The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual Part 43

Wash two heads of celery;[204-+] cut it, and put it in, with two onions peeled, and a sprig of savoury, or sweet marjoram, or lemon-thyme; set it on the trivet, and let it simmer very gently over a slow fire, stirring it every quarter of an hour (to keep the pease from sticking to, and burning at, the bottom of the soup-pot) till the pease are tender, which will be in about three hours. Some cooks now slice a head of celery, and half an ounce of onions, and fry them in a little b.u.t.ter, and put them into the soup till they are lightly browned; then work the whole through a coa.r.s.e hair-sieve, and then through a fine sieve, or (what is better) through a tamis, with the back of a wooden spoon: put it into a clean stew-pan, with half a tea-spoonful of ground black pepper;[204-++] let it boil again for ten minutes, and if any fat arises, skim it off.

Send up on a plate, toasted bread cut into little pieces a quarter of an inch square, or cut a slice of bread (that has been baked two days) into dice, not more than half an inch square; put half a pound of perfectly clean drippings or lard into an iron frying-pan; when it is hot, fry the bread; take care and turn it about with a slice, or by shaking of the pan as it is frying, that it may be on each side of a delicate light brown, (No. 319;) take it up with a fish-slice, and lay it on a sheet of paper to drain the fat: be careful that this is done nicely: send these up in one side-dish, and dried and powdered mint or savoury, or sweet marjoram, &c. in another.

Those who are for a double relish, and are true lovers of "_haut gout_,"

may have some bacon cut into small squares like the bread, and fried till it is crisp, or some little lumps of boiled pickled pork; or put cuc.u.mber fried into this soup, as you have directions in No. 216.

_Obs._ The most economical method of making pease soup, is to save the bones of a joint of roast beef, and put them into the liquor in which mutton, or beef, or pork, or poultry, has been boiled, and proceed as in the above receipt. A hock, or shank-bone of ham, a ham-bone, the root of a tongue, or a red or pickled herring, are favourite additions with some cooks; others send up rice or vermicelli with pease soup.[205-*]

N.B. To make pease soup extempore, see No. 555.

If you wish to make soup the same day you boil meat or poultry, prepare the pease the same as for pease pudding (No. 555), to which you may add an onion and a head of celery, when you rub the pease through the sieve; instead of putting eggs and b.u.t.ter, add some of the liquor from the pot to make it a proper thickness; put it on to boil for five minutes, and it is ready.

_Obs._ This latter is by far the easiest and the best way of making pease soup.

Pease soup may be made savoury and agreeable to the palate, without any meat, by incorporating two ounces of fresh and nicely-clarified beef, mutton, or pork drippings (see No. 83), with two ounces of oatmeal, and mixing this well into the gallon of soup, made as above directed: see also No. 229.

_Pease Soup and pickled Pork._--(No. 220.)

A couple of pounds of the belly part of pickled pork will make very good broth for pease soup, if the pork be not too salt; if it has been in salt more than two days, it must be laid in water the night before it is used.

Put on the ingredients mentioned in No. 218, in three quarts of water; boil gently for two hours, then put in the pork, and boil very gently till it is done enough to eat; this will take about an hour and a half, or two hours longer, according to its thickness; when done, wash the pork clean in hot water, send it up in a dish, or cut it into mouthfuls, and put it into the soup in the tureen, with the accompaniments ordered in No. 218.

_Obs._ The meat being boiled no longer than to be done enough to be eaten, you get excellent soup, without any expense of meat destroyed.

"In Canada, the inhabitants live three-fourths of the year on pease soup, prepared with salt pork, which is boiled till the fat is entirely dissolved among the soup, giving it a rich flavour."--The Hon. J.

COCHRANE'S _Seaman's Guide_, 8vo. 1797, p. 31.

_Plain Pease Soup._--(No. 221.)

To a quart of split pease, and two heads of celery, (and most cooks would put a large onion,) put three quarts of broth or soft water; let them simmer gently on a trivet over a slow fire for three hours, stirring up every quarter of an hour to prevent the pease burning at the bottom of the soup-kettle (if the water boils away, and the soup gets too thick, add some boiling water to it); when they are well softened, work them through a coa.r.s.e sieve, and then through a fine sieve or a tamis; wash out your stew-pan, and then return the soup into it, and give it a boil up; take off any sc.u.m that comes up, and it is ready.

Prepare fried bread, and dried mint, as directed in No. 218, and send them up with it on two side dishes.

_Obs._ This is an excellent family soup, produced with very little trouble or expense.

Most of the receipts for pease soup are crowded with ingredients which entirely overpower the flavour of the pease. See No. 555.

_Asparagus Soup._--(No. 222.)

This is made with the points of asparagus, in the same manner as the green pease soup (No. 216 or 17) is with pease: let half the asparagus be rubbed through a sieve, and the other cut in pieces about an inch long, and boiled till done enough, and sent up in the soup: to make two quarts, there must be a pint of heads to thicken it, and half a pint cut in; take care to preserve these green and a little crisp. This soup is sometimes made by adding the asparagus heads to common pease soup.

_Obs._ Some cooks fry half an ounce of onion in a little b.u.t.ter, and rub it through a sieve, and add it with the other ingredients; the _haut gout_ of the onion will entirely overcome the delicate flavour of the asparagus, and we protest against all such combinations.

_Maigre, or Vegetable Gravy Soup._[207-*]--(No. 224.)

Put into a gallon stew-pan three ounces of b.u.t.ter; set it over a slow fire; while it is melting, slice four ounces of onion; cut in small pieces one turnip, one carrot, and a head of celery; put them in the stewpan, cover it close, let it fry till they are lightly browned; this will take about twenty-five minutes: have ready, in a sauce-pan, a pint of pease, with four quarts of water; when the roots in the stew-pan are quite brown, and the pease come to a boil, put the pease and water to them; put it on the fire; when it boils, skim it clean, and put in a crust of bread about as big as the top of a twopenny loaf, twenty-four berries of allspice, the same of black pepper, and two blades of mace; cover it close, let it simmer gently for one hour and a half; then set it from the fire for ten minutes; then pour it off very gently (so as not to disturb the sediment at the bottom of the stew-pan) into a large basin; let it stand (about two hours) till it is quite clear: while this is doing, shred one large turnip, the red part of a large carrot, three ounces of onion minced, and one large head of celery cut into small bits; put the turnips and carrots on the fire in cold water, let them boil five minutes, then drain them on a sieve, then pour off the soup clear into a stew-pan, put in the roots, put the soup on the fire, let it simmer gently till the herbs are tender (from thirty to forty minutes), season it with salt and a little Cayenne, and it is ready.

You may add a table-spoonful of mushroom catchup (No. 439).

_Obs._ You will have three quarts of soup, as well coloured, and almost as well flavoured, as if made with gravy meat.

N.B. To make this it requires nearly five hours. To fry the herbs requires twenty-five minutes; to boil all together, one hour and a half; to settle, at the least, two hours; when clear, and put on the fire again, half an hour more.

_FISH SOUPS._--(No. 225.)

_Eel Soup._

To make a tureenful, take a couple of middling-sized onions, cut them in half, and cross your knife over them two or three times; put two ounces of b.u.t.ter into a stew-pan when it is melted, put in the onions, stir them about till they are lightly browned; cut into pieces three pounds of unskinned eels, put them into your stew-pan, and shake them over the fire for five minutes; then add three quarts of boiling water, and when they come to a boil, take the sc.u.m off very clean; then put in a quarter of an ounce of the green leaves (not dried) of winter savoury, the same of lemon thyme, and twice the quant.i.ty of parsley, two drachms of allspice, the same of black pepper; cover it close, and let it boil gently for two hours; then strain it off, and skim it very clean. To thicken it, put three ounces of b.u.t.ter into a clean stew-pan; when it is melted, stir in as much flour as will make it of a stiff paste, then add the liquor by degrees; let it simmer for ten minutes, and pa.s.s it through a sieve; then put your soup on in a clean stew-pan, and have ready some little square pieces of fish fried of a nice light brown, either eels, soles, plaice, or skate will do; the fried fish should be added about ten minutes before the soup is served up. Forcemeat b.a.l.l.s (Nos. 375, 378, &c.) are sometimes added.

_Obs._ Excellent fish soups may be made with a cod's skull, or skate, or flounders, &c. boiled in no more water than will just cover them, and the liquor thickened with oatmeal, &c.

_Cheap Soups._--(No. 229.)

Among the variety of schemes that have been suggested for "bettering the condition of the poor," a more useful or extensive charity cannot be devised, than that of instructing them in economical cookery: it is one of the most-important objects to which the attention of any real well-wisher to the public interest can possibly be directed.

The best and cheapest method of making a nouris.h.i.+ng soup, is least known to those who have most need of it; it will enable those who have small incomes and large families to make the most of the little they possess, without pinching their children of that wholesome nourishment which is necessary for the purpose of rearing them up to maturity in health and strength.

The labouring cla.s.ses seldom purchase what are called the coa.r.s.er pieces of meat, because they do not know how to dress them, but lay out their money in pieces for roasting, &c., of which the bones, &c. enhance the price of the actual meat to nearly a s.h.i.+lling per pound, and the diminution of weight by roasting amounts to 32 per cent. This, for the sake of saving time, trouble, and fire, is generally sent to an oven to be baked; the nouris.h.i.+ng parts are evaporated and dried up, its weight is diminished nearly one-third, and all that a poor man can afford to purchase with his week's earnings, perhaps does not half satisfy the appet.i.tes of himself and family for a couple of days.

If a hard-working man cannot get a comfortable meal at home, he soon finds his way to the public-house, the poor wife contents herself with tea and bread and b.u.t.ter, and the children are half starved.

DR. KITCHINER'S receipt to make a cheap, nutritive, and palatable soup, fully adequate to satisfy appet.i.te and support strength, will open a new source to those benevolent housekeepers who are disposed to relieve the poor; will show the industrious cla.s.ses how much they have it in their power to a.s.sist themselves; and rescue them from being dependent on the precarious bounty of others, by teaching them how they may obtain an abundant, salubrious, and agreeable aliment for themselves and families, for one penny per quart. See page 210.

For various economical soups, see Nos. 204, 239, 240, 224, 221, and _Obs._ to Nos. 244 and 252, and Nos. 493 and 502.

_Obs._ Dripping intended for soup should be taken out of the pan almost as soon as it has dropped from the meat; if it is not quite clean, clarify it. See receipt, No. 83.

Dripping thus prepared is a very different thing from that which has remained in the dripping-pan all the time the meat has been roasting, and perhaps live coals have dropped into it.[209-*]

Distributing soup does not answer half so well as teaching people how to make it, and improve their comfort at home: the time lost in waiting at the soup-house is seldom less than three hours; in which time, by any industrious occupation, however poorly paid, they could earn more money than the quart of soup is worth.

DR. KITCHINER'S _Receipt to make a Gallon of Barley Broth for a Groat_.

See also No. 204.

Put four ounces of Scotch barley (previously washed in cold water), and four ounces of sliced onions, into five quarts of water; boil gently for one hour, and pour it into a pan; then put into the saucepan from one to two ounces of clean beef or mutton drippings, or melted suet, (to clarify these, see No. 83) or two or three ounces of fat bacon minced; when melted, stir into it four ounces of oatmeal; rub these together till you make a paste (if this be properly managed, the whole of the fat will combine with the barley broth, and not a particle appear on the surface to offend the most delicate stomach); now add the barley broth, at first a spoonful at a time, then the rest by degrees, stirring it well together till it boils. To season it, put a drachm of finely-pounded celery, or cress-seed, or half a drachm of each, and a quarter of a drachm of finely-pounded Cayenne (No. 404), or a drachm and a half of ground black pepper, or allspice, into a tea-cup, and mix it up with a little of the soup, and then pour it into the rest; stir it thoroughly together; let it simmer gently a quarter of an hour longer, season it with salt, and it is ready.

The flavour may be varied by doubling the portion of onions, or adding a clove of garlic or eschalot, and leaving out the celery-seed (No. 572), or put in shredded roots as in No. 224; or, instead of oatmeal, thicken it with ground rice, or pease, &c., and make it savoury with fried onions.

This preparation, excellent as it is, would, without variety, soon become less agreeable.

Nothing so completely disarms poverty of its sting, as the means of rendering a scanty pittance capable of yielding a comfortable variety.