the "leekie" refers to the leeks. My source for this recipe is "The
Canongate Cookery Book" edited by Lady Appleton. It was printed in 1968
in
Edinburgh and is all of 52 pages in length. In the "Note by Editor" Lady
Applegate thanks "the ladies of the various committees and organizations
within the Kirk of the Canongate" for their old family recipes. Modern
versions of this recipe usually omit the prunes, but every other version
I
found in doing the research made reference to the prunes in the
traditional
version. I decided to reproduce the recipe exactly as it was printed in
1968; only the comments in parentheses are mine.
Cock-a-Leekie Soup
1 fowl (whole chicken, cut into parts)
1 doz. leeks (about 6 lbs, 3 kg)
1 lb shin of beef (use 1 lb (900 g) beef stew meat)
3 quarts water (3 L)
1 doz. prunes
Salt and pepper
After removing the marrow from the bone (you may omit this step if using
stew meat), put the beef on to boil in the water. Let it boil for 1
hour;
then take 2 of the leeks, cut them up rather finely (make sure they are
thoroughly rinsed first), and add them, using only the white of the
leeks,
and rejecting the green tails. Also add the fowl trussed (skip the
trussing
if using chicken parts) for boiling.
Let this boil for 1 hour longer; then cut up the remainder of the
dozen
leeks into nice pieces, about 1 inch (2.5 cm) long; cut the leeks right
down the middle, and then across in inch pieces. See that they are
thoroughly washed. Add those and the prunes, and boil for another hour.
The fowl may be taken out when ready, and probably it will take 11/2
hours to boil (ours should be done in 1 hour). Add the salt and pepper
to
taste, and serve the soup.
The fowl is sometimes cut up and served along with the soup in the
tureen (recommended), or it may be served separately. Serves 10 to 12.