322. The greater part of the preparations for colouring are very unwholesome, or, in other words, very indigestible. They are employed to give the appearance of richness, but they are worse than useless, being used for the silly purpose of pleasing the eye only, generally at the expense of the stomach and taste. Most of the preparations for colouring are a medley of burnt butter, spices, catsup, wine, flour, and other things not necessary to mention. A French writer says, the generality of cooks calcine bones till they are as black as a coal, and throw them hissing hot into the stew-pan, to give a brown colour to their broths and soups. These ingredients, under the appearance of a nourishing gravy, envelop our food with stimulating acid and corrosive poison. Such things as essence of anchovy are frequently adulterated with colouring matters containing red lead! The following recipes for colouring are pretty harmless, and, except for the purpose of pleasing the eye, as useless as they are innocent.

Some persons, instead of colouring or browning their soups after they are made, brown the meat of which they are intended to be made, by putting it into a stew-pan with a little butter, salt, and pepper, but without water; then covering it close, placing it over a clear fire, all the time shaking it to keep it from sticking to the pan, till the meat becomes of a light brown, when the liquor of which the soup or gravy is to be made is added.

The best colouring is, perhaps, the following: Haifa pound of powdered lump sugar and a table-spoonful of water, put into a clean saucepan, or frying-pan, and set over a slow fire and stirred with a wooden spoon till it is of a fine brown colour, and begins to smoke; then add an ounce of salt, and dilute by degrees with water, till it is of the thickness of soy; boil, take off the scum, and put it into well-corked bottles; or you may, provided you do not wish to keep the above by you, colour your gravies or soups by pounding a tea-spoonful of lump sugar, and putting it into an iron spoon, which hold over a quick fire till the mixture becomes of a dark-brown colour; mix with the soup or gravy while it is hot. Some persons use butter in the first mixture instead of water.

Toasted bread, quite hard and of a deep brown, not burnt, may be put into the boiling gravy, without stirring, and then carefully strain off the gravy without any crumbs of bread in it. You may also colour with flour browned on a flat-iron over the fire. various flavour ing articles serve also the purpose of colouring.