The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c

The meat may then be removed from the bones and put by till the soup is wanted to be served, for often in making mulligatawny soup the cook will leave the meat in the soup for hours. When this is done of course the meat is very greatly overboiled, and presents the appearance of what is known as having been “boiled to rags.” Mulligatawny soup requires brown roux to thicken it. Great care should be taken when brown roux is used to get rid of all the fat, which can only be done by allowing the soup to simmer gently by the side of the fire, and occasionally skimming it, throwing in from time to time a little cold water, which helps the soup to throw up the fat. Mulligatawny soup is often recommended to persons who suffer from indigestion. One very common cause of indigestion is the carelessness of the cook in not removing the fat from rich soup. Mulligatawny paste should be added in sufficient quantity to give it the flavour required. Some persons like it hotter than others. It will also be found an advantage to boil a few bay-leaves in the soup. Boiled rice should always be handed round with mulligatawny soup, not placed in the soup itself. (For a receipt for boiling rice, see Curried Meats, Halford’s. ) MULLIGATAWNY SOUP. — Mulligatawny soup can now be obtained in tins. The soup can be warmed up in the tin by immersing it in a saucepan of boiling water for about twenty minutes, when ! the tin can be opened and the contents : turned out and served. The cook, how- I ever, can exercise her discretion, when she knows her master’s taste, to alter the soup accordingly. For instance, •some persons like mulligatawny, much hotter than others. When it is required very hot a little mulligatawny paste, or curry paste, or curry powder can be ! added to the soup. The soup can also j be increased in bulk by the addition of ! a little stock. When stock is added it i is as well to add also a little brown roux. I This, with a little care, will enable an | ordinary tin of soup to be made enough i for three or four persons. When no j curry powder or curry paste is to be obtained the soup can, of course, be improved, so far as heat is concerned, by the addition of a little ordinary cayenne pepper. MUSHROOMS.— By far the safest and most convenient form of obtaining mushrooms is to buy them in tins. Of course I do not mean to maintain that tinned mushrooms are suited for cooking in certain forms like fresh -gathered mushrooms. We all know how nice a dish mushrooms make when cooked fresh — simply grilled on the gridiron or fried in a little butter in a frying-pan, with some pepper and salt. Tinned mushrooms cannot be fried this way, but for all other purposes — such as making sauces, forcemeats, etc. — they are far superior to fresh, and possess the very great advantage of being safe. The number of deaths that have occurred from eating poisonous mushrooms is, alas ! very great. I would warn amateurs, especially “ cockneys,” against gathering mushrooms themselves. It is exceedingly difficult to distinguish the wholesome from the unwholesome kinds. As Dr. Badham justly observes, the majority of fungi are harmless, but his account of the