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Left-over Soup
Cut up the bones and trimmings from a 6-pound roast of beef, 2 cold mutton chops, the uncooked end of sirloin steak, and put over the fire in 4 quarts cold water, to which add 1 tablespoonful salt, 4 cloves, 4 peppercorns, a cold fried egg, 2 baked apples, a cup cold boiled onions, 2 stalks celery, and 1 tablespoonful mixed herbs.
Let all simmer till the meat separates from the bones, and the water is reduced one-half. Strain; next morning remove the fat, heat stock to boiling point, warm with it 1 cup cold tomatoes or macaroni, and add more seasoning if needed.
A frugal household stock that treats the refrigerator's odds and ends as seasoning. It works, but a few of the instructions need translating before you put a pot on.
- Start cold, stay lowThe hinge is the simmer: bring the pot up slowly and keep it at a bare tremble, around 180-190F, never a rolling boil. A boiled stock emulsifies its fat and turns cloudy and greasy, and no amount of straining will clear it.
- How long "till the meat separates" takesWith beef bones and trimmings, expect at least 3 to 4 hours to loosen the meat, and longer again at a bare simmer to reduce 4 quarts by half. Skim the grey scum that rises in the first twenty minutes and discard it.
- The cold fried egg and baked applesThese are not flavourings so much as leftovers being used up, and both will disintegrate. The apple contributes a faint sweetness and body; the egg contributes very little and can be left out without loss. Neither survives the strainer.
- Salt with restraintOne tablespoon of salt in 4 quarts becomes one tablespoon in 2 quarts once reduced, which is on the edge of too much. Add half now and correct at the end, especially if the trimmings came from a salted or heavily seasoned roast.
- Chilling overnightCool the strained stock quickly rather than leaving the whole pot on the stove: divide it into shallow containers, or set the pot in a sink of ice water, then refrigerate. The fat lifts off as a solid disc the next day.
- "Warm with it 1 cup cold tomatoes or macaroni"This means finishing the plain stock as a soup by reheating cooked tomatoes or cooked pasta in it. Add cooked macaroni at the last minute only; it goes to paste if held in hot broth.
- YieldAbout 2 quarts of finished stock, enough for six to eight bowls of soup. It freezes well for three months; a cup of concentrated stock frozen in a muffin tin is more useful than a quart of it.