[195-*] Truffles, morells, and mushrooms, catchups and wines, &c. are added by those who are for the extreme of _haut goût_.
[195-+] The general rule is to put in about a pint of water to a pound of meat, if it only simmers very gently.
[195-++] A tamis is a worsted cloth, sold at the oil shops, made on purpose for straining sauces: the best way for using it is for two people to twist it contrary ways. This is a better way of straining sauce than through a sieve, and refines it much more completely.
[197-*] By this method, it is said, an ingenious cook long deceived a large family, who were all fond of weak mutton broth. Mushroom gravy, or catchup (No. 439), approaches the nature and flavour of meat gravy, more than any vegetable juice, and is the best substitute for it in maigre soups and extempore sauces, that culinary chemistry has yet produced.
[200-*] See "_L'Art de Cuisinier_," par A. Beauvillier, Paris, 1814, p. 68. "I have learned by experience, that of all the fats that are used for frying, the _pot top_ which is taken from the surface of the broth and stock-pot is by far the best."
[203-*] To make pease pottage, double the quantity. Those who often make pease soup should have a mill, and grind the pease just before they dress them; a less quantity will suffice, and the soup will be much sooner made.
[204-*] If the liquor is very salt, the pease will never boil tender. Therefore, when you make pease soup with the liquor in which salted pork or beef has been boiled, tie up the pease in a cloth, and boil them first for an hour in soft water.
[204-+] Half a drachm of celery-seed, pounded fine, and put into the soup a quarter of an hour before it is finished, will flavour three quarts.
[204-++] Some put in dried mint rubbed to fine powder; but as every body does not like mint, it is best to send it up on a plate. See pease powder, No. 458, essence of celery, No. 409, and Nos. 457 and 459.
[205-*] My witty predecessor, Dr. HUNTER (see _Culina_, page 97), says, "If a proper quantity of curry-powder (No. 455) be added to pease soup, a good soup might be made, under the title of _curry pease soup_. Heliogabalus offered rewards for the discovery of a new dish, and the British Parliament have given notoriety to inventions of much less importance than 'curry pease soup.'"
