Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Pumpkin, Cream of. — Peel a nice ripe pumpkin, and cut in small pieces enough to fill a quart measure. Put these in a saucepan with one pint of cold water, one salt-spoonful of salt, half a one of white pepper, half a table- spoonful of sugar, and cover the saucepan. Cook slowly for one hour and a half, stirring from time to time ; strain through a colander and then through a fine strainer. Put the puree back in the saucepan, and .sprinkle over it half a tablespoonful of flour ; mix well ; pour in slowly, while stirring, one quart of boiled milk. Add half a table-spoonful of very fresh butter, and let it simmer for fifteen minutes. Add one pint of rich cream, and have it very hot, but do not allow it to boil. Serve in cups with hot salted crackers toasted. Purees. — As this expression is used in three senses, it is necessary to explain and define what is meant by each. All purees are the result of boiling or stewing the fruit, vegetable, or cereal in broth or water, and passing the mixture through a more or less fine sieve or tamis. If the puree is to be served separately as a vegetable, not as a soup, it must be almost solid. If it is to be used for soup, it is diluted with broth or stock, and other additions, till the mixture is of the consistency of thick cream. Or if the puree is to be used as sauce, Puree of Game, Etc. Sago Soup a different thickness or thinness is required; not uniform, but varying according to the materials. For instance, apple and tomato sauces are to be thicker than celery or chestnut sauces. Practice and discriminating taste must adjust rules and exceptions. Puree soups should be of the consistency of cream, and perfectly smooth and free from lumps. The addition of cream gives greater smoothness to all purees, and is necessary when they are made without meat; but these soups will keep sweet for only twelve hours. The time for simmering and the quantity of water differ according as the vegetable is young and tender or old and hard. Dried pease, etc., must be soaked beforehand. The simmering must produce a pulp which will pass through the tamis or wire sieve, and the broth must be added and stirred in to the requisite consistency. Beware of salt, as the simmering in this, as in all cases where the liquid reduces, makes the stock or soup increasingly salt. This class of soups may be made with carrots, turnips, green pease, dried pease, string beans, lentils, potatoes, barley, rice, tomatoes, chestnuts, spinach, asparagus, celery, or a mixture of carrots, turnips, potatoes, etc. They all require onions and celery to give flavor. They must all be passed through a sieve, and the vegetables or cereals may be stewed in weak broth, or in water with some butter if for maigre soups. Serve with croutons. Puree of Game, Chicken, or Rabbit Soup. — The remains of roast grouse, partridge, etc., should be carefully saved to make puree of game soup. The meat is to be carefully scraped away from the bones, pounded in a mortar, diluted with stock, and passed through a tamis. This puree is to be mixed with well-seasoned stock ; the soup ought to be the consistence of double cream. If the game puree is not quite enough, a small amount of rice stewed in broth may be passed through the tamis with the game.