Cut up the chicken, and break all the bones; put it in a gallon of cold water; let it simmer for five hours, skimming it well. The last hour add, to cook with the soup, a cupful of rice and a sprig of parsley. When done, let the kettle remain quiet a few moments on the kitchen table, when skim off every particle of fat with a spoon. Then pour all on a sieve placed over some deep dish. Take out all the bones, pieces of meat, and parsley. Press the rice through the sieve. Now mix the rice, by stirring it with the soup, until it resembles a smooth purée. Season with pepper and salt.
Giblet Soup.
This soup is a great success. It is very inexpensive, a plate of giblets only costing at market five cents. It is a very good imitation of mock-turtle soup, and, after the first experience in making, it will be found very easy to manage.
Ingredients: The giblets of four chickens or two turkeys, one medium-sized onion, one small carrot, half a turnip, two sprigs of parsley, a leaf of sage, eggs, a little lemon-juice, Port or Madeira wine, and one or two cupfuls of chicken or beef stock, quite strong.
Cut up the vegetables. Put a piece of butter the size of a small egg into a stew-pan. When quite hot, throw in the sliced onion. When they begin to brown, add the carrot and turnip, a table-spoonful of flour, and the giblets. Fry them all quickly for a minute, watching them constantly, that the flour may brown, and not burn. Now cut the giblets (that the juice may escape), and put all into the soup-kettle, with a little pepper and salt, and three quarts of water—of course, stock would be much better, and for extra occasions I would recommend it; or without stock, one could add any fresh bones or scraps of lean meat one might happen to have. Pieces of chicken are especially well adapted to this soup; yet, for ordinary occasions, giblets alone answer very well.
Let the soup simmer for five hours; then strain it. Thicken it a little with roux (page 51), letting the flour brown, and add to it also one of the livers mashed. Season with the additional pepper and salt it needs, a little lemon-juice, and two table-spoonfuls of Port or Madeira wine. Put into the soup tureen yolks of hard-boiled eggs, one for each person at table. Pour over the soup, and serve.
Mock-turtle Soup (New York Cooking-school).
Let some one beside yourself remove the flesh from a calf’s head, viz., cut from between the ears to the nose, touching the bone; then, cutting close to it, take off all the flesh. Turn over the head, cut open the jaw-bone from underneath, and take out the tongue whole. Turn the head back again, crack the top of the skull between the ears, and take out the brains whole; they may be saved for a separate dish. Soak all separately for a few moments in salt and water. Cut the skull all to pieces, wash it quickly, and put it on the fire in four quarts of cold water, together with the flesh, tongue, half a bunch of parsley, half a stalk of celery, one large bay-leaf, three cloves, half an inch of a stick of cinnamon, six whole allspice, six pepper-corns, half of a large carrot, and one turnip. When the tongue is tender, take it out, to be served as a separate dish (with spinach or with sauce Tartare). Leave in the flesh for about two hours, when it will be perfectly tender. Let the bones, etc., simmer for six hours, then strain, and put it away until the next day.
At the same time that the calf’s head is cooking in one vessel, make a stock in another, with a beef or veal soup-bone (two or three pounds), and any scraps of poultry (it would be improved with a chicken added; and one might take this opportunity to have a boiled chicken for dinner, cooking it in the stock), put into two or three quarts of water, and simmered until reduced to a pint.
The next day, remove the fat and settlings from the two stocks.