"How was it, cook, we had no gravy with the beef yesterday?" inquires the lady of the house.

"Why, ma'am, you said you would not allow gravy meat; and, of course, I couldn't make it out of nothing!"

The mistress, ignorant of the excellent use to which small scraps and bones can be put, or that, failing better material, a pint of tasty gravy can be made from the broth of any boiled meat, rabbit, or poultry, with two onions fried brown, a bacon bone, and, if at hand, a morsel of turnip or dried mushroom, sighs, gives way to the cook's superior tactics, goes without gravy, or provides expensive meat for it.

The liquor in which a leg of mutton or lamb, a fowl, or rabbit has been boiled, will, with the addition of a little colouring, be good enough for the gravy of roasted meats, and a careful cook can always make it additionally nice by adding the rich gravy from beneath the dripping from joints previously roasted. And besides the use for stock and gravies, these boilings of meat are invaluable for soup making. With the addition of a few vegetables, a soup can be made which will have more flavour than that generally served abroad, and which may satisfy the most fastidious eater. Perhaps there is no more delicious broth than that in which a rabbit weighing from two to three pounds and a pound of bacon have been boiled, and it is readily converted into mulligatawny or Palestine soup, and no expense beyond that of the vegetables, seasoning, and milk need be incurred.

Many cooks throw away all the water in which vegetables and fish have been boiled, under the impression that it is useless. But in towns where vegetables are expensive, every drop of liquor from all vegetable roots should be used as flavouring for soups and gravies, or as stock in which to boil or stew meat or fish. The liquor in which fish has been cooked should be reserved for a similar purpose, it will keep a long time, even in summer, if boiled every day, and this is an important matter to observe when necessary to keep stock, gravy, and soup of any kind. It will sometimes happen that even carefully-made soup will require some additional flavour, and this may be given by adding a little of any piquant sauce, a few drops of essence of anchovies, or a spoonful of homemade mushroom catsup. As a rule bought catsup should be avoided, the flavour can readily be obtained from the dried Italian mushroom. Always keep these, a packet of prepared vegetables, and a little home-made glaze in store, and you can at a very short notice serve an economical and good soup. In many cases a pinch of castor sugar is a useful addition, and it will be found in some degree to lessen the bitterness caused by a burnt bone or over-fried onion, also if the soup is over salt it may be used by way of remedy. In all soups for children and those in which vegetables predominate a little sugar should be used.

The practice adopted by many cooks of keeping the stock pot always on the range, and of adding bones and trimmings as they come to hand, is not good. Stock should be made every day in a large, and twice a week in a small family. When the stock has boiled four or five hours, all useful nutriment will have been extracted from the materials used; it should then be strained and allowed to get cold in order to remove all the fat. The pot should be duly and thoroughly cleansed, both inside and out, and then be put away for future use; and be it observed that no good soup of any class can be made in any but scrupulously clean utensils, and that no stock pot which will soil a clean cloth when rubbed inside is fit for use.

When vegetables are required merely for flavouring soup, they should be allowed to boil only until tender; after that time they do but absorb the flavour of the meat. Many cooks throw away the vegetables which have been used in soup making, but this wasteful, thoughtless practice is very much to be condemned. The vegetables which have been used for flavouring will not only have served that purpose, but have been thereby rendered more valuable and nourishing. If not required for use the day on which the soup is made they should be put aside, and made into some useful dish for the next day; but if not convenient to rewarm them, cold vegetables may be made into excellent salads, and thus serve to give inexpensive nourishing variety to the ordinary fare.

There is even a greater prejudice in England against fish than vegetable soup. Both are popularly held to be devoid of nourishment - to be weak and watery and apt to disagree with the stomach. That these errors are as grave as they are widespread need not be demonstrated here, and it will be sufficient to say they tend to that serious waste of good nourishment to which we have before alluded.

Fish soup may be made at a very small cost by carefully utilizing the liquor in which the fish has been cooked. This, with the addition of vegetables, flavouring matters, milk or cream, flour and bread, will make as delicious a soup as need be. How much better would it be if the working man, for instance, would have a basin of such soup for his breakfast, instead of innutritious and watery tea. How good, too, for children in towns, where milk is so poor and costly, would a daily meal of fish and vegetable soup be.

When cod-fish has been used for dinner, some such recipe as the following might be tried for soup the next day:-

When the fish comes from table, remove any flesh from the bones and put it away for future use. Then put the bones with any skin there may be into the liquor in which the fish was boiled, with a turnip, a carrot, three or four onions, a slice of bread toasted brown but not blackened, and later, a little celery, half-a-dozen peppercorns, and a tiny bit of mace. Let all this boil for two hours, or until the vegetables are perfectly tender. Take out the fish bones, rub the vegetables through a sieve to a smooth pulp, boil up the soup, and to each quart add a dessertspoonful of flour and a teaspoonful of potato flour mixed smooth in a quarter of a pint of milk or water. Stir over the fire until thickened, add a teaspoonful of essence of shrimps or of anchovies, a teaspoonful of vinegar or two of lemon juice, and serve. If you will afford it the yolk of an egg will be an excellent addition; it should be stirred in after the soup is thickened.