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Leek Soup or Cock-A-Leekie
(Scotch, of course) Wash and clean 2 dozen leeks; cut the white and tender green part into 1-inch lengths, split these, again wash and drain. Prepare a fowl, truss it and add with leeks to 31/2 quarts boiling stock made with beef or veal and well seasoned. Cover kettle, let contents simmer 31/2 hours and keep well skimmed. Half an hour before serving add a few prunes (if liked). Serve with fowl cut in pieces, placed in tureen, unstrained broth poured over.
The leek is one of the most honorable and ancient of pot-herbs. In the old poetry of northern nations, the highest tribute paid a young man was to call him the leek of his family, or tribe. (From Soups, Sauces and Gravies, by the Browns.)
A whole bird simmered in seasoned stock with a great quantity of leeks, served as broth and boiled fowl together. The proportions are generous by modern standards and the timing assumes an old bird.
- The bird"A fowl" here means a mature stewing hen, tough enough to hold together over three and a half hours. A supermarket broiler-fryer of 3-4 lb will fall to threads in that time; check it at 90 minutes and lift it out when the meat is tender, returning it to the pot to warm through before serving.
- Two dozen leeksThat is a genuinely large amount, roughly 6-8 lb untrimmed, and it is not a misprint. Cock-a-leekie is meant to be thick with leeks. For a household pot, 8-10 large leeks against the same volume of stock gives the right character.
- TrussingTying the legs and wings close keeps the bird from splaying and makes it liftable in one piece at the end. Kitchen twine and a single loop around the body is enough.
- QuantitiesThe stock measure is three and a half quarts, and the simmering time three and a half hours; both numbers appear with the fraction run together in the original.
- SkimmingThe instruction to keep it well skimmed is the one that matters. Fowl and leek both throw scum and fat; an unskimmed pot gives a cloudy, greasy broth, which is fatal in a soup served unstrained.
- Simmer, never boilA bare tremble at the surface. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat back into the broth and shreds the leeks into stringy pulp instead of leaving them in recognisable pieces.
- The prunesAdded only half an hour before serving so they soften without disintegrating. Use whole pitted prunes. Whether they are left in the tureen or lifted out is a matter of preference; the Browns leave the whole addition optional.
- Yield and servingThree and a half quarts of stock plus a whole bird serves eight to ten as a first course, or six as a supper in itself. Carve or pull the fowl into pieces, lay them in the tureen, and pour the unstrained broth and leeks over.