The Cooking Manual of Practical Directions for Economical Every-Day Cookery

sugar in a thick copper vessel, stirring it frequently with a wooden spoon, and boiling it slowly until it assumes a rich brown color, but do not let it burn; when brown enough add one quart of cold water, stir well, and boil gently at the side of the fire for twenty minutes; then cool, strain, and bottle tight. In using the caramel add it just as you are about to serve the soup, or sauce colored with it. 3. =Clear Soup, or Consomme.= (_Two quarts for eight persons._)--This is made by straining two quarts of stock, which has been cooled and freed from fat, through a piece of flannel or a napkin until it is bright and clear; if this does not entirely clear it, use an egg, as directed for clarifying soup; then season it to taste with salt, using at first a teaspoonful, and a very little fine white pepper, say a quarter of a saltspoonful; and color it to a bright straw color with caramel, of which a scant teaspoonful will be about the proper quantity. _Consomme_ is sent to the table clear, but sometimes a deep dish containing poached eggs, one for each person, with enough _consomme_ to cover them, accompanies it. 4. =Poached Eggs for Consomme.=--Break the eggs, which should be very fresh, into a deep sauce-pan half full of boiling water, seasoned with a teaspoonful of salt, and half a gill of vinegar; cover the sauce-pan, and set it on the back part of the fire until the whites of the eggs are firm; then lift them separately on a skimmer, carefully trim off the rough edges, making each egg a regular oval shape, and slip them off the skimmer into a bowl of hot, but not boiling water, where they must stand for ten minutes before serving. 5. =Vermicelli and Macaroni Soup.=--These soups are both made as for _consomme_; and to every quart of stock is added two ounces of one of these pastes blanched as follows. Put the paste into plenty of boiling water, with one tablespoonful of salt to each