A guide to modern cookery

leave a disagreeable taste on the consumer’s palate and make the soup which follows seem flat and insipid if the latter be not served boiling hot. =Classification of Soups= This includes (1) clear soups, (2) thick soups, (3) special soups of various kinds, (4) classical vegetable soups, including some local preparations. 237—CLEAR SOUPS Clear soups, of whatever nature the base thereof may be, whether butcher’s meat, poultry, game, fish, shell-fish, or turtle, &c., are made according to one method only. They are always clear consommés to which has been added a slight garnish in keeping with the nature of the consommé. 238—THICK SOUPS These are divided into three leading classes as follows:—(1) The Purées, Cullises, or Bisques. (2) Various Veloutés. (3) Various Creams. _Remarks._—Though the three preparations of the first class are practically the same, and, generally speaking, the Cullises and the Bisques may be considered as purées of fowl, game, or shell-fish, it is advisable to distinguish one from another by giving each a special name of its own. Thus the word _Purée_ is most suitably applied to any preparation with a vegetable base. The term _Cullis_ is best fitted to preparations having either poultry, game, or fish for base, while bisque, in spite of the fact that in former days it was applied indiscriminately to purées of shell-fish, poultry, pigeons, &c., distinctly denotes a purée of shell-fish (either lobster, crayfish, or shrimp, &c.). In short, it is imperative to avoid all ambiguities and to give everything its proper name, or, at least, that name which identifies it most correctly. 239—PURÉES Farinaceous vegetables, such as haricot-beans and lentils, and the floury ones, such as the potato, need no additional thickening ingredient, since the flour or fecula which they contain amply suffices for the leason of their purées. On the other hand, aqueous vegetables like carrots, pumpkins, turnips, celery, and herbs cannot dispense with a thickening ingredient, as their purées of themselves do not cohere in the least. _Cohering or Thickening Elements; their Quantities._—In order to effect the coherence of vegetable purées, either rice, potato, or bread-crumb cut into dice