La cuisine creole

by Lafcadio Hearn

Soup being the first course served at all ordinary dinners, we make it the basis for preliminary remarks. Nothing more palatable than good, well-made soup, and nothing less appetising than poor soup. Now to attain perfection in any line, care and attention are requisite, careful study a necessity, and application the moving force. Hence, cooking in all its branches should be studied as a science, and not be looked upon as a haphazard mode of getting through life. Cooking is in a great measure a chemical process, and the ingredients of certain dishes should be as carefully weighed and tested as though emanating from the laboratory. Few female cooks think of this, but men with their superior instinctive reasoning power are more governed by law and abide more closely to rule; therefore, are better cooks, and command higher prices for services.

Now, with regard to soup making, the first care is to have the fire brisk, the vessel in which it is cooked thoroughly cleaned and free from odor. To insure this, keep one vessel sacred to soup as nearly as possible; and after serving wash the pot with potash water, or take a piece of washing soda the size of a nutmeg, dissolve in hot water and then cleanse the vessel. A good workman is known by his tools, so also a good cook will look well to the utensils before commencing operations. Good results follow carefulness.

Soup must have time to cook, and should always boil gently, that the meat may become tender, and give out its juices. Allow a quart of water and a teaspoonful of salt for each pound of meat. Soup meat must always be put down in cold water. Skim well before it comes to the boiling point, and again skim off superfluous fat before putting in the vegetables. The vegetables most used in soups are carrots, leeks, parsley, turnip, celery, tomatoes, okras, cabbage, cauliflower, peas and potatoes.

One large leek, two carrots, one bunch of parsley, two turnips and a potato, will be enough for one pot of soup. One head of celery, two leeks, two turnips, and five or six small potatoes will be enough another time. Six tomatoes skinned, the juice strained from the seeds, a leek, a bunch of parsley, and six potatoes will answer for another style; a carrot, some cabbage, tomatoes, and potatoes will do another time. Okra alone is vegetable enough for a gombo, unless onion is liked with it. Green peas, lettuce, and new potatoes are enough for spring lamb soup. Vermicelli and macaroni are for chicken, lamb or veal soup, with the addition of onion if liked.

It is well to prepare the vegetables when the meat is put over the fire to boil; allow a quart of water to a pound of meat. Trim and scrape carrots, then cut or grate them. Wash parsley and cut it small. Pare turnips and cut them in slices a quarter of an inch thick. Cut leeks in thick slices. Cut celery in half lengths; the delicate green leaves give a fine flavor to the soup.

Pour boiling water on tomatoes, which will cause the skins to peel off easily; when cool, squeeze out the seeds, and reserve the juice for use in soup.

Shave cabbage in thin slices. Slice okra for gombo or okra soup. Pare the potatoes, shell the peas, and cut off green corn from the cob, for all these add fine flavor to soup.

To color soup brown, use browned flour or a little burnt sugar. Spinach leaves give a fine green color. Pound the leaves, tie them in a cloth, and squeeze out all the juice which add to the soup five minutes before serving. This is also used to give color to mock-turtle soup.

You may color soup red by putting in the strained juice of tomatoes, or the whole tomato, if it is run through a sieve; grated carrot gives a fine amber color; okra gives a pale green.

For white soups, which are made of veal, lamb, and chicken, white vegetables are best, such as rice, pearl barley, vermicelli, and macaroni; the thickening should then be made of unbrowned flour.