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Veal, Knuckle of, and Rice Soup
Take a knuckle of veal weighing about six pounds. Divide it (sawing through the bones) into half a dozen pieces, and put these in a stewpot with a carrot, a turnip, a small onion, half a dozen peppercorns, half a head of celery, half a blade of mace, a tea-spoonful of salt, and four quarts of cold water. Bring the liquid slowly to the boil, remove the scum carefully as it rises, and boil gently for three hours. Take out the meat, cut it into convenient-sized pieces, and put them aside for further use. Strain the soup. Put it into a clean saucepan with twelve ounces of rice already three-parts boiled, and boil for three-quarters of an hour longer. Add the veal, and serve very hot. Time, four hours. Probable cost, 5s. 6d. Sufficient for eight or ten persons.
A Victorian gelatinous broth built on veal shin, thickened almost to a pottage with rice. Two things need adjusting: the rice quantity and the length of the second boil.
- The hinge: the riceTwelve ounces of rice (about 1¾ cups raw) already three-quarters cooked, then boiled another 45 minutes, produces something closer to a rice porridge than a soup. Half that quantity, added raw and simmered 20-25 minutes in the strained broth, gives a soup that still pours.
- What a knuckle isThe knuckle is the veal shin or hind shank, sold as osso buco when cross-cut. Ask the butcher to saw a 6 lb shank into six pieces; the sawn marrow bone is the whole point, since it supplies the gelatin that sets this broth to a light jelly when cold.
- Quantities in modern termsFour quarts in a British book means imperial quarts, about 4.5 litres (16 US cups would be 3.8 litres). A blade of mace is one strip of the dried aril from a nutmeg; equivalences to ground mace vary, with roughly a quarter-teaspoon often given, though whole blades strain out cleanly and ground mace clouds the broth.
- Boil gently means simmerFor clear veal broth, hold the pot at a bare tremble, around 180-190F, with the surface barely moving. A rolling boil emulsifies fat into the liquid and clouds it, and skimming alone will not undo that.
- Skimming and defattingSkim the grey scum in the first 20 minutes, before it breaks up. Easier still: chill the strained broth so the fat sets on top and lifts off in a sheet, then reheat with the rice.
- SaltA single teaspoon in four quarts is a seasoning for the meat, not for the finished soup. Salt to taste at the end, after the broth has reduced and the rice has absorbed liquid.
- The reserved meatThree hours of simmering leaves shin meat tender but washed out. Return it to the pot only in the last few minutes so it warms through, and consider a little lemon zest, parsley or white pepper to give it back some definition.
- YieldEight to ten servings as written, and it thickens considerably overnight — thin with extra broth or water when reheating.
Knuckle of veal was the backbone of nineteenth-century English soup-making because it is rich in connective tissue and bone: cheap, and unmatched for the gelatin that gave Victorian broths their body and their characteristic set when cold. It is a lesson in extraction as much as a dish, showing what a long gentle simmer draws out of collagen before any thickening agent is needed. Rice soups of this kind are often said to have served as invalid and nursery food, mild and filling, and mace was generally the warm spice preferred for white soups where nutmeg or pepper would have been thought too assertive in colour or bite. The costing of 5s 6d for eight to ten persons is a reminder that these books were written for households keeping accounts, and that an inexpensive cut was expected to feed a table.