Soup kitchen

“ So very rarely forming part of a housewife's stores, yet so valuable that the fact is simply astonishing; with a piece of glaze, you have a dish of soup on an emergency, rich gravy for any purpose, and all with the expenditure of less time than would make a pot of sweetmeats. ”

“ Everything is here cooked by steam, and excellent the cookery is. The soup, which is supplied three times a week, is exceptionally good. It finds its way from the kitchen in enormous tubs, and on arrival at the various wards is transferred into greasy, half-washed tins; still it does not lose its excellence, and I invariably enjoyed the soup. The usual amount made on soup days is about 200 gallons, and the daily quantity of potatoes consumed about 7 cwt. ”

“ Every cookery book teaches us the fact that if we leave the soup in the saucepan all night long it spoils. Why? Why should soup get bad in a metallic vessel, where it would not get bad in a porcelain one? The answer is very simple—on account of the metal being acted on by the air. If you leave a moist knife in the kitchen, in two or three days it becomes rusty. Why, then, should we expect meat or fish or food of any kind whatever to keep good in a tin, when we know it would not keep good in a tin saucepan? ”

“ Peas or beans boiled and added to the soup make it the most perfect food for sustaining health and strength. It is the pure juice of the meat and contains all its savory and life-giving principles.
If your family is large, it will be well for you to keep a clean saucepan, or pot on the back of the stove to receive all the clean scraps of meat, bones, and remains of poultry and game, which are found in every kitchen; but vegetables should not be put into it, as they are apt to sour. The proper proportions for soup are one pound of meat and bone to one and a half quarts of cold water ”

“ Soups prepared from the grains, legumes, and vegetables, are so largely composed of food material that it is important that they be retained in the mouth long enough for proper insalivation; and in order to insure this, it is well to serve with the soup croutons, prepared by cutting stale bread into small squares or cubes, and browning thoroughly in a moderate oven. ”

“ To keep troublesome servants out of the kitchen, always leave the winder sticking on the jack, to fall on their heads.
If a lump of soot falls into the soup, and you cannot conveniently get it out, stir it well, and it will give the soup a high French taste.
If you melt your butter to oil, be under no concern, but send it up; for oil is a genteeler sauce than butter.
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Scrape the bottoms of your pots and kettles with a silver spoon, for fear of giving them a taste of the copper. ”

“ She ran to her little room and changed herself once more into the Many-furred Creature, and went into the kitchen to cook the bread soup. When the cook was upstairs she fetched the golden spinning wheel and put it in the dish, so that the soup was poured over it. ”

“ Place the soup tureen and some warm soup plates at the head of the table, lay the soup ladle at the right of the tureen, see that every chair is in its place, and announce that dinner is served.
When all are seated, uncover the soup tureen, put the cover on the side-table, and stand at the left of the hostess.
When a ladleful of soup is served, lift the soup plate with your right hand and place it on your tray. Take it to the person at the right of the hostess. Go to the right side. Place the soup plate on the cold dinner plate. ”

“ In royal kitchens the stock is cooked by gas. Skim frequently; as scum, if allowed to remain, gives an unpleasant flavor to the soup. Use salt sparingly, putting in a little at first, and seasoning at the last moment. Many a good soup is spoiled by an injudicious use of seasoning. Some add a few drops of lemon-juice to a broth. If wine or catsup is added, it should only be done at the last moment. Always strain the soup through a sieve or soup-strainer. Small scraps of meat or sediment look slovenly in a soup. ”

“ To clear a soup by the ordinary medium of white of egg or minced beef is to destroy all flavour and individuality. If the stock be kept from boiling until it has been strained, it will develop into a perfectly clear soup under the hands of a careful and intelligent cook. The fleeting delicate aroma which, as every gourmet will admit, gives such grateful aid to the palate, is the breath of garden herbs and of herbs alone, and here I have a charge to bring against contemporary cookery. ”

“ It is a well-known fact that soups properly prepared improve in flavor and are really better on the day after than when first made. By substituting different materials, garnitures, flavorings and condiments, of which an endless variety is available, the intelligent housewife may be able to furnish a different soup for every day of the year. In following these, as in all other directions for every department of cookery, experience will, after all, be found the great teacher and most valuable aid and adjunct to the learner of the art. ”

“ Cream soups are a combination of vegetables, puree and milk. Almost all of the green vegetables will make delicious soups. Clean the vegetables well and then cut into small pieces. Place in a saucepan and cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Cook slowly until tender and then mash well; then rub through a fine sieve. Use this vegetable stock with equal parts of milk to make the soup.
Carrots, peas, tomatoes, turnips, corn, beans, celery, lettuce, potatoes, beets, cucumbers, asparagus, all these afford a splendid variety. ”

“ We hope we have now put the common cook into possession of the whole arcana of soup-making, without much trouble to herself, or expense to her employers. It need not be said in future that an Englishman only knows how to make soup in his stomach, by swilling down a large quantity of ale or porter, to quench the thirst occasioned by the meat he eats. ”

“ Stock is the basis of many of the soups afterwards mentioned, and this will be found quite strong enough for ordinary purposes. Keep it in small jars, in a cool place. It makes a good gravy for hash meats; one tablespoonful of it is sufficient to impart a fine flavor to a dish of macaroni and various other dishes. Good soups of various kinds are made from it at short notice; slice off a portion of the jelly, add water, and whatever vegetables and thickening preferred. It is best to partly cook the vegetables before adding to the stock, as much boiling injures the flavoring of the soup. ”

“ These seasonings, with the addition of salt, pepper, and parsley, are the essential flavorings for stock soups. Flour, cornstarch, arrowroot, fine tapioca, sago, pearl barley, rice, bread, or eggs are added to give consistency and nourishment.
In small families, where there are few left-overs, fresh meat must be bought for the making of soup stock, as a good soup cannot be made from a small amount of poor material. On the other hand, large families need seldom buy fresh meat, provided all left-overs are properly cared for. ”

“ For thick white soups, chicken or veal stock is used. For brown thick soups, a dark stock. For purées, white or brown stock, according to their colour.
Stock will keep for several days—in winter for a week.
A tea-spoonful of Liebig’s Extract of Meat will greatly improve the flavour of a poor stock.
Utensils.—Of special utensils for making soup, porcelain-lined sauce-pans are the most satisfactory, and should always be used if possible. There is nothing so good or clean as the large French pot au feu, which can be bought in Soho. ”

“ If you like a spicy flavor try two or three cloves, or allspice, or bay leaves. All soups are improved by a dash of onion, unless it is the white soups, or purées from chicken, veal, fish, etc. In these celery may be used. In nothing as well as soups can a housekeeper be economical of the odds and ends of food left from meals. One of the best cooks was in the habit of saving everything, and announced one day, when her soup was especially praised, that it contained the crumbs of gingerbread from her cake box! ”

“ A tin-cup of coffee takes the taste of the bread out of your mouth, and then if you have some Limburger cheese in your pocket you can with that remove the taste of the coffee.
Dinner is served at 12 o'clock, and consists of more bread with soup. This soup has everything in it except nourishment. The bead on this soup is noticeable for quite a distance. It is disagreeable. Several days ago I heard that the Mayor was in the soup, [Pg 10] but I didn't realize it before. I thought it was a newspaper yarn. There is everything in this soup, from shop-worn rice up to neat's-foot oil. ”

“ Just before dinner each day, in order to prepare soup, it is only necessary to cut off some of the jelly and heat it. It is very good with nothing additional; but one can have a change of soup each day by adding different flavorings, such as onion, macaroni, vermicelli, tomato, tapioca, spring vegetables (which will make a julienne) , poached eggs, fried bread, asparagus, celery, green pease, etc. I will be explicit about these additions in the receipts. Stock is also valuable for gravies, sauces, and stews, and for boiling many things, such as pigeons, chickens, etc. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Count Rumford says: "I constantly found that the richness or quality of a soup depended more upon the proper choice of ingredients than upon the quantity of solid nutrient matter employed; much more upon the art and skill of the cook than upon sums laid out in the market." This is equally true of other dishes than soup. The skill to develop the natural flavors of a food, to render it perfectly and thoroughly digestible, to convert it into a delicate viand, cannot be acquired in a haphazard way. Cooking cannot be done by guesswork. ”

“ While the soup for to-day is cooling that you may take off the fat, put the butter into a frying-pan with the sliced carrots, turnips, and onions, and fry to a light brown. Now, add a pint of the skimmed stock, and stew the vegetables tender; stir in the flour wet with water; and put all, with your cooled stock, over the fire in the soup-kettle. Season with sugar, cayenne and salt; boil five minutes; rub through a colander, then a soup-sieve, heat almost to boiling, and serve. ”

“ Put a large carrot, a turnip, a large onion, and a head or two of celery, into the soup whole; take them out as soon as they are done enough; lay them on a dish till they are cold; then cut them into small squares: when the beef is done, take it out carefully: to dish it up, see No. 204, or No. 493: strain the soup through a hair-sieve into a clean stew-pan; take off the fat, and put the vegetables that are cut into the soup, the flavour of which you may heighten by adding a table-spoonful of mushroom catchup. ”

“ Stir over a very gentle fire until it turns a deep, rich brown colour. Add [Pg 14] half a pint of boiling water. Let it simmer very gently for twenty minutes. Allow it to get cold. Put it into bottles and cork. This makes an excellent and tasteless colouring, but it must be carefully made. The rich brown colour comes from slow and gentle cooking. If it is burnt and black it is useless.
Add to the soup a few minutes only before serving.
Glaze.—Glaze is made by boiling down good stock until it is of a very thick and gluey consistency. Put a quart of rich stock into a sauce-pan over a good fire. ”

“ Soup making is an art that is well worth cultivating. The expert soup maker will obtain delicious flavors by adding bits of many kinds of left overs—almost anything that is found in the refrigerator in the way of fruit, vegetables, and pieces of meat. With the coming of the gas stove, many people have given up soup making. These various left overs add much to the flavor of the soup and can be used in a thickened soup which is like the bouillon strained and thickened. The thickening may be flour, arrowroot, cold cereal, sago, tapioca, or rice. ”

“ If Torossy has not ushered in the day by barking, the cooks do it when they bring the bowls of soup to the boats with the cry ‘Quanta!’ Then ensues a short scene of confusion: [362] spoons and tin-pots have to be searched for and found, till at length quiet is again restored, after a little ransacking, and each man has his pot full of hot soup in his hand, consisting of meal, pemmican, pease-sausage, bread-dust, boiled beef, seal, and bears’ flesh; when the soup is flavoured with seal-blubber it is called ‘Gulyas.’ The soup is consumed amid perfect silence—not a word is spoken ”

“ A little meat with slow and regular boiling, will produce richer soup, than double the quantity, if the soup kettle be suffered to boil fast one quarter of an hour, and to stop boiling altogether the next quarter of an hour.—The fault most common in English soup is, the want of the juice of meat, caused by too quick and irregular boiling, to remedy which want, recourse is had to pepper, herbs, and wine. It is very easy to vary the sort of soup, by making a good clear stock, or what the French call bouillon, and the next or following days, flavour it, or add vegetable ingredients to your taste. ”