The profession of cookery, from a French point of view

The meat, if carefully separated from all skin and gristle, liberally seasoned, and pounded in a mortar, makes very presentable potted meat, quite good enough for every-day family use. Clear sonp is also made from bones, cooked or uncooked, odds and ends of meat, and the carcases of poultry. Always bear in mind that it is stock, and to be treated as such. No scraps or bones need ever be wasted. Chop all bones with a hatchet into very small pieces. All dry corners and trimmings of meat are valuable also, particularly if they are brown. In soup made of this stock, vegetables may be added in a variety of ways. Cut very small indeed, and frizzled in a little clear fat till they are just brown, then it is known as "Julienne soup"; or cut small, and plain boiled, then it is "consommé" (either with or without the addition of rice and a little brown gravy) ; or the carrots may be grated^ or the remaining vegetables cut into dice. It is to this kind of stock, also, that macaroni and vermicelli are added, and the same stock forms the foundation of mulligatawny and the richer kinds of soup, which properly come under the division of thickened soups. If a thickened soup is still required clear, it may be kept so by using tapioca or potato-flour as the thickening medium. If tapioca be added early enough, it will completely dissolve and become perfectly smooth ; sago is a similar agent, but it never quite loses its grain, neither is it quite so clear. If ever ordinary flour be used, it will be found a great improvement to first bake it in the oven. There are many thickening agents sold by grocers, but few of them are to be trusted ; it is better to compound one's own, although it may take more time to do it. Bread is an ingredient very largely used both in France and Switzerland in soup making ; either put in the pot with the vegetables, and p.c. c allowed to dissolve, or cut into dice and delicately browned in butter, then put in the tureen for the soup to be poured upon it, it forms a substantial addition to, and greatly increases the nourishing properties of the "potage". Now we come to consider the purees — true vegetable soups. The first desideratum in the making of a successful puree is patience on the part of the cook, for upon the patient rubbing of all the ingredients through the sieve will hang all the quality of the soup. It is by no means labour spent in vain. The most common vegetable soup is the kind known as "Soupe à la Bataille," as all the vegetables are supposed to be fighting with each other. With many people this is a foundation soup, and is varied by adding a larger quantity of the particular vegetable which is to give it its name for the day — more peas, if it is called pea soup, etc. In the south of France a vegetable puree will have nothing but a little onion and a few savoury herbs added to its main ingredient. Lentils, peas, haricots, beans, and potatoes are the most frequently used for purees. They are all rendered much richer and smoother to the taste if one or two beaten yolks of eggs are added the last thing before bringing to the table. When a white soup is desired, milk or cream is added, and the latter should be made hot in a saucepan before putting into the tureen.