Bouillon
Carrot. Turnip. Onion. 5 lbs. lean beef from middle of round 2 lbs. marrow-bone 3 quarts cold water 1 teaspoon peppercorns 1 tablespoon salt 1/3 cup each, cut in dice.
The book gives quantities only; the method belonged to the general instructions for stock that precede it. What follows fills in the working details.
- The hinge: never let it boilBring the pot slowly to a bare shiver — an occasional bubble breaking the surface — and hold it there for several hours; four to five is the usual span for a pot this size, though the book does not say. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and drives fine particles through the liquid, and the result is a cloudy broth that straining alone will not clear.
- Start in cold waterThe cold start is deliberate: proteins and flavor leach out gradually as the water heats, which is what makes bouillon taste of beef rather than of boiled beef. Cut the round into inch cubes and let it stand in the cold water half an hour before the heat goes on.
- Marrow-boneTwo pounds of beef shank cut crosswise is the usual modern stand-in, and any butcher will saw it. It contributes fat and some gelatin, though less than knuckle or neck bones, which are chosen when a thicker, stickier stock is wanted.
- Salt early, but taste laterA tablespoon in three quarts is modest at the start and reasonable, but the liquid will concentrate as it reduces over a long simmer. Hold back half and correct at the end.
- Peppercorns whole and lateThe recipe does not say when to add them; adding them in the last hour is one common practice, on the grounds that a long simmer costs the pepper its aroma.
- SkimmingGray scum rises as the pot approaches a simmer and should come off with a shallow spoon before it breaks up and disperses. After that, leave the pot alone.
- Strain and chillStrain through a sieve lined with damp cheesecloth without pressing the solids, then refrigerate overnight. The fat sets into a disc that lifts off cleanly — far easier than blotting it hot.
- Yield and servingExpect roughly two quarts of finished bouillon, which fills a good many of the small two-handled cups the period used. Served hot and plain, sometimes with a thin slice of lemon. Keeps three to four days refrigerated, or freeze in portions.
- What it is notBouillon here means a clear unthickened beef broth, not a cube and not a thickened soup. Consommé, which such books usually treat separately, is a clarified broth, generally built from more than one kind of meat.
Bouillon occupied a particular social slot in American cookery around 1900: it was poured into two-handled cups at afternoon receptions and skating parties, and served in sickrooms, where clear beef broth was considered strengthening food for people who could not eat. That double life helps explain the proportions here — five pounds of lean round to three quarts of water is a great deal of meat for the yield, and the meat is being treated as a flavouring rather than as dinner. The middle of the round is lean, which suits a clear broth. The boiled-out beef was commonly put to further use in minced dishes rather than thrown away. The marrow-bone supplies the fat and body the round cannot.