Lean, juicy meat, mutton, and veal, form the basis of all good soups ; so it is a good idea to get those pieces which afford the wealthiest succulence, and like are fresh-killed. Rancid meat renders them bad, and fat is not so well adapted for making them. The principal art in composing good rich soup, is so to proportion the many ingredients the flavour of one shall not predominate over another, and that all the articles of which it is composed, shall form an agreeable full. To accomplish this, care must be taken the roots and herbs are very well cleaned, and the water is proportioned to the number of beef and other ingredients. Sometimes a quart of water might be allowed to a pound of meat for soups, and 1/2 of the quantity for gravies. In making soups or gravies, delicate stewing or simmering is incomparably the best. It may be remarked {, however ,} a truly good soup can never be made but in a well-closed vessel, though, perhaps, greater wholesomeness is got by an occasional exposure to the air. Soups will, in general, take from three to six hours doing, and are much better prepared the day before they are wanted. When the soup is cold, the fat could be much more easily and fully removed ; and when it is poured off, care must be taken not to disturb the settlings at the base of the vessel, which are so fine that they can escape through a sift. A tamis is the best sieve, and if the soup is strained although it is hot, let the tamis or cloth be previously dunked in cold water. Clear soups must be completely clear, and thickened soups about the consistence of cream. To thicken and give body to soups and gravies, potato-mucilage, arrow-root, bread-raspings, isinglass, flour and butter, barley, rice, or oatmeal, in a little water rubbed well together, are used. A piece of boiled beef pounded to a pulp, with a bit of butter and flour, and rubbed through a sieve, and steadily incorporated with the soup, will be found an excellent addition. When the soup seems to be too thin or too weak, the cover of the boiler should be taken off, and the contents permitted to boil till some of the watery parts have evaporated ; or some of the thickening materials, above mentioned, should be added. When soups and gravies are kept from daily in hot weather, they deserve to be warmed up each day, and put into fresh scalded pans or tureens, and placed in a cool basement. In temperate weather, every other day might be sufficient.
Various herbs and vegetables are required for the purpose of making soups and gravies. Of these the principal are, Scotch barley, pearl barley, wheat flour, oatmeal, bread-raspings, pease, beans, rice, vermicelli, macaroni, isinglass, potato-mucilage, mushroom or mushroom ketchup, champignons, parsnips, carrots, beetroot, turnips, garlic, shalots and onions. Sliced onions, fried with butter and flour until they're browned, and then rubbed through a sift, are excellent to heighten the colour and flavour of brown soups and sauces, and form the root of many of the fine relishes furnished by the cook. The older and drier the onion, the stronger will be its flavour. Leeks, cucumber, or burnet vinegar ; celery or celery-seed pounded. The latter, though equally robust, doesn't give the delicate sweetness of the fresh plant ; and when used as a substitute, its flavor should be corrected by the addition of a bit of sugar. Cress-seed, parsley, common thyme, lemon thyme, orange thyme, knotted marjoram, sage, mint, winter savory, and basil. As fresh green basil is infrequently to be acquired, and its fine flavour is soon lost, the only way of preserving the extract is by pouring wine on the fresh leaves.
For the seasoning of soups, bay-leaves, tomato, tarragon, chervil, burnet, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, mace, black and white pepper, essence of anchovy, lemon-peel, and juice, and Seville orange-juice, are all taken. The latter gives a finer flavour than the lemon, and the acid is much milder. These materials, with wine, mushroom ketchup, Harvey's sauce, catsup, mixed in assorted proportions, are, with other ingredients, manipulated into a virtually endless variety of excellent soups and gravies. Soups, which are intended to constitute the principal part of a meal, certainly ought not to be flavoured like sauces, which are only designed to give a relish to some particular dish.
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