Take four dozen chestnuts and peel them. This will be a very long process if we attempt to take off the skins while they are raw; but in order to save time and trouble, place the chestnuts in a stew-pan with a couple of ounces of butter. Place them on a slack fire and occasionally give them a stir. Heat them gradually till the husks come off without any difficulty. Having removed all the husks, add sufficient stock or water to the chestnuts, and let them boil gently till they are tender. Then pound them in a mortar and rub them through a wire sieve. Add a very little brown roux, if the soup is to be brown, and a few drops of Parisian essence (burnt sugar), or a little white roux and a little cream if the soup is to be white. Add also a little pepper and salt, sufficient butter to make the puree taste soft, and a little powdered sugar. Fried and toasted bread should be served with the soup.
1-1/2 pints of milk, 1 egg, 1 tablespoonful of Allinson fine wheatmeal, 1-1/2 oz. of sultanas, sugar to taste. Boil 1-1/4 pints of milk, add the sugar, beat up the egg with the rest of the milk and mix the wheatmeal smooth with it; stir this into the boiling milk, add the sultanas, and let the soup simmer for 10 minutes.
Take a shoulder, have the bone taken out and then pound the meat well with a mallet. Lay it in vinegar for twenty-four hours. Heat some fat or goose oil in a deep pan or kettle which has a cover that fits air tight and lay the meat in the hot fat and sprinkle the upper side with salt, pepper and ginger. Put an onion in with the meat; stick about half a dozen cloves in the onion and add one bay leaf. Now turn the meat over and sprinkle the other side with salt, pepper and ginger. Cut up one or two tomatoes and pour some soup stock over all, and a dash of white wine. Cover closely and stew very slowly for three or four hours, turning the meat now and then; in doing so do not pierce with the fork, as this will allow the juice to escape. Do not add any water. Make enough potato pancakes to serve one or two to each person with "Wiener Braten."
Take good strong stock (see pages 27 and 30), remove all fat from the surface, and for each quart of the stock allow the white and shell of one egg and a tablespoonful of water, well whipped together. Pour this mixture into a saucepan containing the stock; place it over the fire and heat the contents gradually, stirring often to prevent the egg from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. Allow it to boil gently until the stock looks perfectly clear under the egg, which will rise and float upon the surface in the form of a thick white scum. Now remove it and pour it into a folded towel laid in a colander set over an earthen bowl, allowing it to run through without moving or squeezing it. Season with more salt if needed, and quickly serve very hot. This should be a clear amber color.
If vegetables have been boiled with the meat the stock will be sufficiently flavoured; if not, boil an onion and carrot in it and strain out. Wash the celery thoroughly and cut it into pieces one inch long, put it into the boiling stock and boil for half an hour, then sprinkle in 1 oz of sago and stir until it is transparent. Pour in the milk and bring to boiling point; it is then ready to serve. This is an excellent soup for any one suffering from or subject to rheumatism or gout.
Begin by cleaning four potatoes, two leeks, a celery, four carrots, three pounds of big tomatoes; well wash all these vegetables and cut them in dice, the tomatoes a little larger. Cook them all gently for an hour in nearly two pints of gravy, to which you have already added two thick slices of bread and a pinch of salt. Take care that your vegetables do not stick to the bottom of the pan. When all is well cooked, pass it through a fine tammy. Add more gravy, or water and meat juice; make it of the consistency that you wish. Bring it to the boil again over the fire, adding pepper and salt, and just before serving a bit of fresh butter also. It is a great improvement to add at the last minute the yolk of an egg, mixed in a little cold water, quickly stirred in when the soup is off the fire. The three recipes for seven or eight persons. [G. Kerckaert.]
Boil a quart of ordinary broad-beans in some stock or water with an onion, carrot and celery. Remove the skins when the beans are tender and rub the beans through a wire sieve. Colour the soup with a little spinach extract--(vegetable colouring, sold in bottles)--add a little piece of butter, a little powdered sugar, pepper and salt. The amount of stock or water must depend upon whether it is wished to have the puree thick or thin. Some purees are made as thick as bread sauce, while some persons prefer them much thinner. This is purely a matter of taste.
Put a quart of red haricot beans into soak overnight, and put a little piece of soda in the water to soften it. The next morning put the beans on to boil in three quarts of water, with some carrot, celery and onion, or the beans can be boiled in some stock made from these vegetables. After the beans are tender, pound them in a mortar, and then rub the whole through a wire sieve, after first removing the carrot, celery and onion. Add a teaspoonful of pounded sugar and about two ounces of butter. Fried or toasted bread should be served with the soup. If the soup is liked thin, of course more water can be added.
1 medium-sized cabbage, 1 lb. of potatoes, 1 oz. of butter, 3 pints of milk and water equal parts, pepper and salt to taste, 1 dessertspoonful of finely chopped parsley, and 2 blades of mace, and 1 dessertspoonful of Allinson fine wheatmeal. Wash the cabbage and shred it finely, peel the potatoes and cut them into small dice; boil the vegetables in the milk and water until quite tender, adding the mace, butter, and seasoning. When quite soft, rub the wheatmeal smooth with a little water, let it simmer with the soup for 5 minutes, add the parsley, and serve.
Cut a knuckle of veal, or a neck of mutton into small pieces, and put them, with the bones broken up, into a large stew-pan. Add the meat sliced from a hock or shank of ham, a quarter of a pound of butter, two large onions sliced, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a head of celery cut small. Cover the pan closely, and set it without any water over a slow fire for an hour or more, to extract the essence from the meat. Then skim it well, and pour in four quarts of boiling water, and let it boil gently till all the meat is reduced to rags. Strain it, set it again on the fire, and add a quarter of a pound of vermicelli, which has first been scalded in boiling water. Season it to your taste with salt and cayenne pepper, and let it boil five minutes. Lay a large slice of bread in the bottom of your tureen, and pour the soup upon it. For the veal or mutton you may substitute a pair of large fowls cut into pieces; always adding the ham or a few slices of bacon, without which it will be insipid. Old fowls that are fit for no other purpose will do very well for soup.
