Old-Fashioned Mock Turtle

Ingredients

• nine quarts of cold water
• eight pounds of neck of beef
• three or four thick slices of lean ham
• four large onions sliced
• three heads of celery
• three large carrots
• a large bunch of savoury herbs
• a dessertspoonful of peppercorns
• two ounces of salt
• the rind of a lemon pared very thin
• four ounces of fresh butter
• four ounces of fine dry flour
• a half-teaspoonful of pounded mace
• a third as much of cayenne
• half a pint of sherry
• three dozens of small forcemeat-balls
• the brain cut into dice

Method

1. 1

   After washing and soaking the head, pour cold water, bring to boil, skim, and boil for 1.5 hours.

2. 2

   Add browned neck of beef, ham, onions, celery, carrots, herbs, lemon rind, peppercorns, and salt.

3. 3

   Stew for 6-7 hours, strain stock, cool, and remove fat.

4. 4

   Thicken stock with butter and flour, add mace and cayenne, then sherry.

5. 5

   Stew with head for 1.25 to 1.5 hours, stirring often.

6. 6

   Add forcemeat-balls and brain before serving.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Modern cookery, in all its branches (1884) by Eliza Acton, page 52. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

OLD-FASHIONED MOCK TURTLE. After having taken out the brain and washed and soaked the head well, pour to it nine quarts of cold water, bring it gently to boil, skiin it very clean, boil it if large an hour and a half, lift it out, and put into the liquor eight pounds of neck of beef lightly browned in a little fresh butter, with three or four thick slices of lean ham, four large onions sliced, three heads of celery, three large carrots, a large bunch of savoury herbs, the rind of a lemon pared very thin, a dessertspoon- ful of peppercorns, two ounces of salt, and after the meat has been taken from the head, all the bones and fragments. Stew these gently from six to seven hours, then strain off the stock and set it into a very cool place, that the fat may become firm enough on the top to be cleared off easily. The skin and fat of the head should be taken off together and divided into strips of two or three inches in length, and one in width ; the tongue may be carved in the same manner, or into dice. Put the stock, of which there ought to be between four and five quarts, into a large soup or stewpot ; thicken it when it boils with four ounces of fresh butterf mixed with an equal weight of fine dry flour, a half-teaspoonful of pounded mace, and a third as much of cayenne (it is better to use these sparingly at first, and to add more should the soup require it, after it has boiled some little time) ; pour in half a pint of sherry , stir the whole together until it has simmered for a minute or two, then put in the head, and let it stew gently from an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half : stir it often, and clear * Country butchers, in preparing a calf s head for sale in the ordinary way, take off the skin (or scalp), considered so essential to the excellence of this soup, and frequently throw it away ; it may, therefore, often be procured from them at very slight cost, and is the best possible addition to the mock turtle. It is cleared horn the head in detached portions with the hair on, but this may easily be removed after a few minutes’ scalding as from the head itself, or the feet, by the direction given in Chapter of Siveet Dishes. In London it is sold entire, and very nicely prepared, and may be served in many forms, besides being added to soup with great advantage. + When the butter is considered objectionable, the flour, without it, may be mixed to the smoothest batter possible, with a little cold stock or water, and stirred briskly into the boiling soup : the spice3 should be blended with it. CHAP. I.] SOUPS. 27 it perfectly from scum. Put into it just before it is ready for table three dozens of small forcemeat-balls ; the brain cut into dice

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