Mock Turtle Soup

1 calf's head.

4 quarts cold water.

1 tablespoonful salt. 6 cloves.

6 peppercorns.

6 allspice.

½ inch stick cinnamon.

Bouquet of herbs.

2 onions.

1 carrot.

1 turnip. Celery root.

2 tablespoonfuls butter.

2 tablespoonfuls flour. 1 pint brown stock.

3 eggs.

1 lemon.

Wash, scrape, and clean the head, and soak an hour in cold water. Remove the brains and tongue. Lay them in cold water, to be reserved for separate dishes. Cut the head into four or five pieces, and put it into the kettle with the skin side up, to prevent sticking. Add the cold water; heat slowly and skim thoroughly, as the meat is to be used again. Add the salt, and simmer two hours, or until the meat slips from the bones. Remove the meat, and put the face meat smoothly on a plate, so it can easily be cut into dice when cool. Reserve the remainder of the meat for force-meat balls. Put the bones on to boil again. Add the herbs, spices, and vegetables, and simmer until reduced to two quarts. Strain, and set away to cool. Half an h(5ur before serving, remove the fat, put the stock on to boil, and season with one saltspoonful each of ground thyme or marjoram and pepper, and one teaspoonful of salt. Make a brown thickening with two tablespoonfuls of butter, browned, two tablespoonfuls of cornstarch or flour, and one pint of brown stock. Stir this into the stock. Add one cup of meat dice, made by cutting the face meat into half-inch cubes. Boil the three eggs twenty minutes, and make the yolks into egg balls, or cut the whole eggs in half-inch slices. Make force-meat balls with the reserved meat, according to directions on page 137. Put the meat balls and egg balls into the tureen, add the soup, and serve very hot with thin slices of lemon.

This is usually flavored with a glass of sherry wine, but is very good with only the lemon, or a tablespoonful of Worcestershire sauce. Or you may boil with it one pint of strained tomatoes.

If you have no brown stock, boil one pound of lean beef with the head, and use the head stock with the flour and butter thickening. This soup is often made from calf's feet, and one or two pounds of lean veal. The feet should be soaked and scalded, boiled in four quarts of water with the herbs, spices, and vegetables, until the water is reduced to two quarts. Strain, and use as directed in the first receipt, making force-meat balls of the veal, and meat dice from the gelatinous meat of the feet.

Cocoanut Soup

Cook two pounds of veal bones in two quarts of cold water until the meat is tender and the stock reduced to one quart. Grate the cocoanut and let it simmer with the veal the last half hour. Strain out the bones and cocoanut, and add to it the milk of the cocoanut and one pint of cream. Put it on the fire again, and when boiling, thicken it with one tablespoon each of cornstarch and butter which must first be blended or cooked as for white sauce. Add salt and pepper, and just before serving add a little of the broth to two slightly beaten eggs, then stir it quickly into the broth and serve at once with dried dice of bread.