380. Borsch, Or Polish Soup

Place in a good-sized stockpot a large knuckle of veal, an old hen, partially roasted and colored, a couple of marrow-bones, one pound of streaky lean bacon (trimmed and parboiled for the purpose), two carrots, two heads of celery, and two onions stuck with six cloves; also a large fagot of parsley and green onions tied together with a little thyme, sweet basil, bay-leaf, and mace ; then add a teaspoonful of white peppercorns. Fill the stockpot up with prepared juice of beet-root,* set it upon the stove-fire to boil, and after being skimmed, let it boil gently by the side of the fire for an hour; then add a fowl, a duck, a partridge (trussed for boiling), and six pork sausages. Observe, that the foregoing articles be not overdone, and be careful to take them up directly they are sufficiently braized ; then place them on a dish, and set them in the larder to get cold.

While the stock is in preparation, peel two raw beet-roots, and shred them, also two onions, and an equal quantity of the white part of two heads of celery, as if for Julienne soup; fry these vegetables in a little butter, of a light color, moisten with a quart of broth from the boiling stock, and having gently boiled them down to the consistency of a demi-glaze, set them by in a soup-pot in the larder. Then chop four ounces of fillet of beef with the same quantity of beef suet, add a little pepper, salt, and nutmeg, and two yelks of eggs; pound this force-meat thoroughly, and use half of it to make thirty small round quenelles, by rolling them with a little flour on the table; poach these in a little broth, and having drained them upon a napkin, add them to the shred vegetables put by in the soup-pot. With the remainder of the force-meat make the same number of very small oval quenelles, which, after being rolled with flour, set in a small sauta-pan to be fried of a light color, just before dinner-time. Boil four eggs hard, cut them in halves lengthwise; take the yelks out and pound them with two raw yelks of eggs, a little grated horse-radish, chopped parsley, nutmeg, pepper, and salt; fill the eggs again with this farce, and having replaced the halves together, dip them in a beaten egg, and then roll them in bread-crumb, and set them aside to be fried at the same time as the small quenelles before mentioned. After five hours boiling, strain off the stock-pot; when every particle of fat is removed, clarify it in the usual way, and then keep the consomme boiling, in order to reduce it to the quantity required for the soup.

* The beet-root to be used in the borsch is thus made;-Procure two dozen fine beetroots, scraped and washed, bruise them in a mortar, and place them in a large-sized earthen pan, into which throw in a pailful of water, and two pounds of bread-crumb. Cover the pan with the lid, carefully cementing it down with a paste of flour and water, in order to exclude the air; and set the pan in a moderately warm place, so as to accelerate the fermentation. Ten days will suffice to produce the desired result; on uncovering the pan, it will be found to contain a bright red, acidulated liquor.

In the meantime, trim the meat off the fowl, duck, and pheasant, into neat scollops; cut the bacon and sausages into small round balls, and carefully place all these ingredients in the silver lining of a soup-tureen, keeping the shreded vegetables an braized beef quenelles on the top; put them in the hot closet until dinner-time. Then grate or pound a couple of beet-roots, place this in a stewpan on the fire, and boil it up for a few minutes, extract the juice by strong pressure through the tammy-cloth, and use it to color the consomme, so as to give it the appearance of claret. Just before sending to table, pour the boiling consomme to the ingredients contained in the soup-tureen, adding a pinch of minionette pepper; send up the fried eggs cut in halves, and also the fried quenelles, in a plate, to be handed round with the borsch.