In making soup, bring the cold water in the soup pot with the meat and bones to a boil slowly, and let it simmer for hours, never boiling and never ceasing to simmer. If clear soup is not desired soup may be allowed to boil. Bones, both fresh and those partly cooked, meats of all kinds, vegetables of various sorts, all may be added to the stock pot, to give flavor and nutriment to the soup. One quart of cold water is used to each pound of meat for soup; to four quarts of water, one each of vegetables of medium size and a bouquet. Make the soup in a closely covered kettle used for no other purpose. Remove scum when it first appears; after soup has simmered for four or five hours add vegetables and a bouquet. Parsley wrapped around peppercorn, bayleaf, six cloves and other herbs, excepting sage, and tied, makes what is called a bouquet and may be easily removed from the soup. Root celery, parsley, onions, carrots, asparagus and potatoes are the best vegetables to add to the soup stock. Never use celery leaves for beef soup. You may use celery leaves in potato soup, but sparingly, with chopped parsley leaves. Vegetables, spices and salt should always be added the last hour of cooking. Strain into an earthen bowl and let cool uncovered, by so doing stock is less apt to ferment. A cake of fat forms on the stock when cold, which excludes air and should not be removed until stock is used. To remove fat run a knife around edge of bowl and carefully remove the same. A small quantity will remain, which should be removed by passing a cloth, wrung out of hot water, around edge and over top of stock. This fat should be clarified and used for drippings. If time cannot be allowed for stock to cool before using, take off as much fat as possible with a spoon, and remove the remainder by passing tissue or any absorbent paper over the surface. Bouillon should always be thickened with yolks of eggs, beat up with a spoon of cold water. Ordinary beef soup or tomato soup may be thickened with flour. To do this properly heat a scant spoon of soup drippings, stir in briskly a spoon of flour, and add gradually a large quantity of soup to prevent it becoming lumpy.
Cut up two young chickens into good-sized pieces; put them in a saucepan with just enough water to cover them well. When boiled quite tender, season with salt and pepper; let them simmer ten or fifteen minutes longer; then take the chicken from the broth and remove all the large bones. Place the meat in a well-buttered pudding dish, season again, if necessary, adding a few bits of butter. Pour over this the following batter:-- Eight eggs beaten light and mixed with one quart of milk, three tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a teaspoonful of salt and two large teaspoonfuls of baking powder, added to enough sifted flour to make a batter like griddle-cakes. Bake one hour in a moderate oven. Make a gravy of the broth that remained from the cooking of the chicken, adding a tablespoonful of flour stirred into a third of a cup of melted butter; let it boil up, putting in more water if necessary. Serve hot in a gravy boat with the pudding.
Get a turkey that has not been frozen (freezing makes it tear easily). See that every part is whole; one with a little break in the skin will not do. Cut off the legs, in the joints, and the tips of the wings. Do not draw the bird. Place it on its breast, and with a small, sharp boning knife, cut in a straight line through to the bone, from the neck down to that part of the bird where there is but little flesh, where it is all skin and fat. Begin at the neck, and run the knife between the flesh and the bones until you come to the wing. Then cut the ligaments that hold the bones together and the tendons that hold the flesh to the bones. With the thumb and fore-finger, press the flesh from the smooth bone. When you come to the joint, carefully separate the ligaments and remove the bone. Do not try to take the bone from the next joint, as that is not in the way when carving, and it gives a more natural shape to the bird. Now begin at the wish-bone, and when that is free from the flesh, run the knife between the sides and the flesh, always using the fingers to press the meat from the smooth bones, as, for instance, the breast-bone and lower part of the sides. Work around the legs the same as you did around the wings, always using great care at the joints not to cut the skin. Drawing out the leg bones turns that part of the bird inside out. Turn the bird over, and proceed in the same manner with the other side. When all is detached, carefully draw the skin from the breast-bone; then run the knife between the fat and bone at the rump, leaving the small bone in the extreme end, as it holds the skewers. Carefully remove the flesh from the skeleton, and turn it right side out again. Rub into it two table-spoonfuls of salt and a little pepper, and fill with dressing. Sew up the back and neck and then the vent. Truss the same as if not boned. Take a strong piece of cotton cloth and pin the bird firmly in it, drawing very tight at the legs, as this is the broadest place, and the shape will not be good unless this precaution be taken. Steam three hours, and then place on a buttered tin sheet, which put in a baking pan. Baste well with butter, pepper, salt and flour. Roast one hour, basting every ten minutes, and twice with stock. When cold, remove the skewers and strings, and garnish with aspic jelly, cooked beets and parsley. To carve: First cut off the wings, then about two thick slices from the neck, where it will be quite fat, and then cut in thin slices. Serve jelly with each plate. Filling for a turkey weighing eight pounds: The flesh of one chicken weighing four pounds, one pound of clear veal, half a pound of clear salt pork, one small capful of cracker crumbs, two eggs, one cupful of broth, two and a half table-spoonfuls of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, one teaspoonful of summer savory, one of sweet majoram, one of thyme, half a spoonful of sage, and, if you like, one table-spoonful of capers, one quart of oysters and two table-spoonfuls of onion juice. Have the meat uncooked and free from any tough pieces. Chop very fine. Add seasoning, crackers, etc., mix thoroughly, and use. If oysters are used, half a pound of the veal must be omitted. Where one cannot eat veal, use chicken instead. Veal is recommended for its cheapness. Why people choose boned turkey instead of a plain roast turkey or chicken, is not plain, for the flavor is not so good; but at the times and places where boned birds are used, it is a very appropriate dish. That is, at suppers, lunches and parties, where the guests are served standing, it is impracticable to provide anything that cannot be broken with a fork or spoon; therefore, the advantage of a boned turkey, chicken, or bird, is apparent. One turkey weighing eight pounds before being boned, will serve thirty persons at a party, if there are, also, say oysters, rolls, coffee, ices, cake and cream. If the supper is very elaborate the turkey will answer for one of the dishes for a hundred or more persons. If nothing more were gained in the boning of a bird, the knowledge of the anatomy and the help this will give in carving, pay to bone two or three chickens. It is advisable to bone at least two fowls before trying a turkey, for if you spoil them there is nothing lost, as they make a stew or soup. Aspic jelly: One and a half pints of clear stock--beef if for amber jelly, and chicken or veal if for white; half a box of gelatine, the white of one egg, half a cupful of cold water, two cloves, one large slice of onion, twelve pepper-corns, one stalk of celery, salt. Soak gelatine two hours in the cold water. Then put on with other ingredients, the white of the egg being beaten with one spoonful of the cold stock. Let come to a boil, and set back where it will just simmer for twenty minutes. Strain through a napkin, turn into a mould or shallow dish, and put away to harden. The jelly can be made with the bones of the turkey and chicken, by washing them, covering with cold water and boiling down to about three pints; by then straining and setting away to cool, and in the morning skimming off all the fat and turning off the clear stock. The bones may, instead, be used for a soup.
em in a stewpan with the butter. Cut the vegetables in slices and add them with the herbs. Put in one-half pint of water, and stir it over a quick fire till the juices are drawn. Fill up the stewpan with water, and, when boiling, add the salt. Skim well, and simmer very gently for four hours, or until the tails are tender. Take them out, skim and strain the soup, thicken with flour, and flavor with the catsup and port wine. Put back the tails, simmer for five minutes and serve. Another way to make an appetizing ox-tail soup. You should begin to make it the day before you wish to eat the soup. Take two tails, wash clean, and put in a kettle with nearly a gallon of cold water; add a small handful of salt; when the meat is well cooked, take out the bones. Let this stand in a cool room, covered, and next day, about an hour and a half before dinner, skim off the crust or cake of fat which has risen to the top. Add a little onion, carrot, or any vegetables you choose, chopping them fine first; summer savory may also be added.
Like most soups that are either sweet or sour, this is a German recipe. Put a piece of butter, the size of a large egg, into a saucepan. Let it melt, then mix it with a tablespoonful of flour, and stir smoothly until it is lightly browned. Add gradually two pints of water, a pound of black cherries, picked and washed, and a few cloves. Let these boil until the fruit is quite tender, then press the whole through a sieve. After straining, add a little port, if wine is allowed--but the soup will be very nice without this addition--half a teaspoonful of the kernels, blanched and bruised, a tablespoonful of sugar, and a few whole cherries. Let the soup boil again until the cherries are tender, and pour all into a tureen over toasted sippets, sponge-cakes, or macaroons.
Begin this soup the day before it is wanted. Take a good piece of fresh beef that has been newly killed: any substantial part will do that has not too much fat about it: a fore leg is very good for this purpose. Wash it well. Cut off all the meat, and break up the bones. Put the meat and the bones into a large pot, very early in the day, so as to allow eight or nine hours for its boiling. Proportion the water to the quantity of meat--about a pint and a half to each pound. Sprinkle the meat with a small quantity of pepper and salt. Pour on the water, hang it over a moderate fire, and boil it slowly; carefully skimming off all the fat that rises to the top, and keeping it closely covered, except when you raise the lid to skim it. Do not, on any account, put in additional water to this soup while it is boiling; and take care that the boiling goes steadily on, as, if it stops, the soup will be much injured. But if the fire is too great, and the soup boils too fast, the meat will become hard and tough, and will not give out its juices. After the meat is reduced to rags, and the soup sufficiently boiled, remove the pot from the fire, and let it stand in the corner for a quarter of an hour to settle. Then take it up, strain it into a large earthen pan, cover it, and set it away in a cool dry place till next day. Straining it makes it clear and bright, and frees it from the shreds of meat and bone. If you find that it jellies in the pan, (which it will if properly made,) do not disturb it till you are ready to put it into the pot for the second boiling, as breaking the jelly may prevent it from keeping well. On the following morning, boil separately, carrots, turnips, onions, celery, and whatever other vegetables you intend to thicken the soup with. Tomatas will greatly improve it. Prepare them by taking off the skin, cutting them into small pieces, and stewing them in their own juice till they are entirely dissolved. Put on the carrots before any of the other vegetables, as they require the longest time to boil. Or you may slice and put into the soup a portion of the vegetables you are boiling for dinner; but they must be nearly done before you put them in, as the second boiling of the soup should not exceed half an hour, or indeed, just sufficient time to heat it thoroughly. Scrape off carefully from the cake of jellied soup whatever fat or sediment may still be remaining on it; divide the jelly into pieces, and about half an hour before it is to go to table, put it into a pot, add the various vegetables, (having first sliced them,) in sufficient quantities to make the soup very thick; hang it over the fire and let it boil slowly, or simmer steadily till dinner time. Boiling it much on the second day will destroy the flavour, and render it flat and insipid. For this reason, in making fine, clear beef soup, the vegetables are to be cooked separately. They need not be put in the first day, as the soup is to be strained; and on the second day, if put in raw, the length of time required to cook them would spoil the soup by doing it too much. We repeat, that when soup has been sufficiently boiled on the first day, and all the juices and flavour of the meat thoroughly extracted, half an hour is the utmost it requires on the second. Carefully avoid seasoning it too highly. Soup, otherwise excellent, is frequently spoiled by too much pepper and salt. These condiments can be added at table, according to the taste of those that are eating it; but if too large a proportion of them is put in by the cook, there is then no remedy, and the soup may by some be found uneatable. Many persons prefer boiling all the vegetables in the soup on the first day, thinking that they improve its flavour. This may be done in common soup that is not to be strained, but is inadmissible if you wish it to be very bright and clear. Also, unless you have a garden and a profusion of vegetables of your own, it is somewhat extravagant, as when strained out they are of no further use, and are therefore wasted.
Prepare a matzoth dough as for the soup kleis. Make round flat cakes of it with your hands, and fill with cooked prunes (having previously removed the kernels). Put one of the flat cakes over one that is filled, press the edges firmly together and roll until perfectly round. Boil them in salt water--the water must boil hard before you put them in. Heat some goose fat, cut up an onion in it and brown; pour this over the kleis and serve hot. The kleis may be filled with a cheese mixture. Use butter in that case.
1-1/2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons shortening 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 cups chopped, cooked meat 1 teaspoon onion juice 1/2 cup gravy or soup stock Salt and pepper 3/4 cup milk and water
Mix flour, salt and baking powder. Rub in shortening, and mix to dough with milk and water. Roll out to quarter of an inch thickness, bake in layer cake tins. Put together with the chopped meat mixed with the onion and seasoning, and heated hot with the gravy or stock. If stock is used, thicken with a tablespoon of flour mixed with one of butter, or butter substitute. Serve as soon as put together. Cold cooked fish heated in cream sauce may be used for a filling instead of the meat.
Two pounds of soup fat rendered a day or two before using, three pints of flour, one teaspoon of salt, two-thirds cup of granulated sugar, one teaspoon of baking-powder, two teaspoons of vanilla, flour. Knead well, add enough beer to be able to roll. Let it stand two hours. Roll, cut in long strips three inches wide. Fill with the following: One and one-half cups of brown sugar, two tablespoons of honey, two pounds of walnuts chopped fine, one pound of stewed prunes chopped fine, two cups of sponge cake crumbs, juice of one lemon, spices to taste, few raisins and currants, and a little citron chopped fine; add a little wine, a little chicken schmalz; heat a few minutes. You may use up remnants of jellies, jams, marmalades, etc. Put plenty of filling in centre of strips, fold over, with a round stick (use a wooden spoon), press the dough firmly three inches apart, then with a knife cut them apart. They will be the shape of the fig bars you buy. Grease the pan and the top of cakes, and bake in moderate oven. They will keep--the longer the better.
Pare, core, and slice six or eight large pears. Put them into a stew-pan with a penny roll cut into thin slices, half a dozen cloves, and three pints of water. Let them simmer until they are quite tender, then pass them through a coarse sieve, and return the puree to the saucepan, with two ounces of sugar, the strained juice of a fresh lemon, and half a tumblerful of light wine. Let the soup boil five or ten minutes, when it will be ready for serving. Send some sponge-cake to table with this dish.
