For Sixteen Persons

Have a soup-pot of enameled or lined cast-iron containing sixteen quarts of liquid: put into it a piece of boned, rolled and tied up, rump of beef weighing eight pounds and eight quarts of water or beef stock. Put the pot on the fire; heat it so as to bring the liquid to a boil, then skim it off carefully at the first boil, and set the pot back from the hot fire. Roast the bones taken from the meat, also one pound of knuckle of veal and some chicken giblets, add them to the soup, and leave it on one side or on a gas stove, watching it well to see that it boils slowly and continuously, on one side only, so as to obtain a very clear broth; let the meats cook for four or five hours, more or less according to their thickness and tenderness, and when the beef is half done, strain slowly the liquid through a sieve without disturbing it. Remove the piece of rump, empty the pot, clean it well, and return to it the meat and the broth, after having partially removed the fat, then put the saucepan back on the fire, and at the first boil mix to it a pound and a half of the white part of leeks tied together, a pound and a half of large carrots, three-quarters of a pound of turnips, half a pound of celery-knob or root, one medium onion with two cloves and one ounce of parsnips, then add one or two young chickens weighing three pounds each, trussed and browned in the oven.

Continue to boil all very slowly, being careful to remove the chicken and meat as fast as they are done; also the vegetables, keeping them warm. Saw sixteen pieces from a marrow-bone each one inch long, wrap them up in separate pieces of linen, tie them, and poach them for eight minutes in the boiling broth. At the last moment salt and color the broth properly, and strain it through a silk sieve or a damp napkin, keeping it warm. Have two vegetable dishes of braised cabbage, the leeks, carrots, turnips, and celery arranged in clusters, and neatly trimmed so that every person may be able to help himself to one or the other as desired. Toast, or butter, and then color in the oven, thirty-two croutons of bread three-sixteenths of an inch thick, by one and a half inches in diameter, also have the sixteen pieces of prepared marrow. Pour the soup into the soup tureen, and send the vegetables to the table, separately, also the croutons and marrow. When serving the soup, put into each plate a piece of marrow bone, two croutons and some soup, and pass the dishes containing the vegetables around separate.

The boiled beef can be served at the same time, dressing it on to a dish, and surrounding it with the chicken cut in pieces, and branches of parsley; serve at the same time a sauceboat of tomato sauce (No. 549).