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Veal Broth Aux Racines
Cut into small dice pieces one medium red carrot, one white turnip, two leeks, two branches white celery, one medium, white onion, two, ounces lean raw veal from a leg, and one ounce lean raw ham. Heat one and a half teaspoons melted butter in a saucepan, add the above articles, stir well with the wooden spoon for one minute, then gently brown for ten minutes. Moisten with two and a half quarts white broth, season with a teaspoon salt and two saltspoons pepper, let come to a boil; skim the fat from the surface. If there be raw meat bones of any kind on hand add them to the pan. Cover the pan and let simmer for twenty-five minutes, then add two tablespoons of raw Italian rice. Season with one teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, re-cover the pan and slowly cook for thirty minutes more. Remove all the bones from the pan, skim off the fat, pour into a hot soup tureen and serve.
A clear root-vegetable soup thickened only by a spoonful of rice. The measurements are precise for the period, but two of them need translating and one of the timings will overcook the rice into porridge.
- Aux racinesFrench for "with roots" — the dish is defined by the diced carrot, turnip, leek, celery and onion, all cut to a uniform small dice so they cook evenly and look deliberate in the bowl. Aim for 1/4-inch pieces.
- A saltspoonAbout 1/4 teaspoon, so two saltspoons of pepper is roughly 1/2 teaspoon. That is a lot of pepper for 2 1/2 quarts of a delicate broth; start with half and adjust at the end.
- White brothAn unbrowned stock from veal or chicken bones, lightly seasoned. A good low-sodium chicken stock is the closest supermarket equivalent; avoid dark brown beef stock, which will bury the vegetables.
- Rice timingThirty minutes will collapse Italian short-grain rice entirely. Arborio or carnaroli need 16-18 minutes for grains that still hold together; add the rice for the last twenty minutes at most, and taste from fifteen.
- Gently brown for ten minutesThis is the flavour hinge and the one step not to rush. In only 1 1/2 teaspoons of butter the vegetables and diced veal want low heat and frequent stirring — a light golden colour, not a hard sear, or the scorched bits will turn the broth bitter.
- SkimmingSkim once as it comes to the boil and again before serving, as instructed. A clear surface is the point of this style of soup; a fat-flecked one reads as careless.
- The bones"Raw meat bones of any kind on hand" assumes a kitchen with butchering scraps or trimmings to spare. A few raw chicken wings or a veal knuckle bone do the same job; remove them before serving as directed.
- YieldTwo and a half quarts, reduced a little in cooking, gives eight to ten first-course servings. Reheat gently — the rice will keep absorbing liquid overnight, so thin with extra broth rather than water.
Soups "aux racines" belong to the French classical repertoire of light garnished broths, where the name announces the garnish rather than the base: aux racines for root vegetables, julienne for matchsticks, brunoise for fine dice. This one shows the hybrid character of early twentieth-century hotel cookery in America, which is what a book called The International Cook Book was selling: a French frame, Italian rice as the garnish, and a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce — savoury seasoning — a small quantity of meat — two ounces of veal with one ounce of ham — goes into the pot, a reminder that these recipes were written when meat was a seasoning as often as a centrepiece.