Skin and bone one and one-half pounds of codfish or haddock. Cut six large tomatoes, six large potatoes, two large onions in small pieces, add salt, pepper, three pints of water and cook one hour. Add one-half pint of cream, one-fourth cup of butter, and paprika. Cook five minutes and serve.
Take one cup of barley, two onions cut fine, one-half cup of carrots diced, one teaspoon of salt, pepper to taste; add two quarts of water and simmer two or three hours. When water has evaporated add soup; if you are making fresh soup, keep adding the "top soup," strained, to the barley and let boil until tender, one-half cup of celery root boiled with the barley improves the flavor.
This soup is a summer soup and is to be eaten cold. Cook two tablespoons of sago in one cup of boiling water until tender, add more as water boils down. Put one quart of large red or black cherries, one cup of claret, one tablespoon of broken cinnamon, one-fourth cup of sugar, and one-half lemon sliced fine, up to boil and let boil fifteen minutes; add the cooked sago, let boil up and pour very gradually over the well-beaten yolks of two eggs. Serve cold. Raspberry, strawberry, currant, gooseberry, apple, plum or rhubarb soups are prepared the same way, each cooked until tender and sweetened to taste. The juice of lemon may be used instead of the wine.
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.
Put on one three-pound chicken to boil in six quarts cold water. Take one and one-half or two pounds of beef and the same quantity thick part of veal, put in a baking-pan, set in the stove and brown quickly with just enough water to keep from burning. When brown, cut the meat in pieces, add this with all the juice it has drawn, to the chicken soup. Set on the back of the stove, and cook slowly all day. Set in a cold place, or on ice over night, and next morning after it is congealed, skim off every particle of fat. Melt and season to taste when ready to serve. Excellent for the sick. When used for the table, cut up carrots and French peas already cooked can be added while heating. If cooked on gas stove, cook over the simmering flame the same number of hours.
Make your soup stock as usual, adding a pint of washed pea-pods to the soup. Heat a tablespoon of drippings, put in the peas, with a little chopped parsley, cover closely and let simmer; keep adding soup stock when dry. When the peas are tender put into the strained soup. Season with one teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of sugar, add drop dumplings to this soup before serving.
Soak one cup of picked and cleaned dried split peas in cold water over night, drain, put on with two quarts cold water, a smoked beef-cheek or any other smoked meat; let boil slowly but steadily four hours or more; add one-half cup of celery, diced, one small onion cut fine, one teaspoon of salt, one-eighth teaspoon of pepper, cook until the meat and peas are tender. Remove meat when tender. Skim fat off the top of the soup. Heat one tablespoon of the fat in a frying pan, add one tablespoon of flour and gradually the rest of the soup. Season to taste and serve with the smoked meat, adding croutons.
Take about three pounds of fat, young beef (you may make soup stock of it first), then take out the bones, salt it well and lay it in the bottom of a kettle, put a quart of sauerkraut on top of it and let it boil slowly until tender. Add vinegar if necessary, thicken with a grated raw potato and add a little brown sugar. Some like a few caraway seeds added.
This is an accompaniment of the Yom-tov soup described above. To each tablespoon of matzoth meal take one egg. Beat the egg separately, adding a very little ground ginger, powdered cinnamon, ground almond, pepper and salt. Now stir in the matzoth meal and make into a paste with chicken fat or clarified dripping. Form this paste into small balls and boil them for twenty minutes in the Yom-tov soup.
