Chapter III: Part 3

“If, as is generally done, a thick slice of bread is hurriedly exposed to a hot fire, and the exterior of the bread is toasted nearly black, the intention of extracting the moisture is defeated, as the heat will then produce no effect on the interior of the slice, which remains as moist as ever. Charcoal is a bad conductor of heat. The overtoasted surface is nothing more or less than a thin layer of charcoal, which prevents the heat from penetrating through the bread. Neither will butter pass through the hard surface: it will remain on it, and if exposed to heat, to melt it in, it will dissolve, and run over it in the form of rancid oil. _This_ is why buttered toast is so often unwholesome.”

DIXIE BISCUIT (_Mrs. Blair_).

Mix one tea-spoonful of salt into three pints of flour; put one tea-cupful of milk, with two table-spoonfuls of lard, on the fire to warm. Pour this on two eggs, well beaten; add the flour, with one tea-cupful of home-made yeast. When well mixed, set it in a warm place for about five hours to rise; then form into biscuit; let them rise again. Bake.

GRAHAM BREAD.

Make the sponge as for white bread; then knead in Graham flour, only sifting part of it. Add, also, two or three table-spoonfuls of molasses.

RUSKS.

Add to about a quart of bread dough the beaten yolks of three eggs, half a cupful of butter, and one cupful of sugar: mix all well together. When formed into little cakes (rather high and slender, and placed very near each other), rub the tops with sugar and water mixed; then sprinkle over dry sugar. This should fill two pans.

PARKER HOUSE ROLLS (_Mrs. Samuel Treat_).

Ingredients: Two quarts of flour, one pint of milk (measured after boiling), butter the size of an egg, one table-spoonful of sugar, one tea-cupful of home-made yeast, and a little salt.

Make a hole in the flour. Put in the other ingredients, in the following order: sugar, butter, milk, and yeast. Do not stir the ingredients after putting them together. Arrange this at ten o’clock at night; set it in a cool place until ten o’clock the next morning, when mix all together, and knead it fifteen minutes by the clock. Put it in a cool place again until four o’clock P.M., when cut out the rolls, and set each one apart from its neighbor in the pan. Set it for half an hour in a warm place. Bake fifteen minutes.

BEATEN BISCUIT.

Rub one quarter of a pound of lard into one and a half pounds of flour, adding a pinch of salt. Mix enough milk or water with it to make a _stiff_ dough. Beat the dough well with a rolling-pin for half an hour or more, or until the dough will _break_ when pulled. Little machines come for the purpose of making beaten biscuit, which facilitate the operation. Form into little biscuit, prick them on top several times with a fork, and bake.

SODA AND CREAM OF TARTAR BISCUIT.

Ingredients: One quart of flour, one tea-spoonful of soda, two tea-spoonfuls cream of tartar, one even tea-spoonful of salt, lard or butter the size of a small egg, and milk.

Put the soda, cream of tartar, and salt on the table; mash them smoothly with a knife, and mix well together; mix them as evenly in the flour as possible; then pass it all through the sieve two or three times. The success of the biscuits depends upon the equal distribution of these ingredients. Mix in the lard or butter (melted) as evenly as possible, taking time to rub it between the open hands, to break any little lumps. Now pour in enough milk to make the dough consistent enough to roll out, mixing it lightly with the ends of the fingers. The quicker it is rolled out, cut, and baked, the better will be the biscuits.

The biscuits are cheaper made with cream of tartar and soda than with baking-powder, yet many make the

BISCUITS WITH BAKING-POWDER.

They are made as in the last receipt, merely substituting two heaping tea-spoonfuls of baking-powder for the cream of tartar and soda, and taking the same care to mix evenly.

These biscuits are nice rolled quite thin (half an inch), and cut with a small cutter two inches in diameter. They may be served hot or cold, and are often used at evening companies, cold, split in two, buttered, and with chopped ham (as for sandwiches) placed between them. They are preferable to bread sandwiches, as they do not dry as quickly, and are, perhaps, neater to handle. These biscuits are especially nice when made with Professor Horsford’s self-raising flour--of course, the raising powders are omitted. The appreciation of hot biscuits is quite a Southern and Western American fancy. They are rarely seen abroad, and are generally considered unwholesome in the Eastern States.

MUFFINS.

Ingredients: Two eggs, one pint of flour, one tea-cupful of milk or cream, butter half the size of an egg, a little salt, and one tea-spoonful of baking-powder.

Mix the baking-powder and salt in the flour. Beat the eggs; add to the yolks, first, milk, then butter (melted), then flour, then the whites. Beat well after it is all mixed, and bake them immediately in a hot oven, in gem-pans or rings. Take them out of the pans or rings the moment they are done, and send them to the table. The self-raising flour is very nice for making muffins. In using this, of course, the baking-powder should be omitted.

WAFFLES.

Ingredients: Two eggs, one pint of flour, one and a quarter cupfuls of milk or cream, one even tea-spoonful of yeast-powder, butter or lard the size of a walnut, and salt.

Mix the baking-powder and salt well in the flour, then rub in evenly the butter; next add the beaten yolks and milk mixed, then the beaten whites of the eggs. Bake immediately.

RICE WAFFLES (_Mrs. Gratz Brown_).

Ingredients: One and a half pints of boiled rice, one and a half pints of flour, half a tea-cupful of sour milk, half a tea-cupful of sweet milk, one tea-spoonful of soda, salt, three eggs, and butter size of a walnut.

RICE PANCAKES

are made as in the last receipt, by adding an extra half-cupful of milk.

HOMINY CAKE (_Mrs. Watts Sherman_).

Add a spoonful of butter to two cupfuls of whole hominy (boiled an hour with milk) while it is still hot. Beat three eggs very light, which add to the hominy. Stir in gradually a pint of milk, and, lastly, a pint of corn-meal. Bake in a pan.

This is a very nice breakfast cake. Serve it, with a large napkin under it, on a plate. The sides of the napkin may cover the top of the cake until the moment of serving, which will keep it moist.

BAKED HOMINY GRITS (_Mrs. Pope_).

Ingredients: One quart of milk, one cupful of hominy grits, two eggs, and salt.

When the milk is salted and boiling, stir in the hominy grits, and boil for twenty minutes. Set it aside to cool thoroughly. Beat the eggs to a stiff froth, and then beat them well and hard into the hominy. Bake half an hour.

BREAKFAST PUFFS, OR POP-OVERS (_Mrs. Hopkins_).

Ingredients: Two cupfuls of milk, two cupfuls of flour, two eggs, and an even tea-spoonful of salt.

Beat the eggs separately and well, add the whites last, and then beat all well together. They may be baked in roll-pans, or deep gem-pans, which should be heated on the range, and greased before the batter is put in: they should be filled half full with the batter. Or they may be baked in tea-cups, of which eight would be required for this quantity of batter. When baked, serve immediately. For Graham gems use half Graham flour.

HENRIETTES FOR TEA (_French Cook_), No. 1.

Ingredients: Three eggs beaten separately, three-fourths of a cupful of cream or milk, a scant tea-spoonful of baking-powder, salt, one table-spoonful of brandy, a pinch of cinnamon, enough flour to make them just stiff enough to roll out easily.

Roll them thin as a wafer, cut them into about two-inch squares, or into diamonds, with the paste-jagger, fry them in boiling lard, and sprinkle over pulverized sugar.

HENRIETTES FOR BREAKFAST OR TEA (_French Cook_), No. 2.

Ingredients: Three eggs beaten separately, one cupful of milk, a scant tea-spoonful of baking-powder, salt, one table-spoonful of brandy, and flour enough to make a little thicker than for pancakes.

Pass the batter through a funnel (one-third or one-half inch diameter at end) into hot boiling lard, making rings, or any figures preferred. Do not fry too much at one time. When done and drained, sprinkle over pulverized sugar, and lay them on a plate on a folded napkin. Serve.

WAFER BISCUITS.

Rub a piece of butter the size of a large hickory-nut into a pint of sifted flour; sprinkle over a little salt. Mix it into a stiff, smooth paste, with the white of an egg beaten to a froth, and warm milk. Beat the paste with a rolling-pin for half an hour, or longer; the more the dough is beaten, the better are the biscuits. Form the dough into little round balls about the size of a pigeon’s egg; then roll each of them to the size of a saucer. They should be mere wafers in thickness; they can not be too thin. Sprinkle a little flour over the tins. Bake.

These wafers are exceedingly nice to serve with a cheese course, or for invalids to eat with their tea.

CORN BREAD.

Ingredients: One cupful of sour milk, one cupful of sweet milk, one table-spoonful of sugar or molasses, one tea-cupful of flour, two heaping tea-cupfuls of corn-meal, one tea-spoonful of salt, one tea-spoonful (not heaping) of soda, one and a half table-spoonfuls of melted lard or butter, and three eggs.

Beat the eggs separately; add the melted butter to the milk; then the sugar, salt, yolks, soda (dissolved in a table-spoonful of warm water); and, lastly, the whites, flour, and corn-meal. Beat it all quickly and well together. Put it immediately in the oven, to bake half an hour.

HOE CAKE.

Pour enough scalding water, or milk, on corn-meal (salted), to make it rather moist. Let it stand an hour, or longer. Put two or three heaping table-spoonfuls on a hot griddle, greased with pork or lard. Smooth over the surface, making the cake about half an inch thick, and of round shape. When browned on one side, turn and brown it on the other. Serve very hot.

These are very nice breakfast cakes, with a savory crust.

CORN CAKE (_Mrs. Lackland_).

Ingredients: One pint of milk, half a pint of Indian meal, four eggs, a scant table-spoonful of butter, salt, and one tea-spoonful of sugar. Pour the milk boiling on the _sifted_ meal. When cold, add the butter (melted), the salt, the sugar, the yolks of the eggs, and, lastly, the whites, well beaten separately. Bake half an hour in a hot oven. It is very nice baked in iron or tin gem-pans, the cups an inch and a half deep.

FRIED CORN MUSH FOR BREAKFAST.

Many slice the mush when cold, and simply _sauté_ it in a little hot lard. But as some cooks seem to have as great success in simple dishes as in elaborate ones, I shall consider this as at least one of the little successes taught me by a French cook. Of course, the mush is made by sprinkling the corn-meal into _boiling salted_ water, or after the manner of Harriet Plater, given in the next receipt. It is thoroughly cooked, and made the day before wanted. When cold, it is sliced, each slice dipped in beaten eggs (salted) and bread or cracker crumbs, and fried in boiling-hot lard. One should try this, to know the superiority in the manner of cooking.

CORN MUSH

is usually made by sprinkling corn-meal into well-salted boiling water (a pint of corn-meal to three pints of water), and cooking it well. But Harriet Plater (Mrs. Filley’s most skillful cook) says that corn-meal mush is much lighter, and when fried for breakfast, browns better by cooking it as follows:

“Put a quart of water on the fire to boil. Stir a pint of cold milk, with one pint of corn-meal and one tea-spoonful of salt. When the water boils, pour in the mixture gradually, stirring all well together. Let it boil for half an hour, stirring often, to prevent it from burning.”

OATMEAL PORRIDGE.

It seems very simple to make oatmeal porridge, yet it is a very different dish made by different cooks. The ingredients are: One heaping cupful of oatmeal to one quart of boiling water and one tea-spoonful of salt. Boil twenty minutes.

The water should be salted and boiling when the meal is sprinkled in with one hand, while it is lightly stirred in with the other. When all mixed, it should boil without afterward being stirred more than is necessary to keep it from burning at the bottom, and to mingle the grains two or three times, so that they may all be evenly cooked. If much stirred, the porridge will be starchy or waxy, and poor in flavor. But the puffing of the steam through the grains without much stirring swells each one separately, and, when done, the porridge is light, and quite consistent. This same manner of cooking is applicable as well to all other grains.

MOTHER JOHNSON’S PANCAKES (_Adirondacks_).

These are famous pancakes, and, like every other good thing, there is a little secret in the preparation.

Enough flour is added to a quart of sour milk to make a rather thick batter. The secret is that it is left to stand overnight, instead of being finished at once. It may even stand to advantage for twenty-four hours. However, if it is mixed at night, the next morning two well-beaten eggs and salt are to be added at the same time with half a tea-spoonful of soda, dissolved in a table-spoonful of warm water. Cook immediately.

SIRUP.

Mix two table-spoonfuls of water to two cupfuls of brown sugar and one even table-spoonful of butter. Let it boil about five minutes.

BUCKWHEAT CAKES.

Scald two gills of Indian meal in one quart of boiling water. Add a little salt. When cool, add one gill of yeast, and stir in enough buckwheat flour to make a thin batter. Let it rise overnight. If by chance it is a little sour, just before cooking add one-fourth of a tea-spoonful of soda, dissolved in half a cupful of boiling water. Or,

They may be made in the same manner without the Indian meal, merely adding the yeast to a quart of lukewarm water, and making the batter with buckwheat flour alone.

PANCAKES, WITH FLOUR OR CORN-MEAL.

Stir one or two cupfuls of cream or milk into two beaten eggs; add flour or corn-meal enough to make a thin batter. If the milk is sweet, add one tea-spoonful of yeast-powder; if it is sour, add, instead of the yeast-powder, half a tea-spoonful of soda, dissolved in a little warm water.

PANCAKES, WITH BREAD-CRUMBS.

Soak the bread-crumbs, then drain them. To two cupfuls of bread-crumbs add one cupful of flour or corn-meal, one egg, and milk enough to make a thin batter. If the milk is sweet, add a tea-spoonful of yeast-powder; if sour, half a tea-spoonful of soda, dissolved in a table-spoonful of warm water.

STRAWBERRY SHORT-CAKE (_Mrs. Pope_).

Ingredients: One quart of flour, two heaping tea-spoonfuls of yeast-powder, half a tea-spoonful of salt, butter size of an egg, milk, two quarts of strawberries. Mix the baking-powder into the flour, then rub in the butter (in the same manner as described for biscuits, page 72). Add enough milk to make a soft dough--rather softer than for biscuits. Spread this on two pie-tins. Bake in a quick oven.

When the cakes are done, let them partly cool. Cut around the edges, and split them. Spread them with butter, then with one quart of mashed strawberries, with plenty of sugar; then put between them the other quart of whole strawberries, sprinkled with sugar. Serve a pitcher of cream with a strawberry short-cake. The cake in this form can be cut like a pie. It is a good summer breakfast as well as tea dish. Or,

It can be made with sour milk, viz.: to two tea-cupfuls of sour milk add a tea-spoonful of soda, then three-fourths of a tea-cupful of butter or lard, partly melted, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Roll it into thin cakes large enough to fill the pan in which they are to be baked. When baked, split, and butter them while hot. Lay on a plate half of the cake, put on a layer of well-sugared strawberries, then the other half, then more strawberries, and so on, until there are several layers. Or,

These cakes can be made in the same way with currants, blackberries, cut peaches, chopped pine-apples, raspberries, etc.

TEA.

Two things are necessary to insure good tea: first, that the water should be at the boiling-point when poured on the leaves, water simply hot not answering the purpose at all; and, second, that it should be served freshly made. Tea should never be boiled. So particular are the English to preserve its first aroma, that it is sometimes made on the table two or three times during a meal. In France, little silver canisters of tea are placed on the table, where it is invariably made. One tea-spoonful of the leaves is a fair portion for each person. Tea is better made in an earthen tea-pot, which tea connoisseurs are particular to have. They also drink the beverage without milk, and with loaf-sugar merely.

Water at the first boiling-point is generally considered better for tea or coffee, and, in fact, any kind of cooking which requires boiling water.

COFFEE.

The best coffee is made by mixing two-thirds Java and one-third Mocha. The Java gives strength, the Mocha flavor and aroma.

Coffee should be evenly and carefully roasted. Much depends upon this. If even a few of the berries are burned, the coffee will taste burned and bitter, instead of being fine-flavored and aromatic. To have the perfection of coffee, it should be fresh-roasted each day. Few, however, will take that trouble. As soon as it is roasted, and while still hot, stir into it one or two eggs, together with their shells (about one egg to a pint of roasted coffee-beans). This will help to preserve the coffee, as well as to make it clear. Put it away in a close-covered tin-case, and grind it only just before using.

Allow two heaping table-spoonfuls of ground coffee to a pint of water. Let the water be _boiling_ when it is poured on the coffee. Cover it as tightly as possible, and boil it one minute; then let it remain a few moments at the side of the range to settle.

Delmonico allows one and a half pounds of coffee to one gallon of water. The coffee-pot, with a double base, is placed on the range in a vessel of hot water (_bain-marie_). The boiling water is poured over the coffee, which is contained in a felt strainer in the coffee-pot. It is not boiled.

Of course, much depends upon the care in preparing the coffee to insure a delicious beverage; but equally as much depends upon serving with it good thick cream. Milk, or even boiled milk, is not to be compared with cream. In cities, a gill, at least, might be purchased each morning for coffee, or a few table-spoonfuls might be saved from the evening’s milk for at least _one_ cup. Fill the cup two-thirds full, then, with hot, clear coffee, pour in one or two table-spoonfuls of cream, and use loaf-sugar.

Professor Blot, in his lectures, was very emphatic as to the impropriety of _boiling_ coffee. He said by this means the aroma and flavor were carried into the attic, and a bitter decoction was left to be drunk. He preferred decidedly the coffee made in the French filter coffee-pot.

I have experimented upon coffee, and prefer it boiled for one minute in the ordinary coffee-pot. That made in the French filter is also most excellent. It is not boiled, and requires a greater proportion of coffee. But to be explicit, put the coffee in the filter. At the first boil of the water, pour one or two coffee-cupfuls of it on the coffee. Put back the water on the fire. When boiling again, pour on as much more, and repeat the process until the desired quantity is made.

CHOCOLATE (_Miss Sallie Schenck_).

Allow two sticks of chocolate to one pint of new milk. After the chocolate is scraped, either let it soak an hour or so, with a table-spoonful of milk to soften it, or boil it a few moments in two or three table-spoonfuls of water. Then, in either case, mash it to a smooth paste. When the milk, sweetened to taste with loaf-sugar, is boiling, stir in the chocolate-paste, adding a little of the boiling milk to it first, to dilute it evenly. Let it boil half a minute. Stir it well, or mill it, and serve immediately.

Maillard’s chocolate is flavored with a little vanilla. The commoner brands, such as Baker’s, will be nearly as good by adding a little vanilla when making. Miss Schenck (noted for her chocolate) adds a very little flavoring of brandy.

A very good addition, and one universally seen, when chocolate is served at lunch parties, is a heaping table-spoonful of whipped-cream, sweetened and flavored with a little vanilla before it is whipped, placed on the top of the chocolate in each cup, the cup being only three-quarters filled with the chocolate.

COCOA.

Many use cocoa rather than chocolate. It has the same flavor, but it has more body, and is richer and more oily. It is made in the same way as chocolate, but a few drops of the essence of vanilla should be invariably added.

SOUP.

The meat should be fresh, lean (all fat possible being removed), and juicy to make the best soup. It is put into cold, clear water, which should be heated only moderately for the first half-hour. The object is to extract the juices of the meat, and if it be boiled too soon, the surface will become coagulated, thereby imprisoning the juice within. After the first half-hour the pot should be placed at the back of the stove, allowing the soup to simmer for four or five hours.

Nothing is more disagreeable at table than greasy soup. As all particles of fat are taken off hot liquor with some difficulty, soup should be made the day before it is to be used, when the fat will rise to the top and harden. It can then be easily removed.

When vegetables are used, they should be added only in time to become thoroughly done: afterward they absorb a portion of the richness of the soup.

When onions are used, they impart better flavor by being fried or _sautéd_ in a little hot butter or other grease, before they are added to the soup. In fact, many professional cooks fry other vegetables also, such as carrots and turnips. Sometimes they even fry slightly the chickens, beef, etc., and then cut them into smaller pieces for boiling. Potatoes and cabbage should be boiled in separate water before they are added to a soup.

Amateur cooks seem to have a great aversion to making stock. They think it must be something troublesome, and too scientific to undertake; whereas, in truth, it saves the trouble of going through the process of soup-boiling every day, and it is as easy to make as any simple soup. One has only to increase the quantity of meat and bones to any desired proportion, adding pepper and salt, and also vegetables, if preferred.

The stock should be kept in a stone jar. It will form a jelly, and in cool weather will last at least a week.

Just before dinner each day, in order to prepare soup, it is only necessary to cut off some of the jelly and heat it. It is very good with nothing additional; but one can have a change of soup each day by adding different flavorings, such as onion, macaroni, vermicelli, tomato, tapioca, spring vegetables (which will make a _julienne_), poached eggs, fried bread, asparagus, celery, green pease, etc. I will be explicit about these additions in the receipts. Stock is also valuable for gravies, sauces, and stews, and for boiling many things, such as pigeons, chickens, etc.

STOCK, OR POT AU FEU.

In ordinary circumstances, beef alone, with some vegetables, will make a good broth or stock, in the proportion of two and a half pints of cold clear water to each pound of bones and meat; the bones and meat should be of about equal weight. It makes the soup more delicate to add chicken or veal. Chicken and veal together make a good soup, called _blond de veau_. Good soup can be made, also, by using the trimmings of fresh meat, bits of cold cooked beef, or the bones of any meat or fowl. In the choice of vegetables, onions (first fried or _sautéd_, and a clove stuck in), parsley, and carrots are oftenest used: turnips, parsnips, and celery should be employed more sparingly. The soup bunch at market is generally a very good distribution of vegetables. Nothing is more simple than the process of making stock or broth. Remember not to let it boil for the first half-hour; then it should simmer slowly and steadily, partly covered, for four or five hours. In royal kitchens the stock is cooked by gas. Skim frequently; as scum, if allowed to remain, gives an unpleasant flavor to the soup. Use salt sparingly, putting in a little at first, and seasoning at the last moment. Many a good soup is spoiled by an injudicious use of seasoning. Some add a few drops of lemon-juice to a broth. If wine or catsup is added, it should only be done at the last moment. Always strain the soup through a sieve or soup-strainer. Small scraps of meat or sediment look slovenly in a soup. Or,

A SIMPLE STOCK.

If you have no vegetables (you should always have them, especially onions and carrots, as they will keep), a very good stock can be made by employing the meat and bones alone, seasoned with pepper and salt. If rich enough, it might be served in this manner. However, it is a simple thing, about fifteen minutes before dinner, each day, to add a little boiled macaroni, fried onions, etc., to vary the soup.

GOUFFÉ’S RECEIPT FOR STOCK, OR BOUILLON.

Three pounds of beef; one pound of bone (about the quantity in that weight of meat); five and a half quarts of clear cold water; two ounces of salt; two carrots, say ten ounces; two large onions, say ten ounces, with two cloves stuck in them; six leeks, say fourteen ounces; one head of celery, say one ounce; two turnips, say ten ounces; one parsnip, say two ounces.

BOUILLON SERVED AT LUNCHEONS, GERMANS, ETC.

Purchase about six pounds of beef and bone (soup bones) for ten persons. Cut up the meat and break the bones; add two quarts of cold water, and simmer slowly until all the strength is extracted from the meat. It will take about five hours. Strain it through a fine sieve, removing every particle of fat; and if there is more than ten cupfuls, reduce it by boiling to that quantity. Season only with pepper and salt.

It is served in bouillon cups at luncheons, at evening companies, Germans, etc.

Sometimes it is served clear and transparent, after the receipt for Amber Soup.

AMBER SOUP, OR CLEAR BROTH.

This soup is served at almost all company dinners. There can be no better choice, as a heavy soup is not then desirable.

Ingredients: A large soup bone (say two pounds), a chicken, a small slice of ham, a soup bunch (or an onion, two sprigs of parsley, half a small carrot, half a small parsnip, half a stick of celery), three cloves, pepper, salt, a gallon of cold water, whites and shells of two eggs, and caramel for coloring.

Let the beef, chicken, and ham boil slowly for five hours; add the vegetables and cloves, to cook the last hour, having first fried the onion in a little hot fat, and then in it stuck the cloves. Strain the soup into an earthen bowl, and let it remain overnight. Next day remove the cake of fat on the top; take out the jelly, avoiding the settlings, and mix into it the beaten whites of the eggs with the shells. Boil quickly for half a minute; then, placing the kettle on the hearth, skim off carefully all the scum and whites of the eggs from the top, not stirring the soup itself. Pass this through the jelly bag, when it should be quite clear. The soup may then be put aside, and reheated just before serving. Add then a large table-spoonful of caramel, as it gives it a richer color, and also a slight flavor.

Of course, the brightest and cleanest of kettles should be used. I once saw this transparent soup served in Paris, without color, but made quite thick with tapioca. It looked very clear, and was exceedingly nice.

This soup may be made in one day. After it is strained, add the eggs and proceed as in receipt. However, if it is to be served at a company dinner, it is more convenient to make it the day before.

TO MAKE CARAMEL, OR BURNED SUGAR, FOR COLORING BROTH.

The appearance of broth is improved by being of a rich amber color. The most innocent coloring substance, which does not impair the flavor of the broth, is caramel, prepared as follows:

Put into a porcelain saucepan, say half a pound of sugar, and a table-spoonful of water. Stir it constantly over the fire until it has a bright, dark-brown color, being very careful not to let it burn or blacken. Then add a tea-cupful of water and a little salt; let it boil a few moments longer; cool and strain it. Put it away in a close-corked bottle, and it is always ready for coloring soups.

THICKENINGS FOR SOUP.

I have before recommended the making of soup the day before it is served, as this is the best means of having it entirely free from fat and settlings. Just before it is served, it may be thickened with corn starch, sago, tapioca, pearl barley, rice, etc. If a thickening of flour is used, let it be a _roux_, mixed according to directions, page 51. However, a rich stock jelly needs no thickening.

ADDITIONS TO BEEF STOCK, TO FORM OTHER KINDS OF SOUP.

It is well, just before the beef soup is sent to table, to drop into the tureen poached eggs, which have been cooked in salted water, and neatly trimmed. There may be an egg for each person at table. This is a favorite soup in Havana. Or, Put into the tureen, just before the soup is sent to table, slices of lemon--one slice for each plate. Or,

Yolks of hard-boiled eggs, one for each person. Or,

Put into the tureen _croûtons_ or dice of bread, say three-quarters of an inch square, fried in a little butter. When frying, or rather _sautéing_, turn them, that all sides may be browned. They may be prepared several hours, if more convenient, before dinner; then left near the fire, to become crisp and dry. This makes a very good soup, and is also an excellent means of using dry bread. It is a favorite French soup, called _potage aux croûtons_. Or,

Drop into the tureen force-meat balls.

RECEIPT FOR FORCE-MEAT BALLS.

Take any kind of meat or chicken, or both (that used for making the soup will answer); chop it very fine; season it with pepper, salt, a little chopped parsley and thyme, or a little parsley and fried onion, or with thyme, or parsley alone, a little lemon-juice, and grated peel. Break in a raw egg, and sprinkle over some flour; roll them in balls the size of a pigeon’s egg. Fry or _sauté_ them in a little butter, or they may be cooked in boiling water; or they may be egged and bread-crumbed, and fried in boiling lard. This is the most simple receipt. The French take much trouble in making _quenelles_, etc., for soup. Or,

A simple and delicious addition is that of four or five table-spoonfuls of stewed tomatoes.

MACARONI SOUP

is only an addition of macaroni to the stock-jelly. However, boil the macaroni first in salted water. When done, drain it, and cut it into about two or three inch lengths. Put these pieces into the soup when it is simmering on the fire, then serve it a few minutes after. Many send, at the same time, a plate of grated cheese. This is passed, a spoon with it, after the plates of soup are served, each person adding a spoonful of it to their soup, if they choose. They probably will not choose it a second time.

VERMICELLI SOUP

is made exactly as macaroni soup, only the vermicelli is not cut, and, if _very little_ of it is used, it may be boiled in the soup. Often the stock for vermicelli is preferred made of veal and chicken, instead of beef; however, either is very good. Grated cheese may also be served with it.

NOODLES (_Eleanore Bouillotat_).

Three delicious dishes may be made from this simple and economical receipt for noodles:

To three eggs (slightly beaten), two table-spoonfuls of water, and a little salt, add enough flour to make a rather stiff dough; work it well for fifteen or twenty minutes, as you would dough for crackers, adding flour when necessary. When pliable, cut off a portion at a time, roll it thin as a wafer, sprinkle over flour, and, beginning at one side, roll it into a rather tight roll. With a sharp knife, cut it, from the end, into very thin slices (one-eighth inch), forming little wheels or curls. Let them dry an hour or so. Part may be used to serve as a vegetable, part for a noodle soup, and the rest should be dried, to put one side to use at any time for a beef soup.

TO SERVE AS A VEGETABLE.

Three cupfuls of fresh noodles, three quarts of salted boiling water, bread-crumbs, butter size of an egg.

Throw a few of the noodles at a time into the boiling salted water, and boil them until they are done, separating and shaking them with a large fork to prevent them from matting together. Skin them out when done, and keep them on a warm dish in a warm place until enough are cooked in a similar manner. Now mix the butter (in which the bread-crumbs were fried) evenly in them; put them on the platter on which they are to be served, and sprinkle over the top bread-crumbs fried or _sautéd_ in some hot butter until they are of a light-brown color. This is a very good dish to serve with a fish, or with almost any meat, or it can be served as a course by itself; or the noodles can be cooked as macaroni, with cheese.

NOODLE SOUP.

Add to the water in which the noodles were boiled, as in last receipt, part of the butter in which the bread-crumbs were _sautéd_, a table-spoonful of chopped parsley, and two or three table-spoonfuls of the cooked noodles. Season with more salt, if necessary. Serve.

BEEF NOODLE SOUP.

Add to a beef stock a small handful of fresh or dried noodles about twenty minutes before serving, which will be long enough time to cook them.

* * * * *

Many varieties of soups may be made by adding different kinds of vegetables to beef soup or stock. Cauliflower, cabbage, potatoes, and asparagus are better boiled in separate water, and added to the soup-tureen at the last moment. Onions, leeks, turnips, and carrots are better fried to a light color in a _sauté_ pan with a little butter or clarified grease, and added to the soup. In frying, it is better to accompany the vegetable or vegetables with a little onion.

If you add more onion, more turnip, or more carrot than any other vegetable, you have onion, turnip, or carrot soup. I will specify a few combinations of vegetables.

SPRING SOUP.

A stock with any spring vegetables added which have first been parboiled in other water. Those generally used are pease, asparagus-tops, or a few young onions or leeks. This soup is often colored with caramel. Or,

Here is Francatelli’s receipt for spring soup, a little simplified: Cut with a vegetable-cutter two carrots and two turnips into little round shapes; add the white part of a head of celery; twelve small young onions, sliced, without the green stalks; and one head of cauliflower, cut into flowerets. Parboil these vegetables for three minutes in boiling water. Drain, and add them to two quarts of stock, made of chicken or beef (chicken is better). Let the whole simmer gently for half an hour, then add the white leaves of a head-lettuce (cut the size of a half-dollar, with a cutter). As soon as tender, and when about to send the soup to the table, add half a gill of small green pease, and an equal quantity of asparagus-heads, which have been previously boiled in other water.

JULIENNE SOUP, WITH POACHED EGGS (_Dubois_).

Take two medium-sized carrots, a medium-sized turnip, a piece of celery, the core of a lettuce, and an onion. Cut them into thin fillets about an inch long. Fry the onion in butter over a moderate fire, without allowing it to take color; add the carrots, turnips, and celery--raw, if tender; if not, boil them separately for a few minutes. After frying all slowly for a few moments, season with a pinch of salt and a tea-spoonful of powdered-sugar. Then moisten them with a gill of broth, and boil until reduced to a glaze. Now add nearly two quarts of good stock, which has been skimmed and passed through a sieve, and remove the stew-pan to the back of the stove, so that the soup may boil only partially. A quarter of an hour after add the lettuce (which has been boiled in other water), and a few raw sorrel leaves, if they can be procured. This soup is quite good enough without eggs, yet they are a pleasant addition. Poach them in salted water, trim them, and drop into the soup-tureen just as it is ready to send to the table. Many color this soup with caramel. In that case, the sugar should be omitted.

ASPARAGUS SOUP.

Ingredients: Three pints of beef soup or stock, thirty heads of asparagus, a little cream, butter, flour, and a little spinach.

Cut the tops off the asparagus, about half an inch long, and boil the rest. Cut off all the tender portions, and rub them through a sieve, adding a little salt. Warm three pints of stock, add a _roux_ made of a small piece of butter and a heaping tea-spoonful of flour; then add the asparagus pulp. Boil it slowly a quarter of an hour, stirring in two or three table-spoonfuls of cream. Color the soup with a tea-spoonful of spinach green, and, just before serving it, add the asparagus-tops, which have been separately boiled.

Many like this soup, but I prefer simply boiled asparagus-points added to stock or beef soup, just before serving.

SPINACH GREEN.

Pound some spinach well, adding a few drops of water; squeeze the juice through a cloth, and put it on a strong fire. As soon as it looks curdy, take it off, and strain the liquor through a sieve. What remains on the sieve will be the coloring matter.

OX-TAIL SOUP.

Ox-tails make an especially good soup, on account of the gelatinous matter they contain.

Ingredients: Two ox-tails, a soup bunch, or a good-sized onion, two carrots, one stalk of celery, a little parsley, and a small cut of pork.

Cut the ox-tails at the joints, slice the vegetables, and mince the pork. Put the pork into a stew-pan. When hot, add first the onions; when they begin to color, add the ox-tails. Let them fry or _sauté_ a very short time. Now cut them to the bone, that the juice may run out in boiling. Put both the ox-tails and fried onions into a soup kettle, with four quarts of cold water. Let them simmer for about four hours; then add the other vegetables, with three cloves stuck in a little piece of onion, and pepper and salt. As soon as the vegetables are well cooked, the soup is done. Strain it. Select some of the joints (one for each plate), trim them, and serve them with the soup. Or, if preferred, the joints may be left out.

CHICKEN SOUP (_Potage à la Reine_).--_Francatelli._

Roast a large chicken. Clear all the meat from the bones, chop, and pound it thoroughly with a quarter of a pound of boiled rice. Put the bones (broken) and the skin into two quarts of cold water. Let it simmer for some time, when it will make a weak broth. Strain it, and add it to the chicken and rice. Now press this all through a sieve, and put it away until dinner-time. Take off the grease on top; heat it without boiling, and, just before sending to table, mix into it a gill of boiling cream. Season carefully with pepper and salt.

PURÉE OF CHICKEN (_Giuseppe Romanii_).

Chef de Cuisine of the Cooking-school in New York.

Ingredients: One and a half pounds of chicken, one and a half quarts of white stock (made with veal), half a sprig of thyme, two sprigs of parsley, half a blade of mace, one shallot, a quarter of a pound of rice, and half a pint of cream.

Roast the chicken, and when cold cut off all the flesh; put the bones into the white stock, together with the thyme, mace, parsley, shallot, and washed rice; boil it until the rice is very thoroughly cooked. In the mean time, chop the chicken; pound it in a mortar; then pass it through a sieve or colander, helping the operation by moistening it with a little of the stock. Strain the balance of the stock, allowing the rice to pass through the sieve.

Half an hour before dinner, add the chicken to the stock and heat it _without boiling_. Just before serving, add to it half a pint of boiling cream. Season with pepper and salt.

PLAIN CHICKEN SOUP.

Cut up the chicken, and break all the bones; put it in a gallon of cold water; let it simmer for five hours, skimming it well. The last hour add, to cook with the soup, a cupful of rice and a sprig of parsley. When done, let the kettle remain quiet a few moments on the kitchen table, when skim off every particle of fat with a spoon. Then pour all on a sieve placed over some deep dish. Take out all the bones, pieces of meat, and parsley. Press the rice through the sieve. Now mix the rice, by stirring it with the soup, until it resembles a smooth _purée_. Season with pepper and salt.

GIBLET SOUP.

This soup is a great success. It is very inexpensive, a plate of giblets only costing at market five cents. It is a very good imitation of mock-turtle soup, and, after the first experience in making, it will be found very easy to manage.

Ingredients: The giblets of four chickens or two turkeys, one medium-sized onion, one small carrot, half a turnip, two sprigs of parsley, a leaf of sage, eggs, a little lemon-juice, Port or Madeira wine, and one or two cupfuls of chicken or beef stock, quite strong.

Cut up the vegetables. Put a piece of butter the size of a small egg into a stew-pan. When quite hot, throw in the sliced onion. When they begin to brown, add the carrot and turnip, a table-spoonful of flour, and the giblets. Fry them all quickly for a minute, watching them constantly, that the flour may brown, and not burn. Now cut the giblets (that the juice may escape), and put all into the soup-kettle, with a little pepper and salt, and three quarts of water--of course, stock would be much better, and for extra occasions I would recommend it; or without stock, one could add any fresh bones or scraps of lean meat one might happen to have. Pieces of chicken are especially well adapted to this soup; yet, for ordinary occasions, giblets alone answer very well.

Let the soup simmer for five hours; then strain it. Thicken it a little with _roux_ (page 51), letting the flour brown, and add to it also one of the livers mashed. Season with the additional pepper and salt it needs, a little lemon-juice, and two table-spoonfuls of Port or Madeira wine. Put into the soup tureen yolks of hard-boiled eggs, one for each person at table. Pour over the soup, and serve.

MOCK-TURTLE SOUP (_New York Cooking-school_).

Let some one beside yourself remove the flesh from a calf’s head, viz., cut from between the ears to the nose, touching the bone; then, cutting close to it, take off all the flesh. Turn over the head, cut open the jaw-bone from underneath, and take out the tongue whole. Turn the head back again, crack the top of the skull between the ears, and take out the brains whole; they may be saved for a separate dish. Soak all separately for a few moments in salt and water. Cut the skull all to pieces, wash it quickly, and put it on the fire in four quarts of cold water, together with the flesh, tongue, half a bunch of parsley, half a stalk of celery, one large bay-leaf, three cloves, half an inch of a stick of cinnamon, six whole allspice, six pepper-corns, half of a large carrot, and one turnip. When the tongue is tender, take it out, to be served as a separate dish (with spinach or with _sauce Tartare_). Leave in the flesh for about two hours, when it will be perfectly tender. Let the bones, etc., simmer for six hours, then strain, and put it away until the next day.

At the same time that the calf’s head is cooking in one vessel, make a stock in another, with a beef or veal soup-bone (two or three pounds), and any scraps of poultry (it would be improved with a chicken added; and one might take this opportunity to have a boiled chicken for dinner, cooking it in the stock), put into two or three quarts of water, and simmered until reduced to a pint.

The next day, remove the fat and settlings from the two stocks.

Put into a two-quart stew-pan two ounces of butter (size of an egg), and, when it bubbles, stir in an ounce of ham cut in strips, and one heaping table-spoonful of flour (one and a half ounces). Stir it constantly until it gets quite brown, pour the reduced stock over it, mix it well, and strain it.

Now to half a pound of the calf’s head cut in dice add one quart of the calf’s-head stock boiling hot, and the pint of reduced and thickened stock, the juice of half a lemon, and one glassful of sherry. When it is about to boil, set it one side, and skim it very carefully. Add the flesh cut from the head, cut in dice, and two hard-boiled eggs cut in dice, and salt. Or,

_Receipt for Egg-balls._--If, instead of the egg-dice, egg-balls should be preferred, add to the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs the raw yolk of one egg, one table-spoonful of melted butter, a little salt and pepper, and enough sifted flour to make it consistent enough to handle. Sprinkle flour on the board, roll it out about half an inch thick, cut it into dice, and roll each one into little balls in the palm of the hand. Put these into the soup five minutes before it is served, to cook. Or,

_Receipt for Meat-balls._--If, instead of meat-dice, meat-balls should be preferred, to three-fourths of a cupful of the head-meat, chopped very fine, add a pinch of thyme, the grated peel of half a lemon, one raw egg, and flour enough to bind all together. Form into little balls the size of a hickory-nut; _sauté_ them in a little hot butter. Or, It is very nice to add, instead of egg-balls, whole yolks of hard-boiled eggs, one for each plate.

The brains may be used for making croquettes (page 176), or as in receipt (page 151).

A SIMPLE MOCK-TURTLE SOUP.

Put four pig’s feet, or calf’s feet, and one pound of veal into four quarts of cold water, and let it simmer for five hours, reducing it to two quarts. Strain it, and let it remain overnight. The next day skim off the fat from the top, and remove the settlings from the bottom.

About half an hour before dinner put the soup on the fire, and season it with half a tea-spoonful of powdered thyme, a salt-spoonful of mace, a salt-spoonful of ground cloves. Simmer it for ten minutes. Now make a _roux_ in a saucepan, viz.: put in one ounce of butter (size of a walnut), and, when it bubbles, sprinkle in one and a half ounces of flour (one table-spoonful). Stir it until the flour assumes a light-brown color; add the soup, and stir all together with the egg-whisk.

Make force-meat balls as follows: Chop some of the veal (used to make the soup), and about a quarter as much suet, very fine; season it with salt and pepper, and a few drops of lemon-juice; bind all together with some raw yolks of eggs and some cracker or bread crumbs; mold them into little balls about the size of a pigeon’s egg, or smaller, if preferred. Fry them in boiling lard, or boil them two or three minutes in water. Cut up also some of the meat, or rather skin and cartilaginous substance, from the cold feet, which resembles turtle meat. Now put into the soup-tureen these meat-balls, pieces of calf’s feet, and some yolks entire, or slices of hard-boiled eggs. Season the soup the last minute with a little lemon-juice and one or two table-spoonfuls of sherry.

For a small family, this will make soup enough for two dinners.

GUMBO SOUP.

Ingredients: One large chicken; one and a half pints of green gumbo, or one pint of dried gumbo; three pints of water; pepper and salt.

Cut the chickens into joints, roll them in flour, and fry or _sauté_ them in a little lard. Take out the pieces of chicken, and put in the sliced gumbo (either the green or the dried), and _sauté_ that also until it is brown. Drain well the chickens and gumbo. There should be about a table-spoonful of brown fat left in the _sauté_ pan; to this add a large table-spoonful of browned flour; then add the three pints of water, the chicken, cut into small pieces, and the gumbo. Simmer all together two hours. Strain through a colander. Serve boiled rice in another dish by the side of the soup-tureen. Having put a ladleful of the soup in the soup-plate, place a table-spoonful of rice in the centre.

GUMBO AND TOMATO SOUP.

If canned gumbo and tomatoes mixed are used, merely add to them a pint or more of stock or strong beef broth. Bring them to the boiling-point, and season with pepper and salt.

If the fresh vegetables are used, boil the tomatoes and gumbo together for about half an hour, first frying the gumbo in a little hot lard. Many, however, boil the gumbo without frying.

MULLAGATAWNY SOUP (_an Indian soup_).

Cut up a chicken; put it into a soup-kettle, with a little sliced onion, carrot, celery, parsley, and three or four cloves. Cover it with four quarts of water. Add any pieces of veal, with the bones, you may have; of course, a knuckle of veal would be the proper thing. When the pieces of chicken are nearly done, take them out, and trim them neatly, to serve with the soup. Let the veal continue to simmer for three hours.

Now fry an onion, a small carrot, and a stick of celery sliced, in a little butter. When they are a light brown, throw in a table-spoonful of flour; stir it on the fire one or two minutes; then add a good tea-spoonful of curry powder, and the chicken and veal broth. Place this on the fire to simmer the usual way for an hour. Half an hour before dinner, strain the soup, skim off all the fat, return it to the fire with the pieces of chicken, and two or three table-spoonfuls of boiled rice. This will give time enough to cook the chickens thoroughly.

OYSTER SOUP.