Manual for army cooks

of cold water, rinsed, and drained. Tomatoes should be scalded, peeled, and sliced. Onions fried give a richer color and a different flavor to soup than when used raw. Vegetables should be put into the soup one hour and a quarter or one hour and a half before it is cooked. Potatoes are an exception to this rule ; they should be put in only thirty minutes before the soup is cooked. To prepare rice it must be picked over, washed, and drained. Season the soup lightly with salt and pepper when it is to be served. Good rich soup can be made from the heads, tails, and soup bones of cattle. The heads must be skinned and split into pieces. Remove the eyes and brains ; wash out with cold water all impurities ; skin, wash, and chop the tails into small pieces. Crack soup bones well open. The canned soups are in effect soup stock, and, when used according to the recipes printed upon the cans, furnish a good substitute in case sudden calls are made for soup. Fresh stock is, however, the most satisfactory. STOCK POT. A stock pot should be established to provide good soup and gravies. It consists of a cooking utensil, either a boiler or large boiling pot, into which should be placed all available bones, etc., such for example as are collected when the ration meat is cut up, in preparing boned meat, meat pies, meat puddings, and stews. This boiler should be kept gently simmering for three or four hours daily immediately before its contents are required for use. If the meat is properly boned it will provide soup for the men at a nominal cost — of beans, peas, tomatoes, vegetables, etc. In order to insure a constant change of stock, and that no bones remain longer than three days in the pot, the following system should be adhered to : The bones extracted from the meat rations should be placed in a net, with a tally attached, before being boiled; the bones of the second and third days should be similarly treated ; after the third day the bones boiled upon the first day should be removed, and similarly the bones of the subsequent days, the stock being continually replenished from day to day. The bones should always be removed from the stock before the vegetables and other ingredients are added. They should be carefully drained, placed in a dish, and kept in a cool dry place until required the following morning. This process adds enormously to the strength of the soup made. The amount of water to be added to the boiler in making stock must depend on the quantity and the quality of the bones. STOCK SOUP (BOUILLON). {See remarks on soup. ) 4 pounds fresh lean beef. 1 gallon cold water. 1 soup bone. 2 onions, sliced. Pepper and salt. Time, seven and one-half to eight hours.