Lean, juicy meat, mutton, and veal, form the basis of all good soups ; therefore it is a good idea to gain those pieces which afford the richest succulence, and such as are fresh-killed.  Off beef renders them bad, and fat isn’t so well adapted for making them.  The principal art in composing good rich soup, is so to proportion the several ingredients that the flavour of one shall not predominate over another, and that all of the articles of which it is composed, shall form an agreeable full.  To do this, care must be taken the roots and herbs are very well cleaned, and so the water is proportioned to the amount of beef and other ingredients.  Sometimes a quart of water might be permitted to a pound of meat for soups, and 1/2 the quantity for gravies.  In making soups or gravies, gentle stewing or simmering is incomparably the best.  It may be remarked {, however ,} that a really good soup can never be made but in a well-closed vessel, although, perhaps, bigger wholesomeness is obtained by an occasional exposure to the air.  Soups will, in general, take from three to six hours doing, and are miles better prepared the day before they are wanted.  When the soup is cold, the fat may be much easier and fully removed ; and when it is poured off, care must be taken not to annoy the settlings at the bottom of the vessel, which are so fine that they can escape thru a sieve.  A tamis is the best strainer, and if the soup is strained while it is hot, let the tamis or cloth be previously drenched in cold water.  Clear soups must be perfectly 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 battered to a pulp, with a bit of butter and flour, and rubbed thru a separate, and continuously incorporated with the soup, will be found an excellent addition.  When the soup appears to be too thin or too puny, the cover of the boiler should be taken off, and the contents allowed 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 day by day in hot weather, they should be warmed up every day, and put into fresh scalded pans or tureens, and placed in a cool cellar.  In temperate weather, every other day could be sufficient. 

Numerous herbs and vegetables are needed 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.  Cut onions, fried with butter and flour till they’re browned, and then rubbed through a sieve, are excellent to increase the colour and flavor of brown soups and sauces, and form the basis 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 strong, does not communicate the delicate sweetness of the fresh vegetable ; 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 tasty, and basil.  As fresh green basil is rarely to be gained, and its fine flavor is shortly lost, the best 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 second imparts a finer flavour than the lemon, and the acid is much milder.  These materials, with wine, mushroom ketchup, Harvey’s sauce, tomato ketchup, combined in diverse proportions, are, with other ingredients, manipulated into an almost endless variety of glorious soups and gravies.  Soups, which are meant to constitute the principal part of a meal, definitely ought not to be flavoured like sauces, which are only engineered to give a relish to some particular dish.

If you enjoy cooking and making food, visit cooking101.org for more recipe and guides on how to cook quality meals. Along the way, you might want to check out recipe for chicken stock.

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