Part 24

Break the carcass of a roast turkey served for yesterday’s dinner into pieces, removing all the stuffing; cover with two quarts of cold water and boil three hours, covered. Set aside until cold; skim and take out all the bones; chop the meat; add to the soup and meat the stuffing rubbed through a colander, a sliced onion and a stalk of celery, cut very small. Simmer for an hour; put a cupful of milk over the fire, not forgetting a pinch of soda; when hot, stir in a tablespoonful of butter rubbed into one of flour; mix with the soup, and boil one minute.

A white fowl soup

Cut an elderly chicken up as for fricassee, severing every joint. Put into the soup-kettle, allowing a quart of water for every pound. Add a sliced onion and three celery stalks. Set at the side of the range; bring slowly to the boil. Cook until the meat slips from the bones, if it takes all day. Set away with the meat in it until cold. Take off the fat. Warm sufficiently to allow you to strain it; take out the bones; cut the white meat into cubes, and keep hot over boiling water. Bring the soup to a boil, season with salt and white pepper, and throw into it, while boiling hard, half a cupful of rice. Cook fast for twenty-five minutes, or until the rice is very tender. Have ready in a saucepan a cupful of hot milk into which you have put a bit of soda; stir in a white roux made by cooking a tablespoonful of butter with one of flour, and add to the soup with a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Now, put in the meat cubes, boil one minute and serve.

A brown fowl soup

Prepare and cook chicken as just directed, and, when you have skimmed the soup and taken out the bones, cut all the meat into neat cubes; dry it between two cloths; pepper and salt, then dredge well with flour. Put into a frying-pan four tablespoonfuls of the fat you have taken from the soup and when it bubbles, add the pieces of chicken and toss them about until well browned. Remove the chicken and keep it hot. Into the fat left in the pan put one level tablespoonful of flour and stir until well mixed and slightly browned. Add by degrees sufficient soup to moisten to a smooth gravy, then strain it into the soup. Season to taste, put in the chicken dice, simmer five minutes, and serve. You may improve the color by adding a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet.

Beef juice for invalids

Chop two pounds of lean beef small. Put a layer of this meat in the bottom of a glass jar and sprinkle over it a _little_ salt. Then add another layer and a little more salt, and so on until the meat has been used. Set in a kettle. The water in the kettle should be cold and be heated gradually to the boiling point, after which it should be left to simmer for three or four hours, or until the meat looks like bits of white rags with the juice completely drawn out. Let all get cold together, then skim, and strain out the meat, pressing it hard.

Beef tea

Chop three pounds of lean beef fine and leave in a quart of cold water for two hours. Set water and beef over a slow fire in a covered saucepan and simmer four hours. Set away all night with the meat in it. In the morning remove every bit of grease, and strain through coarse muslin, pressing hard. Season with pepper and salt.

BISQUES

The name is applied to a class of soups thickened into closer consistency than broth by the addition of minced meat and crumbs. When well made, they are popular at family dinners, and some kinds—such as oyster and lobster bisque—are admirable at dinner parties.

Care must be observed to keep the ingredients well together, and to season judiciously. Insipid panada is not a bisque. Still less is a “mess” compounded, not wisely, but so well as to remind one of a poultice.

Oyster bisque

Drain the liquor from a quart of oysters and make of it a quart of liquid by adding cold water. Into this stir the oysters, chopped fine, and put all into a porcelain-lined saucepan over the fire. Cook very gently for twenty minutes. Have heated a quart of milk, in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved, and half a cupful of cracker-crumbs, soaked. Cook together in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour. When they are perfectly blended pour upon them the quart of thickened boiling milk and stir until as smooth and thick as cream. Turn into this the oyster soup and season to taste with salt and pepper. Slowly pour a cupful of the soup upon the beaten yolks of two eggs, stirring constantly. When mixed, return the soup with the blended yolks to the saucepan, stir and pour at once into a heated tureen.

Lobster bisque

Two cupfuls of lobster meat, minced fine; one quart of boiling water and the same of milk; half a cupful of butter and a cupful of fine cracker-crumbs; paprika or cayenne and salt to taste; a teaspoonful of flour.

Rub the coral and a quarter of the meat to a paste; leave this in enough boiling water to cover it for half an hour. Then put the reserved chopped lobster into a saucepan, with the cracker-crumbs and half the butter; stir in the hot water and coral, etc., with the rest of the quart of boiling water. Cook gently half an hour in a double boiler after the water in the outer vessel begins to boil hard. Stir often. In another saucepan heat the milk (with a bit of soda) and the rest of the butter worked up with the flour. Boil one minute. Turn the lobster into the tureen; stir in the hot milk and serve at once.

Crab bisque

Is made in the same way.

Clam bisque

Thirty clams; one cupful of milk and half as much cream, or two cupfuls of milk; two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour; three eggs; a tablespoonful of onion juice; one cupful of boiling water; a pinch of soda in the milk; one cupful of cracker-crumbs.

Chop the clams and put over the fire in the boiling water. Simmer half an hour. Heat milk and cream in another saucepan with the soda and crumbs. Stir in the roux, boil one minute and pour gradually, beating all the time, upon the yolks, previously whipped smooth. Heat in a double boiler for two minutes, or until the water in the outer vessel boils hard, and turn into the tureen. Season the boiling mince of clams with salt, cayenne and minced parsley, add to the milk in tureen and cover the surface with the whites of the eggs beaten to a standing froth.

In serving, dip the ladle deep into the bisque, but see that each plate is mantled by the meringue.

Chicken bisque

Joint the fowl and cover with cold water, a quart for each pound. Put in a large minced onion and three stalks of celery, minced fine. Cover and cook slowly until you can slip the flesh from the bones. Let all get cold together; skim, take out bones and meat, and chop the latter fine. Return the soup to the fire and heat in another vessel a cupful of milk (dropping in a bit of soda). Thicken this with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed into a teaspoonful of flour, and add a tablespoonful of minced parsley. When the soup has reached a fast boil, stir into it the chopped chicken with a cupful of cracker-crumbs soaked in warm milk; boil one minute, beat in the milk and butter and pour out.

Corn bisque

Drain the liquor from a can of corn. Chop the corn very fine, put it over the fire in a quart of salted water and simmer gently for an hour. Rub through a colander, return to the fire with the water, add a teaspoonful of sugar, and when this melts, two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed into two of butter. Stir until smooth and pour slowly upon a pint of heated milk. Season with salt and pour the soup gradually upon two beaten eggs. Send immediately to the table.

Cheese bisque

Into a pint of milk put a pinch of soda, and bring to the scalding point. To this add a cupful of stock (chicken or mutton or lamb) in which an onion has been boiled, and a cupful of water in which rice has been cooked until you can run it through a strainer. Cook together in a good-sized saucepan two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour. When they are thoroughly blended and bubble pour on them the white soup and stir until it thickens to the consistency of cream. Now beat in a half cupful of grated cheese. Have ready in a bowl two well-whipped eggs, and on these pour, a little at a time, a cupful of hot soup, beating steadily to prevent curdling. Return the cupful of soup with the eggs to the soup on the fire, beat for half a minute, season with salt and pepper, and serve. Odd, but very good when properly made.

Salmon bisque

Open a can of salmon and turn out the contents several hours before making the soup. With a silver fork pick the fish to pieces and take out all bits of bone and skin. Put the fish into an agate saucepan, put on it enough boiling water to cover it, and let it simmer gently for half an hour. Drain off the water and break the fish to a soft mass.

Dissolve a pinch of soda in a pint of milk and heat in a double boiler with a half cupful of cracker-crumbs. Stir into it a pint of well-seasoned veal stock, and thicken with two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed into two of butter. When thick and smooth, stir in the minced fish, season with salt and paprika, and serve. This is very good when made of boiled fresh salmon.

Bisque of halibut or cod

Boil a pound of firm fresh fish in two waters, and mince it fine, freeing it from all bits of skin or bone. Have ready a quart of white stock, stir the fish into it and season with salt, pepper and a spoonful of minced parsley. Cook together two tablespoonfuls of butter and one of flour, pour upon this a cupful of milk, stir until it thickens, and put with the fish and stock. Boil up once and put into the tureen. A half cupful of powdered cracker-crumbs should be added just before the soup is mixed with the milk.

Tomato bisque (No. 1)

Two cupfuls of fresh tomatoes, chopped fine; one pint of strong stock or skimmed gravy; one cupful of fine crumbs soaked for half an hour in hot milk; one teaspoonful of white sugar; one tablespoonful of onion juice; pepper and salt to taste; one tablespoonful of butter cooked to a roux with one of flour; chopped parsley; cook together five minutes, run through a vegetable press, stir in the stock and seasoning, and return to the fire. Simmer twenty minutes and add the soaked crumbs and parsley; cook together five minutes, stir in as much baking-soda as will lie upon a dime and send in at once.

You may use canned tomatoes for this recipe if you have not fresh.

Tomato bisque (No. 2)

Stir one quart can of tomatoes with a half-teaspoonful of soda for half an hour. Boil half a gallon of fresh milk; add to it a quarter of a pound of butter, pepper and salt. Mash the tomatoes through a colander and stir them into the boiling milk; add a teacupful of rolled crackers; serve immediately. If the milk is put into the tomatoes it will curdle.

CREAM SOUPS

N. B.—See to it that the milk of which they are made is fresh, and always drop in it before heating a pinch of baking-soda to avoid the danger of curdling. A curdled cream soup is a culinary solecism, and should never be put into delicate stomachs. After the soup is ready for the table do not allow it to stand on the part of the range where it may come to a boil.

Cream of spinach soup

Wash a half peck of spinach and put it into a saucepan with a scant quart of water. Boil until tender, then chop very, _very_ fine, and run through a sieve. It should be like a soft green paste. Cook together a tablespoonful of flour and one of butter and pour upon them a quart of hot milk. Stir until smooth, add the spinach, boil up once, season and serve.

Cream of beet soup

Boil the young beets in salted water for an hour. Lay in cold water until cool enough to handle. Scrape off all the skin and chop the beets very fine. Turn the beets and the juice which has exuded from them into a pint of mutton stock, and simmer for fifteen minutes. Rub through a fine colander or a coarse soup-strainer and keep hot at the side of the range. Cook together two teaspoonfuls of butter and two of flour, and pour upon them a pint of milk. Stir until thick and smooth, then add slowly the beet and mutton purée. When very hot, season with salt and white pepper and serve.

Tomato cream soup (No. 1)

Cut up a dozen ripe tomatoes and stew tender in a pint of water. Rub through a strainer and thicken with three teaspoonfuls of corn-starch rubbed to a paste with a tablespoonful of butter. Season with salt, pepper and sugar, and pour slowly upon the mixture a quart of scalding milk, to which a pinch of soda has been added.

Tomato cream soup (No. 2)

Cook a quart of tomatoes soft and rub them through a colander, or drain the liquid from a can of tomatoes. Heat it over the fire, cooking with it a pinch of soda and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Cook together in another saucepan a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour until they bubble, and then pour upon them a pint of hot milk. Stir until it thickens, salt and pepper the tomato to taste, and mix with it the thickened milk. Add half a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce and serve at once.

Cream of celery soup

Cut a bunch of celery into small bits and put it over the fire in enough water to cover it. Stew until very tender; rub through a colander, and stir into it a pint of hot veal or other white stock. Cook together two tablespoonfuls of butter and the same of flour, and pour slowly upon them a pint of hot milk in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved. When thick and smooth, add gradually, stirring constantly, the celery and stock. Season with pepper and celery salt, and serve.

Onion cream soup

Into a quart of mutton stock slice six large onions and simmer for an hour. Rub through a colander, return to the fire, and thicken with two tablespoonfuls of flour, rubbed to a paste with two of butter. Bring a half pint of milk to the boiling point and stir it into the soup. Season with salt, white pepper and a tablespoonful of minced parsley.

Potato cream soup (No. 1)

Mash ten large boiled potatoes, beat them to a soft mass with a half pint of cream, and season to taste with salt, pepper and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Heat a pint of milk to scalding, stir it into a quart of heated veal stock and thicken with a white roux. Now beat in the mashed potato, boil up once, stirring constantly, add a handful of chopped parsley, and serve.

Potato cream soup (No. 2)

Boil and mash six good-sized potatoes. Heat a pint of milk to the boiling point and stir into it a tablespoonful of butter, rubbed into the same quantity of flour. When the milk is smooth and thick beat into it slowly the mashed potatoes and stir to a cream-like soup. Season to taste with pepper, salt and onion juice, and just before removing from the fire add a teaspoonful of finely minced parsley.

Cream of corn soup

Grate the corn from a dozen ears and put over the fire in a quart of water. Simmer for three-quarters of an hour. Now add salt and pepper to taste and a teaspoonful of granulated sugar. Rub to a paste two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour and thicken the corn soup with this. Have ready heated a quart of milk, pour this gradually upon a beaten egg, turn into a heated tureen and stir in the corn purée.

Cream of asparagus soup

Cut the stalks of a bunch of asparagus into half-inch lengths, and boil slowly for an hour in three cups of salted water. When the stalks are tender, drain through a colander, pressing and rubbing the asparagus that all the juice may exude. Return the liquid to the fire and keep it hot while you cook together in a saucepan a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour, and pour upon them a quart of milk. Stir until smooth, and add the asparagus liquor slowly with a cupful of asparagus tips, already boiled tender. Have ready beaten the yolks of two eggs, pour the hot soup gradually upon these, stirring all the time; return to the fire for just a half minute, season to taste and serve.

Cream of pea soup

Open a can of peas, turn off the liquor and pour over them enough cold water to cover them. At the end of half an hour drain the peas, put them into a saucepan with a pint of water and boil until they are reduced to a pulp. Rub through a colander and add a teaspoonful of granulated sugar. Thicken a pint of rich milk with a teaspoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter, and stir the pea purée into this. Cook for a minute, season to taste, and turn into a heated tureen. Have ready a handful of dice of fried bread to throw upon the surface of the soup just before it is sent to the table.

Tapioca cream soup

Soak two tablespoonfuls of tapioca in a gill of cold water for six or eight hours. Heat a pint of well-seasoned mutton stock to boiling and stir the tapioca into this. Boil until the tapioca is clear, then slowly add a pint of scalding milk, in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved. Season to taste, and pour the soup very gradually upon the beaten yolks of three eggs. Turn into a heated tureen and serve.

Cream cheese soup

Boil an onion for fifteen minutes in a pint of veal stock, then strain it out and return the stock to the fire. Heat a pint of milk to scalding, thicken with two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed into one of butter, season with white pepper and celery salt, and add to the veal stock. Stir in slowly the beaten yolks of two eggs, then four tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese and serve.

Cream of lettuce soup

Make as you would cream of spinach soup, but boil ten minutes only. It is very good and more delicate than spinach.

Cream of sago soup

Soak half a cupful of sago for three hours in enough tepid water to cover it. Pour a cupful of boiling water upon it, and simmer in an inner boiler until very soft. Now add three cupfuls of hot milk, into which two tablespoonfuls of butter rolled in flour have been stirred. Beat up well, put in celery salt, pepper and a little onion juice; stir up and beat from the bottom for two minutes; pour gradually upon two beaten eggs; set in boiling water for two minutes, and pour out.

VEGETABLE SOUPS WITH MEAT

Potato purée

Peel and slice a quart of good “old” potatoes. Put them into the soup kettle with a large sliced onion, three stalks of celery cut into inch pieces, a quarter of a pound of butter, and pepper and salt to taste; stew slowly until reduced to a pulp, add a quart of good stock; simmer a few minutes longer, run through a colander into another saucepan and let it boil gently for five minutes. Just before ready to serve add a pint of hot cream, a piece of butter and a tablespoonful of minced parsley.

Bean soup

Soak three cupfuls of dried white beans for eight hours. Drain, cover them with two quarts of boiling water, and boil until the beans are tender and broken to pieces. Rub them and the water in which they have been boiled through a sieve and return to the fire. Add a quart of stock, in which a ham or a piece of corn beef has been boiled. If this is too salt, add other soup stock with it. Boil for an hour, season to taste; stir in a tablespoonful of butter rolled in one of flour and put into the tureen. Put a handful of croutons or dice of fried bread on the surface of the soup.

Mock-turtle bean soup

Make as you would white bean soup, adding, at the last, a tablespoonful of butter rolled in one of _browned_ flour, and when it has boiled one minute, a glass of sherry.

Have in the tureen three tablespoonfuls of hard-boiled egg, cut into dice, and a lemon, peeled and sliced as thin as paper. It is a surprisingly good imitation of mock turtle soup.

Bean and tomato soup

Soak a quart of beans for eight hours. Drain and soak an hour longer in warm water. Drain and put into a soup pot with a gallon of cold water, and bring slowly to a boil. Add a half pound of fat salt pork, chopped, two sliced onions and a bay leaf. Let all simmer gently for four hours. At the end of that time run and press the soup through a sieve, and return it to the pot with a quart of canned tomatoes seasoned, and sweetened with two teaspoonfuls of granulated sugar. Boil for half an hour, strain the soup through a colander and return to the fire, while you thicken it with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into the same quantity of butter. Boil up once and serve.

Split pea soup

This soup may be made of dried split green or yellow peas. Soak a large cupful of the peas all night, drain, cover with two quarts of water and bring to a boil. Simmer gently until the peas are soft, then rub through a colander and return to the fire, thicken with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter and season with pepper, celery, salt and onion juice. Stir until very smooth, turn into a heated tureen, throw in a handful of dice of fried bread and serve.

Celery soup

Wash the celery, cut it into inch lengths and boil it in enough water to cover it until so soft that it can be rubbed through a colander. After passing it through the colander, return to the fire with a pint of white stock. Scald a pint of milk, stir into it a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour, and when thick and smooth, add slowly the stock seasoned with white pepper and celery salt. Beat for a half-minute and serve.

Green pea purée (No. 1)

Shell two quarts of peas and leave in cold water. Wash the pods and put them over the fire to boil in a quart of veal or mutton stock. Boil for twenty minutes, then drain out the pods and return the stock to the fire. Drain the water from the peas, and when the stock boils again, turn them into this. Add a pinch of soda and boil until the green pellets are reduced to a soft mass. Rub the pulp and liquid through a colander, return to the fire and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour rubbed into one of butter. Have heated in another saucepan a half pint of rich milk. Pour this slowly into a bowl containing a beaten egg; whip all together, and gradually add the peas-purée. Do not return the soup to the fire after it has been poured upon the milk and egg, or it may curdle.

Green pea purée (No. 2)

Boil a quart of shelled peas tender in salted hot water with a young onion, a few sprigs of parsley and six mint leaves. Rub through a colander and return to the fire, adding half a cupful of good stock, salt, pepper and a lump of sugar. When it has boiled two minutes stir in a tablespoonful of butter rolled in flour, cook one minute longer and pour upon croutons of fried bread-dice in the tureen.

Savory potato soup

Crack a good marrow-bone well and put over the fire with three pints of cold water, a small sliced carrot, a stalk or two of celery and a grated onion. Cook slowly until boiled down to one-half the original quantity. Set aside until cold; remove the fat, take out the bones, and rub the vegetables through a colander back into the soup. Heat quickly to a boil, and pour upon your mashed potato, gradually, working in smoothly as you go on. Turn into a double boiler and when again hot put in a great spoonful of chopped parsley. Have ready in another saucepan a good cupful of hot water, in which has been dropped a pinch of soda. Stir into this a teaspoonful of butter, rubbed up in one of corn-starch. Cook three minutes, add to the potato soup, stir briskly for half a minute and put into the tureen. If properly seasoned this is a delicious family broth.

Browned potato soup

Peel and cut into quarters twelve potatoes, put three tablespoonfuls of beef dripping in a soup pot and fry in it the potatoes and a sliced onion. When brown, add two quarts of water and simmer until the potatoes are soft and broken. Rub through a colander, return the purée to the pot, thicken with two tablespoonfuls of browned flour rubbed to a paste with a great spoonful of butter, stir until smooth, add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, salt and pepper to taste and serve.

It is very good.

Savory rice soup