The Queen Cook Book: A Careful Compilation of Recipes and Practical ...

To every pound of meat and bones allow one quart of water, which will just about cover it nicely. Some authors say cut the meat in small pieces two inches square, keeping it at just simmering heat, but not boil, from four to five hours (try it), but I have always had good, nourishing soups by keeping it just at a boiling point from three to four hours, putting the salt in when it is first put over, it will not bear enough to season the meat, but just for the water; skim it before it boils, and wipe the scum off that clings to the kettle. The goodness is all out when the meat is juiceless. If you wish to use the best pieces of the meat cold, sliced off for supper, or for a stew for breakfast, take out the best pieces for it in two hours and let the rest boil longer. Keep a tea kettle of hot water to add to it if needed; and also tightly covered. Nice additions to soups are rice, vermicelli, macaroni, parsley, celery, celery seeds and all kinds of vegetables; the first three, require one-half a tea cupfuU to three quarts of stock. Some prefer only one kind at a time. All vegetables should be boiled by themselves, throw the water away and put the vegetables through a seive. For thickening it takes two tablespoons of flour for each quart of soup. As nice a soup as one needs to eat is made of beef stock, thickened, parsley and celery tied together, with croutons in the tureen. If you wish clear soup you can clarify it with the white of an ^^^, and strain it, making a perfectly clear soup, but stimulating rather than nutritious; as the boiling and straining takes away its albumen and fibrin; as we can not have a very clear, an4.a very nutritious soup The Queen Cook Book 37 at the same time. In a family pf six or more, the bones and trimmings from two or more steaks, and from the roast beef of the day before, boiled three hours, will make a tolerable soup. Flavor with celery and parsley; thicken and pour onto croutons, or rolled crackers. Croutons. Cut a slice of stale bread twice as thick as for table use, spread the top lightly with butter, then cut into dice, toast in oven on tin plate. Browning for Soups. Put three tablespoons of brown sugar and one heaping tablespoon of butter in an iron spider over the fire; stir all the time so it will not really burn, until it is of a bright brown color, and givQS forth a burning smell, add a half pint of hot water, boil and skim, when cold bottle for use; use as needed. To Make Caramel. Brown one cup of granulated sugar until it melts and burns, add one cup of boiling water, boil one minute. Bottle, cork tight. This is used for coloring soups. Cream of Celery Soup. Boil twelve stalks of celery, cut in small pieces, in three pints of water for half an hour till tender. Add half an onion and two blades of mace, and pass through a sieve. Mix one tablespoon of flour and a heaping tablespoon of butter; add to the soup one pint of cream, salt and pepper to taste. 38 The Queen Cook Book Tomato Soup (queen of soups). 1 pint cooked tomatoes i teaspoon soda 2 quarts soft water Salt and pepper I pint cream }4 pint milk Gently boil the tomatoes and water one hour covered tight, then strain. Add one even teaspoon salt, then the soda a part at a time, so it will not foam over, then the cream, milk and pepper, and pour it, after it comes to a boil, on four tablespoons of finely rolled cracker. The cream is indispensable in this soup. Tomato Soup (very nice), I quart beef stock i quart n\ilk I quart strained tomatoes Salt and pepper 4 tablespoons butter 4 tablespoons flour Heat the strained tomatoes boiling hot and put in soda enough to take out the acid (should say about two even teaspoons), stir the butter and flour to a cream, then add all together and boil three minutes to cook the flour, stirring all the time. Green Pea Soup. I quart green peas i tablespoon flour