Turtle a LA Reine

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

• 1 turtle
• 12 lbs lean gravy beef
• 2 bottles Madeira wine
• 1 oz mace
• 1 oz nutmeg
• a dust of cayenne pepper
• black pepper to taste
• coarse sea salt to taste
• 6 shallots
• a bouquet of sweet herbs
• crumbs from 2 French rolls
• yolks from 4 eggs
• 1 pint ketchup
• forcemeat
• butter

Also mentioned in the method: breadcrumbs

Directions

1. Cut the head off the turtle, tie it by the hind fins, and let it hang for 2 hours.

2. Separate the calapee (lower shell) from the calipash (upper shell).

3. Remove the entrails, split them, and clean with salt and water.

4. Cut off the fins close to the calapee and the meat close to the skull.

5. Cut the calapee and calipash into 6 or 8 pieces, then boil them and the fins in water for 2 minutes.

6. Dry the pieces for blanching as you would an ox palate.

7. Boil the meat for 6 minutes, then let the calapee, calipash, and fins simmer until tender.

8. Bone the calapee and calipash when half done.

9. Boil the entrails until tender.

10. Lay the pieces on dishes for 1 day.

11. Make gravy from the beef and add wine, mace, nutmeg, shallots, sweet herbs, seasoning, bread crumbs, and eggs.

12. Cut the calapee, calipash, fins, and entrails into neat pieces.

13. Pour the seasoned gravy over the pieces in a large pan and mix well.

14. Transfer the mixture to a large dish, cover with veal forcemeat, butter, and yolks of hard-boiled eggs.

15. Bake as you would any large meat dish.