The soup and sauce book

Common Stock

1 lb. shin of beef
1 quart cold water
Two or three vegetables

Cut the meat up into small pieces. Put it in a sauce-pan, and add the water. Allow it to stand for half-an-hour. Then put it on the fire. Let it come to the boil slowly. Simmer for two hours. Strain.

Brown Soup Stock

3 lbs. shin of beef
1 lb. bones
3 quarts cold water
2 carrots, 1 turnip
2 stalks of celery
3 onions
3 cloves
Bouquet of herbs

Cut the meat into small pieces. Break the bones. Put three ounces of butter in a sauce-pan. When melted, add to it one-third of the meat and the onions sliced. Stew gently until a rich brown. Put with the rest of the meat, bones, etc., in a sauce-pan. Cover with water. Bring to the boil. Simmer four hours. Strain.

Clear Brown Stock

2 lbs. shin of beef
1 lb. knuckle of veal
The carcase and bones of a fowl
3 pints of water
1 carrot
1 onion with a clove stuck in it
1 stick of celery
1 piece of parsley
A small bouquet of herbs

Put the bones at the bottom of a sauce-pan. Place the meat, which should be cut up in small pieces, upon them. Cover with cold water. Leave the sauce-pan uncovered. Bring to the boil very slowly. When it boils throw in a half cup of cold water. (This will cause the scum to rise.) Skim. Bring to the boil again. Throw in a little more cold water. Skim. Bring to the boil. Add the vegetables. Set back on the fire, and allow it to simmer gently for three or four hours.

Strain through a napkin into a bowl and allow it to cool.

If required the soup can be further clarified (p. 4).

Consommé

1 lb. shin of beef
1 lb. veal
The bones and carcases of fowls or game
2 quarts of stock
Vegetables
The white of an egg

Cut away all fat from the meat. Chop it up finely. Put the white of an egg in a basin. Add to it the chopped meat. Mix them well together with a silver spoon. Stir in a glass of cold water. Put the meat into a large sauce-pan. Add vegetables, the bones and carcases of birds. Cover with two quarts of good stock. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally to prevent the meat from sticking to the sauce-pan.

When it boils, set back to simmer gently for three hours. Dip a napkin in hot water, wring it out, and strain the stock through it into a basin.

Chicken Stock

1 old fowl
1 quart water
1 carrot
1 stick of celery
1 small onion

Put the fowl and vegetables into a stew-pan, adding the bones or carcase of another fowl if possible. Cover with cold water, or weak clear stock. Let it boil up slowly and simmer for three hours. Skim. Pass the stock through a napkin, and set aside to cool.

Veal Stock

1 lb. knuckle of veal
Chicken bones or carcases
1 quart of water
Vegetables
1 blade of mace
1 clove

Cut up the veal. Break the bones. Add vegetables and spice. Cover with the water. Bring slowly to the boil. Simmer for two or three hours. Strain.

Economical Stock for thick Soups, Purées, etc.

An excellent although not very clear stock can be made from odds and ends of cooked meat and bones. For this purpose there should be an enamelled pot with a lightly fitting lid, and it should practically be kept in use continually.

Spread the bottom of the pot with butter, or marrow. Pack in pieces of meat, bone, gristle, the carcases of birds, two or three vegetables cut up in small pieces, two cloves, and a bouquet of herbs.

Cover the meat, etc., with cold water. Put on the lid. Heat slowly, and when it boils set back to simmer for four or five hours.

In preparing meat for this stock, look it over carefully; reject any piece which is not perfectly good, also all stuffing, skin, smoked or burnt pieces. A little beef fat can always be retained, but mutton fat should not be used as it is rank in flavour. Scrape the meat off the bones, and break the bones in small pieces.

A slice or two of lean ham, the gravy saved from any kind of roast, a little fresh meat finely chopped will greatly improve this stock.

General Remarks on Soups

Utensils and Fire.—The remarks on pages 1 and 2 concerning the utensils and fire for making stock, apply also to the preparation of soups from stock.

To thicken soups with flour only.—Mix flour or cornflour with a little cold water, milk or stock until perfectly smooth. Add more water or milk. Strain. Pour slowly into the soup, which should be nearly boiling. Let it come to a boil. Continue boiling for ten minutes (stirring all the time), or it will taste of flour. About one table-spoon of flour should be used to thicken each quart of stock.

To thicken soups with butter and flour (roux).—Melt some butter. Skim it till quite clear. Pour it into an earthenware sauce-pan, and add to it its weight in flour. Work with a wooden spoon until perfectly smooth. Stir over a fire for a few minutes. Then put it in a moderate oven. Stir occasionally, and be very particular that it does not colour or burn. It should be left in the oven from thirty to forty-five minutes. This thickening, which is called white roux, is used for white soups. Brown roux for brown soups is made in the same way, but is left in the oven until slightly coloured. It will keep for some time.

When adding roux to soups it is best first to melt it in a small sauce-pan, to thin it with a little hot stock, and then to add it gradually to the soups.

If the roux has not been prepared beforehand, the quantity required can be made in a short time by cooking the flour and butter together in a sauce-pan for five minutes for white roux or longer for brown roux. It should be stirred all the time.

A heaping table-spoon (or more) of roux should be added to every quart of soup to be thickened.

Cornflour and roux.—The advantage of roux over cornflour is that the flour used in preparing the roux having been already cooked, it is not necessary to continue boiling the soups to which it is added, whereas cornflour being raw, the soups thickened by it must be boiled for some little time.

To colour soups.—The colour of soups can be deepened by using caramel colouring, or glaze (see next page) (which will also add to their flavour).

Caramel colouring.—Put half a pound of brown or white sugar in an iron sauce-pan, with a table-spoonful of water. Stir over a very gentle fire until it turns a deep, rich brown colour. Add half a pint of boiling water. Let it simmer very gently for twenty minutes. Allow it to get cold. Put it into bottles and cork. This makes an excellent and tasteless colouring, but it must be carefully made. The rich brown colour comes from slow and gentle cooking. If it is burnt and black it is useless.

Add to the soup a few minutes only before serving.

Glaze.—Glaze is made by boiling down good stock until it is of a very thick and gluey consistency. Put a quart of rich stock into a sauce-pan over a good fire. Leave it uncovered, and boil it until it is reduced to half a pint. Let it cool. Put it in a jar or bottle. Cover closely, and keep in a cool place. This will keep for two or three weeks.

Adding vegetables and meat to soups.—Whenever vegetables or meats have to be passed through a sieve or tammy, it will be found easier to do so if the pulp is kept continually well moistened with stock or milk (according to the soup which is being made).

Wine and catsup.—Wine and catsup should always be added as late as possible, as they lose in flavour by being boiled.