When you make any kind of soup, particularly portable, vermicelli or brown gravy soup or any other that has herbs or roots in it, always observe to lay the meat in the bottom of your pan with a good lump of butter. Cut the herbs and roots into small pieces and lay them over the meat; cover it close and set it over a very slow fire: it will draw all the virtue out of the roots and herbs, turn it to a good gravy and give the soup a very different flavor than if you first put it in water. When your gravy is almost dried up, fill the pan with water; when it begins to boil, take off the fat and follow the directions of your recipe for whatever sort of soup you are making. Stock The basis of all well-made soups is composed of what English cooks call “stock” or broth made from all sorts of meat, bones and the remains of poultry or game; all of which may be put together and stewed down in the “stock-pot,” the contents of which are by the French termed Consommé. Then add a tablespoonful and a half of curry powder, and mix it up well. Now cut up the beef into pieces about an inch square; pour in from a quarter to a third of a pint of milk, and let it simmer for thirty minutes; then take it off and pace it in a dish with a little lemon-juice. While cooking, stir it constantly to prevent burning. Send it to the table with a wall of mashed potatoes or rice around it.
[There are several varieties of stock, such as “brown,” “gravy” and “ white”. .]
[ Godey’s - February, 1861]
Gumbo Soup Cut up a chicken or any fowl as if to fry and break the bones; lay it in a pot with just enough butter to brown it a little; when browned, pour as much water to it as will make soup for four or five persons; add a thin slice of lean bacon, an onion cut fine and some parsley. Stew it gently five or six hours; about twenty minutes before it is to be served, make a thickening by mixing a heaping tablespoonful of sassfra leaves, pounded fine, in some of the soup and adding it to the rest of the soup; a little rice is an improvement. If the fowl is small, two will be required, but one large pullet [a hen of the domestic chicken less than a year old] is sufficient.
[ Godey’s - April, 1861]
Curry Soup Season two quarts of strong veal broth with two onions, a bunch of parsley, salt and pepper; strain it and have ready a chicken (or game bird) cut in joints and skinned; put it in the broth with a tablespoonful of curry powder; boil the chicken(s) till quite tender. A little before serving, add the juice of a lemon and a teacupful of boiling cream. Serve boiled rice to eat with this soup. Always boil cream before putting it in soup or gravy.
[Godey’s - March, 1861] Venison Soup Take four pounds of freshly-killed venison, cut off from the bones, and one pound of ham in small slices. Add an onion, minched, and black pepper to your taste. Put only as much water as will cover it and stew it gently for an hour, keeping the pot closely covered. Skim it well and pour in a quart of boiling water. Add a head of celery cut small (can substitute with celery seed) and three blades of mace [an East Indian spice: an aromatic spice consisting of the dried external fibrous covering of a nutmeg]. Boil it gently two hours and a half; then put in a quarter of a pound of butter, cut small and rolled in flour, and half a pint of port or Madeira. Let it boil a quarter of an hour longer and send it to the table with the meat in it.
[Godey’s - March, 1861]
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The nape of the halibut is considered best to broil; but a slice through the body a little more than an inch thick, if sprinkled with salt an hour or two before being cooked, will broil without breaking and is excellent. When taken up, put on a little butter, pepper and salt.
The head and shoulders of cod are so much thicker than the other part, that it is impossible to boil the fish whole and have all parts equally cooked. It is therefore a good way to divide it, boil the head and shoulders, and fry the other part, or sprinkle it with salt, and after a day or two, broil it.
Most kinds of fish are best in cold weather. Mackerel are best in August, September and October. Halibut in May and June. Oysters are good from September to April; but are not very good or healthy from the first of May to the last of August [hence the advice still used today in Maryland - only eat oysters during the months that contain “R’s.”] Lobsters are best at the season when oysters are not good...
Epicures [one with sensitive and discriminating tastes especially in food] consider it important to boil salt water fish in sea water... Pond fish should be soaked in strong salt and water to take out the earthy taste. Fish may be kept good several days, if frozen...A boiled fish is done when the eyes turn white.
When you broil fish, rub the gridiron with lard or drippings, to prevent its sticking. Do not attempt to turn it like steaks, with a knife or fork, but lay an old dish upon it, and hold it on with one hand, while you turn over the gridiron with the other.
Fish that is to be fried, should be laid in a cloth for an hour, that the moisture may be absorbed. It should then be rolled in fine bread crumbs, or Indian meal. Fish that is apt to break in frying may be kept whole by being dipped in a beaten egg, before it is rolled in the bread crumbs. Oysters should be skimmed out of the liquor before being cooked, in order that it may be strained, as there are often bits of shell in it.
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