Stock is the basis of all soups made from meat, and is really the juice of the meat extracted by long and gentle simmering. In making stock for soup always use an agate or porcelain-lined stock pot. Use one quart of cold water to each pound of meat and bone. Use cheap cuts of meat for soup stock. Excellent stock may be made from bones and tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of meat and poultry. Wash soup bones and stewing meat quickly in cold water. Never allow a roast or piece of stewing meat to lie for a second in water. Aunt Sarah did not think that wiping meat with a damp cloth was all that was necessary (although many wise and good cooks to the contrary). Place meat and soup bones in a stock pot, pour over the requisite amount of soft, cold water to extract the juice and nutritive quality of the meat; allow it to come to a boil, then stand back on the range, where it will just simmer for 3 or 4 hours. Then add a sliced onion, several sprigs of parsley, small pieces of chopped celery tops, well-sc.r.a.ped roots of celery, and allow to simmer three-quarters of an hour longer. Season well with salt and pepper, 1 level teaspoonful of salt will season 1 quart of soup.
Strain through a fine sieve, stand aside, and when cool remove from lop the solid cake of fat which had formed and use for frying after it has been clarified. It is surprising to know the variety of soups made possible by the addition of a small quant.i.ty of vegetables or cereals to stock. A couple tablespoonfuls of rice or barley added to well-seasoned stock and you have rice or barley soup. A small quant.i.ty of stewed, sweet corn or noodles, frequently "left-overs," finely diced or grated carrots, potatoes, celery or onions, and you have a vegetable soup. Strain the half can of tomatoes, a "left-over" from dinner, add a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, a seasoning of salt and pepper, thicken to a creamy consistency with a little cornstarch, add to cup of soup stock, serve with croutons of bread or crackers, and you have an appetizing addition to dinner or lunch.
The possibilities for utilizing left-overs are almost endless. The economically-inclined housewife will be surprised to find how easily she may add to the stock pot by adding left-over undesirable pieces of meat and small quant.i.ties of vegetables. One or two spoonfuls of cold left-over oatmeal may also be added to soup with advantage, occasionally. Always remove the cake of fat which forms on top of soup as soon as cooled, as soup will turn sour more quickly if it is allowed to remain. If soup stock be kept several days in summer time, heat it each day to prevent souring.
Pieces of celery, onion, parsley, beans and peas may all be added to soup to make it more palatable. Also fine noodles. The yolk of a hard-boiled egg dropped into the soup kettle and heated through, allowing one for each plate of soup served, is a quick and appetizing addition to a soup of plain broth or consomme.
VEGETABLE SOUP
Slice thinly 3 potatoes, 3 carrots, 3 turnips, the undesirable parts of 2 heads of celery, 2 stalks of parsley and 3 onions. Cook the onions in a little b.u.t.ter until they turn a yellow brown, then add the other ingredients. Season well with salt and black pepper, also a pinch of red pepper. Put all together in a stew-pan, cover with three quarts of water, stand on range and simmer about three hours. Strain soup into stew-pan, place on range, and when hot add Marklose b.a.l.l.s.
MARKLOSE b.a.l.l.s
Take marrow from uncooked beef soup bones, enough to fill 2 tablespoons, cut fine, add 2 eggs, 1 teaspoonful grated onion to flavor, pepper and salt, stiffen with 1 cup of bread crumbs, shape into b.a.l.l.s size of marbles, drop into hot broth and cook uncovered from 15 to 20 minutes.
Aunt Sarah purchased two good-sized soup bones containing considerable meat. After extracting 2 tablespoonfuls of marrow from the uncooked bones, she put the bones in a stew-pan with a couple of quarts of water, a large onion, chopped fine, and a piece of celery, and cooked for several hours, then skimmed off sc.u.m which arises on top of broth, removed the soup bones and meat and added a couple of tablespoonfuls of grated carrot, pepper and salt to taste, cooked a short time, and then added the marrow b.a.l.l.s, a little chopped parsley and a couple of tablespoonfuls of boiled rice. Two tablespoonfuls of marrow will make about 15 b.a.l.l.s, with the addition of crumbs, eggs, etc.
EGG b.a.l.l.s FOR SOUP
Mash the yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs fine and smooth with a little soft b.u.t.ter. Beat the white of 1 egg, and add with about 2 tablespoonfuls of flour, salt and pepper. Mix all together. Use a little flour to mold the mixture into b.a.l.l.s the size of quite small marbles. Do not make too stiff. Drop these into hot broth or soup and cook about five minutes. This quant.i.ty will make 12 small b.a.l.l.s.
"SUPPEE SCHw.a.n.gEN"
Mary was taught to make these by the Professor"s wife. She beat together either 1 or 2 raw eggs, 1/2 cup flour, 1 tablespoonful b.u.t.ter, a little salt, and just enough milk to thin the mixture enough so it may be dropped by half teaspoonfuls into hot soup stock or broth. Cook these small dumplings about 10 minutes. Serve in soup broth.
CREAM OF OYSTER BOUILLON
Put two dozen oysters through food chopper, cook oyster liquor and oysters together five minutes, heat 1 pint milk and 1 tablespoon flour, mixed smooth with a little cold milk, and 1 tablespoonful b.u.t.ter. Let come to a boil, watching carefully that it does not burn.
Pour all together when ready to serve. Serve in bouillon cups with crackers. This recipe was given Mary by a friend in Philadelphia, who thought it unexcelled.
GERMAN NOODLE SOUP
Place about 3 pounds of cheap stewing beef in a cook-pot with sufficient water and cook several hours, until meat is quite tender; season with salt and pepper. About an hour before serving chop fine 3 medium-sized potatoes and 2 onions and cook in broth until tender. Ten or fifteen minutes before serving add noodle.
To prepare noodles, break 2 fresh eggs in a bowl, fill 1/2 an egg sh.e.l.l with cold water, add the eggs, and mix with flour as stiff as can conveniently be handled. Add a little salt to flour. Divide dough into sheets, roll on bake-board, spread on cloth a short time and let dry, but not until too brittle to roll into long, narrow rolls. Cut this with a sharp knife into thin, thread-like slices, unroll, drop as many as wished into the stew-pan with the meat and cook about 10 or 15 minutes. Place the meat on a platter and serve the remainder in soup plates. The remaining noodles (not cooked) may be unrolled and dried and later cooked in boiling salted water, drained and placed in a dish and browned b.u.t.ter, containing a few soft, browned crumbs, poured over them when served. The very fine noodles are generally served with soup and the broad or medium-sized ones served with brown b.u.t.ter Germans usually serve with a dish of noodles, either stewed, dried prunes, or stewed raisins. Both are palatable and healthful.
CREAM OF CELERY
Cook 1 large stalk of celery, also the root cut up in dice, in 1 pint of water, 1/2 hour or longer. Mash celery and put through a fine sieve. Add 1 pint of scalded milk, and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour, mixed with a little cold milk. Add 2 tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter, pepper and salt, and simmer a few minutes. Just before serving add a cup of whipped cream. Serve with the soup, small "croutons" of bread.
OYSTER STEW
Rinse a stew-pan with cold water, then put in 1 pint of milk and let come to a boil. Heat 15 oysters in a little oyster liquor a few minutes, until the oysters curl up around the edges, then add the oysters to one-half the hot milk, add a large tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, season well with salt and pepper, and when serving the stew add the half pint of boiling hot milk remaining. This quant.i.ty makes two small stews. Serve crackers and pickled cabbage. When possible use a mixture of sweet cream and milk for an oyster stew instead of all milk. An old cook told Mary she always moistened half a teaspoonful of cornstarch and added to the stew just before removing from the range to cause it to have a creamy consistency.
CLAM BROTH
Clam broth may be digested usually by the most delicate stomach. It can be bought in cans, but the young housewife may like to know how to prepare it herself. Strain the juice from one-half dozen clams and save. Remove objectionable parts from clams, cut in small pieces, add 1/2 pint of cold water and the clam juice, let cook slowly about 10 minutes, strain and season with pepper and salt, a little b.u.t.ter and milk, and serve hot.
TURKEY SOUP
Take broken-lip bones and undesirable pieces of roast turkey, such as neck, wings and left-over pieces of bread filling, put in stew-pot, cover with water, add pieces of celery, sliced onion and parsley, cook several hours, strain, and to the strained liquor add a couple tablespoonfuls of boiled rice, season with salt and pepper and serve.
Some of the cold turkey might also be cut in small pieces and added to the soup.
CREAM OF PEA SOUP
Cook quarter peck of green peas until very tender, reserve one-half cup, press the remainder through a sieve with the water in which they were boiled. Season with salt and pepper. Mix 1 tablespoonful of flour, 1 tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter with 1 cup of hot milk. Mix flour smooth with a little cold milk before heating it. Cook all together a few minutes, then add the one cup of peas reserved. If soup is too thick add a small quant.i.ty of milk or water.
TOMATO SOUP
One quart of canned tomatoes, 1 tablespoonful sugar, 1 onion, and a sprig of parsley, cut fine, and 1 carrot and 2 cloves. Stew until soft enough to mash through a fine, wire sieve. Place one quart of sweet milk on the stove to boil. Mix 1 large tablespoonful of cornstarch smooth, with a little cold milk, and stir into the hot milk. Add 1 large tablespoonful of butler and 1/4 teaspoonful (good measure) of soda. Let cook one minute, until it thickens, add 1 teaspoonful of salt. Do not add the milk to the strained tomatoes until ready to serve. Then serve at once.
FRAU SCHMIDTS CLAM SOUP
Chop 12 clams fine, add enough water to the clam broth to measure one quart, cook all together about 15 minutes; add 3 pints of scalding hot milk, season with 1-1/2 tablespoonfuls b.u.t.ter and salt and pepper to taste. Serve crackers with the soup.
CLAM CHOWDER
Cut 1/4 pound of rather "fat" smoked bacon in tiny pieces the size of dice; fry until brown and crisp. Take 25 fresh clams, after having drained a short time in a colander, run through a food chopper and place in ice chest until required. Pour the liquor from the clams into an agate stew-pan; add 6 medium-sized potatoes and 4 medium-sized onions, all thinly sliced; also add the crisp bits of bacon and fat, which had fried out from the bacon, to the clam juice. Cook all together slowly or simmer 3 or 4 hours. Add water to the clam liquor occasionally as required. Ten or fifteen minutes before serving add 1 cup of hot water and the chopped clams (clam juice if too strong is liable to curdle milk). Allow clams to cook in the clam broth 10 to 15 minutes. Boil 2 quarts of sweet milk, and when ready to serve add the hot milk to the chowder, also 1 teaspoonful of chopped parsley.
One-half this quant.i.ty will serve a small family. Serve crisp crackers and small pickels, and this chowder, served with a dessert, makes an inexpensive, nourishing lunch.
BROWN POTATO CHOWDER
Put a pint of diced, raw potatoes in a stew-pan over the fire, cover with 1 quart of water, to which a pinch of salt has been added. Cook until tender, but not fine, then add water so that the water in the stew-pan will still measure one quart should some have boiled away.
Place a small iron fry-part on the range, containing 1 tablespoonful of sweet lard; when melted, it should measure about 2 tablespoonfuls.
Then add 4 tablespoonfuls of flour, a pinch of salt and stir constantly, or rather mash the flour constantly with a spoon, being careful not to allow it to scorch, until a rich brown; add this to the diced potatoes and the quart of water in which they were boiled, stir until the consistency of thick cream, or like clam chowder. Should there be a few, small lumps of the browned flour not dissolved in the chowder, they will not detract from the taste of it; in fact, some are very fond of them. Perhaps some folks would prefer this, more like a soup; then add more hot water and thin it, but be careful to add more seasoning, as otherwise it would taste flat and unpalatable. Very few people know the _good flavor_ of _browned flour_. It has a flavor peculiarly its own, and does not taste of lard at all. I would never advocate _any_ seasoning except b.u.t.ter, but advise economical housewives to try this, being very careful not to scorch the flour and fat while browning.
A mixture of b.u.t.ter and lard may be used in which to brown the flour should there be a prejudice against the use of lard alone.
BEAN CHOWDER
Another palatable, cheap and easily prepared dish is called Bean Chowder. Small soup beans were soaked over night in cold water. Pour off, add fresh water and cook until tender. Then add browned flour (same as prepared for Potato Chowder) and the water in which the beans were cooked. When ready to serve, the beans were added. More water may be added until broth is thin enough for soup, then it would be called "brown bean soup."