Oyster Soup

For one hundred oysters boil three pints of milk and set aside; put the oysters over the fire half an hour before dinner, with a quarter of a pound of butter, half a teaspoonful of salt, a small saltspoonful of pepper; simmer them until the oysters show their beards, then add the boiled milk; bring it to a boil; have ready four hard-boiled eggs chopped fine, three crackers rolled, and one head of celery chopped small; put these into the tureen; when the soup boils, pour it over them and serve.

Oyster Soup, No. 2

Strain the juice from one hundred oysters, put it over the fire with half a teaspoonful of salt; when the scum rises, strain the juice through a clean cloth or fine sieve; boil three pints of milk, add the oysters and juice, and six ounces of butter rubbed to a paste with a heaping tablespoonful of flour; bring all to a boil, season with pepper and, if needed, a little more salt, and serve.

Clam Soup

Wash the clam shells very clean, put them in a dripping-pan and set them in a hot oven for five minutes, or until the shells open; take them from their shells, saving all the juice; if the clams are large, chop them; if the little soft-shell clams, they must be left whole. Boil three pints of milk, add the juice, a blade of mace, a little black pepper, a hard-boiled egg chopped fine, a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, two rolled crackers, and a quarter of a pound of butter mixed with a teaspoonful of flour; put in the clams, give all a boil up and serve. This is for fifty large or one hundred small clams.

A Plain Calf's-Head Soup

After the head is thoroughly cleaned, put it over the fire with four quarts of cold water, season with cayenne and black pepper, add ten whole cloves, the same of allspice, a small piece of onion, a bunch of parsley and one of sweet basil; bring it to a boil, skim well and set aside to simmer four hours; then strain it through a cullender, return it to. the soup-kettle, thicken it with two teaspoonsful of sea-moss farina mixed in cold water to a paste, give it a boil up, add a tablespoonful of browning, a wine-glass of walnut catsup; cut a lemon in slices and lay them in the tureen, pour over them a teacup of Port or Sherry wine, pour the soup over them and serve.

Calf's-Head Soup

After thoroughly cleansing the head, put it in a soup-kettle with a knuckle of veal which has been cut into several pieces, season with pepper and salt, four whole cloves and a blade of mace; pour over all four quarts of cold water, bring to a boil, skim well and set aside to simmer, closely covered, for four or five hours; boil two eggs fifteen minutes, lay them in cold water for five minutes, then chop them and put them in the tureen in which you will serve the soup, with four or five slices of lemon; strain the soup, add a tablespoonful of browning and two glasses of Madeira or Sherry wine, and serve.

These three soups, all prepared from calves' heads, are entirely different from each other.