1213. Vegetable Soup.

Peel and cut into very small pieces three onions, three turnips, one carrot, and four potatoes, put them into a stewpan with a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter, the same of lean ham, and a bunch of parsley, pa.s.s them ten minutes over a sharp fire; then add a large spoonful of flour, mix well in, moisten with two quarts of broth, and a pint of boiling milk; boil up, keeping it stirred; season with a little salt and sugar, and run it through a hair sieve; put it into another stewpan, boil again, skim, and serve with fried bread in it.

1214. Asparagus Soup.

Two quarts of good beef or veal stock, four onions, two or three turnips, some sweet herbs, and the white parts of a hundred young asparagus,--if old, half that quant.i.ty,--and let them simmer till fit to be rubbed through a tammy; strain and season it; have ready the boiled green tops of the asparagus, and add them to the soup.

[BOOKS AND THOUGHT;--THEY SHOULD NOT SUPERSEDE IT.]

1215. Carrot Soup.

Sc.r.a.pe and wash half a dozen large carrots; peel off the red outside (which is the only part used for this soup); put it into a gallon stewpan, with one head of celery, and an onion cut into thin pieces; take two quarts of beef, veal, or mutton broth, or liquor in which mutton or beef has been boiled, as the foundation for this soup. Stock that is equally good may be made by boiling down some cold roast mutton or beef bones. When you have put the broth to the roots, cover the stewpan close, and set it on a slow stove for two hours and a half, when the carrots will be soft enough. At this stage some cooks put in a teacupful of bread-crumbs. Next boil the soup for two or three minutes; rub it through a tammy or hair sieve, with a wooden spoon, and add as much broth as will make it a proper thickness, _i.e._, almost as thick as pea soup; put it into a clean stewpan, make it hot and serve.

1216. c.o.c.k-a-Leekie.

Boil from four to six pounds of good shin of beef well broken, until the liquor is very good. Strain it and add a good-sized fowl, with two or three leeks cut in pieces about an inch long, put in pepper and salt to taste, boil slowly about an hour, then put in as many more leeks, and give it three-quarters of an hour longer. A somewhat similar soup may be made of good beef stock, and leeks cut up and put in without a fowl, though this cannot be called c.o.c.k-a-Leekie with propriety.

1217. Mince Meat.

Take seven pounds of currants well picked and cleaned; of finely chopped beef suet, and finely chopped apples (Kentish or golden pippins), each three and a half; pounds; citron, lemon peel, and orange peel cut small, each half a pound; fine moist sugar, two pounds; mixed spice, an ounce; the rind of four lemons and four Seville oranges; mix well, and put in a deep pan. Mix a bottle of brandy, another of white wine, and the juice of the lemons and oranges that have been grated, together in a basin; pour half over and press down tight with the hand, then add the other half and cover closely.

This may be made one year so as to be used the next.

1218. Minced Collops.

Two pounds of good rump steak, chopped very fine; six good-sized onions, also chopped small; put both into a stewpan, with as much water or gravy as will cover the meat; stir it without ceasing till the water begins to boil; then set the stewpan aside, where the collops can simmer, not boil, for three-quarters of an hour. Just before serving, stir in a tablespoonful of flour, a little pepper and salt, and boil it up once. Serve with mashed potatoes round the dish.

The above quant.i.ty will be enough for four persons.

1219. Forcemeat b.a.l.l.s.

(For turtle, mock turtle, or made dishes.)--Pound some veal in a marble mortar, rub it through a sieve with as much of the udder as you have veal, or about n third of the quant.i.ty of b.u.t.ter: put some bread-crumbs into a stewpan, moisten them with milk, add a little chopped parsley and shalot, rub them well together in a mortar, till they form a smooth paste; put it through a sieve, and when cold, pound, and mix all together, with the yolks of three eggs boiled hard; season the mixture with salt, pepper, and curry powder, or cayenne; add to it the yolks of two raw eggs, rub it well together, and make it into small b.a.l.l.s which should be put into the soup or hash, as the case may be, ten minutes before it is ready.

[THERE IS SOMETHING TO BE LEARNED FROM THE MEREST TRIFLE.]

1220. Beef Extract.

(AS RECOMMENDED BY BARON LIEBIG).--Take a pound of good juicy beef from which all the skin and fat has been cut away, chop it up like sausage meat; mix it thoroughly with a pint of cold water, place it on the side of the stove to heat very slowly, and give it an occasional stir. It may stand two or three hours before it is allowed to simmer, and will then require but fifteen minutes of gentle boiling. Salt should be added when the boiling commences, and this for invalids in general, is the only seasoning required. When the extract is thus far prepared, it may be poured from the meat into a basin, and allowed to stand until any particles of fat on the surface can he skimmed off, and the sediment has subsided and left the soup quite clear, when it may be poured off gently, heated in a clean saucepan, and served. The sc.u.m should be well cleared as it acc.u.mulates.

1221. Potted Beef.

Take three or four pounds, or any smaller quant.i.ty, of lean beef, free from sinews, and rub it well with a mixture made of a handful of salt, one ounce of saltpetre, and one ounce of coa.r.s.e sugar; let the meat lie in the salt for two days, turning and rubbing it twice a day. Put it into a stone jar with a little beef gravy, and cover it with a paste to keep it close. Bake it for several hours in a very slow oven till the meat is tender; then pour off the gravy, which should be in a very small quant.i.ty, or the juice of the meat will be lost; pound the meat, when cold, in a marble mortar till it is reduced to a smooth paste, adding by degrees a little fresh b.u.t.ter melted. Season it as you proceed with pepper, allspice, nutmeg, pounded mace, and cloves, or such of these spices as are thought agreeable. Some flavour with anchovy, ham, shalots, mustard, wine, flavoured vinegar, ragout powder, curry powder, &c., according to taste. When it is thoroughly beaten and mingled together, press it closely into small shallow pots, nearly full, and fill them up with a layer a quarter of an inch thick of clarified b.u.t.ter, and tie them up with a bladder, or sheet of Indian rubber. They should be kept in a cool place.

1222. Strasburg Potted Meat.

Take a pound and a half of rump of beef, cut into dice, and put it in an earthen jar, with a quarter of a pound of b.u.t.ter at the bottom; tie the jar close up with paper, and set over a pot to boil; when nearly done, add cloves, mace, allspice, nutmeg, salt, and cayenne pepper to taste; then boil till tender, and let it get cold. Pound the meat, with four anchovies washed and boned; add a quarter of a pound of oiled b.u.t.ter, work it well together with the gravy, warm a little, and add cochineal to colour. Then press into small pots, and pour melted mutton suet over the top of each.

1223. Brown Stock (1).

Put five pounds of shin of beef, three pounds of knuckle of veal, and some sheep's trotters or cow-heel into a closely-covered stewpan, to draw out the gravy very gently, and allow it to become nearly brown.

Then pour in sufficient boiling water to entirely cover the meat, and let it boil up, skimming it frequently; seasoning it with whole peppers, salt, and roots, herbs, and vegetables of any kind. That being done, let it boil gently five or six hours, pour the broth off from the meat, and let it stand during the night to cool. The following morning take off the sc.u.m and fat, and put it away in a stone jar for further use.

1224. Brown Stock (2).

Brown stock may be made from all sorts of meat, bones, remnants of poultry, game, &c. The shin of beef makes an excellent stock.

1225. Brown Gravy.

Three onions sliced, and fried in b.u.t.ter to a nice brown; toast a large thin slice of bread until quite hard and of a deep brown. Take these, with any piece of meat, bone, &c., and some herbs, and set them on the fire, with water according to judgment, and stew down until a rich and thick gravy is produced. Season, strain, and keep cool.

1226. Goose or Duck Stuffing.

Chop very fine about two ounces of onion, of _green_ sage leaves about an ounce (both unboiled), four ounces of bread-crumbs, a bit of b.u.t.ter about as big as a walnut, &c., the yolk and white of an egg, and a little pepper and salt; some add to this a minced apple.

[STRIVE TO LEARN FROM ALL THINGS.]

1227. Bacon.

Bacon is an extravagant article in housekeeping; there is often twice as much dressed as need be; when it is sent to table as an accompaniment to boiled poultry or veal, a pound and a half is plenty for a dozen people, A good German sausage is a very economical subst.i.tute for bacon; or fried pork sausage.

1228. Culinary Economy.

The English, generally speaking, are very deficient in the practice of culinary economy; a French family would live well on what is often wasted in an English kitchen: the bones, dripping, pot-liquor, remains of fish, vegetables, &c., which are too often consigned to the grease-pot or the dust-heap, especially where pigs or fowls are not kept, might, by a very trifling degree of management on the part of the cook, or mistress of a family, be converted into sources of daily support and comfort, at least to some poor pensioner or other, at an expense that even the miser could scarcely grudge.

1229. Calf's Head Pie.

Boil the head an hour and a half, or rather more. After dining from it, cut the remaining meat off in slices. Boil the bones in a little of the liquor for three hours; then strain it off, let it remain till next day, and then take off the fat.

_To make the Pie._--Boil two eggs for five minutes; let them get cold, then lay them in slices at the bottom of a pie-dish, and put alternate layers of meat and jelly, with pepper and chopped lemon also alternately, till the dish is full; cover with a crust and bake it.

Next day turn the pie out upside down.