Kale Brose
Take an ox-heel, clean it thoroughly, and pour over it 5 pints of cold water; boil for four hours, removing the scum that rises to the top. Meanwhile take 2 large handfuls of greens, cleanse and free from insects, then shred finely, and put into the broth. When sufficiently cooked, stir 1/2 pint of toasted oatmeal into a little of the fat broth (this should be stirred in with the handle of a spoon, and stirred very quickly, so as to prevent it massing in one lump). Add to the rest, with pepper and salt to taste. Let all boil up together, and serve as hot as possible. For six people. An important point in preparing cream soups is to be sure the milk is absolutely fresh, and then, to guard against curdling, to drop into it a pinch of baking soda. A cream soup that is curdled is not pleasant, and should of course not be served. Do not let the soup boil after it is ready.
A Scottish cottage broth built on one long-simmered gelatinous joint, kale, and toasted oatmeal. The oatmeal is the hinge: it must go in as a slack paste or trickle, never as a dry heap, or it sets into a lump that will not break down.
- Ox-heelThis is the lower foot of the beef leg, sold today as beef foot or cow heel at halal and Caribbean butchers. If you cannot get it, a split beef shin bone with a piece of shin meat gives similar body, though slightly less gelatine.
- MeasuresIf the book's pints are imperial 20 fl oz pints, 5 pints is 100 fl oz, about 2.8 litres or roughly 12 US cups. The half-pint of oatmeal is a volume, not a weight: about 1 1/4 cups, or somewhere around 150-200 g of medium or pinhead oatmeal depending on the grade.
- Toasting the oatmealSpread the oatmeal in a dry pan or on a tray and toast over moderate heat, or in a 350F oven, stirring until it smells nutty and has coloured lightly. Toasted meal is usual in kale brose and gives the nutty flavour; untoasted meal tastes rawer and pastier.
- Adding the mealLadle a little of the hot fatty broth into a bowl, then rain the oatmeal in while stirring hard with the handle of a spoon, as the original directs. The handle works because it is narrow and can be whipped fast. Return the slurry to the pot; the recipe asks only that the whole boil up together before serving, though a few minutes more lets the meal swell.
- "Greens"Curly kale is the traditional choice, and the name of the dish. Two large handfuls means roughly 8 to 10 oz of leaves off the stalk. Strip the ribs out and shred finely; 15 to 20 minutes in the broth is enough for modern taste, though the original gives no time beyond 'when sufficiently cooked'.
- Timing and skimmingFour hours at a bare simmer is right for a heel: it needs that long to release its gelatine. Skim during the first half hour, then leave it. Chilling the broth overnight and lifting the set fat gives a cleaner soup, though some of the fat is wanted to carry the oatmeal.
- YieldSix as written, as a substantial first course, or four as a one-pot supper with the picked meat from the heel returned to the pot.