Читать книгу Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book - Leslie Eliza - Страница 15

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It is impossible to have good soup, without a sufficiency of good meat; thoroughly boiled, carefully skimmed, and moderately seasoned. Meat that is too bad for any thing else, is too bad for soup. Cold meat recooked, adds little to its taste or nourishment, and it is in vain to attempt to give poor soup a factitious flavor by the disguise of strong spices, or other substances which are disagreeable or unpalatable to at least one half the eaters, and frequently unwholesome. Rice and barley add to the insipidity of weak soups, having no taste of their own. And even if the meat is good, too large a proportion of water, and too small a quantity of animal substance will render it flat and vapid.

Every family has, or ought to have, some personal knowledge of certain poor people—people to whom their broken victuals would be acceptable. Let then the most of their cold, fresh meat be set apart for those who can ill afford to buy meat in market. To them it will be an important acquisition; while those who indulge in fine clothes, fine furniture, &c., had best be consistent, and allow themselves the nourishment and enjoyment of freshly cooked food for each meal. Therefore where there is no absolute necessity of doing otherwise, let the soup always be made of meat bought expressly for the purpose, and of one sort only, except when the flavor is to be improved by the introduction of ham.

In plain cooking, every dish should have a distinct taste of its natural flavor predominating. Let the soup, for instance, be of beef, mutton, or veal, but not of all three; and a chicken, being overpowered by the meat, adds nothing to the general flavor.

Soup-meat that has been boiled long enough to extract the juices thoroughly, becomes too tasteless to furnish, afterwards, a good dish for the table; with the exception of mutton, which may be eaten very well after it has done duty in the soup-pot, when it is much liked by many persons of simple tastes. Few who are accustomed to living at hotels, can relish hotel soups, which (even in houses where most other things are unexceptionable), is seldom such as can be approved by persons who are familiar with good tables. Hotel soups and hotel hashes, (particularly those that are dignified with French names), are notoriously made of cold scraps, leavings, and in some houses, are the absolute refuse of the kitchen. In most cases, the sight of a hotel stock-pot would cause those who saw it, to forswear soup, &c.

If the directions are exactly followed, the soups contained in the following pages will be found palatable, nutritious, and easily made; but they require plenty of good ingredients.

We have heard French cooks boast of their soup being "delicate." The English would call it "soup meagre." In such a country as America, where good things are abundant, there is no necessity of imbibing the flatulency of weak washy soups.

All soups should be boiled slowly at first, that the essence of the meat may be thoroughly drawn forth. The lid of the pot should be kept close, unless when it is necessary to remove it for taking off the scum, which should be done frequently and carefully. If this is neglected, the scum will boil back again into the soup, spoil it, and make it impure or muddled. When no more scum arises, and the meat is all in rags, dropping from the bones, it is time to put in the vegetables, seasoning, &c., and not till then; and if it should have boiled away too much, then is the time to add a little hot water from another kettle. Add also a large crust of bread or two. It may now be made to boil faster, and the thickening must be put in. This is a table-spoonful or more of flour mixed to a smooth paste with a little water, and enriched with a tea-spoonful of good butter, or beef-dripping. This thickening is indispensable to all soups. Let it be stirred in well. If making a rich soup that requires wine or catchup, let it be added the last thing, just before the soup is taken from the fire.

When all is quite done and thoroughly boiled, cover the bottom of a tureen with small squares of bread or toast, and dip or pour the soup into it, leaving all the bones and shreds of meat in the pot. To let any of the sediment get into the tureen is slovenly and vulgar. Not a particle of this should ever be found in a soup-plate. There are cooks who, if not prevented, will put all the refuse into the tureen; so that, when helped, the plates are half full of shreds of meat and scraps of bone, while all the best of the soup is kept back for the kitchen. This should be looked to. Servants who cannot reconcile it to their conscience to steal money or any very valuable articles, have frequently no hesitation in purloining or keeping to themselves whatever they like in the way of food.

Soup may be colored yellow with grated carrots, red with tomato juice, and green with the juice of pounded spinach—the coloring to be stirred in after the skimming is over. These colorings are improvements both to its look and flavor. It may be browned with scorched flour, kept ready always for the purpose. Never put cloves or allspice into soup—they give it a blackish ashy dirt color, and their taste is so strong as to overpower every thing else. Both these coarse spices are out of use at good tables, and none are introduced in nice cookery but mace, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon.

The meat boiled in soup gives out more of its essence, when cut off the bone, and divided into small pieces, always removing the fat. The bones, however, should go in, as they contain much glutinous substance, adding to the strength and thickness of the soup, which cannot be palatable or wholesome unless all the grease is carefully skimmed off. Kitchen grease is used chiefly for soap-fat.

In cold weather, good soup, if carefully covered and kept in a cool place, and boiled over again for half an hour without any additional water, will be better on the second day than on the first.

It is an excellent way in winter to boil the meat and bones on the first day, without any vegetables. Then, when very thick and rich, strain the liquid into a large pan; cover it, and set it away till next morning—it should then be found a thick jelly. Cut it in pieces, having scraped off the sediment from the bottom—then add the vegetables, and boil them in the soup.