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Beef Stock
Bone a rump of beef and tie it neatly together; break the bones and place both meat and bones into a stewpan with two quarts of water to every three pounds of meat. Heat it very gradually and slowly by the side of the fire, removing the scum before and after it boils. Add salt in proportion to the water, about two ounces to the gallon. When all the scum has been removed, throw in three or four carrots, and the same of turnips, a small head of celery, a few young leeks, an onion stuck with eight cloves, a small tea-spoonful of pepper-corns, and a bunch of savoury herbs. Let this stew for five hours very gently, when the beef will be done but not overdone. It may be served with young cabbages, boiled in the usual way, pressed, and then stewed for seven or eight minutes in some of the beef stock or broth. This broth, in France, is made the basis of all soups and gravies, and with the addition of a knuckle of veal, poultry trimmings, a calf's foot, and a little ham, it will make a strong rich stock. If wanted to be used at the same time with the meat, strain, remove the fat, and serve with toasted bread.
This is the French pot-au-feu principle written for a Victorian English kitchen: one pot yields both a boiled joint and the stock that underpins everything else. A few conventions need translating.
- The hinge: never let it boilThe hinge: don't let it keep boiling -- The recipe expects it to reach a boil so the scum can be taken off before and after; thereafter hold the pot at a bare tremble, around 180-190F, with only occasional bubbles breaking. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat and drives fine protein into suspension, which is what turns a clear stock cloudy and greasy.
- The salt is heavyTwo ounces to the gallon is roughly a quarter cup of salt per four quarts. That suits a broth eaten as-is with toast, but it will over-season a stock you later reduce for sauce. If the stock is destined for reduction, use a teaspoon or two and season at the end.
- "Rump of beef" and the bonesThe Victorian rump was a large joint from the hindquarter, bought on the bone here and boned and tied at home. For the same effect use 3-4 lb of boneless chuck or beef shin, plus 2-3 lb of cracked marrow and knuckle bones. Ask the butcher to saw the bones; "break the bones" assumed a cleaver and a block.
- Water ratioTwo quarts per three pounds of meat is a little over 3 quarts total for a 5 lb pot. Keep the meat barely covered and top up with hot water if the level drops below it; cold water added mid-cook checks the extraction.
- Onion stuck with clovesAn oignon clouté: a peeled onion, halved if large, with whole cloves pushed into it so they can be fished out whole. Eight cloves is assertive; four is plenty for 3 quarts.
- The vegetables will be spentCarrots, turnips, celery and leeks simmered for five hours give up everything and collapse. Add them for the stock's sake as written, or add a second, fresh set in the last 30-40 minutes if you mean to eat them alongside the beef.
- Fat removalSkimming hot leaves a good deal behind. If time allows, chill the strained stock overnight and lift the solid fat off in a disc; save it for roasting potatoes.
- Yield and keepingAbout 2 to 2.5 quarts of stock plus a joint that serves six. Refrigerated stock holds four days, or freeze it; reduced to a syrupy glaze it keeps far longer in the freezer in cubes.
The book is explicit that in France this broth "is made the basis of all soups and gravies." That is the doctrine of the marmite or pot-au-feu, the pot of meat, bones and root vegetables kept going on the hearth, which French professional practice formalised into the graded stocks of the later nineteenth-century restaurant kitchen. The English domestic tradition had long done something similar with the stockpot, though the enrichment listed here — a knuckle of veal, poultry trimmings, a calf's foot for gelatine, a little ham for savour — is characteristic of the French repertoire and suggests how far Carême's and Soyer's generation had reshaped ambitious British cooking. The instruction to serve the broth with toasted bread and the beef with cabbage stewed in its own liquor preserves the older, thriftier logic underneath: nothing in the pot is wasted, and one fire feeds two courses.