English and French cookery

Another essential is that of freeing the soup or broth from grease after the meat is removed, and while the pot is still on the fire. The vegetables,’ he adds, ‘ should be left in the broth until their flavour has been fully extracted, and then removed, as they would otherwise spoil the soup.’ These instructions apply both to stock and bouilli, or boiled flesh. ‘To make good bouillon,’ says our authority, ‘ the water must boil very gently.’ The cook must learn to discriminate in the matter of the strength of her stock. It may happen that it on some occasions may be so strong as to be, when cold, of the consistency of gelatine. This would clearly be too strong. Because one speaks of a quart of stock it must not be inferred that a quart as it comes from the stock-pot is meant. The best guide is to take a little on the lips, and if it causes them slightly to adhere together the stock is of such consistency as to make it fit for general purposes. Calf’s Foot Soup. — Cut a calf’s foot into 3 pieces, and put into a saucepan 3 stalks of celery, some parsley, a small sprig of thyme, an onion with 3 or 4 cloves stuck into it, and one quart of stock. Simmer gently for two hours, and skim. Take out the foot, strain the liquor, return it to the saucepan, and thicken with a desert-spoonful of rice flour. Just before the soup is served, add pepper and salt, and stir gradually into it a small cupful of milk or cream, mixed with the yolk of an egg and a dash of white wine. Stir over the fire for 2 or 3 minutes, but on no account allow it to boil. Serve, with the pieces of calf’s foot, in the tureen. Cabbage Soup. — First boil a piece of bacon in the quantity of water required for soup. Then while boiling put in a whole cabbage which has already been soaked in hot water. With the cabbage put in 2 carrots, turnips, leeks, celery to flavour, a large onion in which a clove has been stuck. Boil all together for four hours ; after then strain the liquid from the bacon, etc. While the liquid is boiling up again, cut some sippets of bread, put them in a saucepan, cover them with a little stock, and some of the fat that rises on the top of the stock-pot. Boil the sippets in this for five minutes, then place them in the tureen and pour the liquid from the vegetables and bacon on the top. The cabbage and bacon are dished up separately, and eaten after the soup. Celery Soup. — Cut the white part of 2 heads of celery into pieces an inch long, place in a saucepan with \ pint of good white stock, 1 ounce of butter, 2 ounces of lean ham, and a small lump of sugar. Boil for a quarter of an hour, put in with them 2 pints more of stock, a little salt, and a blade of mace. Stew gently for an hour, then press the soup through a coarse sieve. Make it hot again, pour it into a tureen, add J pint of boiling cream or milk, and serve at once with toasted sippets. Chantilly Soup. — Boil a pint of green peas, shelled, 3 spring onions, and a sprig of mint, until the peas are tender. Remove the mint and onions, press the peas through a sieve, and pour 3 pints of boiling stock to them. Serve very hot. Chicken Broth. — Cut up an old fowl, put it into 3 pints of water or stock, add a teaspoonful of rice or barley, and simmer for an hour ; skim and season with pepper and salt.