Let the soup heat gradually over a moderate fire, and after it has been well skimmed, draw it to the side of the stove and keep it simmering softly, but without ceasing, until it is done; for on this, as will hereafter be shown, its excellence principally depends. Every good cook understands perfectly the difference produced by the fast boiling, or the gentle stewing of soups and gravies, and will adhere strictly to the latter method.

Pour boiling water, in small quantities at first, to the meat and vegetables of which the soup is to be made when they have been fried or browned; but otherwise, add cold water to the meat.

Unless precise orders to the contrary have been given, onions, eschalots, and garlic, should be used for seasoning with great moderation always; for not only are they very offensive to many eaters, but to persons of delicate habit, their effects are sometimes extremely prejudicial; and it is only in coarse cookery that their flavour is allowed ever strongly to prevail.

A small proportion of sugar, about an ounce to the gallon, will very much improve the flavour of gravy-stock, and of all rich brown soups; it may be added also to some others with advantage; and for this, directions will be given in the proper places. Two ounces of salt may be allowed for each gallon of soup or broth in which large quantities of vegetables are stewed; but. an ounce and a half will be sufficient for such as contain few or none; it is always easy to add more if needful, but oversalting in the first instance is a fault for which there is no remedy but that of increasing the proportions of all the other ingredients, and stewing the whole afresh, which occasions needless trouble and expense, even when time will admit of its being done.

As no particle of fat should be seen floating on your soups when they are sent to table, it is desirable that the stock should be made the day before it is wanted, that it may become quite cold, when the fat may be entirely cleared off without difficulty. When cayenne pepper is not mixed with rice-flour, or with any other thickening, grind it down with the back of a spoon, and stir a little liquid to it before it is thrown into the stewpan, as it is apt to remain in lumps, and to occasion great irritation of the throat when swallowed so.

Serve, not only soups and sauces, but all your as possible.

TO THICKEN SOUPS.

dishes as hot

Except for white soups, to which arrow-root is, we think, more appropriate, we prefer, to all other ingredients generally

used for this purpose, the finest and freshest rice-flour, which after being passed through a lawn-sieve, should be thoroughly blended with the salt, pounded spices, catsup, or wine, required to finish the flavouring of the soup. Sufficient liquid should be added to it very gradually to render it of the consistency of batter, and it should also be perfectly smooth; to keep it so, it should be moistened sparingly at first, and beaten with the back of a spoon until every lump has disappeared. The soup should boil quickly when the thickening is stirred into it, and be simmered for ten minutes afterwards. From an ounce and a half to two ounces of rice-flour will thicken sufficiently a quart of soup.

Instead of this, arrow-root or the condiment known by the name of tous les mois, which greatly resembles it, or potatoflour, or the French thickening called roux (see page 96) may be used in the following proportions:-Two and a half ounces of either of the first three, to four pints and a half of soup; to be mixed gradually with a little cold stock or water, stirred into the boiling soup, and simmered for a minute.

Six ounces of flour with seven of butter,* will be required to thicken a tureen of soup; as much as half a pound is sometimes used; these must be added by degrees, and carefully stirred round in the soup until smoothly blended with it, or they will remain in lumps.

All the ingredients used for soups should be fresh, and of good quality, particularly Italian pastes of every kind (maccaroni, vermicelli, &c.), as they contract, by long keeping, a peculiarly unpleasant, musty flavour.

Onions, freed from the outer skin, dried gradually to a deep brown, in a slow oven, and flattened like Norfolk biffins, will keep for almost any length of time, and are extremely useful for heightening the colour and flavour of broths and gravies.†

TO FRY BREAD TO SERVE WITH SOUP.

Cut some slices a quarter-inch thick, from a stale loaf; pare off the crust, and divide the bread into dice, or cut it with a deep paste-cutter into any other form. For half a pound of bread put two ounces of the best butter into a frying-pan, and when it is quite melted, add the bread; keep it turned, over a

*We would recommend any other thickening in preference to this unwholesome mixture.

The fourth part of one of these dried onions (des oignons brûlés), of moderate size, is sufficient for a tureen of soup. They are sold very commonly in France, and may be procured, we should suppose, without difficuity in London, at the foreign warehouses.

gentle fire, until it is equally coloured to a very pale brown, then drain it from the butter, and dry it on a soft cloth, or a sheet of paper placed before a clear fire, upon a dish, or on a sieve reversed.

SIPPETS A LA REINE.

Having cut the bread as for common sippets, spread it on a dish, and pour over it a few spoonsful of thin cream, or of good milk; let it soak for an hour, then fry it in fresh butter of a delicate brown, drain, and serve the sippets hot.

TO MAKE NOUILLES;

(An elegant substitute for Vermicelli.)

Wet, with the yolks of four eggs, as much fine, dry, sifted flour as will make them into a firm but very smooth paste. Roll it out as thin as possible, and cut it into bands of about an inch and a quarter in width. Dust them lightly with flour, and place four of them one upon the other. Cut them obliquely in the finest possible strips; separate them with the point of a knife, and spread them on writing paper, so that they may dry a little before they are used. Drop them gradually into the boiling soup, and in ten minutes they will be done.

Various other forms may be given to this paste at will. It may be divided into a sort of riband maccaroni; or stamped with small confectionary cutters into different shapes.

VEGETABLE VERMICELLI.

(Vegetables cut very fine for Soups.)

Cut the carrots into inch-lengths, then pare them round and round in ribbons of equal thickness, till the inside is reached; next cut these ribands into straws, or very small strips; celery is prepared in the same way, and turnips also are first pared into ribands, then sliced into strips: these last require less boiling than the carrots, and attention must be paid to this, for if broken, the whole would have a bad appearance in soup. The safer plan is to boil each vegetable separately, till tolerably tender, in a little pale broth (in water if this be not at hand), to drain them well, and put them into the soup, which should be clear, only a few minutes before it is dished. For cutting them small, in other forms, the proper instruments will be found at the ironmonger's.

66

BOUILLON.

(The Common Soup of France; cheap, and very wholesome.) This soup, or broth, as we should perhaps designate it in England, is made once or twice in the week, in every family of respectability in France; and by the poorer classes as often as their means will enable them to substitute it for the vegetable or maigre soups, on which they are more commonly obliged to subsist. It is served usually on the first day, Iwith slices of untoasted bread soaked in it; on the second, it is generally varied with vermicelli,

Soup Pot.

French Pot-au-Feu; or, Earthen rice, or semoulina. The ingredients are, of course, often otherwise proportioned than as we have given them, and more or less meat is allowed, according to the taste or circumstances of the persons for whom the bouillon is prepared; but the process of making it is always the same, and is thus described (rather learnedly) by one of the most skilful cooks in Europe: "The stock-pot of the French artisan," says Monsieur Carême, supplies his principal nourishment; and it is thus managed by his wife, who, without the slightest knowledge of chemistry, conducts the process in a truly scientific manner. She first lays the meat into her earthen stock-pot, and pours cold water to it in the proportion of about two quarts to three pounds of the beef she then places it by the side of the fire, where it slowly becomes hot; and as it does so, the heat enlarges the fibre of the meat, dissolves the gelatinous substances which it contains, allows the albumen (or the muscular part which produces the scum) to disengage itself, and rise to the surface, and the OSMAZOME (which is the most savoury part of the meat) to be diffused through the broth. Thus, from the simple circumstance of boiling it in the gentlest manner, a relishing and nutritious soup will be obtained, and a dish of tender and palatable meat; but if the pot be placed and kept over a quick fire, the albumen will coagulate, harden the meat, prevent the water from penetrating it, and the osmazome from disengaging

This is a large proportion of meat for the family of a French artisan; a pound to the quart would be nearer the reality; but it is not the refuse-meat which would be purchased by persons of the same rank in England for making broth.

itself; the result will be a broth without flavour or goodness, and a tough, dry bit of meat."

It must be observed in addition, that as the meat of which the bouillon is made, is almost invariably sent to table, a part of the rump, the mouse-buttock, or the leg-of-mutton piece of beef, should be selected for it; and the simmering should be continued only until this is perfectly tender. When the object is simply to make good, pure-flavoured beef broth, part of the shin, or leg, with a pound or two of the neck, will best answer the purpose. When the boulli (that is to say, the beef which is boiled in the soup), is to be served, bind it into a good shape, add to it a calf's foot, if easily procurable, as this much improves the quality of the bouillon, pour cold water to it in the proportion mentioned above, and proceed, as Monsieur Carême directs, to heat the soup slowly by the side of the fire; remove carefully the head of scum, which will gather on the surface, before the boiling commences, and continue the skimming at intervals, for about twenty minutes longer, pouring in once or twice a little cold water. Next, add salt in the proportion of two ounces to the gallon; this will cause a little more scum to rise,—clear it quite off, and throw in three or four turnips, as many carrots, half a head of celery, four or five young leeks, an onion stuck with six or eight cloves, a large half-teaspoonful of pepper-corns, and a bunch of savoury herbs. Let the whole stew VERY softly, without ceasing, from four hours and a half to six hours, according to the quantity: the beef in that time will be extremely tender, but not overdone. It will be excellent eating, if properly managed, and might often, we think, be substituted with great advantage for the hard, half-boiled, salted beef so often seen at an English table. It should be served with a couple of cabbages, which have been first boiled in the usual way, then pressed very dry, and stewed for about ten minutes in a little of the broth, and seasoned with pepper and salt. The other vegetables from the bouillon may be laid round it or not, at choice. The soup, if served on the same day, must be strained, well cleared from fat, and sent to table with fried or toasted bread, unless the Continental mode of putting slices or crusts of untoasted bread into the tureen, and soaking them for ten minutes in a ladleful or two of the bouillon, be, from custom, preferred.

Beef, 8 to 9 lbs. ; water, 6 quarts; salt, 3 ozs. (more if needed); carrots, 4 to 6; turnips, 4 or 5; celery, one small head; leeks, 4 to 6; one onion, stuck with 6 cloves; pepper