Many young housekeepers who succeed well in most kinds of cooking, are a long time in finding out how to make good gravy. To have it free from fat is the most important thing. For a small family it is not necessary to prepare stock. The water in which fresh meat, a tongue, or piece of beef slightly salted, has been boiled, should be saved for this purpose, and for use in various economical dishes. In cold weather it will keep a good while, and in warm weather, several days in a refrigerator.

The way to use meat liquor, or the stock for which a receipt is given, is this: In case you are roasting beef, mutton, lamb, or pork, pour off entirely, into a dish, half an hour before the dinner hour, all the contents of the dripping pan or roaster, and set it away in a cold place; then put into the roaster two or three gills of the meat liquor or stock; if you have cold gravy, or drippings of a previous day, remove all the fat from the top, and put the liquid that remains at the bottom into the pan.

* Froth from fat meat should be put into the soap-grease.

Wet some browned flour smooth, and when you take up the meat, set the pan on the top of the stove. The gravy will im-mediately boil, and the wet flour must then be stirred in. It will boil away fast, therefore see that it does not stand too long.

For veal and venison, gravy is made differently because there is but little fat on these meats, and what there is, is not gross. Put into the roaster, or dripping pan, some of the meat liquor or stock, when you first put the meat to roast, and if it is done in a stove or range, add a little more in case it boils away. When it is done, set the dripping pan on the stove, and having stirred in the wet flour, add a piece of butter half the size of an egg, and stir until it is all melted, else it will make the gravy oily.

Gravy for poultry is made by boiling the giblets (necks, gizzards, hearts, and livers) by themselves in five or six gills of water. Skim them carefully, as a great deal of scum will rise. After an hour, or hour and a half, take them out, and pour the water into the dripping-pan. Mash, or chop the liver fine, and when you make the gravy, add this, and a bit of butter, some pepper, the wet flour, and, if you choose, a little sweet marjoram.

The fat that roasts out of a turkey should be dipped off with a spoon before these ingredients are added. It is too gross to be palatable or healthy.

In making gravy for a goose, pour off all the drippings as in roasting beef or pork, and put in some of the stock or meat liquor.

It is best to brown a quart of flour at once. Put it into a spider, and set it in the stove oven, or on the top; stir it often lest it should burn. When it is a light brown, put it into a jar or wide-mouthed bottle.