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 well. Cut off all the meat, and break up the bones. Put the
meat and the bones into a large pot, very early in the day, so as to
allow eight or nine hours for its boiling. Proportion the water to the
quantity of meat—about a pint and a half to each pound. Sprinkle the
meat with a small quantity of pepper and salt. Pour on the water, hang
it over a moderate fire, and boil it slowly; carefully skimming off all
the fat that rises to the top, and keeping it closely covered, except
when you raise the lid to skim it. Do not, on any account, put in
additional water to this soup while it is boiling; and take care that
the boiling goes steadily on, as, if it stops, the soup will be much
injured. But if the fire is too great, and the soup boils too fast, the
meat will become hard and tough, and will not give out its juices.

After the meat is reduced to rags, and the soup sufficiently boiled,
remove the pot from the fire, and let it stand in the corner for a
quarter of an hour to settle. Then take it up, strain it into a large
earthen pan, cover it, and set it away in a cool dry place till next
day. Straining it makes it clear and bright, and frees it from the
shreds of meat and bone. If you find that it jellies in the pan, (which
it will if properly made,) do not disturb it till you are ready to put
it into the pot for the second boiling, as breaking the jelly may
prevent it from keeping well.

On the following morning, boil separately, carrots, turnips, onions,
celery, and whatever other vegetables you intend to thicken the soup
with. Tomatas will greatly improve it. Prepare them by taking off the
skin, cutting them into small pieces, and stewing them in their own
juice till they are entirely dissolved. Put on the carrots before any
of the other vegetables, as they require the longest time to boil. Or
you may slice and put into the soup a portion of the vegetables you are
boiling for dinner; but they must be nearly done before you put them
in, as the second boiling of the soup should not exceed half an hour,
or indeed, just sufficient time to heat it thoroughly.

Scrape off carefully from the cake of jellied soup whatever fat or
sediment may still be remaining on it; divide the jelly into pieces,
and about half an hour before it is to go to table, put it into a pot,
add the various vegetables, (having first sliced them,) in sufficient
quantities to make the soup very thick; hang it over the fire and let
it boil slowly, or simmer steadily till dinner time. Boiling it much on
the second day will destroy the flavour, and render it flat and
insipid. For this reason, in making fine, clear beef soup, the
vegetables are to be cooked separately. They need not be put in the
first day, as the soup is to be strained; and on the second day, if put
in raw, the length of time required to cook them would spoil the soup
by doing it too much. We repeat, that when soup has been sufficiently
boiled on the first day, and all the juices and flavour of the meat
thoroughly extracted, half an hour is the utmost it requires on the
second.

Carefully avoid seasoning it too highly. Soup, otherwise excellent, is
frequently spoiled by too much pepper and salt. These condiments can be
added at table, according to the taste of those that are eating it; but
if too large a proportion of them is put in by the cook, there is then
no remedy, and the soup may by some be found uneatable.

Many persons prefer boiling all the vegetables in the soup on the first
day, thinking that they improve its flavour. This may be done in common
soup that is not to be strained, but is inadmissible if you wish it to
be very bright and clear. Also, unless you have a garden and a
profusion of vegetables of your own, it is somewhat extravagant, as
when strained out they are of no further use, and are therefore wasted.
