Oxtail Soup
(England.) This recipe and the one above were brought by French refugees who had learned, during exile and enforced poverty, how to make the best of their resources. Cut 3 oxtails into pieces and steep them in water for 2 hours. Drain them, fry in 2 ounces of butter or suet, add salt, pepper, 2 carrots, 1 leek, 1 onion, a piece of celery, 1 clove, and some parsley. Simmer 3 hours, remove the bones, and put the meat into the soup, add 6 small white onions, fried in butter until tender, and serve with croutons.
CALF'S HEAD SOUP. (Recipe of the Hotel Star and Garter, Richmond, England.) Parboil and bone a calf's head. Put the bones and the meat, cut up, in 4 quarts of water with 1 ounce of flour, salt, pepper, a bayleaf, some parsley, a clove, 1 carrot, and 1 onion. Cook 4 hours, take out the bones, cut the meat into dice, strain the soup, add the meat, 3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced, 1 dozen poached forcemeat balls, made of some meat, bread-crumbs, herbs, and egg, 1 glass of sherry and 1 lemon, cut in slices. Serve at once, hot. BATTENBERG SOUP (as made at Windsor.).
Cook 1 calf's foot, 3 pounds of soup beef, 3 carrots, 3 onions, 2 cloves, a piece of celery, parsley, and thyme, in 3 1/2 quarts of water for 4 hours. Take out the meat, remove the bones, put the meat, cut up, back in the soup, and set aside until next day. Skim off the fat--clarify it, as directed for frying or braising--strain the soup, add sufficient flour and butter to thicken it, the meat, 1 glass of sherry, salt, pepper, and 1 cup of hot cream.