Game Soup
Use 2 grouse or partridges, or, if neither can be had, use a pair of rabbits; half a pound of lean ham; 2 medium-sized onions; 1 pound of lean beef; 2 stalks of celery cut into inch-lengths, 3 quarts of water; fried bread; pepper and salt to taste. Joint the game neatly; cut the ham and onions into small pieces and fry all to a light brown. Put into the soup-pot with the beef, which has been cut into strings, and a little pepper. Pour the water on; heat slowly, and stew gently for two hours. Take out the pieces of bird, and cover in a bowl; cook with soup an hour longer, strain through a sieve, and when cool drop in the 2 stalks of celery. Simmer for ten minutes, pour upon fried bread in the tureen.
A clear game broth of the old school: the birds give flavour to the pot, the beef and ham give body, and the whole thing is strained and served over fried bread. Nothing about it is difficult, but the recipe leaves several loose ends a modern cook should tie up before starting.
- The hinge: keep it at a bare simmerThe recipe says "heat slowly, and stew gently," and both stages should stay just below a boil, with the surface barely moving. A rolling boil will cloud the broth, and the soup is strained before serving.
- What to do with the birdsThe instruction to lift out the game and cover it in a bowl has no follow-up. Pick the meat from the bones while it is still warm, shred it, and either return it to the strained broth or serve it separately; the bones can go back into the pot for the final hour.
- "Cut into strings"This most likely means the beef is cut into thin strips rather than cubed, giving more surface to the water. The recipe's 1 lb of lean beef can be shin, chuck or skirt.
- Grouse and partridgeWild grouse is a specialty-butcher or game-dealer item and is strongly flavoured; farmed partridge is milder and easier to find. Two rabbits, as the recipe allows, come to roughly 3-6 lb of bone-in meat depending on size, and make a paler, sweeter broth. Two bone-in guinea fowl or squab are a workable stand-in.
- Salt the ham accounts forHalf a pound of lean ham will give up some salt to the pot over three hours, so hold the salt back and season to taste after straining, as the recipe's "pepper and salt to taste" allows.
- Timing and volumeTwo hours, then another hour after the game comes out. Three quarts of water will reduce to roughly two, which serves eight as a first course. Top up with hot water if it drops much below that.
- Celery at the endThe celery goes in only for its last ten minutes, so it stays fresh-tasting and faintly crisp. Two stalks in inch lengths are meant to be visible in the bowl, not strained out.
- Fried breadCubes or small triangles of day-old white bread fried in butter or the ham fat until golden. Fry them while the soup finishes and put them in the tureen at the last moment, or they turn to paste.