Andy M.
Certified Pretend Chef
When I was a child growing up in an Armenian-American household, there was a dish called herrseh that we didn’t have very often and we all loved it. It was a production whenever Mom made it.
Herrseh was made by putting a large fowl and some hulled wheat in a pot full of water and simmering it for hours and hours (and hours). Then Mom would take the fowl out of the pot, remove all the bones and return the meat to the pot. The final step was to take a large spoon or similar utensil (Mom used a small wooden baseball bat) and stir the pot with vigor to break up the meat and smooth out the texture a little. The dish would then be served with brown butter.
There was always one negative to the whole process. Mom never got all the bones out of the pot because the fowl had long ago fallen apart in the pot, so several times during the meal you’d get a small piece of bone to deal with.
Flash forward to today. I have made this dish once. It was fine and, as much as I tried, a few bones got through. I used cheesecloth but that didn’t work well.
All this background to ask for your help. I have a theory that should produce a herrseh that will taste as good as Mom’s but will be bone free. Tell me if you think I’ll be losing any flavor or texture with my proposed method. I’m making this dish for my sister and BIL later this month and want her to really enjoy it.
1. Simmer the whole fowl in the appropriate quantity of water for several hours to make a full-flavored broth and draw the collagen out of the bones.
2. Strain the broth and save it.
3. Carefully separate all the meat from the bones. Save the meat, toss the bones.
4. Add the hulled wheat to the stock and simmer until the wheat is fully cooked.
5. Towards the end of the cooking time for the wheat, add the meat back to the pot.
6. Beat thoroughly in my Kitchen Aid stand mixer (I didn’t keep the bat) to homogenize the texture.
7. Serve with brown butter.
My question is this:
Do I miss out on anything (other than bits of bone in my food) by using this method? I don’t think I do. Just want to make sure I’m not missing anything important.
Please let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Herrseh was made by putting a large fowl and some hulled wheat in a pot full of water and simmering it for hours and hours (and hours). Then Mom would take the fowl out of the pot, remove all the bones and return the meat to the pot. The final step was to take a large spoon or similar utensil (Mom used a small wooden baseball bat) and stir the pot with vigor to break up the meat and smooth out the texture a little. The dish would then be served with brown butter.
There was always one negative to the whole process. Mom never got all the bones out of the pot because the fowl had long ago fallen apart in the pot, so several times during the meal you’d get a small piece of bone to deal with.
Flash forward to today. I have made this dish once. It was fine and, as much as I tried, a few bones got through. I used cheesecloth but that didn’t work well.
All this background to ask for your help. I have a theory that should produce a herrseh that will taste as good as Mom’s but will be bone free. Tell me if you think I’ll be losing any flavor or texture with my proposed method. I’m making this dish for my sister and BIL later this month and want her to really enjoy it.
1. Simmer the whole fowl in the appropriate quantity of water for several hours to make a full-flavored broth and draw the collagen out of the bones.
2. Strain the broth and save it.
3. Carefully separate all the meat from the bones. Save the meat, toss the bones.
4. Add the hulled wheat to the stock and simmer until the wheat is fully cooked.
5. Towards the end of the cooking time for the wheat, add the meat back to the pot.
6. Beat thoroughly in my Kitchen Aid stand mixer (I didn’t keep the bat) to homogenize the texture.
7. Serve with brown butter.
My question is this:
Do I miss out on anything (other than bits of bone in my food) by using this method? I don’t think I do. Just want to make sure I’m not missing anything important.
Please let me know what you think.
Thanks,