Two tails will make a tureen of soup; cut them in pieces at the joints, and lay them to soak in warm water, while you get ready your gravy and vegetables. If you wish it to be very rich, cut into slices half a pound of bacon, and a pound of gravy beef, put them into a two gallon stewpan, with a quarter pint of cold water, a head of celery, two onions, with four cloves stuck in one of them, a dozen berries of allspice, the same of black pepper, two carrots, two turnips, and a bundle of savory, lemon-thyme, and parsley; put your stewpan over a slow fire till the meat looks brown, turn it about, and let it get a little colour; then put in the tails, with three quarts of boiling water, make it boil quick, and skim it carefully, as long as you see any scum rise; then cover your pot as close as possible, and set it on. the side of the fire to keep simmering till the meat becomes tender; this will require two or three hours; mind it is not done too much: when perfectly tender, take out the meat, skim the fat off your broth, and strain it through a sieve; to thicken it, put four tablespoonful of the fat you have taken off the broth into a clean stewpan, with four tablespoonsful of flour, set them over the fire, and stir them well together for five minutes, pour in the broth by degrees, stirring it and mixing it with the thickening; let it boil twenty minutes till it is quite smooth, strain it through a tammis into a clean stewpan, put in the tails, with a tablespoonful of mushroom catsup, and one of browning, or Ball's cavice, and the same of wine, and season it with salt.

* Or thicken with fat skimmings, as in the next receipt.