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Meat from Soup Bones
Mrs. DeForest.
Before thickening the soup or putting in the vegetables, take out a large bowl of the liquor; take the meat from the bones, chop it fine, season with catsup and spices; pour over the liquor, which should be thick enough to jelly when cold; put into moulds and serve cold in slices.
A thrifty aspic made from what is left in the soup pot: the meat is chopped, seasoned, and set in its own reduced stock. It works only if the broth gels on its own, so the collagen matters more than anything else here.
- The hinge: the liquor must jellyLadle out the bowlful before any flour, roux, or vegetables go in, and test it by chilling a spoonful on a saucer. If it is still liquid when cold, the stock needs further reduction, or more knuckle, shin, and marrow bone next time. Long-simmered joint bones give the gelatin; lean stewing meat alone will not.
- "A large bowl"Read this as roughly 2 to 3 cups of stock, enough to just cover the chopped meat in the mould. Too much and the slices are mostly jelly; too little and they crumble.
- Catsup in 1876Catsup in this period -- Nineteenth-century catsup was commonly mushroom, walnut, or tomato, thinner and sharper than modern bottled ketchup and much less sweet. Mushroom ketchup or a spoonful of Worcestershire gives a closer flavour than the sweet tomato kind.
- "Spices"Mace, allspice, black pepper, a little clove and nutmeg are the seasonings that commonly turn up in period potted and moulded meats. Season the mixture assertively while warm; chilled aspic tastes noticeably flatter, and salt in particular needs a heavier hand.
- ChoppingChop by hand to a coarse mince, discarding gristle and cartilage. A food processor turns long-cooked meat to paste, and the slices then have no texture at all.
- Moulds and settingA loaf pan or small bowls lined with plastic wrap unmould most easily. Give it at least 6 hours, and preferably overnight, in the refrigerator.
- Yield and keepingThe quantity depends entirely on how much meat the bones give up and how large the 'bowl' of liquor was; on the reading above, a cold plate for several, with mustard or pickles. Because there is no added acid or cure, keep it refrigerated and eat within three days.
This is head cheese logic applied to the soup kettle: cooked meat suspended in stock stiff enough to slice, a technique that runs from medieval galantines through brawn, souse, and the potted meats of Victorian larders. Its appearance in The Home Cook Book — compiled in the 1870s from contributions by Chicago and Toronto housewives, each recipe signed with the donor's name — reflects the book's steady interest in getting two dishes from one outlay. A shin or knuckle bought for soup gave broth for dinner and a cold entrée for the next day's supper table, at a time when a cold sliced dish was a normal part of breakfast or tea rather than a novelty. The gelatin came free, extracted from the bones themselves; commercial powdered gelatine was available by then but still an expense that a careful cook could simply do without.