Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt-Book, 3rd ed. Eliza Leslie
wooden ladle, so as to get as much liquor out of them as possible, while you are taking up the soup.
This soup will be better still, if made with milk instead of water; milk being an improvement to all fish-soups.
EXCELLENT CLAM SOUP.—Take forty or fifty clams, and wash and scrub the outsides of the shells till they are perfectly clean. Then put them into a pot with just sufficient water to keep them from burning. The water must boil hard when you put in the clams. In about a quarter of an hour the shells will open, and the liquor run out and mix with the water, which must be saved for the soup, and strained into a soup-pot, after the clams are taken out. Extract the clams from their shells, and cut them up small. Then put them into the soup-pot, adding a minced onion, a saucer of finely chopped celery, or a table-spoonful of celery seed, and a dozen blades of mace, with a dozen whole pepper-corns. No salt, as the clam-liquor will be quite salt enough. If the liquid is not in sufficient quantity to fill a large tureen, add some milk. Thicken the soup with two large table-spoonfuls of fresh butter rolled in flour. Let it boil a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. Just before you take it from the fire, stir in, gradually, the beaten yolks of five eggs; and then take up the soup, and pour it into a tureen, the bottom of which is covered with toasted bread, cut into square dice about an inch in size.
FRENCH WHITE SOUP.—Boil a knuckle of veal and four calves’ feet in five quarts of water, with three onions sliced, a bunch of sweet herbs, four heads of white celery cut small, a table-spoonful of whole pepper, and a small tea-spoonful of salt, adding five or six large blades of mace. Let it boil very slowly, till the meat is in rags and has dropped from the bone, and till the gristle has quite dissolved. Skim it well while boiling. When done, strain it through a sieve into a tureen, or a deep white-ware pan. Next day, take off all the fat, and put the jelly (for such it ought to be) into a clean soup-pot with two ounces of vermicelli, and set it over the fire. When the vermicelli is dissolved, stir in, gradually, a pint of thick cream, while the soup is quite hot; but do not let it come to a boil after the cream is in, lest it should curdle. Cut up one or two French rolls in the bottom of a tureen, pour in the soup, and send it to table.
COCOA-NUT SOUP.—Take eight calves’ feet (two sets) that have been scalded and scraped, but not skinned; and put them into a soup-kettle with six or seven blades of mace, and the yellow rind of a lemon pared thin. Pour on a gallon of water; cover the kettle, and let it boil very slowly (skimming it well) till the flesh is reduced to rags and has dropped entirely from the bones. Then strain it into a broad white-ware pan, and set it away to get cold. When it has congealed, scrape off the fat and sediment, cut up the cake of jelly, (or stock,) and put it into a clean porcelain or enamelled kettle. Have ready half a pound of very finely grated cocoa-nut. Mix it with a pint of cream. If you cannot obtain cream, take rich unskimmed milk, and add to it three ounces of the best fresh butter divided into three parts, each bit rolled in arrow-root or rice-flour. Mix it, gradually, with the cocoa-nut, and add it to the calves-feet-stock in the kettle, seasoned with half a grated nutmeg. Set it over the fire, and boil it, slowly, about a quarter of an hour; stirring it well. Then transfer it to a tureen, and serve it up. Have ready small French rolls, or light milk biscuit to eat with it; also powdered sugar in case any of the company should wish to sweeten it.
ALMOND SOUP is made in the above manner, substituting pounded almonds for the grated cocoa-nut. You must have half a pound of shelled sweet almonds, mixed with two ounces of shelled bitter almonds. After blanching them in hot water, they must be pounded to a smooth paste (one at a time) in a marble mortar; adding frequently a little rose-water to prevent their oiling, and becoming heavy. Or you may use peach-water for this purpose; in which case omit the bitter almonds, as the peach water will give the desired flavour. When the pounded almonds are ready, mix them with the other ingredients, as above.
The calves’ feet for these soups should be boiled either very early in the morning, or the day before.
SOUP-MEAT.—To make the soup very good, the meat (of which there should be a large proportion, rather more than a pound to a quart of water) must remain in, till it drops entirely from the bones and is boiled to rags. But none of these fragments and shreds should be found in the tureen when the soup is sent to table. They should all be kept at the bottom of the pot, pressing down the ladle hard upon them when you are dipping out the soup. If any are seen in the soup after it is taken up, let them be carefully removed with a spoon. To send the soup to table with bits of bone and shreds of meat in it, is a slovenly, disgusting, and vulgar practice, and should be strictly forbidden; as some indifferent cooks will do so to save themselves the trouble of removing it. A mass of shreds left at the bottom of the tureen, absorbs so much of the liquid as to diminish the quantity of the soup; and if eaten is very unwholesome, all the nourishment being boiled out of it.
Mutton, however, need not be boiled to pieces in the soup, which will have sufficient strength if the meat is left whole. A piece of loin of mutton, that has been cooked in soup, is to many persons very palatable. It is well worth sending to table.
SAUCE FOR MUTTON THAT HAS BEEN BOILED IN SOUP.—Mutton that has been boiled in soup is very generally liked, particularly the loin. Take two large boiled onions; cut them up, and put them into a saucepan with a piece of fresh butter, slightly rolled in flour; a table-spoonful of mustard, (French or tarragon mustard will be best); a very little salt and cayenne; and some pickled cucumbers, chopped small; green nasturtian seeds will be still better than cucumbers. Put all these ingredients into a small saucepan, and add to them a little of the soup. Set the sauce over the fire, and when it has come to a boil, take it off, and keep it warm till the meat goes to table; then send it in a sauce-boat.
SUBSTITUTES FOR CAPER-SAUCE.—Take some pickled string-beans, or pickled cucumbers, or gherkins; cut them into small bits, and put them thickly into a sauce-tureen of melted butter, adding a spoonful of vinegar; or, what is still better, the juice of a lemon Serve it up as sauce to boiled mutton.
A still better substitute will be found in nasturtian seeds plucked from the stems, and pickled by simply putting them (when green, but full-grown) into a jar of cider-vinegar. Add a few table-spoonfuls of these to the melted butter before it goes to table. Their flavour is superior to that of capers.
FISH, ETC.
FRESH SALMON STEWED.—Having cleaned and washed the fish, cut it into round slices or fillets, rather more than an inch in thickness. Lay them in a large dish; sprinkling a very little salt evenly over the slices; and in half an hour turn them on the other side. Let them rest another half hour; then wash, drain, and wipe them dry with a clean towel. Spread some of the best fresh butter thickly over the strainer of a large fish-kettle; and lay the pieces of salmon upon it. Cover them nearly all over with very thin slices of fresh lemon, from which the seeds have been removed. Intersperse among the lemon a few slices of shalots, or very small mild onions; a few sprigs of parsley and some whole pepper-corns. Set the kettle over a large bed of live coals; and spread very hot ashes thickly over the lid; which must be previously well-heated on the inside by standing it up before the fire. The heat should be regularly kept up, while the fish is stewing, both above and below it. It will require an hour to cook thoroughly. When dishing it, remove the sliced lemon, shalots, parsley, &c., leaving them in the bottom of the kettle. Put a cover over the fish, and set the dish that contains it over a large vessel of hot water, while you are preparing the sauce. For this sauce, mix thoroughly a quarter of a pound of fresh butter with a table-spoonful of flour. Put it into a quart tin vessel with a lid, and add a table-spoonful of water, and the seasoning that was left in the bottom of the fish-kettle. Cover the vessel closely, and set it in a larger sauce-pan or pot of boiling water. Shake it about over the fire till it comes to a boil. If you set it down on hot coals the butter will oil. When it has boiled, remove the lemon, onion, &c.; pour the sauce into a sauce-boat, and send it to table with the stewed fish, garnished with sprigs of curled parsley.
This is a French mode of cooking salmon. Fresh cod, or halibut, may be stewed in the same manner.
ROASTED SALMON.—Take