No. 361

Indian Arrowroot

Arrowroot de l'Inde

Prepare a plain chicken broth as indicated in No. 188; for each quart of this dilute a tablespoonful of arrowroot with a little of the cold broth, so as to form a smooth and liquid paste, add to it gradually the boiling broth, then boil all, stirring unceasingly with a spatula. After the first boil, simmer it gently for half an hour, carefully stirring it at times to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan; then serve.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A thickened invalid broth from the sickroom chapter of The Epicurean — essentially chicken stock given body with arrowroot. It is simple, but the starch behaves in ways the original text does not warn about.

The hinge: arrowroot thins if you cook it longArrowroot reaches its peak thickness at or just below the boil and tends to lose body with continued cooking; a half-hour simmer, as written, will likely leave the broth thinner and slightly slippery. Modern practice is to bring it barely to a boil, hold it a minute or two, and take it off. If you want the long, gentle cooking of the original, cornstarch generally holds up better to a few minutes of simmering.
Slurry with cold liquid, alwaysThe instruction to dilute the arrowroot in cold broth first is not optional. Arrowroot stirred dry into hot liquid tends to seize into lumps that are hard to whisk out. Whisk it smooth, then pour the boiling broth into the slurry in a thin stream while stirring.
The broth of No. 188The recipe simply refers you back to Ranhofer's plain chicken broth. A light chicken stock, skimmed of fat, stands in. Use an unsalted or lightly salted stock rather than a heavily salted commercial one, and let salt be added at the table.
ProportionsOne tablespoon of arrowroot per quart gives a lightly bodied broth that coats a spoon rather than a sauce. Doubling it moves it closer to a thin cream soup; much beyond that risks a gluey texture.
Spatula, not spoonA wooden or silicone spatula with a flat edge is meant here because it scrapes the bottom of the pan; starch settles and scorches quickly. A round-bowled spoon leaves the corners untouched.
Don't reheat hardArrowroot-thickened liquids lose body on reheating and can turn watery in the refrigerator. Make what will be eaten at once.
YieldA quart serves four as an invalid portion, or two as a light first course. Serve very hot; a cup suits it better than a wide bowl.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) was written by Charles Ranhofer, for decades the chef of Delmonico's in New York, and its chapter of broths and soups for invalids reflects a period when feeding the sick was a recognized branch of cookery with its own repertoire: beef teas, barley waters, panadas, and starch-thickened broths like this one. Arrowroot — the starch of Maranta arundinacea, a rhizome cultivated commercially in the West Indies, above all St. Vincent — was prized as a bland, easily digested thickener, free of the raw taste that flour carries. The "de l'Inde" in the title is ambiguous: French usage of "les Indes" could cover either the East or the West Indies, and it need not point to South Asia or to any Indian cooking. What the dish does suggest is how thin the line was between the medicine chest and the kitchen: arrowroot was sold by apothecaries as well as by grocers, and a chef at one of the most celebrated restaurants in America was expected to know what to send upstairs to someone who could not eat.