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Standard Broth
(BEEF, VEAL, LAMB, CHICKEN OR GAME) 4 pounds meat. 2 sprays thyme. 1 pound marrow bone. 2 sprays parsley. 2½ quarts cold water. 1/2 bay leaf. 1/2 teaspoon peppercorns. 1/4 cup each diced carrot, onion, 4 cloves. and celery. 1 spray marjoram. 1/2 tablespoon salt.
PROCESS: Remove meat from bone and cut in inch cubes; brown richly one third of meat in some of the marrow taken from bone. Cover remainder of meat with cold water, let stand thirty minutes, then add browned meat and rinse the pan in which meat was browned with some of the water. Bring to boiling point and skim. Reduce heat and boil gently five hours; stock should be reduced to three pints. Add seasonings the last hour of cooking. Strain, cool, remove fat, and clear. pepper.
A general-purpose meat stock built on the old French method: part of the meat browned for colour and depth, the rest started in cold water for clarity. The quantities are for a large batch and the yield is stated in the text.
- YieldThree pints, about six cups, from 4 lb meat and 2 1/2 quarts water. That is a concentrated broth meant as a base for soups and sauces, not a bowlful each.
- The cold-water soakStanding the unbrowned meat in cold water for thirty minutes draws soluble protein and albumin out before heat sets it; this was the usual reason given for a cold start. Clarity itself depends mostly on gentle heat and skimming, and the recipe still calls for a separate clearing step at the end.
- "Boil gently" means a bare simmerA hard rolling boil for five hours emulsifies fat into the liquid and clouds it. Hold the surface at a lazy tremble and skim as scum rises. The book gives no temperature.
- Marrow instead of oilThe recipe browns the meat in marrow dug from the bone. Any neutral fat or beef tallow does the same job.
- Deglazing"Rinse the pan in which meat was browned with some of the water" is deglazing. The browned residue is a large share of the flavour, so scrape it up while the pan is still hot.
- Aromatics go in lateThe recipe directs that the seasonings go in only in the final hour; it says 'seasonings' without specifying whether the diced carrot, onion and celery are among them. Long simmering can turn herbs bitter and cook the definition out of vegetables.
- Sprays and clovesA "spray" is a sprig; two sprigs of thyme is roughly half a teaspoon dried. The four cloves are whole cloves, not garlic, and they are assertive at that number in three pints.
- To "clear"Period shorthand for clarifying with egg white and shell, whisked into the cold degreased stock and brought slowly up so the raft traps sediment, then strained through cloth. Unless you want a consommé, a careful strain and an overnight chill is enough.
- Marrow boneOne pound of marrow bone gives fat and flavour but little gelatine. If you want a broth that sets, ask for a knuckle or split shin as well.
Stock like this was the backbone of a household kitchen, and cookbooks of the period generally opened their soup chapter with a "standard" or "foundation" broth from which everything else was drawn. The two-stage method here comes straight out of French practice: browned meat for colour and roasted flavour, unbrowned meat started cold for a clean extraction, the two combined in one pot. The five-hour simmer reflects a coal or wood range that stayed warm all day at no extra cost, and the parenthetical list of meats at the head of the recipe shows the real point of the entry, which is that it is a template applied to whatever the butcher or the hunting season provided.