Scotch Soup
3 lbs. mutton from fore-quarter 2 qts. cold water 1/2 tablespoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 2 slices turnip 1/2 onion 1/4 cup flour Carrot (1/4 cup, each, cut in small cubes) Turnip (1/4 cup, each, cut in small cubes) 2 tablespoons pearl barley Wipe meat, remove skin and fat, and cut meat in small pieces. Add water, heat gradually to boiling-point, skim, and cook slowly two hours. After cooking one hour, add salt, pepper, turnip, and onion. Strain, cool, remove fat, reheat, and thicken with flour diluted with enough cold water to pour easily. Cook carrot and turnip dice in boiling salted water until soft; drain, and add to soup. Soak barley over night, in cold water, drain, and cook in boiling salted water until soft; drain, and add to soup. If barley should be cooked in the soup, it would absorb the greater part of the stock. Barley may be omitted; in that case sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and serve with croutons. White Soup Stock I 3 lbs. knuckle of veal 1 lb. lean beef 3 quarts boiling water 1 onion 6 slices carrot 1 large stalk celery 1/2 teaspoon peppercorns 1/2 bay leaf 2 sprigs thyme 2 cloves
A thin barley broth in the Scotch broth family, built on a long slow simmer of cheap mutton and finished with separately cooked vegetables. The method is sound; only the shopping and a few of the proportions need translation.
- The key instructionBarley and vegetables are cooked apart and stirred in at the end, exactly as written. The note about barley absorbing the stock is the whole point of the recipe: cooked in the pot it swells and turns 2 quarts of broth into porridge.
- Mutton from the fore-quarterMutton is mature sheep, rarely stocked in American supermarkets. Lamb shoulder or neck, bone in, is the closest substitute; it will be milder and will need slightly less than the full two hours.
- YieldTwo quarts of water reduces to roughly six generous cups of finished soup, serving four to six as a first course.
- "2 slices turnip" and "1/2 onion"These aromatics are strained out and discarded, so precision does not matter. Figure a thick slab of turnip, about 2 oz, and half a medium onion, left whole rather than chopped so it is easy to remove.
- The thickeningA quarter cup of flour slaked with cold water gives a noticeably thickened, opaque soup rather than a clear broth. If you prefer it thinner, use less; add it in stages and simmer a few minutes to cook out the raw flour.
- Skimming and defattingThe chill-and-lift step matters with fatty shoulder meat. Refrigerating the strained stock lets you lift the fat off in a solid cap; note that the recipe itself only says to cool and remove the fat, not to hold it overnight.
- Barley soakingThe recipe soaks the barley overnight; modern pearl barley needs no soak and softens in about 25 to 35 minutes in boiling salted water. Taste rather than time it.
- ServingWithout barley the recipe calls for chopped parsley and croutons. With barley, parsley is still worth adding at the last moment for colour, since the soup itself is pale.