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Stock Made from Bones

Take the bones of a leg of mutton or of a piece of beef weighing seven or eight pounds before cooking, or if these are not at hand, take two-pennyworth of fresh bones. Break them up into small pieces, and put them into a saucepan with three quarts of cold water. Bring this gently to the boil, and carefully remove the scum as it rises. Draw the saucepan to the side, and let the liquor simmer gently for five or six hours. Pour it into an earthenware jar, and the next day remove the fat from the top, and pour the broth back free from sediment. Put with it a large carrot, a handful of fresh parsley, a large onion into which two or three cloves have been stuck, a few outer sticks of celery, or about as much celery-seed as will lie on a threepenny-piece, a turnip, if young, a couple of leeks, if they can be obtained, a lump of sugar, and a little salt and cayenne. Simmer the soup again, and if necessary add cold water, a little at a time, to keep up the quantity to two quarts. Simmer all gently together an hour and a half longer; strain the liquor off again, and stir in with it a good tea-spoonful of Bovril. If it is necessary to clarify the stock, do not put in the Bovril until the stock has been made clear. If expedition is desired, the vegetables and the bones may be boiled altogether. Time, five hours the first day, one hour and a half the next. Sufficient for two quarts of stock.