"Mrs. Sinclair herself had a hand in the calf's-head dish, 'Testa
di Vitello alla sorrentina,' so perhaps I may hand over that part
of the question to her. I am very proud that one of my pupils
should have won praise from such a distinguished expert as Mr. Van
der Roet, and I leave her to expound the mystery of its charm. I
think I may without presumption claim the clear soup as a triumph,
and it is a discovery of my own. The same calf's head which Mrs.
Sinclair has treated with such consummate skill, served also as the
foundation for the stock of the clear soup. This stock certainly
derived its distinction from the addition of the liquor in which
the head was boiled. A good consomme can no doubt be made with
stock-meat alone, but the best soup thus made will be inferior to
that we had for dinner last night. Without the calf's head you
will never get such softness, combined with full roundness on the
tongue, and the great merit of calf's head is that it lets you
attain this excellence without any sacrifice of transparency."

"I have marvelled often at the clearness of your soups, Marchesa,"
said the Colonel. "What clearing do you use to make them look like
pale sherry?"

"No one has any claim to be called a cook who cannot make soup
without artificial clearing," said the Marchesa. "Like the poet,
the consomme is born, not made. It must be clear from the
beginning, an achievement which needs care and trouble like every
other artistic effort, but one nevertheless well within the reach
of any student who means to succeed. To clear a soup by the
ordinary medium of white of egg or minced beef is to destroy all
flavour and individuality. If the stock be kept from boiling until