Home › The World's Kitchen › Chicken Broth
Chicken Broth
Thoroughly wash in cold water and drain two pounds fresh chicken bones. Chop very finely, then place in a saucepan with three quarts cold water. Set the pan on the fire. Season with one and a half teaspoons salt and half teaspoon white pepper; as soon as it comes to a boil skim off the scum from the surface. Add one sliced carrot, one sliced onion, two sliced leeks, two branches celery, two branches parsley, one bay leaf, one clove and a sprig thyme. Cover the pan and let gently simmer for one hour and a half. Skim the fat from the surface, strain it through a cheesecloth into six cups and serve. N. B. As you have the capon broth left over from yesterday, use it in place of the water, but do not season again.
A plain white stock, written for a kitchen that broke down a bird every day and had yesterday's capon broth standing in the larder. Nothing here needs correcting, only translating.
- Two pounds of bonesBacks, necks, wing tips and carcasses all work, and a butcher will usually sell them cheaply. The recipe specifies fresh bones: raw ones give the pale, clean broth intended here, while roasted ones will darken it.
- "Chop very finely"The point is surface area, so the bones give up their gelatin within the ninety minutes allotted. A heavy cleaver on a board, or simply cracking the frames apart at the joints, is enough; a food processor is not the tool.
- Cold water, no lid at firstStarting cold and rising slowly is what brings the scum to the top in a raft you can lift off. Once it has been skimmed, the pan is covered for the simmer.
- "Gently simmer"Bare bubbles at the edge, well below a boil. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat and suspended protein and the broth turns cloudy and greasy; it can be clarified afterwards, but that is extra work.
- Branches and sprigsA branch of celery is one stalk; two branches of parsley means two stems, not a bunch. Two leeks sliced, whites and pale green, well rinsed of grit.
- Seasoning at the startOne and a half teaspoons of salt in three quarts is light by modern taste; a broth of this kind also served as a base for soups and sauces that would be seasoned again. Salt to finish if serving it as it is.
- Capon brothA capon is a castrated cockerel, fatter and more gelatinous than a modern supermarket bird, and uncommon now though still sold by some butchers. The note simply means: if you have unsalted chicken stock on hand, use it in place of the water; skip the seasoning if the stock you are using was seasoned already.
- Yield"Six cups" most likely means six serving cups, that is six portions, rather than six cups of volume; three quarts will not fall by half in a covered ninety-minute simmer. Chill it overnight and the fat lifts off in a solid cap, which is easier than skimming hot.
Chicken broth of this kind is the backbone of the French professional kitchen rather than a dish in its own right, and its placement in an international collection reflects how thoroughly that kitchen's method had been adopted in English-language cookery: cold water, a slow rise, a careful skim, and the standard aromatic set of carrot, onion, leek, celery, parsley, bay, clove and thyme. The closing note is the most revealing line on the page: yesterday's capon broth in the cold room, which is how a household or hotel kitchen with no freezer actually operated. Nothing was made from nothing; each day's stock was built on the last, and bones that a modern cook discards were the day's raw material.