Source: Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861)
Crack the game bones and remains into a large saucepan. Rough-chop the carrots, onions, celery head, and turnip—you want surface area for extraction, not neat pieces. Add the vegetables to the bones and pour over the 1200 ml stock. Bring to a bare simmer and hold it there for two hours. The bone marrow, collagen, and connective tissue will leach into the liquid; a rolling boil will cloud the broth with denatured proteins. Skim fat and grey scum from the surface every 20 minutes or so—this is the albumin coagulating, and it muddies both flavour and clarity.
Strain the stock through muslin into a clean pan, discarding the solids. Rinse the pearl barley under cold water to remove surface starch. Blanch it in fresh water for five minutes, drain, then repeat twice more. This pre-cooking eliminates the bitter tannins that raw barley deposits. Return the barley to the strained stock and simmer for 45–50 minutes until it yields easily to a knife but holds its shape.
Pull out half the cooked barley and set it aside. The remaining half goes into a mortar with the three hard-boiled egg yolks. Pound them together into a rough paste—the yolk's lecithin and fat will bind with the starch in the barley, creating a thickening agent. Push this mixture through a fine sieve; the yolk solids act as a natural emulsification point, helping the cream integrate without splitting.
Warm the 120 ml cream separately (do not boil it yet). Stir the sieved yolk-barley paste into the simmering stock gradually, whisking to avoid lumps. Pour in the warm cream and season with salt to taste. Bring the soup back to the boil, which activates the binding and gives it body. The egg yolk stabilises the emulsion between fat and liquid. Ladle into hot bowls and scatter the reserved barley over the surface. Serve at once.
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