a cup of cream. Cayenne pepper is an improvement.—Mrs. E. W.
Turtle Soup.
Kill the turtle at daylight in summer, the night before in winter, and hang it up to bleed. After breakfast, scald it well and scrape the outer skin off the shell; open it carefully, so as not to break the gall. Break both shells to pieces and put them into the pot. Lay the fins, the eggs and some of the more delicate parts by—put the rest into the pot with a quantity of water to suit the size of your family.
Add two onions, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, cloves and allspice to suit your taste.
About half an hour before dinner thicken the soup with brown flour and butter rubbed together. An hour before dinner, take the parts laid by, roll them in brown flour, fry them in butter, put them and the eggs in the soup; just before dinner add a glass of claret or Madeira wine.—Mrs. N.
Turtle Soup.
To one turtle that will weigh from four to five pounds, after being dressed, add one-half gallon water, and boil until the turtle will drop to pieces, then add:
2 tablespoonfuls allspice.
1 tablespoonful black pepper.
2 tablespoonfuls butter, and salt to the taste.
When nearly done, put in a small handful pot marjoram, thyme and parsley tied together, and two large onions; when ready to come off, add two sliced lemons, one pint good wine, and a small quantity of curry powder; thicken with flour.—Mrs. D.
Turtle Soup.
To 2½ quarts soup add:
1 ounce mace.
1 dessertspoonful allspice.
1 teaspoonful cloves.
Pepper, black and cayenne, and salt to your taste.
Tie up a bunch of parsley, thyme, and onion in a cloth, and throw into soup when boiling. When nearly done, thicken with two tablespoonfuls flour. To give it a good color, take one tablespoonful brown sugar and burn it; when burnt, add a wineglass of water. Of this coloring, put two tablespoonfuls in soup, and just before serving, add half a pint Madeira wine.—Miss E. W.
Mock Turtle Soup.
Put on beef and boil very tender; take out, chop fine, and put back to boil. Put potatoes, mace, cloves, cinnamon, parsley, thyme, spice, celery seed, and ten hard-boiled eggs; pepper and salt to your taste.
Thicken with flour and add brandy and wine.—Miss E. P.
Mock Terrapin Soup.
Cut up two pounds roast or boiled beef in small pieces. Put one large teacup new milk, one large teacup of wine, a piece of butter size of an egg (rolled in flour), a little nutmeg, two or three spoonfuls mixed mustard—all in a stewpan, and cook ten or fifteen minutes. Good way to use up cold meats.—Mrs. S. M.
Clam Soup.
Boil half a peck of clams fifteen minutes; then take them from the shells, clean and wash them. Have ready the stew-kettle; strain the water, in which clams have been boiled; chop up clams, and put in with three or four slices of salt pork, some mashed potatoes, salt and pepper to taste. Thicken with grated cracker, and add two spoonfuls butter rolled in flour. Let it boil twenty minutes and serve.—Mrs. C.
Clam Soup.
Open the clams and chop them up fine. To twenty clams, add:
½ gallon water.
3 good onions.
2 tablespoonfuls butter.
A small bunch of parsley and thyme.
Just before taking off, add one quart rich milk and thicken with flour.—Mrs. D.
Crab Soup.
Open, and cleanse of the deadman's fingers and sandbag, twelve small fat crabs raw. Cut the crabs into two parts. Parboil and extract the meat from the claws, and simply extract the fat from the back shells of the crabs. Scald eighteen ripe tomatoes, skin them and squeeze the pulp from the seeds through a colander. Chop them fine and pour boiling water over the seeds and juice, and strain them. Stew a short time in the soup-pot one large onion, one clove of garlic, in one spoonful butter and two spoonfuls lard, and put them in the tomatoes.
After stewing a few minutes, add the meat from the claws, then the crabs, and lastly the fat from the back shells. Season with salt, cayenne and black pepper, parsley, sweet marjoram and thyme, one-half teaspoonful lemon juice, and peel of one lemon. Pour in the water with which the seeds were scalded, adding more should there not be the quantity of soup required. Boil moderately one hour. About a quarter of an hour before serving, sift in grated bread crumbs or pounded crackers as a thickening. Any firm fish prepared by this recipe is excellent.—Mrs. J. I.
Crab Soup.
One dozen crabs to one gallon water. Take off top shell; clear body of crabs. Cut through the middle, put them into a kettle, mix with some butter, and brown them. Then add one gallon water, and simmer for half an hour. Skim slightly, and add the hock of an old ham, and strained tomato juice one pint. Boil two hours. Season with pepper, spice if liked, and half-pint wine.
The claws are to be cracked and divested of the jaws. A Hampton recipe.—Miss E. W.
Beef Soup.
Crack the bone of a shin of beef, and put it on to boil in one quart water. To every pound meat add one large teaspoonful salt to each quart water. Let it boil two hours and skim it well. Then add:
4 turnips, pared and cut into quarters.
4 onions, pared and sliced.
2 carrots, scraped and sliced.
1 root of celery, cut into small pieces.
When the vegetables are tender, add a little parsley chopped fine, with salt and pepper to the taste. Serve hot.—Mrs. P. McG.
Another Recipe for Beef Soup.
One shin beef in one-half gallon water, put on before breakfast and boiled until dinner. Thicken with brown flour two or three hours before dinner. Put in one carrot, two turnips, one onion, thyme, cabbage, and celery-seed.—Mrs. H. P. C.
To prepare a Beef's Head as Stock for Soup.
Cut up the head into small pieces, and boil in a large quantity of water until it is all boiled to pieces. Take out all the bones as for souse cheese, and boil again until thick. Then while hot, season very highly with pepper, salt, catsup, allspice, and onions chopped fine.
Put into a mould to get cold. For a small family cut a thick slice, say five inches square, whenever you want soup in a hurry, adding about a quart of water. It need cook for a few minutes only, and is valuable as keeping well and being ready in times of emergency. By adding a few slices of hard-boiled egg and a gill of good cooking wine, this soup may have very nearly the flavor of mock turtle.—Mrs. A. M. D.
Calf's Head Soup.
Take one-half liver and the head of a mutton, veal or beef, and boil until the meat drops from the bone. Cut up fine and add one-half the brains; then:
1 onion.
1 spoonful spice.
½ spoonful cloves.
1 spoonful black pepper and a piece of mace.
3 tablespoonfuls flour.
3 tablespoonfuls flour, and salt to the taste.
Put in enough water at first, as adding it makes the soup thin.
Cut up three hard boiled eggs, and add, when done, one glass of wine.
A little brandy and walnut catsup, with more eggs, will improve it, though it is a delightful soup as it is.—Mrs. W. A. C.
Calf's