16. Never allow the stock to get cool and stand, with the meat and vegetables that made it, in a metal vessel. The liquid should be poured off at once into an earthenware or enamelled basin through the colander; when cold it can be skimmed free from any fat that may remain, and then poured off gently without disturbing the dregs.
17. Never leave the fat caked on the surface; instead of preserving the soup, as some think, it hastens its turning sour.
18. Bacon bones, ham bones, or the skin of either, are most valuable in the stock-pot.
Remember that you will never succeed in obtaining a nicely flavoured clear soup, unless the proportions of meat and vegetables are carefully maintained. For his larger pot-au-feu, viz., for three pounds of meat and one of bone, Gouffe gives the following weights of vegetables:—carrots, ten ounces; large onions, ten ounces: leeks, fourteen ounces; celery, one ounce; turnips, ten ounces; parsnip, two ounces.
As leeks are not always procurable in the market, I would substitute another onion or two, about five ounces. Parsnips are not essentially necessary, their weight may be made up with some extra carrot. Turnips, unless gathered fresh and young, are apt to be strong; I think, therefore, that in the winter five ounces of them will be found sufficient as a rule. Observe the weight allowed of celery;—this is important, for celery is a very powerfully flavoured vegetable.
These quantities should yield three quarts of bouillon, enough for eighteen or twenty people.
The maintenance of a steady heat without sudden fluctuations of temperature is a matter of great importance in the simmering stage. This desideratum can scarcely be attained if the fire happens to require replenishing in the middle of the operation. For this cause, then, it is a matter of the utmost convenience to be able to remove the stock-pot from the fire when the boiling is to be eased down to simmering, and place it on a gas stove with the flame adjusted so as to yield the exact amount of heat