EEL SOUP

Small white Eels tend to be the best.

First cut off the eel's heads and then skin and clean them, before cutting into three even sized pieces.

To every twelve small eels allow a pound and a half of chicken. Cut the chicken into small pieces (or slice it very thin) and scald it two or three times in boiling water.

Chop together a bunch of parsley and some sweet marjoram stripped from the stalks. Place these ingredients into a soup pan and then season them with pepper. Add a head of celery (cut small) or a large table-spoonful of celery seed tied up in a bit of clear muslin to prevent its dispersing.

Pat in two quarts of water and cover the pan. Let it boil slowly until every thing is sufficiently done, and the fish and chicken is tender. Skim it frequently.

In another vessel boil a quart of rich milk, in which you have melted a quarter of a pound of butter divided into small bits and rolled in flour. Pour it (hot) into the soup and stir in the beaten yolks of four eggs.
Bring the mixture back to the boil (to take off the rawness of the eggs) and then put it into a tureen, removing the bag of celery seeds before you send the soup to table, and adding some toasted bread (cut into smallcubes).