Buckmaster's cookery

three-quart stewpan. 5. Slice two onions and place them at the bottom. 6. Place the meat and bones on the onions. 7. Moisten with three gills of water or stock, and simmer for one hour. 8. Add two quarts of water, three small carrots sliced, one leek, half head of celery, £ oz. of salt, six white peppercorns, and a small bunch of fine herbs. 9. Skim frequently. 10. Let the whole simmer for five hours. 11. Strain, if necessary, through a horsehair sieve into an earthenware vessel, and the stock is ready for use. A General Stock. A stock may also be prepared from previously cooked meat and bones, but the stock will not be so good or rich in flavour as when prepared from fresh meat and bones. We never allowed our children to take bones in their fingers, and after dinner the servant breaks up the bones, with any meat, skin, or gristle which has not been blackened by cooking, and with two or three pennyworth of fresh bones we have always a little fair stock prepared from materials which many persons give to dogs or throw into the dust-bin. In this way we have always something in the house which can be turned in a few minutes into a good nourishing soup. The idea which must be ever present in preparing a stock is absolute freedom from fat. Spare no pains in skimming, and a little kitchenpaper or blotting-paper laid on the surface will remove small globules of fat which often evade the spoon. Caramel. It is sometimes desirable that stock or soup should be of a bright golden colour, although it is no better To clarify Soups. Sr on that account. The point to remember in colouring is not to alter the flavour of the stock or soup ; burnt onions or carrots are occasionally used, but they impart a disagreeable taste. The only proper colouring substance is caramel or burnt sugar, which may be prepared as follows : — 1. Take a clean stewpan or saucepan and put in 4 lb. of pounded loaf sugar. 2. Constantly stir it over the fire with a wooden spoon. 3. When the sugar is thoroughly melted, let it come to the boiling point. 4. Boil slowly for fifteen minutes, with occasional stirring. 5. When the sugar is of a dark-brown colour add gradually one pint of cold water. 6. Boil for twenty minutes on the side of the fire. 7. Let it cool. 8. Strain it, and keep it in clean well-stoppered bottles. It is now ready for use. Caramel should be of a dark-brown colour; if it boil too quickly it will become black, and will spoil the colour and flavour of the broth. When you use caramel put it into a soup tureen just before serving. To clarify Soups. 1. Take the white and clean shell of an egg for every quart of soup. 2. Crush the shell in a mortar, and mix the shell and white of egg with a gill* of cold water. 3. Well whisk the mixture. 4. Now add half a pint of the boiling soup, still beating all up together. 5. Pour the mixture to the remainder of the soup in the saucepan, still stirring briskly till the whole comes to the boiling point. 6. Remove * A gill is a quarter of a pint Buckmaster s Cookery.