The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c

In making Julienne soup the vegetables are first stewed till they are tender in butter. This gives the Julienne soup a distinctive flavour which makes it differ from spring soup. Which of the two is best is purely a matter of taste. When very young vegetables can be obtained — that is in the. early spring— spring soup is undoubtedly the best. When, however, at other times in the year, young vegetables cannot be obtained, stewing the vegetables in butter till they are perfectly tender naturally makes the soup more palatable. After the vegeta- • bles have been stewed in butter of course great care . should be taken that when they are added to the soup the latter must be allowed to boil or simmer to allow it to throw off the fat. It is in this respect that tinned soups have an advantage over home-made soups. All cooks know how difficult it is to get all the fat off a large quantity, but how much more difficult is it to get it off a small quantity. When cooks make soup in a small saucepan the removal of the fat is a work of considerable difficulty. If, however, they were to go into a large kitchen, such as that at the Freemasons’ Tavern, they would see the stock - pot simmering gently, and the top of it covered with perhaps four or five inches of pure oil or fat. At the bottom, however, there is a tap. Consequently when any stock is required, owing to the simmering of the stock-pot the oil and fat is floating at or near the top, the bottom of the stock-pot being absolutely free from all fat. The cook has, therefore, simply to turn the tap to get stock perfectly pure. Of course this arrangement is not practicable in small private families. These tinned soups are extremely convenient, as they enable housekeepers to send up a little soup at a few moments’ notice, and all housekeepers know how convenient this is in those cases in which possibly one "or two guests may arrive unexpectedly. Another convenience of tinned soups is that they can be wanned up late at night without giving trouble .to servants. IDNEY SOUP.— Kidney soup can be obtained in tins. It contains portions of kidney in addition to the rich soup. Like all other tinned soups, it can be warmed by simply boiling the tin for twenty minutes, or the tin can be opened and the soup turned into the saucepan and warmed up in the ordinary way. The soup is very nice as it is, but it can be tried as' follows. Many persons complain that kidneys, in any form, are apt to be indigestible, and of course every form of tinned meats is apt to be somewhat overcooked. The kidneys, therefore, do not contain that rich red fluid which is the chief beauty of fresh-cooked kidneys. The cook should drain off the kidneys and chop them up into small pieces, and rub the whole of the kidneys through a wire sieve. Then add this to the soup, and if the consistency be too thick it will bear the addition of a little more stock, or even water. It will also be found that the addition of a little wine of any kind is a very great improvement to kidney soup. Should there e a little champagne left in a bottle, this is by far the best of all wine for this purpose. Kidneys stewed in champagne are a well-known dish to epicures. There is no doubt that the flavour of champagne combines admirably with the kidneys.