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Barley Broth
Put a trimmed sheep's head or two pounds of fleshy shin of beef into half a gallon of water, adding a teacupful of well-washed and strained barley (Pearl), two sliced onions and a few sprigs of parsley, together with half a dozen peeled and sliced potatoes and a little thyme; season with pepper and salt, and simmer for three or four hours, stirring frequently to prevent the meat and vegetables settling at the bottom and burning. Serve very hot.
A plain Scotch-style broth written for a cook with a stockpot and time. Nothing here is difficult; the measures and the meat are the parts that need translating.
- The quantitiesHalf a gallon is 8 cups (about 2 litres). A teacupful in books of this period is not a fixed measure, but is usually reckoned somewhere between half a cup and a full cup, so call the barley about three-quarters of a cup; that much pearl barley in 8 cups of liquid gives a thick, almost porridge-like broth, so use 1/2 to 3/4 cup if you want it soupy.
- Sheep's headSold split and cleaned by butchers a century ago, now a special order from a halal or ethnic butcher, if at all. Two pounds of beef shin is the alternative Oscar himself gives and needs no apology: it brings the same gelatine and marrow. Lamb neck or shoulder on the bone is the closest thing to the original flavour.
- "Well-washed and strained" barleyRinse pearl barley in a sieve until the water runs clear. The starch dust it carries clouds the broth and makes it gluey. Pot barley (hulled, unpolished) also works but wants closer to the full four hours.
- Skim before you seasonBring to a bare simmer and lift the grey scum off in the first twenty minutes. Salt at the end, not the start: three hours of reduction concentrates it, and shin meat throws its own savour into the pot.
- The potatoesSix sliced potatoes added at the beginning will break down almost entirely over three hours, which is partly the point here. If you would have recognisable pieces, hold half back and add them for the last 30 minutes.
- Stirring and heatThe instruction to stir frequently is about scorching barley, which sinks and catches. A heavy-bottomed pot on the lowest burner setting, or a covered pot in a low oven, removes most of the risk.
- Yield and servingAbout four to six bowls. It thickens on standing and on the second day will need a cup of water or stock to loosen. A handful of chopped parsley stirred in at the table brightens what is otherwise a very brown soup.
Barley broth of this kind is close kin to Scotch broth, and the sheep's head version was among the cheapest: a head cost pennies, and the boiled meat picked off it could make a second meal. Barley was long an everyday grain in northern Britain, and the pearled form, polished to remove the hull and bran, cooks faster and thickens more readily than pot barley. Its appearance in a book from the Waldorf-Astoria is a reminder that a grand hotel kitchen still cooked plain things: Oscar Tschirky's 1896 collection runs from terrapin and canvasback duck straight through to broths, gruels and invalid cookery.