No. 384

Wheat, Oats, or Barley Broth

Bouillon de Ble, d'Avoine ou d'Orge

Wash half a pound of either of these in several waters, then leave to soak for twelve hours; parboil them in plenty of water, and afterward cook them slowly in white chicken bouillon (No. 188). When done and the grain crushes easily between the fingers, strain and press it well to extract all the insides. Half a pound of wheat should produce two quarts of liquid. To be served in cups.

Sauces

Stocks, Essences, and Auxiliaries

← No. 383 Veal Broth, Refreshing Broths & Soups for Invalids No. 385 Duxelle, or Cooked Fine Herbs →

For the Modern Kitchen

A grain-thickened clear broth from the invalid-cookery chapter, built on the book's white chicken stock. The whole point is extraction: the grain is cooked to collapse and then pressed, so the body of the drink comes from starch rather than from any thickener added at the end.

Which grain to buy"Wheat" here means whole wheat berries, not flour or cracked wheat; "oats" means whole oat groats, not rolled oats, which dissolve to gluey porridge in minutes; "barley" means hulled or pot barley rather than the quicker pearl barley. Half a pound is roughly 1 1/4 cups of any of the three.
The twelve-hour soakWhole berries and groats will not surrender their interiors in a few hours. Soak overnight at cool room temperature, or in the refrigerator in warm weather, and discard the soaking water.
White chicken bouillon (No. 188)Ranhofer's white bouillon is an unbrowned chicken stock, kept pale rather than coloured or heavily reduced; see No. 188 for his own method. Any good light, unroasted chicken stock stands in. Avoid anything dark or heavily reduced, which fights the delicate result.
Cook slowly, and how longAfter the parboil, a bare simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours suits wheat and hulled barley; oat groats are usually collapsing by the 1-hour mark. The finish is judged by feel, as the text says, not the clock: the grain should crush to paste between finger and thumb.
Pressing is the recipeStraining alone gives you thin, faintly cloudy stock. Work the softened grain against a fine sieve with the back of a ladle, or push it through a food mill, so the starchy interiors go into the liquid. That is what gives the broth its faint silkiness.
Yield and consistencyThe text sets the expectation that half a pound of grain should give two quarts of liquid; since the grain absorbs a good deal, you will need rather more bouillon than that in the pot, or a top-up at the end. Serve it barely thicker than stock, not soupy.
Seasoning and serviceSalt goes unmentioned in the recipe; season lightly to taste at the end. Serve hot in bouillon cups or mugs -- two quarts fills eight or more small cups -- and reheat gently, as starch-bodied broths catch on the pan.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) was Charles Ranhofer's summary of some thirty years running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York — a tenure that ran in two spells, with a break in the later 1870s — and it carries a section of dishes for the sickroom. Before intravenous feeding and commercial supplements, nourishing the convalescent was a cook's job, and the standard tools were clear meat broths, beef teas, gruels and grain waters, all valued for being warm, faintly starchy and easy to swallow. Barley water in particular has a very long pedigree in European and Middle Eastern medicine, generally traced back to classical practice, and it survived into the twentieth century as both a nursery drink and a hospital staple. What distinguishes Ranhofer's version is the restaurant's instinct: he cooks the grain in white chicken bouillon rather than plain water, so the invalid gets a cup of something that could plausibly have come from the dining room.