vegetables vary so much in strength that were we to peel and weigh them the
result would not be uniform, in addition to the fact that not one cook in a
thousand would take the trouble to do it. Perhaps the most dangerous
vegetable with which we have to deal is turnip. These vary so very much in
strength that sometimes even one slice of turnip will be found too strong.
In flavouring soups with these vegetables, the first care should be to see
that they are thoroughly cleansed. In using celery, too much of the green
part should be avoided if you wish to make first-rate soup. In using the
onions, if they are old and strong, the core can be removed. In using
carrot, if you are going to have any soup where vegetables will be cut up
and served in the soup, you should always peel off the outside red part of
the carrot and reserve it for this purpose, and only use the inside or
yellow part for flavouring purposes if is going to be thrown away or to
lose its identity by being rubbed through a wire sieve with other
vegetables. With regard to turnip, we can only add one word of
caution--not too much. We may here mention, before leaving the subject of
ingredients, that leeks and garlic are a substitute for onion, and can also
be used in conjunction with it.

As a rule, in vegetarian cookery clear soups are rare, and, of course, from
an economical point of view, they are not to be compared with thick soups.
Some persons, in making stock, recommend what is termed bran tea. Half a
pint of bran is boiled in about three pints of water, and a certain amount
of nutriment can be extracted from the bran, which also imparts colour.

For the purpose of colouring clear soups, however, there is nothing in the
world to compare with what French cooks call _caramel_. Caramel is really
burnt sugar. There is a considerable art in preparing it, as it is
necessary that it should impart colour, and colour _only_. When prepared
in the rough-and-ready manner of burning sugar in a spoon, as is too often