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Lamb Broth, Esperance
Cut in small square pieces one pound raw, lean lamb, one small carrot, one ditto turnip, one ditto onion and two ditto leeks. Place these in a saucepan with tablespoon melted butter and gently fry ten minutes, stirring once in a while, then pour in one quart broth, a pint tomato juice and quart and a half water, adding one beef marrow bone. Season with one and a half teaspoons salt and half teaspoon pepper, let boil twenty-five minutes, add two ounces well-washed barley, let boil thirty minutes more, then add half pint fresh green peas, half pint fresh string beans cut in short pieces and two tablespoons Worcestershire sauce. Lightly mix and boil fifty minutes longer. Remove bone, skim fat from surface, pour soup into a hot soup tureen and serve.
A large, forgiving lamb-and-barley soup in the Scotch broth family, padded out with tomato and a long list of vegetables. The only real problem is the timing, which was written for a period that liked its vegetables thoroughly done.
- The hinge: cut the vegetable cooking shortAs written, the peas and string beans boil fifty minutes and the root vegetables closer to two hours; everything will be grey and collapsed. Add the peas and beans in the last 8-10 minutes, and if you want the carrot and turnip to hold their shape, hold half of them back to go in with the barley.
- "Ditto"It simply repeats "one small" from the line before: one small carrot, one small turnip, one small onion, two small leeks. Cut all of them into small dice matching the lamb.
- Liquid volumeOne quart broth plus one pint tomato juice plus a quart and a half of water is six pints, three-quarters of a gallon, in total; with the meat, bone and vegetables a pot of at least six quarts is comfortable. Expect noticeable reduction over the long simmer.
- Marrow boneA beef marrow bone from a butcher is the intent; a sawn shin or knuckle bone works. It contributes body and fat as much as flavour, and the instruction to skim the surface before serving matters more than usual because of it.
- BarleyTwo ounces is a generous quarter cup of pearl barley, and it will keep swelling and thickening for as long as it sits. If you plan to hold or reheat the soup, expect to loosen it with more broth.
- Tomato juicePlain unseasoned canned tomato juice, not a spiced or salted cocktail blend. If you only have canned tomatoes, blend and strain a pint's worth.
- SeasoningA teaspoon and a half of salt is light for six pints of liquid, especially if the broth is unsalted; taste and correct at the end. Two tablespoons of Worcestershire is assertive but deliberate, and it does much of the seasoning work here.
- YieldThe pot starts with three quarts of liquid and loses some over the long boil, so expect appreciably less than that in the tureen. It improves overnight, allowing for the barley thickening.
This comes from Alexander Filippini's International Cook Book, the work of a chef long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and it shows the house habit of hanging a proper name on a standard preparation. Esp"hchope," and garnish names of this sort were commonly borrowed from ships, hotels, private clients or simply chosen for sound; no dish appears to be documented behind the label, and Filippini offers no explanation. Underneath the name is something much older and plainer: the northern European broth of mutton or lamb thickened with barley, of which Scotch broth is the best-known form. What marks this version as turn-of-the-century American is the pint of tomato juice and the two tablespoons of Worcestershire, both used here to give a thrifty barley soup a darker, sharper finish than its ancestors ever had.