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Bouillon
Take three pounds of leg of beef, cut into several pieces, lay them in a flat stewpan, and pour two quarts of cold water on them. Let this heat slowly by the side of the fire, skim it when it begins to boil, and let it simmer gently for half an hour, skimming carefully from time to time. Take two carrots, two turnips, one onion, two leeks, and half a head of celery, wash them well, slice them, and add them to the meat, with half a tea-spoonful of savoury herbs, one tea-spoonful of salt, and twelve peppercorns. Stew gently for another three and a half hours. Strain into a large bowl, and set aside to cool. When required for use, skim off every particle of fat, and heat as much as may be required. Probable cost, 1s. 9d.
A plain beef stock in the French manner, and the method still holds. Almost everything that can go wrong here is a matter of temperature.
- Never let it boilKeep it below a rolling boil -- The recipe lets it just reach boiling point so the scum rises to be skimmed, then holds it at a gentle simmer. "By the side of the fire" means the coolest part of the range: heat slowly, skim as it comes up, and thereafter keep it at a bare tremble. A hard boil emulsifies fat and drives fine particles through the liquid, and straining afterwards will not clear it.
- Leg of beefShin or shank, bone in if the butcher will cut it that way. The collagen in that cut is the point; a lean roasting joint gives a thin, characterless bouillon. Ask for it sawn into thick rounds rather than cubed.
- Cold water, and no moreTwo quarts to three pounds of meat is a close ratio. Starting cold draws soluble protein out slowly so it coagulates into the scum you skim; dropping the meat into hot water tends to cloud the pot instead.
- Savoury herbsVictorian shorthand for a dried herb mixture, commonly built on thyme and marjoram. Half a teaspoon of dried mixed herbs, or a small thyme-and-parsley bundle, does the same work.
- Half a head of celeryA "head" here is the whole plant rather than a single stalk, and was likely a smaller thing than the modern trimmed bunch. Three or four stalks with their leaves is about right.
- Total time and yieldFour hours of simmering all told. Expect roughly a quart and a half of finished bouillon from two quarts of water, enough for six cups of clear soup or as the base for a braise.
- Cooling and keepingThe instruction to cool it, then lift the set fat, is sound, but do the cooling fast rather than leaving the bowl out overnight. Strain, cool in a shallow container, refrigerate within a couple of hours, and use inside three or four days or freeze it.
- SaltOne teaspoon in two quarts is a seasoning for the extraction, not for the finished soup. Adjust after reducing, since the salt concentrates as the liquid does.
Bouillon is simply the French for a boiled broth, from bouillir: the clear beef liquor from which consommés, sauces and made soups all descend. English cookery writers of the later nineteenth century leaned hard on French kitchen method, and the careful skimming and the low heat at the side of the fire may well owe something to professional practice. The costing at 1s. 9d. is characteristic of Cassell's, which priced nearly every recipe so a household could judge it against the week's budget; the same period saw commercial beef extracts marketed heavily as a shortcut to exactly this.