ANSWERS TO QUERIES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 6, 6 February 1892, Page 139

ANSWERS TO QUERIES.

‘ Alice.’—An authority on soups says :—You can use for making the chicken stock, necks, feet, and any poultry bones will do quite well, and the stock must be made in precisely the same way as any other stock is made. Take half a chicken and put it into a stewpan with two or three sliced onions, a bunch of herbs, one or two cloves, and three quarts of the chicken stock. Let this stock simmer gently for about an hour and a half, and then strain it and clarify it with raw veal and eggs. The garnish to serve in this soup is the following : —Take the heart of a stick of celery and cut it into very fine shreds, and put them into a stewpan, cover them with cold water and add a little salt, then bring the water to boiling point, and strain it from the celery, rinse the celery well and cook it in a little of the soup until tender, then it is ready to add to the soup. Make a custard with four eggs and four tablespoonfuls of milk, season with pepper and salt. Butter some little dariol moulds well and fill them half full of vegetables which are cut in small dice shapes which are not much larger than the head of a good large pin. The best way to cut them in this way is to cut the vegetables in thin slices and then in fine strips, and it is then quite easy to cut these in dice shapes ; carrot, turnip, leek and cucumber, when the latter is procurable, are the best vegetables to use. The vegetables should be cooked in the same way as the celery, using water instead of soup before they are put into the moulds. Fill the moulds with the custard and then place them in a stewpan containing enough boiling water to come three parts of the way up the moulds, bring the water to boiling point again .and then put the cover on the pan and draw it to the side of the stove and let the custards steam until firm. Turn out of the moulds, and when cold cut in small rounds. Some of the breast of the chicken cut in thin slices and then cut in rounds should also be served in the soup ; the remainder of the meat of the chicken can be used to make croquettes with. The directions for making the soup and the garnish appear perhaps a little elaborate, but they are really by no means difficult to follow. You will find in all soup-making the great secret to get well-flavoured soup is to cook it very gently, at the same time keeping it at boiling point, and the clearness will depend very much on the way the stock is kept skimmed. ‘Martha.’—l am sorry your custard puddings have been a failure. Will you try the following quantities ?—One pint of milk and four whole eggs and three ounces of castor sugar. Ido not, of course, know how sweet you like puddings of this kind, but I always think a custard pudding requires a fair amount of sugar. Beat the eggs until they are quite in a froth, and then add the sugar and mix them well together, then add the flavouring and pour the custard into a pie-dish. Place the pie-dish in a tin containing some hot water and bake the pudding in a moderately hot oven, and in half an hour the pudding should be quite firm. Of course the custard must not be allowed to boil, or it will become curdled. Of course the oven should be made hot before the pudding is put into it, and the temperature of the oven should be kept as even as possible while the pudding is in it.