Soups made with stock include all the varieties made from beef, veal, mutton, and poultry. Perhaps a glance at the meaning of the word stock will make clear its application to cookery. Stock is from the Anglo-Saxon stician, to stick, and the idea of fixedness is expressed in all its forms. Stock in trade or business means the money or material laid by, or stored, stocked, fixed, as a source of supply, ready for use at any time; and in the business of soup-making, stock is the material stored or prepared in such a way that it may be kept or fixed for use in making different kinds of meat soup; or, more definitely, it is a liquid containing the juices and soluble parts of meat, bone, and vegetables, which have been extracted by proper cooking. This liquid is more or less solid when cold, according to the gelatinous nature of the ingredients. It varies greatly in quality, owing to the manner in which it is prepared and the material used.

Stock is usually made from the cheaper, inferior parts of meat, which yield the most nutriment when cooked in this way; also from odds and ends of cooked meat, which perhaps could not be used otherwise. The chief object in making stock is to obtain in the quickest manner the largest possible amount of nutriment from the cheapest parts of meat, and after getting it to keep and use it. This is best accomplished by observing the following rules: -

First. Cut the meat into small pieces, and soak them in cold water before heating, that every atom of nourishment may be extracted. Cold water draws out and dissolves the meat juices, while hot water hardens the albumen on the outside of the meat and prevents the juices from escaping into the liquid.

Second. Use a careful selection and proportion of meat, bone, and water, and season judiciously, so that no one flavor will predominate.

Third. Use a steam-tight kettle, and simmer, - not boil the material rapidly, - that the juices may be retained in the water, and not wasted by evaporation.

Fourth. Make stock the day before using, if possible, that the fat may be more easily removed; but do not give up making it simply from "lack of time," for it can be made quickly.

A soup digester is the proper vessel for making stock. This is a porcelain-lined iron kettle with a bale, and hav-ing a cover fitting closely into a groove, so that no steam can escape except from the valve in the top of the cover, which at once indicates when the water is boiling rapidly. One holding six quarts, and costing three dollars, is a convenient size for a small family. If you cannot afford a digester, get a granite ironware kettle, with a tightly fitting cover. Plain ironware will do if you have nothing better; but it rusts easily, and, if tin-lined, the tin melts in careless usage.

The meats used in making stock should contain gelatine, osmazome, and a small amount of fat.

Gelatine is found in the bones, skin, tendinous and gristly portions of flesh, especially in veal. It is this which causes the stock to become a jelly. But a soup which forms a jelly, or is made principally from bones, is not the most nutritious. The jelly of bones and sinews boiled into soup can furnish only jelly for our bones and sinews. It is use-ful in convalescence, for then the portions of the system in which gelatine is needed have been wasted; but in other cases, though easily digested, it is unwholesome, for it loads the blood with disturbing products. It is entirely destitute of flavor, and therefore we need with it meat containing osmazome.

Osmazome is that part of meat which gives to each of the various kinds its distinctive flavor. It is more abundant in brown than in white meats, and in the meat of old rather than in that of young animals. It is found largely in lean beef, mutton, and fowls. Osmazome is more highly developed in roasted meals; therefore all the bones and remnants of roasts which cannot be utilized in entrees, should be put into the soup-kettle.

We need also the alkaline and acid salts found in the blood and juices of the flesh; therefore a small portion of raw, lean meat should form a part of all stock.

Fat is necessary, as an element of perfect food, and should always be used in making stock. It adds to the flavor, and all that is not absorbed in the stock may be removed when cold. The marrow, found in the shin bone, is the best form of fat. The browned fat of roast beef gives a fine flavor, and occasionally a bit of ham or bacon may be used. But all mutton fat should be avoided, because of its rankness.

These four kinds of meat - beef, mutton, veal, and poul-try - may be used together or separately. It is better to use mutton, if in a large quautity, by itself, as the flavor is disagreeable to many. After having extracted all the nutriment from the meat in its juices, fat, albumen, and flavor, do not attempt to make further use of the worthless residue of muscular fibre. It is not only harmful, but dry, tasteless, and utterly useless as food. It needs the addition of many other materials to make it palatable even, and it is cheaper to get the fibrine we need from meat cooked in other ways, directions for which will be given under Boiling Meats and Stews. Therefore do not hesitate, as a matter of economy, to throw away this useless meat.

When fresh meat is bought expressly for stock, select a piece from the shin or lower part of the round of beef or veal. This has bone with marrow, a large proportion of gelatine, more or less osmazome, according to the amount of flesh, and costs less than other parts. In mutton, pieces from the neck and forequarter are the best. Fowls are better than chickens. With this fresh meat may be used the bones and trimmings from steak or chops, and the flank ends of roasting pieces, which yield more nutriment if added to the stock pot before being cooked. Add also any remnants of roasted or broiled meat, bone, fat, gristle, anything except mutton fat. In families where large roasts of beef and poultry are often used, there should be material enough for stock, without buying new meat, except for the nicest of clear soups, which the French call Consomme.