In the first place, in order always to keep up a good table at a small expense, take care never to be without plenty of Stock for soup. The best way of preparing this is to have two or three pounds of lean beef cut into pieces, and put into a stewpan with five quarts of water, a bunch of sweet herbs, two onions sliced, and a little pepper and salt. Let it stew very gradually for two or three hours, without being suffered to boil. When all the goodness is drawn from the meat, the gravy should be strained off clear and kept in an earthen jar for use. When a stock like this has been provided, it is easy to make any kind of soup from it that may be required. For instance, if hare soup be wanted, it is only necessary to cut a hare in pieces, and to let it stew gradually in this gravy till it becomes tender. If a vegetable soup be desired, it is simply adding onions, carrots, and turnips cut into dice, with perhaps a little celery and a few cabbage lettuces cut small: or these vegetables may be cut in slices and fried in butter, and then stewed till tender in the soup, which should have been previously thickened with a little butter worked up with flour. On other occasions, the soup may be varied by adding macaroni, rice, or vermicelli, or, in fact, any thing else usually put into soups; or partridges or giblets may be stewed in it, according to circumstances. The receipt for this excellent stock is taken from Dr. Hunter's Receipts in Modern Cookery; and the following is another from the same work, of much richer quality, but which I have also tried and found excellent:—Take beef, mutton, and veal, of each equal parts. Cut the meat into small pieces, and put it into a deep saucepan with a close cover; the beef at the bottom, then the mutton, with a piece of lean bacon, some whole pepper, black and white, a large onion in slices, and a bundle of sweet herbs. Over this put the veal. Cover up close, and put the pan over a slow fire for ten minutes, shaking it now and then. After this pour on as much boiling water as will a little more than cover the meat. Stew gently for the space of eight hours, then put in two anchovies chopped, and season with salt to the taste. Strain off and preserve for use. If properly made, this gravy will become a rich jelly, which will keep good a long time, and a piece of which may be cut out occasionally, when a made dish or a rich soup is wanted in haste.
The two following receipts for impromptu soups are from a French cookery book. The first is called Soup made in an hour. Cut into small pieces a pound of beef and a pound of veal; put them into a casserole, or wide shallow saucepan, with a carrot and an onion cut in slices, a few slices of bacon, and half a glass of water. Hold it over the fire for a short time till the meat and vegetables begin to brown, taking care, however, that they are not burnt; then pour over the whole a pint of boiling water, and let the soup stew gently for about three quarters of an hour; after which the soup only requires to be strained through a sieve to be fit for use. The other is for Soup made in a minute, and it consists in taking the congealed gravy from roast meat, either from the dish or from under the dripping, after the dripping has become cold and has been removed, in the proportion of a quarter of a pint of jelly to a quart of boiling water, and adding pepper and salt to the taste.
An excellent white soup may be made by boiling a knuckle of veal down to a strong jelly, with a bundle of sweet herbs, and another of parsley. The liquor should then be strained from the meat and herbs, and flavoured with mace and nutmeg, adding milk or cream, and thickening with arrow-root. A few Jerusalem artichokes or young turnips (particularly the Teltow turnips), boiled quite soft and rubbed through a sieve, and a little celery, are a great improvement to this soup. Partridges stuffed with forcemeat and stewed in the stock of this soup till they are perfectly tender, but not so much so as to fall to pieces, make a delicious dish; but in this case the soup will not require either to be flavoured with mace and nutmeg, or to be thickened, unless it is wished to be very rich. Vegetable marrow or pumpkin, boiled and rubbed through a sieve, will form a variety to thicken this soup; or chestnuts boiled, peeled, and mashed, may be used for that purpose; celery may also be employed occasionally to flavour it.
For Hare Soup, cut a large hare into pieces, and put it into a stewpan with five quarts of water, one onion, a few corns of white pepper, a little salt, and some mace. Stew over a slow fire for two hours, or till it become a good gravy. Then cut the meat from the back and legs, and keep it to put into the soup when nearly ready. Put the bones into the gravy, and stew till the remainder of the meat is nearly dissolved. Then strain off the gravy, and put to it two spoonfuls of soy, or three of mushroom or walnut catsup. Cayenne pepper to the taste may be added, and wine in the proportion of half a pint to two quarts of gravy, if it is wished to make the soup very rich. Lastly, put in the meat that was cut from the back and legs, and when it is quite hot send the soup to table.
A Green Peas Soup may be made by taking six or eight cucumbers pared and sliced, the blanched part of as many lettuces, a sprig of mint, two or three onions, a little parsley, some white pepper and salt, a full pint of young peas, and half a pound of butter. Let these ingredients stew gently in their own liquor for an hour. Then have in readiness a quart of old peas, boiled tender. Rub them through a cullender, and put to them two quarts of strong beef gravy. When the vegetables are sufficiently tender, mix all together, and serve up the soup very hot. This receipt is very suitable for the country, where vegetables are abundant. In this respect you have a great advantage over the dwellers in towns; and you will find it easy to make a great variety of soups, by boiling any kind of vegetable till it is tender, afterwards rubbing it through a coarse sieve, so as to make what the French call a purée, and then mixing it with beef gravy or stock, as before directed. A purée of old peas or carrots makes an excellent soup.
I have only to add to my chapter on soups, that it is an excellent plan to have the bones of a sirloin of beef or roast leg of mutton, the remains of a hare, or, in fact, any thing of that kind, put into a large deep earthen pan, with rather more than enough water to cover them, a couple of carrots sliced, and perhaps a leek or an onion. The pan should then be carefully tied down, or have a cover fitted on it, and it should be put into an oven after the bread has been drawn, and suffered to remain all night. This makes an excellent consommé or stock for any kind of brown soup: and it is a good plan to have a stock of this kind prepared every time there has been a baking of bread, so as to leave the oven in a proper state; as it not only saves the purchase of fresh meat for soup, but makes an excellent use of food that, under other circumstances, would very probably be wasted or given to the dogs. The liquor in which veal or fowls have been boiled should always be saved, and when cold, after the fat has been removed, it should be poured off clear from the sediment and used as a stock for white soups; and the scrag end of a neck of mutton, the root of a tongue, and various other portions of beef and mutton, which would be unsightly if sent to table, should, also, always be stewed down for brown soups. In the latter case, if the stock made in this manner looks pale or dingy, it may have a rich colour given to it by the following composition or Roux, which