STEWING AND MAKING SOUP.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2092, 6 November 1880, Page 3

STEWING AND MAKING SOUP.

[From "Soribner's Monthly J A witty Frenchman say a : "To mako good soup, the pot should scarcely smile." This is as true of stewing meat as of making soup. To do either well, the whole process must be exceedingly slow, from beginning to end the saucepan should only " smile." To make good soup, the meat should be put on in cold water, and slowly brought to the boil, that the juices may be drawn out. Before it comes to the boiling point, the scum will rise freely; take it off before ebullition has broken and scattered it; then, when it does boil, throw in half a cup of water, and skim again—add this water just as it comes to the boil two or three times ; it brings all remaining scum rapidly to the surface, and, when this rises no longer, set aside to simmer. It must never go below boiling point after this until made. This is the whole secret of clear soup. I will here give Jules Gouffe's receipt for Pot-au-feu; if carefully followed, a clear brown bouillon will be the result, and this bouillon is the foundation of most soups. Boiled down to one-half its bulk it becomes consomme. Pot-au-feu requires 41b of beef, six quarts of water, Boz of carrot, B:>z of turnip, same quantity of onions, and 3oz. of celery and cloves. After once or twice making the soup, the cook will be able to judge by the size of the vegetables the required quantity, but weighing is advisable at first, as much depends on perfect proportion. The meat must slowly simmer for three hours, then add the vegetables, not before ; simmer till done. The pot in which bouillon is made should have a very closely fitting lid. Quick boiling and careless skimming are the oauses of cloudy bouillon; supposing, as a matter of course, that all the vegetables have been perfectly cleansed. While on the subject of soups, I will give an excellent reoeipt for a white soup, not well known, but very delicious. To make celery cream soup: boil a small cup of rice in three pints of milk, until it will pass through a sieve. Grate the white part of two heads of celery (three if small) on a bread grater; add this to the rioe milk after it has been strained ; put to it one quart of strong white stock. Let it boil until the celery is perfectly tender ; season with salt and cayenne, and serve. If cream is obtainable, substitute one pint of it for the same quantity of milk. It often happens that soup intended to be brown is not sufficiently so to be inviting without coloring. Caramel is generally used for this purpose; but onions cut in slices and left in a moderate oven until they are black chips (not charred, however), may be kept bottled for this purpose. They are preferable to burnt sugar, as a small quantity added to a stew or soup improves the flavor; or they may be fried eaoh time (in their own juice without greaso) and added with the other vegetables. For white stock, use veal or fowls instead of beef.

Many a ohagrined woman knows what it is to attempt a ragout from a reoipe, and to fail signally, to see the rioh oreamy frioassee;hor fancy has painted resolve itself into an insipid masß of broth and curdled eggs. The ideal brown ragout turns out an unsavory brown fact. In making brown stews, it is advisable to put the meat and onions in a stew-pan without water, cover closely, let them simmer until they are brown and the pan is covered with a rioh glaze—be careful not to burn—then add a little water and any other vegetables your recipe may direct. Just before serving, skim off carefully all fat; then add a small piece of butter rolled in flour, and let it all simmer again for a few minutes. The above method will make a tough pieoe of meat tender, and if a dessert spoonful of vinegar or lemon juice is put in with the meat and anions, the sourness disappears before the meat is done, leaving only the soarcely peroeptible dash of acidity, which is tho characteristic of most French dishes. Poultry and game, unless the former is to be fricasseed, are always better thus first stewed without water. It is not, however, an absolute rule. An excellent dish may be made by merely putting meat, water, and seasoning as direoted in the stew pan together, if the process is very slow. But who does not remember with a shudder an island of hare's meat in a lake of gray flavorless liquid ? Whon meat has been partly oooked in its own steam it will brown without effort on the cook's part, and the flavor will be fine; whether it will be tender depends on the slowness with whioh it simmers after the water is added. Boileau declares emphatically that " a warmed over dinner is never good for anything," in which he is entirely wrong. There are some things which, warmed over, are as acceptable as when first cooked; what more delicious than minced veal ? (not hashed veal by any means) ; what more excellent than curried ohicken ? All curries may be made as well from cold meat. Of course, the general idea of hashed and stewed meat is justified by the wretchedness of it as usually served. Father Prout relates that when young Thackeray was marrieJ, and very poor, he asked some one piteously, " Can't you tell my wife how to hash mutton, that it may taste of something besides hot water and onions ?" Cold mutton makes an excellent dieh, if one will slice half a dozen small onions, or throe if large, and put them in a stew pan, then add a teaspoonful of vinegar, or juice of half a lemon, lay the meat on them, and cover the stew pan tightly. In an hour, over a slow fire, the meat will be hot through, the onions brown and tender. Add a pieoe of butter rolled in flour, a dessert-spoonful of sauce (Worcestershire, walnut catsup or Harvey), and —for those who like it—just enough curry powder to give an almost imperceptible flavor, say a small teaspoonful, and an excellent dish is the result. As receipts for warming-over meats are abundant I need not quote them here, but

only tay that the first necessity is to have gravy or soup to warm them in, and to heat the meat very slowly. The smallest family may have such gravy always on hand by carefully saving oold gravy or Bonp, and also by making stock of all bones, trimmings, and bits of oold meat, slowly stewing such fragments (bones must be cracked up) for some hours. When rich, strain and set by for use. Carefully remove every suspioion of fat from stews or soup.