Scotch Broth
3 pounds of the scrag end of a neck of mutton. 1 onion. 1 small turnip. A little parsley. A little thyme.
Put the mutton in the pan and cover with two quarts cold water, add the vegetables and not quite one teacup rice; one small carrot and a little celery added will give a nice flavor.
When it boils, skim carefully, cover the pan, and let it simmer for two hours. Of course, the vegetables must be cut small.
A plain long-simmered mutton soup that needs almost nothing but time and a careful skimming. Two points do most of the work: the cut of meat and the salt the original never mentions.
- The scrag endThe scrag is the bony top of the neck, sold now as neck slices or lamb neck. Any bone-in stewing lamb works; 3 lb bone-in yields roughly 1 lb of meat once picked. Boneless shoulder gives less body to the broth.
- Mutton vs lambMutton is meat from a mature sheep (usually reckoned over a year old, though some sources say over two), stronger and firmer, and rarely stocked in American supermarkets. Lamb neck substitutes directly but tastes milder and may be tender before the two hours are up.
- SeasoningNo salt appears in the text, so it is left to the cook. Add about a teaspoon at the start and correct at the end; unsalted broth of this kind tastes flat no matter how long it cooks.
- Skim before you coverThe skimming is the one step that decides whether the broth is clear or cloudy. Bring it up slowly, take off the grey scum as it rises, and only then put the lid on and drop to a bare simmer.
- Rice quantity"Not quite one teacup" is somewhere between a half and three-quarters of a modern cup, period teacups being smaller and far from standardised. That much rice in two quarts of water gives a thick broth; it will keep absorbing liquid as it stands, so hold back a cup of water to loosen it on reheating.
- Cutting the vegetablesThe recipe says only to cut them small; a quarter-inch dice suits. Over two hours they will largely dissolve into the broth; add a second handful of diced carrot and turnip in the last twenty minutes if you want distinct pieces.
- FinishingLift out the meat, strip it from the bones, discard the gristle and return the meat to the pot. Skim the fat from the surface, or chill and lift it off solid. Stir the parsley in at the end rather than at the start.
- YieldRather less than the two quarts of water it starts with, after simmering and the rice's absorption; enough for four as a main course with bread.
Scotch broth is the household form of a very old northern European dish: cheap bony mutton, root vegetables and a starchy grain simmered until everything gives way. In Scotland the grain is almost always pearl barley, which is why the soup is sometimes called barley broth; the rice here is a substitution that turns up occasionally in nineteenth-century American and English cookbooks. Its appearance in Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1877), a compilation of contributions from Virginia housekeepers, reflects how thoroughly British domestic cooking still shaped Southern kitchens, and how useful a recipe was that turned the least saleable end of a carcass into two quarts of dinner.