Culinary Chemistry / The Scientific Principles of Cookery, with Concise Instructions for Preparing Good and Wholesome Pickles, Vinegar, Conserves, Fruit Jellies, Marmalades, and Various Other Alimentary Substances Employed in Domestic Economy, with Observations on the Chemical Constitution and Nutritive Qualities of Different Kinds of Food.

by Friedrich Christian Accum

The principal or chief dishes that are prepared for the English table, what the scientific cooks for the marshals and generals of France would term dishes of the first order, are few in number. Flesh, fowl and fish, roasted, boiled or fried, accompanied by some simple and easy made puddings and pies, are the primary dishes of an English table. Soups and broths are less generally made use of; and the flesh, fowl and fish, served up in made dishes, are, like the lord mayor in his state coach, generally less noticed than the attendants.

BROTH

May be defined a weak decoction of meat, slightly seasoned with the addition of aromatic herbs, roots or spices, in which the flavour of the meat greatly predominates.

To produce a high flavoured broth, it is essential that the boiling of the meat be moderate, and continued for some time; the simmering should be done in a vessel nearly closed. Cooks consider it essential that the broth be clear; the scum, or albumen of the meat, which becomes coagulated and rises to the surface during the boiling, must therefore be removed from time to time.

The meat employed for broth (and also for soup and gravy), should be fresh, for if in the slightest degree tainted or musty, it infallibly communicates a very disagreeable taste to the broth; besides, fresh meat gives a more savoury broth than meat that has been kept for two or three days. It is also advisable to score the meat and to cut it into slices, or to bruise it with a mallet or cleaver.

Two pounds of muscular beef scored and cut into slices, affords a stronger and far more savoury broth, than 3 lbs. of the same beef when boiled in one piece. Cooks usually allow for good broth, one pound of muscular meat, to two quarts of water, and they suffer the fluid to simmer till reduced, by evaporation, to one pint, or one pint and a half. A second decoction may be made by again covering the meat with a less quantity of water, and suffering it to boil, taking care to supply the water from time to time as it becomes evaporated.

This reminds us of Rabelais, the humorous vicar of Meudon, who distinguishes, in his jocose way, two sorts of broths. (Bouillon de Prime,) prime-broth; and broth good for hounds; (Bouillon de levriers,) the meaning of which stands as follows.[25] The first designates that premature delibation of broth which the young monks in the convent used to steal, when they could, from the kitchen, in their way to the choir at the hour of “Prime,” a service which was performed at about seven or eight in the morning, when the porridge-pot, with all its ingredients, had been boiling for the space of one or two hours, and when the broth, full of eyes swimming gently on the golden surface, had already obtained an interesting appearance and taste. On the contrary, greyhound’s broth, (Bouillon de levriers,) means that portion of the porridge which was served to the novices after an ample presumption in favour of the Magnates of the monastery. This was good for nothing, and monks of inferior ranks were ready to throw it to the dogs.

[25] Tabella Cibaria, p. 23.

The flavouring ingredients, which are usually the domestic pot-herbs and indigenous roots, such as cellery, carrots, &c. should be added at the end of the process, to prevent their aromatic substances becoming dissipated by long simmering.

Dr. Kitchener[26] says, “meat from which broth has been made, is excellently well prepared for potting, and is quite as good, or better than that which has been boiled, till it is dry.”