Pot Au Feu
Ingredients
Directions
Simmer the broth
Take a good-sized beef bone with plenty of meat on it, extract the marrow and place it in a pot on the back of the range, covering the beef with three or more quarts of cold water; cover tightly and allow to simmer slowly all day long.
Enrich the soup
The next day, before heating, remove the cake of grease from the top, and add a large onion (previously stuffed full of whole cloves, and then roasted in the oven until it has a rich brown color), adding tomatoes or any other vegetables which one may fancy.
Add a leek or a section of garlic for additional flavor.
Add rice or vermicelli if desired.
Finish and serve
Just before serving, burn a little brown sugar and stir it through the soup.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Cloves
- Stud the onion to infuse warm, aromatic spice into the soup as it roasts.
The step that matters
Burning the brown sugar. Heating sugar past caramelization turns it bitter and dark, so it should be browned only until fragrant and amber. Stirring it in just before serving adds colour and a deep, toasted sweetness without letting it scorch the soup.
“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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