COMMON STOCK.
There is one feature about these soups which is worthy of attention, and that is that you need not be so scrupulously careful in the making of the stock, or in selecting the materials of which it is made, for you have not to think of that lucidity which is the salient feature of your consommé. Thick soups of an ordinary kind can, therefore, be made with “second boilings,” or with a broth obtained from the bones of cooked meat, and scraps that would never do for potage à la julienne for instance. Poultry and game bones, ham or bacon bones and trimmings are especially valuable. Fresh giblets of fowls, capons, turkey and game, ought to be thus made use of, cutlet trimmings, the browned outer skin of roast veal, and roast beef, also. You should flavour your common stock to the best of your capabilities by boiling with it an allowance of sweet herbs, onion, parsley, a carrot or two, celery, &c., or such of these vegetables as may be available, with salt and pepper seasoning. A teaspoonful of Liebig's extract, or Brand's essence, may often render valuable assistance. A slice of glaze is another strengthener. This “omnium gatherum” should be allowed to boil up once, and simmer long to extract the nutritive elements from the bones, &c.