at the boiling point. The third way leaves a mixed stock, which will
not be clear unless whites of eggs are used. In following the first
methods we buy clear beef specially for the stock, and know from the
beginning just how much stock there will be when the work is
completed. By the second method we are not sure, because more or less
than we estimate may boil away. The third stock, being made from bones
and pieces of meat left from roasts, and from the trimmings of raw
meats, will always be changeable in color, quantity and quality. This
is, however, a very important stock, and it should always be kept on
hand. No household, even where only a moderate amount of meat is used,
should be without a stock-pot. It can be kept on the back of the range
or stove while cooking is going on. Two or three times a week it
should be put on with the trimmings and bones left from cooked and
uncooked meats. This practice will give a supply of stock at all
times, which will be of the greatest value in making sauces, side
dishes and soups. Meat if only slightly tainted will spoil a stock;
therefore great care must be taken that every particle is perfectly
sweet.

Vegetables make a stock sour very quickly, so if you wish to keep a
stock do not use them. Many rules advise putting vegetables into the
stock-pot with the meat and water and cooking from the very beginning.
When this is done they absorb the fine flavor of the meat and give the
soup a rank taste. They should cook not more than an hour--the last
hour--in the stock. A white stock is made with veal or poultry. The
water in which a leg of mutton or fowl have been boiled makes a good
stock for light soups and gravies. A soup stock must be cooled quickly
or it will not keep well. In winter any kind of stock ought to keep
good a week. That boiled down to a jelly will last the longest. In the
warm months three days will be the average time stock will keep.