SOUPS making is as much of an art as turning out fine cake or pastry, still the American housewife devotes twice as much study to the making of sweet dishes as to soup. The French woman makes a trifle of something sweet serve as dessert, while her soups are famous the world over. It is economy to be able to provide a soup which will of ten take the place of the piece de re eistance in a dinner, for a fine bisque or smooth, creamy soup is a meal in itself. Then there are the stimulat ing thin soups which make a proper beginning to a dinner. Soup, is di vided into several classes—soups with stock and soups without—and the va riations which can be wrought by a clever housewife on these are num berless. With a pot of stock on hand and the assistance of vegetables for stockless soups, even in a frugal home there may be a soup for every day in the year. Besides, we have excellent soups made from fish, and satisfying chowders with the addi tion of potatoes which makes the dish a full meal.
In recipes for making stock, the list of ingredients for seasoning seem endless. Still, a good cook keeps on hand everything that tends to fine flavoring. Spices such as mace, bay leaves, peppers, etc., are very cheap, so are the winter vegetables that most recipes call for and they may be kept constantly on hand. In a large family where there is a. roast or meat dish once, perhaps twice, a day, little fresh meat is required for the stock pot if all bones and scraps are saved and utilized. Every morsel of a stew, roast with its gravy, chop and steak bones, carcasses of chick en or game, and the trimmings from meat, which a housewife pays for and should insist on having, are all grist for the soup pot. The meats to avoid using are bits of raw lamb or mutton vvith fat on them, which gives a disagreeable flavor, also smoked or corned meat. Scraps of bacon, cold ham, or even calfs liver may be add ed; they give a touch of good flavor ing. Several utensils are a necessity for soup making. First there is a sharp meat knife, a hard-wood board, a strong puree strainer, a soup pot with a tight lid, and a strainer with a slide, which allows it to be placed across the tureen.
A soup pot need not do a con tinuous performance on the hack of a stove from Monday to Saturday. It is too handy for all sorts of fag ends to be thrown in without being critically looked over; besides, the stock which is constantly at the boil, or very near it, does not extract the nourishment from meat and bones that cold water does. If you would have fine-flavored, good-colored soup, save all the scraps and keep in a scrupulously clean jar in the refrig erator. Make soup tvvice a week; three times if the weather is too hot for meat remains to keep, or if they accumulate very fast. Never add a morsel of anything that has the slightest taint; it will spoil the whole potful. Break bones thoroughly. If you would extract all the flavor from bits of meat, put them through a chopper. With a skewer pick mar row from the bones. Lay the bones at the bottom of the pot.
If there are any left-overs in the refrigerator of such vegetables as onions, celery, tomatoes, carrots, parsnips, or peas, chop flne and add, but do not put in too much of one thing; it gives too strong a flavor to the soup. If there are•no left-over vegetables on hand, chop cupful each of carrot, turnip, and celery, and add for flavoring, with tea spoonful peppercorns, 1 bay leaf, sprig of parsley, 6 cloves, and 1 chopped onion. Do not add salt till the stock is half cooked.
Cover the bones with cold water and set far back on the stove where it will come to the boil slowly. Let it simmer five or six hours, strain through a fine sieve, and cool as quickly as possible. Do not remove the cake of fat from the top of the soup until you are ready to use it, then run a thin knife around the edge to loosen it. Cut into quarters and lift each piece carefully. If there are any grains of fat left on the top of the jellied stock, dampen a bit of cheese cloth and carefully wipe over the top. Floating globules of grease will ruin the finest-flavored soup.