Mock-Turtle Soup

Ingredients

• half a head
• a couple of bay-leaves
• brown thickening, which is, as I have before described, simply flour fried brown in butter

Method

1. 1

   Scald the pig's head and boil gently in stock made from bones.

2. 2

   After about an hour and a half, remove the head, cool, and cut the meat into pieces.

3. 3

   Return the bones to the stock and boil.

4. 4

   Thicken the stock with brown thickening and let it boil gently.

5. 5

   Make the soup a day in advance to remove fat.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Practical home cookery (1906) by A. G. Payne, page 14. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

mock-turtle soup out of pig’s head, instead of calf’s head. Now, calves’ heads vary immensely in price ; when half a head can be got for 2S. 6d. or 3s., it is a fairly economical dish ; but when calves’ heads, as happens sometimes about Christmas, owing to the extraordinary demand for them, run up to a guinea each, of course the dish would be extravagant to a degree. I don’t know what the price of pigs’ heads is in the country, but in London they can generally be bought for 6d. a pound. To make mock-turtle soup from, say, half a head, first scald it thoroughly, then put it on to boil gently in some stock made from bones. The drawback to the soup is that it has a tendency to taste greasy, consequently the point to be always borne in mind is thoroughly to get rid of the fat. After the pig’s head has boiled for about an hour and a half, take it out, let it get partially cold, then cut the meat off LITTLE EXTRAVAGANCES. 33 the head exactly in the same shape as the pieces of calf’s head in good mock-turtle soup ; let each piece be about an inch and a half or two inches square. These should be allowed to get cold between two large dishes, the bottom one being placed upside down, as in cool- ing they have a tendency to curl, and they look far better flat. Put all the bones of the head back into the stock, and let them boil as long as you like. I would mention, in passing, that a couple of bay-leaves in the stock are a great improvement. Next thicken the stock with brown thickening, which is, as I have before described, simply flour fried brown in butter

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