The popular meaning of the term in France is, the soup and the beef and vegetables served as _releves_; and, with the working-cla.s.ses, the only thing (with bread, wine, and fruit) composing the family dinner. The French army is fed on this _pot-au-feu_ three hundred and sixty days in the year.
It is a great mistake to believe that bones or veal make good broth; by boiling or simmering bones or veal, you obtain a gelatinous liquid, but not a rich broth with a pleasant flavor. When properly made, broth is clear. If milky, it has been made with bones, veal, or very inferior beef.
_Broth for Potages._--Take three pounds of good, lean, fresh beef, from any part except the shin. There must not be more than two ounces of bone to a pound of meat, and the less bone the better. Place the meat in a soup-kettle or iron saucepan lined with tin, with three quarts of cold water and salt, and set it on a good fire. After about thirty minutes, the sc.u.m or alb.u.men of the meat will gather on the surface, and the water will commence boiling. Now place the kettle on a more moderate fire, add one gill of cold water, and begin to skim off the sc.u.m, which will take only a few minutes. Then add one middle-sized carrot, half as much turnip, one middle-sized leek, a stalk of celery, one of parsley, a bay-leaf, one onion with two cloves stuck in it, and two cloves of garlic. Keep the kettle between simmering and boiling heat for about five hours. Dish the meat with carrot, turnip, and leek around it, and serve it as a _releve_. Strain the broth, and it is ready for use.
If the broth is required to be richer, use more beef and less water, but follow the same process; if weaker, use more water and less beef, but still follow the same process.
_Broth for Sauces and Gravies._--Place in a soup-kettle or saucepan fresh bones of beef, mutton, lamb, veal, or poultry--of either, or of all; also, bones of the same meats from roasted pieces; also tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of the same, if very fresh, with one quart of cold water to every pound of bones or meat; skim it like the preceding, add the same vegetables and seasonings, and simmer for at least six hours. Then skim off very carefully all the fat on the surface, pa.s.s the remainder through a strainer or a sieve, and it is ready for use. This broth is certainly very inferior to the preceding one, but it is excellent for sauces and gravies, and is very cheaply made. It may be used for potages also; but, as we have said above, it is very gelatinous, and cannot be compared with the highly nutritious beef-broth.
Broth that is not to be used immediately must be cooled quickly after being strained, as the quicker it is cooled the longer it keeps. As soon as cold, put it in a stone jar or crockery vessel, and place it in a cool, dry, and dark place. It will keep three or four days in winter, but only one day in summer. If the weather is stormy, it will not keep even for twelve hours; it turns sour very quickly.
I do not put parsnips or thyme in broth, the taste of these two vegetables being too strong. They really neutralize the fine aroma of broth. Even in this nineteenth century there are some pretty good cooks who put thyme and parsnip in broth, but they do it by routine. Routine is in every thing the greatest enemy of progress. Ancient cookery used to put in the _pot_ (old name for soup-kettle) a burnt onion to give an amber color to the broth. This has exactly the same effect as thyme and parsnip, giving it a bad taste, and neutralizing the flavor given to the broth by the osmazome of the meat. When broth of an amber color is desired, add to it a few drops of burnt sugar, the receipt for making which will be found elsewhere.
_Consomme._--There are two ways of making _consomme_: one is to make broth as above, with the exception that five pounds of lean beef, instead of three, are used with three quarts of water, and simmered from seven to eight hours, instead of five, the vegetables and seasonings being the same; or by boiling broth gently till properly reduced.
The other way is to roast, until they are only one-third done, one, two, or three fowls, not under two years old; then place them in a soup-kettle with three pounds of lean beef; wet with three quarts of cold water; skim off as above directed; add the same vegetables and seasonings as for broth for potages. After having simmered the whole for three hours, the fowl or fowls must be taken out of the kettle, and the rest is to be simmered for about three hours longer. The meat, vegetables, and seasonings are then taken from the kettle or saucepan; the liquor is strained, and that liquor is the best _consomme_ that can be made; or by boiling the same, gently, in three quarts of good broth, you make _consomme_ also.
The reason for directing to use one, two, or three fowls is, that the more fowls used, the better and richer the broth. The fowls after having been thus used may be prepared in salad, and make a very excellent dish.
One pound of beef is enough to make broth for a potage for three or four persons.
Always use fresh meat; meat with a venison taste or tainted would spoil if not entirely destroy the broth.
_To clarify Broth._--If not as clear as wanted, beat the white of an egg with a gill of cold broth, and turn into the broth; boil gently about ten minutes, and strain through a cloth or towel.
Any kind of potage made with broth may be made with _consomme_. It may also be made with water, adding b.u.t.ter. With _consomme_ it is richer, and with water much inferior, than with broth.
When a rump-piece is used to make broth, it is better to bone it first, and take it from the soup-kettle after three or four hours; it is served as a _releve_, or prepared as cold beef. The broth is finished as directed; the bones and vegetables being kept on the fire longer than the meat.
Chicken and turkey broth are often called _potage de sante_ (potage of health).
_Chicken._--Roast or bake till turning yellow, a chicken over two years old. Put it in a soup-kettle with three pints of water, and set it on a rather slow fire; skim off the sc.u.m, add a middling-sized onion, a leek, a few stalks of chervil if handy, a middling-sized head of lettuce, and salt; simmer about three hours. Take out the chicken and vegetables, skim off the fat, strain, and use. This broth is excellent for a weak stomach, and is easy of digestion. The chicken is served in salad.
_Turkey._--Procure a rather old turkey and roast or bake it till about one-third done; put it in a soup-kettle with about a pint of water to a pound of meat, and set it on a rather slow fire. As soon as the sc.u.m comes on the surface, skim it off carefully; then add two onions, two leeks, two or three heads of lettuce, a small handful of chervil if handy, and salt. Simmer about five hours.
Use the broth as chicken-broth above, and serve the turkey in salad.
_Fish_ (also called _a la Lucullus_).--Slice three middling-sized onions and fry them with one ounce of b.u.t.ter till turning yellow; add three or four pounds of fish (ba.s.s, pike, trout, salmon, and the like), any fish having a firm and compact flesh, of one or several kinds; add also two carrots, two onions, and one leek, all sliced; four stalks of parsley, one of thyme, one clove of garlic, a bay-leaf, one clove, six pepper-corns, salt; cover the whole with cold water, set on a good but not brisk fire, boil gently for about two hours. If the water is boiling away, add some more; then strain, and use.
This broth may be used for _bisque_ and fish sauces, instead of beef-broth.
It may be made rich; for instance, instead of three pounds of fish, use six, seven, eight pounds, or more, and seasonings in proportion.
Louis XV. was on a visit to the monastery of Saint Denis one day during Lent; after having walked all over the grounds and gardens, he was offered a cup of broth by the superior.
Being a little fatigued, he took the cup and drank the whole at one draught.
In going back to Versailles, one of his suite, who did not like the monk-superior, adroitly alluded to the cup of broth, and managed to persuade the king that the monk had done it on purpose; that is, had made the king partake of meat-broth, when it was forbidden by the Church.
The next day the monk-superior was sent for and brought before the king.
On hearing the object of the summons, he asked the king if the broth had indisposed him. Being answered in the negative, he begged to be allowed to prepare the same broth before the king himself, which he did, and from that time till his death the king used to send several hundred pounds of fish during Lent to the monks of Saint-Denis.
_Frog._--Skin and put the hind-legs of two dozen of frogs in cold water for an hour; drain and put them in a saucepan, and set it on a slow fire; stir now and then till they are turning yellow, then take them off and chop the flesh rather fine; put back in the pan with a carrot sliced, a stalk of celery and one leek, both chopped, a little salt, and cover the whole with water. Simmer for about two hours; mash the whole through a colander, add b.u.t.ter which you stir and mix in, and it is ready for use.
This broth, taken warm before retiring, is excellent for persons having a cough or cold.
It is also excellent for consumptive persons, and is only second to snail-broth.
_Another._--Take the hind-legs of fifty well-skinned green frogs, put them in cold water and a little salt for half an hour--drain them; then put them in a crockery kettle, with a leek, half a carrot, two stalks of celery, a middling-sized parsnip, a turnip, two onions, one clove of garlic, two ounces of fat bacon, a little salt, and white pepper; cover the whole well with cold water, set on the fire, simmer gently about four hours; strain, pour on _croutons_, and serve.
The hind-legs of the frogs are taken from the strainer, placed on a dish, and served at breakfast the next day, with a white sauce, or in frica.s.see, as a chicken.
_Game._--Roast or bake, till about one-third done, two prairie-hens, and put them in a soup-kettle with about one pound of lean beef, salt, and five pints of water. Set the kettle on a rather slow fire, skim off the sc.u.m when it gathers on the surface, and then add half a carrot, two stalks of parsley, one of celery, one onion with a clove stuck in it, a bay-leaf, six pepper-corns, and two cloves of garlic. Simmer about three hours, and take the birds out of the kettle; simmer then two hours longer; strain, and the broth is ready for use.
Game-broth is warming and stimulating; it may be taken alone, or prepared with _croutons_, rice, vermicelli, or other Italian pastes, the same as beef-broth.
The prairie-hens are served in _salmis_, and the beef is served as boiled beef.
_Snail._--Clean and prepare twenty-five snails as directed. Put them in a saucepan, with a carrot, an onion, and a head of lettuce, all chopped, a small handful of chervil, a few leaves of sorrel, and a little salt; cover the whole with three pints of cold water. Boil slowly for about three hours, strain the broth, add a little b.u.t.ter to it, and it is ready for use.
A tumblerful of this broth, taken warm before retiring, is certainly the best thing for a consumptive person.
It is also excellent for a cough.
Just salt the snails to taste, and eat them as they are, warm or cold.
_Veal._--Procure two pounds of veal, from the neck or breast piece. Put the meat in a soup-kettle with two quarts of cold water and a little salt; set it on a good fire, and skim off the sc.u.m as soon as it gathers on the surface. When skimmed, add a head of lettuce, a leek (and a few stalks of chervil if handy); simmer for about three hours; strain, and use.
This broth, as well as chicken and turkey broth, is excellent for convalescent persons.
It may be made richer by putting a little more meat, according to taste; but generally the physician gives directions.
_Another._--Soak a calf"s liver in cold water for two hours, clean and wash it well; put it in a soup-kettle with about three pints of cold water, salt, boil gently for an hour and a half, and then add a handful of water-cresses; simmer fifteen minutes longer, strain and use.
_Another._--Proceed as above in every particular, except that you use a handful of chervil instead of water-cresses.
_Another._--Use three or four leeks instead of water-cresses, and proceed as above for every other particular.
The last three especially make a very refreshing drink, and are a great relief in some cases of fever.
_Vegetable Broth_ (called also _Bouillon Maigre_).--Sc.r.a.pe, clean, and slice three carrots and three turnips, peel three onions; fry the whole with a little b.u.t.ter till it turns rather yellow; and then add two plants of celery cut in pieces, three or four leeks, also cut in pieces; stir and fry the whole for about six minutes. When fried, add also one clove of garlic, salt, pepper, two cloves, two stalks of parsley, a little nutmeg grated; cover with about three quarts of water. Keep on a rather slow fire, skim off the sc.u.m carefully, and then simmer for about three hours. Strain, and use.
This liquor is called vegetable broth, and is used instead of broth in time of Lent by persons who do not want to use beef-broth.
_Another._--Proceed as above, and with the same vegetables till they are fried. Then add salt, pepper, two cloves of garlic, four stalks of parsley, three cloves, a little nutmeg grated, two quarts of white beans previously soaked in cold water for twenty-four hours, and five or six quarts of water. Skim it as above; simmer for about four hours; strain, and use.
The beans, carrots, turnips, and leeks may be mashed through a colander and served in _puree_.
_Another._--Proceed as above in every particular, with the exception that instead of using beans, you use peas, lentils, chestnuts, or samp.