NOURISHING SOUPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 August 1938, Page 8

NOURISHING SOUPS

. HOT DISHES FOR COLD DAYS. The cook who would make clear soups and consommes in endless variety must first master the art of clarifying stock. Housekeepers in the ’eighties had a tremendous affection for the stock pot, which was a kind of high-class rubbish bin, and into this went all the “clean” odds and ends and left-overs, plus quarts of water. No : wonder that the housewife of today, with ■ her knowledge of home hygiene, makes her stock from fresh, pure ingredients. Some soups, such'as mulligatawny! require a strong-or. first stock. For'this (says the Cookery Expert of The Australian Journal) take equal quantities of - shin of beef, knuckle, or any other veal bones, or heck of mutton, water enough to cover the bones well, pieces of turnip, celery, onion, a bunch of herbs, a blade of mace, a few peppercorns, one or two cloves, a small teaspoon of salt per pint. Wash the bones and break them if necessary. • Take off as much as desired,and cut off most of the meat. Put in a large saucepan with the water and salt, and allow to stand for half an hour to extract the juices. Bring slowly to the boil and skim. Add the vegetables, peeled or scraped if necessary, and cut up roughly. Add the herbs and spices. Simmer for five hours. Strain into a clean basin. When cold remove the fat. This stock is used as a foundation for many soups, stews, gravies, and sauces.' It may be kept for several days if it is boiled again each day and well covered always. Lighter soups, such as Crecy, are made with second stock, which may be the water in which leg of' mutton has been boiled, or the liquid which results from the reboiling of first stock bones. One must use judgment with stocks, however, and vary the bones according to the soup to be made. For barley broth choose a piece of neck of mutton; for vegetable soup, a shin of veal; for lentil soup, beef bones; for pea soup, bacon bones, and for oyster soup, fish bones.

Here is the recipe for fish stock, which is so useful when making fish sauces as well as soups. Take the bones and heads of any well-flavoured fish, such as whiting, schnapper, bream. Cover these well with water. Add a small piece of onion, a sprig of parsley, a strip of lemon rind, some peppercorns and some mace. Wash the bones, break them up, and add them th the salt and water. Bring to the boil. Skim well and add the flavourings. Simmer for one hour, then strain.