The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual Part 17

The general fault of our soups seems to be the employment of an excess of spice, and too small a portion of roots and herbs.[93-+]

Besides the ingredients I have enumerated, many culinary scribes indiscriminately cram into almost every dish (in such inordinate quant.i.ties, one would suppose they were working for the _asbestos_ palate of an Indian fire-eater) anchovies, garlic,[93-++] bay-leaves, and that hot, fiery spice, _Cayenne_[93---] pepper; this, which the French call (not undeservedly) _piment enrage_ (No. 404), has, somehow or other, unaccountably acquired a character for being very wholesome; while the milder peppers and spices are cried down, as destroying the sensibility of the palate and stomach, &c., and being the source of a thousand mischiefs. We should just as soon recommend alcohol as being less intoxicating than wine.

The best thing that has been said in praise of peppers is, "that with all kinds of vegetables, as also with soups (especially vegetable soups) and fish, either black or Cayenne pepper may be taken freely: they are the most useful stimulants to old stomachs, and often supersede the cravings for strong drinks; or diminish the quant.i.ty otherwise required." See Sir A. CARLISLE _on Old Age_, London, 1817. A certain portion of condiment is occasionally serviceable to excite and keep up the languid action of feeble and advanced life: we must increase the stimulus of our aliment as the inirritability of our system increases.

We leave those who love these things to use them as they like; their flavours can be very extemporaneously produced by chilly-juice, or essence of Cayenne (No. 405), eschalot wine (No. 402), and essence of anchovy (No. 433).

There is no French dinner without soup, which is regarded as an indispensable _overture_; it is commonly followed by "_le coup d'Apres_," a gla.s.s of pure wine, which they consider so wholesome after soup, that their proverb says, the physician thereby loses a fee.

Whether the gla.s.s of wine be so much more advantageous for the patient than it is for his doctor, we know not, but believe it an excellent plan to begin the banquet with a basin of good soup, which, by moderating the appet.i.te for solid animal food, is certainly a salutiferous custom.

Between the _roasts_ and the _entremets_ they introduce "_le coup du Milieu_" or a small gla.s.s of _Jamaica rum_, or _essence of punch_ (see No. 471), or CURACAO (No. 474).

The introduction of liqueurs is by no means a modern custom: our ancestors were very fond of a highly spiced stimulus of this sort, commonly called _Ipocra.s.se_, which generally made a part of the last course, or was taken immediately after dinner.

_The crafte to make ypocras._

"Take a quarte of red wyne, an ounce of synamon, and halfe an ounce of gynger; a quarter of an ounce of greynes (probably of paradise) and long pepper, and halfe a pounde of sugar; and brose (_bruise_) all this (_not too small_), and then put them in a bage (_bag_) of wullen clothe, made, therefore, with the wynee; and lete it hange over a vessel, till the wynee be run thorowe."--_An extract from Arnold's Chronicle._

It is a custom which almost universally prevails in the northern parts of Europe, to present _a dram_ or gla.s.s of _liqueur_, before sitting down to dinner: this answers the double purpose of a whet to the appet.i.te, and an announcement that dinner is on the point of being served up. Along with the dram, are presented on a waiter, little square pieces of cheese, slices of cold tongue, dried tongue, and dried toast, accompanied with fresh _caviar_.

We again caution the cook to avoid over-seasoning, especially with predominant flavours, which, however agreeable they may be to some, are extremely disagreeable to others. See page 50.

Zest (No. 255), soy (No. 436), cavice, coratch, anchovy (No. 433), curry powder (No. 455), savoury ragout powder (No. 457), soup herb powder (No.

459 and 460), browning (No. 322), catchups (No. 432), pickle liquor, beer, wine, and sweet herbs, and savoury spice (No. 460), are very convenient auxiliaries to finish soups, &c.

The proportion of wine (formerly sack, then claret, now Madeira or port) should not exceed a large wine-gla.s.sful to a quart of soup. This is as much as can be admitted, without the vinous flavour becoming remarkably predominant; though not only much larger quant.i.ties of wine (of which claret is incomparably the best, because it contains less spirit and more flavour, and English palates are less acquainted with it), but even _veritable eau de vie_ is ordered in many books, and used by many (especially tavern cooks). So much are their soups overloaded with relish, that if you will eat enough of them they will certainly make you drunk, if they don't make you sick: all this frequently arises from an old cook measuring the excitability of the eater's palates by his own, which may be so blunted by incessant tasting, that to awaken it, requires wine instead of water, and Cayenne and garlic for black pepper and onion.

Old cooks are as fond of _spice_, as children are of _sugar_, and season soup, which is intended to const.i.tute a princ.i.p.al part of a meal, as highly as sauce, of which only a spoonful may be relish enough for a plate of insipid viands. (See _obs._ to No. 355.) However, we fancy these large quant.i.ties of wine, &c. are oftener ordered in cookery books than used in the kitchen: practical cooks have the health of their employers too much at heart, and love "_sauce a la langue_" too well to overwine their soup, &c.

Truffles and morels[95-*] are also set down as a part of most receipts.

These, in their green state, have a very rich high flavour, and are delicious additions to some dishes, or sent up as a stew by themselves when they are fresh and fine; but in this state they are not served up half a dozen times in a year at the first tables in the kingdom: when dried they become mere "_chips in pottage_," and serve only to soak up good gravy, from which they take more taste than they give.

The art of composing a 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 harmonious relish that the whole is delightful. This requires that judicious combination of the materials which const.i.tutes the "_chef d'uvre_" of culinary science.

In the first place, take care that the roots and herbs be perfectly well cleaned; proportion the water to the quant.i.ty of meat and other ingredients, generally a pound of meat to a quart of water for soups, and double that quant.i.ty 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 first importance 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, without any benefit, except to fatten the fortunate cook who inhales them. An evident proof that these exhalations[96-*] possess the most restorative qualities is, that THE COOK, who is in general the least eater, is, as generally, the _fattest_ person in the family, from continually 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 nourishment.

It is not only the _fibres_ of the meat which nourish us, but the _juices_ they contain, and these are not only extracted but exhaled, if it be boiled fast in an open vessel. A succulent 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 without causing it to boil for at least half an hour; if the water boils immediately, it will not penetrate the meat, and cleanse it from the clotted blood, and other matters which ought to go off in sc.u.m; the meat will be hardened all over by violent heat; will shrink up as if it was scorched, and give hardly any gravy: on the contrary, by keeping the water a certain time heating without boiling, the meat swells, becomes tender, its fibres are dilated, and it yields a quant.i.ty of _sc.u.m_, 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 sc.u.m_; and when no more appears, put in the vegetables, &c. and a little salt.

These will cause more _sc.u.m_ to rise, which must be taken off immediately; then cover the pot very closely, and place it at a proper distance from the fire, where it will boil very gently, and equally, and by no means fast.

By quick and strong boiling the volatile and finest parts of the ingredients are evaporated, and fly off with the steam, and the coa.r.s.er parts are rendered soluble; so you lose the good, and get the bad.

Soups will generally take from _three_ to _six_ hours.

Prepare your broths and soups the evening before you want them. This will give you more time to attend to the rest of your dinner the next day; and when the soup is cold, the _fat_ may be much more easily and completely removed from the surface of it. When you decant it, take care not to disturb the settlings at the bottom of the vessel, which are so fine that they will escape through a sieve, or even through a TAMIS, which is the best strainer, the soups appear smoother and finer, and it is much easier cleaned than any sieve. If you strain it while it is hot, pa.s.s it through a clean tamis or napkin, previously soaked in cold water; the coldness of this will coagulate the fat, and only suffer the pure broth to pa.s.s through.

The full flavour of the ingredients can only be extracted by very long and slow simmering; during which take care to prevent evaporation, by covering the pot as close as possible: the best stew-pot is a digester.

Clear soups must be perfectly transparent; thickened soups, about the consistence of rich cream; and remember that thickened soups require nearly double the quant.i.ty of seasoning. The _piquance_ of spice, &c. is as much blunted by the flour and b.u.t.ter, as the spirit of rum is by the addition of sugar and acid: so they are less salubrious, without being more savoury, from the additional quant.i.ty of spice, &c. that is smuggled into the stomach.

To thicken and give body to soups and sauces, the following materials are used: they must be gradually mixed with the soup till thoroughly incorporated with it; and it should have at least half an hour's gentle simmering after: if it is at all lumpy, pa.s.s it through a tamis or a fine sieve. Bread raspings, bread, isingla.s.s, potato mucilage (No. 448), flour, or fat skimmings and flour (see No. 248), or flour and b.u.t.ter, barley (see No. 204), rice, or oatmeal and water rubbed well together, (see No. 257, in which this subject is fully explained.)

To give that _glutinous_ quality so much admired in _mock turtle_, see No. 198, and note under No. 247, No. 252, and N.B. to No. 481.

To their very rich gravies, &c. the French add the white meat of partridges, pigeons, or fowls, pounded to a pulp, and rubbed through a sieve. A piece of beef, which has been boiled to make broth, pounded in the like manner with a bit of b.u.t.ter and flour, see _obs._ to No. 485*

and No. 503, and gradually incorporated with the gravy or soup, will be found a satisfactory subst.i.tute for these more expensive articles.

Meat from which broth has been made (No. 185, and No. 252), and all its juice has been extracted, is then excellently well prepared for POTTING, (see No. 503), and is quite as good, or better, than that which has been baked till it is dry;[98-*] indeed, if it be pounded, and seasoned in the usual manner, it will be an elegant and savoury luncheon, or supper, and costs nothing but the trouble of preparing it, which is very little, and a relish is procured for sandwiches, &c. (No. 504) of what heretofore has been by the poorest housekeeper considered _the perquisite of the_ CAT.

Keep some spare broth lest your soup-liquor waste in boiling, and get too thick, and for gravy for your made dishes, various sauces, &c.; for many of which it is a much better basis than melted b.u.t.ter.

The soup of mock turtle, and the other thickened soups, (No. 247), will supply you with a thick gravy sauce for _poultry_, _fish_, _ragouts_, &c.; and by a little management of this sort, you may generally contrive to have plenty of good gravies and good sauces with very little trouble or expense. See also _Portable Soup_ (No. 252).

If soup is too thin or too weak, take off the cover of your soup-pot, and let it boil till some of the watery part of it has evaporated, or else add some of the thickening materials we have before mentioned; and have at hand some plain browning: see No. 322, and the _obs._ thereon.

This simple preparation is much better than any of the compounds bearing that name; as it colours sauce or soup without much interfering with its flavour, and is a much better way of colouring them than burning the surface of the meat.

When soups and gravies are kept from day to day, _in hot weather_, they should be warmed up every day, and put into fresh-scalded tureens or pans, and placed in a cool cellar; in temperate weather every other day may be enough.

We hope we have now put the common cook into possession of the whole _arcana_ of soup-making, without much trouble to herself, or expense to her employers. It need not be said in future that an Englishman only knows how to make soup in his stomach, by swilling down a large quant.i.ty of ale or porter, to quench the thirst occasioned by the meat he eats.

JOHN BULL may now make his soup "_secundum artem_," and save his princ.i.p.al viscera a great deal of trouble.

? In the following receipts we have directed the spices[99-*] and flavouring to be added at the usual time; but it would greatly diminish the expense, and improve the soups, if the agents employed to give them a zest were not put in above fifteen minutes before the finish, and half the quant.i.ty of spice, &c. would do. A strong heat soon dissipates the spirit of the wine, and evaporates the aroma and flavour of the spices and herbs, which are volatile in the heat of boiling water.

In ordering the proportions of meat, b.u.t.ter, wine, &c. the proper quant.i.ty is set down, and less will not do: we have carried economy quite as far as possible without "spoiling the broth for a halfpenny worth of salt."

I conclude these remarks with observing, that some persons imagine that soup tends to relax the stomach. So far from being prejudicial, we consider the moderate use of such liquid nourishment to be highly salutary. Does not our food and drink, even though cold, become in a few minutes a kind of warm soup in the stomach? and therefore soup, if not eaten too hot, or in too great a quant.i.ty, and of proper quality, is attended with great advantages, especially to those who drink but little.

Warm fluids, in the form of soup, unite with our juices much sooner and better than those that are cold and raw: on this account, RESTORATIVE SOUP is the best food for those who are enfeebled by disease or dissipation, and for old people, whose teeth and digestive organs are impaired.

"Half subtilized to chyle, the liquid food Readiest obeys th' a.s.similating powers."

After catching cold, in nervous headaches, cholics, indigestions, and different kinds of cramp and spasms in the stomach, warm broth is of excellent service.

After intemperate feasting, to give the stomach a holyday for a day or two by a diet on mutton broth (No. 564, or No. 572), or vegetable soup (No. 218), &c. is the best way to restore its tone. "The stretching any power to its utmost extent weakens it. If the stomach be every day obliged to do as much as it can, it will every day be able to do less. A wise traveller will never force his horse to perform as much as he can in one day upon a long journey."--Father FEYJOO'S _Rules_, p. 85.

To WARM SOUPS, &c. (No. 485.)

N.B. With the PORTABLE SOUP (No. 252), a pint of broth may be made in five minutes for threepence.

FOOTNOTES:

[89-*] We prefer the form of a stew-pan to the soup-pot; the former is more convenient to skim: the most useful size is 12 inches diameter by 6 inches deep: this we would have of silver, or iron, or copper, lined (not plated) with silver.