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Ox Cheek Soup
Wash an ox cheek thoroughly in lukewarm water, then put it into a large saucepan with two ounces of lean ham, an onion stuck with twelve cloves, a turnip, two carrots, three or four sticks of celery, a tea-spoonful of pepper-corns, a blade of mace, a bunch of parsley, a small sprig of thyme, a table-spoonful of salt, a bay-leaf, and three quarts of water. Bring the liquid to a boil, remove the scum as it rises, then draw the pan to the side of the fire, and simmer gently for four hours. Take up the cheek, cut off about half a pound of the meat in slices half an inch thick, and put it back into the broth. Mix two table-spoonfuls of ground rice or plain flour with two table-spoonful of mushroom ketchup and half a table-spoonful of soy; add this to the soup, and simmer it an hour longer. Turn a large carrot and turnip into various fancy shapes, according to taste, peel and trim neatly a quarter of a pint of button-onions, cut the slices of ox cheek into inch-square pieces, and fry all these in hot butter until they are tender and lightly browned. Strain the soup, return it to the pan with the fried vegetables, etc., boil them together for ten or fifteen minutes, and serve. Time altogether, six hours. Probable cost, 1s. per quart. Sufficient for ten or twelve persons.