The amount of broth obtained from the above quantity of meat should be about one pint. For fast days, or for the use of vegetarians, broth can be made as follows : Boil a ful half pint of dried peas (the yellow ones) in about one pint of water, add half a teacupful of water as the boiling proceeds at intervals of from twenty minutes to half an hour. After a couple of hours add two carrots, one onion, a few cloves, seasoning to taste, some celery, and a small piece of butter✪ Vegetarian Broth. If there are any remains of fish available they will be found a great improvement. Let this boil slowly over a slack fire for five hours, strain and use for soups, etc., as in the case of ordinary meat broth. It is evident (or it should be so to the mind of a practical housewife) that in the matter of stock the great point is to decide the purpose for which it is going to be used, so that it should be made stronger or weaker according as it is destined to be the prin- cipal constituent of a good nourishing soup, or merely to serve as a cooking liquor for vegetables, etc. All the meat used for good stock should be well wiped (not washed) and beaten, and should previously have hung for a day or so in a cool place. And now to turn our attention to sauces — a most important subject, and one of which even many so-called good cooks are painfully ignorant. And let it be said, quite without prejudice, but in all fairness, tbe foreigner has an innate knack for this department in cookery, whereas the average English plain cook STOCKS AND SAUCES. 27 understands it not at all. This is not to be wondered at, for the principal “mother” sauces, as they are termed abroad, and which sooner or later must enter into the composition of other varieties, are of foreign origin, and are not always properly explained in the ordinary plain English cookery books. In this depart- ment we reap the benefit of the trouble we may have taken with the stock-pot, for its contents are inevitably and closely linked with the manufacture of good sauces. Both meat and fish stock are needed, as the case may be, and the utensils in which sauces are prepared must be chosen with care ; the idea that ' any saucepan will do ” is quite a mistaken one. The sauces “meres ” then are the equivalent for what are generally called in English “standard” or “grand” sauces, and their names are familiar to every student of cookery books. The “ espagnole,” for instance, helps in the manufacture of various brown sauces, the “ veloute ” makes white sauces, the “ bechamel ” sauces with eggs, “ allemandes,” etc., and so on. Their seasoning is a point which requires much attention- The French custom of keeping together a kind of general mixture (“ quatre-6pices ”) ready for use is practical and worth adopting. The ingredients are white and black pepper, nutmeg, and cinnamon, mixed in the proportion of half an ounce of the two kinds of pepper and cinnamon respectively to one-third of an ounce of nutmeg. Pound them all together very fine, sift them, mix them thoroughly well, and keep them in a tin. They go far towards emphasising the flavour 29 COOKERY.

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The amount of broth obtained from the above quantity of meat should be about one pint. For fast days, or for the use of vegetarians, broth can be made as follows : Boil a ful half pint of dried peas (the yellow ones) in about one pint of water, add half a teacupful of water as the boiling proceeds at intervals of from twenty minutes to half an hour. After a couple of hours add two carrots, one onion, a few cloves, seasoning to taste, some celery, and a small piece of butter. If there are any remains of fish available they will be found a great improvement. Let this boil slowly over a slack fire for five hours, strain and use for soups, etc., as in the case of ordinary meat broth. It is evident (or it should be so to the mind of a practical housewife) that in the matter of stock the great point is to decide the purpose for which it is going to be used, so that it should be made stronger or weaker according as it is destined to be the prin- cipal constituent of a good nourishing soup, or merely to serve as a cooking liquor for vegetables, etc. All the meat used for good stock should be well wiped (not washed) and beaten, and should previously have hung for a day or so in a cool place. And now to turn our attention to sauces — a most important subject, and one of which even many so-called good cooks are painfully ignorant. And let it be said, quite without prejudice, but in all fairness, tbe foreigner has an innate knack for this department in cookery, whereas the average English plain cook STOCKS AND SAUCES. 27 understands it not at all. This is not to be wondered at, for the principal “mother” sauces, as they are termed abroad, and which sooner or later must enter into the composition of other varieties, are of foreign origin, and are not always properly explained in the ordinary plain English cookery books. In this depart- ment we reap the benefit of the trouble we may have taken with the stock-pot, for its contents are inevitably and closely linked with the manufacture of good sauces. Both meat and fish stock are needed, as the case may be, and the utensils in which sauces are prepared must be chosen with care ; the idea that ' any saucepan will do ” is quite a mistaken one. The sauces “meres ” then are the equivalent for what are generally called in English “standard” or “grand” sauces, and their names are familiar to every student of cookery books. The “ espagnole,” for instance, helps in the manufacture of various brown sauces, the “ veloute ” makes white sauces, the “ bechamel ” sauces with eggs, “ allemandes,” etc., and so on. Their seasoning is a point which requires much attention- The French custom of keeping together a kind of general mixture (“ quatre-6pices ”) ready for use is practical and worth adopting. The ingredients are white and black pepper, nutmeg, and cinnamon, mixed in the proportion of half an ounce of the two kinds of pepper and cinnamon respectively to one-third of an ounce of nutmeg. Pound them all together very fine, sift them, mix them thoroughly well, and keep them in a tin. They go far towards emphasising the flavour 29 COOKERY.

Cookery