French dishes for American tables

i. Consomme, or Stock. Put in a stockpot a roast fowl (or the carcass and remains of a fowl), a knuckle of veal, three pounds of beef, and three quarts of water. When the scum begins to rise, skim carefully until it quite ceases to appear. Then add a carrot, a turnip, an onion, a leek, two cloves, a little celery, and a little salt. Simmer very gently four hours. Remove every particle of grease, and strain through a flannel kept for the purpose. This soup is the foundation of most soups and sauces. To clarify : when necessary that the soup should be very clear, clarify it in the following manner : Put in a saucepan a pound of chopped raw beef (off the round is preferable), which mix with an egg and two glasses of water, and pour into your consomme. Simmer very gently for an hour, and strain. 2. Bouillon, or Beef Broth. Put into a stockpot three pounds of a shin of beef, one pound of a knuckle of veal, and three quarts of water, and simmer gently. As soon as the scum begins to rise, skim carefully until it quite ceases to appear. Then add salt, two carrots, the same of onions, leeks, turnips, and a little celery. Simmer gently four hours, strain, and serve. 3. Bouillon Maigre. Take six medium-sized carrots, as many turnips, a bunch of celery, and two leeks. Boil them in water for a few moments, drain, put them in cold water for a moment, after which put them into three quarts of water, adding two cloves, and boil gently three hours. Add a little salt, put through a sieve, heat again on the fire, and serve. 4. Bouillon Maigre of Fish. Put into three quarts of water two pounds of black bass, two pounds of pike, and one pound of eels. Add to these two onions, two carrots, one head of celery, two cloves, and a little salt. Simmer gently for two hours, and strain. This bouillon is used as a foundation for all soups and sauces composed of fish. 5. Pot-au-Feu. Put into a saucepan three quarts of water, two pounds of beef cut in slices, a fowl partially roasted, a knuckle of veal, and a little salt. Simmer gently, and as soon as boiling begins, skim carefully. Add two carrots, two turnips, two leeks, a few branches of celery, an onion stuck with two cloves, and boil four hours. Drain your vegetables carefully, remove every particle of grease from your soup, strain, pour it over your vegetables, and serve. 6. Soup a la Julienne (Vegetable Soup). Divide two medium-sized carrots in two, then cut into very thin slices of about an inch long ; take the same SOUPS. u quantity of turnips, leeks, onions, and a few pieces of celery, all cut into thin slices, and put them into a saucepan, with a piece of good butter, on a gentle fire, stir softly until the vegetables begin to color slightly, add three pints of consommé (or stock, Art. 1), and boil gently one hour. Ten minutes before serving put in three or four leaves of lettuce, the same of sorrel, and a little chervil chopped up, boil a little longer, adding a pinch of sugar, and a tablespoonful of green peas previously boiled. 7. Soup a la Printaniere. This soup is made exactly as the foregoing, except with the addition of asparagus-tops to the other vegetables, which, instead of being in slices, are cut out in fancy shapes with a vegetable-cutter, which may be procured at any hardware-shop.