A Book Of Unusual Soups

Dedication

To bod ale

THIS LITTLE BOOK IS INSCRIBED IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MANY KINDNESSES

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Contents

CHAPTER

I IT III IV

Vv Ne

Chapter One The Soup Course And The Soup I

CoNCERNING THE Soup CouRsE

Tue soup is the first essential course of any dinner served in courses, whether these number two or ten times two. No formal dinner, of even the least elaborate kind, deserves the name unless there is a soup course. There is in vogue at present an attractive custom of serving some dainty, frilly form of “‘eats”’ as prelude to the opening of the dinner; thus we find canapés passed to the guests while yet in the reception room and before dinner is announced; or we find a fruit salpicon at each cover in the dining room, its bright tints adding to the decorative effect of the lighted table; but none of these frills aspires to the dignity of a course, it is incorrect so to consider them, and at adinner they should never be substituted for the soup course. At a luncheon, a meal that is not governed by such strict rules, this liberty may be taken with impunity — but at a dinner, never!

It is true that shellfish are often served for a first course at dinner, usurping the place of the soup. But these are not one of the essential and necessary courses, and the soup is.

Accompaniments to Soup

The accompaniment to the soup course is the bread stuff, in whatever form, that is served and eaten with it. This may be the bread or roll laid between the folds of the napkin, or the bread sticks, toast fingers, crackers, etc., offered or served with this course. The dishes of olives, radishes, curled celery, and so forth, which are placed on the table from the beginning, are sometimes incorrectly spoken of as accompaniments to the soup. Properly, these should not be touched until the soup has been eaten, they are what we call hors d’euvres, which means something outside of the course; and they are eaten between courses aS a means of occupying the time during the removal of one and the serving of the next. A chapter on accompaniments to soup begins on page 129.

Garnishes for Soup

The garnishing of any dish is the decoration that forms part of it as it appears at the table. It is meant to stimulate appetite through giving pleasure to the eye, for it is an accepted truth that ‘‘we eat first with our eyes.’ Some time ago we used to run to silly garnishings that violated both logic and good taste in the fact that though meant to stimulate appetite they could not be eaten. Such garnishings were frauds. Now, garnishings are ruled out if they are not edible, and they are served as part of the dish.

The garnishing of a soup may properly be its inherent coloring and clearness. Suggestions for enhancing or altering the natural color of a soup, where this seems desirable, follow the recipes; and methods of securing clearness and transparency are discussed on pages 13 and 23. Let us say that to alter the color of a soup by way of camouflage, ¢.g., by reddening an apple soup to made it look like strawberry, is not in good taste unless the coloring material justifies its use by bringing additional flavor to the soup. Thus, an apple or orange soup may be flavored with strawberry, or with checkerberry, and then the color is incidental to the flavoring, but it may not be tinted with carmine or cochineal. Yet either of the last is admissible when the natural color of the soup is red, and the added color merely deepens this.

Lists of garnishings follow the soup recipes, and how to make the more elaborate garnishes is described in Chapter Six.

The Etiquette of the Soup Course

A cold soup may be in place at each cover when the guests enter the diningroom. Ifa hot soup is served, a salpicon, a cocktail, or oysters or clams on the half-shell may be ready at the cover, and the hot soup served after the first remove. To have something ready for the guests to begin on as soon as they are seated does away with the awkwardness of a long wait before an empty plate. The soup plate

Ls is set on the handsome service plate which occupies the center of the cover and which is not removed until it is taken away with the course which immediately precedes the meat course.

Another important point of good form in the soup course is that the dominant ingredient of the soup may not be repeated in any of the following courses. For instance, a chicken soup may not be followed by roast chicken, or even chicken salad; a cucumber or tomato soup excludes these vegetables from the remainder of the meal, unless used in a mélange. An oyster soup cuts out oysters from the rest of the dinner, even an oyster stuffing; and a fruit soup had better not have the same fruit repeated in the sweet course or for the main part of the dessert.

A clear soup, one which refreshes, and whets the appetite without satisfying it, is the correct kind to serve at a formal or company dinner. It is usually unthickened, though there is no objection to the sometimes pleasing effect of “‘body”’ given by a very slight thickening, provided it does not interfere with the transparency of the soup. See Thickenings, page 21.

Where there is a large dinner party, a choice of two kinds of soup is generally offered, a clear or a cream soup. ‘The last should be as light as possible, since a soup of anything approaching heartiness will satisfy the appetite too well to permit enjoyment of the courses to follow.

A rich cream soup, a thick soup, a purée, or a soup containing oysters or clams, pieces of meat, or vegetables is quite correct to serve at luncheon, or when a light dinner follows it, for in both of these instances the function of the soup is to supply a good share of the nutriment of the meal.

Soup is always spoken of as being “‘eaten”’, never “drunk.”’ See page 100 for probable reason.

The soup should be dipped up by each individual from the farther side of the spoon, and eaten from the side nearer, thus the part of the spoon that touches the lips never goes into the soup on the plate.

The soup plate may never be tilted to get those last drops which everybody hates to leave. You have to appear quite indifferent to the appreciable portion of soup left on your plate, no matter how much you long for it.

A second helping of soup may never be offered, for good usage brands this form of hospitality as improper. The story is told of a luckless host who once invited a distinguished guest (he had praised the soup) to have another ladleful. The guest, very much shocked and surprised, collected himself sufficiently to answer, with crushing effect: *“ Not to-day!”

TE Stocks AND Soups

A stock is so well defined by Webster’s Dictionary that we cannot do better than to repeat that definition: ‘‘A liquid or jelly containing the juices and soluble parts of meat, vegetables, etc., extracted by cooking, used in making soup, gravy, etc.”” The stock itself is often used as a soup, but more correctly the stock becomes soup only when something extra is done to it. This may be clarification, — though a clarified stock is often called for. It is oftener the addition of extra ingredients, flavorings, or garnishes.

Many of the cookery books classify soups as those made with stock and those made without. This hardly seems a fundamental difference, for the use of either stock or water is often optional; and stock can be substituted for milk or cream, or for part of the juice of fruits or vegetables. A different classification has been attempted in this book, yet this too is not quite free from objections.

A brief description of the different standard varieties of soup follows.

Bouillon or Beef Stock

A bouillon is a beef broth. Bone is not a necessary ingredient. If made in the proportion of a pound of beef to a pint of water, the bouillon should jell when cold; but the usual proportion for ordinary bouillon is a pound of beef to a quart of water. The meat is cut into small pieces and allowed to stand in the water for at least half an hour before cooking. It is then brought very slowly to a boil, seasonings are added, and the whole barely simmered for five or six hours or until the meat is in rags. The bouillon is then strained and cooled.

SEASONINGS: For each quart of water add one teaspoonful of salt, one fourth teaspoonful of pepper; and at your pleasure one half teaspoonful dried sweet herbs, a sprig of parsley, a piece of bay leaf, a shred of sweet pepper or two or three peppercorns, a blade of mace, a couple of prunes; and one tablespoonful of any or all of the following vegetables, chopped in small pieces: onions, celery, carrots, shallots, leeks, mushrooms, etc. Other seasonings may be used at will. A tablespoonful of preserved quinces, or any kind of fruit jelly, goes deliciously with beef bouillon. Also a very little Worcestershire sauce, not enough to have its presence detected, gives piquancy to the bouillon.

The seasonings should not be added until after boiling has commenced ; they will then serve to lower the temperature, for it is important that the cooking shall proceed at merely simmering point, or about 180° F. A fireless cooker may be used with advantage at this point.

Brown Stock or Bouillon

Part of the meat may be sautéed on a hot pan until well browned on the outside before adding to the water; this improves the flavor, and gives the soup a rich brown color. Part of the vegetables may similarly be browned before adding to the soup kettle.

Chicken and Other Kinds of Bouillon

Other so-called bouillons, Chicken Bouillon, Tomato Bouillon, and the like, are made like beef bouillon by boiling the name-substance with water and seasonings and varying kinds and proportions of vegetables, always keeping the flavor of the chief ingredient the predominating one. The prolonged cooking is necessary only when meat is used; a vegetable bouillon does not need it.

How to Serve Bouillon

Bouillon is usually, though not necessarily, cleared before serving. (See To Clarify Stock, page 13.) It may be served as a dinner soup and in ordinary soup plates, or for luncheon in bouillon cups. There is no specific rule. Extra seasonings are always needed ; those mentioned are in the proportion for the use of bouillon as stock or foundation for other soups.

A bouillon made in part of browned meat, when cleared and allowed to form a stiff jelly, then put through a potato ricer into bouillon cups, especially glass cups, where the granules of jelly catch the light and sparkle, is an attractive and refreshing way to serve bouillon in summer.

Consommé, Stock and Soup

A consommé means a consummate or perfect achievement in soup. It used to be a twice-made soup. First, a beef bouillon was made, and then a new soup of veal and chicken or fowl was made on the basis of the beef bouillon, using this instead of water. Seasonings were added to taste, vegetables also, and sometimes both meats and vegetables were in part browned; but the great difference between bouillon and consommé was that in a bouillon the flavor of the chief ingredient should be easily recognized, while in a consommé no one flavor should predominate, but all should blend in a composite and consummate flavor to which each contributed.

A lesser difference is that bones, in the proportion of one fourth the weight of the meat, are called for in consommé, but not, as a rule, in bouillon.

Instead of the twice-made soup, we now add chicken and veal to the soup pot at the same time that we add the beef, cook them together from the start, and the result (after it is clarified) is called consommé. The following is a standard recipe.

For four quarts of stock for consommé allow: Four pounds of beef from the shank or shin, including bone

Four pounds of the leg of veal, lower part, including bone Five pounds of chicken or fowl.

The meat should be cut into pieces the size of an egg, and the bones sawed into short lengths. One fourth of the beef, and one half of the veal should be browned by putting into the soup kettle with two or three ounces of fat, preferably beef marrow, and tossing the meat over the fire until it is golden brown. The rest of the beef and veal should then be added, with the bones, a quart of hot water poured over all, the kettle covered, and the whole gently simmered for an hour or until the water is reduced to one half or less; then the fowl is added, cut as for fricassee. Next, pour over four quarts of water, and after boiling has commenced add the following seasonings :

Two to four tablespoonfuls of fine chopped, lean, cooked ham One half of one sweet pepper, shredded or there may be substituted [12]

Four teaspoonfuls of salt One teaspoonful of white pepper or three or four peppercorns and the following herbs and vegetables at the discretion of the soup-maker, with or without any others she may wish to use:

One chopped carrot

One white onion, stuck with two or three whole cloves

One stalk of celery, chopped

One small sweet turnip

One clove of garlic, or two teaspoonfuls of chopped shallots

Two small bay leaves

One tablespoonful of parsley

One teaspoonful of mixed dried herbs

One or two apples, or one quince and simmer slowly until the meat isin rags. Strain, add a few drops of tabasco or chili sauce, and a cupful of the juice from sifted tomato, squeezed through cheesecloth. Let the soup cool before placing in the refrigerator to jell, after first tasting it, and if one flavor is discerned more than another, adding something to counteract it.

TO CLARIFY STOCK, BOUILLON OR CONSOMME

Three methods are used to clarify either bouillon or consommé. First, careful skimming off of the [13 ]

scum that arises while the stock is simmering. If this is allowed to be broken into brown flakes and distributed through the liquid, it will have to be strained many times through Canton flannel. Second, clearing may be done by using the white of one egg, unbeaten, to each quart of the soup, after this has cooled and jellied. Every trace of fat is first removed from the surface, then the egg whites are mixed with the jelly until they are thoroughly incorporated, and the whole is heated very slowly, stirring gently once in a while, until the albumen begins to coagulate. Let boil five minutes, let stand for ten minutes, then strain through wet cheesecloth. If the stock has not jellied, decant the clear part on the top, and mix the egg whites with the part where the sediment has settled, then bring slowly to a boil and proceed as already described. The third method of clearing is by the use of raw, lean beef, very finely chopped, together with white of egg. One pound of lean minced beef and the whites of three eggs to four quarts of stock is the proportion called for by a famous chef, but in the home in actual practice one half pound of beef and two egg whites have proved sufficient. The beef is first beaten into the jellied soup; next, the whites of [14]

eggs, and the directions for the use of egg whites alone are then followed.!

VARIETIES OF CONSOMME

The clarified stock, with the addition of extra seasonings or garnishes, or both, is now ready to be reheated and served as soup. Sometimes — especially when tomato juice has not been used in making the stock — the juice of one lemon is added for every three pints of the soup as ready to serve, or thin slices of lemon are used for garnish.

The number of soups made from a clarified consommeé is hardly to be estimated, and new ones appear almost every week. The following list shows how easy it is to make a new soup from an old stock.

Consommeé a la Royal is a plain consommé garnished with royal custard. (See page 146.)

Consommé a UIndienne has curry powder added, one teaspoonful to a quart of the soup, or in larger or smaller proportion as you please.

Consommé a la Christophe Colomb is reddened with beet juice, berry juice, or artificial coloring.

1The removal of the brown flakes which is the result of clearing or clarifying involves the loss of more or less nutriment, for these fiakes are coagulated meat albumen.

Consommé a lEcossaise has cooked breast of mutton, cut in dice, with large white beans and barley added, by way of garnish to the clear soup.

These are only instances from the endless lists of consommés, named from the locality, or the hotel; from some holiday or anniversary; called after a popular singer, actor, painter, poet, orator, or statesman; or from a vegetable or other garnish, or named from the cook who thought of something new to put in the soup kettle.

Consommé of Game

In making this, equal parts of venison or moose meat, and hare or rabbit are substituted for the beef and veal of ordinary consommé, and game birds such as partridge or pheasant are used instead of chicken or fowl. Extra herbs are added to the seasoning, also more mushrooms, and if onion is added it is first chopped and well browned. Tamarinds may be substituted for quince or other preserves, and pounded sorrel for lemon juice.

White Stock

This is made of equal parts of veal and poultry, with light-colored vegetables only, such as celery and [ 16 ]

onion, etc., seasonings that will not color the soup, and none of the meat is browned. Varieties of White Stock are: Veal Stock, made wholly of veal and bones; and Chicken Stock made all of chicken.

Brown Stock

A bouillon may serve as a brown stock, especially if some of the beef has been browned. Any kind of meat, if in part well browned, makes a brown stock; and where vegetables are used, if these too are in part browned, the color will be deepened.

Meat Stocks Made Easy

The long, slow process of making stock from meat and then clarifying the same may all be avoided by the use of bouillon cubes or meat extract, which furnish a clear, brown or amber, meat-flavored liquid by the mere addition of hot water. But the flavor is not the same as that resulting from the long patience of stock-making. However, bothmeat extracts and bouillon cubes are excellent substitutes for stock when a great variety of other ingredients is used in the soup, or when their flavor is disguised by the addition of celery, tomato, onion, or other vegetables of pronounced flavor.

Fish Stock

Fish stock is used as the basis for soups made of shellfish, or for vegetable soups for fast days (maigre soups). Or it is very effectively used, with extra thickening, for purées of any kind of fish. The following is an excellent recipe for fish stock.

Melt in a soup kettle six tablespoonfuls of butter or fat from breakfast bacon, add one half pound of chopped white onions, and cook until onions are soft. If the onion flavor is disliked, continue the cooking until onions are browned all through ; to this end they should be chopped very fine. Other vegetables may be added as for consommé, but not so great a variety or in so large quantities, or the flavor of the fish will be overcome. Next add four pounds of cut-up fish, or the heads and bones of fish will serve very well. Fat fish like eel, mackerel, salmon, herring, and strong-tasting fish like cod are best not used; but haddock, flounder, or other delicate white fish are very good. With the fish add a small bunch of parsley and one lemon cut in slices. Shake the pot over the fire for a few minutes or until the fish begins to brown, then add one cupful of water and one of white grape juice and cook, uncovered, until liquid is reduced one half. Pour into the pot four quarts of cold water or of court bouillon (page 20), and cook for not more than twenty minutes after the water boils. Long cooking, which develops the flavor of meat stock, spoils the more delicate flavor of fish stock.

Fish stock may be clarified by white of egg, or by careful skimming.

Vegetable Stock

A stock made of vegetables alone is sometimes used to serve as foundation for a soup maigre or meatless soup; sometimes it is used with meat or fish. Three or four different kinds of vegetables of decided flavor are used, and the proportion is a pound of the vegetables, mixed, to a quart of water, with other seasonings in abundance. An example of vegetable stock is the following :

a ears | all chopped and cooked in three pared On tmatocs | quarts of water until very soft

One pound of celery

Two good-sized onions, grated and cooked until well browned in a cupful of olive oil or in any well-flavored fat with a high melting point, are added to the kettle, with seasoning of bay leaf, salt, and pepper, celery or mustard seed, a spoonful of mixed dried herbs, one or two tablespoonfuls of tomato catsup, perhaps half a cupful of currant or apple jelly; a cupful of sliced okra pods are put into the kettle after the first ingredients are soft, and cooked for half an hour longer. The stock is then strained and the liquid cooled and stored to use as a foundation ; or it may be used at once for a maigre soup if thickened with flour in the proportion of one fourth to one half cupful to every quart of stock.

Court Bouillon

A court bouillon is an acid-flavored stock made from vegetables and sometimes fish bones, and it is very highly seasoned. Its chief use is as a medium for the boiling of fish, to enhance its flavor. It may be used again and again if kept in a cool place, since its flavor improves with use, and it does not readily spoil, but if used as a basis for soup it should be mixed with water, half-and-half, or only half a cup-

[ 20 | ful of vinegar should be used in the making. A standard recipe follows. |

Chop two heads of celery, three or four medium-sized carrots, one fourth of one sweet green pepper, one parsnip, and a few sprigs of parsley, with, if you like, one or two tomatoes, and cook in one fourth cupful of fat until they just begin to turn brown. Add one onion stuck with four cloves, one cupful of vinegar, two quarts of water, and seasoning of salt to taste, and let the whole boil for half an hour after boiling has begun. Strain before using.

Fish bones and trimmings may be added to the kettle if convenient, and the court bouillon then becomes another variety of fish stock. Also, after it has been used once or oftener for boiling fish, it becomes a fish stock, and may be used for soup or sauce.

Thickenings for Soup

To thicken a soup is often a matter of choice, and may or may not be done at the will of the maker. But quite as often it is essential to the success of the soup. All cream soups need thickening; so do purées where the chief ingredient does not thicken, as in Salmon Purée (p. 117), Cauliflower and Tomato

Purée (p. 80), and others. In general, thickening is called for whenever the soup holds small particles of ingredients which should be held in suspension or partial suspension, rather than being allowed to form a precipitate in the bottom of the tureen. Asparagus Soup (p. 79) and Maigre Soup (p. 94) are examples of the benefits of thickening, — though this is a matter of taste. Also a matter of taste is the slight thickening of a clear soup — especially of a fruit soup — where its ‘‘body”’ gives a smoothness and substance that are agreeable to the palate.

Flour and cornstarch are the usual thickening agents where the dull or cloudy appearance or slight opacity they give to the soup is not objectionable. This cloudiness or grayness is not perceptible in soups made either wholly or in part on a milk foundation; and as a rule where there is a great deal of meat, fish, vegetables, or unclarified stock in the soup, it will stand looking cloudy.

A less well-known thickening is the finely ground oatmeal grits. This adds to the soup a nutty and delicious flavor, and if you once form the habit of using it you will foster it as one of those habits which tend to the greatest good to the greatest number for the greatest length of time.

Thickenings for Ordinary Soups

For a quart of soup, the following substances and amounts produce a slight but perceptible thickening. Some persons use only one half the given quantity.

Flour 4 tablespoonfuls

Grits 4 tablespoonfuls Cornstarch 3 tablespoonfuls

Thickenings for Clear Soups

The easiest to use is arrowroot. It makes a clear, transparent thickening, — colorless, odorless, tasteless. The genuine Bermuda arrowroot has to be used, and its cost is a difficulty. Therefore the minute tapioca, first soaked in water and then cooked either in the soup or in a double boiler until dissolved, may be successfully substituted for arrowroot, at the cost of more work and less money. Sago, similarly treated, may be used instead of tapioca; and there is now on the market a flaked tapioca which requires no previous soaking, dissolves quickly, and can be added directly to the soup kettle. The following are the common proportions for one quart of soup.

Arrowroot 2 tablespoonfuls Tapioca, minute or flaked 4 tablespoonfuls Sago 4 tablespoonfuls

As with the other thickenings, some persons prefer to use one half the given quantities.

Names Applied to Soups

Cream Soups. These are usually made of milk, thickened with flour and enriched with butter. A tablespoonful of each to a cupful of milk is the usual proportion, and chopped or sifted meats or vegetables, or whole or chopped oysters, cubes of meat or poultry, cut-up vegetables or fish, fruits, flavorings, and seasonings are added pretty much as one pleases. Real cream is sometimes used, either wholly or in part, or whipped for a garnish.

Veloutés (Velvet soups). When cream is substituted for milk, the so-called Cream Soup is promoted to the rank of Velouté.

Purées. A purée is a very thick soup — as thick as a cake batter —and its strict definition demands that the thickening agent shall be its chief ingredient. The true purée is therefore made of starchy vegetables such as potatoes, beans, peas, and lentils; or of grains such as rice or corn, on the basis of milk or cream, or rich stock. But our present-day purées are made of anything one likes— meat, poultry, fish, green or succulent vegetables, fruits — whether these thicken or not, and thickening of any preferred starchy ingredient is used to give the proper consistency, the only requirement being that the name-ingredient shall be used in such quantity as to disguise the presence of the foundation of thickened liquid.

Purées are usually very rich and nutritious, and are served in small portions —not more than three fourths of a standard cupful — and in bouillon cups.

Bisques. A bisque is properly a soup of pounded or sifted shellfish, the kind that give a reddish tint, such as lobster, shrimps, etc. The red color is enhanced by the addition of the pounded coral of the lobster, and the basis of the soup is a thickened liquid something between the purée and the cream soup in consistency.

A thick soup made of sifted tomato pulp is properly called a Mock Bisque. Oysters and clams, first cooked and chopped or pressed through a colander, then added to a thickened foundation, the whole slightly tinted with red, make a so-called bisque. The large field mushrooms, chopped or sifted and added to a thick foundation, are served under the name Mushroom Bisque.

MEAT SOUPS

Venison Soup

Cut into pieces the size of an egg four pounds of venison; put three-fourths of the pieces in a soup kettle, and add two quarts of cold water. Let all stand for half an hour. Meantime cook the remaining pound of cut-up pieces on a very hot pan with one half pound of lean bacon until both are well browned. Add to soup kettle, bring to a boil, then simmer for three hours. Add one cupful of melted wild grape jelly, and season with a very little cayenne, a few drops of tabasco, and a tablespoonful of Worcestershire or tomato catsup if either is desired. This soup may or may not be thickened a little. Eight servings.

ACCOMPANIMENTS. Toasted crackers with grated cheese are especially good.

GARNISHES. Cubes of celery, chopped green celery tops, or finely ground pecan nuts, sprinkled over it the last thing, are appropriate garnishes.

English Midland Soup

Put through the food chopper one pound of beef from the shank, and one pound of each of the following vegetables: Carrots, beets, onions, green peas, lettuce or Swiss chard, and tomatoes. Mix all well, put into a large size bean pot, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, and cover the pot as tightly as possible by tying parchment paper over the top. Place in a moderate oven for at least two hours — three are better — or the pot may be heated through in the oven and cooked in the fireless overnight. When done, strain the contents through a colander, pressing the meat and vegetables to extract the juices, but not sifting them through. A piece of coarse net or cheesecloth may be placed in the bottom of the colander before the contents of the pot are turned into it. Next pour, one at a time, two or three cupfuls of water over the residue left in the colander, stirring it up and pressing again to extract all possible juices. Add seasoning of extra salt and pepper, and reheat before serving. There should be six servings if the directions are followed exactly.