Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery. Marion Harland
lb. salt pork.
3 bunches asparagus.
1 gallon water.
Cut the entire stalk of the asparagus into pieces an inch long, and when the meat has boiled one hour, add half of the vegetable to the liquor in the pot. Boil two hours longer and strain, pressing the asparagus pulp very hard to extract all the green coloring. Add the other half of the asparagus—(the heads only, which should be kept in cold water until you are ready for them), and boil twenty minutes more. Then proceed as with the asparagus white soup, omitting the milk, thickening, and salt. The pork will supply the latter seasoning.
Tomato (Winter soup.) ✠
3 lbs. beef.
1 qt. canned tomatoes.
1 gallon water.
A little onion.
Pepper and salt.
Let the meat and water boil for two hours, until the liquid is reduced to little more than two quarts. Then stir in the tomatoes, and stew all slowly for three-quarters of an hour longer. Season to taste, strain, and serve.
Tomato (Summer soup). ✠
2½ lbs. veal, or lamb.
1 gallon water.
2 qts. fresh tomatoes, peeled and cut up fine.
1 tablespoonful butter.
1 teaspoonful white sugar.
Pepper and salt. Chopped parsley.
Boil the meat to shreds and the water down to two quarts. Strain the liquor, put in the tomatoes, stirring them very hard that they may dissolve thoroughly; boil half an hour. Season with parsley or any other green herb you may prefer, pepper, and salt. Strain again, and stir in a tablespoonful of butter, with a teaspoonful of white sugar, before pouring into the tureen.
This soup is more palatable still if made with the broth in which chickens were boiled for yesterday’s dinner.
Turnip.
Knuckle of veal, well cracked.
5 qts. water.
Cover closely and stew gently for four hours, the day before the soup is wanted. On the morrow, skim off the fat and warm the stock gradually to a boil. Have ready an onion and six large winter or a dozen small summer turnips, sweet marjoram or thyme minced very finely. Put these into the soup and let them simmer together for an hour. Strain: return to the fire and add a cup of milk—in which has been stirred a tablespoonful of rice-flour or other thickening—and a tablespoonful of butter. Season with salt and pepper, let it boil up once, stirring all the time, as is necessary in all soups where milk is added at last, and remove instantly, or it will scorch.
Potato.
A dozen large mealy potatoes.
2 onions.
1 lb. salt pork.
3 qts. water.
1 tablespoonful butter.
1 cup milk or cream.
1 well-beaten egg.
Chopped onion.
Boil the pork in the clear water for an hour and a half, then take it out. Have ready the potatoes, which, after being peeled and sliced, should lie in cold water for half an hour. Throw them into the pot, with the chopped onion. Cover and boil three-quarters of an hour, stirring often. Beat in butter, milk and egg. Add the latter ingredients carefully, a little at a time; stir while it heats to a final boil, and then serve.
This is a cheap wholesome dish, and more palatable than one would suppose from reading the receipt.
Graham Soup. ✠
3 onions.
3 carrots.
4 turnips.
1 small cabbage.
1 bunch celery.
1 pt. stewed tomatoes.
Chop all the vegetables, except the tomatoes and cabbage, very finely, and set them over the fire with rather over three quarts of water. They should simmer gently for half an hour, at the end of which time the cabbage must be added, having previously been parboiled and chopped up. In fifteen minutes more put in the tomatoes and a bunch of sweet herbs, and give all a lively boil of twenty minutes. Rub through a cullender, return the soup to the fire, stir in a good tablespoonful of butter, pepper, and salt, half a cup of cream if you have it, thickened with corn-starch; let it boil up, and it is ready for the table.
Ochra, or Gumbo.
Ochra, or okra, is a vegetable little known except in the far South, where it is cultivated in large quantities and is very popular. A favorite soup is prepared from it in the following manner:—
2 qts. of ochras, sliced thin.
1 qt. of tomatoes, also sliced.
4 tablespoonfuls of butter.
2 lbs. of beef, cut into small pieces.
½ lb. corned ham or pork, also cut up.
Put the meat and ochras together in a pot with a quart of cold water—just enough to cover them—and let them stew for an hour. Then add the tomatoes and two quarts of boiling water—more, if the liquid in the pot has boiled away so as to expose the meat and vegetables. Boil three-quarters of an hour longer, skimming often with a silver spoon. When the contents of the vessel are boiled to pieces, put in the butter, with cayenne pepper and salt, if the ham has not seasoned it sufficiently. Strain and send up with squares of light, crisp toast floating upon it.
Corn. ✠
1 large fowl, cut into eight pieces.
1 doz. ears green corn—cut from the cobs.
Boil the chicken with the cobs in a gallon of water until the fowl is tender—if tough, the boiling must be slow and long. Then, put the corn into the pot, and stew an hour longer—still gently. Remove the chicken with a cupful of the liquid, if you wish to make other use of the meat. Set this aside, take out the cobs, season the corn-soup with pepper,