Common Broth
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the leg of beef into thin slices and break the bone.
Place the beef in a large pot and fill it with cold water.
Make the broth
Heat the pot over the stove until it begins to boil.
Skim off the scum.
Add a pint of cold water.
Stir the meat to help the scum rise.
Continue to skim and add cold water as needed to keep the broth from boiling fast.
Once clear, reduce the heat to simmer gently for about four 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 leg
- Provides the meat, bone and connective tissue that give the broth its body and flavor.
- Cold water
- Serves as the cooking liquid that extracts flavor and gelatin from the beef and bone.
The step that matters
Skimming the scum while the broth heats. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid heats. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting. Adding cold water and avoiding a hard boil slows the rise of scum and keeps the broth from turning cloudy.
“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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