Rich Soup

Ingredients

• a pound of meat
• a quart of water
• a little salt
• the vegetables, &c.

Method

1. 1

   Place your soup-pot over a moderate fire to heat the water without boiling.

2. 2

   After half an hour, increase the heat to boil, removing any scum that appears.

3. 3

   Add vegetables and salt, cover tightly, and simmer gently for three to six hours.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cassell's dictionary of cookery (1892) by Cassell & Company, page 1862. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

rich soup is so to proportion the several ingredients one to another that no particular taste be stronger than the rest, but to produce such a fine har- monious relish that the whole is dehghtful. This requires that judicious combination of the materiak which constitute the chef d^wiirre of culinary science. In the first place, take care that the roots and hei'bs be perfecth' well cleaned ; proportion the water to the quantity of meat and other ingredients — generally a pound of meat to a quart of water for soups, and double that quantity for gravies. If they stew gently, little more water need be put in at first than is expected at the end — for when the pot is covered quite close, and the fire gentle, very little is wasted. Gentle stewing is incomparably the best — the meat is more tender and the soup better flavoured. It is of the fii-st imj^ortance that the cover of a soup-kettle should fit very close, or the broth will evaporate before you are aware of it. The most essential parts are soon evaporated by quick boiling, -wdthout any benefit, except to fatten the fortunate cook who inhales them. An evident proof that these exhalations possess the most restorative qualities is, that the cook, who in general is the least eater, is as gene- rally the fattest person in the family — from con- tinually being surrounded by the quintessence of all the food she dresses, whereof she sends to her master only the fibres and calcinations, who is consequently thin, gouty, and the victim of diseases arising from insufficient nourish- ment. It is not only the fibres of the meat which nourish us, but the juices they contain, and these are not only e.xtiacted, but exhaled, if it be boiled fast in an open vessel. A suc- culent soup can never be made but in a well- closed vessel, which preserves the nutritive parts by preventing their dissipation. This is a fact of which every intelligent person will soon perceive the importance. Place your soup-pot over a moderate fire, which will make the water hot ■w'ithout causing it to boil, for at least half an hoiu-. If the water boils immediately, it will not jjenetrate the meat [ and cleanse it from the clotted blood and other i matters which ought to go off in scum; the j meat will be hardened allover by violent heat, | wiU shrink up as if it were scorched, and give hardly any gra\->'. On the contrary, by keeping the water a certain time heating without boil- ing, the meat swells, becomes tender, its fibres are_ dilated, and it yields a quantity of scum, which must be taken off as soon as it appears. It is not till after a good half hour's hot •infusion that we may mend the fire and make the pot boil ; still continue to remove the scum, and when no more appears, put in the vege- tables, &c., and a little salt

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