However, it is not my business now to sing the praises
of soup. But I may say that I believe it would be seen
on our tables more frequently than it is if the girls in a
house were able and willing to make it. The secret of
our not having soup is that it takes time and trouble,
which servants do not always care to give. But in the
good time coming, when all the girls in our homes
understand and practise cookery, when our daughters
would rather prepare with their own hands a good dinner
for their fathers, than tire their eyes in making so many
useless mats and antimacassars, things will be quite
different ; we shall enter upon a delightful period, and we
shall all live twice as well as we do now, at half the
present cost.
There are three varieties of soup — clear soup, thick
soup, and purdes. For all these stock is required, and
therefore the first thing we have to do is to learn how to
make stock. For very nourishing, superior soup, and for
clear soup, fresh meat is required ; although it is quite
true that clear soup may be made of weak bone stock, it
is scarcely worth while to do so unless there was plenty
of fresh meat left on the bones, and to buy bones roughly
trimmed would cost as much as to buy fresh meat. ,
’Ordinary stock, however, that will make excellent soup
for daily use may be made of the trimmings of joints, the
liquor in which meat and vegetables and fish have been
boiled, and even of the bones, skin, and trimmings left
after a joint has been served. For nothing of this kind
Should be thrown away until it has been stewed until
every particle of goodness has been extracted from it.
I am quite prepared to hear that girls who tried to
prevent waste in this way, and to make the most of things
by stewing bones and trimmings for stock, would be
laughed and sneered at by certain people. Let them
never mind this. When we are doing right we can bear
to be laughed at, and certainly we who try to be economical
are in the right. It is wicked to waste good food while
so many thousands are needing it. If we have more
than we require let us give to those who want, not throw
62
The GirTs Own Cookery Book
away. It is a great disgrace to English cooks that they
act as though extravagance meant cleverness, and thrift
meant incompetency. I have noticed again and again
that as soon as ever a cook acquires skill she loses her
respect for quantities and prices. We will not do this in
our cookery class, for we all look upon waste as sin.
Therefore, let us resolve that nothing containing
nourishment shall be thrown away until it has been well
stewed. We will put on one side all the trimmings, skin,
bone, and fat that we can collect, and as soon as we have
an opportunity we will render down the fat for frying, and
will stew the rest for stock.
Sometimes economical cooks advise that a stqpk-pot^
/ should be kept by the side of the fire, and that trjrfimings.
/ pie^s, and
L^liine as they
when necess;
should be
In the first
:raps should be thrown into"it"fr6m time to
Page 38
Presented as published in 1882. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
However, it is not my business now to sing the praises of soup. But I may say that I believe it would be seen on our tables more frequently than it is if the girls in a house were able and willing to make it. The secret of our not having soup is that it takes time and trouble, which servants do not always care to give. But in the good time coming, when all the girls in our homes understand and practise cookery, when our daughters would rather prepare with their own hands a good dinner for their fathers, than tire their eyes in making so many useless mats and antimacassars, things will be quite different ; we shall enter upon a delightful period, and we shall all live twice as well as we do now, at half the present cost.
There are three varieties of soup — clear soup, thick soup, and purdes. For all these stock is required, and therefore the first thing we have to do is to learn how to make stock. For very nourishing, superior soup, and for clear soup, fresh meat is required ; although it is quite true that clear soup may be made of weak bone stock, it is scarcely worth while to do so unless there was plenty of fresh meat left on the bones, and to buy bones roughly trimmed would cost as much as to buy fresh meat. , ’Ordinary stock, however, that will make excellent soup for daily use may be made of the trimmings of joints, the liquor in which meat and vegetables and fish have been boiled, and even of the bones, skin, and trimmings left after a joint has been served. For nothing of this kind Should be thrown away until it has been stewed until every particle of goodness has been extracted from it.
I am quite prepared to hear that girls who tried to prevent waste in this way, and to make the most of things by stewing bones and trimmings for stock, would be laughed and sneered at by certain people. Let them never mind this. When we are doing right we can bear to be laughed at, and certainly we who try to be economical are in the right. It is wicked to waste good food while so many thousands are needing it. If we have more than we require let us give to those who want, not throw
The GirTs Own Cookery Book
away. It is a great disgrace to English cooks that they act as though extravagance meant cleverness, and thrift meant incompetency. I have noticed again and again that as soon as ever a cook acquires skill she loses her respect for quantities and prices. We will not do this in our cookery class, for we all look upon waste as sin.
Therefore, let us resolve that nothing containing nourishment shall be thrown away until it has been well stewed. We will put on one side all the trimmings, skin, bone, and fat that we can collect, and as soon as we have an opportunity we will render down the fat for frying, and will stew the rest for stock.
Sometimes economical cooks advise that a stock-pot should be kept by the side of the fire, and that trimmings, pieces, and scraps should be thrown into it from time to