Materials Used In Making Soup Stock

Every kind of meat, as beef, mutton, lamb, veal, poultry, game, etc., may be used in stock making, either alone or in combination. In large families, where roasts of beef, mutton or poultry are ten weekly, but little fresh meat need be purchased for soups, less it be for some formal occasion, when a handsome, clear soup desired. Yet remember that "ab nihilo, nihil fit" As the individual or distinctive flavor of different kinds of meat more highly developed in a cooked than in an uncooked state, and as browned meats give a corresponding color to soup, it is well, particularly in making brown stock, to brown a portion of the meat used in making stock for clear soups. A small quantity of fat is a wholesome addition to any soup. A part of this will be absorbed by the stock during the cooking process , and the part that is not thus absorbed will rise to the top, forming a solid cake, which may be removed when the stock is cold. When uncooked meats are used for a soup, the marrow found in the shin of the hindquarter is the best form of fat that can be obtained. In soups made from remnants, the browned fat of roasts gives a good flavor, and occasionally a bit of ham or bacon may be used; only two or three ounces, however, for a large dish of soup, as in a perfectly flavored soup no one savor should predominate.

Expensive cuts of beef are not so well adapted to soup making as the cheaper pieces. The blood flows more freely to those parts of the creature that are in constant use, and, though this use toughens the muscles, the life-giving juices are there, and long, slow cooking will remove them. Select then, for stock, the under part of the round, the vein, neck, flank, cheek, and shin, tough and inexpensive pieces, but full of nutriment.

In making fish stock for general use in fish soups or entrées, select the white-blooded varieties. The head and trimmings are valuable because they contain gelatinous material, often desirable, and also considerable flesh, but, aside from this, solid pieces of fish containing the albuminous juices are needed. Salmon, lobster, and other red-blooded fish need be used with discretion. As a general rule, that which is extracted from bones is the least desirable element that enters into a soup; particularly is this the case with beef bones, and if there be no bits of meat upon the bones, there would seem to be little reason for including them in soup making. If bone be used and the liquid be cooked at a high tem perature, lime is dissolved into the soup, giving it a cloudy appearance. The bones of chicken and veal are rich in delicate gelatine, and this is often desirable to give body to a soup. Gelatine is also a preservative agent, as stock that jellies, air being excluded, keeps much better than stock in a liquid form.