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Chicken Broth
Chop a chicken into pieces and put them into an earthenware pot with two tablespoonfuls of pearl barley, one tea spoonful of coriander seed, pour in two quarts of water and boil for three hours, skimming frequently; then add a handful or so of lettuce leaves, cover over the pot, remove it from the fire, let it stand for twenty minutes, strain through a cloth or fine sieve, and serve.
A plain invalid-cookery broth of the sort every large hotel kitchen kept going. It works as written; the only real decisions are heat level and what you do with the meat afterward.
- Simmer, do not boilThree hours at a rolling boil will reduce two quarts by more than half and emulsify the fat into a cloudy broth. Hold it at a bare simmer with the surface barely trembling, and skim in the first twenty minutes when most of the scum rises.
- The chickenThe recipe says only 'a chicken', chopped through the bone; a whole bird of roughly 3 1/2 to 4 lb is a reasonable modern reading. An old stewing hen gives far more flavour if you can get one. Backs, wings and legs alone also work; breast meat contributes little and dries out in three hours.
- Earthenware potAny heavy pot will do. Earthenware suited slow, even heat over coals; a modern enamelled or stainless pot on a low burner is equivalent.
- Pearl barleyTwo tablespoons adds a little starch and body, and some cloud, rather than serving as a garnish, since everything is strained out at the end. It is still sold as pearl barley and needs no soaking here.
- Coriander seedWhole seed, one teaspoon, lightly crushed to open it. Do not substitute ground coriander, which will muddy the broth and pass through a sieve.
- The lettuce leavesThis is the hinge. The lettuce goes in off the heat, and its twenty-minute steep gives a faint green sweetness that boiling would destroy and turn cabbage-like. Romaine or any firm leaf; a large handful, roughly torn.
- StrainingLine a sieve with a double layer of damp cheesecloth. For a clear broth, chill afterwards and lift off the set fat rather than trying to skim it warm.
- Yield and seasoningAbout 1 to 1 1/4 quarts after three hours, which is four to five cups. The original gives no salt at all; season at the end, after reduction, or it will finish over-salted.
Oscar Tschirky's book collects recipes from the Waldorf's kitchens, and that collection includes dishes of the kind sent up to guests who were ill, elderly, or recovering — chicken broths, beef teas, barley waters and gruels. Chicken broth with barley and steeped with lettuce sits closer to that tradition than to the dining room: barley water and lettuce were both long regarded as cooling and soothing in older medical cookery. The instruction to add the lettuce off the fire and strain everything out shows the aim clearly — not a soup with things in it, but a clean, mild liquid.