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Stock, General
Take one pound of shin of beef, cut it into pieces the size of a walnut, and put these into a delicately-clean stewpan with two-pennyworth of bones broken up small and five pints of cold spring-water. If there are trimmings of meat or poultry in the house they may be thrown into the pot, as also a little bacon-rind which has been first scalded and scraped. Bring the contents of the pan slowly to the boil, carefully remove the scum as it rises, and throw in a spoonful of cold water now and then to assist it in doing so. An onion with a clove stuck into it, a turnip, a carrot, two leeks, a few outer sticks of celery, a salt-spoonful of whole pepper, and a little salt may be added if liked. Draw the saucepan to the side of the fire, and let its contents simmer very gently. Keep the saucepan closely covered, excepting when it is necessary to take off the lid for the purpose of skimming. Strain the soup into an earthenware pan, and remove the fat when it forms on the surface. Time to simmer the stock, four hours. Probable cost, 1s. 4d. Sufficient for two quarts of stock.
A plain unroasted beef stock, the base the rest of the book builds on. Nothing here is difficult, but a few of the quantities and the phrase "draw to the side of the fire" need translating.
- Shin of beefBeef shank, sold as soup meat or osso buco cuts. It is chosen for connective tissue rather than flavour of the lean; ask for a piece with the bone in and you cover part of the next item as well.
- Two-pennyworth of bonesA butcher's throwaway quantity of knuckle, marrow or neck bones; the recipe gives a price, not a weight, and the original price is meaningless now, so buy by weight rather than trying to match it.
- Five pints and two quartsThe book uses imperial measure: five pints is about 12 US cups, and the finished two imperial quarts is about 9½ US cups. That is a reduction of roughly a fifth over four hours, which gives some idea of the intended simmer rate.
- A salt-spoonfulAbout ¼ teaspoon. Keep the salt itself very light regardless: this liquid is destined to be reduced again in sauces and soups, and stock salted to taste now will be inedible later.
- Side of the fireThe hinge of the whole recipe. It means a bare shiver at the surface, around 180-190F, never a rolling boil. Boiling emulsifies fat and breaks up the meat solids, and no amount of straining afterwards will clear the result.
- The lidCassell's says closely covered, which on a coal range kept the pot from cooling. On a gas or electric burner a tight lid usually pushes the pot up to a boil. Leave it ajar and adjust the heat instead.
- Skimming and the spoonful of cold waterThe cold water drops the surface temperature briefly so the coagulated protein sets and lifts in a raft rather than dispersing. It works, but do all your skimming in the first twenty minutes, before the vegetables go in and cloud the picture.
- VegetablesFour hours will reduce the onion, turnip, carrot, leeks and celery to nothing useful. Add them for the last hour or ninety minutes and the stock keeps a cleaner vegetable flavour.
- Cooling and keepingThe stock is strained into an earthenware pan and the fat removed as it forms on the surface. Chill it quickly in a shallow container, leave the fat cap in place as a seal, and use within three or four days or freeze it. Stock left to cool slowly in a deep pot is the classic route to a spoiled batch.
"General stock" is the workhorse of the late Victorian kitchen: a pale, unroasted broth meant to be neutral enough to go into a clear soup, a brown sauce or a hash without arguing with anything. The instruction to throw in meat trimmings, poultry scraps and scalded bacon-rind describes the English stockpot as it was often run: a standing vessel fed with whatever the larder yielded. The pricing in shillings and pence, and the direction to buy "two-pennyworth of bones," are a reminder that bones were once cheap enough to be sold by the coin rather than the pound.