The girl's own cookery book

I must, therefore, advise girls to try the plans we have been speaking of. In our next lesson we will try to make thick soups and purées. xm. THICK SOUPS AND PUREES. '^HiCK. soup is stock made thick — that is, about as thick as cream— by the addition of some starchy ingredient, which can be boiled with the liquor, and, as it were, enter into its composition. The materials usually employed tor the purpose are flour, arrowroot, ground rice, com flour, oatmeal, potato flour, sago, tapioca, and eggs. The stock should first be pleasantly flavoured and seasoned, and made tree from fat, and the thickening ingredient should be added a little time before the soup is required, so that the “ liaison,” as it is called, or “thickening,” may have time to cook sufficiently, but not over much ; for it must be remembered that if the soup and thickening are boiled too long, the soup will become thicker and thicker, and may burn. When arrowroot, flour, or similar materials are employed for thickening soups, the ingredient should first be measured (half an ounce of thickening to a pint of soup is a usual allowance), put into a basin mixed with a small quantity of cold liquid, stock or water, then beaten well with the back of a wooden spoon, till it forms a smooth thin paste. When this point is reached, add the hot stock gradually off the fire, to prevent lumping, put the soup back into the stewpan, stir it till it boils, simmer ior a few minutes, till the soup is smooth and thick, when it is ready to be served. Soup is very often thickened with brown roux — that is, a mixture of flour and butter browned over the fire. The advantage of using this preparation is that it colours the soup as well as thickens it. It is, however, liable to destroy the flavour of the soup, and there is really no occasion to use it, because soup can be coloured without it, by frying the meat and vegetables used in making it, particularly the onions, till they are brown without being at all burnt. A good cook is very careful about the appearance of her soup. If white, it should be white, not grey ; if brown, it should be brown, not drab. Brown soup which looks pale as if it were diseased will never be 72 The Girl’s Own Cookery Book. enjoyed thoroughly, no matter how good it may taste. When brown roux is used, the soup must be simmered by the side of the fire for a while, and the fat must be skimmed off as it rises. A little caramel, ketchup, or a little strong brown gravy or Liebig’s extract may be added to the soup when it is about to be served if further colouring is required. Pastilles Carpentier also, which consist of small round balls like marbles, are to be bought at most grocers. They are specially made for colouring soup, are excellent for the purpose, and very cheap. All colouring ingredients, however, and especially caramel or ketchup, must be introduced very sparingly ; they must on no account be added in such quantities that they can be tasted. A soup that tastes of ketchup or burnt sugar is a failure, no matter how rich and brown it may look. Nevertheless it is a convenience to have materials of this kind at hand, because a small quantity will often impart the desired colour without exciting a suspicion of its cause. Caramel is easily made. Four ounces of moist sugar are put into an old saucepan and boiled until it is of a light brown colour.