SOUP STOCKS

Soup stock, either seasoned or unseasoned, may be cooked in the fireless cooker. If a brown stock is wanted the meat should be browned in drippings as for any good stew, cold water added in the right proportions and suf- ficient to fill the utensil it is cooked in, and the whole slowly heated and carefully skimmed before it is put into the cooker and left there for ten or twelve hours. It should be clear and have boiled ten or fifteen minutes before it is taken from the stove. It should be skimmed and reheated before the vegetables are put in. Then it should be raised to the boiling point again and put into the cooker for an hour or two longer. For an unsea- soned soup stock it is recommended that the meat, after it is thoroughly washed, be allowed to stand in cold water half an hour before it is put on the stove. For one shin of beef about four quarts of water are required. If beef is used from the shin or the middle of the round or the neck, five quarts of water or a little more will be needed for six pounds of beef. The fireless cooker is not adapted to cooking very small quantities of any- thing, unless the small quantity is put in a pail set inside of the regular utensil, which must be filled with hot water.

For those who wish to have a cooked cereal for break- fast, the fireless cooker has become well-nigh indispens- able. Oatmeal, for instance, cooked thus will neither scorch nor boil dry, nor will It need to be stirred. Cereals

VALUABLE EECIPES 393

in general need to be cooked until they are slightly thick- ened before they are put into the cooker, otherwise they will be too dense and solid. These foods in particular need to be cooked at less than a boiling temperature, and are enormously improved in flavor by long and slow cooking, and far more digestible.