SOUPS.
Giblet Soup.
Scald and clean three or four sets of goose or duck giblets; then set them on to stew with a scrag of mutton, or a pound of gravy beef, or bone of knuckle of veal, an oxtail, or some shankbones of mutton; three onions, a blade of mace, ten peppercorns, two cloves, a bunch of sweet herbs, and two quarts of water. Simmer till the gizzards are quite tender, which must be cut in three or four parts; then put in a little cream, a spoonful of flour rubbed smooth with it, and a spoonful of mushroom catsup; or two glasses of sherry or Madeira wine instead of cream, and some Cayenne.
Turnip Soup.
Stew down a knuckle of veal: strain, and let the broth stand still next day; take off the fat and sediment, and warm it, adding turnips cut in small dice: stew till they are tender: put a bit of pounded mace, white pepper, and salt. Before you serve, rub down half a spoonful of flour, with half a pint of cream, and boil with the soup: pour it on a roll in the tureen; but it should have soaked a little first in the soup, which should be as thick as middling cream.
Old Peas Soup.
Save the water of boiled pork or beef: if too salt, use only a part, and the other of plain water: or put some roast beef bones, or a ham or bacon bone to give a relish; or an anchovy or two. Set these on with some good whole or split peas, the smaller quantity of water at first the better: simmer till the peas will pulp through a colander; then set that, and some more of the liquor, besides what boiled the peas, some carrots, turnips, celery, and onion, or a leak or two, to stew till all be tender. Celery will take less time, and may be put in an hour before dinner. When ready, put fried bread in dice, dried mint rubbed small, pepper, and, if wanted, salt, in the tureen, and pour the soup upon them.
Green Peas Soup.
In shelling, divide the old from the young, and put the former, with a bit of butter, and a little water into a stewpan, and the old parts of lettuce, an onion or two, a little pepper and salt. Simmer till the peas will pulp through a colander; which when done, add to it some more water, and that which boiled the peas, the best parts of the lettuce, and the young peas, a handful of spinach cut small, pepper, and salt to taste. Stew till the vegetables are quite tender; and a few minutes before serving, throw in some green mint, cut fine.
Should the soup be too thin, a spoonful of rice flour, rubbed down with a bit of butter, and boiled with it, will give it consistence.
Note. If soup or gravy be too weak, the cover of the saucepan should be taken off, and the steam let out, boiling it very quick.
When there is plenty of vegetables, green peas soup needs no meat: but if approved, a pig’s foot, or a small bit of any sort, may be boiled with the old peas, and removed into the second process till the juices shall be obtained. Observe, three or four ounces of butter, will supply richness to a soup without meat, or make it higher with it.
Gravy Soup.
Wash a leg of beef, break the bone, and set it over the fire with five quarts of water, a large bunch of herbs, two onions, sliced and fried, but not burnt, a blade or two of mace, three cloves, twenty Jamaica peppers, and forty black. Simmer till the soup be as rich as you choose; then strain off the meat, which will be fit for the servants’ table. Next day take off the cake of fat, and that will warm with vegetables; or make a piecrust for the same. Have ready such vegetables as you choose to serve, cut in dice, carrot, and turnip, sliced, and simmer till tender. Celery should be stewed in it likewise; and before you serve, boil some vermicelli long enough to be tender, which it will be in fifteen minutes. Add a spoonful of soy, and one of mushroom catsup. Some people do not serve the vegetables, only boil for the flavour. A small roll should be made hot, and kept long enough in the saucepan to swell, and then be sent up in the tureen.
A rich White Soup.
Boil in a small quantity of water a knuckle of Veal, and scrag of mutton, mace, white pepper, two or three onions, and sweet herbs, the day before you want the soup. Next day take off the fat, and put the jelly into a saucepan, with a quarter of a pound of sweet almonds blanched, and beaten to a paste in a mortar with a little water to prevent oiling, and put to it apiece of stale white bread, or crumb of a roll; a bit of cold veal, or white of chicken. Beat these all to a paste with the almond paste, and boil it a few minutes with a pint of raw thick cream, a bit of fresh lemonpeel, and half a blade of mace pounded; then add this thickening to the soup. Let it boil up and strain it into the tureen: if not salt enough, then put it in. If macaroni or vermicelli be served, they should be boiled in the soup, and the thickening be strained after being mixed with a part. A small rasped roll may be put in.
Instead of the cream thickening, as above, ground rice, and a little cream may be used.
A plainer White Soup.
Of a small knuckle of veal, two or three pints of soup may be made, with seasoning as before, and both served together, with the addition of a quarter of a pint of good milk.
An excellent Soup.
A scrag or knuckle of veal, slices of undressed gammon, onions, mace, and a small quantity of water, simmered till very strong, and lower it with a good beef broth made the day before, and stewed until the meat is done to rags. Add cream, vermicelli, almonds as before, and a roll.
Carrot Soup.
Put some beef bones, with four quarts of the liquor in which a leg of mutton or beef has been boiled, two large onions, one turnip, pepper and salt, into a saucepan, and stew for three hours. Have ready six large carrots, cut thin after they are scraped; strain the soup on them, and stew till soft enough to pulp through a hair sieve or coarse cloth: then boil the pulp with the soup; which is to be as thick as pea ssoup. Use two wooden spoons to rub the carrots through. Make the soup the day before it is to be used. Add Cayenne.
Onion Soup.
To the water that has boiled a leg or neck of mutton, put carrots, turnips, and, if you have one, a shankbone, and simmer till the juices are obtained. Strain it on six onions previously sliced, and fried a light brown; with which simmer it three hours. Skim it carefully, and serve it. Put into it a little roll or fried bread.
Vegetable Soup.
Pare and slice five or six cucumbers, the inside of as many cos lettuces, a sprig or two of mint, two or three onions, some pepper and salt, a pint and half of young peas, and a little parsley. Put these, with half a pound of fresh butter, into a saucepan to stew in their own liquor near a gentle fire half an hour; then pour two quarts of boiling water to the vegetables, and stew them two hours: rub down a little flour into a teacup of water; boil it with the rest fifteen or twenty minutes, and serve it.
Another Vegetable Soup.
Peel and slice six large onions, six potatoes, six carrots, and four turnips: fry them in half a pound of butter: pour on them four quarts of boiling water, and toast a crust of bread as brown and hard as possible, but do not burn it: put that, some celery, sweet herbs, white pepper and salt, to the above: stew gently four hours, strain through a coarse cloth: have ready sliced carrot, celery, and a little turnip, and add to your liking; and stew them tender in the soup. If approved, you may add an anchovy, and a spoonful of catsup.
Spinach Soup.
Shred two handfuls of spinach, a turnip, two onions, a head of celery, two carrots, and a little thyme and parsley. Put all into a stewpot, with, a bit of butter the size of a walnut, and a pint of broth, or the water in which meat has been boiled; stew till the vegetables are quite tender: work them through a coarse cloth or sieve with a spoon; then with the pulp of the vegetables, and liquor, a quart of fresh water, pepper and salt, boil all together. Have ready some suet dumplings, the size of a walnut, and before you put the soup into the tureen, put them into it. The suet must not be shred too fine; and take care that it is perfectly fresh.
Scotch Leek Soup.
Put the boiling of a leg of mutton into a stew pot, with a quantity of chopped leeks, and pepper and salt; simmer them an hour, then mix some oatmeal with a little cold water quite smooth, pour it into the soup, and setting it on a slow part of the fire, let it simmer gently; but take care that it does not burn to the bottom.
Hare Soup.
Take an old hare that is good for nothing else than soup, cut in pieces, and put it with a pound and a half of lean beef, two or three shankbones of mutton well cleaned, a slice of lean bacon or ham; an onion, and a bunch of sweet herbs: pour on it two quarts of boiling water: cover the jar, in which you put these, with bladder and paper, and set it in a kettle of water: simmer till the hare is stewed to pieces: strain off the liquor, and give it one boil, with an anchovy cut in pieces, and add a spoonful of soy, and a little Cayenne and salt. A few fine forcemeat balls, fried of a good brown, should be served in the tureen.
Scotch Mutton Broth.
Soak a neck of mutton in water for an hour: cut off the scrag, and put into a stewpot with two quarts of water: as soon as it boils, skim it well and simmer it an hour and a half; then take the best end of the mutton, cut it into pieces, two bones in each, and put as many as you think proper, having cut off some of the fat. Skim it the moment the fresh meat boils up, and every quarter of an hour. Have ready four or five carrots, the same of turnips, and three onions, all cut, but not small, and put in time enough to be quite tender; two large spoonfuls of Scotch barley, first wetted with cold water. The meat should stew three hours. Salt to taste, and serve all together. Twenty minutes before serving, put in some chopped parsley.
It is an excellent winter dish.
Soups under the articles of their respective Meats.
Oxcheek Soup. Hessian Soup. Mock turtle, page 49 to 52.
Ox rump Soup.
Two or three rumps of beef, will make it stronger than a much larger proportion of meat without; and form a very nourishing soup.
Make it like gravy soup, and give it what flavour or thickening you like.
Soup A-la-sap.
Boil half a pound of grated potatoes, one pound of beef sliced thin, one pint of grey peas, one onion, and three ounces of rice, in six pints of water to five; strain it through a colander, then pulp the peas to it, and turn it into a saucepan again, with two heads of celery sliced: stew it tender, adding pepper and salt; and when you serve, fried bread.
Crawfish or Prawn Soup.
Boil six whitings, and a large eel; or the latter, and half a thornback, being well cleaned, with as much water as will cover them. Skim clean, and put in whole pepper, mace, ginger, parsley, an onion, a little thyme, and three cloves. Boil to a mash. Pick fifty crawfish, or a hundred prawns, pound the shells, and a little roll, after having boiled them with a little water, vinegar, salt and herbs. Pour this liquor over the shells in a sieve, then pour the other soup, clear from the sediment; chop a lobster, and add to it, with a quart of good beef gravy. Add the tails of the crawfish or the prawns, and some flour and butter; and season as necessary.
Portable Soup. A very useful thing.
Boil one or two knuckles of veal, one or two shins of beef, and a pound or more of fine juicy beef, in as much water only as will cover them. When the bones are cracked, out of which take the marrow, put any sort of spice you like, and three large onions. When the meat is done to rags, strain it off, and put in a very cold place. When cold, take off the cake of fat (which will make crust for servants’ pies), put the soup into a double bottom tin saucepan, set it on a pretty quick fire, but do not let it burn. It must boil fast, and uncovered, and be stirred constantly for eight hours; Put into a pan, and let it stand in a cold place a day; then pour it into a round soup China dish, and set the dish into a stewpan of boiling water on a stove, and let it boil, and be occasionally stirred, till the soup become thick and ropy; then it is enough. Pour it into the little round part at the bottom of cups or basons to form cakes; and when cold, turn them out on flannel to dry, and wrap them in it. Keep them in tin canisters. When to be used, melt in boiling water: and if you wish the flavour of herbs or any thing else, boil it first, and having strained the water, melt the soup in it.
This is very convenient for a bason of soup or gravy in the country, or at sea, where fresh meat is not always at hand.