Culinary jottings

OW about thick soups, apart from purees : — these are perhaps more popular with the majority of English people, than the thin clear. There is an expression of richness and of strength in them which cannot fail to captivate the Briton. He, therefore, that would gratify his countrymen, must frequently offer them a soup which is in itself a meal. I made the acquaintance of a little French woman in London whose husband kept a pastry cook's shop and was a chef indeed. Asking one day in a hurry for any clear soup they could give me, Madame Gregoire arched her eyebrows and said " Ah ! vi'sieur it would not pay us to make for our customers the consomme. Ox-tail, mock-turtle, and puree de pois we have ready ; for a clear soup, we must have notice of a few hours." And we exchanged our regrets that Englishmen could not appreciate, even in the midst of July, Si potage a la printaniere. Still I confess that a thick soup is acceptable at times : — In cool weather ; when you return as hungry as a hunter from some physical enterprise ; or when you have a little cosy dinner of only a very few items to discuss — a soup, a slice of a joint, a dressed vegetable, and your cheese. But I hesitate to recommend soups of this class for a Madras dinner party, — to be placed before men whose labours all day have been sedentary, and ladies who have lunched well, and passed their day in graceful repose. And it is mainly for them, be it remembered, that I compose what a friendly critic terms my " menus mignons.'' There is one feature about thick soups which is worthy of attention, and that is that you need not be so scrupulously careful in the making of the stock, or in selecting the materials of which the stock is made, for you have not to think of that clearness which is the salient feature of your consomme. Thick soups can therefore, be made of the bones of cooked meat, and scraps that would never do for potage a la Julienne for instance. Let us take as a type of a really good thick soup that called potage a la bonne femme, which, is made in this way. Prepare a quart of stock, and keep that by your side : now cut up a good-sized (Bombay) onion into very thin rounds, and place them in a sauce-pan with two ounces of good tinned butter. Take care not to let the onion get brown, and when it is half done, throw in a quarter of a pound of sorrel leaves, a lettuce, and a bunch of parsley, all finely shred, add pepper, salt, half an ounce of flour, and keep stirring for five minutes. You then add a dessert-spoonful of pounded loaf-sugar, and half a cupful of the stock, freed from fat, and not coloured. Let the mixture reduce nearly to a glaze, when you gradually stir in about a quart of the stock ; and let the soup simmer for a quarter of an hour. You now must prepare about a dozen pieces of bread cut very thin about two inches long, and an inch wide, taking care that there is crust along one of their long sides, and you must dry these thoroughly in the oven. When it is time to send up the soup, you remove the superfluous fat from it, and set it to simmer for a quarter of an hour. Xow, prepare a liaison made as follows : — Break two eggs in a basin, beat them well as THICK SOUPS AND PUREES. 45