Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/177

Rh generally used as a prelude to a dinner in which meat and poultry play an important part. Gelatin in this form is more useful to those who cannot eat much meat or other albuminoid food, as the nitrogen of the gelatin replaces the nitrogen of albumin, in the formation of many digestive and other secretions of the body, if not in its constructive processes.

Extractives.—It is to the changes the extractives undergo during the process of cooking that meat owes much of its flavour, particularly the outside of roast meat. The flesh of old animals contains more of these substances than that of young ones; brown meats contain more than white, and consequently give a richer, if a less delicate, flavour to the stock.

CLASSIFICATION OF SOUPS.

Although there are between five and six hundred different kinds of soup, they can be broadly divided into a few distinct classes, namely, broths, clear soups, thick soups and purées; each group may be divided and sub-divided, but it will be more convenient to consider them under this simple classification.

Broths.—The unclarified liquor in which chicken, veal, beef, mutton, rabbit or sheep's head is cooked are included in this class. They are frequently garnished with pearl-barley or rice, but they are not thickened.

Clear Soups.—The basis of good clear soups is double stock, that is, a good beef stock which has been strengthened with veal to give it gelatinous substance, and with fowl to improve the flavour. The clear soups include all those which are transparent in appearance, varying in colour from amber to nut-brown. Additions may be made to them as a garniture or decoration, from which they take their distinctive name. Some of the garnitures and flavouring in common use are: vegetables; "shaped," i.e. cut into various shapes or devices; dice, or small cubes of cooked game, chicken, meat and fish; quenelles of meat, fish and chicken; finely shredded vegetables; various farinaceous preparations as Italian paste, semolina, rice, sago and batters.

Thick Soups.—The basis of soups of this class may be stock of any kind, white, brown, fish or vegetable, according to the soup required, or a mixture of white stock and milk for such soups as Potage à la Royal and Potage à la Bonne Femme; or all milk, or milk and water for such plain thick soups as cabbage and vegetable soups. Soups of this class are frequently garnished as well as being thickened; the well-known ox-tail and mock turtle soups may be given as examples. Thick soups owe their thickening to the addition of arrowroot, cornflour, rice-flour, flour, or some other farinaceous substance; rich soups, such as "Bonne Femme," are thickened by a liaison or combination of