French dishes for American tables

41. American Green-Turtle Soup. Take a turtle, and let it bleed for six hours, taking care that the head hangs downward. Then divide the two shells, pressing your knife on the lower one so as not to disturb the intestines, which take entire and throw immediately away. Detach the fins and fleshy parts, putting aside any not needed for the soup, and which may be put to use afterward in an entree, or broiled. After having cleaned them put them in a saucepan, with a sufficient quantity of water to cover them. Boil them, taking care to see from time to time that the shells of the fins detach themselves. Put them in cold water for a moment, drain, and cut them in small pieces, which place in a saucepan, with three pints of consomme (or stock, Art. 1). Boil gently for three hours, add four glasses of sherry and some Spanish sauce (see Art. 80). Boil hard four eggs, pound the yolks, adding a little salt and pepper, and the yolk of a raw egg. Form this mixture into little balls, putting a little flour on your hands to roll them. Poach them in boiling water, throw them into your soup, and, after boiling an instant, serve. 42. Green-Turtle Soup a la Londonderry. Proceed as for the foregoing, but instead of Spanish sauce add three pints of consomme (or stock, Art. i) and a glass of sherry. Boil gently half an hour, and serve. 43. Terrapin Soup. Take a live terrapin, and, removing the claws, soak in boiling water for about three minutes. With a cloth remove the shells, and, proceeding as for the green turtle, cut it in small pieces and boil it in consomme (stock, Art. 1). When the terrapin is cooked, add some Spanish sauce (Art. 80), with two glasses of sherry, boil gently for twenty minutes, make some little balls prepared in the manner described in green-turtle soup (Art. 41), and serve in your soup. 44. Soup a la d'Orsay. Wash the ends of a bunch of asparagus, which boil with a little salt and a very little soda, drain them and put them into cold water. Press them through a sieve, add two yolks of raw eggs and three pints of consomme (stock), and, when boiling, a pinch of sugar and an ounce of butter. Take the breasts of two roast pigeons, then add to your soup when serving, and eight small eggs, which boil soft (but sufficiently hard to remove the shells), and serve in your soup. 45. Soup aux Quenelles de Volaille. Prepare some quenelles (see Art. n) and serve them in three pints of consomme (Art. 1). 46. Consomme Rachel. Spread on a sheet of tin half a pound of farce (Art. 1 1) of chicken (Art. n) and put in the oven for three or four minutes. Put it aside to cool, and then with a cutter for the purpose form into round flat shapes. Place in a sauce- pan four ounces of flour, which mix in three pints of cold consomme (Art. i),boil gently for half an hour, stirring with a spoon from time to time, so that it does not stick to the saucepan. Strain, remove from the fire, and add three yolks of eggs which you have mixed in a little water, a tablespoonful of green peas previously boiled, the small rounds of chicken farce, and serve.