Recipe no. 10 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 14.
Ingredients
- A piece of leg of mutton weighing about 1 kg, from the shank end
- 3 litres of water
- An onion studded with 2 cloves
- 1 clove of garlic
- A leek
- A rib of celery
- 2 carrots
- 1 turnip
- Salt
- 3 or 4 handfuls of spelt
Preparation
- Getting startedPut into a stockpot a piece of leg of mutton weighing about 1 kg, taking preferably the shank end, moisten with 3 litres of water.
- SkimmingSet on the heat, bring to a boil while skimming as needed.
- Vegetables and speltThen add an onion studded with 2 cloves, 1 clove of garlic, a leek, a rib of celery, 2 carrots and 1 turnip, the necessary salt, then 3 or 4 handfuls of spelt.
- Slow cookingLet cook slowly for about 3 hours.
- FinishThis soup may be served as it is, that is without straining it, or it may be strained through a fine sieve.
Reboul's text
A soup that lacks nothing in goodness, and one hardly eaten in town, is spelt soup; it is much prized in the countryside, and is a true Provencal soup.
Put into a stockpot a piece of leg of mutton weighing about 1 kg, taking preferably the shank end, moisten with 3 litres of water, set on the heat, bring to a boil while skimming as needed; then add an onion studded with 2 cloves, 1 clove of garlic, a leek, a rib of celery, 2 carrots and 1 turnip, the necessary salt, then 3 or 4 handfuls of spelt; let cook slowly for about 3 hours.
This soup may be served as it is, that is without straining it. For those who might not like it that way, it need only be strained through a fine sieve. It then makes an excellent soup for delicate stomachs.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| gigo | leg of mutton |
| oulo | stockpot |
| cebo | onion |
| girofle | clove |
| aiet | garlic |
| pòrri | leek |
| àpi | celery |
| garroto | carrots |
| navèu | turnip |
| espèuto | spelt |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 10, page 14. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.