[Very fine fat turtles are brought to New-York from the West Indies; and, during the warm weather, kept in crawls till wanted: of these they make soup, which surpasses any mock turtle ever made. A.]
[222-*] Mullaga-tawny signifies pepper water. The progress of inexperienced peripatetic palaticians has lately been arrested by these outlandish words being pasted on the windows of our coffee-houses. It has, we believe, answered the “restaurateur’s” purpose, and often excited John Bull to walk in and taste: the more familiar name of curry soup would, perhaps, not have had sufficient of the charms of novelty to seduce him from his much-loved mock turtle.
It is a fashionable soup, and a great favourite with our East Indian friends, and we give the best receipt we could procure for it.
[223-*] “The usual allowance at a turtle feast is six pounds live weight per head: at the Spanish dinner, at the City of London Tavern, in August, 1808, 400 guests attended, and 2500 pounds of turtle were consumed.”—See Bell’s Weekly Messenger for August 7th, 1808.
Epicure Quin used to say, it was “not safe to sit down to a turtle feast at one of the City Halls, without a basket-hilted knife and fork.”
We recommend our friends, before encountering such a temptation, to read our peptic precepts. Nothing is more difficult of digestion, or oftener requires the aid of peristaltic persuaders, than the glutinous callipash which is considered the “bonne bouche” of this soup. Turtle is generally spoiled by being over-dressed.
[In Philadelphia, an excellent turtle soup is made of a small native tortoise, called a terrapin, and the article terrapin soup. A.]
[223-†] “A pound of meat contains about an ounce of gelatinous matter; it thence follows, that 1500 pounds of the same meat, which is the whole weight of a bullock, would give only 94 pounds, which might be easily contained in an earthen jar.”—Dr. Hutton’s Rational Recreations, vol. iv. p. 194.
In what degree portable or other soup be nutritious, we know not, but refer the reader to our [note] under [No. 185].
[223-‡] This machine was invented by Dr. Denys Papin, F.R.S., about the year 1631, as appears by his essay on “The New Digester, or Engine for Softening Bones;” “by the help of which (he says) the oldest and hardest cow-beef may be made as tender and as savoury as young and choice meat.”