Oxcheek Soup
(England.) Fry 2 ounces of chopped ham with 2 onions and 2 carrots, minced, a bayleaf, some parsley, in 2 ounces of butter. Add 2 small heads of celery, 1 parsnip, and 2 slices of toast, a little mace, 1 clove, and 5 quarts of water, and the oxcheek cut into dice. Simmer gently 5 hours. Season to taste. It will make about 4 quarts of rich but economical broth.
A long, gentle braise-in-broth of the sort English kitchens made from the cheapest cut on the animal. The original assumes you know how big an ox cheek is and how to skim it; those are the two gaps worth filling.
- The cheek itselfNo weight is given. A single ox (beef) cheek typically runs somewhere in the region of 1.5-2 lb trimmed, though sizes vary; two cheeks would give a much heavier soup. Ask a butcher for beef cheek and have the silverskin removed, or trim the thick membrane yourself before dicing.
- Skim, then skim againThis is the hinge. Cheek is collagen-rich and fatty, and five hours of simmering renders a great deal of both. Skim scum in the first twenty minutes and fat throughout, or chill the finished soup overnight and lift the cap off.
- Never let it boil"Simmer gently" is meant literally. A rolling boil emulsifies the rendered fat into the broth and turns it cloudy and greasy; keep it at a bare shiver, lid ajar.
- Heads of celeryA "head" here is the whole bunch, not a single rib, and older celery bunches were likely smaller than the modern trimmed bunch. Two full modern bunches would probably overwhelm it; one bunch, leaves included, is closer to the intent.
- The two slices of toastThese are a thickener, an old trick for giving body without flour. They break down almost completely over five hours. Use dry, well-browned bread, not buttered breakfast toast.
- Mace and cloveMace is the lacy aril of nutmeg, warmer and less sweet than the nut; a blade or about a quarter teaspoon ground. One clove for four quarts is deliberate restraint, and going further will dominate everything.
- Volume and vesselFive quarts of water plus vegetables and meat needs an 8-quart stockpot at minimum. Expect losses to evaporation over five hours; that, together with the volume taken up by the solids, presumably accounts for the drop from five quarts to the stated four.
- Season at the endSalt is left to the finish because of the ham and the long reduction. Taste only after the fat is off, then salt and add a little vinegar or Worcestershire to lift the sweetness of the parsnip and carrot.
- YieldAbout four quarts, serving eight to ten as a first course, or six as a meal if you fish out the meat, chop it and return it to the strained broth.
Ox cheek was one of the standard cheap cuts of the English butcher's shop through the nineteenth century, sold alongside shin, skirt and cowheel, and English cookbooks long treat it as the sensible foundation for a large, sustaining soup. The muscle works constantly and is dense with connective tissue, which is exactly why it demands the five-hour simmer and exactly why it yields a broth described here as "rich but economical" - the richness is dissolved collagen, not fat or cream. That this appears in a collection of dishes gathered from abroad, labelled simply "(England.)", places English cooking among the national cookeries the book sets out to represent.