Cookery for busy lives and small incomes

Any meat liquor, when net too salt, can be used for plain stock, or be made the basis of a better stock. All scraps of meat and vegetables should be saved to make stock. Stock No. 1 Ingredients. — 2 pennyworth of bones, 3 large onions, 3 carrots, 2 turnips, any scraps of meat (bacon rind or a ham bone will give a nice flavour), a bunch of herbs, consisting of a sprig of thyme, parsley, and marjoram, and a bay leaf, tied together, 2 ozs. of dripping, 2 quarts of water, a teaspoonful of celery seed tied in muslin. Method. — Fry the bones in a large iron saucepan in the dripping. Clean and slice the vegetables and fry them a nice brown, but do not let them burn. Add the herbs and celery seed and two quarts of water or meat liquor ; boil gently for four and a half hours. Then strain and remove the vegetables. The bones may be broken up and put on again with more vegetable and meat scraps. The vegetables can be served in the soup. It is a mistake to let stock boil for more than five hours ; after that time the vegetables, having parted with their flavour, absorb the meat flavour, and make the stock poor in taste. The vegetables should not be thrown away, but used in the soup. Note. — When stock is made with fresh meat, SIMMER, but do not BOIL it. Simmering e.xtracts the juices from the meat, but boiling is necessary to extract the gelatine from bones. Stock No. 2 Ingredients. — 2 large oinons, 2 carrots, 1 turnip, a bunch of herbs, a teaspoonful of celery seed tied in muslin, 3 quarts of meat liquor, a little dripping. Method. — ^Clean and slice the vegetables and fry them in dripping ; put them in a saucepan with the meat liquor, and cook gently for four or five hours. Remove the herbs and celery seed. Do not throw the vegetables away, but use them in the soup. Fish Stock Ingredients. — 3 lbs. of fish trimmings (these can be obtained at a fishmonger’s at a trifling cost, and are excellent for making fish soup), 3 quarts of water, 4 onions, 3 carrots, 2 turnips, a small bunch of herbs — parsley, thyme, and marjoram — a little celery, or a teaspoonful of celery seed tied in muslin, 2 ozs. dripping. Method. — Wash the trimmings and put them into a saucepan. Clean and slice the vegetables, fry them in the dripping in a frying-pan. Put them into a saucepan with the trimmings, and add the herbs, celery, and water. Boil gently from four to five hours, then strain. The vegetables may be used in the soup. Note. — Any nice vegetables may be used in making stock. Tomatoes, when they are cheap, or mushrooms give a delicious flavour. Fish Soup Ingredients. — 2 quarts of fish stock (see recipe), 5 ozs. of flour, 1 dessert-spoonful of chopped parsley. Method. — Put the stock into a saucepan and make it boil, and then add the flour made into a thickening. Boil, stirring all the time, for three minutes. A boiled fish broken into flakes, or a tin of oysters or lobster, may be put into the soup. Sprinkle in the parsley just before serving. A dessert-spoonful of anchovy sauce will improve the flavour of the soup. Semolina Soup Ingredients. — 2 quarts of stock or meat liquor, 3 ozs. of semolina. Method. — Put the stock on to boil ; when boiling, sprinkle in the semolina. Boil ; stirring occasionally, for fifteen minutes. Rice or Tapioca Soup