Put on one three-pound chicken to boil in six quarts cold water. Take one and one-half or two pounds of beef and the same quantity thick part of veal, put in a baking-pan, set in the stove and brown quickly with just enough water to keep from burning. When brown, cut the meat in pieces, add this with all the juice it has drawn, to the chicken soup. Set on the back of the stove, and cook slowly all day. Set in a cold place, or on ice over night, and next morning after it is congealed, skim off every particle of fat. Melt and season to taste when ready to serve. Excellent for the sick. When used for the table, cut up carrots and French peas already cooked can be added while heating. If cooked on gas stove, cook over the simmering flame the same number of hours.
This is an accompaniment of the Yom-tov soup described above. To each tablespoon of matzoth meal take one egg. Beat the egg separately, adding a very little ground ginger, powdered cinnamon, ground almond, pepper and salt. Now stir in the matzoth meal and make into a paste with chicken fat or clarified dripping. Form this paste into small balls and boil them for twenty minutes in the Yom-tov soup.
An old chicken for soup is much the best. Cut it up into quarters, put it into a soup kettle with half a pound of corned ham, and an onion; add four quarts of cold water. Bring slowly to a gentle boil, and keep this up until the liquid has diminished one-third, and the meat drops from the bones; then add half a cup of rice. Season with salt, pepper and a bunch of chopped parsley. Cook slowly until the rice is tender, then the meat should be taken out. Now stir in two cups of rich milk thickened with a little flour. The chicken could be fried in a spoonful of butter and a gravy made, reserving some of the white part of the meat, chopping it and adding it to the soup.
Swell quarter of a pound of vermicelli in a quart of warm water, then add it to a good beef, veal, lamb, or chicken soup or broth, with quarter of a pound of sweet butter; let the soup boil for fifteen minutes after it is added.
May be made either of beef or mutton, adding all kinds of vegetables. Boil one-half cup of rice separately in a farina kettle. Strain the beef or mutton broth. Add the rice and boil one-half hour longer, with potatoes, cut into dice shape; use about two potatoes; then add the beaten yolk of an egg. Strained stock of chicken broth added to this soup makes it very palatable and nutritious for the sick.
Make chicken soup with an old hen. Remove chicken from soup just as soon as tender. Place in roasting-pan with three tablespoons of chicken-fat, one onion sliced, one clove of garlic, one-half teaspoon each of salt and paprika. Sprinkle with soft bread crumbs. Baste frequently and when sufficiently browned, cut in pieces for serving. Place on platter with the strained gravy pour over the chicken and serve.
Catfish that have been caught near the middle of the river are much nicer than those that are taken near the shore where they have access to impure food. The small white ones are the best. Having cut off their heads, skin the fish, and clean them, and cut them in three. To twelve small catfish allow a pound and a half of ham. Cut the ham into small pieces, or slice it very thin, and scald it two or three times in boiling water, lest it be too salt. Chop together a bunch of parsley and some sweet marjoram stripped from the stalks. Put these ingredients into a soup kettle and season them with pepper: the ham will make it salt enough. Add a head of celery cut small, or a large table-spoonful of celery seed tied up in a bit of clear muslin to prevent its dispersing. Pat in two quarts of water, cover the kettle, and let it boil slowly till every thing is sufficiently done, and the fish and ham quite tender. Skim it frequently. Boil in another vessel a quart of rich milk, in which you have melted a quarter of a pound of butter divided into small bits and rolled in flour. Pour it hot to the soup, and stir in at the last the beaten yolks of four eggs. Give it another boil, just to take off the rawness of the eggs, and then put it into a tureen, taking out the bag of celery seed before you send the soup to table, and adding some toasted bread cut into small squares. In making toast for soap, cut the bread thick, and pare off all the crust. This soup will be found very fine. Eel soup may be made in the same manner: chicken soup also.
Grind up chicken in meat chopper. To each cup of chicken add one tablespoon of mayonnaise, and one tablespoon of chicken soup. Mix into soft paste, and put in finger-rolls.
Singe, draw and clean a 4-lb. chicken. Disjoint, cut breast into four pieces, cut second joints and legs apart. Save neck, wing tips, heart, gizzard and liver for soup. Put on the rest with enough boiling water to cover; cook slowly 2 hours.
Add 1 quart washed, pared and diced white potatoes. Cook 20 minutes or until tender. Add 1/2 tablespoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley and 2 tablespoons flour mixed with little cold water. Boil 3 minutes. Pour all into dish and cover with pastry. Bake 20 minutes in a moderate oven.
PASTRY
Sift together 1 cup flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt; rub in very lightly 4 tablespoons shortening; add just enough cold water to make stiff dough. Roll out on floured board and cover top of pie.
