Pork and Vegetable Soup

A one-pot boiled dinner in the pot-au-feu manner: broth first, then the meat and vegetables as a second course. Nearly everything hinges on how salty the pork is.

• Salt pork needs handling firstModern salt pork is heavily cured and can make the broth unpleasantly salty if added straight from the package. Rinse it well, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, drain, and start again with fresh water. No salt is called for anywhere in this recipe; only pepper.
• 3 pints of waterSix cups. That is barely enough to cover a pound of pork plus a cup of beans and half a cabbage, and three hours of simmering will reduce it further. Keep a kettle of hot water nearby and top up to keep everything submerged.
• Soak the beans properly"Soaked" means overnight in cold water, or a full hour off the heat after a brief boil. Unsoaked navy beans will still be chalky at the three-hour mark, and hard water or acidic additions slow them further.
• Leeks and celeryA "head" of celery is the whole bunch, not a single rib. Split the leeks lengthwise and rinse between the layers; grit trapped there will end up in the strained broth where you cannot fish it out.
• Stagger the cabbageHalf a cabbage cooked three hours goes to grey threads and pushes a sulphurous note through the whole pot. Cut it in thick wedges and add it in the last 30 to 40 minutes if you intend to serve it as a vegetable.
• Simmer, do not boilBare bubbles at the surface. A hard boil clouds the broth and shreds the pork instead of leaving it in sliceable pieces, which defeats the point of serving it separately.
• ServingLadle the strained broth as a first course, then slice the pork thin and arrange it with the drained vegetables and beans. The recipe adds no salt, so seasoning at table is left to the eater; mustard, coarse salt and a vinegary pickle are the usual accompaniments to pot-au-feu served this way.
• YieldEnough for four as two light courses, or three if the broth is the whole meal.