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Vegetable Broth
This broth is especially valuable for its mineral content, and will help to maintain the alkalinity of the blood and the vitality of the body. 1 pint finely chopped celery 1 pint finely chopped carrots 1/2 pint finely chopped turnips 1/2 pint finely chopped onions 1/2 pint tomatoes 4 springs parsley 1 3/4 quarts cold water Put the vegetables to cook in the cold water and heat them gradually till just below the boiling point. Keep them at this temperature for about four hours. This may be accomplished by cooking in a double boiler. Cooked in this way, no odors are given off, and therefore nothing is lost. Drain off the water. This broth may be served simply with the addition of salt, or cream may be added, which will increase both its palatability and its nutritive value. This recipe is only an example. Other combinations of vegetables may be used, adding to them an equal bulk of cold water after they are chopped, and proceeding according to directions for this recipe. When beets are used with other vegetables, a broth can be made that resembles prune juice in flavor.
A long, gentle extraction rather than a boil, from an era when cooks believed odour escaping the pot meant nutrition lost. The technique still produces a clean, sweet broth, but a few things need translating.
- The hinge: never let it boil"Just below the boiling point" means roughly 180-190F, held steady. A double boiler is the easy way; a heavy pot on the lowest burner with a lid ajar and a thermometer works as well. A rolling boil will cloud the broth and dull the vegetable flavour.
- Pints of chopped vegetablesThese are volume measures of already-chopped vegetable, not weights. A pint is 2 cups, so you need about 2 cups celery, 2 cups carrot, 1 cup each turnip and onion, and 1 cup tomato. Chop everything fine, about 1/4 inch, since surface area is doing all the work at this low temperature.
- Water quantity1 3/4 quarts is 7 cups. The note at the end suggests using water equal in bulk to the chopped vegetables, and the quantities here already work out that way: 3 1/2 pints of chopped vegetable to 3 1/2 pints of water. The vegetables will release liquid of their own.
- Four hours is not a misprintAt sub-simmer temperature, extraction is slow. Two hours gives a thin, sweet liquid; the full four gives a rounder broth. The vegetables will be spent and are not worth serving alongside.
- ParsleyFour sprigs of parsley, stems included, added at the start. The stems carry more flavour than the leaves and will not turn bitter over the long, low cooking.
- Seasoning and finishingSalt only after straining, when you can taste the finished concentration. The cream is optional; about 1/4 cup stirred into a quart, off the heat, gives a light bisque without curdling from the tomato acid if the broth is no longer near a boil.
- Yield and keepingExpect about 6 to 7 cups, enough for four to six servings as a first course. It keeps four days refrigerated and freezes well; reduced by half it makes a serviceable substitute for stock in other dishes.
- The health claimsThe opening lines reflect the alkaline-diet theories of the period. Diet does not meaningfully shift blood pH, which the body regulates tightly. The broth is a good source of potassium and other minerals, and that much holds up.