Page 68

HOUSEKEEPER'S BOOK.
if you have one-if not, use instead, but two hours later, a
crust of bread burnt, as if for toast and water. Should
there be too much liquid in the pot for the addition of these
vegetable#, take some out, and add it afterwards to supply
the loss by evaporation. Let the whole boil gently for
about three hours, then let it simmer during three hours
more-that is to say, it must be always at the boiling point
without boiling up. The pot must be covered during the
whole process. When the first two hours of the boiling
are past, salt it to your taste, allowing for the evaporation,
but add no pepper.
  If you wish to have bouilli beef, you must have a larger
pipkin; take a sufficient quantity of the brisket and put it
into the soup, long enough before dinner to allow half an
hour to each pound. This beef must be dressed without
the pot being ever suffered to boil up. It will then be ex-
tremely tender.
  The soup will always be improved if, instead of water,
you use the liquor in which a leg of mutton has been boiled,
or even a round of beef, if it be not too salt.
  To prepare the soup the first day it is made, put some
crusts of bread into a tureen, about ten minutes before din-
ner; pour over them a little more of the broth than will
saturate them: cover the tureen, let it stand before the fire,
and when the dinner is ready to be put upon the table, fill it
up with broth.
  The moment the soup is taken off the fire, it must be
strained and put to cool in an open earthen pan. On the
following day it may be used with rice, or vermicelli, or
sago, or any of the fancy pastes of Italy.
  An economical family need not waste the beef which has
served to make the soup. A very palatable dish may be
obtained from it the next day, in the following manner:-
68