The addition of half a tin of preserved lobster to three pints of this soup will convert it into one of the first class. If curry is liked, a pinch of the powder may be stirred in with the thickening. In using preserved lobster take care not to boil it, it only requires to stand a few minutes in the hot soup.

Although the preserved soups now so largely sold are somewhat too expensive and too rich for family fare, those of the best makers, which there is reason to believe are perfectly pure and wholesome, may, with the addition of household broth, be often used with advantage. The exigencies of the manufacture of preserved soup render it impossible to use sufficient vegetables, therefore the addition of these in considerable quantities with broth or water in equal proportion with the soup, are in all respects desirable. For a quart of mock-turtle soup make an equal quantity of broth thus :- Boil three or four large onions, a large turnip, a small carrot, and half a stick of celery, all minced, in three pints of any household stock or of the water in which bacon has been cooked, or of plain water. When the vegetables are tender, rub them to a pulp, and add this and the broth to the mock-turtle, let all get slowly hot together, and when it boils stir in a large teaspoonful of French potato flour mixed smooth in a little water, let it simmer one minute longer, add pepper and salt and a few drops of colouring if necessary; put a wine glass of sherry and the juice of half a lemon into the tureen, pour the soup on to these and serve. Gravy and other soups should be treated in the same manner, and thus the cost of a really good soup for a party will be moderate. It is important in all tinned provisions, to have those only of trustworthy makers, and the names of Moir and Sons, or those of Hogarth and Co., are a sufficient guarantee for the excellence of the articles supplied by them.

The soups of the Soceite Generate des Potages Econo-miqiies are excellent, and used as above directed will suit the English taste.

With respect to first class soups, made entirely from fresh meat, we would observe they are necessarily expensive, and it is a mistake to suppose that any kind of meat will answer for this purpose. Without denying, however, that good soup can be made from the inferior parts of meat, it is certain that the finer the meat the better the soup. Thus, buttock steak will make a far more delicious soup than shin of beef, and when we calculate the cost of the bone and sinew, which only give gelatine, the last is not really so much cheaper in the end. The recipe for making clear soups which is accepted as a standard one is, in our judgment, extravagant and needlessly tedious. The proportions are, one pint of water to each pound of shin of beef, and one pint over. The time for making is five hours. After this preliminary process of making the stock, there is that of flavouring with vegetables and of clairfication, a pound more meat being required for two quarts of stock, and one to two more hours being consumed in the finishing process. Probably soup so made will be good, as indeed it ought to be, but a better soup can be made with less expenditure of time and money by simply boiling fine meat and carefully skimming it in the early part of the process, a due proportion of vegetables being added after this is done. When sufficiently boiled, the soup can generally be made perfectly bright by passing it through a fine linen cloth or jelly bag after it has been strained. If from any faults in the management the soup is not clear, it must be clarified with the whites and shells of eggs in the same manner as jelly. If it is desirable to give the soup the gelatinous character of consomme, it can be done by adding isinglass or gelatine before clarification, and from every point of view the result will be more satisfactory than that which is obtained by the long boiling of bone and sinew.

A grand gourmet once said to the writer, "I can predict from my first spoonful of soup the kind of dinner which will follow." No doubt he could - for only a clever cook can make a good soup. Not indeed that there is any difficulty in the matter, but the three qualities which are requisite in a cook must be brought into exercise to insure perfection. First - Cleanliness. Soup will never have a fine appetising aroma if made in vessels which are not scrupulously clean, or if all the materials used are not perfectly fresh and thoroughly cleansed. Secondly - A keen power of observation, in order that the cook may know not only how to choose her materials, but how to prepare them. Thirdly - Attention - so that by ear and smell, as well as by taste, she may know how the cooking proceeds, and when it has gone far enough, for soup boiled too long loses in flavour what it gains in the element which some call "strength".

The serious cost of provisions at the present time renders it imperative that housekeepers should be skilled in the choice of them. It may be a good plan for those who have ample means to deal with tradespeople of acknowledged respectability, and trust them to send good articles, but by so doing the housewife resigns to the purveyor her own prerogative of choice. The system of sending for orders has appeared to save much time and trouble, but under the almost universal adoption of this system butchers have by degrees found it possible not only to substitute young and immature meat for that of prime quality, but to charge the price of the latter for it. It is no less than a duty for people of moderate incomes to market for themselves, and it is one of the means by which the decay of good housekeeping in England may be arrested. Mistakes will doubtless be made in the beginning, but it must be remembered that all experience is worth buying. Written rules for the choice of meat are always difficult to apply, and the eye and touch can only be educated by careful comparison and close observation of form, colour, and characteristics. Hints for the choice of meat and poultry are given under the various heads.