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TURTLE SOUP, MOCK (made with Calf's Head)

This soup should be prepared the day before it is wanted. Take half a calf's head, fresh and with the skin on. Remove the brains, wash the head in several waters, and afterwards let it soak in cold water for an hour. Put it into a stewpan, pour over it a gallon of cold stock made from bones, and let it simmer very gently for an hour. As the scum rises remove it carefully. Take up the head, and let it get partly cold; then cut the meat from the bones, and divide it and the tongue into pieces an inch and a quarter square. Be careful that the skin, which is a most valuable part, is cut up with the fat. Lay these pieces to get cold between two dishes, the bottom one of which should be laid upside down. Dissolve an ounce of fresh butter in a stewpan. Cut a large onion into slices, and fry these in the butter till they are brightly browned. Pour over them the stock in which the head was boiled, add the bones and trimmings, and simmer the soup, carefully removing the scum until no more rises. Put in with it some outer sticks of celery, a carrot, a turnip, an onion stuck with four cloves, a handful of parsley, a sprig of marjoram, basil, and savory, a very small sprig of lemon thyme, one or two sage-leaves, one-eighth of an ounce of allspice, the thin rind of half a lemon, and a little salt and pepper if required. Simmer gently for an hour and a half, and strain the soup through a tamis. Dissolve three ounces of butter in a clean saucepan, and mix three ounces of flour smoothly with it. Stir over a brisk fire till it is brightly browned, and moisten by adding, very gradually, a pint of the stock. Let it simmer gently for half an hour, then add the thickening to the soup. Put the pieces of head into the stewpan, and let them simmer gently until the meat is quite tender, but it must not be overdone. It will need from half an hour to an hour. Add a tea-spoonful of mushroom ketchup, half a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovy, a tea-spoonful of lemon-juice, and a claret-glassful of good Madeira or sherry. Have ready prepared quenelles or forcemeat balls, as for turtle soup, brain balls, or egg balls. Put them into the tureen, pour the soup over, and serve very hot. Time, eight to nine hours. Probable cost, calf's head varies in price from 2s. 6d. to 6s. or 8s., according to the time of year. Sufficient for two quarts of soup.