Author Topic: Hard Soup  (Read 734 times)

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Offline MOGorilla

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Hard Soup
« on: July 25, 2003, 07:33:29 AM »
I used to run around with a die hard group of hairy men who periodically lived off the land.   Here is something they always had around.

Get beef bones, with lots of cartilage/tendons, a mixture of soup bones and neck bones works well.  Find a big stock pot and cover the bones with water.  Boil 8 to 10 hours covered.  Remove the bones and chill the broth in the fridge overnight.  Next morning there will be a hard layer of fat and solids on the top.  Remove this.  Return the broth to a pot and boil for 6 to eight hours.  The longer it boils, the thicker it will become.  The thicker it getes, the more the possibility it will burn, so the last 2 to 3 hours require constant watching.  Pour the very thick liquid into a pan, about 3/8 to 1/2 inch deep, allow to cool.  The broth will now resemble hard jello.  Cut into 2 inch squares and place each square on a piece of wax paper.  Place in a dehydrator for a day.  Once dry, these should keep indefinitely.  The main cook of the bunch always claimed if any spices or vegatables were used in the cooking the hard product would spoil.  I have never tried it, so I don't know.
A square of pocket soup about dissolved in 1 1/2 cup boiling water makes a nice stock. We would add 1/4 cup toasted yellow stone ground corn meal to the broth and simmer it for about 10 minutes until it thickens nicely. Salt and pepper seasoning make a very tasty meat-flavored "hasty pudding". This is easy to do in camp, and carrying enough cornmeal and pocket soup squares for several day's meals is very little trouble, both being so light and compact.   The main cook would sometimes soak his beef in the very thick liquid prior to making jerky.  He would spice it and dry it then use this for dry soup mixes.    Some of the guys would do this with chicken and turkey, but I was always a little leary of poultry versions.  They would add pigs feet to the original bone mix to make sure to get enough gelatin in the mix

Offline MOGorilla

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Hard Soup
« Reply #1 on: July 29, 2003, 07:58:25 AM »
FOrgot to add that after removing the bones, the liquid needs strained through a fine sieve, or cheese cloth.  You don't want any stray chunks of meat floating when you get to the final deal.   I read of a way to clarify this stuff using eggwhites, but we always used it as is.  When it gets that concentrated, you can't see through it anyway.