This recipe has been collated from the best authorities, to which is added our own experience. The day before you wish to serve up the soup it will be necessary to cut off the head of your turtle, and place it in a position to allow all the blood to be drained from it. The next morning open the turtle, being careful to do so without breaking the gall. After cutting all around the upper and lower shell, drain the water off, divide the meat in small pieces, and wash clean and carefully. Then put the shells in a large pot of boiling water, where you let them remain until you find they separate from the flesh readily; but no longer, as the softer parts must be boiled again. Keep the liquor and stew the bones thoroughly; after which it is to be used for moistening the broth. The flesh of the interior parts, and the four legs and head, must be cooked in the following manner. Mask the bottom of a large stew-pan with slices of ham, over which lay two or three knuckles of veal, according to the size of the turtle; and over the veal place the inside flesh of the turtle, covering the whole with the other parts of the turtle. Add to it about a gallon of the liquor in which the bones were stewed, and place on the fire until thoroughly done, which you must ascertain by sticking your knife into the fleshy part of the meat; and if no blood issue from it, add another gallon of the liquor. Then throw in a bunch of the stalks of sweet marjoram, lemon thyme, bay leaves, savoury, common thyme, and sweet basil; also a handful of parsley and green onions, and a large onion stuck with cloves, and a few grains of pepper. Let the whole stew until thoroughly done, say from three to four hours. The leaves of the herbs are to be used for making a sauce, to be described hereafter. When the larger portions of the turtle are done, place them aside to be used when wanted. When the flesh is also thoroughly done, drain on a dish, and make a white thickening very thin, and add to it through a tamis some portion of the liquor of the bones, and place on the fire until it boils; and, having arrived at the proper consistency, neither too thick nor too thin, set the stew-nan on the side of the stove, and skim off all the white scum and fat that arises to the surface. Then cut the softer parts - green fat and white meat - into dice of about an inch square (without any waste,) and add to the sauce, which must be allowed to simmer gently unit sufficiently done, when it must be taken off, at the same time skimming it carefully. Then take the leaves of the sweet basil, sweet marjoram, lemon thyme, common thyme and winter savoury, together with a handful of parsley, some green onions, a large onion cut in four pieces, with a few leaves of mace; put the whole in a stew-pan with a quarter of a pound of butter. Let this simmer on a slow fire until melted, and add a bottle of Madeira and a small lump of sugar, and boil gently tor an hour. Then rub it through a tamis, and add to your sauce, which you must boil until no white scum arises; then with a skimmer drain out all the bits of turtle, and put them into a clean stew-pan, and pass the sauce through a tamis into the stew-pan containing the turtle, and proceed as follows. Take out the fleshy part of a leg of veal, say about one pound, scrape off all the meat without leaving any of the fat or sinews in it, and soak in about the same quantity (one pound) of crumbs of bread, which, when well soaked, squeeze and put into a mortar with the veal, a small quantity of calf's udder, a little butter, the yolks of four eggs hard boiled, a little cayenne pepper, salt and spices, and pound the whole very fine. Then thicken the mixture with two whole egg9, and the yolk of a third; and, to try its consistency, put it in boiling hot water; if you find it too thin, add the yolk of another egg. When it is perfected, take one half of it, and add some chopped parsley. Cook it and roll into balls the size of the yolk of an egg; poach them in boiling water with a little salt. The other half must be made also into balls, and place the whole on a sieve to drain. Before serving your soup, squeeze the juice of two or three lemons, with a little cayenne pepper, and pour it into the soup. The fins may be served as a side dish, with a little turtle sauce. When lemon juice is used, be careful that the lemons are good; a musty lemon will spoil all the turtle, and too much will destroy its flavour.