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Gelatinous Soups and Jellies. Proteid Sparers: Tomato
CHICKEN - AND - TOMATO SOUP 1 tablespoonful of butter or fat 3 cups of chicken or veal broth from stock 1 tablespoonful of cornstarch 2 slices of onion, chopped fine 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of cold 2 sprigs of parsley, chopped fine water 1/2 can of tomatoes Salt and pepper Cook the onion and parsley in the hot fat till yellowed. Add the tomatoes and broth and let simmer fifteen minutes. Press through a sieve. Reheat to the boiling point; stir in the cornstarch mixed with the cold water; let cook ten minutes. Skim and season.
SOUP MITOUNEE 2 ounces of bread (2 or 3 slices) Salt and pepper 5 cups of broth Free the bread from crust, break it in pieces, add to the broth and let simmer about twenty minutes. Stir the soup occasionally with a wooden spoon. When all of the bread is reduced to a pulp and the soup is thickened uniformly, add salt and pepper as needed and serve.
LAMB - AND - TOMATO SOUP 1 pint of lamb broth (liquid in 1/4 carrot, cut in match-like which lamb was boiled) pieces 1/2 cup of tomato puree (cooked 1/4 green or red pepper, cut in tomatoes strained) shreds 1/2 an onion, cut in thin shreds 1/4 cup of cooked rice 1/2 teaspoonful of salt Cook the pieces of onion, carrot and pepper in boiling water till tender; drain and add to the broth with the tomato, rice and salt. Let simmer five minutes.
CHICKEN - AND - TOMATO BOUILLON (For a company dinner, Thanksgiving, etc.) 1/2 an onion 1 pint of water 1/4 carrot 1 quart of chicken broth 3 tablespoonfuls of butter or Liquid drained from 1 can of dripping tomatoes 1 soup-bag Whites of 2 eggs 1 parsley branch Crushed shell of several eggs Yellow rind of 1 lemon Salt and pepper Cut the onion and carrot in thin slices, and cook in the butter until softened; add the "soup-bag" (bags of sweet herbs and spices prepared especially for soup) parsley, lemon rind and water and let simmer half an hour. Add the broth, liquid drained from the tomatoes, the whites of egg slightly beaten, crushed shells, salt and pepper. Mix all together thoroughly, then set over the fire and stir constantly until the boiling point is reached. Let boil five minutes, then draw to a cool part of the range and let stand ten minutes. Strain through a napkin laid over a colander. Reheat before serving. The liquid in which a fowl has been cooked, is preferable, but broth made from the remnants and bones of a roast fowl may be used.
STANDARD BEEF BROTH 2 lbs. of beef (one-fourth Half a "soup-bag" or piece of bone) bay leaf 2 pints of cold water 8 peppercorns 2 tablespoonfuls, each, of car- 1/2 small onion with 4 cloves rot and celery A branch of parsley A slice of green or red pepper Two pounds of beef from the hind shank is a good selection. There should not be more than half a pound of bone. Wipe the meat and cut it into small pieces. If there is marrow in the bone, remove it and let it melt in a hot frying pan: into this or other fat, put about one-fourth of the meat and let cook, turning occasionally until well browned. Put this meat with the rest of the meat and the bone into a saucepan. Add part of the water. Pour the rest of the water into the frying pan, and let stand on the range until the browned juices are dissolved from the pan, then turn over the meat. Cover and let slowly heat to the boiling point; then let simmer three or four hours; add the vegetables and seasonings and let simmer another hour. Then strain and finish as other broth. When finished measure and if needed add water to make one quart of broth. This may be cleared with the whites of eggs as the "Chicken and Tomato Bouillon" was cleared.
FISH BROTH FOR SAUCES, SOUPS, ETC.
Cover the bones, skin and trimmings of fish with cold water. Add a tablespoonful, each, of carrot, onion and celery, a branch of parsley and a piece of pepper pod for each pint of water. Let simmer an hour or more, then strain off and use as meat broth.
QUESTIONS 1. What is the object of browning part of the meat used in making standard broth? 2. Why are vegetables, as onion, carrot, etc., sometimes browned in fat before adding them to soup stock? Think of advantages and disadvantages of doing this. 3. What dishes would you serve with Soup 4, made without egg or cream, to provide a perfect meal?
A cluster of broth-based soups from a two-person cookery course, written when a household kept stock on hand as a matter of routine. The measurements are mostly workable; a few of the vessels, cans and terms need translating.
- "Half a can of tomatoes"Canned tomatoes of the period were commonly sold in a can of around 2 1/2 cups (a No. 2), though larger sizes were also in use and the book does not say which it means. Half of a 2 1/2-cup can is about 1 1/4 cups, or half of a modern 14.5-oz can plus a little; the quantity is forgiving in a sieved soup.
- The soup-bagA commercial packet of dried herbs and spices sold for soup-making, now essentially gone from shops. Substitute a bouquet garni: bay leaf, thyme, a few peppercorns and parsley tied in cheesecloth. "Half a soup-bag" in the beef broth simply means a lighter hand.
- Clarifying with egg white and shellThis is the hinge of the bouillon. The beaten whites and crushed shells must be stirred into cold or barely warm liquid and stirred constantly as it heats, so the coagulating protein collects the cloudy particles into a raft. Stop stirring once it boils, and do not let it break up. Strain through a doubled napkin or cheesecloth without pressing.
- Straining "through a napkin"Wet the cloth and wring it out first, or it will absorb a noticeable amount of your broth. A colander lined with two layers of damp cheesecloth does the same job.
- Cornstarch timingTen minutes of cooking after the slurry goes in is longer than needed to lose the raw starch taste, but it does no harm at a bare simmer and drives off a little water. Stir it into liquid at a full boil, off to one side, to avoid lumps.
- Soup mitonnéeTwo ounces of bread to five cups of broth is a very thin panade. Use a dense open-crumb white loaf, ideally a day or two old; modern soft sandwich bread dissolves into paste in a few minutes rather than twenty and gives a gluey result.
- Standard beef brothTwo pounds of shank in two pints of water for four to five hours, covered as the recipe directs, still loses enough liquid that the recipe tells you to top up to a quart at the end. Keep it at a bare shiver, never a rolling boil, or the broth will cloud and be harder to clear.
- YieldThe beef broth makes one quart and is a base rather than a finished dish; the chicken-and-tomato bouillon is explicitly sized for a company dinner rather than for two. Fish broth is best used within a few days refrigerated, or frozen in cubes.
These recipes come from the branch of American domestic-science teaching that treated cookery as applied chemistry, which is why the page is headed "Proteid Sparers" and closes with examination questions. "Proteid" was the standard spelling of protein in English-language nutrition writing around the turn of the twentieth century, and a proteid sparer was a dish that filled and satisfied while using little meat, an economy argument dressed in the language of the new science of nutrition. Soup mitonnée owes more to tradition than the chemistry: mitonner in French is generally glossed as letting something simmer slowly for a long time, and the word is traditionally tied to bread soaked and cooked down in broth, a dish of the same family as the sop and the modern panade, though sops themselves are far older than the term. The tomato soups reflect the fact that canned tomatoes had become one of the cheapest and most reliable pantry goods in America by this date, and the note that broth from a roast fowl's bones may replace the liquid from a boiled fowl is a small window into a kitchen where nothing edible was thrown out.