When onion is used for flavor, slice and fry it, and dredge on a little flour; add the water in which the vegetables for soup were boiled, or some meat broth, and then pour it into the soup. If you flavor with wine, soy, or catsup, put them into the tureen, and pour the soup upon them, as the flavor is lessened by putting them into the soup-kettle. Bread-crumbs, toast, or crackers also must be put in the tureen. Keep soup covered tight while boiling, to keep in flavors. If water is added, it must be boiling. The rule to guide in using salt and pepper is a heaping tea-spoonful of salt to a quart of water, and one-sixth as much pepper. But as tastes are different, and the salt and pepper vary in strength, the housekeeper can, on trial, change the recipe with a pencil. _Soup stock_ is broth of any kind of meat prepared in large quantity, to keep on hand for gravies and soups. Beef and veal make the best stock. One hind shin of beef makes five quarts of stock, and one hind shin of veal makes three quarts. Wash and put into twice as much water as you wish to, to have soup, and simmer five or six hours. All kinds of bones should be mashed and boiled five or six hours, to take out all the nutriment, the liquor then strained, and kept in earthenware or stone, not in tin. Take off the fat when cool. Cool broth quickly, and it keeps longer. Use a flat-bottom kettle, as less likely to scorch. Soft water is best for soups; a little soda improves hard water. Stock will keep three or four days in cool weather; not so long in warm. Keep it in a cool place. When used, heat to boiling point, and then take up and flavor. Put in the salt and pepper when the meat is thoroughly done. Meat soups are best the second day, if warmed slowly and taken up as soon as heated. If heated too long, they become insipid. Thin soups must be strained. If to be made very clear, stir in one or two well beaten eggs, with the shells, and let it boil half an hour. Use the meat of the soup for a hash, warmed together with a little fat, and well seasoned. Be _very_ careful, in using bones and cold meats for soups, that none is _tainted_, for the soup may be ruined by a single bit of tainted meat or bone. =Potato Soup.=—Take six large mealy potatoes, sliced and soaked an hour. Add one onion, sliced and tied in a rag, a quart of milk, and a quarter of a pound of salt pork cut in slices. Boil three quarters of an hour, and then add a table-spoonful of melted butter and a well-beaten egg, mixed in a cup of milk. This is a favorite soup with many, and easily made. Some omit the pork, and use salt and pepper to flavor it, and add one well beaten egg. =Green Corn Soup.=—This is very nice made with sweet corn put into seasoned soup stock.