Colouruig-balls for soups, gravies, &c., are sold in bottles, and are made in France from vegetables, but they vary considerably, and sometimes impart by no means an agreeable flavour to the soup or gravy. Used with caution, however, they are at times very valuable, as a little piece will go a long way ; but I will defer going into the question of colouring soups until we enlarge on that most important branch of cooking, A'iz., letting stock colour itself, by being reduced to a glaze in the making, which is far preferable to any artificial means. There is one most important point which the cook should always bear in mind when bro-\vn thickening is used for either soup or gravy, and that is, re- moving the fat or butter which -svill always rise to the surface of the soup or gravy after boiling. Should this important point be omitted, the gravy or soup- ladle might possibly have a film of fat hanging from it similar to what we have already described as happening to the gravy from a roast joint when the cook has been careless in pouring ofi^ the grease. After the gravy or soup has been thickened, allow it to boil up, and then stand it on one side of the fire. In a A^ery few minutes a film of grease from the butter in the thickening will make its appearance on the top, and requires removing; this must be repeated several times. The safest method is to allow the gi-avy or soup to simmer gently, when it vnll gi-adually what is called "throw up the gi-ease." If, then, when the liquid is simmering, it be occasionally skimmed, all fear of gi"easy gi'avy or soup is removed. The same process applies in using white thickening. Suppose you have thickened some Palestine soup, which is made from Jerusalem artichokes, allow the thickened soup to boil. The top "svill have a yellow, oily appearance, CASSELL S DICTIONARY OF COOKERY. owing to the butter in the thickening. This must be skimmed off; but even after all has been skimmed, by allowing the soup to simmer gently some more probably will be thrown up. Some cooks have an idea that if when they have made some soup they allow it to get cold, and then remove all the fafthat cakes on the top, that it is impossible for there to be any more fat in the soup at all. This is a great fallacy easily made manifest by allowing the soup, after the fat has been removed, to boil up again. On its getting cold a fresh cake of fat will appear if the soup was at all greasy. Soup made from pig's head will some- what astonish a young cook on this point. We have already explained that the chief reasons for preferring brown thickening to flour and butter melted together are the appearance and the flavour — i.e., the latter causes the gravy not merely to look gruelly but to taste so. It will of course often happen, notwithstanding that good care is taken by the cook to what we may call look ahead, that at times gi'avy will be wanted in a hurry, and yet no brown thickening is at hand for the purpose of converting the thin stock into thick gravy. In tliis case, a small quantity can be easily made in a very short time, which, though not as a rule equal in quality to that made in the way we Jiave described, will at any rate be far preferable to the ordinary plain butter and SLomy.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Colouruig-balls for soups, gravies, &c., are sold in bottles, and are made in France from vegetables, but they vary considerably, and sometimes impart by no means an agreeable flavour to the soup or gravy. Used with caution, however, they are at times very valuable, as a little piece will go a long way ; but I will defer going into the question of colouring soups until we enlarge on that most important branch of cooking, A'iz., letting stock colour itself, by being reduced to a glaze in the making, which is far preferable to any artificial means. There is one most important point which the cook should always bear in mind when brown thickening is used for either soup or gravy, and that is, removing the fat or butter which will always rise to the surface of the soup or gravy after boiling. Should this important point be omitted, the gravy or soupladle might possibly have a film of fat hanging from it similar to what we have already described as happening to the gravy from a roast joint when the cook has been careless in pouring off the grease. After the gravy or soup has been thickened, allow it to boil up, and then stand it on one side of the fire. In a very few minutes a film of grease from the butter in the thickening will make its appearance on the top, and requires removing; this must be repeated several times. The safest method is to allow the gravy or soup to simmer gently, when it will gradually what is called "throw up the grease." If, then, when the liquid is simmering, it be occasionally skimmed, all fear of greasy gravy or soup is removed. The same process applies in using white thickening. Suppose you have thickened some Palestine soup, which is made from Jerusalem artichokes, allow the thickened soup to boil. The top will have a yellow, oily appearance, owing to the butter in the thickening. This must be skimmed off; but even after all has been skimmed, by allowing the soup to simmer gently some more probably will be thrown up. Some cooks have an idea that if when they have made some soup they allow it to get cold, and then remove all the fafthat cakes on the top, that it is impossible for there to be any more fat in the soup at all. This is a great fallacy easily made manifest by allowing the soup, after the fat has been removed, to boil up again. On its getting cold a fresh cake of fat will appear if the soup was at all greasy. Soup made from pig's head will somewhat astonish a young cook on this point. We have already explained that the chief reasons for preferring brown thickening to flour and butter melted together are the appearance and the flavour — i.e., the latter causes the gravy not merely to look gruelly but to taste so. It will of course often happen, notwithstanding that good care is taken by the cook to what we may call look ahead, that at times gravy will be wanted in a hurry, and yet no brown thickening is at hand for the purpose of converting the thin stock into thick gravy. In tliis case, a small quantity can be easily made in a very short time, which, though not as a rule equal in quality to that made in the way we Jiave described, will at any rate be far preferable to the ordinary plain butter and SLomy.

Cassell's dictionary of cookery