Hamburger Aalsuppe

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 5 litre soup pot
• •Fine sieve
• •Two teaspoons for shaping dumplings
• •Fish tweezers or small pliers for checking eel bones

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the broth

   Put the ham bone, cold water, onion, bay leaves, and peppercorns in a heavy pot and bring it up slowly. Start cold because the bone gives up gelatin and smoke more cleanly as the water warms; drop it into boiling water and the meat tightens before the broth has taken anything useful. Skim once it trembles, then simmer gently for 90 minutes.

2. 2

   Strain and pick

   Lift out the bone and strain the broth into a clean pot. Pick any good meat from the bone and save it; Weggeworfen wird nichts. Discard only the spent onion and spices, because they have already done their work and would cloud the soup if left to break down.

3. 3

   Cook the vegetables

   Add the carrots, celeriac, leek, potatoes, and green beans to the broth and simmer until just tender, about 18 minutes. Keep the pot at a quiet simmer, not a rolling boil, so the potatoes hold their corners and the broth stays clear. Add the picked ham meat back in.

4. 4

   Add fruit and balance

   Stir in the prunes, dried apple or pear, sugar, and vinegar, then simmer 10 minutes until the fruit swells but still has shape. The dried fruit is not decoration; it is the old larder giving sweetness and body. Taste now for sweet against sour. If it tastes flat, it needs vinegar. If it tastes sharp and thin, it needs a little sugar.

5. 5

   Mix herb dumplings

   Beat the flour, egg, milk, softened butter, nutmeg, half the parsley, and a pinch of salt into a soft spoonable dough. Let it stand 10 minutes so the flour hydrates; drop it straight away and the dumplings cook ragged at the edges instead of holding as small Klöße, dumplings.

6. 6

   Poach dumplings

   Dip a teaspoon in hot broth and drop small spoonfuls of dough into the simmering soup. The wet spoon keeps the dough from tearing, and small dumplings cook through before the outside gets tough. Simmer 8 to 10 minutes, until they rise and feel springy.

7. 7

   Poach the eel

   Lower the eel pieces into the soup and poach gently for 8 to 10 minutes, just until the flesh turns opaque and pulls cleanly from the bone. Do not boil it. Hard boiling breaks the eel and leaves fat and scraps through the broth, and then you have made the soup worse at the last minute.

8. 8

   Finish green

   Stir in the dill, savory or thyme, and the remaining parsley off the hard heat. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss: herbs and final salt go in last because their lift disappears if you cook them for half an hour. Taste once more for salt, vinegar, and sugar, then serve with each bowl getting eel, ham, fruit, vegetables, and dumplings.

Chef Tips

• •If fresh eel is hard to find, use good smoked eel and warm it in the bowls under the hot soup instead of boiling it. Smoked eel is already cooked, and boiling it steals its fat and makes the broth greasy.
• •Do not replace the ham bone with a stock cube. The smoke, gelatin, and salt from the bone are the backbone of the soup; a cube gives salt and noise, not depth. Nicht aus dem Glas.
• •The soup should be sweet-sour, not sweet. Hamburg's balance is lively: dried fruit in the spoon, vinegar in the finish, and enough salt from the smoked pork to hold the two together.
• •Aalkraut, the old herb mixture for this soup, changes from cook to cook. Parsley, dill, savory, thyme, and sometimes sorrel are all at home here. Add tender herbs at the end or you cook the green out of them.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the ham broth one day ahead, strain it, and chill it. The fat sets on top and lifts off cleanly, which gives a clearer soup without losing the smoke.
• •Cook the vegetables, fruit, dumplings, and eel on serving day. Reheated eel breaks easily, and dumplings left overnight drink too much broth.
• •If making the full soup ahead, stop before adding the eel and herbs. Rewarm gently, then poach the eel and finish green just before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 550g)