Turtle
The Soup is the most elaborate of all, and quite beyond the reach of ordinary households. It must be purchased ready made. For the Turtle Ragout or Relish, used chiefly with calf's head, see Relish No. 3.
Mock Turtle Soup. - Clear: After Francatelli. First bone and then parboil a calf's head in plenty of water and a small handful of salt for about twenty minutes. Cool the head in cold water and then trim away the rough parts. Next place it in a large stewpan with a good-sized knuckle of veal; about a pound of raw ham; two carrots; two onions-one of them stuck with twelve cloves; a head of celery, a bunch of basil; marjoram, lemon thyme, a sprig of common thyme, some parsley, winter savory, Turtle spring onions, and two blades of mace. Add a quart of good stock, and set the stewpan over the fire to boil sharply, until the liquid is reduced to a glaze. Next fill up the stewpan either with stock or water, and when it boils again skim it carefully, keeping it gently boiling by the side of the fire until the calf's head is nearly done. The head must now be carefully lifted out of the stock with a skimmer, and after being washed in a large pan of cold water, and well drained upon a sieve or cloth, placed in press, between two large dishes in the larder to become cold. The calf's head stock is now to be strained into a clean stewpan through a sieve, and the grease being entirely removed from its surface, to be clarified by mixing into it three whites of eggs previously whipt with a pint of cold water. Set the stock on the fire, whisk it until it boils, and then lift it to the side of the stove, there to boil gently until it has become bright, which will take about twenty minutes. The stock must now be strained through a napkin into a soup-pot; the calf's head cut into pieces an inch square, and placed in the mock turtle stock, to which add half a pint of white wine (Marsala), a pinch of cayenne, and then allow the soup to boil gently by the side of the fire until the pieces of meat are thoroughly done. When about to send to table add some very small quenelles or egg balls and a little lemon-juice.
Mock Turtle Soup. - Thick Prepare this as in the foregoing receipt up to the point when the head has been placed in press, and the stock has been strained into a fresh stewpan. To the stock add about a pound and a half of roux, and stir it over the fire until it boils; then set it on the side of the stove to simmer gently, and to throw up all grease, etc., which must be skimmed off. Strain the stock next through the pointed strainer, into a soup-pot, add the calf's head in pieces, and proceed as before.
Vanilla DDER is not over-abundant in the market; for heifers are too valuable to be killed, and cow-beef is not greatly prized at the butcher's.
When the udder of veal can be obtained it is mostly used for kromeskis. It is to be plain-boiled with salt, allowed to cool, and then cut into slices to wrap round the croquette, which thus becomes a kromeski.
It is also used instead of butter for the more delicate forcemeats-as quenelles. In days of old, however, it appears that cow-udder had a recognised position in French cookery. It was well washed; it was soaked in water for hours, to clear it of blood; it was then blanched; then trimmed; then boiled with a good seasoning of vegetables; then allowed to get cool; lastly, cut up and prepared for table in any of the ways applicable to tripe.
Two versions of one dish, clear and thickened, both built on a boned calf's head. The head is the whole point: it supplies the gelatinous, faintly gluey texture that was supposed to stand in for green turtle.
- Ignore the stray wordsThe phrases "Turtle spring onions" and "Vanilla DDER" are artefacts of the original page layout — a running head and the start of the next entry, on udder, which has bled into the text. Read the ingredient list as ending "...winter savory, spring onions, and two blades of mace."
- Real turtle is not an optionThe opening line assumes you would buy green turtle soup ready made from a dealer. All sea turtles are now protected under CITES and national wildlife law; the trade the book takes for granted no longer exists legally. Only the mock version below is actually a recipe.
- Sourcing the headA boned calf's head is a special order from a halal or Italian butcher, or an abattoir supplier. If you cannot get one, a combination of veal cheek, tongue and a split calf's foot gives a similar gelatine-rich result, though the presentation of neat inch squares of skin and cheek is lost.
- "Boil sharply until reduced to a glaze"This is the hinge. The quart of stock is cooked down until it is a sticky film on the bottom of the pan, just short of catching, which caramelises the veal and ham and gives the finished soup its colour and depth. Rush past this and you have a pale, thin broth.
- "By the side of the fire"On a range this means the coolest part of the hob — a bare simmer with barely a tremor, not a rolling boil. On modern equipment use the lowest setting or hold the pot at about 185F. A hard boil emulsifies the fat and clouds the stock, which matters when you are about to clarify it.
- ClarifyingThree egg whites whisked into a pint of cold water is a raft without the usual minced meat and vegetables; it depends on the stock being cold or barely warm when the whites go in, and on not being stirred once it comes to the boil. Twenty minutes at a bare simmer, then strain through a scalded cloth without pressing.
- The roux for the thick versionA pound and a half of roux is an enormous quantity by modern standards, appropriate to a professional stockpot of several gallons. For four to six quarts of stock, 6 to 8 oz of equal butter and flour, cooked to a light hazel colour, gives a soup of pouring consistency.
- Wine and garnish"White wine (Marsala)" points to Marsala rather than a table white; 1/2 pint for the full quantity. Quenelles here are small veal or chicken forcemeat dumplings poached in stock; egg balls are hard-boiled yolks worked with raw yolk and flour, rolled small and simmered a minute. Both go in at the last moment, as does the lemon juice.
- ScaleA calf's head, a veal knuckle and a pound of ham, with the pan filled up as directed, make a very large quantity of soup -- banquet rather than household scale. Halve the aromatics and the wine if you are working with part of a head.
Mock turtle soup exists because green turtle soup was, through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the most conspicuous luxury on an English table: live turtles were shipped from the West Indies and kept in tanks, and the dressing of one was a specialist trade rather than a domestic job — which is exactly why Kettner's opens by telling the reader to buy it ready made. The imitation, generally traced to English cooks of the mid-1700s, uses a boned calf's head because the gelatinous skin and cheek, cut into small squares, mimic the texture of turtle fat and calipash, while sweet herbs, Marsala and cayenne supply the flavour. This version is credited to Charles Elmé Francatelli, chief cook to Queen Victoria and later of the Reform Club, whose books were widely used professional references in the years before Kettner's Book of the Table appeared in 1877; the scale of the ingredients — a whole head, a knuckle of veal, a pound and a half of roux — belongs to that club kitchen rather than to any household.