Dinner Soup
3 1/2 lbs. lean beef from round 2 lbs. marrow-bone 2 qts. cold water 1 can tomatoes 1 teaspoon peppercorns 1 tablespoon salt 1 tablespoon lean raw ham, finely chopped 2 tablespoons butter Carrot, Turnip (1/3 cup, each) Onion, Celery (cut in small pieces) 1 sprig parsley 1/2 bay leaf Wipe meat and cut in inch cubes. Put one-half in kettle with marrow-bone, water, and tomatoes. Brown remaining half in hot frying-pan with some marrow from bone, then turn into kettle. Heat slowly to boiling-point, and cook at temperature just below boiling-point five hours.
Cook ham and vegetables with butter five minutes, then add to soup with peppercorns, salt, parsley, and bay leaf. Cook one and one-half hours, strain, cool quickly, remove fat, and clear.
A long-simmered beef broth in the Fannie Farmer mould: half the meat raw for clarity, half browned for colour and flavour. Nearly all the work is holding the pot below a boil for six and a half hours.
- The hinge: never let it boil"Just below boiling-point" means roughly 180-190F, with only an occasional lazy bubble breaking. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and drives fine particles into suspension, which makes the later clearing harder work and the result less bright.
- "Clear" means clarifyThe final instruction assumes knowledge the book gives elsewhere: whisk one or two lightly beaten egg whites (with their crushed shells, if you like) into the cold degreased stock, bring it slowly to a bare simmer without stirring, let the raft set for 10-15 minutes, then ladle out through a cloth. The result is consomme.
- Can of tomatoesCanned tomatoes of the period came in several sizes, and "a can" in books of this date often meant a tin larger than the modern 14-16 oz standard, so judge by taste. Whole peeled tomatoes with their juice are the nearest match.
- Marrow-boneAsk for cut beef shin or a sawn femur; you want both the marrow, which is scooped out to brown the meat, and the exposed cartilage that gives body. Frozen bones are fine.
- Vegetable measuresThe recipe gives a third of a cup each of carrot and turnip; the onion and celery are only described as cut in small pieces, so the quantity is left to the cook. They go in only for the last hour and a half, which keeps their flavour fresh rather than stewed out.
- Cool it quickly, and mean itTwo quarts of warm stock left on the stove sits for hours in the range where bacteria multiply. Divide it into shallow containers, or set the pot in a sink of iced water and stir, then refrigerate. The fat lifts off as a solid cake the next day.
- YieldPerhaps 1 1/2 quarts after the full six and a half hours of cooking and straining, or about six cups as a first course. A tablespoon of salt is measured against the full two quarts, so taste again after reducing and clarifying.