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This is, however, a very important stock, and it should always be kept on hand. No household, even where only a moderate amount of meat is used, should be without a stock-pot. It can be kept on the back of the range or stove while cooking is going on. Two or three times a week it should be put on with the trimmings and bones left from cooked and uncooked meats. This practice will give a supply of stock at all times, which will be of the greatest value in making sauces, side dishes and soups. Meat if only slightly tainted will spoil a stock; therefore great care must be taken that every particle is perfectly sweet. Vegetables make a stock sour very quickly, so if you wish to keep a stock do not use them. Many rules advise putting vegetables into the stock-pot with the meat and water and cooking from the very beginning. When this is done they absorb the fine flavor of the meat and give the soup a rank taste. They should cook not more than an hour — the last hour — in the stock. A white stock is made with veal or poultry. The water in which a leg of mutton or fowl have been boiled makes a good stock for light soups and gravies. A soup stock must be cooled quickly or it will not keep well. In winter any kind of stock ought to keep good a week. That boiled down to a jelly will last the longest. In the warm months three days will be the average time stock will keep. Stock for Clear Soups. Five pounds of clear beef, cut from the lower part of the round ; five quarts of cold water. Let come to a boil, slowly ; skim carefully, and set where it will keep just at the boiling point for eight or ten hours. Strain, and set away to cool. In the morning skim off all the fat and turn the soup into the kettle, being careful not to let the sediment pass in. Into the soup put an onion, one stalk of celery, two leaves of sage, two sprigs of parsley, two of thyme, two of summer savory, two bay leaves, twelve pepper- corns and six whole cloves. Boil gently from ten to twenty minutes ; salt and pepper to taste. Strain through an old napkin. This is now ready for serving as a simple clear soup or for the foundation of all kinds of clear soups. Mixed Stock. Put the trimmings of your fresh meats and the bones and tough pieces left from roasts or broils into the soup pot with one quart of water to every two pounds of meat and bones. When it comes to a boil, skim and set back where it will simmer six hours ; then add a bouquet of sweet herbs, one onion, six cloves and twelve pepper-corns to each gallon of stock. Cook two hours longer ; strain and set in a cool place. In the morning skim off the fat. Keep in a very cool place. This can be used for common soups, sauces, and where stock is used in made dishes. It should always be kept on hand, as it really costs nothing but the labor (which is very little), and enters so often into the preparation of simple, yet toothsome, dishes. Consomme.