The pot-au-feu has for its object, as already stated, not only the making of a well-flavoured beef broth, but the cooking of a portion of the beef to be eaten separately after, either cold or hot, according to taste, together with the vegetables necessarily associated with it. Formerly, this bouilli always appeared at an ordinary French table immediately after the bouillon; but although still retaining some nutritious elements, it is not much esteemed, certainly by those who can afford better food, and it has gradually disappeared during the last few years. So the pot-au- feu has come to signify at ordinary tables only a soup, and it may appear at the best tables in that capacity; still,strictly as a beef broth, but of the most perfect kind, well seasoned and flavoured by herbs and vegetables. The well-known soups so admirably served at a good Paris restaurant as paysanne and croute-au-pot respectively, are but slight modifications of the original pot-au-feu.

"gras," or "maigre."

Products of the"pot-au- feu."

To return to the family stock-pot. This has, on the Continent, especially in families of the middle class, another use beside that of preparing a basis for soup. Thus when a boiled fowl is required, it is a common practice to conduct the process in the liquor of the stock-pot. Any nutritive matter, however small, which might have been lost in the water used in ordinary boiling, is saved for the soup, while a fowl boiled in stock is certainly preferable when it comes to table, to one which has been boiled in water. And so with many other articles; for example, a small and well cleaned ham may be cooked - and this is an affair of several hours - in a capacious stock-pot, with advantage equally to the soup and the ham, provided, of course, that the latter has previously been soaked some hours to remove superfluous salt; nor should any salt be put into the stock-pot itself when required for this operation.

But besides the bouillon of the pot-au-feu there is the grand bouillon also, a distinct and elementary product of French cookery. This is a decoction, stronger than the preceding, of the flesh of beef and veal, together with a portion of supplementary bone and sinew, all fresh and uncooked, in order to add gelatine; and this is combined also with vegetables. Lastly, there is the consomme, which is a decoction of beef, veal, and fowl, the two latter partially roasted for the purpose of heightening flavour; and it is made, not with water, but with bouillon - Gouffd orders the grand bouillon just described - and with a few more vegetables. This is, therefore, the highest form of soup from beef, veal, poultry, and vegetables which can be produced (see Appendix, "Consomme ").

The stock-pot.

"Grand bouillon."

Now, as the mode of making pot-au-feu is an important initial step in the art of soup - making, I shall place in an appendix at the end of this volume, a carefully made epitome of the very complete instructions given by Gouffe The right management is with him a matter of the highest importance; and, simple as the dish is, he devotes several pages to the task of illustrating the elementary principles of cookery which are involved in the process.

It is not at all surprising that many persons should be somewhat bewildered by the almost endless variety of appellation under which the single article of soup is presented at table. It has been estimated that the titles which denote these numerous varieties number altogether not less perhaps than five hundred. And proceeding on the principle on which these are produced, there appears to be no reason why even the present list should not be doubled in length. In reality, the number of species is very limited; but the slightest addition to a soup having been held sufficient to confer upon it a distinctive name, the idea of complexity and number has been unnecessarily fostered. Regarded analytically, all soups may be considered as belonging to three chief classes - the clear; the thick, or purees; and a more substantial form, in which the soup approximates somewhat to that of a stew, containing solid matter in considerable quantity. In each of these classes there are four or five species, from which all varieties are produced by slight additions and combinations of flavour.

"Consomme."

Soup nomenclature; varieties endless, First class, the clear soups, viz. 1. A clear decoction (weak, or "broth;" strong, or consomme") of meat: of beef, veal, sometimes mutton; and of pork in the form of ham or bacon.

2. A clear decoction of fowl.

3. A clear decoction of game.

4. A clear soup made from various kinds of turtle, but always garnished with portions of turtle itself.

5. A clear decoction of vegetables only, as the basis of a soupe maigre.

Any of these may be used as made at first hand; but great variety may be obtained by making some slight addition, such as with the well-known dried Italian pastes in numerous forms, also specially made paste (nouilles species very limited, to wit; and quenelles); or with freshly made custard, cut into diamonds, circles, etc., in various colours; cut fresh vegetables, in rounds, in squares, in long strips, fresh, or lightly fried before adding them; with crusts of bread, with an egg, etc.; each single addition denoted by a distinctive appellation, which will suggest itself in each example named above, to any one who has the least acquaintance with cookery.

Second Class, The Thick Soups, Or Purees

The consomme' of beef, or of veal, beef, and fowl mixed, or of game, may be thickened by addition of a flesh, fowl, and game puree respectively; white soups, commencing with a consomme of veal and poultry, thickened with a puree of the white meat of fowl, with a portion of cream or milk added; and brown purees following, from consomme of beef and veal, and of game.

The same consomme, or the weaker broth, furnish bases for vegetable purees in like manner, either white or coloured. Many of these, like the others, have their distinctive names; e.g. puree of carrot as Crecy, of potatoes as Parmentier, of fresh green peas as St. Germain, of red haricots as Conde, of lentils as Conti, or adding vegetables prepared as for a julienne, it becomes Faubonne; while a puree of Jerusalem artichokes, curiously enough, and by virtue of a bad pun, is called Palestine. The last named should, of course, have a basis of fowl or veal broth, and added milk or cream.

Additions.

Second class: "Purees."

Animal.

Vegetable purees.

And the same stock, blended with a well-prepared puree of pearl barley, will furnish a very agreeable crime d'orge. Many soups in ordinary use assume a pleasant change, if a small quantity of tapioca is incorporated by long and gentle simmering, until almost dissolved, from the fulness and softness thus communicated to the original.

Thirdly, a class of more substantial soups, containing a considerable amount of solid matter; examples of these may be named as follows: Mock-turtle soup; containing large portions of the calfs head, garnished with balls of seasoning, the liquid portion being thick, not clear.

Ox-tail; containing a considerable amount of meat in a more or less clear broth or consomme".

The well-known "giblet soup" and the "cock-a-leekie" of North Britain are examples of poultry thus treated; the latter, doubtless designed originally to present the patriarch of the poultry yard in an eatable form. Another Scotch soup, "hotch-potch," like an Italian "minestre," or "minestrone," may contain almost a meal of fragrant combinations of flesh, vegetables, and herbs in variety. Another to be named here is a thick mulligatawny soup, which is, in fact, a diluted curry, of which, by the way, there is now a clear variety.

An important group of the thick soups have their origin in a puree and decoction of fish, of various kinds, as well as of so-called shell-fish, which of course are not fish at all, but animals of other and totally distinct species. The former have a basis of liquor obtained by stewing the heads, bones, fins, and other cuttings from inferior parts of the fish, garnished with fillets from the choicest parts, and also with oysters, mussels, etc. The latter kind, from "shell-fish," are oyster soups, besides purees of prawns, crayfish, etc., and known as bisques; often very finished products of the culinary art.

Fish purees.

The thick turtle soup is also more or less a puree, to begin with, to a certain extent, but its distinctive character is derived from its garnish, consisting as it does of the choicest parts of the animal.

The edible turtles belong to the class of reptiles, and there are varieties, large and small, all highly esteemed as food in various parts of the world.

Real turtle, clear, is made either in part or wholly from the live animal; a large proportion is prepared from the imported dried flesh; in either case the stock is almost invariably made from veal and beef.*

* A rather keen but amusing controversy took place in consequence of my having stated in a paper read at the Fisheries Exhibition in 1883 that turtle soup when "at its best" was composed of a stock made from the conger eel, the turtle furnishing the garnish and the name. The turtle-soup makers rushed into print, especially some well-known artists at the East End of London, who used language which was more remarkable for force than for elegance. Never was there a more striking illustration of the proverb, "qui s'excuse s'accuse" No accusation had been brought against any turtle-soup maker : I had.

Bisques.

Thick turtle.

Finally, I must not omit some mention of that delicious dish, bouillabaisse, eaten in perfection at Marseilles, as among the most agreeable products of French cuisine in this direction. Thackeray's well-known rhymes do not exaggerate its good qualities, and enumerate its component elements almost with sufficient accuracy to direct the cook.* See chapter ix. on the subject of fish as food, for remarks on its selection and preparation for receipts or fish soups and stew, including directions for preparing a Mar - sellaise bouillabaisse.

Then there is an important distinction, referred to above, recognized chiefly on the Continent, and related to the demands of religious observance, between soups which have meat for their basis (potage gras), and those which have fish, or exclusively vegetable basis {potage maigre); into the latter class also, eggs are admitted. All these take rank of course among the merely expressed the opinion given above; one which I still think is correct. Much less had I anywhere affirmed that the artists above alluded to had ever made turtle soup "at its best!"

* "This Bouillabaisse a noble dish is - A sort of soup, or broth, or brew, Or hotch - potch of all sorts of fishes classes named; but they are referred to separately here in order to draw attention to a fact not generally recognized in this country, that tolerably good soups may be made without employing meat.

That Greenwich never could outdo : Green herbs, red peppers, mussels, saffern, Soles, onions, garlic, roach and dace; All these you eat at Jerre's tavern In that one dish of Bouillabaisse."