till it is done brown. We cannot exaggerate the importance of getting
cooks to see the enormous difference between thickening soups or gravy with
white or brown roux and simply thickening them with plain butter and flour.
The taste of the soup in the two cases is altogether different. The
difference is this. Suppose you have just been making some pastry--some
good, rich, puff paste--you have got two pies, and, as you probably know,
this pastry is simply butter and flour. Place one pie in the oven and bake
it till it is a nice rich brown. Now taste the pie-crust. It is probably
delicious. Now taste the piece of the pie that has not been baked at all.
It is nauseous. The difference is--one is butter and flour that has been
cooked, the other is butter and flour that has not been cooked.

* * * * *

One word of warning in conclusion. Cooks should always remember the good
old saying--that it is quite possible to have too much of a good thing.
They should be particularly warned to bear this in mind in adding herbs,
such as ordinary mixed flavouring herbs, or, as they are sometimes called,
savoury herbs, and thyme. This is also very important if wine is added to
soup, though, as a rule, vegetarians rarely use wine in cooking; but the
same principle applies to the substitute for wine--viz., lemon juice. It
is equally important to bear this in mind in using white and brown roux.
If we make the soup too thick we spoil it, and it is necessary to add water
to bring it to its proper consistency, which, of course, diminishes the
flavour. The proper consistency of any soup thickened with roux should be
that of ordinary cream. Beyond this point the cooked flour will overpower
almost every other flavour, and the great beauty of vegetarian cookery is
its simplicity, it appeals to a taste that is refined and natural, and not
to one that has been depraved.