Soup.
CALF’S HEAD SOUP.
Take a calf’s head; wash and soak it for one hour. Then put it down early in the morning with four quarts of water to boil. When you can separate the meat from the bones easily, take it up. Be careful to take out all the bones, and chop the meat very fine. Then put on your soup to boil again, with two onions, a bunch of parsley and thyme, seasoned with pepper and salt, with a little flour made very smooth in water, allspice, cloves, and mace. Have ready a small piece of butter boiling hot, into which put white sugar and half a tumbler full of claret wine; put this in a pitcher; add as much of this as you wish; when you first put on the soup (the quantity will depend upon the colour you wish the soup,) boil three eggs hard; take the yolks and one of the whites, mash them up fine with a little flour; fry them a light brown. Keep the pan moving all the time. Before you put on the head take out the brains; boil them for a few minutes. Then chop them up, and put them in with the eggs and half a tumbler full of Madeira wine, just before you dish the soup. A little mushroom catsup will improve this soup very much. Beef soup made in this way is very good.
CALF’S HEAD SOUP ANOTHER WAY.
After cleaning it well, put it down to boil with one gallon of water. When it is half done, take up the meat; cut it up in small pieces, carefully removing all the bones. Put the meat in the soup with a quart of beef stock: season with black and cayenne pepper and salt. Fry two onions; cut in thin slices, in butter, and stir in a little flour to thicken the gravy; put this in the soup. About ten minutes before serving it up, put in some chives and parsley chopped fine, with egg balls made as in the above receipt, with two spoonsful of mushroom catsup and one of soy, and a pint of white wine. Squeeze a lemon in the tureen, and pour the soup upon it. This is very good.
CALF’S HEAD SOUP ANOTHER WAY.
Take a large calf’s head, wash it very clean, and let it boil an hour and a half. Then take it up, removing all the meat from the bones; skim the soup well; add two quarts of veal stock, and put in the meat after cutting it in small square pieces; add three large onions, half an ounce of cloves, and nutmeg and mace; chop very fine all kinds of sweet herbs. Strain off the liquor. Put a quarter of a pound of butter in a pan on the fire, and when it is hot, stir in some flour and a little sugar. Put this in the soup, stirring it well: season it to your taste: add eggs, balls fried, and a pint of wine. Serve it up hot.
TURTLE SOUP.
In most of the markets the turtle can be bought cleaned and ready for cooking. If not, place it on its back to make it extend itself. Then cut off its head and fins; let it bleed freely; when quite dead, cut the belly part clean off, take out the gall and the sand bag. Draw and wash the entrails well. Scald the black meat, so that the skin will come off, which must be done very carefully. Cut the meat in joints like a chicken, then put it down with five quarts of water. Let it boil till soft, (which will depend upon the turtle; if it is old, it will take a long time.) Make forcemeat balls of one pound and a half of veal, chopped fine, with parsley, thyme, pepper, salt, and two eggs and flour to thicken; fry them in butter and lard; put half a pound of butter in the pan, and when hot, stir in enough flour to thicken it. Put these all in the soup, and season with pepper, cayenne and black, with salt to your taste; let it simmer, till the flour is well cooked: put in just as you dish it up, one quart of Madeira wine. This is very superior.