Topic: Army Rations
The Stock Pot (Army Cookery, 1907)
Instructions to Cooks, Published by Authority, Government printing Bureau, Ottawa, 1907
A stock-pot will be established to provide good soup and gravies. It consists of a cooking utensil, either a boiler or a large boiling pot, into which should be placed all available bones, &c. , such for example as are collected when the ration meat is cut up, in preparing boned and rolled meat, meat pies, meat puddings, stews and curries. This boiler should be kept gently simmering for 3 or 4 hours daily immediately before its contents are required for use. If the ration meat is properly boned it will provide soup for men of a battalion daily.
In order to ensure a constant change in the stock, and that no bones remain longer than three days in the pot, the following system should be adhered to. The bones extracted from the meat rations on the first day should be placed in a net with a tally attached before being boiled; the bones of the second and third day should be similarly treated; after the third day the bones boiled upon the first day should be removed, and similarly the bones of the subsequent days, the stock being continually replenished from day to day. The bones should always be removed from the stock before the vegetables and other ingredients are added. They should be carefully drained, placed in a dish, and kept in a cool dry place until required the following morning. Every effort should be made to reserve special boiler or boiling pots for making stock, in order that, if possible, the surplus portion of unused stock should be carried on from day to day. This process adds enormously to the strength of the soup made.
The amount of water to be added to the boiler in making stock must depend on the quantity and quality of the bones. It must be understood, that when the stock is not required for soups, gravies, &c., it should be used in preparing dishes such as curries, stews, meat and sea pies, meat puddings, etc.
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