Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches | Page 3

very slightly with salt and pepper.
If she puts in too much, it may spoil it for the taste of most of those that
are to eat it; but if too little, it is easy to add more to your own plate.
The practice of thickening soup by stirring flour into it is not a good
one, as it spoils both the appearance and the taste. If made with a
sufficient quantity of good fresh meat, and not too much water, and if
boiled long and slowly, it will have substance enough without flour.

FAMILY SOUP.
Take a shin or leg of beef that has been newly killed; the fore leg is best,
as there is the most meat on it. Have it cut into three pieces, and wash it
well. To each pound allow somewhat less than a quart of water; for
instance, to ten pounds of leg of beef, nine quarts of water is a good
proportion. Put it into a large pot, and add half a table-spoonful of salt.
Hang it over a good fire, as early as six o'clock in the morning, if you
dine at two. When it has come to a hard boil, and the scum has risen,
(which it will do as soon as it has boiled,) skim it well. Do not remove
the lid more frequently than is absolutely necessary, as uncovering the
pot causes the flavour to evaporate. Then set it on hot coals in the
corner, and keep it simmering steadily, adding fresh coals so as to
continue a regular heat.
About nine o'clock, put in four carrots, one parsnip, and a large onion
cut into slices, and four small turnips, and eight tomatas, also cut up;
add a head of celery cut small. Put in a very small head of cabbage, cut
into little pieces. If you have any objection to cabbage, substitute a
larger proportion of the other
vegetables. Put in also a bunch of sweet
marjoram, tied up in a thin muslin rag to prevent its floating on the top.
Let the soup simmer unceasingly till two o'clock, skimming it well:
then take it up, and put it into a tureen. If your dinner hour is later, you
may of course begin the soup later; but it will require at least eight
hours' cooking; remembering to put in the vegetables three hours after
the meat.
If you wish to send the meat to table, take the best part of it out of the
soup, about two hours before dinner. Have ready another pot with a
dozen tomatas and a few cloves. Moisten them with a little of the soup,
just sufficient to keep them from burning. When the tomatas have
stewed down soft, put the meat upon them, and let it brown till dinner
time over a few coals, keeping the pot closely covered; then send it to
table on a dish by itself. Let the remainder of the meat be left in the
large pot till you send up the soup, as by that time it will be boiled to
rags and have transferred all its flavour to the liquid.

This soup will be greatly improved by the addition of a few dozen
ochras cut into very thin slices, and put in with the other vegetables.
You may put Lima beans into it, green peas, or indeed any vegetables
you like: or you may thicken it with ochras and tomatas only.
Next day, take what is left of the soup, put it into a pot, and simmer it
over hot coals for half an hour: a longer time will weaken the taste. If it
has been well made and kept in a cool place, it will be found better the
second day than the first.
If your family is very small, and the leg of beef large, and the season
winter, it may furnish soup for four successive days. Cut the beef in
half; make soup of the first half, in the manner above directed, and have
the remainder warmed next day; then on the third day make fresh soup
of the second half.
We have been minute in these directions; for if strictly followed, the
soup, though plain, will be found excellent.
If you do not intend to serve up the meat separately, break to pieces all
the bones with a mallet or kitchen cleaver. This, by causing them to
give out their marrow, &c., will greatly enrich the liquid. Do this, of
course, when you first begin the soup.
FINE BEEF SOUP.
Begin this soup the day before it is wanted. Take a good piece of fresh
beef that has been newly killed: any substantial part will do that has not
too much fat about it: a fore leg is very good for this purpose. Wash it