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Barley Broth, Scotch
Get a scrag end of neck of mutton, cut off the best of the chops, and lay them on one side. Put the remainder of the mutton into four quarts of cold water, add half a pound of Scotch barley and sufficient salt. Let it come to the boil, and boil gently for one hour. Skim it well, put in one carrot grated and one cut into dice, one turnip cut in small pieces, two leeks chopped up, and one onion. Let all boil another hour, put in the chops and four pints of green peas, and let it simmer another hour. Put in a little chopped parsley last of all. Take out the bones, and serve in a tureen. If old peas are used, they should be soaked overnight and put in with the barley. Probable cost, 3s.
A three-hour mutton and barley soup that builds its stock and its garnish in the same pot. The order of additions is the whole method: barley and bones first, roots second, the reserved chops and peas last.
- Scrag end of neckThe bony top of the neck, sold cheap for stock and stewing. Few butchers cut mutton this way now; a lamb neck, shoulder bones or lamb shanks give the same gelatine, though lamb is milder and needs less skimming than mature mutton.
- Four quartsImperial quarts, so roughly 4.5 litres of cold water — you need a stockpot of 6 litres or more to skim comfortably. It reduces substantially over three hours of gentle cooking.
- Scotch barley is not pearl barleyScotch or pot barley is hulled but only lightly polished, so it keeps more of its bran, stays firmer and takes noticeably longer to soften than modern pearl barley. Half a pound is about 225 g, generous for the volume of liquid and the reason the broth thickens as it stands.
- Skim after the boil, not beforeThe instruction to skim comes after the first hour: scum from a bony joint rises once the pot has come up and settled. Take it off with a shallow spoon before the vegetables go in, or the finished broth will be cloudy and greasy.
- The grated carrotOne carrot grated, one diced, is not a whim. The grated carrot dissolves and sweetens the liquid; the diced one survives as a vegetable. Keep both.
- Four pints of green peas is ambiguousPeas were commonly bought in the pod and measured by volume, so four Imperial pints may mean pods rather than shelled peas, which would give a much smaller quantity. Read as shelled peas it looks like a great deal for this pot. Start with roughly 500 g and judge by eye.
- The chopsAn hour's simmer suits mutton chops from an old sheep, which need the time to become tender. Modern lamb chops will be shredded by then — 25 to 30 minutes is enough, added so they finish with the peas.
- Old peas"Old peas" means dried peas, which the recipe soaks overnight and cooks from the start with the barley. Use far fewer than four pints — dried peas roughly double in volume — and expect them to break down into the broth rather than stay whole.
- Yield and servingComfortably eight to ten bowls, and better on the second day, though the barley will have drunk much of the liquid and want thinning. Bone the meat as directed before it reaches the tureen.
Barley was the practical grain of much of Scotland, hardier than wheat in a short cool season, and it thickened a pot of thin stock into something that would feed a household. This is a long-simmered mutton and barley soup using the cheapest end of the carcass and whatever roots the kitchen had. The costing of 3s. is the sort of figure such books quoted so that household spending could be checked.