Home › Invalid Cookery › Veal Broth (Very Nourishing)
Veal Broth (Very Nourishing)
Put the knuckle of a leg or shoulder of veal with very little meat to it, an old fowl, and 4 shankbones of mutton extremely well soaked and bruised, 3 blades of mace, 10 peppercorns, an onion, a large bit of bread, and 3 quarts of water into a stewpot that covers closely, and simmer in the slowest manner after it has boiled up and been skimmed; or bake it; strain, and take off the fat. Salt as wanted. It will require four hours.
A long, gentle extraction of gelatine and flavour from bone rather than a quick stock. The result should set to a soft jelly when cold, which is the sign it has worked.
- The hinge: never let it boilBring to a boil once, skim thoroughly, then hold it at the barest tremble for the full four hours. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat and clouds the broth, which defeats the point of a clear invalid's drink.
- Veal knuckleThe knuckle is the joint end of the leg or shoulder, sold now as veal shank or osso buco bones. Ask for it sawn across so the marrow and cartilage are exposed; the recipe gives no weight, only that it should carry very little meat, so a single knuckle is what is meant.
- An old fowlA stewing hen or boiling fowl, meaning a laying bird past production, with far more collagen and flavour than a young broiler. A supermarket substitute is a 4-5 lb roasting chicken, or a bag of chicken backs, wings and feet, which give closer to the same body.
- Shankbones of muttonLamb shank bones are the modern equivalent, mutton being scarce. "Extremely well soaked and bruised" means a cold-water soak of an hour or two to draw out blood, then cracking the bones with the back of a heavy knife or a mallet so the marrow can escape.
- Mace and peppercornsBlades of mace are the dried lacy covering of nutmeg, sold whole in strips; if you only have ground mace, add it sparingly, since equivalents for a blade vary and it cannot be strained out. Both mace and the peppercorns should come out with the straining, so leave them whole rather than crushed.
- The bit of breadThe recipe calls only for "a large bit of bread" and does not say why. It will soften and partly break up in four hours; if you want a clear broth, use a small piece and strain through a cloth.
- If you bake itThe recipe offers the oven as an alternative without any temperature. A covered pot in a low oven holds a steadier sub-simmer than most stovetops; check that the surface is barely moving.
- Straining and fatStrain through a cloth-lined sieve without pressing the solids, then chill overnight and lift the set fat off in a disc. Salting at the end, as directed, matters because four hours of reduction concentrates whatever you add early.
- YieldThree quarts of water in a closely covered pot at a bare simmer will lose only a little to evaporation, so expect something close to the original volume less what the solids absorb. It keeps a few days refrigerated and freezes well in single-cup portions.