and Macaroni Soup.—These soups are both made as for consommé; and to every quart of stock is added two ounces of one of these pastes blanched as follows. Put the paste into plenty of boiling water, with one tablespoonful of salt to each quart of water, and boil until tender enough to pierce with the finger nail; then drain it, and put it in cold water until required for use, when it should be placed in the two quarts of hot soup long enough to heat thoroughly before serving.
6. Rice and Tomato Soup.—Strain, and pass through a sieve with a wooden spoon, one pint of tomatoes, either fresh or canned, stir them into two quarts of good, clear stock, free from fat; season it with a teaspoonful of salt, and quarter of a saltspoonful of pepper; taste, and if the seasoning seems deficient add a little more, but do not put in too much for general liking, for more can easily be added, but none can be taken out. Add four ounces of rice, well washed in plenty of cold water, and boil the soup slowly for three quarters of an hour before serving.
7. Scotch Broth without Meat.—Steep four ounces of pearl barley over night in cold water, and wash it well in fresh water; cut in dice half an inch square, six ounces of yellow turnip, six ounces of carrot, four ounces of onion, two ounces of celery, (or use in its place quarter of a saltspoonful of celery seed;) put all these into two and a half quarts of boiling water, season with a teaspoonful of salt, quarter of a saltspoonful of pepper, and as much cayenne as you can take up on the point of a very small pen-knife blade; boil slowly for two hours; then stir in quarter of a pound of oatmeal, mixed to a smooth batter with cold water, see if seasoning be correct, add two or three grates of nutmeg, and boil half an hour. Meantime, cut two slices of bread in half inch dice, fry light brown in hot fat, and lay the bits in the soup tureen; when the soup is ready pour it over them, and serve. This soup is very rich and nutritious, and should be served with light dinners.
8. Scotch Broth with Meat.—Put four ounces of barley to soak in warm water. From two pounds of the shoulder of mutton, cut the lean meat in dice half an inch square; cut up the rest in small pieces and make a stock as directed in receipt No. 1., Part I., using two and a half quarts of water, and boiling and skimming for two hours; at the end of an hour and a half put the dice of meat into a sauce-pan with two ounces of butter, and fry them brown; stir in one ounce of flour; cut in dice six ounces each of yellow turnip and carrot, chop four ounces of onion, and put these with the meat; add the barley, and the stock strained, season with a teaspoonful of salt, and quarter of a saltspoonful of pepper, and simmer one hour. Then serve with a tablespoonful of chopped parsley sprinkled in the soup.