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Gelatinous Soups and Jellies. Proteid Sparers
IN the first chapter we spoke of "the gelatinoids," a group of proteids that were not as important as the group containing albumin, gluten, etc., inasmuch as they cannot alone supply the nitrogen needed by the body. Though they be not the equivalent of true proteids, they may replace some of the proteid in the diet. They are easily digested and absorbed and tend to promote nutrition. They also furnish variety in diet. The gelatinoids, with which we have most to do in cooking, are found largely in the connective tissues of meat and in the ligaments and bones of veal and chickens. This gelatinous principle is dissolved by heat when moisture is present. The main point to keep in mind is that connective tissue and bone are both practically flavorless and, if this principle is to be made use of in cookery, flavor must be added to it. If the juices of the meat be used, then rich flavor is assured. When these can be had only in small quantity, then flavor must be secured from vegetables, herbs and the like. In making sweet dishes, we use the gelatine of commerce, and for flavor coffee, chocolate, wine, fruit juices, etc. Such dishes do not possess high nutritive value of themselves, but nutriment may be added, when advisable, by the use of eggs or cream.
SOUP STOCK FROM BONES OF A ROAST FOWL OR ROAST OF VEAL Break up the bones, carefully, discarding any dressing that may be attached to them. If a few bits of raw lamb (ends of chops) or veal be at hand, these will give flavor to the soup. Also if uncooked giblets, heart, liver and gizzard, or the neck of the fowl be available, the soup will be much improved. Cover the materials to be used with cold water, and let heat slowly to the boiling point, then let simmer an hour, or longer, if uncooked material were added. Add now half an onion, cut in bits, half a small carrot, cut in bits, a stalk of celery or half a tablespoonful of celery seed, a sprig of parsley, six peppercorns and a scant teaspoonful of salt, and let cook nearly an hour, then strain off the broth. Set this aside in a cool place and when cold remove the fat. This fat may be used in making the thickening, if a thickened soup be desired.
SOUP 1 Have ready two or three tablespoonfuls of cooked rice and one-fourth a cup of bits of cooked chicken; reheat the soup, add the rice and chicken with salt and pepper as needed.
An essay on gelatine followed by a working method for turning a picked-over carcass into stock and then into a bowl of soup. The technique holds up; the terminology and a few of the assumptions need translating.
- Start cold, stay at a bare simmerThe instruction to cover with cold water and heat slowly is the hinge of the whole thing. A cold start lets albumin rise as scum that can be skimmed, and a lazy simmer around 185F keeps fat and fine particles from emulsifying into the liquid. A rolling boil gives you cloudy, greasy stock every time.
- "Proteid" and "gelatinoids"Proteid is the period word for protein; gelatinoids are collagen and the gelatine it converts to. The chapter's claim that gelatine can "replace some of the proteid in the diet" reflects turn-of-the-century nutritional chemistry: gelatine is an incomplete protein, lacking tryptophan, and modern nutrition gives little weight to the idea of it as a protein sparer.
- Vegetables go in late for a reasonThe bones simmer an hour alone before the onion, carrot, celery, parsley and peppercorns join for the last hour. Aromatics held that long turn dull and slightly sour; adding them for the final stretch keeps the flavor clean.
- Celery seed as a substituteHalf a tablespoon of celery seed standing in for a stalk of celery is a strong swap by modern taste. Celery seed is far more concentrated and faintly bitter; a teaspoon is plenty if you have no fresh stalk.
- GibletsHeart, gizzard and neck all add body and flavor. Liver does not belong in stock in any quantity, despite being listed here: it clouds the liquid and turns it muddy and metallic. Leave it out or use a very small piece.
- Chilling and the fat cap"Set this aside in a cool place" meant a larder or icebox. Refrigerate it instead, uncovered until it stops steaming, then covered. The fat lifts off as a solid disc, and the book is right that it makes a good roux fat if you want the soup thickened.
- Keeping and yieldA single roast chicken carcass yields roughly a quart to a quart and a half, which with the rice and chicken feeds two generously. Cooked stock keeps about four days refrigerated, or several months frozen.
- Judging the setStock from bones and joints will often gel, at least softly, when cold. If yours stays liquid, there was not enough collagen in the pot; a split veal knuckle or a few chicken feet will improve the body with little change to the flavor.
Cooking for Two belongs to the domestic-science movement, when American cookbooks began arriving with chemistry attached: recipes prefaced by lectures on proteids, carbohydrates and "nutritive value," written for the educated housekeeper who was expected to understand why as well as how. The interest in gelatine was genuine and short-lived. Nineteenth-century researchers, following experiments generally traced to the French Gelatine Commission of the 1840s, had already shown that animals fed gelatine alone starved, but the substance kept a reputation as a digestible, restorative food for invalids and children, and the compromise position seen here, that it can spare but not replace true protein, was the standard textbook line around 1900. The practical advice underneath it is older than any of the science: break up the bones of the Sunday roast, extract what is left with water and time, and season what comes out, because bone and connective tissue give body but almost no flavor of their own.