res_ of the meat which nourish us, but the
_juices_ they contain, and these are not only extracted but exhaled, if
it be boiled fast in an open vessel. A succulent soup can never be made
but in a well-closed vessel, which preserves the nutritive parts by
preventing their dissipation. This is a fact of which every intelligent
person will soon perceive the importance.

Place your soup-pot over a moderate fire, which will make the water hot
without causing it to boil for at least half an hour; if the water boils
immediately, it will not penetrate the meat, and cleanse it from the
clotted blood, and other matters which ought to go off in scum; the meat
will be hardened all over by violent heat; will shrink up as if it was
scorched, and give hardly any gravy: on the contrary, by keeping the
water a certain time heating without boiling, the meat swells, becomes
tender, its fibres are dilated, and it yields a quantity of _scum_,
which must be taken off as soon as it appears.

It is not till after a good half hour's hot infusion that we may mend
the fire, and make the pot boil: still continue to remove _the scum_;
and when no more appears, put in the vegetables, &c. and a little salt.
These will cause more _scum_ to rise, which must be taken off
immediately; then cover the pot very closely, and place it at a proper
distance from the fire, where it will boil very gently, and equally, and
by no means fast.

By quick and strong boiling the volatile and finest parts of the
ingredients are evaporated, and fly off with the steam, and the coarser
parts are rendered soluble; so you lose the good, and get the bad.

Soups will generally take from _three_ to _six_ hours.

Prepare your broths and soups the evening before you want them. This
will give you more time to attend to the rest of your dinner the next
day; and when the soup is cold, the _fat_ may be much more easily and
completely removed from the surface of it. When you decant it, take care
not to disturb the settlings at the bottom of the vessel, which are so
fine that they will escape through a sieve, or even through a TAMIS,
which is the best strainer, the soups appear smoother and finer, and it
is much easier cleaned than any sieve. If you strain it while it is hot,
pass it through a clean tamis or napkin, previously soaked in cold
water; the coldness of this will coagulate the fat, and only suffer the
pure broth to pass through.

The full flavour of the ingredients can