Take two large or four small white catfish that have been caught in deep water, cut off the heads, and skin and clean the bodies; cut each in three parts, put them in a pot, with a pound of lean bacon, a large onion cut up, a handful of parsley chopped small, some pepper and salt, pour in a sufficient quantity of water, and stew them till the fish are quite tender but not broken; beat the yelks of four fresh eggs, add to them a large spoonful of butter, two of flour, and half a pint of rich milk; make all these warm and thicken the soup, take out the bacon, and put some of the fish in your tureen, pour in the soup, and serve it up.

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Onion soup.

Chop up twelve large onions, boil them in three quarts of milk and water equally mixed, put in a bit of veal or fowl, and a piece of bacon with pepper and salt.  When the onions are boiled to pulp, thicken it with a large spoonful of butter mixed with one of flour.  Take out the meat, and serve it up with toasted bread cut in small pieces in the soup.

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To dress turtle.

Kill it at night in winter, and in the morning in summer.  Hang it up by the hind fins, cut off the head and let it bleed well.  Separate the bottom shell from the top, with great care, lest the gall bladder be broken, which must be cautiously taken out and thrown away.  Put the liver in a bowl of water.  Empty the guts and lay them in water; if there be eggs, put them also in water.  It is proper to have a separate bowl of water for each article.  Cut all the flesh from the bottom shell, and lay it in water; then break the shell in two, put it in a pot after having washed it clean; pour on as much water as will cover it entirely, add one pound of middling, or flitch of bacon, with four onions chopped, and set it on the fire to boil.  Open the guts, cleanse them perfectly; take off the inside skin, and put them in the pot with the shell; let them boil steadily for three hours, and if the water boils away too much, add more.  Wash the top shell nicely after taking out the flesh, cover it, and set it by.  Parboil the fins, clean them nicely—­taking off all the black skin, and put them in water; cut the flesh taken from the bottom and top shell, in small pieces; cut the fins in two, lay them with the flesh in a dish; sprinkle some salt over, and cover them up.  When the shell, &c. is done, take out the bacon, scrape the shell clean, and strain the liquor; about one quart of which must be put back in the pot; reserve the rest for soup; pick out the guts, and cut them in small pieces; take all the nice bits that were strained out, put them with the guts into the gravy; lay in the fins cut in pieces with them, and as much of the flesh as will be sufficient to fill the upper shell; add to it, (if a large turtle,) one bottle of white wine; cayenne pepper, and salt, to your taste, one gill of mushroom catsup, one gill