RECIPES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 39, 26 September 1891, Page 422

RECIPES.

White SOUP. —Fowl, weighing three or four pounds; three quarts cold water ; one tablespoonful salt ; six peppercorns ; one tablespoonful chopped onion, and two tablespoonfuls chopped celery. Singe the fowl and wash the outside thoroughly. Cut otF the legs and wings ; cut through the thin flesh below the end of the breast-bone down to the back-bone on each side, then separate the back from the breast at the joint, and remove all the internal organs. Do not forget the kidneys lying in the hollow of the side bone, and the lungs in the ribs. This is the quickest way to dress a fowl when it is not to be served whole. Separate the neck and ribs from the breast. Wash each piece quickly in warm water, using a little soda or charcoal, if there be any sour or tainted odour. Put all but the breast on to boil in cold water. Let it come to a boil quickly (because we wish to use the meat as well as the water) and remove the scum. Then add the breast, also the salt and vegetables. Let it cook gently but continuously, until the meat is tender ; the time depends upon the age of the fowl. Skim out the chicken, remove the meat from the bones and lay it aside to be used for croquettes, salads and other made dishes. Put the bones, skin, and any inferior portions of the meat into the liquor again, and simmer until the bones are clean, the gelatinous parts are dissolved and the water is reduced onehalf. Strain through a fine strainer ami set away where it

can cool quickly. It should form a jelly when cold, and, if the fat is not removed, it will keep for several days. This is the stock for the basis of a great many delicious soups. One of the most palatable and most quickly made is the following :—One quart white stock; one pint of cream or milk; one neaping tablespoonful corn-starch, or two tablespoonfuls flour ; one saltspoonful white pepper; one-quarter saltspoonful cayenne; one scant teaspoonful salt, and one tablespoonful butter. Remove every globule of fat from the stock and put it on to boil with the milk or cream, in a granite pan. Mix the salt and pepper with the flour or starch. Melt the butter in a smooth saucepan ; when bubbling, add the flour mixture and stir until well mixed and foamy. Dip out a little of the boiling stock and stir it into the butter ; stir rapidly as it thickens quickly, then add more stock and stir until it is smooth and free from lumps. Keep on adding stock until it is thin enough to pour easily, then turn the whole into the remainder of the stock and mix it thoroughly. If it be too thick, add a little more stock or milk, and if too thin, reduce it by longer boiling, or add one egg. The egg should be well-beaten in a large bowl, and a cupful of the hot soup poured into it and well mixed. Then strain it into the hot tureen, and strain the remainder of the hot soup into it. If the beaten egg be stirred directly into the hot soup over the fire it will curdle. Add more seasoning if needed, and if celery was not used in making the stock, you may add a little celery salt now, if you like the flavour. This soup should be thick and smooth, like thin cream, without a suspicion of fat, and so delicately seasoned that the chicken flavour is not disguised. Served with ‘ crisp crackers,’ it may well be called the ‘ Queen of Soups.’