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

OYSTERS, ESSENCE OF.— Essence of oysters is a sauce now sold in bottles. It is a nice accompaniment to any kind of boiled fish as a substitute for oyster sauce. A little of this essence of oysters can always be added to oyster sauce and oyster soup, but when the essence is added the cook should avoid using any nutmeg, as the essence of oysters is strongly flavoured with nutmeg. OYSTER SOUP. — Oyster soup can now be obtained in tins. The tin can be heated by being immersed in boiling water and kept there for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. It can then be opened and the contents served. The addition of a very little cream and also a little anchovy sauce will often be found an improvement to tinned oyster soup, as well as a little cayenne pepper. This is of course a matter of taste. PARISIAN ESSENCE FOR SOUPS. — Parisian essence is a thick fluid sold in bottles, used for the purpose of colouring soups and gravies. Perhaps most cooks have experienced occasional difficulty in knowing the best way to colour soups. The old-fashioned and perhaps universal custom was to use burnt sugar, or what French cooks call caramel. This substance, however, has one drawback, for there is no doubt that thick caramel imparts a somewhat burnt flavour to the soup, however carefully the caramel may be made. Good caramel is made by dissolving the sugar in a frying-pan, burning it till it becomes a deep red colour, and then adding sufficient water to mix the whole together until it becomes a thick syrup, somewhat resembling treacle in appearance. The great proportion of saccharine matter will have been got rid of, but a certain amount of burnt flavour remains. I have no hesitation in saying that the Parisian essence sold by Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell is the very best of the kind I have ever seen. It imparts a brilliant colour without affecting the flavour. Where a dark colour is. required for thick soups or gravies this preparation is really invaluable. There are many ways of colouring soup when only a light straw colour is wished for, or in which the colouring is a matter of no moment. When, however, a greater quantity is to be used it is exceedingly important that the flavour of the soup or gravy should not be affected. As I have before observed, cooks should never sacrifice taste to appearance. Tliis Parisian essence enables any cook to make a thick soup or gravy of the very richest possible colour without affecting its flavour. Of course in colouring: soups, especially clear soups, when a light colour only is wished for, by far the best method is to allow the soup to boil away over the fire until it becomes a glaze, and then to let the glaze colour itself over the fire. This, however, is a very difficult operation indeed when tried in small quantities, and there is always a risk of the soup getting burnt, and the flavour being thereby affected. By means of this Parisian essence, however, all risk is avoided. The origin of its name, “ Parisian essence,” is owing to the fact that this essence is very largely used — indeed, almost universally used— in all the best restaurants in Paris.