Okra Soup
1 qt. okra 2 qts. tomatoes 5 lbs. shin of beef 5 qts. water 1 1/2 tablespoons salt Few grains cayenne Cut the okra in short bits, skin and slice the tomatoes, cut meat in thin slices across the grain, and put all together in kettle, with seasonings and water. Bring to a boil and skim well. Simmer steadily six or seven hours. Remove all bones and unsightly pieces. Skim off grease before serving. White Stock (from Veal) 6 lbs. knuckle of veal 4 qts. cold water 1 tablespoon salt 6 peppercorns Celery root, or 1/2 teaspoon celery seed 1 onion Wipe the veal, cut the meat fine and break the bones. Put it into the kettle with the cold water and salt. Skim as it boils, and when clear add the seasonings. Simmer until the bones are clean and the liquor reduced one-half. Strain, and when cool remove the fat. Use it for white or delicate soups. White Soup (from Chicken) 3 or 4 lbs. fowl 3 qts. cold water 1 tablespoon salt 6 peppercorns 1 tablespoon chopped onions 2 tablespoons chopped celery 1 pt. cream 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon corn starch 1 teaspoon salt 1 saltspoon white pepper 2 eggs Singe, clean and wipe the fowl. Cut off the legs and wings, and disjoint the body. Put it on to boil in cold water. Let it come to a boil quickly, because we wish to use the meat as well as the water, and skim thoroughly. The meat may be removed when tender, and the bones put on to boil again. (Use the meat for croquettes or other made dishes.) Add the salt and vegetables. Simmer until reduced one-half. Strain and when cool remove the fat. For 1 quart of stock allow 1 pint of cream or milk. If cream, use a little less flour for thickening. Boil the stock, add the butter and flour, cooked together, and the seasoning. Strain it over the beaten eggs, stirring as your pour, or the eggs will curdle. The liquor in which a fowl or chicken has been boiled, when not wanted for any other purpose, should be saved for white soup. If the vegetables and spices are not boiled with the fowl, fry them five minutes without burning, add them to the stock, and simmer fifteen minutes.-From Mrs. Lincoln's "Boston Cook Book".
Three related stock recipes run together here: an okra-and-tomato beef soup, a white veal stock, and a cream-thickened chicken soup. All three assume a large kettle and an unhurried stove.
- Scale downFive pounds of shin beef in five quarts of water, with the tomatoes and okra on top of that, needs a pot of 10 quarts or more and yields perhaps 16 to 20 servings. Halving everything gives a manageable batch in a 6-quart pot; the timings hold.
- Shin of beefAsk for beef shank, cross-cut with the bone in. The gelatin from the bone and connective tissue is the point, so do not substitute lean stew meat. Slicing it thin across the grain, as directed, helps it break down.
- Six or seven hoursThis is not an exaggeration for shin, but keep the heat at a bare quiver rather than a simmer, and top up with hot water if the level drops far. A rolling boil will emulsify the fat and cloud the broth.
- Okra and ropinessA quart of cut okra is roughly a pound. Over this long a cook it dissolves and thickens the soup, which is intended. If you want it less viscous, hold half the okra back and add it in the last 30 minutes.
- TomatoesTwo quarts of skinned, sliced tomatoes is about 4 pounds fresh or two 28-oz cans with their juice. Canned works well here given the cooking time.
- Skimming and fatChilling the finished pot overnight lets the fat set into a cap you can lift off in one piece, which is cleaner than skimming hot.
- Veal knuckleSix pounds of veal knuckle is a special-order item at most butchers. Veal bones plus a piece of shoulder give a similar result; the bones supply the gelatin that makes this stock set when cold.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is about 1/4 teaspoon. "A few grains cayenne" means a pinch, an eighth of a teaspoon or less.
- The egg liaisonThis is the hinge of the white soup. Strain the hot stock over the beaten eggs while whisking, then keep the finished soup below about 180F. Returning it to a boil will scramble the eggs no matter how carefully you tempered them.
Okra soup of this kind belongs to the Lowcountry and Gulf South, where okra arrived with the transatlantic slave trade from West Africa; the word itself comes from Igbo okuru. By the late nineteenth century the beef-shin-okra-tomato version had been absorbed into general American cookery and turns up in Northern books like this one alongside French-derived stocks. The credit line to Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book points to Mary Johnson Lincoln, first principal of the Boston Cooking School and predecessor to Fannie Farmer. The trio of stocks also shows the period's habit of building a kitchen around a perpetual stockpot, with the boiled meat saved for croquettes and the bones put back on for a second extraction.