Caramel. — This is useful for colouring soups, but it is generally made much too dark. Put a quarter of a pound of white sugar into a fire-proof china pan, and set it over a low fire. Stir till it is melted, and then let it simmer for a quarter of an hour. After the sugar begins to darken look at the spoon every few minutes, so as to judge of the colour. Great care must be taken not to let the caramel turn black and burn ; if it does it will be bitter in flavour and useless. When it is coloured a delicate warm brown, add a pint of water✪ Caramel and let it boil up. Then set it to simmer for twenty minutes, skim it, let it get cool, strain it into bottles and cork them well. Caramel should be neither sweet nor bitter. A teaspoonful of Caramel is enough to colour soup a golden brown, and should be added when the soup is set to simmer. Milk for custard puddings is often coloured with Caramel, and indeed Caramel is the safest and best of all brown colourings. 163 CHAPTER VI. MEAT. Although it may not be necessary to go through the dis- agreeable process of choosing meat at the butcher’s shop, a knowledge of the proper condition of the joints sent in is absolutely needful. Most ladies hurry past the butcher’s with averted eyes, wishing that the meat so freely exposed there could be hidden from sight till it is cooked ; many women never eat meat at all. But other people have to be catered fox’, and a quick eye, assisted by a little knowledge, will detect the condition of meat at once without any of the sniffing and fingering which is sometimes thought necessary. Besides, if a respectable butcher is regularly dealt with, he will not be likely to supply indifferent meat, and if an inferior joint, “ sent by mistake,” is returned to him at once he will see that the lady knows what she is about, and he will be more careful in future. Beef. — The best of all Beef is that of Scotch bullocks fed on the old pasture of an English park ; but in any case Scotch Beef is better than any other. In choosing Beef, meat should be selected which is close and even in gi’ain, the lean of a cherry-red colour, the fat a creamy yellow, and the suet white and firm. When the meat is delicately mar’bled throughout with fat it is considered to be of first-rate quality. If the fat is dark yellow the animal is sure to have been fed on oil-cake, and no amount of care in cooking can disguise the greasy taste which oil-cake always gives. Bull Beef is seldom sold by first-rate butchei'S, but it can x-eadily be detected by its dark M 2 164 MEAT colour, coarse grain, and unpleasant smell. Cow Beef and Bull Beef are always tough, but Cow Beef, though coarse in grain, has no disagreeable smell. Heifer Beef is light in colour and small in bone, but is too young to be really well flavoured. In ordering Beef it is best to say that the bones should be sent home with the meat, and that no more fat should be sent than that which is actually a part of each joint.

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Caramel. — This is useful for colouring soups, but it is generally made much too dark. Put a quarter of a pound of white sugar into a fire-proof china pan, and set it over a low fire. Stir till it is melted, and then let it simmer for a quarter of an hour. After the sugar begins to darken look at the spoon every few minutes, so as to judge of the colour. Great care must be taken not to let the caramel turn black and burn ; if it does it will be bitter in flavour and useless. When it is coloured a delicate warm brown, add a pint of water and let it boil up. Then set it to simmer for twenty minutes, skim it, let it get cool, strain it into bottles and cork them well. Caramel should be neither sweet nor bitter. A teaspoonful of Caramel is enough to colour soup a golden brown, and should be added when the soup is set to simmer. Milk for custard puddings is often coloured with Caramel, and indeed Caramel is the safest and best of all brown colourings. 163 CHAPTER VI. MEAT. Although it may not be necessary to go through the dis- agreeable process of choosing meat at the butcher’s shop, a knowledge of the proper condition of the joints sent in is absolutely needful. Most ladies hurry past the butcher’s with averted eyes, wishing that the meat so freely exposed there could be hidden from sight till it is cooked ; many women never eat meat at all. But other people have to be catered fox’, and a quick eye, assisted by a little knowledge, will detect the condition of meat at once without any of the sniffing and fingering which is sometimes thought necessary. Besides, if a respectable butcher is regularly dealt with, he will not be likely to supply indifferent meat, and if an inferior joint, “ sent by mistake,” is returned to him at once he will see that the lady knows what she is about, and he will be more careful in future. Beef. — The best of all Beef is that of Scotch bullocks fed on the old pasture of an English park ; but in any case Scotch Beef is better than any other. In choosing Beef, meat should be selected which is close and even in gi’ain, the lean of a cherry-red colour, the fat a creamy yellow, and the suet white and firm. When the meat is delicately mar’bled throughout with fat it is considered to be of first-rate quality. If the fat is dark yellow the animal is sure to have been fed on oil-cake, and no amount of care in cooking can disguise the greasy taste which oil-cake always gives. Bull Beef is seldom sold by first-rate butchei'S, but it can x-eadily be detected by its dark M 2 164 MEAT colour, coarse grain, and unpleasant smell. Cow Beef and Bull Beef are always tough, but Cow Beef, though coarse in grain, has no disagreeable smell. Heifer Beef is light in colour and small in bone, but is too young to be really well flavoured. In ordering Beef it is best to say that the bones should be sent home with the meat, and that no more fat should be sent than that which is actually a part of each joint.

Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book