To make six liters of nutritious broth with bones and marrow
- Bring 3 liters of water to the boil
- Brown two 3 cm thick slices of beef slank (I’m not sure how to translate it from dutch. In dutch it’s called schenkel. It is the same as osso bucco in italian. It is a slice of beef leg.) in coconut oil or real butter. You can use other cuts of meat, as long as there’s bone on it. Preferably organic, preferably with a joint.
- I put the beef slanks into my 6,5 liter pan and then add 3 liters of boiling water.
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I also hang two herb and spice bags in it. It has dried onion, dried pepper, celery seed, thyme, celery leaf, parsley, laurel, mace, cayenne pepper. It is a dutch brand: Honig.
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If there’s no joint (they are hard to find here), I add gelatine powder, about four table spoons. Dissolve the gelatine powder in cold water and add to the boiling water, while stirring. If you don’t stir enough, it will form clumps.
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I let this simmer for about 4 hours on a small heat.
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Last hour I might put some pumpkin puree in, if I have any left in the freezer from last season. You can also put fresh pumpkin in and puree when cooked.
Four hours later:
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I take out the herb and spice bags
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I take out the meat. I take out the marrow and cut the meat off the bone. The good pieces of meat I cut up and put aside. The bad pieces of meat, together with the marrow I add to a cup that comes with my hand blender: a high and narrow cup. I ladle some of the stock in it also. Then I blend the whole thing to a puree.
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I return the puree and the good pieces of meat to the soup
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If I used a cut with no meat on it, I would now add meatballs. If you just want broth, leave out the meatballs.
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I add stock cubes. My stock cubes are for a 1/2 liter, so I should add 12 by that reasoning. But four is just perfect.
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I finish the soup by adding vegetables. If you just want broth, leave out the vegetables.
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Add water until you have 6 liters of soup.
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I cook it for another 7 – 10 minutes.
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Cool the soup fast if you’re not going to eat it all immediately.
Cooling soup
- First trick: use less water. Then, after the soup is completely finished, add ice cubes or cold water to get to the intended volume of soup. Take care that you season the soup enough to account for the extra amount of water.
- Second trick: When the soup is finished, put the pan in water with ice packs added to it. It you don’t have ice packs, cold water will do too of course.
Keeping soup fresh longer
Simply add a dropper full of 15% Lugols in your cold soup. Don’t add it to warm soup, or it will evaporate too fast. The Lugols will kill any bacteria that dare come close. It will look a bit strange when you start to stir it in, but the colour will fade. Also, you won’t taste it. If you have a lower concentration of Lugols, just add more accordingly. It’s no use adding SSKI, this will only kill bacteria in a much higher dosage.
If mold is more your problem: add borax powder. For this amount of soup, a quarter teaspoon should suffice. Borax dissolves much faster in hot water than in cold water, so add while the soup is still hot.