Lean, juicy beef, mutton, and veal, form the foundation of all good soups ; so it is advisable to gain those pieces which afford the richest succulence, and such as are fresh-killed. Off beef renders them bad, and fat is not so well evolved for making them. The principal art in composing good rich soup, is so to proportion the many ingredients that the flavour of one shall not predominate over another, and that all of the articles of which it is composed, shall form an agreeable whole. To accomplish this, care must be taken the roots and herbs are quite well cleaned, and so the water is proportioned to the amount of beef and other ingredients. Sometimes a quart of water may be allowed to a pound of meat for soups, and 1/2 of the quantity for gravies. In making soups or gravies, gentle stewing or simmering is incomparably the best. It may be remarked {, however ,} a actually good soup can not ever be made but in a well-closed vessel, though, perhaps, greater wholesomeness is obtained by an occasional exposure to the air. Soups will, generally, take from three to six hours doing, and are much better prepared the day before they are wanted. When the soup is cold, the fat might be much more easily and utterly removed ; and when it is poured off, care must be taken not to disturb the settlings at the bottom of the vessel, which are so fine that they can escape thru a sieve. A tamis is the best strainer, and if the soup is strained even though it is hot, let the tamis or material be previously drenched in cold water. Clear soups must be perfectly transparent, and thickened soups about the consistence of cream. To thicken and give body to soups and gravies, potato-mucilage, arrow-root, bread-raspings, isinglass, flour and butter, barley, rice, or oatmeal, in a little water rubbed well together, are used. A piece of boiled meat battered to a pulp, with a little bit of butter and flour, and rubbed thru a sift, and steadily incorporated with the soup, will be found a superb addition. When the soup seems to be too thin or too weak, the cover of the boiler should be taken off, and the contents allowed to boil till some of the watery parts have evaporated ; or some of the thickening materials, above mentioned, should be added. When soups and gravies are kept from day by day in hot weather, they deserve to be warmed up every day, and put into fresh scalded pans or tureens, and placed in a cool basement. In temperate weather, every other day might be sufficient.
Numerous herbs and vegetables are required for the point of making soups and gravies. Of these the principal are, Scotch barley, pearl barley, wheat flour, oatmeal, bread-raspings, pease, beans, rice, vermicelli, macaroni, isinglass, potato-mucilage, mushroom or mushroom ketchup, champignons, parsnips, carrots, beetroot, turnips, garlic, shalots and onions. Chopped onions, fried with butter and flour until they are browned, and then rubbed thru a separate, are excellent to increase the colour and flavour of brown soups and sauces, and form the root of many of the fine relishes furnished by the cook. The older and drier the onion, the stronger will be its flavour. Leeks, cucumber, or burnet vinegar ; celery or celery-seed battered. The latter, though similarly powerful, doesn’t give the delicate sweetness of the fresh vegetable ; and when used as a substitute, its flavor should be corrected by the addition of a bit of sugar. Cress-seed, parsley, common thyme, lemon thyme, orange thyme, knotted marjoram, sage, mint, winter tasty, and basil. As fresh green basil is rarely to be gained, and its fine flavour is soon lost, the only way of saving the extract is by pouring wine on the fresh leaves.
For the seasoning of soups, bay-leaves, tomato, tarragon, chervil, burnet, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, mace, black and white pepper, essence of anchovy, lemon-peel, and juice, and Seville orange-juice, are all taken. The latter provides a finer flavour than the lemon, and the acid is much milder. These materials, with wine, mushroom ketchup, Harvey’s sauce, tomato sauce, combined in various proportions, are, with other ingredients, manipulated into an almost limitless variety of excellent soups and gravies. Soups, which are meant to represent the principal part of a meal, definitely ought not to be flavoured like sauces, which are only designed to give a relish to some particular dish.
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