There are in general two types of soup, - those made with meat or fish stocks and those made with milk or cream; some soups, however, contain both kinds of liquid.

Cream Soups

Cream soups are prepared like a thin white sauce, to which the vegetable, etc., is added after being mashed and strained. Soups are thickened both to improve the consistency and to keep the vegetable from separating from the liquid.

How To Bind Or Thicken Soups

Melt the required butter, add the flour, and cook until bubbling ceases. Let this mixture cool, add some of the hot soup to make it thin enough to pour, then stir this into the remainder of the hot soup and cook until it thickens and is smooth.

Cream Tomato Soup Or Mock Bisque

Scald 1 qt. milk in double boiler. Bind with 4 tb. butter, 6 tb. flour. Cook 10 minutes. Add 2 ts. salt, 1/8 ts. pepper. Cook 1 pt. tomatoes until soft. Strain. Reheat and add 1/4 ts. soda. Add to thickened milk and serve immediately.

Note For Students

Why is soda added to the tomato? Why do you not cook the white sauce and tomato together?

Cream Of Celery Soup

3 c. chopped celery 1 slice onion

Cook together in 1 pt. water three quarters to one hour. Rub through a puree strainer. Add water, as it cooks away, to make one pint. Add 3 c. milk. Bind with 4 tb. butter, 5 tb. flour. Cook 10 minutes. Season with 11/2 ts. salt, 1/8 ts. pepper.

Add 1/3 ts. beef extract, or cook the celery in water in which chicken or veal has been cooked.

Cream Of Potato Soup

3 small potatoes, boil and mash. Cook the potatoes until a little overdone and the soup will not be grainy. Scald 1 qt. milk with 2 slices of onion; add to the mashed potatoes and strain into the upper part double boiler. Bind with 3 tb. butter, 2 tb. flour. Cook 10 minutes. Add 1 1/2 ts. salt, 1/4 ts. celery salt, 1/8 ts. pepper, few grains cayenne, 1 ts. chopped parsley.

Note To Student

Why is the amount of flour less than that used in other cream soups?

Clear Tomato Soup

1 qt. tomatoes

1 pt. stock or water

1 small onion

1/4 bay leaf 4 peppercorns 2 cloves

Sprig of parsley

Cook together ten minutes or till tomatoes are soft. Strain. Bind with

3 tb. butter 3 tb. cornstarch

Add 2 ts. salt Cook ten minutes

Cream Of Spinach Soup

Trim roots and wilted leaves from 2 qt. spinach. Wash spinach well and cook thirty minutes in 2 c. water with 2 slices onion. Rub through puree sieve. Add 3 c. milk. Bind with 4 tb. butter and 5 tb. flour. Season with 1 ts. salt and a speck of cayenne pepper.

Baked Bean Soup

2 c. baked beans 2 slices onion

2 c. water 2 c. tomatoes

Cook all ten minutes, press through a strainer. Bind with 2 tb. butter, 3 tb. flour. Season with salt, pepper, celery salt, and paprika.

All cream soups are improved if a little whipped cream is added just before they are served, being sure that soup is very hot.

Soups With Stock

Stock is the liquid extract of meat and bone. Proteins present in meat:

1. Albumen. - Soluble in fresh and slightly salted cold water. Coagulates with heat. Builds body tissues.

2. Globulin. - Soluble in slightly salted cold water. Coagulates with heat. Builds body tissues.

3. Extractives. - Give flavor to the meat. Soluble in hot and cold water. Do not coagulate with heat. Do not build body tissues.

4. Collagen of connective tissues. - Forms gelatin when boiled with water. Jellies when cold. Does not build body tissues, but is a " protein sparer."

Experiment 35

a. Cut meat in small pieces and soak in cold, slightly salted water. What color does the water become?

What has been withdrawn from the meat into the water? What effect has cold water upon meat ? How should meat be washed ?

b. Remove meat from water and heat the water. Note temperature at which flakes form. Boil. What is the scum which forms? Why has it formed? What is the cooking temperature for soups? Should the scum which forms in the early stages of soup making be removed in making (a) a highly nutritious soup, (6) a clear soup? Are clear soups nutritious? Why?

Experiment 36

Pour boiling water on meat. Let stand a few minutes. Cut meat. What effect did the boiling water have upon the surface of the meat? What is the color of the water? Does boiling water draw out the juices of meat ?

Experiment 37

Hold a piece of meat directly over a hot fire, as in broiling. Turn often. Place meat on a dish. Cut it. What effect did high temperature of fire have upon the meat ? Compare the flavor and color of the meat with boiled meat. What effect does high-temperature cooking have upon the flavor of meat ?

Meat is cooked in water : a. In making soup; all of the nourishment of the meat should be drawn out into the water.

b. In stews; part of the nourishment should be left in the meat.

c. For serving meats whole; all of the nourishment should be retained in the meat.

For (a) the meat should be cut in small pieces, put on the stove in cold, slightly salted water, and simmered gently for five or six hours.

For (b) the meat should be cut in pieces suitable for serving, covered with boiling water, and then simmered gently for two or three hours, the salt being added when meat is about half cooked.

For (c) the meat should be left whole, be plunged into boiling water, allowed to boil five minutes to coagulate the protein on the surface, then simmered gently until tender, the salt being added when it is about half cooked.