Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

• 1 calf's head
• 4 quarts cold water
• 1 tablespoonful salt
• 6 cloves
• 6 peppercorns
• 6 allspice
• 1/2 inch stick cinnamon
• Bouquet of herbs
• 2 onions
• 1 carrot
• 1 turnip
• Celery root
• 2 tablespoonfuls butter
• 2 tablespoonfuls flour
• 1 pint brown stock
• 3 eggs
• 1 lemon

Method

1. 1

   Wash, scrape, and clean the head, and soak an hour in cold water.

2. 2

   Remove the brains and tongue.

3. 3

   Cut the head into four or five pieces, and put it into the kettle with the skin side up, to prevent sticking.

4. 4

   Add the cold water; heat slowly and skim thoroughly, as the meat is to be used again.

5. 5

   Add the salt, and simmer two hours, or until the meat slips from the bones.

6. 6

   Remove the meat, and put the face meat smoothly on a plate, so it can easily be cut into dice when cool.

7. 7

   Reserve the remainder of the meat for force-meat balls.

8. 8

   Put the bones on to boil again.

9. 9

   Add the herbs, spices, and vegetables, and simmer until reduced to two quarts.

10. 10

    Strain, and set away to cool.

11. 11

    Half an hour before serving, remove the fat, put the stock onto boil, and season with one saltspoonful each of ground thyme or marjoram and pepper, and one teaspoonful of salt.

12. 12

    Make a brown thickening with two tablespoonfuls of butter, browned, two tablespoonfuls of cornstarch or flour, and one pint of brown stock.

13. 13

    Stir this into the stock.

14. 14

    Add one cup of meat dice, made by cutting the face meat into half-inch cubes.

15. 15

    Boil the three eggs twenty minutes, and make the yolks into egg balls, or cut the whole eggs in half-inch slices.

16. 16

    Make force-meat balls with the reserved meat, according to directions on page 137.

17. 17

    Put the meat balls and egg balls into the tureen, add the soup, and serve very hot with thin slices of lemon.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Mrs. Lincoln's Boston cook book (1884) by Lincoln, Mary Johnson Bailey "Mrs. D. A. Lincoln,", page 84. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Mock Turtle Soup, melt the butter and let it become as brown as it will without burning ; then add all the flour at once and stir quickly, that every particle of it may be moistened in the hot butter ; add the water or soup graduallj^ Flour that is browned while dry, either in the oven or over the fire, colors, but does not thicken. A certain amount of moisture, of either fat or water, is necessary with the heat to thoroughly swell the grains of starch in the flour. Thickened soups should be about the consist- ency of good cream. Purees are thicker. Material to be served with Soup. Croutons^ or Fried Bread, No, 1. — Cut stale bread into half-inch slices, remove the crusts, and cut into half-inch cubes ; put them in a frying-basket, plunge into fat hot enough to brown them while you count forty ; drain and sprinkle with salt. They may be fried at an}^ time and heated in the oven just before serving. The}^ are espe- cially nice with pea and bean soup. No. 2. — Cut the bread into cubes, and brown in butter in an omelet pan ; or butter first, then cut into cubes and brown in the oven. Thej^ are best when prepared after the first receipt. Crisped Crackers. — Split butter crackers and spread with butter ; put them, the buttered side up, into a pan, and brown in a hot oven. They are delicious with white or vegetable soups, and in fish chowder and oyster stews. Egg Balls. ^oiXfour eggs twenty minutes ; put them in cold water. When cool, cut carefully through the white, and remove The Boston Cook Book. 137 the yolks whole. They ma}- be served in the soup whole or cut into quarters. Or put the yolks in a small bowl and rub them to a paste with a wooden spoon. Season with one saltspoonful of salt ; one fourth of a saltspoonful pepper ; one teaspoonfal of melted butter. Moisten it with the beaten 3'olk or white of one raw egg^ using just enough to shape it easily into balls about the size of a walnut. Koll in flour and fry in butter ; the same as force-meat balls. They are sometimes boiled five minutes in the soup, but are better fried. Force-Meat Balls for Soup. 1 cup of any cooked meat. Yolk of 1 raw egg. 1 saltsp. each of salt and thyme. A few drops onion juice. % saltspoonful pepper. 1 tablespoonful flour. 1 teaspoonf ul lemon juice. 1 tablespoonful butter. 1 teaspoonf ul chopped parsley. Chop the meat very fine ; add the seasoning ; beat the yolk of the egg, and add enough of it to moisten the meat ; make it into balls the size of a nutmeg, put them in a soup plate, sprinkle them with flour, shake the plate until the balls are all floured ; put the butter in an omelet pan, and when brown [)ut in the balls, and shake the pan occasion- ally until the balls are browned. Mock 1 calf's head, 4 quarts cold water. 1 tablespoonful salt. 6 cloves. 6 peppercorns. 6 allspice. % inch stick cinnamon. Bouquet of herbs. 2 onions. Soup. 1 carrot. 1 turnip. Celery root. 2 tablespoonfuls butter. 2 tablespoonf uls flour. 1 pint brown stock. 3 eggs. 1 lemon

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.