CHAMBERSS

ENCYCLOPEDIA

A DICTIONARY OF

UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE FOR THE PEOPLE

SOUND-SOUP.

SOUND (Ger. Sund, according to Grimm, for Suumd, from the root of Swim), a word signifying generally a strait or narrow sea-way; but applied specially to the strait which leads from the Cattegat into the Baltic Sea, between Sweden on the east, and the Danish island of Seeland on the west. It forms the usual passage from the north to the Baltic Sea, is 40 miles long, and nearly 3 miles broad at its narrowest part, between Helsingborg and Elsinore (q. v.). Its entrance is defended by the strong castle and fortress of Kronborg. See ELSINORE

means 41. The hand-lead is thrown a little forWard as the ship proceeds. The deep-sea line is knot at every 5 fathoms, and may be of any marked every 10 fathoms, with an intermediate length. In casting it, to obtain as vertical a measurement as possible, the ship is ordinarily hove to, and the lead cast as far as practicable in the line of

ship is. The process of sounding is performed by a man, standing in the ship's chains, throwing the Lead (q. v.). In tolerably shallow water, he sounds with the hand-lead line of from 20 to 30 fathoms long, which is marked at distances of 2 or 3 fathoms by pieces of cloth or rag of different colours. When he feels the lead touch the bottom, he observes the mark next above the surface, and from it estimates the depth. Thus, if the mark 5 be close to the surface, he calls out: 'By the mark, five.' If the water come between two marks, he calculates in his mind the fraction of the interval SOUND DUTIES, certain dues formerly pay-By the dip, four and a half five,' which last immersed, and shouts: By the dip, four,' or able to the Danish government by all vessels passing the Sound or strait separating Sweden from Seeland. These duties originated in an agreement between the king of Denmark and the Hanse Towns in 1348, by which the former undertook to maintain the light-houses in the Cattegat, and the latter to pay duty for them. England became bound to pay duty by a treaty of date 1450, and other countries followed. The Sound Duties were abolished on 14th March 1857, by a treaty between Denmark, Great Britain, Austria, Belgium, France, Hanover, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Oldenburg, the Netherlands, Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Norway, and the Hanseatic towns of Bremen, Lübeck, and Hamburg. A pecuniary compensation of £3,386,528 (the share contributed by Great Britain being £1,125,206) was stipulated to be paid to Denmark, which was to be held bound to maintain the light-houses and superintend the pilotage of the Sound. A separate treaty and the United States with a similar object, the compensation paid being £79,759.

was soon afterwards concluded between Denmark

SOUNDING is the act of ascertaining the depth of water beneath a ship or boat. It is a necessary operation when navigating a sea in which shoals or sunken rocks exist, or when approaching a shore. With the help of charts of soundings, it also assists the captain in fixing the precise point at which his

her drift.

SOUNDING-BOARD, a canopy over a pulpit, used for the purpose of spreading the preacher's voice over the body of the church.

form of food, obtained either from flesh and vegeSOUP (A.-S. sup-an, to sip or sup) is a well-known tables, or from vegetables alone. Before noticing the most important varieties of soup, it is expedient is, or, in other words, what relation soup bears to that we should have a clear idea of what soup really the solid ingredients which enter into its composition. The researches of Liebig have thrown much light upon this point. When finely chopped muscular flesh (or butchers' meat) is lixiviated with cold water, and exposed to pressure, there is left a white fibrous residue consisting of muscular fibres, of connective or areolar tissue, and of vessels and nerves. This lixiviated flesh is of precisely the same quality from whatever animal it is obtained, communicates no flavour to water in which it is

SOUP.

preparation; but many good soups, suitable for
fast-days in Catholic countries, can be made either
entirely without the use of flesh, or with fish
in place of flesh. In the former class may be placed
pea-soup (which is, however, much improved if a
piece of bacon enters into its composition), green-
pea soup, carrot-soup, potato-soup, asparagus-soup;
while for fish-soup, pike, tench, and eels are
specially used. A collection of excellent recipes
for such soups, and indeed for many continental
soups little known in this country, will be found
in A Handbook of Foreign Cookery, published by
Murray in 1845. The basis of all good soups,
excepting those in the preceding category, is
stock, or broth made from all sorts of meat, bones,
remains of poultry or game, &c., put together,
and stewed in the stock-pot, which is termed
by Francatelli, late Chief Cook to her Majesty,
'the very soul of all cookery.' Stock for white
soups is prepared chiefly from veal, while that for
brown soups is prepared from a mixture in which
the coarse parts of the leg of beef preponderate.
We extract from his Cook's Guide (Lond. 1861),
which contains directions for preparing upwards of
fifty soups, the following receipt for Victoria
Soup,' which was the only soup eaten by the Queen
when I had the honour of waiting on her Majesty'
(op. cit., p. 58). Wash and scald half a pound of
Frankfort pearl barley, and put this into a stew-
pan with three pints of good white veal stock; and
simmer it very gently over a slow fire for an hour
and a half, by which time the barley will be
nearly dissolved; remove a third of it into a
small soup-pot; rub the remainder through a
tammy or sieve; pour it to the whole barley; add
half a pint of cream; season with a little salt; stir
it over the fire until hot, and serve.' From this
royal dish we turn to the consideration of the
cheapest kinds of soup that can be provided for the
poor. In the Cooking Dépôts established in Glasgow,
Edinburgh, Manchester, London, and other large
towns, soup is usually made of two qualities-one
called Scotch broth, and the other soup. Scotch
broth, of a formula to be given below, costs for vege-
tables and condiments, besides the meat-liquor and
bones, just one-sixth of a penny per pint, or a profit
of 600 per cent.; the value of the meat-liquor and
bones having been reckoned in that of the meat.
Soup, properly so called, yet made from the same
amount of beef-liquor and bones as in the formula
given below, will cost d. per pint, besides the
value of the meat-liquor and bones, and thus leave
a profit of 400 per cent.'-Smith's Practical Dietary,
1865, p. 241. The following are the formula above
referred to. Broth to make 100 Rations.-Meat-
liquor from 7 lbs. of beef and 1 lb. of well-broken
bones; split peas (14d. per lb.), 2 lbs.; Scotch
barley (1d. per lb.), 3 lbs.; carrots (d. per lb.),
3 lbs.; turnips (d. per lb.), 33 lbs. ; cabbage and
other green vegetables, 74 lbs.; salt, pepper, and
dried herbs.' Soup to make 100 Rations.-Meat-
liquor from 7 lbs. of beef and 1 lb. of bones; split
peas, 13 lbs.; carrots and Swede turnips, each
63 lbs. ; onions, 51 lbs. ; leeks, lb.; salt, pepper, and
dried herbs.' The quantity of water is not given,
but for 100 pint rations of broth or soup, about 60
quarts of water are required; and soft water should
always be used if possible. We may conclude with
the following receipt for a nutritious pea-soup, which
was supplied at Mrs Gladstone's soup-kitchen in
Blackburn, during the cotton famine. 'Pea-soup
for 100 Rations.-Beef, meat only, 4 lbs.; bones,

boiled, cannot be masticated, and as Liebig observes,
'even dogs reject it.' When the cold water has
taken up all that it is capable of extracting, it is
found that it has dissolved from 16 to 24 per cent.
of the dry chopped flesh. This watery infusion
contains all the savory and much of the nutrient
matter of the flesh, and is usually of a reddish tint
from the presence of a little of the colouring matter
of the blood. On gradually heating it to the boiling-
point, it is observed that the albumen of the flesh
(varying in amount from 2 to 14 per cent., according
as the animal was old or young) separates in nearly
colourless flakes when the temperature has risen to
133°, while the colouring-matter of the blood does
not coagulate till the temperature rises to 158°.
The liquid is now clear, and of a pale yellowish
tint;
and as it reddens litmus-paper, it must con-
tain a free acid. The infusion of flesh thus pre-
pared has the aromatic taste and all the properties
of a soup made by boiling the flesh. When evapo-
rated, it becomes darker-coloured, and finally
brown; and on ceasing to lose weight, there is
obtained a brown, somewhat soft mass of 'Extract
of Flesh,' or 'Portable Soup,' amounting to about
12 per cent. of the weight of the original flesh,
supposed to be dried. This extract,' says Liebig,
'is easily soluble in cold water, and when dissolved
in about 32 parts of hot water, with the addition
of some salt, gives to this water the taste and all
the peculiar properties of an excellent soup. The
intensity of the flavour of the dry extract of flesh
is very great; none of the means employed in the
kitchen is comparable to it in point of flavouring
power.' The soup thus made of the flesh of
different animals (as, for example, the ox and the
fowl) possesses, along with the general flavour
common to all soups, a peculiar taste, which
distinctly recalls the smell or taste of the
roasted flesh of the animal employed. In order
to obtain the strongest and best-flavoured
soup, chopped flesh should be slowly heated to
boiling with an equal weight of water; the boiling
should only be continued for a few minutes (for
prolonged boiling only gives rise to the formation
of gelatine, a substance of no nutrient value, from
the connective tissue of the flesh), and the soup
should be then strained off from the solid residue.
As a matter of economy, it is often desirable that
the meat should be left in an eatable state, which
is not the case with soup made according to the
preceding directions. To attain this end, the joint or
mass of flesh should be set on the fire with cold
water, which should be gently heated to boiling;
the flesh thus undergoes a loss of soluble and
savory matter, while the soup becomes richer in
them. The thinner the piece of flesh is, the greater
is the loss which it experiences. Hence the method
of boiling which yields the best soup, gives the
dryest, toughest, and most tasteless meat. "The
juice of flesh,' says Liebig, contains the food of the
muscles; the muscular system is the source of all
the manifestations of force in the animal body; and
in this sense we may regard the juice of flesh as
the proximate condition of the production of force.
From this point of view it is easy to explain the
effect of soup.
Soup is the medicine of the conva-
lescent, and as a means of restoring the exhausted
strength, it cannot be replaced by any article of the
Pharmacopoeia. Its vivifying and restoring action on
the appetite, on the digestive organs, the colour, and
the general appearance of the sick, is most striking.'
After the preceding observations on the chemistry
and medicinal value of soup in its most simple form,
we may proceed to notice it very briefly in its
ordinary culinary relations. Most soups contain
an admixture of meat and vegetables in their-Smith, op. cit., p. 246.

lb. ; ham, 5 lbs. ; salted pig's cheek, 44 lbs. ; white peas, 20 lbs. ; pea-meal, 2 lbs.; Swede turnips, 68 lbs. onions, 4 lb.; seasoning with pepper, curry, and salt.'