Cut the tails in pieces; lay them in a stewpan, with butter and a large onion; set them over a smart fire to make them brown; peel and boil a couple of dozen of button onions in about three pints of water, for fifteen or twenty minutes; set them by and pour the liquor they were boiled in upon the tails, adding sufficient boiling water to cover them; put in six ounces of carrots, and eight of turnips, cut into slices, or balls the size of nutmegs; put in the carrots twenty minutes before the turnips. Be careful that they are not stewed too fast or too much. When they are tender, pass the gravy through a sieve; skim off the fat, and pay great attention in doing so, as the fat rises while the tails are stewing. Keep the meat and vegetables hot. Thicken the gravy by putting an ounce of butter into a stewpan; when melted, stir in as much flour as will stiffen it. Pour the gravy in by degrees, stirring it till it boils; strain it through a sieve into a stewpan, and let it simmer gently till the meat and vegetables are dished. Lay the tails round the dish, and the vegetables in the middle; pour the gravy over; minced gherkins or capers may be added. Pout boiling water over the onions to warm them, and put them round the dish the last thing.

Or:- Divide them at the joints, blanch, and parboil them; put them into a stewpan with just water or weak broth enough to cover them; let them simmer over a gentle fire, and remove the scum carefully as it rises; then put in an onion, a blade of mace, and a little pepper and salt; put them on again to simmer, and when sufficiently done add a spoonful of essence of anchovy and some flour rolled in butter. This is an excellent and nourishing dish.