VEGETARIAN COOKERY

There are very few persons, unless they have made vegetarian cookery astudy, who are aware what a great variety of soups can be made without theuse of meat or fish. As a rule, ordinary cookery-books have the oneexception of what is called _soup maigre_. In England it seems to be theimpression that the goodness of the soup depends upon the amount ofnourishment that can be compressed into a small space. It is, however, agreat mistake to think that because we take a large amount of nourishmentwe are necessarily nourished. There is a limit, though what that limit isno one can say, beyond which soup becomes absolutely injurious. A quarterof a pound of Liebig's Extract of Meat dissolved in half a pint of water isobviously an over-dose of what is considered nourishment. In France, as arule, soup is prepared on an altogether different idea. It is a light,thin broth, taken at the commencement of the meal to strengthen thestomach, in order to render it capable of receiving more substantial foodto follow. Vegetarian soups are, of course, to be considered from thislatter point of view.We think these few preliminary observations necessary as we have toovercome a very strong English prejudice, which is too apt to despiseeverything of which the remark can be made--"Ah! but there is very littlenourishment in it." Vegetarian soups, as a rule, and especially the thinones, must be regarded as a light and pleasant flavouring which, with asmall piece of white bread enables the most obstinately delicate stomach tocommence a repast that experience has found best adapted to itsrequirements.The basis of all soup is stock, and in making stock we, of course, have todepend upon vegetables, fruit, or some kind of farinaceous food. To acertain extent the water in which any kind of vegetable has been boiled maybe regarded as stock, especially water that has boiled roots, such aspotatoes; or grains, such as rice. It will not, however, be necessary toenter into any general description as to the best method of obtainingnutriment in a liquid form from vegetables and grain, as directions will begiven in each recipe, but a few words are necessary on the general subjectof flavouring stock. In making ordinary soup we are very much dependentfor flavour, if the soup be good, on the meat, the vegetables acting onlyas accessories. In making stock for vegetarian soups we are chieflydependent for flavour on the vegetables themselves, and consequently greatcare must be taken that these flavourings are properly _blended_. Thegreat difficulty in giving directions in cookery-books, and inunderstanding them when given, is the insuperable one of avoiding vagueexpressions. For instance, suppose we read, "Take two onions, one carrot,one turnip, and one head of celery,"--what does this mean? It will befound practically that these directions vary considerably according to theneighbourhood or part of the country in which we live. For instance, somuch depends upon where we take our head of celery from. Suppose we boughtour head of celery in Bond Street or the Central Arcade in Covent GardenMarket on the one hand, or off a barrow in the Mile End Road on the other.Again, onions vary so much in size that we cannot draw any hard-and-fastline between a little pickling onion no bigger than a marble and a Spanishonion as big as a baby's head. It would be possible to be very precise andsay, "Take so many ounces of celery, or so many pounds of carrot, butpractically we cannot turn the kitchen into a chemist's shop. Cooks,whether told to use celery in heads or ounces, would act on guess-work justthe same. What are absolutely essential are two things--common sense andexperience.Again, practically, we must avoid giving too many ingredients. Novices inthe art of cooking are, of course, unable to distinguish between thosevegetables that are absolutely essential and those added to give a slightextra flavour, but which make very little difference to the soup whetherthey are added or not. We are often directed to add a few leaves oftarragon, or chervil, or a handful of sorrel. Of course, in a large kitchen, presided over by a Francatelli, these are easily obtainable; butin ordinary private houses, and in most parts of the country, they are notonly unobtainable but have never even been heard of at the greengrocer'sshop.In making soups, as a rule, the four vegetables essential are, onion,celery, carrot and turnip; and we place them in their order of merit. Inmaking vegetarian soup it is very important that we should learn how toblend these without making any one flavour too predominant. This can onlybe learnt by experience. If we have too much onion the soup tastes rank;too much celery will make it bitter; too much carrot often renders the soupsweet; and the turnip overpowers every other flavour. Again, thesevegetables vary so much in strength that were we to peel and weigh them theresult would not be uniform, in addition to the fact that not one cook in athousand would take the trouble to do it. Perhaps the most dangerousvegetable with which we have to deal is turnip. These vary so very much instrength that sometimes even one slice of turnip will be found too strong.In flavouring soups with these vegetables, the first care should be to seethat they are thoroughly cleansed. In using celery, too much of the greenpart should be avoided if you wish to make first-rate soup. In using theonions, if they are old and strong, the core can be removed. In usingcarrot, if you are going to have any soup where vegetables will be cut upand served in the soup, you should always peel off the outside red part ofthe carrot and reserve it for this purpose, and only use the inside oryellow part for flavouring purposes if is going to be thrown away or tolose its identity by being rubbed through a wire sieve with othervegetables. With regard to turnip, we can only add one word ofcaution--not too much. We may here mention, before leaving the subject ofingredients, that leeks and garlic are a substitute for onion, and can alsobe used in conjunction with it.As a rule, in vegetarian cookery clear soups are rare, and, of course, froman economical point of view, they are not to be compared with thick soups.Some persons, in making stock, recommend what is termed bran tea. Half apint of bran is boiled in about three pints of water, and a certain amountof nutriment can be extracted from the bran, which also imparts colour.For the purpose of colouring clear soups, however, there is nothing in theworld to compare with what French cooks call _caramel_. Caramel is reallyburnt sugar. There is a considerable art in preparing it, as it isnecessary that it should impart colour, and colour _only_. When preparedin the rough-and-ready manner of burning sugar in a spoon, as is too oftenpractised in English kitchens, this desideratum is never attained, as youare bound to impart sweetness in addition to a burnt flavour. The simplestand by far the most economical method of using caramel is to buy itready-made. It is sold by all grocers under the name of Parisian Essence.A small bottle, costing about eightpence, will last a year, and saves aninfinite loss of time, trouble, and temper.By far the most economical soups are the thick, where all the ingredientscan be rubbed through a wire sieve. Thick soups can be divided into twoclasses--ordinary brown soup, and white soup. The ordinary brown is themost economical, as in white soups milk is essential, and if the soup iswished to be very good it is necessary to add a little cream.Soups owe their thickness to two processes. We can thicken the soup byadding flour of various kinds, such as ordinary flour, corn-flour, &c., andsoup can also be thickened by having some of the ingredients of which it iscomposed rubbed through a sieve. This class of soups may be called Purees.For instance, Palestine soup is really a puree of Jerusalem artichokes;ordinary pea soup is a puree of split peas. In making our ordinaryvegetarian soups of all kinds, as a rule, all the ingredients should berubbed through a sieve. The economy of this is obvious on the face of it.In the case of thickening soup by means of some kinds of flour, forrichness and flavour there is nothing to equal ordinary flour that has beencooked. This is what Frenchmen call roux.As white and brown roux are the very backbone of vegetarian cookery a fewwords of explanation may not be out of place. On referring to the recipefor making white and brown roux, it will be seen that it is simply flourcooked by means of frying it in butter, In white roux each grain of flouris cooked till it is done. In brown roux each grain of flour is cookedtill it is done brown. We cannot exaggerate the importance of gettingcooks to see the enormous difference between thickening soups or gravy withwhite or brown roux and simply thickening them with plain butter and flour.The taste of the soup in the two cases is altogether different. Thedifference is this. Suppose you have just been making some pastry--somegood, rich, puff paste--you have got two pies, and, as you probably know,this pastry is simply butter and flour. Place one pie in the oven and bakeit till it is a nice rich brown. Now taste the pie-crust. It is probablydelicious. Now taste the piece of the pie that has not been baked at all.It is nauseous. The difference is--one is butter and flour that has beencooked, the other is butter and flour that has not been cooked.