Parboil twelve calves' tails, cut them into pieces about one inch long, and fry them in butter with a quarter of a pound of onions, and adding one pound of carrots cut in quarter inch squares, a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme, bay leaf and a clove of garlic. Moisten with four quarts of broth, and allow the liquid to boil and to continue boiling slowly till the tails and vegetables are thoroughly cooked, then remove the bunch of parsley. Cut two medium cabbages in four, plunge them into boiling, salted water, let boil for ten minutes, then drain and cut out the cores and other hard parts; divide each quarter into eight pieces, put them in a saucepan, pour the broth the tails were cooked in over it, let the cabbages boil up once, then finish the cooking in a slack oven for two hours. When ready to serve, lay the cabbages in a soup tureen, add the tails and vegetables, and pour some consomme' over; season to taste and serve the soup with thin slices of buttered bread, browned in the oven.