Important: Safety Warning
This page describes home-canning methods from before the causes of botulism were understood. Canning low-acid foods without a pressure canner, as described here, can allow the growth of Clostridium botulinum, whose toxin is among the deadliest known. Follow current USDA home-canning guidelines instead.
This recipe calls for animal brains or related nervous-system tissue. Cattle brain and spinal tissue can transmit bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the cause of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, which is fatal and has no treatment.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Jugged Soup
6 potatoes 1 onion 6 tomatoes, or 2 cups canned tomatoes 1 turnip 1 can peas 1 grated carrot 1/4 cup rice 3 qts. water 1 tablespoon salt 1 tablespoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1 pinch allspice Slice vegetables and place with seasonings in alternate layers in the bottom of a stone crock with a cover. Boil any carcasses of cold fowl, bones of waste meat, or steak with trimmings, in 3 quarts water, until reduced to 2 quarts. Strain, cool and remove fat. Pour the broth over the vegetables, put on the cover, and seal with paste to keep in the steam. Set jar in pan of hot water. Place in oven and cook from four to six hours.
Calf's Head or Mock Turtle Soup 1 calf's head 2 qts. brown stock 2 qts. water 1/3 cup {sliced onion, carrot cut in dice 2 tablespoons butter 4 tablespoons Gold Medal flour 6 cloves 1 blade mace 6 allspice berries 1 chili 2 sprigs thyme 1 tablespoon salt Clean calf's head thoroughly cut in half and wash in salt water. Remove brains and tie them in coarse muslin, to be cooked separately. Cook calf's head until tender (about five hours), in 4 quarts salted water. Remove meat from bones, return bones to the kettle, add vegetables and seasonings, and boil until the water is reduced to 2 quarts. Strain and cool. Remove fat and add the brown stock. Then melt and brown the butter, add flour, cook until smooth, combine with soup for thickening and simmer for five minutes. Cut tongue into dice. Chop the meat fine. Cook the brains twenty minutes and pound with the chopped meat. Season with salt, pepper and thyme. Add a little beaten egg to bind it together, shape in small balls and fry them brown in a little butter. Put meat balls and diced tongue into a tureen and strain the hot soup over them. The soup is usually served with thin slices of lemon and sometimes a teaspoon of catsup is added.
The soup may be put up in sterilized glass jars.