Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Carrot soup, turnip soup, vegetable-marrow soup, chestnut soup, pea soup, greenpea soup, potato soup, asparagus sovip, &c. &c., are all alike in one respect, and that is, the one secret of the soup being good is the amount of perseverance displayed in rubbing the ingredients through the tamis. In rubbing these ingredients through, the cook will often find it advisable to scrape the tamis or wire sieve underneath, as the puree will cling to the bottom of the sieve after being worked through it with the spoon. It will also be necessary from time to time to moisten the contents of the sieve with some of the liquid part of the stock that has run through it. However, much allowance should be made for women cooks, who perhaps, unassisted by a kitchen-maid, have to prepare soups of this description. A considerable amount of time must necessarily be spent, and a considerable amount of strength expended, in order to obtain a satisfactory result. In large kitchens, where a man cook superintends, and perhaps two or three young men assist, there is, of course, no difficulty ; but where only a woman unassisted has to manage the whole dinner, it should be the duty of the mistress to avoid ordering, as is often done through mere thoughtlessness, many dishes, all of which require a certain amount of manual labour in their preparation. For instance, green-pea soup, whipped cream, and mayonnaise sauce in one dinner would overtask probably the powers of any woman cook unassisted. Most of these vegetable soups and purees are very much improved by the addition of cream, and it will be generally found that boiling cream is ordered to be added. This distinction is important : not merely is the risk of curdling avoided, but the flavour is different. All know, for instance, how different coflee tastes that has had boiling milk added to it instead of ordinary milk. Just so with cream — ■ when cream is used to be added to soup of any description, boil it separately before adding it. Now of course in ordinary private houses cream is far too expensive tu be used often, and indeed in London to be used at all, except in small quantities. PRINCIPLES BISQUE. Milk is a very obvious substitute for cream, especially if a yolk of an egg be added to it, but care must be taken in adding this yolk, or the soup will get curdled. We "svill suppose, therefore, you are recommended to add a pint of boiling cream to some soup, and you are going to substitute milk and a yolk of an egg instead. If possible, allow the soup to reduce itself by boiling, and you can then add more than a pint of milk. However, boil this milk, taking the usual care that it does not boil over, which milk seems particularly fond of doing, and pour this boiling milk through a strainer into the soup ; next, have ready the hot soup tureen and the yolk of egg; just before serving up the soup, throw the yolk into the tureen, take a spoonful of the soup out of the saucepan and throw it in, and beat it up with the yolk, add a few more spoonfuls, one at a time, to the tureen, and mix in the yolk thoroughly ; then pour in the remainder of the soup, which should not be absolutely boiling, though thoroughly hot. The effect of this milk and egg will be very similar to a pint of cream, but of course much more economical.