Soup plate

“ The cook should season the soup but very slightly with salt and pepper. If she puts in too much, it may spoil it for the taste of most of those that are to eat it; but if too little, it is easy to add more to your own plate.
The practice of thickening soup by stirring flour into it is not a good one, as it spoils both the appearance and the taste. If made with a sufficient quantity of good fresh meat, and not too much water, and if boiled long and slowly, it will have substance enough without flour. ”

“ To say you have none is an annoyance. Never tip the plate in order to dip up the last spoonful of soup. In partaking of soup, or imbibing any liquid, do so noiselessly. Be sure not to spread the elbows while using knife and fork. Keep them close to your side while cutting meats.
Never try to dispose of the last mouthful of soup, the last morsel of food. "It is not expected," says one writer, "that your plate should be sent away cleansed by your gastronomic exertions." On no account cool any drink or soup with the breath. Never pour tea or coffee into the saucer to cool it. ”

“ Always remove the cake of fat which forms on top of soup as soon as cooled, as soup will turn sour more quickly if it is allowed to remain. If soup stock be kept several days in summer time, heat it each day to prevent souring.
Pieces of celery, onion, parsley, beans and peas may all be added to soup to make it more palatable. Also fine noodles. The yolk of a hard-boiled egg dropped into the soup kettle and heated through, allowing one for each plate of soup served, is a quick and appetizing addition to a soup of plain broth or consomme. ”

“ Not only soup, but everything else eaten with a spoon should be sipped from its side when practicable, but then only. For any one to attempt to sip from the side of the spoon certain soups that are usually served nearly as thick as porridge—pea, bean, and tomato with rice, for example—is [40] absurd. Nothing has a more vulgar look than an obvious endeavor to be fine. The spoon should be filled by an outward rather than an inward movement, and the plate should never be tilted to get the last teaspoonful. If your soup is too hot, do not blow it, but wait till it cools. ”

“ Soup plates are not the great flaring affairs of yore. They either follow the old shape, much reduced, or are in the nature of a large sauce dish. The meat set of platters, plates, and vegetable dishes comes into play at all meals, tea plates can be put to a variety of uses—in fact, many dishes supplement one another at a saving of expense and numbers. If one has a handsome glass bowl sufficiently large, a special salad bowl is not an essential, but a china bowl demands plates to match. ”

“ Cut left-overs of pie crust into fancy shapes. Bake and drop into each plate of soup in serving. They must not stand in the soup long or they will dissolve.
Dice Royale
Coat 3⁄4 in. dice of bread with beaten egg. Bake just before serving. Serve a few in each dish of soup, or throw into tureen just before sending to table. May roll cubes in finely-chopped onion or parsley.
Cream Soup Balls 1 large tablespn. oil 1⁄2 cup pastry flour 1 cup boiling water 3⁄8 teaspn. salt 4 tablespns. finely-sliced celery, or 1⁄4 teaspn. celery salt 2 teaspns. ”

“ In the second department of meat-cookery, to wit, the slow and gradual application of heat for the softening and dissolution of its fibre and the extraction of its juices, common cooks are equally untrained. Where is the so-called cook who understands how to prepare soups and stews? These are precisely the articles in which a French kitchen excels. The soup-kettle, made with a double bottom, to prevent burning, is a permanent, ever-present institution, and the coarsest and most impracticable meats distilled through that alembic come out again in soups, jellies, or savory stews. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When no more fat rises to the top, put in what quantity you please of carrots, turnips, leeks, celery, and parsley, all cut into small pieces; add, if you choose, a laurel-leaf, or two or three peach-leaves, a few cloves, and a large burnt onion, to heighten the color of the soup. Grate a large red carrot, and strew it over the top. Then continue to let it boil, gently but steadily, till dinner time. Next to the quantity and quality of the meat, nothing is more necessary to the excellence of soup than to keep the fire moderate, and to see that it is boiling all the time, but not too fast. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Clear soups must be perfectly transparent, and thickened soups about the consistence of cream. To thicken and give body to soups and gravies, potato-mucilage, arrow-root, bread-raspings, isinglass, flour and butter, barley, rice, or oatmeal, in a little water rubbed well together, are used. A piece of boiled beef pounded to a pulp, with a bit of butter and flour, and rubbed through a sieve, and gradually incorporated with the soup, will be found an excellent addition. ”

“ Cut the best of the meat into pieces. Put them into a stew-pan. Add the strained stock, half a pint of mixed parboiled vegetables cut in small rounds, or olive-shaped, a lump of sugar and more pepper if required. Heat and simmer until vegetables are tender.
The vegetables should be shaped with a vegetable cutter, and are best parboiled in a little stock.
Ox-tail soup may be thickened by a purée of carrots, turnips, peas or lentils. The purée is made by boiling whichever vegetable is required until very tender, and pressing it through a sieve or tammy. Add it to the strained stock and mix well. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is then time to strain out [642] the shreds of meat and bone, return the soup to the pot, and add the vegetables. First, have ready the deep yellow outsides of three or four carrots grated, and stir them into the soup to enrich it, and give it a fine color. Next, add turnips, potatos, parsnips, salsify, celery, (including its green leaves from the top) and onions that have been already peeled and boiled by themselves to render them less strong. All the vegetables should be cut nicely into small pieces of equal size, (as for Soup à la Julienne.) ”

“ 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. ”

“ Serve it in a cup, and salt when serving. You and the ailing one will find, I think, that the broiling of the steak gives the tea a flavor that makes it “hit the spot”—a consummation devoutly to be wished when one is catering for an invalid.
Cream Soup
Cream soups make a pleasing change after plain broths or teas. Take any white stock that is rich, free from fat and well seasoned. Put into a saucepan half a pint of the stock and the same quantity of cream. When it comes to a boil add one tablespoonful of flour thoroughly moistened with cold milk, and let it boil at once. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All clear soups ought not to be too strong of meat, and must be of a light brown sherry or straw color. All white or brown thick soups should be rather thin, with just sufficient consistency to adhere lightly to a spoon when hot, soups of fish, poultry, or game especially. All purées, no matter whether of meat or vegetables, require to be somewhat thicker, which may be ascertained by its adhering more thickly to the spoon. Every Italian soup must be very clear, rather stronger of meat, and the color of pale sherry. ”

“ Then add a sliced onion, several sprigs of parsley, small pieces of chopped celery tops, well-scraped roots of celery, and allow to simmer three-quarters of an hour longer. Season well with salt and pepper, 1 level teaspoonful of salt will season 1 quart of soup. Strain through a fine sieve, stand aside, and when cool remove from top the solid cake of fat which had formed and use for frying after it has been clarified. It is surprising to know the variety of soups made possible by the addition of a small quantity of vegetables or cereals to stock. ”

“ Add one teaspoon of kitchen bouquet and any desired vegetables to each quart of stock. When making [pg 153] cream soups, if you will add one cupful of prepared stock to each cup of milk, your soup will have a delicious flavor.
Stock may be made, filled into sterilized jars and then the rubber and lid adjusted; the soup may then be processed for three hours in a hot-water bath. Remove from the bath, fasten the lids securely, and then test for leaks and store in a dry cool place. Where there is a fire kept in the kitchen, it will not add to the costs to can soups, stocks, etc., for future use. ”

“ Put fat, bone, and remaining lean meat in soup kettle; cover with cold water, allowing one pint to each pound of meat, bone, and fat. Let stand one hour, that cold water may draw out juices from meat. Add browned meat, taking water from soup kettle to rinse out frying-pan, that none of the coloring may be lost. Heat gradually to boiling-point, and cook six or seven hours at low temperature. A scum will rise on the top, which contains coagulated albuminous juices; these give to soup its chief nutritive value; many, however, prefer a clear soup, and have them removed. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The ordinary brown is the most economical, as in white soups milk is essential, and if the soup is wished to be very good it is necessary to add a little cream.
Soups owe their thickness to two processes. We can thicken the soup by adding flour of various kinds, such as ordinary flour, corn-flour, &c., and soup can also be thickened by having some of the ingredients of which it is composed rubbed through a sieve. This class of soups may be called Purées. For instance, Palestine soup is really a purée of Jerusalem artichokes; ordinary pea soup is a purée of split peas. ”