After removing the entrails, cut up the coarser parts of the turtle meat and bones.  Add four quarts of water, and stew four hours with the herbs, onions, pepper and salt.  Stew very slowly, do not let it cease boiling during this time.  At the end of four hours strain the soup, and add the finer parts of the turtle and the green fat, which has been simmered one hour in two quarts of water.  Thicken with brown flour; return to the soup-pot, and simmer gently for an hour longer.  If there are eggs in the turtle, boil them in a separate vessel for four hours, and throw into the soup before taking up.  If not, put in force meat balls; then the juice of the lemon, and the wine; beat up at once and pour out.

Some cooks add the finer meat before straining, boiling all together five hours; then strain, thicken and put in the green fat, cut into lumps an inch long.  This makes a handsomer soup than if the meat is left in.

Green turtle can now be purchased preserved in air-tight cans.

Force Meat Balls for the Above.—­Six tablespoonfuls of turtle meat chopped very fine.  Rub to a paste, with the yolk of two hard-boiled eggs, a tablespoonful of butter, and, if convenient, a little oyster liquor.  Season with cayenne, mace, half a teaspoonful of white sugar and a pinch of salt.  Bind all with a well-beaten egg; shape into small balls; dip in egg, then powdered cracker; fry in butter, and drop into the soup when it is served.

MACARONI SOUP.

To a rich beef or other soup, in which there is no seasoning other than pepper or salt, take half a pound of small pipe macaroni, boil it in clear water until it is tender, then drain it and cut it in pieces of an inch length; boil it for fifteen minutes in the soup and serve.

TURKEY SOUP.

Take the turkey bones and boil three-quarters of an hour in water enough to cover them; add a little summer savory and celery chopped fine.  Just before serving, thicken with a little flour (browned), and season with pepper, salt and a small piece of butter.  This is a cheap but good soup, using the remains of cold turkey which might otherwise be thrown away.

GUMBO OR OKRA SOUP.

Fry out the fat of a slice of bacon or fat ham, drain it off, and in it fry the slices of a large onion brown; scald, peel and cut up two quarts fresh tomatoes, when in season (use canned tomatoes otherwise), and cut thin one quart okra; put them, together with a little chopped parsley, in a stew-kettle with about three quarts of hot broth of any kind; cook slowly for three hours, season with salt and pepper.  Serve hot.

In chicken broth the same quantity of okra pods, used for thickening instead of tomatoes, forms a chicken gumbo soup.

TAPIOCA CREAM SOUP.