Düğün Çorbası

Thickened twice over — flour browned in butter first, then egg yolk and lemon off the heat.

Lamb, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

the broth

• 800 g lamb shoulder, on the bone
• 1 onion, halved
• 2 carrots, grated
• 2 litres water
• 2 teaspoons salt

the first thickening

• 60 g butter
• 3 tablespoons plain flour

the second thickening

• 3 egg yolks
• juice of 1 lemon

the butter poured over

• 40 g butter
• 2 teaspoons sweet paprika

Method

1. IT IS THICKENED TWICE OVER, and the two thickenings do different jobs. First, flour is cooked in butter until it smells of biscuit and turns the colour of sand, and the broth is whisked onto that -- which gives body and a toasted background taste. Then, off the heat entirely, egg yolks beaten with lemon juice are stirred in, which gives the silky opaque texture and the sourness that makes it taste of something other than lamb. Either alone is a lesser soup: flour only is heavy and flat, yolk only is thin and tastes raw.
2. THE FLOUR MUST ACTUALLY BROWN AND IT TAKES LONGER THAN EXPECTED. Five or six minutes of stirring in foaming butter, to the colour of wet sand. Pale, it tastes of raw flour and that taste survives the whole soup; dark brown, it turns bitter and loses thickening power.
3. THE SECOND THICKENING GOES IN OFF THE HEAT, AND THE SOUP NEVER BOILS AGAIN. The pan is pulled off the flame and allowed to stop bubbling, a ladleful of hot soup is whisked into the yolks and lemon first, and that mixture goes back in with the pan off the heat. Returned to the boil afterwards, the yolks scramble into threads and cannot be rescued -- the soup goes grainy and watery at once.
4. THE LEMON GOES IN WITH THE YOLKS, NOT AFTER. Beaten together before anything hot touches them. The acid actually helps the yolks stay in suspension, and lemon squeezed into the finished soup tastes separate and sharp rather than part of it.
5. THE PAPRIKA BUTTER IS POURED OVER AT THE TABLE. Butter melted until it foams, the paprika stirred in off the heat, and spooned over each bowl so it floats in red pools. Stirred into the pot it muddies the pale colour that is half the point of the soup.
6. THE MEAT IS CRUSHED, NOT DICED. Lifted from the broth and pressed with a fork into shreds, or pounded briefly, so it disperses through the soup instead of sitting in it as lumps.
7. The lamb, onion, grated carrots, water and salt brought to the boil and SKIMMED.
8. Simmered 2 HOURS, until the meat leaves the bone.
9. The meat lifted out, boned and CRUSHED with a fork. The broth strained and kept HOT.
10. In a clean large pan, the 60 g of butter melted until foaming.
11. The flour stirred in and cooked 5 to 6 MINUTES, to the colour of WET SAND. Not pale, not dark.
12. The hot broth whisked in a ladleful at a time, smoothly.
13. The crushed meat returned and simmered 10 MINUTES.
14. THE PAN PULLED OFF THE HEAT and allowed to stop bubbling.
15. The yolks and lemon juice beaten together in a bowl.
16. A ladleful of hot soup whisked INTO the yolks, then the mixture stirred back in WITH THE PAN OFF THE HEAT.
17. The 40 g of butter melted until foaming, the paprika stirred in OFF the heat, and spooned over each bowl.
18. TESTED: the soup should be opaque, pale and silky, with no threads of cooked egg. Graininess means it boiled after the yolks went in.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes