OKRA AND SOUPS. 



119 



cellent addition to almost any kind of meat 

 soups, but there are some soups especially 

 dignified as Gumbo Soups at the south, both 

 from their admitted excellence, and their 

 containing a liberal supply of the Okra. 

 From among them, we have selected the 

 following — a favorite New-Orleans potage 

 — the recipe of which, apropos of Okra — we 

 present to our readers as producing one of 

 the most capital soups in the world : 



Gumbo Soup. — Take a fowl of good size, 

 cut it up, season it with salt and pepper, 

 and dredge it with flour. Take the soup 

 kettle, and put in it a table spoonful of but- 

 ter, one of lard, and one of onions chopped 

 fine. Next fry the fowl till well browned, 

 and add four quarts of boiling water.* The 

 pot should now, being well covered, be al- 

 lowed to simmer for a couple of hours. 

 Then put in twenty or thirty oysters, a 

 handful of chopped okra or gumbo, and a 

 very little thyme, and let it simmer for a 

 half an hour longer. Just before serving it 

 up, add about half a table spoonful oi feelee 

 powder. t This soup is usually eaten with 

 the addition of a little cayenne pepper, and 

 is delicious. 



To those of our readers who may be in- 

 clined to marvel at our attention to soups, 

 we must beg to bring forward as our illus- 

 trious prototypes, Gen. Scott, M. Soyer, 

 and Baron Liebig. 



Gen. Scott has shown to the country, 

 that with enemies both in the front and 

 rear, there is yet time for a man of genius 

 to take — hastily to be sure — his plate of 

 soup. M. SoYER, the artiste of the Reform 

 Club House, went out to Ireland, and esta- 

 blished his claim to the gratitude of philan- 

 thropic posterity by his model soup-kitchen, 

 by which thousands of starving sons of Erin 



* We give the receipt as il is used, but think it better if 

 cold water were added. . 



t Feelee powder is made of the leaves of gassafras, dried in 

 the shade, and then pulverised very finely. It gives an exqui- 

 site flavor to this soup. 



are supplied with nourishing food at an in- 

 credibly small expense. And finally, Baron 

 Liebig, the world-renowned chemist, has 

 just written a letter to Mr. Everett, in 

 which he unfolds the whole philosophy of 

 soup-making, and indeed of cooking meats 

 generally. As there is really sound prac- 

 tical " information for the million " in his 

 remarks, as well as some chemical novelty, 

 we shall venture to extract a large portion 

 of his letter for the benefit of our readers.* 



" If you leach finely chopped meat with 

 cold water, you procure a red fluid, and a 

 white residue. The latter is the actual 

 muscular fibre, and the solution contains, 

 besides the above named bodies, a conside- 

 rable quantity of albumen, that may be se- 

 parated as coagulum by heating the fluid 

 to boiling. 



" I have found that the residue (the mus- 

 cular fibre) either for itself, or boiled with 

 water, is tasteless, and that the water in 

 which the fibre has been boiled derives no 

 taste. The fibre, by boiling, becomes hard 

 and altogether unpalatable. 



" All the ingredients having odor and 

 taste, may of course be abstracted with 

 cold water. They are contained in the 

 flesh-fluid of slaughtered animals. 



" You will not wonder, my most respect- 

 ed sir, if I now turn to receipts for the kit- 

 chen. 



" It follows from the above, that one can 

 make for himself the best and strongest 

 broth {Fleisch-briihe, Bouillon de via?ide,) if, 

 e. g. a pound of finely chopped (minced) 

 beef with a pound (pint) of cold water be 

 carefully mixed, and then slowly heated to 

 boiling, and the fluid separated from the 

 solid parts by pressing through clean cloth. 

 This broth, with the usual condiments 

 (broiled onions, vegetables, salt, etc.) added, 



• For the remainder, see SiUhnan's Journal of Science, July 

 1847. 



