The basis of all good soups, is the broth of meat. This may be made by boiling the cracked joints of beef, veal, or mutton, and is best when cooked the day before it is to be eaten. After putting the meat into the pot, cover it with cold water and let it come to a boil, when it should be well skimmed. Set the meat where it will simmer slowly until it is thoroughly done, keeping the pot closely covered the while. The next day, when the soup is cold, remove the fat, which will harden on the top of the soup. After this, add the vegetables and the herbs you use for seasoning, cooking: all well together. Before sending to the table, the soup should be strained. A good stock for soups may be made from shreds and bits of uncooked meat and bones, poultry, and the remains of game. When these are all put together and stewed down in the pot, the French term it consomme, and use it chiefly in the preparation of brown soups.

Soups may be varied in many ways, chiefly in the kinds of vegetables and different seasonings used, as in herbs, burned caramel, eggs, or slices of bread fried to a crisp in butter, which impart a savory relish.

Potato Soup

Slice and fry to a nice brown 4 large onions in one-fourth lb. butter in a soup pot, add 4 qts. of skim-milk, have pealed and boiled a good 3 pts. of potatoes, mash them fine and reduce smooth with the milk from your soup pot; repeat this till all the potatoes are in the soup pot; just bring to a boil, and add pepper and salt to taste.

Ox-Tail Soup

Take 2 ox tails and 2 whole onions, 2 carrots, 1 small turnip, 2 table-spoonfuls of flour, and a little white pepper, add 1 gal. water, let all boil for 2 hours; then take out the tails and cut the meat into small pieces, return the bones to the pot for a short time, boil another hour, then strain the soup, and rinse 2 spoonfuls of arrowroot to add to it with the meat cut from the bones, and let all boil for a quarter of an hour.

Beef Soup

Cut all the lean off the shank, and with a little beef suet in the bottom of the kettle, fry it to a nice brown; put in the bones and cover with water; cover the kettle closely; let it cook slowly until the meat drops from the bones, strain through a strainer and leave it in the dish during the night, which is the only way to get off all the fat. The day it is wanted for the table, fry as brown as possible 1 carrot, 1 onion, and 1 very small turnip sliced thin. Just before taking up, put in one-half tea-spoonful of sugar, 1 blade of mace, 6 cloves, 12 kernels of allspice, 1 small tea-spoonful of celery seed, with the vegetables, this must cook slowly in the soup 1 hour, then strain again for the table. If you use vermicelli or pearl barley, soak in water.

Mutton Soup

Boil a leg of mutton 3 hours, season to your taste with salt and pepper, and add 1 tea-spoonful of summer savory; make a batter of 1 egg, 2 table-spoonfuls of milk, 2 table-spoonfuls of flour, all well beaten together; drop this batter into the soup with a spoon, and boil for 3 minutes.