Bran Broth
Bran contains valuable mineral salts of which people deprive themselves when their diet consists largely of white-flour products. Bran broth is valuable for supplying these substances. 1 cup wheat bran 1 slice of onion 1 small stalk of celery, chopped 1 small carrot, chopped A few drops of caramel Put all except the caramel to cook in one quart of cold water, and simmer slowly till there is about one pint of broth left. Strain through cheesecloth. Add salt and caramel, reheat, and serve.
Caramel is valuable to keep on hand for coloring and flavoring soups, gravies, custards, and pudding sauces. It is made as follows:
A thin vegetable-and-bran extraction from the era when bran was prized as a mineral tonic rather than a fibre supplement. It is quick, and it rewards seasoning far more than the original lets on.
- The branUse plain unprocessed wheat bran, the loose flaky kind sold for baking and cereal, not bran cereal flakes or a bran breakfast product with added sugar and malt. One cup of loose bran is roughly 2 oz.
- Caramel colouringThis is sugar cooked to a dark, bitter stage and let down with water — not caramel sauce or toffee. A few drops of commercial gravy browning does the same job. It contributes colour and a faint burnt-sugar edge, nothing more, and the broth is perfectly good without it.
- Simmer, do not boilHard boiling breaks the bran down and can leave the broth pasty. Keep the pot at a bare tremble until the quart has reduced by half, which will take upwards of half an hour.
- StrainingCheesecloth is right; fine bran particles pass through a mesh sieve. Line the sieve with two layers, and let it drip rather than pressing the solids, which pushes fine bran through and clouds the broth.
- SeasoningThe recipe calls only for salt, and the result is genuinely bland by modern standards. A bay leaf and a few peppercorns in the pot, or a little soy or miso stirred in at the end, bring it closer to something you would want a second cup of.
- YieldAbout one pint, or two small cups. Treat it as a light first course or an invalid drink rather than a meal; it carries almost no protein or fat.
- KeepingRefrigerate and use within two days. Reheated bran broth develops a stale cereal flavour quickly.