Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book

grated carrots, red with tomato juice, and green with the juice of pounded spinach--the coloring to be stirred in after the skimming is over. These colorings are improvements both to its look and flavor. It may be browned with scorched flour, kept ready always for the purpose. Never put cloves or allspice into soup--they give it a blackish ashy dirt color, and their taste is so strong as to overpower every thing else. Both these coarse spices are out of use at good tables, and none are introduced in nice cookery but mace, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon. The meat boiled in soup gives out more of its essence, when cut off the bone, and divided into small pieces, always removing the fat. The bones, however, should go in, as they contain much glutinous substance, adding to the strength and thickness of the soup, which cannot be palatable or wholesome unless all the grease is carefully skimmed off. Kitchen grease is used chiefly for soap-fat. In cold weather, good soup, if carefully covered and kept in a cool place, and boiled over again for half an hour _without_ any _additional water_, will be better on the second day than on the first. It is an excellent way in winter to boil the meat and bones on the first day, without any vegetables. Then, when very thick and rich, strain the liquid into a large pan; cover it, and set it away till next morning--it should then be found a thick jelly. Cut it in pieces, having scraped off the sediment from the bottom--then add the vegetables, and boil them in the soup. MUSHROOM SOUP.--Cut a knuckle of veal, or a neck of mutton, (or both, if they are small,) into large pieces, and remove the bones. Put it into a soup-pot with sufficient water to cover the whole, and season with a little salt and cayenne. Let it boil till the meat is in rags, skimming it well; then strain off the soup into another pot. Have ready a large quart, or a quart and a pint of freshly-gathered mushrooms--cut them