Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Turtle Soup. — Before making turtle soup it is necessary to have several large pans and plenty of hot water ready for use. Take a turtle weighing about fifty pounds. Cut off the head, hang it up by the hind fins, 'and let it drain all night. Cut off the fins at the joints, and divide the calipash or upper shell from the calipee or lower shell by pressing heavily upon it and cutting round it about the depth of two inches. Let the water, &c., drain from it, and remove and throw away the intestines, carefully preserving, however, any fat that may be near them. Cut the flesh off along the spine, and let the knife slope towards the bones for fear of breaking the gall, which must on no account be allowed to touch the flesh, and which should be thrown quite away as soon as it is found. Cut off aU the flesh from the members and let them drain. In cutting up the turtle remember to keep the green fat separate from the rest that its colour may be preserved. It is most highly priced by epicures. Throw the heart, lights, liver, and kidney into cold water. Put the calipash and calipee, the head and the feet, into a large vessel of boiling water, and let them simmer gently for a few minutes until the fins can be peeled and the shell scraped. Boil the back and the breast a little longer tiU the bones can be taken out. Cut out the soft meat, divide it into pieces an inch square, and place these in a single layer between two dishes to cool. Put the heart, liver, lights, and kidneys with the bones into a fresh saucepan, pour over them the stock in which the meat was blanched, and let them stew gently for three hours. Afterwards pour the liquor off and let it cool. Take a large clean saucepan. Put into it two pounds of lean ham cut small, twelve pounds of leg of veal broken up, and over these the fins, the head, and the inside flesh of the tui-tle. Pour over them some good stock, and let them simmer gently until the sauce is very much reduced. Push a skewer into the thick part of the meat, and when blood no longer exudes from the flesh add the liquor which was poured off", and simmer all gently together until the meat is tender. Take it out, and set it aside. When the liquor from the bones is put into the stock the following ingredients may also be added. — Two large handfuls of parsley, a large bunch of mixed sweet herbs — thyme, marjoram, basil, and savory, an onion stuck with four cloves, three bay-leaves, and half a dozen mushrooms if obtainable. Simmer the soup till it is pleasantly flavoured, strain it, set it aside, or, if preferred, rub the vegetables through a sieve. Dissolve haK a pound of butter in a stewpan. llix four table- spoonfuls of flour smoothly with it, and beat it quickly with the back of a wooden spoon over the fire until it is brightly browned. Add the liquor gradually, and let the soup boil. Draw the saucepan to the side of the fire, and carefully remove the fat, oU, and white scum which rise to the surface. Put the pieces of meat, which were put aside to cool, into the soup, let them simmer gently for an hour, and continue to remove the scum as it rises.