Sunday, December 13, 2009

Scotch Broth

I was looking through the index in one of my favorite cookbooks (Fannie Farmer) this weekend and came across a reference to Scotch Broth. The name itself intrigued me, so I looked up the recipe. Scotch Broth is basically a wintertime lamb soup made with neck slices, root vegetables, barley and butter. We made it for dinner last night, and it was wonderful!

Here's the recipe - we varied slightly from Fannie Farmer:

3 lbs lamb breast or neck slices
8 cups cold water
1/2 cup barley
3 TBS butter
2 carrots, diced fine
2 stalks celery, diced fine
2 small white turnips or rutabagas, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, diced fine
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

Remove most of the fat from the meat and cut into small pieces. Put it in a pot with the cold water. Bring to a biol and stir in the barley. Simmer, partially covered, for 1-1/2 hours, or until the meat and barley are tender, adding more water if any evaporates. Remove the meat from the bones. Cool the soup and skim off the fat. Melt the butter in a skillet and add the carrots, celery, turnip (or rutabaga), and onion. Cook over low heat, stirring often, for 10 minutes. Add to the soup. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and cook for another 10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Serve piping hot.

This was a great seasonal meal! Everything we used with the exception of the butter and the water came from the Auburn Farmer's Market! After a day outside in the cold rain, it really hit the spot. I had visions of Scottish shepherds coming home to a meal like this!

2 comments:

  1. I love hearing about all the delicious things that come with raising your own food. It makes me want to explore livestock to a further extent. The disconnect between what we eat and where it comes from makes me a little weary. Growing your own food/getting it from local farmers is a much more responsible way to live. If the walls of factory slaughter houses were made of glass, we'd all be vegetarians. (except for those of us who take on the responsibility of doing it ourselves)

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  2. Thanks Dan for posting this recipe link on Facebook! It's now the end(ish) of 2012 and your post from 2009 is still so appreciated. How is the best way for us to buy the meat directly from you? Maybe it's time to repost on Facebook how we can buy lamb, mutton, other items from you that are considered scrap meat (and thus not sold) in the big box grocery stores today? Do you have a "soup/stew meat package" for sale? Or recommendations for where to get them if you don't personally? I bet there are quite a few folks who would love to buy some soup/stew meat and bones for this winter.

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