The soup and sauce book

Artichoke Soup

4 artichokes
2 ozs. butter
1 quart white stock
1 cup cream or milk
1 tea-spoon sugar

Wash and peel the artichokes. Cut them in slices. Put the butter in a sauce-pan. Melt it. Add the artichokes. Allow them to simmer until tender, but be careful not to let them brown. Add the boiling stock and a tea-spoon of sugar. Simmer for half-an-hour. Rub through a tammy. Heat again. Season. At the last minute add a cup of boiling cream or milk.

Asparagus Soup

1 lb. veal
1 quart water
1 large bundle of asparagus
1 table-spoon flour
1 gill of cream

Cut off the stalks of the asparagus. Put them in a stew-pan with the veal (which should be cut up) and water. Bring to the boil. Skim. Simmer for three hours. Strain off the broth. Add the asparagus heads. Season. Boil for twenty minutes. Thicken with a table-spoon of cornflour rubbed smooth in a gill of cream. Boil for ten minutes. Serve with croûtons (see p. 103).

Cauliflower Soup

1 quart white stock
1 table-spoon chopped onion
1 pint milk or cream
1 boiled cauliflower

Boil the milk or cream with the onion. Heat the stock. Rub half of the cauliflower through a sieve. Add it to the stock. Add the boiling milk (which has been strained off the onions). Season. Add table-spoonful butter in small pieces, and the rest of the cauliflower cut in small branches.

If wished the soup can be slightly thickened with a table-spoon of white roux. (See p. 12).

Celery Soup

1 quart white stock
4 heads of celery
2 table-spoons white roux
1 gill cream

Put three heads of celery into the stock, and boil until very tender. Strain off the soup, and return to the sauce-pan. Add the fourth head of celery finely cut. Simmer till tender. Thicken with the white roux. Scald a gill of cream and add to the soup. Season and serve.

Chestnut Soup

2 lbs. chestnuts
1 pint consommé
1 pint cream

Boil the chestnuts until tender. Remove shells and peel them whole. Save ten whole, rub all the rest through a fine sieve.

Heat the consommé. Scald the cream. Mix together. Season with salt and pepper. Add the chestnuts. Stir until well mixed, but do not allow the soup to boil. Just before serving cut up the ten chestnuts into small pieces and add to the soup.

Green Pea Soup

1 quart water
1 lb. shin of beef
1 quart young green peas
1 table-spoon flour
1 sprig of mint

Wash and boil the empty pea-pods, with a piece of mint, in a quart of salted water for an hour. Skim. Strain off the pods. Add them to the meat (cut in small pieces) in a sauce-pan. Simmer gently for an hour-and-a-half. Strain off the stock. Season. Add the shelled peas to it. Boil gently for twenty minutes. Add the flour mixed smooth with a little of the stock, and the parsley. Boil for ten minutes.

Mushroom Soup

1 lb. fresh small mushrooms
1 pint rich milk or cream
1 pint consommé
1 table-spoon flour
1 table-spoon butter

Set aside twelve mushrooms. Cut them in half. Cook separately. Chop the rest into small pieces and fry in the butter, adding a table-spoonful of flour and mixing until perfectly smooth. Put in a stew-pan and add the scalded milk or cream, and the boiling consommé. Simmer for quarter of an hour. Season. Rub through a sieve. Strain through muslin. Heat again very gently. Add the cooked mushrooms, and do not allow it to boil.

Polish Soup

1 beet-root
2 onions
1 quart brown stock
1 glass red wine
1 cup thick cream

Cut up the beet-root and onions in small pieces. Put them in a sauce-pan, and pour over them the stock, which should be very rich and of a good dark colour. Bring to a boil and simmer for an hour-and-a-half. Put through a tammy. Put back on the fire, add the wine. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne. Heat well, but do not allow it to boil. Just before serving add the cream, which should be scalded. Or the cream may be served separately, in which case it should be cold.

Tomato Soup

1 quart of stock
1 tea-spoonful sugar
¹⁄₂ a tin of tomatoes
1 onion
1 tea-spoonful butter

Slice the onion. Fry it in the butter. Add it to the tomatoes. Heat them in a sauce-pan, and allow them to simmer for fifteen minutes. Rub through a sieve. Put to the stock. Season and add a lump of sugar. Heat. Serve with croûtons.

Vegetable Soups made without Stock

Artichoke Soup

4 artichokes
1 pint water
1 pint milk
1 onion

Boil the artichokes in a pint of water. Mash them. Press them through a sieve, and mix them again with the water in which they were boiled.

Boil an onion in the milk. Remove the onion. Add the milk to the artichokes. Bring to the boil. Season. Serve with croûtons (see p. 103).

Carrot Soup

3 large carrots
1 onion
1 quart cold water
2 ozs. of butter
¹⁄₂ a pint milk or cream
1 table-spoon flour
1 tea-spoon powdered sugar

Scrape the carrots and slice them finely, rejecting the hard yellow inside. Put them in a sauce-pan with a quart of cold water. Simmer gently for three quarters of an hour. Slice the onion, and fry it a light brown in the butter. Add it to the carrots, and put all through a fine sieve. Put the purée into a sauce-pan with the water in which the carrots were cooked. Thicken with the flour. Stir continually. Allow it to boil for five minutes. Season. Add a tea-spoonful powdered sugar. Just before serving add half a pint of scalded milk or cream.

Celery Cream

1 head celery
1 pint water
1 pint milk or cream
1 table-spoon chopped onion
2 table-spoons white roux

Wash the celery. Cut it into small pieces. Throw it into one pint boiling salted water. Boil till very tender. Put through a sieve, and return to the water in which it was cooked. Boil the milk with the onion. Strain. Add the milk to the celery. Bring to the boil again. Stir in the white roux (p. 12). Season. Boil five minutes. Strain into soup tureen.

Mock Bisque

¹⁄₂ tin of tomatoes
1 quart milk
2 ozs. butter
1 table-spoon white roux
¹⁄₂ salt-spoon carbonate of soda

Stew the tomatoes until very soft. Add the carbonate of soda and sugar. Put through a fine sieve. Set in a small sauce-pan on the fire to keep hot. Heat the milk, thicken it with white roux (flour and butter, see p. 12). Let it boil a few minutes, stirring continually. Season. Add the tomatoes and serve immediately. (The tomatoes should not be added until actually ready to serve.)

Portuguese Soup

3 tomatoes
1 Spanish onion
A small bunch of herbs
2 large slices of stale bread
1 oz. grated cheese (parmesan)
1 quart hot water
1 oz. butter

Cut up the tomatoes and onions. Fry a light brown in butter. Put them in a stew-pan and cover with a quart of hot water. Let it boil, and then stand aside to simmer for half-an-hour. Strain off the liquid. Rub the vegetables through a coarse sieve. Return to the fire, season, and make very hot. Break up the bread and put it in the bottom of a hot soup tureen. Sprinkle a little of the grated cheese upon it. Pour the soup over it. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on the soup.

Potato Cream

1 pint milk
1 gill cream
2 potatoes
1 onion
1 tea-cup cooked French beans
1 dessert-spoonful chopped cooked carrot
1 tea-spoon Liebig’s extract
1 small table-spoon white roux

Boil the potatoes and onion. Put them through a sieve. Add them to the milk, which should be boiling. Add the white roux (see p. 12), the Liebig (diluted with a little water) and seasoning. Stir for a minute or two. Cut the French beans into small pieces. Add them and the very finely chopped carrot to the soup. Stir in the scalded cream.

Potato Soup

3 potatoes
1 quart milk
1 table-spoon chopped onion
A little celery or ¹⁄₂ a tea-spoon celery salt
1 table-spoon white roux
1 table-spoon chopped parsley

Peel the potatoes. Soak them in cold water for half-an-hour. Cook them in boiling water until soft. Drain off the water. Put the potatoes through a sieve. Boil the milk with the onion and celery (or celery salt). Strain. Add to the potatoes. Stir in the white roux (see p. 12). Season. Boil for five minutes. Add the parsley.

Sorrel Soup

1 handful of sorrel
1 pint of water
1 tea-cup cream or milk
Bread

Wash and prepare a handful of sorrel. Put it in a sauce-pan with the butter and a pint of water. Season. Boil gently for a quarter of an hour. Add a little cream or milk. Put several very thin slices of bread in the soup tureen, and pour the soup over them.

Rice or tapioca can be added to the soup.

Summer Soup

1 cucumber
2 cabbage lettuces
1 onion
Small handful of spinach
A piece of mint
A pint of shelled peas
2 ozs. butter
A slice of ham

Wash the lettuces and cut them up. Cut up the cucumber and onion. Put them with half a pint of peas, the mint, ham and butter into a stew-pan. Cover with a little more than a quart of cold water. Bring to a boil, and then simmer gently for three hours. Strain off the liquid. Pass the vegetables through a sieve. Add to the liquid. Set on the fire again. Season. Add half a pint of green peas which have already been boiled.

Tomato Soup

1 tin of tomatoes
1 pint boiling water
1 table-spoon sugar
4 cloves
2 pepper-corns
1 table-spoon butter
1      ”      flour
1      ”      chopped onion
1      ”        ”    parsley

Put the tomatoes, water, sugar, cloves and pepper-corns in a porcelain-lined sauce-pot. Simmer for half-an-hour. Fry the onions and parsley in the butter, being careful not to burn. Add the flour to them, mix smooth. Add them to the tomatoes. Simmer for ten minutes. Strain through a fine sieve. Season. Serve with rice (see p. 106) or croûtons (see p. 103).