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Pot au Feu
For ten persons take 4 pounds of beef,--let it be the rump or round of beef,--a marrow-bone, and with 3 quarts of cold water, and a teaspoonful of salt, heat slowly and carefully, removing scum as it rises. Keep adding a tablespoonful of cold water to assist its doing so, and skim most particularly until the soup is clear. When it is thoroughly skimmed, cover tightly to keep out the dust, and let simmer gently for two hours. Add an onion stuck with 3 cloves, a bunch of parsley, a spring of thyme, 5 or 6 outer sticks of celery, a leek, 2 carrots, a bay leaf, a turnip, and a teaspoonful of whole pepper. The vegetables should be added gradually, that the temperature of the soup may not be lowered. Let the vegetables simmer gently and continuously for two hours longer, or until they are tender. Add a little more pepper and salt, if required, and serve the bouillon in a tureen, and, as a remove, the bouilli (meat) and vegetables. Time for cooking, five hours from the time it begins to boil.
A classic French boiled dinner that yields two courses from one pot: clear broth first, then the meat and vegetables. Almost everything depends on temperature control in the first hour.
- Never let it boilThe hinge of the whole recipe is a bare simmer, with only occasional bubbles breaking the surface. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and albumin into the liquid and the bouillon turns cloudy, which is why the original insists on slow heating and constant skimming; note that the recipe itself times the cooking from the point at which it begins to boil.
- The cold-water trickAdding a tablespoon of cold water checks the pot just below boiling and encourages the scum to coagulate and rise where you can lift it off. A ladle and a fine skimmer do the job; do not stir the pot while skimming.
- Cut of meatRump or round is lean and will slice for the second course, but a mixed pot is better: pair the round with a piece of chuck or short rib for flavour. Ask for a cut marrow bone, sawn lengthwise if possible, so the marrow can be spooned out onto toast.
- Water and potThree quarts of water to four pounds of meat means a tall, narrow stockpot, not a wide one, or evaporation will outpace the simmer. The meat should stay covered throughout; top up with boiling water, never cold, once cooking is under way.
- Total timeThe two-hour meat stage plus two hours with the vegetables gives four hours of simmering, yet the closing note specifies five hours from the time it begins to boil; the recipe does not account for the extra hour. Judge by the meat, which should be fork-tender but still sliceable, rather than the clock.
- Vegetables in stagesCarrots, turnip and leek will be collapsing after two full hours. Add the aromatics, whole pepper and clove-stuck onion at the two-hour mark as written, but hold the vegetables you intend to serve until the last 45 to 60 minutes and lift each out as it becomes tender.
- SeasoningOne teaspoon of salt in three quarts is light, which leaves room to season at the end. If you want the bouillon truly clear, strain it through a cloth and lift the fat after chilling.
- "As a remove"A remove is the dish that replaces the soup on the table, so the broth goes out in a tureen and the drained meat and vegetables follow on a platter. Coarse salt, mustard, cornichons and horseradish are the usual accompaniments.
- YieldTen servings as written, and the meat course is generous. Leftover bouilli is good sliced cold in vinaigrette or hashed.