Bortchock Soup
6 lbs. shin of beef 3 qts. cold water 1 cup carrot cubes 1/2 cup sliced onion 6 cloves 1 allspice berry 2 sprigs parsley 2 stalks celery 1 beet finely cut 1 tablespoon salt 1 teaspoon peppercorns 2 tablespoons butter Prepare and cook beef same as for Bouillon. Cook vegetables in butter five minutes; then add to soup with remaining seasonings. Cook one and one-half hours, strain, cool quickly, remove fat, and clear. When ready to clear, add one cup finely chopped raw beet and one-fourth cup vinegar. Select red beets for this soup, and serve as soon as possible after clearing, otherwise it will lose its bright red color, which makes the dish especially appropriate for an American Beauty Dinner.
This is a clear beet consommé rather than the thick sour borscht most cooks expect, and its success rests entirely on the last step: the raw beet and vinegar go in at clarification, not before.
- The hinge: raw beet at the endBetanin, the pigment in red beet, breaks down with prolonged heat and turns brown-orange. The cooked beet in the pot contributes flavour; the cup of raw chopped beet stirred in at clearing is what supplies the colour, and the quarter cup of vinegar helps stabilise it. Serve as soon as possible after clearing, as the recipe directs.
- "Cook beef same as for Bouillon"A cross-reference to the book's Bouillon recipe elsewhere in the soup section. Broadly, that means cutting the shin from the bone, covering it with the cold water, letting it stand before bringing it slowly to a bare simmer for several hours; consult the Bouillon entry for the actual timings.
- "Clear" means raft clarificationWhisk one lightly beaten egg white (and its crushed shell, if you like) per quart into the cold, degreased stock along with the raw beet and vinegar. Bring it up slowly without stirring once it begins to set, hold at a bare tremble 10-15 minutes, then ladle through a cloth-lined sieve.
- Cool quicklySound advice then and now, but modern practice is more specific: get the stock out of the deep pot into a shallow pan or an ice bath and into the refrigerator promptly rather than leaving it to cool on the stove overnight. The fat lifts off in a solid cap once chilled.
- Allspice berryA single whole dried allspice berry, not ground allspice. One is enough for 3 quarts; ground allspice will cloud the soup and cannot be strained out.
- Vegetables in butter five minutesA sweat, not a browning. Keep the heat low enough that the carrot and onion take no colour, or the finished consommé will read muddy against the beet red.
- BeetsOrdinary red table beets. Golden and Chioggia varieties will give you a perfectly good soup with none of the point of this one.
- YieldPerhaps around 2 quarts of finished consommé after long simmering and straining; enough for roughly six to eight first-course servings.