To thicken and give body to soups and
sauces the following materials are used — they
must be gradually mixed with the soup till
thoroughly incorporated with it, and it should
have at least half an houi-'s gentle simmering
after ; if it is at aU lumpj-, pass it thiough a
tamis or a fine sieve — bread-raspings, bread,
isinglass, potato-mucilage, fat-skimmings and
fiour, or floui- and butter, or flour, barley, rice,
or oatmeal and water rubbed well " together.
To their very rich gravies, &c., the French add
the white meat of partridges, pigeons, or fowls,
pounded to a pulp and rubbed through a sieve ;
a piece of beef which has been boiled to make
broth pounded in like manner with a bit of
butter and flour, and gradually incorporated
with the gravy or soup, will be found a satisfac-
tory substitute for these more expensi%'e articles.
Meat from which broth has been made, and
all its juice has been extracted, is then excel-
lently well prepared for i3otting, and is quite as
good or better than that which has been baked
till it is dry : indeed, if it be pounded and sea-
soned in the usual manner it will be ap elegant
sou
( 907
SOW
and savoury luncheon or supper, and costs
nothing- but the trouble of preparing it, wliich
is very little, and a relish is procured for sand-
wiches, itc, of what has heretofore been by the
poorest housekeeper considered the perquisite
of the cat.
Keep some spare broth, lest your soup-liquor
waste in boiling- and get too thick, and for
gravy for your made dishes, ^■arious sauces,
&c., for many of Mhich it is a much better basis
than melted butter. The soup of mock-turtle
and the other thickened soups will supply you
with a thick gravy sauce for poultry, fish,
ragodts, &c., and by a little management of this
sort you may generally contrive to have plenty
of good gravies and good sauces with very little
trouble or expense.
If soup is too thin or too weak, take off the
cover of your soup-pot and let it boil till some
of the wateiy part of it has evaporated, or else
add some of the thickening materials we have
before mentioned; and have at hand some plain
browning. This simple preparation is much
better than the compounds bearing that name,
as it colours sauce or soujj without much inter-
fering with its flavour, and is a much better
way of colouring them t^an bui-ning the surface
of the meat.
When soups and gravies are kept from day to
day in hot weather they should be warmed up
every day, and put into fresh-scalded tiireens
or pans, and placed in a cool cellar; in tem-
perate weather every other day may be enough.
We hope we have now put the conmion cook
into possession of the whole arcana of soup-
making, -without much trouble to herseK, or
exi)ense to her employers ; it need not be said
in future that an Englishman only knows how
to make soup in his stomach, by swiUing down
a large quantity of ale or porter, to quench the
tliirst occasioned by the meat he eats. John
Bull may now make his souj) secundum artew,
and save his principal viscera a great deal of
trouble.
Page 1864
Presented as published in 1892. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
To thicken and give body to soups and sauces the following materials are used — they must be gradually mixed with the soup till thoroughly incorporated with it, and it should have at least half an hour's gentle simmering after ; if it is at aU lumpj-, pass it through a tamis or a fine sieve — bread-raspings, bread, isinglass, potato-mucilage, fat-skimmings and fiour, or flour and butter, or flour, barley, rice, or oatmeal and water rubbed well " together. To their very rich gravies, &c., the French add the white meat of partridges, pigeons, or fowls, pounded to a pulp and rubbed through a sieve ; a piece of beef which has been boiled to make broth pounded in like manner with a bit of butter and flour, and gradually incorporated with the gravy or soup, will be found a satisfactory substitute for these more expensive articles.
Meat from which broth has been made, and all its juice has been extracted, is then excellently well prepared for i3otting, and is quite as good or better than that which has been baked till it is dry : indeed, if it be pounded and seasoned in the usual manner it will be ap elegant
sou
( 907
SOW
and savoury luncheon or supper, and costs nothing- but the trouble of preparing it, wliich is very little, and a relish is procured for sandwiches, itc, of what has heretofore been by the poorest housekeeper considered the perquisite of the cat.
Keep some spare broth, lest your soup-liquor waste in boiling- and get too thick, and for gravy for your made dishes, ^■arious sauces, &c., for many of Mhich it is a much better basis than melted butter. The soup of mock-turtle and the other thickened soups will supply you with a thick gravy sauce for poultry, fish, ragouts, &c., and by a little management of this sort you may generally contrive to have plenty of good gravies and good sauces with very little trouble or expense.
If soup is too thin or too weak, take off the cover of your soup-pot and let it boil till some of the wateiy part of it has evaporated, or else add some of the thickening materials we have before mentioned; and have at hand some plain browning. This simple preparation is much better than the compounds bearing that name, as it colours sauce orsoup without much interfering with its flavour, and is a much better way of colouring them than burning the surface of the meat.
When soups and gravies are kept from day to day in hot weather they should be warmed up every day, and put into fresh-scalded tureens or pans, and placed in a cool cellar; in temperate weather every other day may be enough.
We hope we have now put the conmion cook into possession of the whole arcana of soupmaking, -without much trouble to herseK, or expense to her employers ; it need not be said in future that an Englishman only knows how to make soup in his stomach, by swiUing down a large quantity of ale or porter, to quench the tliirst occasioned by the meat he eats. John Bull may now make his souj) secundum artew, and save his principal viscera a great deal of trouble.