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Scollops

What do the cooks mean by always talking of scollops-scollops of beef, scollops of veal, scollops of the breasts of fowl? What are scollops? They mean little slices, and they are a corruption of collops. It is Scotch Broth one of the most curious things about the kitchen that, either because cooks are in general very ignorant, or because they love to mystify their dishes, the terms we use for food are the most corrupt of any in the language. SCOTCH BROTH is to Scotland what the pot-au-feu is to France, and involves an important question in household economy. The pot-au-feu of the French housewife is furnished for the most part with beef, which certainly is the best of all meat for broth. The broth or bouillon it yields may not only be made into first-rate soup, but is otherwise available for working into the stock which goes to form the finest sauces. This is no doubt a great advantage. But on the other hand, the frugal French housekeeper wants meat for her table as well as soup; she therefore takes the boiled beef-or bouilli as it is called-out of the pot, and serves this to her family nearly every day of their lives. Now we have quite made up our minds in England that this is "most tolerable, and not to be endured." That boiled beef we cannot away with. There is soup and sauce made of the beef, but once used for that purpose, it is rarely eaten. The Scotch take the same view; but they have for centuries set up another system, which they still hold to wherever they are to be found, all over the world. They have their choice mutton; and they know that, although boiled beef is poor stuff to eat, boiled mutton is very good. They have therefore established a pot-au-feu with mutton instead of beef. They have a disadvantage in the broth which results. It is not to be compared with beef broth for goodness. On the other hand, it is good enough to make with vegetables a very fair soup. The fact is, that many of the most delicious French soups are made without a spoonful of brothwitness the asparagus one. And further, to the advantage of the account, there is a great gain-the mutton is eatable. It is notorious that in the clubs of London, with Sea-kale the best cookery at command, if Irish stew is put upon the bill of fare it will be gone long before any other dish on the list; and what is Irish stew but one of the forms of Scotch broth? The Irish have nothing to do with it. The misnomer came from the French, who also call the Scotch barley broth Orge à l'Irlandaise. The principle of Scotch broth is to make a pot-au-feu of mutton, to work up the liquor into soup with various assortments of vegetables, and to present the mutton to be eaten along with it. Therefore it is a mistake to confine the name of Scotch or mutton broth to barley broth. It is a name which equally belongs to the thick potato-and-onion soup known as Irish stew, to the pea soup which Soyer has called "the inimitable hotch potch," and to various other assortments. It is not any particular soup, but a system of soups set up in contrast to the French system of bouillon and bouilli in homely life. Perhaps the best example of the Scotch or mutton broth is the Hotch Potch, which will be found described under its own name. Here we give the receipt only for what is especially in England called Scotch broth.

Take about six pounds of the neck or breast of mutton cut as for Irish stew, and carefully trimmed of fat. Put it into the pot with six quarts of cold water, six ounces of barley, and some salt. Boil it, remove the scum, and then let it simmer for an hour; after which put into it two carrots, two turnips, three onions, and three heads of celery, all cut into dice or sliced, with a faggot of sweetherbs and a pinch of pepper. Let the simmering go on for another hour, and the soup is ready. The cutlets can be served either with it or apart.