Clear Soup

Ingredients

• a pint of water
• the white part of a leek
• six or eight fresh peppercorns
• a stick of celery
• a turnip
• a small carrot
• a little parsley
• one or two cloves

Method

1. 1

   Cleanse and prepare the vegetables.

2. 2

   Boil the leek, peppercorns, celery, turnip, carrot, and parsley in a pint of water.

3. 3

   Remove the scum as it rises.

4. 4

   Add about a teaspoonful of soaked gelatin.

5. 5

   Dissolve a small quantity of extract of meat in boiling water, strain the vegetable stock, mix both, and add salt to taste.

6. 6

   Serve hot.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from The girl's own cookery book (1882) by Phillis Browne, page 43. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

clear soup. Sago, rice, macaroni, vermicelli nou- illes, pearl barley, tapioca, and semolina may all be boiled separately, then dropped into it, and the soup will then be called after the name of the distinctive ingredient. When spring vegetables, young turnips, carrots, or leeks are put into clear soup it becomes prmtaniere, or spring soup. When these same vegetables are softly stewed in butter and cut into shreds it is jidiemie. When savoury custard (cut into diamonds or stars^ is put into it, it is soup royale. if Brussel sprouts are introduced it is Flemish soup; if crusts of bread, it is croute au pot; if homely vegetables, it is soup d, la paysanne; if poached eggs, it is Colbert’s soup. And so we might go-on : jardiniire, brtinoise, chif- fonade, macidoine, nive}'naise, and others are all clear soup, with veiy slight differences. If there are any girls belonging to this class who try to follow my instructions, and make some clear soup in the way I have described, I know quite well what the result will be. The soup will be excellent, bright, clear, and good, but they will feel that it has been a great trouble to make. I should not be surprised if their state of mind were similar to that of the charity-boy mentioned in Pickwick, who, when he got to the end of the alphabet, said, “Whether it is worth while going through so much to learn so little is a matter of taste. / think it isn’t.” After all, important as cookery may be, there are other things to be done in the world ; and though we might be willing to make the best clear soup for high days and holidays, it is more than probable that few would be able to give the time to it very often. Therefore, it will be an advantage to learn an easier and cheaper way of preparing it, so as to achieve very nearly, though not quite, as satis- factory a result. T he easier method is to use stock made of Liebig’s Extract of Meat, instead of stock from fresh meat. A small quantity of this extract dissolved in a little boiling 69 Clear Soups. water will supply a clear straw-coloured liquor, which tastes quite sufficiently of meat, and which may easily be converted into excellent soup. Of course the difficulty here is the flavouring. We must so flavour this extract of meat stock that no one shall know what it was, but shall if they think anything at all about the matter, regard it as a matter of course that the stock for the soup was made in the usual way, “ with trouble and charges,” to use an expression of Izaak Walton's. Whatever vegetables are used in flavouring this soup must be cleansed thoroughly and boiled separately. A little soaked gelatine may be boiled in the liquid, which must be skimmed thoroughly ; and as soon as it tastes pleasantly, and before the vegetables are soft, the liquid must be strained off for use. As to what flavourers we are to use in making the stock, the question must be answered by another — What fla- vourers can we get at the time ? We need not always make our soup exactly alike. When we once get the idea we can vary the flavour according to the ingredients at our command. Supposing we want a small quantity of soup for a small family, let us flavour a pint of water pleasantly and rather strongly by boiling in it the white part of a leek, six or eight fresh peppercorns, and a stick of celery, or a small pinch of celery seed tied in muslin ; a turnip, a small carrot, and a little parsley can be added, if liked, or an onion with one or two cloves

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.