SOUPS, STOCKS
General Remarks
If the vegetables are used for flavouring only, they may remain in the soup all the time it is cooking. If, on the other hand, they are intended to be dished in the soup they should be put in only in time to be cooked thoroughly.
Every kitchen should contain in a cupboard always a bottle of cooking sherry, a bottle of mushroom catsup, one of Worcester sauce, one of tomato (bottled) sauce, some fresh lemons, vinegar, the best salad oil, a packet of sweet herbs, bovril, nutmeg, cloves, and spice.
The object in adding sugar is to clear the soup or stock and will be found as effective as eggshells.
In preserving stocks for soups, gravies, etc., care should be taken never to allow the receptacle containing it to be covered—after it is strained—except with a perforated meat cover.
Stock cannot be kept for more than two days without being reboiled. Never neglect to dash cold water into it while still boiling or the object of settling the solid particles and raising the fat will not be attained.
64. Beef Tea
Take one pound of leg of beef not fat. One pound makes about a pint of good beef tea. Cut the meat several times across, taking care not to cut it through. Sprinkle with a half teaspoonful of salt, put into a stone jar or saucepan with one piece of loaf sugar, add one and a half pints of cold water and place in a steady oven to cook for two hours. Always put it into the oven as soon as it is prepared as the salt otherwise would draw the juice out of the meat. Directly it is cooked, dash about one tablespoonful of cold water into it. Place in a cold place for the fat to rise, remove with a sheet of white paper the fat which will have risen to the top and make hot as required.