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Mock Turtle a L'Anglaise
Have in a large saucepan two pounds cracked veal bones, also a few cracked ham bones if at hand, one sliced carrot, two sliced onions, one sliced stalk celery, two branches parsley, one sprig bay leaf, two cloves, one tablespoon black whole pepper, half teaspoon thyme, one sprig marjoram, one teaspoon allspice and one ounce butter. Place the pan on a brisk fire, stir well with a wooden spoon and let brown for twenty minutes. Add one ounce flour, briskly stir for a minute and let brown again to a nice golden colour, which will take about twenty minutes, occasionally stirring. Moisten with four quarts broth or hot water. Season with a tablespoon salt, two saltspoons cayenne pepper and one tablespoon sugar. Any remnants of beef or chicken bones on hand can be added to the soup. Cover the pan and let slowly boil for three hours, being very careful to skim off the fat once in a while.
Strain the soup through a strainer into another saucepan, then add one gill of sherry, two tablespoons brandy, two gills demi-glace, two gills tomato sauce and two ounces cooked calf's head cut into small dice pieces. Boil for forty-five minutes more, being careful to skim off the fat once in a while. Add half peeled lemon cut into four slices, one finely chopped hard-boiled egg, one teaspoon finely chopped parsley, one teaspoon finely chopped chives; gently mix and boil for five minutes longer, pour into a hot soup tureen and serve.
A long-form brown soup built on a browned bone stock, finished with fortified wine and diced calf's head. Nothing here is difficult, but the measurements are Edwardian and one ingredient is now a special order.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup (4 fl oz), so a gill of sherry is 1/2 cup and two gills of demi-glace or tomato sauce is 1 cup each. A saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, making the cayenne about 1/2 teaspoon total.
- Brisk fireMedium-high heat on a modern burner. The bones and vegetables need real colour, not just softening, and the twenty minutes given is a minimum in a heavy pan.
- The roux is the hingeOne ounce of flour (about 3 1/2 tablespoons) is cooked to a deep golden brown over twenty minutes. Rush it and the soup tastes of raw flour; scorch it and the whole pot goes bitter and cannot be rescued. Stir often and pull the pan off the heat if it darkens faster than you want.
- Calf's headTwo ounces of cooked calf's head meat is the entire claim to being mock turtle, the gelatinous texture standing in for turtle. Butchers rarely stock it; order ahead, or ask for cheek and tongue, which give a similar set and chew.
- Demi-glaceAt the time this meant a reduced brown sauce made in-house from espagnole and stock. Good jarred or frozen demi-glace works; a heavily reduced beef stock is a thinner substitute.
- Fat skimmingThe instruction to skim repeatedly is not fussiness. The veal and ham bones throw a good deal of fat, and unskimmed the finished soup is greasy in the mouth. Chilling the strained stock and lifting the solid cap off is easier than skimming hot.
- SaltA tablespoon of salt into four quarts is reasonable for unsalted stock, but if you moisten with commercial broth and later add demi-glace, hold most of it back until the final reduction.
- YieldFour quarts simmered covered will reduce only somewhat, and the wine and sauces add back close to a pint; expect enough for eight to ten first-course servings.
- The garnishLemon slices, chopped egg, parsley and chives go in for five minutes only. Longer and the lemon can turn the soup bitter; the egg is there for texture and should not disintegrate.
Mock turtle soup was devised in eighteenth-century England as a cheaper stand-in for real green turtle soup, then a fashionable and enormously expensive dish at civic banquets and City dinners. A boiled calf's head supplied the gelatinous, faintly gluey texture that diners associated with turtle, and the sherry, cayenne, lemon and chopped egg reproduced the customary seasonings and garnish of the genuine article. By the time this book was compiled the imitation had long outlived any pretence of deception and was simply a soup in its own right, familiar enough that Lewis Carroll could build a character out of it. The method here is thoroughly French in construction, a browned mirepoix, a brown roux, a long stock and a finish with demi-glace, which is roughly how a hotel kitchen of the period would have approached any English dish it took seriously.