Soup
General Instructions HE real food value of soup is improved by fireless cooking. Meats and bones for soup cost but little and by using the fireless method the real expense of the dish-the long cooking over a fire and constant watching-is done away with, and it becomes one of the most economical as well as healthful of foods. The foundation of most soups is the juice or extracts of meats, poultry, etc., that are used, and the true flavor and the nutriment of these things are developed more fully in a Fireless Cooker than by any other method. Use one radiator heated 475-500 degrees.
Soup Stock 4 lbs. soup meat and bone 1 onion 1 tablespoon salt 1 stalk celery 1 turnip 2½ quarts water 1 carrot 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1/2 bay leaf Wipe meat and cut into small pieces. Cover with cold water. Bring the entire mixture to a boiling point and allow to simmer 10 minutes.
Cook in the fireless for 8 hours or more. Remove and skim fat from top before using. Use one radiator.
Plain Stock Use about 2 pounds of the hind shin of meat. Wash the meat and cut it into inch cubes. Place in with the meat 3 quarts of cold water, 6 whole cloves, 1 bayleaf, 6 pepper corns, 1 sprig of parsley, 1 small onion, a small piece of turnip and carrot. Boil 10 minutes. Cook this in the fireless for 6 or 8 hours or over night. Use one radiator. Remove and strain through a colander. When cold remove every particle of fat. This stock may be used for making different kinds of soup. It will keep for several days.
White Soup Stock 4 lbs. knuckle of veal 1 onion 2 teaspoons salt Small bay leaf 8 cups water 6 pepper corns 1 stalk celery Wipe the meat and cut into small pieces. Have bone cracked and place this with the meat in the kettle; add seasoning and onion and celery cut into small pieces. Add cold water and allow to stand for 1 hour. Boil slowly 10 minutes and cook in fireless 8 hours. Pour soup through several thicknesses of cheese-cloth until clear.
Use one radiator.
Bean Soup 1 cup navy beans 2 quarts water or water in which ham has been boiled 2 stalks celery 1 tablespoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 2 tabespoons butter 1 small onion Soak beans over night, drain and add 2 quarts of cold water or ham stock. Add chopped celery and onion, also salt and pepper. Boil slowly for 15 minutes. Cook in fireless 4 hours.
Rub through sieve, add butter and Use. one radiator. serve.
Bouillon Use 3 pounds of lean beef, cut in cubes. Add 2 quarts of cold water, 1/2 small onion, 2 bay leaves and a little celery. Boil 10 minutes. Cook in fireless 5 or 6 hours. Use one radiator. When removed from fireless allow to cool and remove the fat.
Season with salt and pepper. Heat stove and stir in 1 rounding tablespoonful of flour that has been stirred smooth with a little water.
Chicken Soup Use the liquor in which a chicken has been boiled. Take the carcass of chicken and crack in pieces, placing in kettle with the liquor, and add any gravy, dressing or trimmings that may be left from the fowl. Add 4 tablespoons of rice and bring slowly to a boil. Cook in the fireless 4 hours or more, using one radiator. Strain, season with salt and pepper and serve.
Cream Chicken Soup Two quarts chicken stock, 1 small onion, 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley. Bring to boil and place in fireless for 12 hour on heated radiator. Thicken with a little flour, season with salt, pepper and paprika. Just before serving add slowly 1 cup of rich cream. and serve with a slice of lemon or 2 Corn Soup whole cloves to each portion.
Cream Celery Soup Clean and cut celery into small pieces, put in cooker vessel and add 1 pint of boiling water and salt. Place in the fireless on heated radiator and cook for 1 hour. Remove from cooker, add 1 pint of milk or cream. If milk is used add liberal amount of butter. Bring to the boiling point on Cut 1 pint of green corn from the cob, or use 1 can. Add 1 quart of sweet milk and put in cooker vessel.
Season with salt, pepper, a little onion, 1 rounding teaspoonful sugar and a little butter. Bring to the boiling point. Place in the fireless on one heated radiator and cook for 1 hour. Remove from cooker. Bring to boiling point again and thicken with a little flour.
Clam Chowder (Rhode Island) 1 qt. clams 1/8 teaspoon pepper I 4 cups potatoes cut fine Scalded milk 1 onion 1 tablespoon salt 4 tablespoons butter 1/4 lb. salt pork Clean and pick over clams, reserving liquor. Chop fine. Cut pork in small pieces and try out. Add clams, onion, liquor and potatoes, also seasoning and 2½ cups boiling water. Remove to fireless for 3 hours. Use one radiator. If too thick, add milk to make required consistency when removed from cooker.
Cream of Spinach Soup One pint cold cooked spinach chopped to paste. Add 4 tablespoons butter, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Use covered utensil and cook in fireless with cut into small cubes and add to broth.
Bring all to the boiling point and thicken with a little browned flour to the consistency of thin cream.
Vegetable Soup I 1 cup peas 1 onion 1 cup carrots 1 cup turnips 1/2 cup celery 2 cups brown soup stock 2 cups tomato juice 1 cup diced potatoes Seasoning To the soup stock and tomato juice add the diced carrots, turnips, onion, celery, potatoes, peas and seasoning.
Boil slowly for 10 minutes and then place in the fireless for 2 hours. Use one radiator.
Mutton or Beef Broth (For the Sick) Prepare the same as Mutton or Beef Soup, leaving out all vegetables. one radiator for 1 hour. Rub through Puree Du Barry Soup sieve and serve.
Turtle Soup Clean the turtle, cut it up and put in the cooker vessel. Add 2 quarts cold water, 1 teaspoonful salt and a small piece of butter. Heat gradually to the boiling point. Place vessel in the Fireless Cookstove on 1 heated radiator. Cook for 3 hours. Remove from fireless, take meat from bones, Chop 6 almonds, 1 pint potatoes cut in small cubes, 2 tablespoons onions, 2 tablespoons mashed rice, 1 teaspoon parsley, 1 teaspoon nutmeg.
Thicken with 1 tablespoon flour.
When well mixed add 3 quarts of stock. Boil 5 minutes, remove to the fireless for 2 hours. Use one radiator. Take from kettle, rub through a sieve, add 2 cups of hot milk and serve.
Split Pea Soup 1 cup split peas 1 qt. water 1/2 teaspoon celery salt 1/2 slice onion 3 tablespoons butter 2 teaspoons salt 2 tablespoons flour 2 cups milk Soak peas over night, drain and add 1 quart of cold water. Add salt, onion and celery salt. Boil 10 minutes and place in cooker 8 hours. Rub through sieve, add butter and flour rubbed together, stirring until it thickens. Add milk and serve. Use one radiator.
Rice Soup To 1 quart of beef, mutton or chicken stock, brought to the boiling point in the cooker vessel, add 1/2 cup of washed rice, a small onion, a little celery, and a dash of red pepper.
Cover utensil and place in the fireless on heated radiator. Cook for 1 hour, or longer if desired.
Mutton or Beef Soup Two pounds meat (wash in cold water). Use any vegetables you desire; sliced carrots and potatoes, with a few slices of onion, are very good. Chop all the ingredients fine, place in vessel with 2 quarts of cold water, bring slowly to a boil, skim and cook in the fireless 3 hours, using one hot radiator. Strain, season and serve.
Tomato Soup 1 can tomatoes 2 cloves 1 teaspoon salt Small onion 2 cups water Small bay leaf Sprinkle cayenne 1 carrot 1 quart soup stock Add water to tomatoes. Dice carrot and slice onion; add these and the seasoning. Boil 5 minutes and place in the fireless for 2 hours. Strain and serve. Use one radiator.
Lentil Soup 4 cups stock 4 tablespoons flour 4 teaspoons butter 1 onion 1 carrot 1 cup lentils 1 stalk celery 2 teaspoons salt Soak lentils in water several hours, then drain and add onions, carrot and celery cut fine. Add water and boil 10 minutes. Place in cooker 7 hours.
Remove from fireless. Rub through sieve. Make paste of flour, add flour, stock and seasoning. Heat and serve.
To "cream" lentil soup add 1 quart of milk instead of stock. No radiator.
Beef Tea 1 lb. round steak 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 cups water Remove the skin and fat, put meat through meat chopper and cover with cold water. Add salt and heat slowly to just below the boiling point. Cook in fireless for one hour, strain and serve hot. Use one radiator.
O Rice Soup with Tomatoes Take 6 tomatoes and stew them in very little water with 1 sliced onion.
Rub through a colander. Heat slightly 2 tablespoons butter, add tomatoes and 1/2 cup washed rice to this, stirring all the time. Then add 1/2 quarts of hot stock. Put the covered utensil into the fireless 1 hour.
Use one radiator.
This is a chapter of soups written for a fireless cookstove — an insulated box in which a soapstone or iron "radiator" heated on the range is placed under the pot, and the food finishes on stored heat alone. That is the whole problem: nothing in the box holds a temperature, and a meat stock left in it for eight hours or overnight passes slowly through exactly the range in which bacteria multiply.
- Why the method fails on meat stocksA radiator heated to 475–500F cannot keep two and a half quarts of stock hot for eight hours. The contents coast downward through 140F, 120F, 100F and lower over the night, which is the classic incubation range.
- Clostridium perfringens specificallyBeef, veal and chicken stocks are a textbook vehicle for C. perfringens. Its spores survive the brief ten-minute boil the recipes call for and can then germinate and multiply in the slowly cooling broth. Reheating kills vegetative cells but is not a reliable safeguard for a broth that has spent hours in the danger zone, and the toxins of Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus are heat-stable.
- Beef teaThe beef tea is heated only to "just below the boiling point" and then held for an hour in a cooling box: minced beef brought to no measured temperature and then left to fall further. Beef tea was food for invalids — the people least able to tolerate an infection.
- Clams and dairyThe Rhode Island chowder adds chopped raw clams and their liquor and then sits for three hours on a single preheated radiator, never brought back to a boil, and the corn soup holds a quart of milk in the cooker for an hour. Shellfish and milk are poor candidates for undertemperature holding.
- TurtleThe turtle soup assumes a turtle killed and butchered at home. Every sea turtle is protected under international and domestic law, and many freshwater species are protected or their taking licensed; snapping turtle, the likely candidate here, is subject to mercury and PCB consumption advisories in some jurisdictions. Wild-caught turtle also carries a documented Salmonella risk.
- What the vocabulary means"One radiator" is a single preheated stone or metal disc; "try out" the salt pork means to render it until the fat runs and the scraps crisp; "rub through a sieve" is the pre-blender purée. "Shin" is the beef shank — this recipe specifies the hind shin — and a veal knuckle is the joint end of the leg, cracked for stock.
- If you want these soupsThe recipes themselves — bean, split pea, lentil, tomato, corn — are sound in conception, but the cooking method is the part that cannot be salvaged. Use a current stockpot, oven or thermostatically controlled slow cooker recipe instead.
Fireless cookers, also called hay boxes, insulated cookers or self-cookers, were promoted hard in America and Europe between roughly 1900 and the 1920s as a fuel-saving, labour-saving answer to the coal range: heat the food briefly, seal it in a packed box, and let retained heat finish the work while the cook left the house. Wartime fuel economy and the domestic-science movement both pushed them, and manufacturers sold factory-made cabinets with soapstone "radiators" alongside instructions for building one from a crate and hay. Soup was the flagship application, as this chapter's opening argues — cheap shin, knuckle and carcass bones, which needed hours of watched simmering on a range, could apparently be extracted overnight for nothing. The economics were real and the enthusiasm was genuine, but the bacteriology of the period was not yet equal to the question of what happens to four pounds of beef and bone held at slowly falling temperatures for eight hours. Thermostatically controlled electric slow cookers, which arrived decades later, do what the fireless cooker promised while actually holding a temperature.