obtained. But it is never colourless. Any broth of quality has always some yellowish colour ; to be colourless to the eye it must be exceedingly dilute. A gravy-broth or con- somme is necessarily brown ; hence when in modern hotels, etc., you receive a colourless liquid under the name of con- somme, you see at once that the name is either the product of a misapprehension from ignorance, or an imposture ; a consomme once made cannot be deprived of its colour by any means. The broth from young animals, c.y., veal, is generally turbid, and the amateurs of clear soup will have such broth clarified. This is done by causing albumin, or white of egg, to curdle in the broth, made more acid by lemon-juice, a process which, when applied to wine without heating, is called fining. This clarifying, however, removes a good deal of the flavour of the soup, and thus sacrifices to the eye what it deprives the palate of. The clearer the soup, the more strength and colour does it require ; it should have no mechanical additions suspended in it. But in modern hotels and restaurants, clubs, etc., clear soups are the very reverse of all this — colourless, like water ; tasteless, or with a minimum of recollection of savour, such as mere water would acquire by standing on the hearth in the atmosphere of the kitchen ; and suspended in them is a finely-comminuted mixture of shredded vegetables, a kind of dwarf macedoine with no taste at all. The thick soiqos, on the other hand, while somewhat more tasty, yet are, even when containing any puree of quality, e.g., tomatoes or chestnuts, mostly set up with thickenings of flour, and not even a white roux, and in this exhibit a retrograde tendency towards the ancient gruel. This deterioration of soup, which is now widespread, many members of society having only known these shadows, has been going on for now at least seventy years, it having been animadverted on in the ‘ Ahnanach des Gourmands ’ in 1826, and controverted by Careme in the decade following that year. It was explained 156 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY that cooks preferred to spend the available broth upon the entrees and sauces, and had none left for the soup. If so, we would beg them to omit soup from the menu, for as at present offered these ghosts of soups of the past produce an impression which it requires a host of good entries and entremets to obliterate. CHAPTEE IX. SOUPS CHAEACTERIZED BY PARTICULAR VEGETABLES. The knowledge of the theory of broths and of the practice of their' production would enable any practical person to construct any soups belonging to the ten divisions. But, unfortunately, the practice of cookery does not repose upon recognised principles, but on recipes, many of which are based upon flagrant error, such as that which we have exposed concerning bones. There is no soup worthy of the name which does not contain an element of vieat savour. Whenever that is absent, a substitute is adopted in the shape of a strong vegetable flavour. Some of this flavouring is also adopted to support the savour of broth, and when used with moderation blends admirably with it, and is free from un£Esthetic consequences ; we mean leek more particu- larly, and a portion of onion subsidiarily, at times when leek is out of season.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

obtained. But it is never colourless. Any broth of quality has always some yellowish colour ; to be colourless to the eye it must be exceedingly dilute. A gravy-broth or consomme is necessarily brown ; hence when in modern hotels, etc., you receive a colourless liquid under the name of consomme, you see at once that the name is either the product of a misapprehension from ignorance, or an imposture ; a consomme once made cannot be deprived of its colour by any means. The broth from young animals, c.y., veal, is generally turbid, and the amateurs of clear soup will have such broth clarified. This is done by causing albumin, or white of egg, to curdle in the broth, made more acid by lemon-juice, a process which, when applied to wine without heating, is called fining. This clarifying, however, removes a good deal of the flavour of the soup, and thus sacrifices to the eye what it deprives the palate of. The clearer the soup, the more strength and colour does it require ; it should have no mechanical additions suspended in it. But in modern hotels and restaurants, clubs, etc., clear soups are the very reverse of all this — colourless, like water ; tasteless, or with a minimum of recollection of savour, such as mere water would acquire by standing on the hearth in the atmosphere of the kitchen ; and suspended in them is a finely-comminuted mixture of shredded vegetables, a kind of dwarf macedoine with no taste at all. The thick soiqos, on the other hand, while somewhat more tasty, yet are, even when containing any puree of quality, e.g., tomatoes or chestnuts, mostly set up with thickenings of flour, and not even a white roux, and in this exhibit a retrograde tendency towards the ancient gruel. This deterioration of soup, which is now widespread, many members of society having only known these shadows, has been going on for now at least seventy years, it having been animadverted on in the ‘ Ahnanach des Gourmands ’ in 1826, and controverted by Careme in the decade following that year. It was explained that cooks preferred to spend the available broth upon the entrees and sauces, and had none left for the soup. If so, we would beg them to omit soup from the menu, for as at present offered these ghosts of soups of the past produce an impression which it requires a host of good entries and entremets to obliterate. CHAPTER IX. SOUPS CHAEACTERIZED BY PARTICULAR VEGETABLES. The knowledge of the theory of broths and of the practice of their' production would enable any practical person to construct any soups belonging to the ten divisions. But, unfortunately, the practice of cookery does not repose upon recognised principles, but on recipes, many of which are based upon flagrant error, such as that which we have exposed concerning bones. There is no soup worthy of the name which does not contain an element of vieat savour. Whenever that is absent, a substitute is adopted in the shape of a strong vegetable flavour. Some of this flavouring is also adopted to support the savour of broth, and when used with moderation blends admirably with it, and is free from un£Esthetic consequences ; we mean leek more particularly, and a portion of onion subsidiarily, at times when leek is out of season.

The spirit of cookery