ater boils away, enough more boiling water may be added to keep
the meat from burning. Another method of securing the same results is to
cut the beef into small pieces and put into a moderate oven inside a
tightly covered jar for an hour. Afterward increase the heat and cook
closely covered until the meat is tender. Thicken and season the juice,
and serve as a gravy.

VEGETABLES WITH STEWED BEEF.--Prepare the beef as directed for
Stewed Beef, and when nearly tender, add six or eight potatoes. Just
before serving, thicken the gravy with a little browned flour braided in
cold water, and add a cup of strained, stewed tomato and a teaspoonful
of chopped parsley.

STEWED BEEF.--The aitch-bone and pieces from the shin, the upper
part of the chuck-rib and neck of beef, are the parts most commonly used
for stewing. All meat for stews should be carefully dressed and free
from blood. Those portions which have bone and fat, as well as lean
beef, make much better-flavored stews than pieces which are wholly lean.
The bones, however, should not be crushed or splintered, but carefully
sawed or broken, and any small pieces removed before cooking. It is
generally considered that beef which has been previously browned makes a
much more savory stew, and it is quite customary first to brown the meat
by frying in hot fat. A much more wholesome method, and one which will
have the same effect as to flavor, is to add to the stew the remnants of
roasts or steak. It is well when selecting meat for a stew to procure a
portion, which, like the aitch-bone, has enough juicy meat upon it to
serve the first day as a roast for a small family. Cut the meat for a
stew into small pieces suitable for serving, add boiling water, and cook
as directed on page 396. Remove all pieces of bone and the fat before
serving. If the stew is made of part cooked and part uncooked meat, the
cooked meat should not be added until the stew is nearly done. The
liquor, if not of the proper consistency when the meat is tender, may be
thickened by adding a little flour braided in cold water, cooking these
after four or five minutes.

MUTTON.

The strong flavor of mutton is said to be due to the oil from the wool,
which penetrates the skin, or is the result, through heedlessness or
ignorance of the butcher, in allowing the wool to come in contact with
the flesh. There is a quite perceptible difference in the flavor of
mutton from a sheep which had been for some time sheare