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Soup

To make good soup, properly flavored and palatable, requires much practice. The best foundation for soup is lean uncooked meat. A quart of water to a pound of meat is the usual quantity. When soup is made from fresh meat, it should always be put to cook in cold water. Beef is more generally used as soup-meat; to this may be added mutton and veal bones broken up; also bits of chicken, turkey, and ham make a wellflavored soup, much better than any one meat. Grease should always be skimmed from all soups, and slow boiling is very important, in order to extract the strength from the meat. When meat is boiled very fast over a hot fire it retains its juice and becomes tough and hard. A soup-pot should always be kept on hand for soups, into which bits of meat, bones from a rib-roast, gravies left from roast meats, and all fragments, may be thrown. Put on the fire and cook until done, strain, and put in an earthen vessel for use. If kept in a cold place, it will be good for several days; remove all fat that may rise. Vegetables should not be cooked in stock, as they will cause it to sour.