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Venison Soup
1/2 BLADES MACE 4 POUNDS VENISON 1/2 POUND HAM I ONION, MINCED I QUART BOILING WATER I HEAD CELERY, SLICED I CUP PORT WINE 3 TABLESPOONS BUTTER I TABLESPOON WORCES- TERSHIRE 1/2 TABLESPOONS FLOUR Simmer venison, ham and onion in water to cover. Skim, add 1 quart boiling water, celery and mace. Simmer 21/2-3 hours more, add wine, mix butter and flour and add, with Worcestershire, stirring until thick.
Serve with fingers of bread fried in butter.
I SMALL DUCK
A straightforward long-simmered game broth, thickened at the end and finished with port. The bones matter more than the meat here, so buy accordingly.
- The cut to buyThe recipe does not name a cut; four pounds of venison for a long-simmered soup points to a stewing cut such as shank, neck or shoulder rather than loin or backstrap. Farmed venison is milder and leaner than wild; if you are using wild deer, trim the silverskin and any fat, which carries much of the strong flavour.
- The hamThe half pound of ham is there for salt and body rather than as meat to eat, so a piece of cured ham or a hock does the job better than deli slices. Hold back on salting the pot until the ham has given up what it has.
- MaceBlades of mace are the dried aril of the nutmeg, sold whole in strips. The quantity in this printing is garbled; a blade or two suits a soup of this size. If you only have ground mace, use a small pinch in its place.
- The two watersThe first simmer is in water just to cover, so the scum rises concentrated and can be skimmed cleanly; only then does the quart of boiling water go in. That is the point of doing it in two stages.
- Keep it at a shiverThe two and a half to three hours after skimming should be at a bare tremble, never a rolling boil. Boiling emulsifies the fat and clouds the stock, and there is no straining step here to rescue it.
- ThickeningThe butter and flour are worked together raw into a beurre manié and whisked into the hot soup in small pieces. Three tablespoons butter to roughly one and a half tablespoons flour gives a light body, not a gravy; let it simmer two or three minutes to lose the raw flour taste.
- Wine and Worcestershire lastThe port goes in near the end, after the long simmer, and the Worcestershire after that, so neither is cooked away.
- The bread fingersCut day-old firm white bread into strips a finger wide and fry in butter until golden on both sides. Served alongside rather than floated, or they go to sludge.
- YieldFour pounds of venison, water to cover plus a further quart, and a cup of port make a generous potful -- six to eight bowls as a first course, fewer as a main.