Beef Soup à la Julienne

Ingredients

• 6 lb lean beef (shin)
• 6 qt water
• 2 carrots
• 3 turnips
• 0.5 head white cabbage
• 1 pt green corn (or dried Shaker corn, soaked overnight)
• 1 head celery
• 1 qt tomatoes
• to taste salt
• optional handful vermicelli or macaroni

Method

Start your stock the day before. Crack the beef shin bones to expose the marrow — this releases gelatin during cooking — and blanch the meat and bones in boiling water for two minutes, then rinse under cold water. This removes blood and scum that would cloud your final soup. Place the cleaned meat, bones, and marrow in a heavy-bottomed pot with 6 quarts of cold water and bring to a bare simmer over low heat. The temperature here matters: you want a gentle bubble, not a rolling boil, because violent agitation will break down muscle fibres and emulsify fat into the broth, leaving it murky instead of clear. Maintain this for 6-7 hours, checking the level every hour or so and topping up with boiling water only as needed. The longer simmer converts collagen into gelatin, thickening the broth imperceptibly. Once the meat pulls apart easily with a fork, remove from heat, cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight. This lets the fat set solid on the surface for easy removal.

The next day, lift off the fat cap and discard it. Remove the meat — reserve it for mincing or serving separately — and return the stock to medium heat. Add a pinch of salt to lift any remaining scum to the surface and skim carefully with a spoon. While this heats, prepare your vegetables: dice the carrots, turnips, celery, cabbage, corn, and tomatoes very fine — this size matters because small pieces cook evenly and distribute flavour throughout the broth. Cook the sliced vegetables separately in barely enough water to cover them until they collapse into a soft mass; this concentrates their flavour into a small volume of liquid. Blanch the cabbage separately in two changes of water to soften its sulphur compounds. Cook one whole carrot in water until completely tender, then cool and dice it for garnish.

Pour the cooked sliced vegetables and their cooking water into the hot stock. Bring back to a gentle simmer and hold for 30 minutes — this melds the flavours without breaking down your clarity. Strain through fine muslin or a chinois without pressing: tip the contents gently into the sieve and let gravity work. Never push or stir; this crushes vegetable fibres and clouds the liquid. Pour the clear soup into your serving bowl, distribute the reserved diced carrot into the tureen, and finish with a handful of boiled vermicelli or macaroni if you like. Serve hot.