Asparagus Soup (Two Versions)

Ingredients

• 5 lb lean beef
• 3 slices bacon
• 300 ml pale ale
• a few white beet leaves
• spinach
• 1 cabbage lettuce
• a little mint
• a little sorrel
• a little marjoram
• 600 ml asparagus tops, cut small
• 1 French roll crust
• pepper and salt
• 2 quarts water
• 1.5 pint split peas
• 1 teacup gravy
• 4 young onions
• 1 lettuce, cut small
• 0.5 head celery
• 300 ml asparagus, cut small
• 300 ml cream
• 3 quarts water
• spinach juice (for colouring)

Method

Start with the beef. Cut it into 50g pieces and dry them thoroughly — moisture stops browning. Don't flour them; that's Victorian habit masking poor heat control. Instead, render the bacon in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat until the fat runs clear and the meat crisps at the edges. This takes 5–7 minutes. Remove the bacon, crumble it, and set aside.

Raise the heat to medium-high. Working in batches, sear the beef until the surface is mahogany-brown on at least two sides — 3–4 minutes per batch. You're not cooking it through, you're developing flavour via the braising Maillard reaction. This step cannot be rushed or skipped. Return all the beef to the pot with the rendered fat, pour in the pale ale, and scrape the base with a wooden spoon to dissolve the fond. Add 1.2 litres cold water, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a simmer. Skim the grey foam that rises in the first 10 minutes — this is denatured protein, and leaving it clouds the broth. Reduce to the gentlest simmer, cover partially, and leave for 90 minutes. The liquid should barely move; aggressive heat breaks down the structure of collagen into a soupy mush rather than a silky emulsion.

Strain the broth through muslin into a clean pot. Discard the beef solids. Skim the fat from the surface using kitchen paper pressed lightly across the top. You'll lose some flavour-carrying fat, but the alternative is a greasy soup — choose clarity.

Add the white beet leaves, spinach, cabbage lettuce, and the pounded herbs (mint, sorrel, marjoram) to the clear broth. Bring to a rolling boil and cook for 8 minutes. The bitter greens will soften and their chlorophyll will degrade into an olive-brown colour — this is oxidation, irreversible but honest. Add the asparagus tops, cut into 1cm pieces, and simmer until they yield to a fork without disintegrating, 6–8 minutes more. Taste and adjust salt; the broth should taste of stock and vegetable, not salt mask.

Finish with the crumbled bacon stirred through. Serve in hot bowls with the toasted French roll crust on the side for dunking. The alternative version — splitting peas into purée, stewing root vegetables separately, combining with cream and spinach juice for colour — is an entirely different soup: thicker, sweeter, more about vegetable than beef. Pick one version based on what your kitchen offers that day, not indecision.