688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the bouillon is poured out ? This can not be of much use if all, or 

 almost all, the soluble matters have fouud their way into the bouillon. 

 Is it much more than mere padding ? 



M. The bouilli can not be of any very great value as food ; and I 

 am very much disposed to think that its place may often be supplied 

 with advantage by bread or potatoes, or some other form of farinaceous 

 food. For myself, I should infinitely prefer a basin of bouillon with 

 bread, or a basin of puree with bread, to a basin of bouillon and a 

 plate of bouilli after it, without bread ; and I think my instincts do 

 not mislead me in this matter. I have a small appetite, and no super- 

 abundance of digestive power ; my inclinations turn toward vegetable 

 food rather than toward animal food, and I can easily see that fari- 

 naceous food may be really more suitable to the wants of my system 

 than anything which is left behind in the bouilli. 



C. I have for years been trying to make the poor in my parish 

 acquainted with the virtues of the bouillon and bouilli of the French 

 ordinary pot-mi-feu,* but it never entered into my head to suppose 

 that the bouillon was ever to be preferred to the bouilli, or that bread, 

 or potatoes, or pea-flour, or polenta might now and then be substituted 

 for the latter with advantage. I have also been a ood deal inter- 



* For making an ordinary pot-au-fcu, Gouffe, in bis " Livrc de Cuisine " (Paris, 

 liacbette, 1867), tells us to take of 



Fresh meat about If lb. 



Having placed the meat and bones in the stew-pan, with the bones undermost, the 

 water is poured in, and the salt added. Then, after putting it upon the fire and allowing 

 it to remain there until the water boils, and a scum collects upon the surface, the pan is 

 removed from the fire and tbe scum skimmed off, a little cold water being first added 

 for some purpose or other which is more intelligible to a cook than to me. Then this 

 process of boiling, adding a little cold water, removing from the fire, and skimming, 

 is repeated twice. Then, and not until then, the vegetables are added, and the pan is 

 placed near enough to the fire to allow the contents to simmer (not to boil) for three or 

 four hours. Then the bouillon is poured off and the bouilli prepared as a dish in one 

 way or another. And lastly, when the bouillon is in the soup-tureen, and not until then, 

 enough caramel is added to it to give it a delicate orange tinge une ieinte doree. The 

 lid of the stew-pan is never to be closed down tightly, for if this be done the bouillon is 

 very likely to spoil by becoming thick and muddy. 



The quantity given here is for four or five persons. To try and make less, Gouffe 

 tells us, is bad economy, likely to issue in bad cookery, and this is intelligible enough, 

 for the bouillon may be used in various ways, not only on the first day, but on the day 

 following. The imperial pint, containing twenty ounces, is the pint referred to. 



