Practical household cookery

Caramel can be prepared in the following manner : — Take a small and very clean stewpan, put one pound of loaf-sugar in it, set the stewpan over the fire ; stir it continually with a wooden spoon till the sugar is thoroughly melted, then boil it very slowly for fifteen minutes, giving it an occasional stir, when the sugar is seen coming to a dark-brown colour ; add gradually one pint and a half of cold water, stirring the while, and letting it again boil slowly for another twenty minutes; then let it cool, strain and pour it into a clean bottle, which must be kept corked. It will keep thus for years. 1. ORDINARY STOCK. Stock or broth is the principal element of good cooking, as well as the foundation of all soups, and of many sauces. No household should be without it; and as soup is also the first course served at a dinner, I will at once proceed with the mode of its preparation. In order to study economy, all bones from previously cooked meat should be collected, broken, and put in a stockpot, together with any skin, gristle, and trimmings of fresh meat, as well as the remnants of cooked chicken and game bones that may be had. Add to these four or five pounds of leg of beef and a knuckle of veal ; cover the lot with cold water, say four quarts, and throw in a tablespoonful of salt ; boil gently for three or four hours, carefully removing all scum and fat from the top with a skimmer at the beginning of the ebullition, otherwise it will partially redissolve and spoil the clearness and flavour of the stock; then strain the liquor through a fine sieve into an earthenware pan, and remove to a cool place till next day. The above stock may be improved a great deal by adding two or three pennyworth of vegetables and ingredients, as in the following recipe, when a broth good enough for soup can be obtained. 2. BROTH OR CONSOMM^. Take five pounds of the shin of beef, tie it with a string to keep it together ; add from one to two pounds of knuckle or leg of veal ; put these into a stock-pot with the stock made out of bones the previous day, to which a quart of cold water can be added. Should there be, however, no ordinary stock made, pour in four quarts of cold water and a tablespoonful of salt; set it over the fire till it nearly boils, when the scum must be removed most carefully by frequent skimming; add at intervals about a gill of cold water, which will check the ebullition and help the scum to rise. When the scum is all removed, peel two ordinary-sized onions (not Spanish), stick in each three cloves, and drop them in the stock-pot ; wash two leeks and a small head of celery, tie them together; scrape two carrots of average size, slit into four and two inches in length ; peel two turnips and cut them into four; and then make a "bouquet garni" (page 11), and season with a teaspoonful of pepper-corns. These items should all be put in separately, in order to keep the contents of the stock-pot at the same temperature. Skim the liquor for the last time; after which let it simmer gently by the side of the fire for about three hours ; then take the meat out, skim off all the fat, and put it by in a basin ; so that, when cold, it can be used for frying or other purposes. A small cabbage cut in quarters, properly cleaned, as well as a few potatoes, cut in four and added two hours after the other vegetables, will be an improvement to the broth as well as a garnish to the meat.