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Cock-a-Leekie
Boil a young fowl until tender in 2 quarts of white stock. Take out the fowl and set to one side. Wash and cut off the roots and part of the heads of 2 nice bunches of leeks, then cut into 1-inch lengths. Put them into the broth, add 1/2 pound of boiled rice, add a little salt and pepper. Boil for half an hour. After cutting the fowl into neat joints, put it in the soup, let it boil up well, then serve at once. The soup can be served without adding the fowl.
A straightforward Scottish chicken-and-leek soup that needs little translation, though the leek quantity and the rice want a second look.
- White stockUnsmoked veal or chicken stock, unsalted and unbrowned. A good low-sodium chicken stock stands in; 2 quarts is 8 cups.
- A young fowlA 3-4 lb whole chicken. "Fowl" in older books often meant a tough older bird needing two hours or more; a supermarket bird is tender in about 45-60 minutes at a bare simmer.
- Simmer, do not boilThe instruction to boil the fowl will shred the breast and cloud the stock. Bring it just to a simmer and hold it there, and skim the grey foam in the first ten minutes.
- LeeksTwo bunches means roughly 6-8 medium leeks, about 2 lb untrimmed. Split them lengthwise and rinse between the layers before cutting into inch lengths; grit hides deep.
- The riceA half pound of boiled rice is a lot of starch for 8 cups of broth (and it is not clear whether the original weighs the rice before or after boiling). Using half as much gives a soup rather than a porridge. Add it toward the end so it does not disintegrate.
- Half an hour of leeksThirty minutes reduces cut leeks to threads. Fifteen minutes is enough for sweetness while the pieces still hold their shape.
- FinishingSkin and bone the bird before jointing it back into the pot, and skim the fat off the surface before serving. Season at the end, since the broth concentrates.
- YieldServes six as a first course, or four as a supper with the chicken included.
Cock-a-leekie is often called Scotland's national soup, and it appears in print by the later eighteenth century. Tradition links the name to stewing an old cock with leeks to soften the flesh, but that is folk explanation rather than documented origin. Prunes appear in many traditional versions and some Scottish cooks still insist on them; here there are no prunes and the rice does the thickening. The note that the soup may be served without the fowl may reflect a habit of getting two dishes from one pot: the broth to table as a clear soup, the boiled bird served afterwards.