Cookery for beginners

Put on the cover and set in a cold place until next day. Then take off every particle of the caked fat from the top. You can use this as dripping for frying. Soup that has globules of grease floating on the surface is unwholesome and slovenly. Strain the skimmed liquid through a colander, squeezing the meat hard to extract every drop of nutriment. Throw away the tasteless fibres and bones when you have wrung them dry. This process should give you about three quarts of strong "stock.*' Rinse your jar well and pour back the strained stock into it to be used as the foundation of several days* soups. Season it highly and keep in a cold place — in warm weather on the ice. I hope you will not fail to set up a " stockpot." Every family should have one. It makes the matter of really good soups simple and easy. Clear Soup with Sago or Tapioca. Soak half a cup of German sago or pearl tapioca four hours in a large cup of cold water. An hour before dinner put a quart of your soup-stock on the stove and bring quickly almost to a boil. When it is hot, stir in the raw white and the shell of an egg, and, stirring frequently to prevent the egg from catching on the bottom of the pot, boil fast ten minutes. Take off and strain through a clean thick cloth, wrung out in hot water and laid like a lining in your colander. Do not squeeze the cloth, 'or you will muddy the soup. Return the liquid, when strained, to the saucepan, which must be perfectly clean ; stir in the soaked tapioca and a teaspoonful of minced parsley, and simmer half an hour on the side of the range. If necessary, add a little more seasoning. When you have made nice clear soup once, you may, if you like, color the second supply with a little " caramel-water." This is made by putting a tablespoonful of sugar in a tin cup and setting it over the fire until it breaks up into brown bubbles, then pouring a few tablespoonfuls of boiling water on it and stirring it until dissolved. A tablespoonful of this in a quart of clear soup will give a fine amber color and not injure the flavor. Send all soups in to table very hot. Julienne Sonp. One quarter of a firm white cabbage, shred as for cold slaw. One small turnip, peeled and cut into thin dice. One carrot, peeled and cut into strips like inch-long straws. One teaspoonful of onion shred fine. Three raw tomatoes, peeled and cut into bits. One tablespoonful of minced parsley, and, if you can get it, three stalks of celery cut into thin slices. Use a sharp knife for this work and bruise the vegetables as little as possible. When all are prepared, put them in hot water enough to cover them, throw in a teaspoonful of salt and cook gently half an hour. Clear a quart of soup-stock as directed in the last receipt, and color it with a teaspoonful of Worcestershire sauce, or walnut catsup. When the vegetables are tender, turn them into a colander to drain, taking care not to mash or break them. Throw away the water in which they were boiled, and add the vegetables to the clear hot soup. Taste, to determine if it needs more pepper or salt, and simmer all together gently twenty minutes before turning into the tureen. Wliite Ohicken Soup (Delicious). A tough fowl can be converted into very delicious dishes by boiling it first for soup and mincing it, when cold, for croquettes. In boiling it, allow a quart of cold water for each pound of chicken, and set it where it will heat very slowly. If the fowl be quite old do not let it reach a boil under two hours, then boil very gently four hours longer. Throw in a tablespoonful of salt when you take it from the fire, turn chicken and liquor into a bowl and set in a cold place all night.