Twentieth century home cook book

BAKED. XIX. PASTRY Foil MEAT PIES. XX. INGEEDIENTS FOE MEAT PIES. XXI. DISHES OF EGGS. XXII. STEjVjMEI) DISHES. I. Vegetable Soup. p-HIS is the soup most commonly made in the United States; it is excellent with the family dinner. Take a beef shanlv, crush the bone and put into cold water. Bring it to a boil and skim. Cook four hours, so that when done there shall ii. be about two cjuarts of soup to each three or four pounds of meat. If turnips and carrots are used, put them in sliced as soon as the liquid is first skimijied. When SOUP OR STEW POT AND LID. SKILLET AND LID. the soup is half done, add a pint of peeled tomatoes for each gallon of soup, and in an hour more half a pint of young okra sliced. Half an hour before it is served, add a quarter of a pound of sliced potatoes, and the same of green corn grated from the cob. The season of the year and the opportunities for getting vegetables will readily suggest substitutes. If okra or tomatoes cannot be had, thicken with a little flour and rice. If onions are liked, flavor with them, but lightly, and also with salt and pepper. II. Clear Beef Soup. Only the flesh of young animals should be used for soup. The flesh of very old animals will not make really good soup. T;dve four pounds of lean beef and a knuckle of veal; put into a suitable quantity of water; when it has been skimmed SOME USEFUL RECIPES. 227 add two or three thin strips of porlv and a tablespoonful of butter, two onions, stucii with six cloves each, and a blade of mace. Continue to skim as may be necessary, and then let it just simmer for at least live hcnirs more. Drop in a small l)unch of parsley half an hour before it is done, lief ore sending to the table strain through a clean cloth, and color suitably with burnt sugar. III. Soups of Various Meats. SoiT is made of various meats, of chicken, and also of fish. Broths are thin soups, and the meat from which they are made is also to be eaten separately; yet most cooks are in the habit of calling them soups. Thus vermicelli, macaroni, noodle and okra soups are thickened with these ingredients, and are made with chicken, beef or veal. Mutton Broth. — To six pounds of neck of mutton take three quarts of water, carrots, turni2Ts and potatoes. Soak the mutton in cold water for an hour; cut off the scrags and all the fat, and put into the st«w-pan with three cjuarts of water. It must be simmered three hours, skimming thoroughly. The carrots, turnips and onions, cut into suitable pieces, are added after the first skimming, and also four tablespoon- fuls of pearl barle\'. Half an hour before taking from the fire add a little chopped parsley and serve hot. Serve the meat separately, divided into cutlets of two bones each. Okra Soup. — Take two chickens, three strips of sweet bacon, or a quarter of a pound of ham, one quart of tomatoes, four pints of okra and two onions. Fry the chicken, bacon and onions in a skillet. AVhen done, pour on water and rinse into the soup-kettle, with plenty of water ; put in the tomatoes. Cook the okra in a sauce-pan. When the meat has cooked so it may be pulled from the bone, pour through a col- ander, add the bacon or bam, and the tomatoes from the colander; put back the soup ao-ain to boil, pull the chicken from the bone, add the okra and let it cook until thick enouo-h. If the chicken is chopped fine before being put in, and the whole stewed down pretty thick and ladled upon rice, boiled just so the grains are separate and distinct, it makes an excellent gumbo, which is still better if a little sweet cream is added to the boiling rice, and the soup seasoned with cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt. But it is generally made by adding the rice and cream to the soup.