The Ideal cook book

Boil half a pt. of pearl barley in a qt. of white stock till it is reduced to a pulp, pass it through a hair sieve, and add to it as much well flavored white stock as will give a purée of the consistency of cream ; put the soup on the fire, when it boils stir into it, off the fire, the yolk of an egg beaten up with a gill of cream ; add half a pat of fresh butter, and serve with small - dice of bread fried in butter. 31. Lobster Soup (Bisque) — Ingredients—1 lobster, butter, — pepper, salt and grated nutmeg, bread crumbs, stock, 1 tablespoonful of flour, bread. Pick out all the meat from a lobster, pound it in a mortar with an equal quantity of butter until a fine orange-colored pulp is obtained; to this add pepper, salt and grated nutmeg to taste. Take as much bread crumbs as there is lobster pulp, soak them in stock, then melt a piece of butter in a saucepan, amalgamate with it a heaped tablespoonful of flour; mix the lobster pulp with the bread crumbs, and put them into the saucepan with the butter and flour, stir well, and add more stock until a purée is obtained, rather thinner in consistency than the soup should be. Put the saucepan on the fire, stirring the contents until they thicken and boil; draw it then on one side, and carefully skim off superfluous fat, then strain the soup through a hair sieve, make it boiling hot, and serve with small dice of bread fried in butter. 32. Soup made from Bones— Ingredients—Bones of any freshly roasted meat, remnants of any poultry or game, fresh livers, gizzards, necks, combs of any poultry, 1 slice of lean ham, salt, 1 onion, 1 turnip, 1 leek, 1 head of celery, 4 carrots, 3 tomatoes, 1/4 of bay leaf, 3 or 4 cloves, 6 pepper corns, 3 allspice, 1 bunch of parsley and chervil, tapioca, sago, vermicelli or semolina. Have the bones of any freshly roasted meat—beef, veal, pork, venison, mutton or lamb—broken up into largish pieces, the four first sorts may be mixed with advantage, while mutton and lamb are better alone. Add the carcases or remaining ER limbs of any roast poultry—ducks, fowls, pigeons, geese, turkey or game, and the fresh livers, gizzards, necks, and combs of any poultry you happen to be going to cook the same day, and a slice of lean ham if you have it. Put all these together in an earthen soup pan that will stand the fire and wiil hold onethird more cold water than you require for your soup to allow for the loss in boiling ; fill with water, and place on a brisk fire - till it boils. Then add salt (less quantity if there be ham in — the soup), one large onion, one large turnip, one large leek, one head of celery, four large carrots, three sliced tomatoes, a quarter of a bay leaf, three or four cloves stuck into a carrot or turnip, six whole peppercorns, three allspice whole, and, finally, a good-sized bunch of parsley and chervil tied together. We find a piece of calf’s liver anda fresh young cabbage an improvement, but this is a matter of taste. When boiling skim thoroughly, and take the pot off the fire, placing it quite at the edge so as merely to simmer gently—or, as the French call it, to smile—for six hours at least. ‘The great art in making this sort of simple broth is never to let the fire go down too much, nor to allow the soup to boil too fast, so as not to require filling up with other water to replace what has been consumed —or, rather, wasted by rapid ebullition. Half an hour before you require your soup take it off the fire and strain through a cullender, then through a fine sieve, and put it on a brisk fire. When quite boiling add tapioca, sago, vermicelli, or semolina, scattering it lightly, and allowing one tablespoonful to each person. Rice may also be used, but it requires a full half hour, -and consumes more broth.