No. 365

Chicken and Veal Broth

Bouillon de Poulet et de Veau

Place in a saucepan a pound and a half of broken up chicken carcasses and as much lean veal cut up in half inch squares; add three quarts of water, two ounces of carrots and an ounce of cut up turnips, both blanched in plenty of water and besides these two ounces of celery. Boil the whole for an hour and a half, skim off the fat, season with a little salt and strain through a fine sieve; serve in cups.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A clear, lightly seasoned two-meat broth from Ranhofer's chapter of invalid cookery — the point is clarity and delicacy, not depth of flavour. Everything here works in a modern kitchen with almost no adjustment.

The hinge: keep it barely simmeringA hard boil will emulsify fat and fine protein into the liquid and no amount of straining will clear it afterwards. Bring to a boil, then drop to a bare tremble for the full hour and a half, skimming as scum rises.
Chicken carcassesRoughly the frames of two chickens, or one frame plus a few wings. Necks and backs from the butcher work as well; avoid livers, which cloud and muddy the broth.
Lean vealA pound and a half of veal shoulder or breast, trimmed of fat. Veal gives the gelatin and the neutral, faintly sweet body that made it a standard invalid meat of the period. Lean pork shoulder is not a substitute; a lean beef chuck will work but reads darker and stronger.
Small vegetable quantities are deliberateTwo ounces of carrot is about one small carrot, an ounce of turnip a small wedge, two ounces of celery one large rib. These are aromatics, not soup vegetables — the broth should not taste of vegetable.
Blanching the root vegetablesRanhofer blanches the carrot and turnip in plenty of water before they go into the pot. He does not say why; the likely effect is to take the edge off the earthy, faintly sulphurous notes turnip in particular throws into a long simmer. A brief plunge in boiling water, then drain and add.
Skim, then chill to degreaseSkimming off the fat while hot removes most of it; refrigerating the strained broth and lifting the set cap the next day removes the rest. For a genuinely fat-free invalid broth, do both.
StrainingA fine sieve is the minimum. For the glassy clarity implied by "serve in cups," line it with damp muslin and let the liquid fall through without pressing.
Yield and seasoningExpect somewhat less than the three quarts you start with, depending on how hard it simmers and how much is lost to the solids. Salt very lightly, as the original says — it is meant to be sipped hot from a cup rather than eaten as a course.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) was Charles Ranhofer's summary of thirty-odd years as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and its chapter of broths for invalids is a reminder that a great restaurant kitchen was also expected to feed the sick. Before intravenous fluids and commercial nutrition, clear meat broth was close to a medical intervention: easily swallowed, warm, salty, and believed to carry the "strength" of the meat in dissolved form. Veal was widely recommended for invalids in the nineteenth century, being considered light and unstimulating, and pairing it with chicken here gives gelatin body from the veal and aroma from the bird. The instruction to serve in cups is telling — this is not a soup course but a dose, and the tiny weights of carrot, turnip and celery show a cook working to keep flavour gentle rather than to build it up.