Broth, Stock, Bouillon or Consomme, for they are all one and the same thing, is really the simplest and the most delicious kind of soup. It is the pure juice of the meat, and a few simple vegetables; and the object of the highest-class cooking is to keep this flavour, and not destroy it by the addition of strong herbs, spices, mushroom ketchup, burnt sugar, fried onions, and fifty other methods that cooks have invented for spoiling a good thing. Have you ever tasted really good "Bouillon," or Broth? If you have, you know what good soup is. Your one endeavour, in preparing the various kinds of soups, is to as much as possible retain this flavour. Sugar and cinnamon are both nice things in their way, but we don't put them into a glass of 1848 Chateau Lafitte.

I am not now speaking of thick soups and purees, such as pea-soup, etc., but of that large number of soups which consist of some kind of vegetable or grain served in a clear broth. I will endeavour to explain how to make this kind of broth in a cheap and inexpensive manner, without buying gravy beef expressly for the purpose.

This clear, bright, straw-coloured broth is by far the most expensive to make good; and, as it is necessary for success to have, if possible, a high model before us, I will first describe, very briefly, how to make broth for clear soups in a first-class manner.

High-class stock is made by placing gravy beef, leg of veal, a few carrots, turnips, leeks and celery in a large saucepan on the fire, in cold water, and bringing this very slowly to the simmering point, and letting it simmer for some eight hours, and then the broth is strained off into a large basin, and kept in a cool place. The flavour of this is often afterwards improved by the addition of the bones of rabbits and fowls. The stock obtains its colour by being boiled away till it gets gluey, and when it gets thick it gradually obtains a bright colour, at first like a beautiful bright sherry. The heat is then slackened, and the stock-pot filled up with water. Then we have our broth, or soup; no flavouring, except its own inimitable one; all we add is a very little salt, and if leeks are scarce one or two onions instead.

This method is, of course, not adapted to small families with limited incomes, but we can learn from it several things. First, to save our rabbit-bones and fowl-bones. Next - it is hardly necessary to add, but really there is no limit to some persons' stupidity - we should always save the liquor in which any kind of meat has been boiled. The boiling down to obtain a colour - or what cooks call boiling down to a glaze - naturally suggests Liebig's Extract of Meat; and I would here state that I consider a proper (not extravagant) use of extract of meat one of the most useful and economical of processes in modern cooking in small houses. I would advise every housekeeper never to be without it. I would also advise the mistress, if she does not do the cooking herself, but simply superintends it, to keep the extract of meat under her own care, and put it in herself. It is a sad fact, but the poorer the class from which they spring, and the more ignorant the servants, the more recklessly extravagant will they be found.

Capital stock can be made from beef and veal bones, but then this stock, though good and nutritious, will rarely be bright; and, as occasionally we want some really good, clear soup, I will describe how to make some. We will suppose some occasion, by way of example, when one entree is required for the next day's dinner.

I would here just note that in England the order of dinners is generally - 1st, soup; 2nd, fish; 3rd, entrees, i.e., savoury dishes, such as oyster patties, curried rabbit, etc.; then 4th, a joint; 5th, game; 6th, sweets; and cheese last of all.

Our entree for to-morrow's dinner will be curried rabbit, and we want some really good clear soup. I think to make good clear soup a little knuckle of veal necessary, and we will, therefore, on this occasion buy two pounds of knuckle of veal for the soup. This will cost, as it is chiefly bone, little more than a shilling.

I may here mention that this is the only occasion in the whole of the present book in which I shall order the buying of meat for making soups or gravies of any kind whatever.

We must have by us two pounds of knuckle of veal, one rabbit - (the rabbit is not essential to the stock) - one onion, one head of celery, a good bunch of parsley, one turnip, one carrot, two leeks, a little extract of meat, and I will call this: