The new Kentucky home cook book

The best base for soup is lean uncooked meat, to which may be added chicken, turkey, or beef bones, well crushed. The legs of all meats are rich in gelatine, an important item in soups. The best herbs and spices for soups are sage, thyme, sweet marjoram, parsley, cloves, mace, and celery-seed. Rice, pearled barley, vermicelli, and macaroni are desirable additions to meat soups. The barley should be soaked overnight, and boiled in a little water until tender, and the others require half an hour's boiling in the soup. For coloring soups use browned flour, fried onions, meat browned with butter, cloves. Poached eggs are an excellent addition to some soups. They should be added just before serving. Cold vegetables left from the day before, that would otherwise be thrown away, can be used in place of fresh ones. If soup boils too low add boiling water, being careful not to put in too much. In serving crackers with soup always have them heated. Soup should always be made in a porcelain kettle if possible. Do not put salt in soup until after the meat is thoroughly cooked, as it hardens it, making it tough and less juicy. (19) [illustration: The New Kentucky Some Cook Book.] Vegetable soup is better the second day than the first, heating it rather slowly, being careful not to let it scorch. STOCK. The meat should be lean and juicy. Put it into cold water and heat moderately for the first half hour. Two and a half pints of water to each pound of beef and bone. Beef makes good stock, but chicken and veal are more delicate. Good soup can be made of bits of cold meat, bones of meat or fowl, a little fried onion with a clove stuck in, parsley, and carrots. Skim often. Simmer slowly and steadily for four or five hours. Very little salt, until the last. Always strain. ANOTHER STOCK. Five pounds of lean beef; five quarts of water. Let it come slowly to the boiling point, and skim well. Add a little salt, set back and boil gently for six or seven hours, or until the meat drops to pieces. Add pepper, strain and set aside to cool, and remove all the grease. To make soup from stock, put in as much as is needed ; add seasoning, water, and vegetables. The vegetables should be cooked first, as too much boiling injures the flavor of the stock. BEEF SOUP. Use a large-sized soup bone, with plenty of flesh attached. Wash carefully, place in a closely covered dinner-pot, which has been well scraped and cleaned. Pour over the meat three quarts of cold water, and as it begins to boil skim frequently until the scum ceases to rise; let it simmer or boil slowly for four or five hours; add a small pod of red pepper, and a tea-spoonful of black pepper ground. Pare and slice three good-sized potatoes, put them in half an hour before dinner, with a table-spoonful of salt. Stir into [illustration: The New Kentucky Home Cook Book. 21] the soup three table-spoonfuls of flour mixed smoothly with milk or water, boil gently a few minutes, and just before serving add a pint of rich milk or cream. Mrs. Charles Tare, NOODLE SOUP. Take beef bone or chicken, put into one gallon of cold water, and boil three hours; skim well. Onions, cabbage, corn, tomatoes, and turnips, in small quantities, chopped fine, a little parsley, and about three cloves ; salt and pepper to taste.