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‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

atlasobscura.com

31–40 of 182 posts

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#31

Wouldn’t having a propane burner on 24 hours a day be very expensive? Also, does it really make that much of a difference? I feel like after a couple of hours with a fresh batch you could be right back where you started without really missing out on too much.

Making a good bone broth takes about 24 hours of simmering. If you're going to be making 1 or 2 new bone broths every day, it won't require more energy to just have a perpetual broth instead to which you keep adding bones.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#32
post #24

Kind of related to this is the concept of "Brunswick Stew." Look it up if you want a more accurate description, but as I recall, the idea from Colonial times in America is that there'd be a tavern/inn with a fire, constantly running, and a big cauldron of stew always topped off and ready for weary travelers. The idea is that they never "finished" a batch. They just perpetually added leftovers and foods that were at r…

Came here to make a Ship-of-Theseus dad joke, beaten throughly to the punch.

Same. "Soup of Theseus" is an amazing term.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People say the same about Bialetti-style "moka pot" coffee makers. The reality is that any "varnish" is just old rancid coffee oil.

I think a pretty big component of it is protein? Mine only comes off with the special cleaner, or powdered detergent (not the liquid kind which is missing some anti enzyme cleaners) (or lots of scrubbing)

Polymerized oil seems more likely, similar to the impossible-to-clean gunk that forms on kitchen surfaces from cooking fats.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#34

Kind of related to this is the concept of "Brunswick Stew." Look it up if you want a more accurate description, but as I recall, the idea from Colonial times in America is that there'd be a tavern/inn with a fire, constantly running, and a big cauldron of stew always topped off and ready for weary travelers. The idea is that they never "finished" a batch. They just perpetually added leftovers and foods that were at r…

My dad would tell me of roadside chili houses in the southwestern USA (Texas, California, etc.) that always had a pot of chili going that they would ladle out to hungry travelers. The meat in the chili supposedly varied according to what was available: usually beef, pork, or roadkill.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#35

Kind of related to this is the concept of "Brunswick Stew." Look it up if you want a more accurate description, but as I recall, the idea from Colonial times in America is that there'd be a tavern/inn with a fire, constantly running, and a big cauldron of stew always topped off and ready for weary travelers. The idea is that they never "finished" a batch. They just perpetually added leftovers and foods that were at r…

Interesting idea. Really fast food because it's so slow.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#36
post #13
post #6

I also like the "forever bottle" that is common with bourbon lovers like me. You take one of your nicer bottles and when another one is close to empty you don't finish it but instead dump it into a "forever bottle" that keeps evolving with the different leftover bourbons you pour into it.

I call this an "infinity bottle." I mix both bourbon and scotch, too. Typically the last ounce or 2 of a bottle. Sometimes it ends up pretty meh, but other times it's fantastic. If I don't like the flavor, I'll come back to it in a month and see if it has mellowed out at all. I also keep list of what's in there taped to the bottle.

Just a note that I've found infinity bottles of Scotch don't work nearly as well as American whiskeys do; Scotches don't all play nice with each other (and I don't drink a lot of phenolic Islay stuff; I'm saying, like, a bottle full of random Speysides gets funky quickly.)

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps i'm geeking this out too much, but I guess it depends on ingress-vs-egress and drawdown....but...doesn't including nearly spoiling food risk the whole stew going bad in a few days? Or do the constant simmer prevent that?

I don't know. I'm not sure the historians fully know. This concept might even be apocryphal to an extent. What I have learned is that the concept evolved (like so much cooking does) from what I described into a "it's actually now a recipe that people prepare once." Something else I learned is that back in the day, people had different expectations for food quality. We would regularly eat rancid meat (many BBQ sauces…

> This concept might even be apocryphal to an extent.

I've been to a pub in rural Cambridgeshire that had this on the menu. I made them laugh by asking what was in it and was it vegetarian.

I don't know if they were legally allowed to have it, but they did have it.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#38

Kind of related to this is the concept of "Brunswick Stew." Look it up if you want a more accurate description, but as I recall, the idea from Colonial times in America is that there'd be a tavern/inn with a fire, constantly running, and a big cauldron of stew always topped off and ready for weary travelers. The idea is that they never "finished" a batch. They just perpetually added leftovers and foods that were at r…

I think the coziness of this recipe might be tempered somewhat by the fun food-borne illnesses that would have to spring up doing this.

how do they manage to avoid that in the article? they list at least three different restaurants that serve these long-running soups, surely they don't poison their customers?

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#39
post #28

Reminds me of the Stone Soup story from the original creators of Fractint.

Fractint is new to me (cool! this would be fun to build in javascript...) but I was thinking of the same story.

Fractint Mandelbrot Generator V17.3 - https://archive.org/details/MEDLEY_SE230215

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Soup

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