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Venison Soup
Cut two pounds of the breast of venison info small pieces, and place these in a stewpan, with a pound of the knuckle of veal and a couple of ounces of lean ham. Pour over them three quarts of cold water, and add a large onion cut small, half a blade of mace, a few sticks of celery, and a little salt and whole pepper. Let all stew till the goodness is entirely drawn out of the venison. Rub the soup through a sieve, thicken with brown thickening, add a large glassful of port or Madeira, boil a quarter of an hour longer, and serve very hot. Time to simmer the soup, about three hours and a half.
A clear-broth soup built on the tougher cuts, thickened at the end and finished with fortified wine. Nothing here is difficult, but two of the instructions need translating before you start.
- Brown thickeningThe period term for a cooked brown roux, kept on hand in Victorian kitchens: equal weights of butter and flour cooked slowly until nut-brown, sometimes let down with a little stock. About 3 tablespoons each of butter and flour suits this quantity; whisk it into the strained soup off the boil to avoid lumps.
- Three quarts of waterTwelve cups, which may reduce to something over two quarts in three and a half hours, depending on how closely the pan is covered. On that basis, roughly six to eight servings as a first course.
- Breast of venisonRarely sold as such now. Use 2 lb of venison shank, neck or shoulder, bone in if you can get it, since the collagen is the point. Farmed venison is milder than the wild deer this book assumed.
- Knuckle of vealThe joint end of the leg, valued for gelatine rather than flavour. A veal or beef shank slice of about a pound does the same job; without it the soup will have noticeably less body.
- Blade of maceMace is the lacy outer covering of the nutmeg, sold whole as "blades." Half a blade is a very small amount; substitute a pinch of ground mace, added late, rather than a generous one, as it turns soapy in quantity.
- Rub through a sieveThe original means forcing the solids through, giving a slightly cloudy, substantial soup. Strain through a fine sieve instead if you want a clearer result, and discard the aromatics either way.
- The port at the endA 'large glassful' is imprecise in period usage, somewhere in the region of 3 to 5 fl oz. The wine goes in before the final quarter-hour of boiling, which will drive off some of the raw spirit edge. Tawny port or a dry Madeira both work; ruby port will make it noticeably sweeter.
- Skim, and salt lastTake the scum off in the first twenty minutes or the finished soup will taste muddy. Season properly only after the wine has gone in and the volume has settled, since three and a half hours of reduction concentrates whatever salt you started with.
Venison soup belongs to the long English tradition of using the parts of a deer that could not be roasted or made into a haunch for the table: breast, neck and trimmings, which were too sinewy for the spit but rich in flavour. Venison in nineteenth-century Britain came largely from private deer parks and Scottish estates rather than through open market sale. The port or Madeira finish was common in game soups of the period; the sweetness and the oxidised, nutty note of a fortified wine flatter the slightly musky flavour of deer in a way that table wine does not. The addition of veal knuckle reflects the era's reliance on gelatine-rich cuts for body.