Let them simmer five hours longer, and then dish it; strain the sauce on it, and serve. The American housekeeper by experiments can modify these foreign recipes to meet the taste of her family, and will find them _economical_ modes of cooking, as well as healthful to most persons. FRENCH MODES OF COOKING SOUPS AND STEWS. The writer has examined the recipes of Gouffee, the chief French cook of the Queen of England, set forth in the expensive Royal Cook-Book; also those of Soyer and Professor Blot. She and her friends also have tested many of their recipes. The following are most of the flavors used by them in cooking soups, stews, hashes, etc. Combination of these is recommended by those authors in these proportions: One fourth of an ounce of thyme. One fourth of an ounce of bay leaf. One eighth of an ounce of marjoram. One eighth of an ounce of rosemary. Dry the above when fresh, mix in a mortar, and keep them corked tight in glass bottle. Also the following in these proportions: Half an ounce of nutmeg. Half an ounce of cloves. One fourth of an ounce of black pepper. One eighth of an ounce of Cayenne pepper. Pound, mix, and keep corked tight in glass. In using these with salt, put one ounce of the last recipe to four ounces of salt. In making force-meat and hashes, use at the rate of one ounce of this spiced salt to three pounds of meat. =Soup Powder.=—Two ounces of parsley. Two ounces of winter savory. Two ounces of sweet marjoram. Two ounces of lemon-thyme. One ounce of lemon-peel. One ounce of sweet basil. Dry, pound, sift, and keep in a tight-corked bottle. Let the housekeeper add these flavors so that they will _not be strong_, but quite delicate, and then _make a rule for the cook_. The peculiar excellence of French cooking is the combination of flavors, so that no one is predominant, and all are delicate in force and quantity. CHAPTER IV. SOUPS. _General Directions._ Most of the preceding stews will serve also fairly as soups, by adding more water. Rub salt into meat for soups, but not for stews, as the salt extracts the juices; and in stews the meat is to be eaten, while in soups properly so called it is only the liquor that is served. Put meat into cold water for soups, as _slowly_ heating also extracts the juices. For this same reason, meat that is boiled for eating should be put into boiling water to keep the juices in it. Always _skim often_, as soon as the water begins to simmer; and do not add the salt and other seasoning till the scum ceases to rise. Do not boil after the juices are extracted, as too much boiling injures the flavor. Never cool soup in metal, as there may be poison in the soldering or other parts. If you flavor your soup by vegetables, do not boil them in the soup, but in _very little_ water, which is to be added to the soup with them, as it contains much of their flavor.