À la mode cookery

Take a large lobster and divide it into two pieces lengthways, extract the two tail-pieces and put apart, but pound all the rest of the flesh. Put the shells into water and boil them, then drain away the water and add it to the pounded lobster. Now put a large head of celery, a small bunch of parsley, two parsnips cut in four, one medium-sized onion, two bay- leaves, six ounces of finely minced tomatoes, two cloves, half a pound of fresh butter, and boil all together till cooked. Take three pounds of button mushrooms, wash them in water and lemon juice, cook and slice them and put them apart. Pass the soup through a hair sieve, fry some bread cut into dice, place them in the tureen with the mushrooms and the tail part of the lobster cut into pieces. Pour the puree over them and serve very hot. The puree should be of the consistency of good thick cream. Mutton Soup Boil half a teacupful of Scotch barley till tender in a quart of good mutton broth, two onions, two shalots, two carrots, one turnip, a table-spoonful of parsley, all cut up very finely, and pepper and salt to taste. Put in some neck cutlets from the mutton into the soup, neatly trimmed and without fat, and let all stew well. Before serving, thicken the soup with a teacupful of cream, added cold, then boil up. Sago Soup k la Cr^me Put one pint of white stock on to boil in a stewpan ; then take one ounce of prepared crushed sago and stir it in gradually when the stock boils ; after which move the saucepan to the side of the fire, and let all simmer till the sago is quite clear. Beat up the yolks of two eggs with two table-spoonfuls of cream, and stir in, and then strain the mixture into another basin. Remove the stewpan from the fire and let it cool ; when cool, add gradually three table-spoonfuls of the egg liaison, stirring all the time, taking great care the eggs do not curdle, then add the rest of the stock, stirring well, and add pepper and salt to taste. Sheep's-head Broth Choose a fat young head and four trotters well cleaned. Scrape and soak them in cold water, then split the head in halves, remove the brains and eyes, and cut out the gristle inside the nose. Leave the trotters in water till required. Tie the two halves of the head together to keep the tongue in its proper place. Lay the head in a saucepan with two pounds of scrag of mutton, a breakfast-cupful of barley, a quarter of a pint of pea-powder, a little salt, and a gallon of water. Boil gently, carefully skimming. After the head has boiled an hour, put in the trotters, and after two hours, add two carrots, two turnips, two onions, and a few sticks of celery all sliced together. Boil the head for three and a half hours very slowly, serve on a dish with the trotters round, put the brains into the soup whilst it is boiling and simmer for fifteen minutes ; put the soup into a tureen, take out the brains and make them into forcemeat balls fried ; the head and tongue should be served separately covered with a brown piquante sauce. Tomato Soup