The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory Part 9

_Pea Soup._ No. 4.

Boil one onion and one quart of peas in three quarts of water till they are soft; then work them through a hair sieve. Mix the pulp with the water in which the peas were boiled; set it over the fire and let it boil; add two cabbage lettuces, cut in slices, half a pint of young peas, and a little salt. Let it boil quickly half an hour; mix a little b.u.t.ter and flour, and boil in the soup.

_Portable Soup._

Strip all the skin and fat off a leg of veal; then cut all the fleshy parts from the bone, and add a s.h.i.+n of beef, which treat in the same way; boil it slowly in three gallons of water or more according to the quant.i.ty of the meat; let the pot be closely covered: when you find it, in a spoon, very strong and clammy, like a rich jelly, take it off and strain it through a hair sieve into an earthen pan. After it is thoroughly cold, take off any fat that may remain, and divide your jelly clear of the bottom into small flatfish cakes in chinaware cups covered.

Then place these cups in a large deep stewpan of boiling water over a stove fire, where let it boil gently till the jelly becomes a perfect glue; but take care the water does not get into the cups, for that will spoil it all. These cups of glue must be taken out, and, when cold, turn out the glue into a piece of new coa.r.s.e flannel, and in about six hours turn it upon more fresh flannel, and keep doing this till it is perfectly dry--if you then lay it by in a dry warm place, it will presently become like a dry piece of glue. When you use it in travelling, take a piece the size of a large walnut, seasoning it with fresh herbs, and if you can have an old fowl, or a very little bit of fresh meat, it will be excellent.

_Potato Soup._

Five large carrots, two turnips, three large mealy potatoes, seven onions, three heads of celery; slice them all thin, with a handful of sweet herbs; put them into one gallon of water, with bones of beef, or a piece of mutton; let them simmer gently till the vegetables will pulp through a sieve. Add cayenne pepper, salt, a pint of milk, or half a pint of cream, with a small piece of b.u.t.ter beaten up with flour.

_Rabbit Soup._

One large rabbit, one pound of lean ham, one onion, one turnip, and some celery, two quarts of water; let them boil till the rabbit is tender.

Strain off the liquor; boil a pint of cream, and add it to the best part of the rabbit pounded; if not of the thickness you wish, add some flour and b.u.t.ter, and rub it through a sieve. It must not be boiled after the cream is added.

_Root Soup._

Potatoes, French turnips, English turnips, carrots, celery, of each six roots; pare and wash them; add three or four onions; set them on the fire with the bones of a rump of beef, or, if you have no such thing, about two pounds of beef, or any other beef bones. Chop them up, and put them on the fire with water enough to cover them; let them stew very gently till the roots are all tender enough to rub through a sieve. This done, cut a few roots of celery small, and put it to the strained soup.

Season it with pepper and salt, and stew it gently till the celery is tender; then serve it with toast or fried bread. A bundle of herbs may be boiled in it, just to flavour it, and then taken out.

_Scotch Leek Soup._

You make this soup to most advantage the day after a leg of mutton has been boiled, into the liquor from which put four large leeks, cut in pieces. Season with pepper and salt, and let it boil gently for a quarter of an hour. Mix half a pint of oatmeal with cold water till quite smooth; pour this into the soup; let it simmer gently half an hour longer; and serve it up.

_To brown or colour Soup._

To brown soup, take two lumps of loaf-sugar in an iron spoon; let it stand on the stove till it is quite black, and put it into soup.

_Seasoning for Soups and Brown Sauces._

Salt a bullock's liver, pressing it thoroughly with a great weight for four days. Take ginger and every sort of spice that is used to meat, and half a pound of brown sugar, a good quant.i.ty of saltpetre, and a pound of juniper-berries. Rub the whole in thoroughly, and let it lie six weeks in the liquor, boiling and skimming every three days, for an hour or two, till the liver becomes as hard as a board. Then steep it in the smoke liquor that is used for hams, and afterwards hang it up to smoke for a considerable time. When used, cut slices as thin as a wafer, and stew them down with the jelly of which you make your sauce or soup, and it will give a delightful flavour.

_Soup._ No. 1.

A quarter of a pound of portable soup, that is, one cake, in two quarts of boiling water; vegetables to be stewed separately, and added after the soup is dissolved.

_Soup._ No. 2.

Take a piece of beef about a stone weight, and a knuckle of veal, eight or ten onions, a bunch of thyme and parsley, an ounce of allspice, ten cloves, some whole pepper and salt; boil all these till the meat is all to pieces. Strain and take off the fat. Make about a quart of brown beef gravy with some of your broth; then take half a pound of b.u.t.ter and a good handful of flour mixed together, put it into a stewpan, set it over a slow fire, keeping it stirring till very brown; have ready what herbs you design for your soup, either endive or celery; chop them, but not too small; if you wish for a fine soup add a palate and sweetbreads, the palate boiled tender, and the sweetbreads fried, and both cut into small pieces. Put these, with herbs, into brown b.u.t.ter; put in as much of your broth as you intend for your soup, which must be according to the size of your dish. Give them a boil or two, then put in a quart of your gravy, and put all in a pot, with a fowl, or what you intend to put in your dish. Cover it close, and, let it boil an hour or more on a slow fire. Should it not be seasoned enough, add more salt, or what you think may be necessary: a fowl, or partridge, or squab pigeons, are best boiled in soup and to lie in the dish with it.

_Soup._ No. 3.

Cut three pounds of beef and one pound of veal in slices and beat it.

Put half a pound of b.u.t.ter and a piece of bacon in your pan, brown it, and sprinkle in half a spoonful of flour. Cut two onions in; add pepper and salt, a bit of mace, and some herbs, then put in your meat, and fry it till it is brown on both sides. Have in readiness four quarts of boiling water, and a saucepan that will hold both water and what is in your frying-pan. Cover it close; set it over a slow fire and stew it down, till it is wasted to about five pints; then strain it off, and add to it what soup-herbs you like, according to your palate. Celery and endive must be first stewed in b.u.t.ter; and peas and asparagus first boiled, and well drained from the b.u.t.ter, before you put it to the soup.

Stew it some time longer, and skim off all the fat; then take a French roll, which put in your soup-dish; pour in your soup, and serve it up.

Just before you take it off the fire, squeeze in the juice of a lemon.

If veal alone is used, and fowl or chicken boiled in it and taken out when enough done, and the liquor strained, and the fowl or chicken put to the clear liquor, with vermicelli, you will have a fine white soup; and the addition of the juice of a lemon is a great improvement.

The French cooks put in chervil and French turnips, lettuce, sorrel, parsley, beets, a little bit of carrot, a little of parsnips, this last must not boil too long--all to be strained off: to be sent up with celery, endive (or peas) or asparagus, and stuffed cuc.u.mbers.

_Soup without Meat._

Take two quarts of water, a little pepper, salt, and Jamaica pepper, a blade of mace, ten or twelve cloves, three or four onions, a crust of bread, and a bunch of sweet herbs; boil all these well. Take the white of two or three heads of endive, chopped, but not too small. Put three quarters of a pound of b.u.t.ter in a stewpan that will be large enough to hold all your liquor. Set it on a quick fire till it becomes very brown; then put a little of your liquor to prevent its turning, or oiling; shake in as much flour as will make it rather thick; then put in the endive and an onion shred small, stirring it well. Strain all your liquor, and put it to the b.u.t.ter and herbs; let it stew over a slow fire almost an hour. Dry a French roll, and let it remain in it till it is soaked through, and lay it in your dish with the soup. You may make this soup with asparagus, celery, or green peas, but they must be boiled before you put them to the burnt b.u.t.ter.

_Soup for the Poor._

Eight pails of water, two quarts of barley, four quarts of split peas, one bushel of potatoes, half a bushel of turnips, half a bushel of carrots, half a peck of onions, one ounce of pepper, two pounds of salt, an ox's head, parsley, herbs, boiled six hours, produce one hundred and thirty pints. Boil the meat and take off the first sc.u.m before the other ingredients are put in.

_Another._

To feed one hundred and thirty persons, take five quarts of Scotch barley, one quart of Scotch oatmeal, one bushel of potatoes, a bullock's head, onions, &c., one pound and half of salt.

_Soup and Bouilli_

may be made of ox-cheek, stewed gently for some hours, and well skimmed from the fat, and again when cold. Small suet dumplings are added when heated for table as soup.

_Soupe a la Reine, or Queen's Soup._

Soak a knuckle of veal and part of a neck of mutton in water; put them in a pot with liquor, carrots, turnips, thyme, parsley, and onions. Boil and sc.u.m it; then season with a head or two of celery; boil this down; take half a pound of blanched almonds, and beat them; take two fowls, half roasted, two sweetbreads set off; beat these in a mortar, put them in your stock, with the crumbs of two French rolls; then rub them through a tamis and serve up.

_Another._

For a small terrine take about three quarters of a pound of almonds; blanch, and pound them very fine. Cut up a fowl, leaving the breast whole, and stew in consomme. When the breast is tender, take it out, (leaving the other parts to stew with the consomme) pound it well with the almonds and three hard-boiled yolks of eggs, and take it out of the mortar. Strain the consomme, and put it, when the fat is skimmed off, to the almonds, &c. Have about a quarter of a pint of Scotch barley boiled very tender, add it to the other ingredients, put them into a pot with the consomme, and stir it over the fire till it is boiling hot and well mixed. Rub it through a tamis, and season it with a little salt; it must not boil after being rubbed through.

_Soupe Maigre._ No. 1.

Take the white part of eight loaved lettuces, cut them as small as dice, wash them and strain them through a sieve. Pick a handful of purslain and half a handful of parsley, wash and drain them. Cut up six large cuc.u.mbers in slices about the thickness of a crown-piece. Peel and mince four large onions, and have in readiness three pints of young green peas. Put half a pound of fresh b.u.t.ter into your stewpan; brown it of a high colour, something like that of beef gravy. Put in two ounces of lean bacon cut clean from the rind, add all your herbs, peas, and cuc.u.mbers, and thirty corns of whole pepper; let these stew together for ten minutes; keep stirring to prevent burning. Put one gallon of boiling water to a gallon of small broth, and a French roll cut into four pieces toasted of a fine yellow brown. Cover your stewpan, and let it again stew for two hours. Add half a drachm of beaten mace, one clove beaten, and half a grated nutmeg, and salt to your taste. Let it boil up, and squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Send it to table with all the bread and the herbs that were stewed in it.