Queen Henrietta Maria’s Morning Broth
Adapted from British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History by Colin Spencer
Please see notes for a discussion of ingredient amount and cooking times.
Approximately 5 pounds/2 1/4 kilos mixed beef, lamb, veal, and chicken bones, yielded 9 cups/2.2 liters broth
Cooking time: 4-12 hours on a conventional stove.
Queen Henrietta Maria’s Morning Broth may be prepared using a pressure cooker, Instant Pot, or slow cooker. Follow your appliance’s instructions.
A mixture of beef, chicken, lamb, and veal bones: I used:
1/2 pound/227 grams veal bones
1.5 pounds/680 grams lamb shank, sliced in thirds
2.5 pounds /1 kilo beef bones
1.5 pounds/680 grams mixed chicken bones
1 onion, peeled and sliced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 bunch parsley (3 oz/90g)
a few sprigs thyme
1/4 teaspoon coriander seed
2 strands saffron
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
a generous handful salt (yes, I salt my broths)
3 parsley roots, trimmed (optional, as they can be hard to find) and cut into coins
1 leek, well washed and cut into coins
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into coins
1 bay leaf
The most important part of making this broth is cleaning the vegetables. Make sure the leek and parsley are free of grit.
If your carrots and parsley roots aren’t organic, peel them.
Put all ingredients in a pot that holds everything comfortably and cover with water. You want ingredients just covered, not swamped.
Bring to gentle simmer. Do not allow broth to boil.
Skim for first 20 minutes or so. If, like me, you encounter gritty soup, you can fix this at the end of cooking.
Allow broth to simmer gently, 4-12 hours.
To strain:
If your broth is nicely straw colored, spoon it through a colander into a deep bowl. Allow it to cool but don’t leave it out on the counter more than 1 hour. Broth ferments rapidly. Cover and refrigerate it up to three days. To keep broth refrigerated, reboil every third day.
Broth may be frozen up to three months.
Broth may be pressure canned for 20 minutes, 11psi at sea level. (which is what I did).
Serve Henrietta Maria’s Morning Broth in small cups by itself, with a diced vegetable garnish, or small diced pasta. It would also make a lovely first course or excellent base for holiday gravy.
Notes:
As discussed in the post, I regularly freeze leftover bones and cooking juices for making broths. I never measure amounts when doing so, but did this time to create the recipe.
Quantities are up to you. Do make sure you have a reasonably equal mixture of lamb, chicken, and beef. These can be bony, cheap cuts.
If you eat veal, even the smallest amount adds tremendous flavor to the broth.
You can make more or less broth according to your needs, the size of your pot, and the amount of storage space available.
Meat broths benefit from long cooking times–Julia Child, in Mastering The Art of French Cooking, says 4-5 hours. Ann Willan, in The Observer French Cookery School, says a veal broth should cook 10-12 hours. Barbara Kafka, in Soup, A Way of Life, says beef broth should cook 8 hours. Ultimately, the decision is yours. But the longer you can cook your broth, the better it will be.
Readers will note I did not brown my beef bones. If you wish to, the traditional procedure is to preheat the oven to 450F/230C and brown the beef bones well, turning then frequently, before adding them to the broth.