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Soup

Portable Soup

A beef extract made by boiling beef, reducing, and drying, then dissolved in water to make soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Portable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the extract

  1. Place the beef in a large pot with cold water.

  2. Gradually heat the water and bring it to a boil.

  3. Boil the beef for a long time until the liquid is reduced.

  4. Strain the liquid and continue boiling it down until it reaches a dry consistency.

Make the soup

  1. To make soup, dissolve 1 ounce of the extract in 1 quart of water and add salt to taste.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Beef
Long simmering draws out its protein and flavor, which concentrate into the extract as the liquid reduces.

The step that matters

Boiling the liquid down to a dry consistency. As water evaporates, flavor and sugars concentrate, and the thick residue can scorch on the pot bottom. Stirring and watching the heat prevents burnt, bitter flavor.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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