Beef Soup or Beef Bouillon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the meat from the bones.
Bind the meat with a cord or cut it into strips.
Crack the bones thoroughly with a mallet.
Place the bones in a pot, followed by the meat.
Pour in 4 quarts of filtered water.
Simmer and strain
Heat the mixture very slowly without adding salt until the meat is nearly cooked.
Boil the meat until it falls apart, skimming the soup occasionally.
Remove any vegetables once tender.
Strain the soup through a fine strainer after about 6-7 hours.
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
- Breaks down into flavour and gelatin as it cooks slowly, giving the broth body and savoury depth.
- Bones (in the method)
- Release marrow and collagen into the water, adding richness and body to the broth.
The step that matters
Heat the mixture very slowly without salt. Gentle heating lets the meat release its juices and proteins gradually, producing a clearer broth. Boiling early makes the liquid cloudy, and salt added at the start can toughen the meat and concentrate as the water reduces.
“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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