Practical gastronomy and culinary dictionary

not be used otherwise should find their way to the second stock. Let it simmer for four or five hours, keeping it well skimmed. Salt or other additional seasoning should be omitted, for this stock is only used for filling up others, already seasoned, or else for purees, sauces, &c., where the seasoning in their propor- tion will be found correctly described. When sufficiently simmered, pass it through a cloth, and use when re- quired ; or boil it down for meat glaze. Stock made from veal makes the best meat glaze ; but any kind of meat, poultry, or game stock can be reduced for glaze. 85. Pot-aa-feu (Family Soup). — The pot-au-feu is what would here be termed the stock-pot. It figures as *' a standing dish" in every household in France, Germany, and Switzerland, as well as in other foreign countries where thrift, so to speak, is ingrained in the national character, and where cooking as an art is not monopolised by the rich alone. The pot-au-feu is on the simmer from the early morn until dinner-time, and many loose unconsidered trifles and scraps find their way to the stock-pot, or pot-au-feu. The art of culinary blending, however, produces a highly wholesome soup, which is at the same time nutritive and savoury. The following is a recipe which will produce a first- class soup with meat and vegetables, such, as a rule, as is served abroad : — 4 lbs. brisket of beef, 1 large onion, 2 carrots, 4 cloves, 2 leeks, ^ cabbage, a small bunch of soup herbs, 12 pepper corns, salt, i lb. French bread, 1 dessert- spoonful chopped parsley, 1^ gallons cold water. Wash the meat thoroughly in cold water (shin of beef may be substituted for brisket, but it will not be so useful for serving), cover it with the water, place it on the fire and let it come gently to a boil. Be careful to skim off all the scum which rises on top as the stock begins to boil. Wash and clean the vegetables, stick the cloves in the onion, tie up the leeks and cabbage, and put all in with the meat. Season with a table- spoonful of salt, add the pepper corns, and let the 392 RECHERCHE COOKERY. whole simmer gently for four hom-s. Take out the meat ; strain the broth into a tureen, cut the carrots, turnips, and leeks into round pieces, and put with the broth ; cut the bread in thin slices, and put it in the tureen, sprinkle the chopped parsley on top, and serve. Before straining the broth it should be tasted, and more seasoning added according to requirement and taste. The meat can with advantage be served, but as a separate course, or be used up in some form for another meal. 86. Petites Marmites a la Parisienne. — This is a high-class pot- au- feu soup, served in small earthenware soup pots, which hold about half a pint of soup. Each guest is served with a small marmite, which should be handed round on hot soup plates covered with a folded napkin. It is usual to serve at the same time small sippets of toasted and buttered bread. If marrow-bones are used for this soup, they should be sawn into inch pieces. These are likewise handed round with the soup. 4 lbs. buttock steak, 1^ lbs. beef bones, ^ lb. knuckle of veal, some chicken giblets if handy, 2 sticks of leek, 2 cloves, ^ chicken, ^ celery root, 1 small onion, 2 small carrots, 1 turnip, ^ cabbage, 12 peppercorns, salt, parsley, (a marrow bone).