OATMEAL (No. 572).
Bread.
Raspings.
Pease (No. 218).
Beans.
Rice (No. 321*).
Vermicelli.
Macaroni (No. 513).
Isinglass.
Potato mucilage (No. 448).
Mushrooms* (No. 439).
Champignons.
Parsnips (No. 213).
Carrots (No. 212).
Beet-roots.
Turnips (No. 208).
Garlic.
Shallots, (No. 402.)
Onions.f
* MUSHROOM CATCHUP, made as No. 439, or No 440, will answer all the purposes
of mushrooms in soup or sauce, and no store-room should be without a stock of it.
t All cooks agree in this opinion,
JVo savoury dish, without an ONION.
Sliced onions frie^ (see No. 299. and note under No. 517), with some butter and
BROTHS AND SOUPS.
Leeks.
Cucumber.*
Celery (No. 214).
CELERY SEED.|
Cress-seed,f (No. 397).
Parsley,j (N.B. to No. 261.)
Common thyme.J
Lemon thyme. J
Orange thyme.|
Knotted marjorumj (No. 417)
Mint (No. 398).
Winter savoury, t
Sweet basil! (No. 397).
Bay leaves.
Tomata.
Tarragon (No. 396).
Chervil.
Burnet (No. 399).
ALLSPICE^ (No. 412).
Cinnamon^ (No. 416*)-
Ginger (No. 411).
Nutmeg. $
Clove (No. 414).
Mace.
Black pepper.
Lemon-peel (No. 407 & 408.)
White pepper.
Lemon-juice. ||
Seville orange-juice.])*
Essence of anchovy (No.
433).
flour, til! they are browned (and rubbed through a sieve), are excellent to heighten
the colour and flavour of brown soups and sauces, and form the basis of most of the
relishes furnished by the "Restaurateurs" as we guess from the odour which
ascends from their kitchens, and salutes our olfactory nerves " en passant.' 1 ''
The older and drier the onion, the stronger its flavour ; and the cook will regulate
the quantity she uses accordingly.
* Burnet has exactly the same flavour as cucumber. See Burnet vinegar
(No. 399).
f The concentration of flavour in CELKRV and CRESS SED is such, that half a
drachm of it (finely pounded), or double the quantity if not ground or pounded,
costing only one-third of a farthing, will impregnate half a gallon of soup with
almost as much relish as two or three heads of the fresh vegetable, weighing
seven ounces, and costing twopence. This valuable acquisition to the coup-pot
deserves to be universally known. See also No. 409, essence of CELERY. This is
the most frugal relish we have to introduce to the economist : but that our judg-
ment in palates may not be called in question by our fellow-mortals, who, as the
Craniologists say, happen to have the organ of taste stronger than the organ of ac-
cumulativeness, we must confess, that, with the flavour it does not impart the deli-
cate sweetness, &c. of the fresh vegetable ; and when used, a bit of sugar should
accompany it.
I See No. 419, No. 420, and No. 459. Fresh green BASIL is seldom to be procured.
When dried, much of its fine flavour is lost, which is fully extracted by pouring
wine on the fresh leaves (see No. 397).
To procure and preserve the flavour of SWEET AND SAVOURY HERBS, celery, &c.
these must be dried, &c. at home (see No. 417* and No. 461).
$ See No. 421 and No. 457. Sir Hans Sloane, in the Phil. Trans. Abr. vol. xi. p.
667, says, " Pimento, the spice of Jamaica, or ALLSPICE, so called, from having a
flavour composed as it were of cloves, cinnamon, nutmegs, and pepper, may de-
servedly be counted the best and most temperate, miid, and innocent of common
spices, almost all of which it far surpasses, by promoting the digestion of meat, and
moderately heating and strengthening the stomach, and doing those friendly offices
to the bowels, we generally expect from spices." We have always been of the
same opinion as Sir Hans, and believe the only reason why it is the least esteemed
spice is, because it is the cheapest. " What folks get easy they never enjoy."
II If you have not fresh oranse or lemon-juice, or Coxxvell's crystallized lemou
acid, the artificial lemon juice (No. 407) is a good substitute for it.
tT The juice of the SEVILLE ORANGE is to be preferred to that of the LKMON, the
flavour is finer, and the acid milder
BROTHS AND "SOUPS. 93
The above materials, wine, and mushroom catchup (No.
i39), combined in various proportions, will make an endless
variety* of excellent broths and soups, quite as pleasant to
the palate, and as useful and agreeable to the stomach, as
consuming pheasants and partridges, and the long list of
inflammatory, piquante, and rare and costly articles, recom-
mended by former cookery-book makers, whose elaborately
compounded soups are like their made dishes ; in which,
though variety is aimed at, every thing has the same taste,
and nothing its own.
The general fault of our soups seems to be the employ-
ment of an excess of spice, and too small a portion of roots
and herbs. |
Besides the ingredients I have enumerated, many culinary
scribes indiscriminately cram into almost every dish (in such
inordinate quantities, one would suppose they were working
for the asbestos palate of an Indian fire-eater) anchovies,
garlic, J bay-leaves, and that hot, fiery spice, Cayenne^ pepper;
this, which the French call (not undeservedly) piment enragi*
(No. 404), has, somehow or other, unaccountably acquired a
character for being very wholesome; while the milder
peppers and spices are cried down, as destroying the sensi-
bility of the palate and stomach, &c., and being the source
of a thousand miscjiiefs. We should just as soon recommend
alcohol as being" less intoxicating than wine.
The best thing that has been said in praise of peppers is,
" that with all kinds of vegetables, as also with soups (espe-
cially vegetable soups) and fish, either black or Cayenne
pepper may be taken freely : they are the most useful stimu-
lants to old stomachs, and often supersede the cravings for
* The erudite editor of the " Mmanach des Gourmands," vol. ii. p. 30, tells us,
that ten folio volumes would not contain the receipts of all the soups that have been
invented in that grand school of good eating, tlie Parisian kitchen.
t " Point de Ligum.es, -point de Cuisiniere,'' is a favourite culinary adage of the
French kitchen, and deserves to be so: a better soup may be made with a couple of
pounds of meat and plenty of vegetables, than our common cooks will make you
with four times that quantity of meat ; all for want of knowing the uses of soup
roots, and sweet and savoury herbs.
t Many a good dish is spoiled, by the cook not knowing the proper use of this,
which is to give a flavour, and not to be predominant over the other ingredients : a
morsel mashed with the point of a knife, and stirred in, is enough. See No. 402.
Foreigners have strange notions of English taste, on which one of their culinary
professors has made the following comment: " the organ of taste in these ISLANDERS
is very different from our delicate palates; and sauce that would excoriate the
palate of a Frenchman, would be hardly piquante enough to make any impression
on that of an Englishman ; thus they prefer port to claret," &c. As far as concerns
our drinking, we wish there was not quite so much truth in Monsieur's remarks
but the characteristic of the French and English kitchen is sauce without substance,
and substance without sauce.
To make CAYENNE of English chillies, of infinitely finer flavour than the Indian,
see No. 404.
94 BKOTHS AND SOUPS.
strong drinks ; or diminish the quantity otherwise required. tr
See Sir A. CARLISLE on Old Age, London, 1817. A certain
portion of condiment is occasionally serviceable to excite
and keep up the languid action of feeble and advanced life :
we must increase the stimulus of our aliment as the inirrita-
bility of our system increases. We leave those who love
these things to use them as they like ; their flavours can be
very extemporaneously produced by chilly-juice, or essence
of Cayenne (No. 405), eshallot wine (No. 402), and essence
of anchovy (No. 433).
There is no French dinner without soup, which is regarded
as an indispensable overture; it is commonly followed by
" le coup cFApres" a glass of pure wine, which they consider
so wholesome after soup, that their proverb says, the phy-
sician thereby loses a fee. Whether the glass of wine be so
much more advantageous for the patient than it is for his
doctor, we know not, but believe it an excellent plan to
begin the banquet with a basin of good soup, which, by
moderating the appetite for solid animal food, is certainly a
salutiferous custom. Between the roasts and the entremets
they introduce "le coup du Milieu" or a small glass of Ja-
maica rum, or essence of punch (see No. 471), or CURACAO
(No. 474).
The introduction of liqueurs is by no means a modern
custom : our ancestors were very fond of a highly spiced
stimulus of this sort, commonly called Ipocrasse, which
generally made a part of the last course, or was taken imme-
diately after dinner.
The crafte to make ypocras*
" Take a quarte of red wyne, an ounce of synamon, and
halfe an ounce of gynger ; a quarter of an ounce of greynes
(probably of paradise") and long pepper, and halfe a pounde
of sugar ; and brose (bruise) all this (not too small), and then
put them in a bage (bag) of wullen clothe, made, therefore,
with the wynee ; and lete it hange over a vessel, till
the wynee be run thorowe." An extract from Arnold's
Chronicle.
It is a custom which almost universally prevails in the
northern parts of Europe, to present a dram or glass of
liqueur, before sitting down to dinner: this answers the
double purpose of a whet to the appetite, and an announce-
ment that dinner is on the point of being served up. Along
with the dram, are presented on a waiter, little square pieces
BROTHS AND SOUPS. 95
of cheese, slices of cold tongue, dried tongue, and dried
toast, accompanied with fresh caviar.
We again caution the cook to avoid over-seasoning, espe-
cially with predominant flavours, which, however agreeable
they may be to some, are extremely disagreeable to others.
See page 50.
Zest (No. 255), soy (No. 436), cavice, coratch, anchovy
(No. 433), curry powder (No. 455), savoury ragofit powder
(No. 457), soup herb powder (No. 459 and 460), browning
(No. 322), catchups (No. 432), pickle liquor, beer, wine, and
sweet herbs, and savoury spice (No. 460), are very convenient
auxiliaries to finish soups, &c.
The proportion of wine (formerly sack, then claret, now
Madeira or port) should not exceed a large wine-glassful to
a quart of soup. This is as much as can be admitted, without
the vinous flavour becoming remarkably predominant ; though
not only much larger quantities of wine (of which claret is
incomparably the best, because it contains less spirit and
more flavour, and English palates are less acquainted with
it), but even veritable eau de vie is ordered in many books,
and used by many (especially tavern cooks). So much are
their soups overloaded with relish, that if you will eat enough
of them they will certainly make you drunk, if they don't
make you sick : all this frequently arises from an old cook
measuring the excitability of the eater's palates by his own,
which may be so blunted by incessant tasting, that to awaken
it, requires wine instead of water, and Cayenne and garlic
for black pepper and onion.
Old cooks are as fond of spice, as children are of sugar,
and season soup, which is intended to constitute a principal
part of a meal, as highly as sauce, of which only a spoonful
may be relish enough for a plate of insipid viands. (See
obs. to No. 355.) However, we fancy these large quantities
of wine, &c. are oftener ordered in cookery books than used
in the kitchen: practical cooks have the health of their
employers too much at heart, and love "sauce d la langue" too
well to overwine their soup, &c.
Truffles and morels* are also set down as a part of most
receipts. These, in their green state, have a very rich high
flavour, and are delicious additions to some dishes, or sent
up as a stew by themselves when they are fresh and fine ;
but in this state they are not served up half a dozen times
in a year at the first tables in the kingdom : when dried
they become mere " chips in pottage," and serve only to
* We tried to make catchup of these by treating them like mushrooms (No. 439) ,
but did not succeed.
96 BROTHS AND SOUPS.
soak up good gravy, from which they take more taste than
they give.
The art of composing a rich soup is so to proportion the
several ingredients one to another, that no particular taste
be stronger than the rest, but to produce such a fine harmo-
nious relish that the whole is delightful This requires that
judicious combination of the materials which constitutes the
" chef d'ceuvre" of culinary science.
In the first place, take care that the roots and herbs be
perfectly well cleaned ; proportion the water to the quantity
of meat and other ingredients, generally a pound of meat
to a quart of water for soups, and double that quantity
for gravies. If they stew gently, little more water need
be put in at first than is expected at the end ; for when the
pot is covered quite close, and the fire gentle, very little is
wasted.
Gentle stewing is incomparably the best ; the meat is more
tender, and the soup better flavoured.
It is of the first importance that the cover of a soup-kettle
should fit very close, or the broth will evaporate before you
are aware of it. The most essential parts are soon evapo-
rated by quick boiling, without any benefit, except to fatten
the fortunate cook who inhales them. An evident proof
that these exhalations* possess the most restorative qualities
is, that THE COOK, who is in general the least eater, is, as
generally, the fattest person in the family, from continually
being surrounded by the quintessence of all the food
she dresses; whereof she sends to HER MASTER only the
fibres and calcinations, who is consequently thin, gouty, and
the victim of diseases arising from insufficient nourishment.
It is not only the fibres of the meat which nourish us, but
the juices they contain, and these are not only extracted but
exhaled, if it be boiled fast in an open vessel. A succulent
soup can never be made but in a well-closed vessel, which
preserves the nutritive parts by preventing their dissipation.
This is a fact of which every intelligent person will soon
perceive the importance.
Place your soup-pot over a moderate fire, which will make
* A poor man, being very hungry, staid so long in a cook's shop, who was dishing
up meat, that his stomach was satisfied with only the smell thereof. The choleric
cook demanded of him to pay for his breakfast ; the poor man denied having had
any, and the controversy was referred to the deciding of the next man that should
pass by, who chanced to be the most notorious idiot in the whole city : he, on the
relation of the matter, determined that the poor man's money should be put between
two empty dishes, and the cook should be recompensed with the jingling of the poor
man's money, as he was satisfied with the smell of the cook's meat." This is
affirmed by credible writers as no fable, but an undoubted truth. FULLER'S Holy
State, lib. iii. c. 12, p. 20.
BROTHS A^J> SOUPS. 97
the water hot without causing it to boil for at least half an
hour ; if the water boils immediately, it will not penetrate
the meat, and cleanse it from the clotted blood, and other
matters which ought to go off in scum ; the meat will be
hardened all over by violent heat ; will shrink up as if it was
Scorched, and give hardly any gravy : on the contrary, by
keeping the water a certain time heating without boiling, the
meat swells, becomes tender, its fibres are dilated, and it
yields a quantity of scum, which must be taken off as soon
as it appears.
It is not till after a good half hour's hot infusion that we
may mend the fire, and make the pot boil : still continue to
remove the scum; and when no more appears, put in the
vegetables, &c. and a little salt. These will cause more
scum to rise, which must be taken off immediately ; then
cover the pot very closely, and place it at a proper distance
from the fire, where it will boil very gently, and equally, anO
by no means fast.
By quick and strong boiling the volatile and finest parts of
the ingredients are evaporated, and fly off with the steam.
and the coarser parts are rendered soluble ; so you lose the
good, and get the bad.
Soups will generally take from three to six hours.
Prepare your broths and soups the evening before you
\vant them. This will give you more time to attend to the
rest of your dinner the next day ; and when the soup is cold,
the fat may be much more easily and completely removed
from the surface of it. When you decant it, take care not to
disturb the settlings at the bottom of the vessel, which are so
fine that they will escape through a sieve, or even through a
TAMIS, which is the best strainer, the soups appear smoother
and finer, and it is much easier cleaned than any sieve. If
you strain it while it is hot, pass it through a clean tamis or
napkin, previously soaked in cold water; the coldness of
this will coagulate the fat, and only suffer the pure broth to
pass through.
The full flavour of the ingredients can only be extracted
by very long and slow simmering ; during which take cart
to prevent evaporation, by covering the pot as close as pos-
sible : the best stew T pot is a digester.
Clear soups must be perfectly transparent ; thickened
soups, about the consistence of rich cream ; and remember
that thickened soups require nearly double the quantity of
seasoning. The piquance of spice, &c. is as much blunted
by the flour and butter, as the spirit of rum is by the addition
of sugar and acid : so they are less salubrious, without beiup:
98 BROTHS AND SOUPS.
more savoury, from the additional quantity of spice, &c.
that is smuggled into the stomach.
To thicken and give body to soups and sauces, the follow-
ing materials are used : they must be gradually mixed with
the soup till thoroughly incorporated with it ; and it should
have at least half an hour's gentle simmering after : if it is
at all lumpy, pass it through a tamis or a fine sieve. Bread
raspings, bread, isinglass, potato mucilage (No. 448), flour,
or fat skimmings and flour (see No. 248), or flour and butter,
barley (see No. 204), rice, or oatmeal and water rubbed
well together, (see No. 257, in which this subject is fully
explained.)
To give that glutinous quality so much admired in mock
turtle, see No. 198, and note under No. 247, No. 252, and
N.B. to No. 481.
To their very rich gravies, &c. the French add the white
meat of partridges, pigeons, or fowls, pounded to a pulp,
and rubbed through a sieve. A piece of beef, which has been
boiled to make broth, pounded in the like manner with a bit
of butter and flour, see obs. to No. 485* and No. 503,
and gradually incorporated with the gravy or soup, will
be found a satisfactory substitute for these more expensive
articles.
Meat from which broth has been made (No. 185*, and No,
252), and all its juice has been extracted, is then excellently
well prepared for POTTING, (see No. 503), and is quite as
good, or better, than that which has been baked till it is dry;*
indeed, if it be pounded, and seasoned in the usual manner,
it will be an elegant and savoury luncheon, or supper, and
costs nothing but the trouble of preparing it, which is very
little, and a relish is procured for sandwiches, &c. (No. 504)
of what heretofore has been by the poorest housekeeper
considered the perquisite of the CAT.
Keep some spare broth lest your soup-liquor waste in boil-
ing, and get too thick, and for gravy for your made dishes,
various sauces, &c. ; for many of which it is a much better
basis than melted butter.
The soup of mock turtle, and the other thickened soups,
(No. 247), will supply you with a thick gravy sauce for
poultry, jfcsh, ragouts, &c. ; and by a little management of
this sort, you may generally contrive to have plenty of good
fravies and good sauces with very little trouble or expense,
ee also Portable Soup (No. 252).
* If the gravy be not completely drained from it, the article potted will very soon
turn sour.
BROTHS AND SOUP3.
If soup is too thin or too weak, take off the cover of your
soup-pot, and let it boil till some of the watery part of it has
evaporated, or else add some of the thickening materials we
have before mentioned ; and have at hand some plain brown-
ing : see No. 322, and the 065. thereon. This simple pre-
paration is much better than any of the compounds bearing
that name ; as it colours sauce or soup without much inter-
fering with its flavour, and is a much better way of colour-
ing them than burning the surface of the meat.
When soups and gravies are kept from day to day, in ho 1 ,
weather, they should be warmed up every day, and put into
fresh-scalded tureens or pans, and placed in a cool cellar ; in
temperate weather every other day may be enough.
We hope we have now put the common cook into posses-
sion of the whole arcana of soup-making, without much
trouble to herself, or expense to her employers. It need not
be said in future that an Englishman only knows how to make
soup in his stomach, by swilling down a ,large quantity of
ale or porter, to quench the thirst occasioned by the meat he
eats. JOHN BULL may now make his soup " secundum artem"
and save his principal viscera a great deal of trouble.
*** In the following receipts we have directed the spices*
and flavouring to be added at the usual time ; but it would
greatly diminish the expense, and improve the soups, if the
agents employed to give them a zest were not put in above
fifteen minutes before the finish, and half the quantity of
spice, &c. would do. A strong heat soon dissipates the
spirit of the wine, and evaporates the aroma and flavour of
the spices and herbs, which are volatile in the heat of boiling
water.
In ordering the proportions of meat, butter, wine, &c. the
proper quantity is set down, and less will not do : we have
earned economy quite as far as possible without " spoiling
the broth for a halfpenny worth of salt."
I conclude these remarks with observing, that some per-
sons imagine that soup tends to relax the stomach. So far
from being prejudicial, we consider the moderate use of such
liquid nourishment to be highly salutary. Does not our food,
and drink, even though cold, become in a few minutes a kind
of warm soup in the stomach 1 and therefore soup, if not
oaten too hot, or in too great a quantity, and of proper qua-
lity, is attended with great advantages, especially to those
who drink but little.
* Economists recommend these to be pounded ; they certainly go farther, as they
call it ; but we think they go too far, for they go through the sieve, and make the
<*nip grouty.
100 GRAVIES AND SAUCES.
Warm fluids, in the form of soup, unite with our juices
much sooner and better than those that are cold and raw :
on this account, RESTORATIVE SOUP is the best food for those
who are enfeebled by disease or dissipation, and for old
people, whose teeth and digestive organs are impaired.
" Half subtilized to chyle, the liquid food
Readiest obeys th' assimilating powers."
After catching cold, in nervous headaches, cholics, indi-
gestions, and different kinds of cramp and spasms in the
stomach, warm broth is of excellent service.
After intemperate feasting, to give the stomach a holy day
for a day or two by a diet on mutton broth (No. 564, or No.
572), or vegetable soup (No. 218), &c. is the best way to
restore its tone. " The stretching any power to its utmost
extent weakens it. If the stomach be every day obliged to
do as much as it can, it will every day be able to do less. A
wise traveller will never force his horse to perform as much
as he can in one day upon a long journey." Father FEYJOO'S
Rules, p. 85.
To WARM SOUPS, &c. (No. 485.)
N.B. With the PORTABLE SOUP (No. 252), a pint of broth
may be made in five minutes for threepence.
CHAPTER VIII.
GRAVIES AND SAUCES.
t: The spirit of each dish, and ZKST of all,
Is what ingenious cooks the relish call ;
For though the market sends in loads of food,
They are all tasteless, till that makes them good."
KING'S Art of Cookery.
"Exparvis componere inagna."
IT is of as much importance that the cook should know
liow to make a boat of good gravy for her poultry, &c. as
that it should be sent up of proper complexion, and nicely
frothed.
In this chapter, we shall endeavour to introduce to her all
CBAVIES, AND SAUCES. 101
the materials* which give^avoiit-m^sa'ttccj^vhieliis^lfe es-