Obs.—This is the basis of almost all gravy soups, which are called by the name of the vegetables that are put into them.
Carrots, turnips, onions, celery, and a few leaves of chervil, make what is called spring soup, or soup santé; to this a pint of green pease, or asparagus pease, or French beans cut into pieces, or a cabbage lettuce, are an improvement.
With rice or Scotch barley, with macaroni or vermicelli, or celery, cut into lengths, it will be the soup usually called by those names.
Or turnips scooped round, or young onions, will give you a clear turnip or onion soup; and all these vegetables mixed together, soup GRESSI.
The gravy for all these soups may be produced extempore with [No. 252].
The roots and vegetables you use must be boiled first, or they will impregnate the soup with too strong a flavour.
The seasoning for all these soups is the same, viz. salt and a very little Cayenne pepper.
N.B. To make excellent vegetable gravy soup for 4 1/2d. a quart, see [No. 224].
Scotch Barley Broth;—a good and substantial dinner for fivepence per head.—(No. 204.)
Wash three-quarters of a pound of Scotch barley in a little cold water; put it in a soup-pot with a shin or leg of beef, of about ten pounds weight, sawed into four pieces (tell the butcher to do this for you); cover it well with cold water; set it on the fire: when it boils skim it very clean, and put in two onions of about three ounces weight each; set it by the side of the fire to simmer very gently about two hours; then skim all the fat clean off, and put in two heads of celery, and a large turnip cut into small squares; season it with salt, and let it boil an hour and a half longer, and it is ready: take out the meat (carefully with a slice, and cover it up, and set it by the fire to keep warm), and skim the broth well before you put it in the tureen.