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The Stock-Pot

218. This is merely a common saucepan, with a well-fixed lid (fig. 130). It is intended for the slow boiling of meat in the liqnor which has come out of the digester from the bones. Some people use the digester as a stock-pot, but it is better to put the bones in by themselves with any pieces of gristle, as much more gelatine is dissolved by water than by a strong soup made from meat; besides which, the increased temperature in the digester is unfavourable to the solution of the meat. At all events, the bones should be first boiled, and the meat added afterwards; but the better plan is to boil the bones first, and extract every thing from them; then pour off into the stock-pot, and add what meat or other soft bits may be intended to be used, stewing them for some hours very slowly. Most soups will require from four to six hours' gentle boiling, and almost all should be prepared the day before they are to be used, by which plan they may be allowed to become cold, when the fat collected on the top, and become solid, may easily be separated. If all the fat is not removed, a piece of clean silver paper passed over the surface will effectually get rid of it.