ROUND THE TABLE

whole is left to boil for four or five hours. The liquor is then strained, and, all the fat being removed, the stock thus obtained is used for the purposes of cooking. If soup is to be made out of it, it may be necessary to clarify it with white of egg, as indeed must be done with all soups, if you wish them to be perfectly clear. A better way, however, of clarifying soup is to put into it when cold some very small pieces of raw beef free from fat. Put it on the fire till it boils, then strain. Or you may use both beef and white of egg. Some employ pieces of raw liver for the same purpose ; but, if too much of it is used, it is apt to impart a bad taste; besides, the beef adds to the goodness of the soup, at the same time that it clarifies it.

Into the stock-pot should go all the carcases of poultry and of game, if not high, that are at hand ; but a better plan, if the supply of these things allow it, is to make separate stock of meat, of poultry, and of game.

When the supply of meat and poultry bones is not great, the addition of one or two pounds of shin of beef can be made to the stock-pot ; this quantity of shin of beef, with the same quantity of bones, will make soup for two days for at least three or four people. The soup may be made all at once, or enough water for one day’s supply being boiled with the meat, vegetables, &c., can be strained off when sufficiently flavoured, and the meat, &c., put away till nest day, then boiled again with more water.

Another way of obtaining a supply of most excellent stock, purely of meat, is to put into the dripping pan, just before the joint which is roasting is done, from a glass to a pint of hot water, according to the size of the joint and the quantity of the dripping. When this has been put into a basin, and become quite cold, beneath it

will be found a glassful or more of pure meat stock, which comes iu very well to put into sauces, or to improve common stock. Some of this, put into stock, will also have the effect of clarifying it, nearly if not quite as well as any other method. Of course the stock obtained from a joint of beef, in the manner just described, will be better than that which a joint of mutton will yield ; but still this latter is by no means to be despised. Great care must be taken in making stock or soup not to let the meat, bones, or vegetables be over-boiled. It is a mistake to suppose that the more these things are boiled the better the stock will be. A piece of meat, a bone, or a carrot has only so much flavour to give, and, when this is got out of it, it will rather spoil than improve the stock by being further boiled in it.

What is the precise length of time that these things should be boiled, is a matter which — supposing the operator to have average brains — practice alone and not I can determine.