LITMIR.BIZ

SOUPS.

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      It is impossible to have good soup, without a sufficiency of good meat; thoroughly boiled, carefully skimmed, and moderately seasoned. Meat that is too bad for any thing else, is too bad for soup. Cold meat recooked, adds little to its taste or nourishment, and it is in vain to attempt to give poor soup a factitious flavor by the disguise of strong spices, or other substances which are disagreeable or unpalatable to at least one half the eaters, and frequently unwholesome. Rice and barley add to the insipidity of weak soups, having no taste of their own. And even if the meat is good, too large a proportion of water, and too small a quantity of animal substance will render it flat and vapid.

      Every family has, or ought to have, some personal knowledge of certain poor people—people to whom their broken victuals would be acceptable. Let then the most of their cold, fresh meat be set apart for those who can ill afford to buy meat in market. To them it will be an important acquisition; while those who indulge in fine clothes, fine furniture, &c., had best be consistent, and allow themselves the nourishment and enjoyment of freshly cooked food for each meal. Therefore where there is no absolute necessity of doing otherwise, let the soup always be made of meat bought expressly for the purpose, and of one sort only, except when the flavor is to be improved by the introduction of ham.

      In plain cooking, every dish should have a distinct taste of its natural flavor predominating. Let the soup, for instance, be of beef, mutton, or veal, but not of all three; and a chicken, being overpowered by the meat, adds nothing to the general flavor.

      Soup-meat that has been boiled long enough to extract the juices thoroughly, becomes too tasteless to furnish, afterwards, a good dish for the table; with the exception of mutton, which may be eaten very well after it has done duty in the soup-pot, when it is much liked by many persons of simple tastes. Few who are accustomed to living at hotels, can relish hotel soups, which (even in houses where most other things are unexceptionable), is seldom such as can be approved by persons who are familiar with good tables. Hotel soups and hotel hashes, (particularly those that are dignified with French names), are notoriously made of cold scraps, leavings, and in some houses, are the absolute refuse of the kitchen. In most cases, the sight of a hotel stock-pot would cause those who saw it, to forswear soup, &c.

      If the directions are exactly followed, the soups contained in the following pages will be found palatable, nutritious, and easily made; but they require plenty of good ingredients.

      We have heard French cooks boast of their soup being "delicate." The English would call it "soup meagre." In such a country as America, where good things are abundant, there is no necessity of imbibing the flatulency of weak washy soups.

      All soups should be boiled slowly at first, that the essence of the meat may be thoroughly drawn forth. The lid of the pot should be kept close, unless when it is necessary to remove it for taking off the scum, which should be done frequently and carefully. If this is neglected, the scum will boil back again into the soup, spoil it, and make it impure or muddled. When no more scum arises, and the meat is all in rags, dropping from the bones, it is time

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