NO. 27. BOUILLON CUP WITH SIPPETS OF TOAST AND ITALIAN BREAD STICKS.
CONSOMMÉ OF BEEF
Cut into pieces four pounds of beef taken from the under part of the round, and the meat cut from a knuckle of veal. Put them into a soup pot with two tablespoonfuls of butter and let them brown on all sides. Then add a cupful of water and let it fall to a glaze. This is to give color to the soup. Add five and a half quarts of cold water. Let it boil slowly for five to six hours. An hour before removing it add soup vegetables, a tablespoonful of salt, fifteen peppercorns, three cloves, two bay-leaves, a little thyme, marjoram, and summer savory.
Strain the soup through a cloth and let it cool without covering. When it is cold take off the grease. As no bones were boiled with the soup, it will be clear; and as the meat was browned, it will have a good color.
It can be made perfectly clear as follows: Pour the soup off the sediment which has fallen to the bottom of the dish. Stir into it while it is cold the whites of two eggs beaten enough to break them. Place it on the fire and stir it until it comes to the boiling-point; the egg will then be cooked and have imprisoned any particles which clouded the soup. Let it boil violently for a few minutes, then draw it to the side of the range. Strain it again through a cloth. Heat it again before serving it.
In summer this soup is sometimes served cold in the form of jelly. In this case the bone of the knuckle of veal must be cooked with it in order to make it jelly. Care must be taken that during the cooking the water only simmers, for if it boils lime will be extracted from the bone and it will be impossible to have a clear soup.
CONSOMMÉ OF CHICKEN
Place a fowl in a soup pot with four quarts of cold water and let it come slowly to the boiling-point, then draw it to the side of the range and let it simmer for five or six hours. If it is allowed to boil the soup will be clouded by lime extracted from the bones.
An hour before removing it add an onion, a branch of celery, a tablespoon of salt, and six peppercorns. Strain it through a cloth, and when cold remove the grease. Clear it the same as the beef consommé.
A knuckle of veal may also be used with this soup if a jellied stock is wanted to serve cold.