Fish Soup
1 lb. cod, or other white fish 2 tablespoonfuls Crisco 1 quart white stock, or half milk and half water 1 small carrot 1 small onion 1 stalk celery 3 parsley sprigs 1 blade mace 2 egg yolks 1/2 cupful cream 1 lemon 2 tablespoonfuls flour 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley Dry toast Wash and dry fish and cut into small pieces. Put into saucepan with stock, vegetables cut in small pieces, parsley and mace. Let these simmer for half hour, then strain off liquid. Melt Crisco in pan, stir in flour, then add fish liquor and stir till it boils. Draw it to the side of fire and let cool slightly. Beat yolks of eggs with cream, and, when soup has cooled, strain them in. Reheat soup without boiling it, to cook eggs. Season, and add few drops lemon juice and chopped parsley. Serve with small pieces of dry toast.
A classic velouté-style fish soup finished with an egg-and-cream liaison. Everything hinges on the last step: once the yolks go in, the soup must never boil.
- The liaison is the whole dishAfter the yolks and cream are strained in, hold the soup between about 160°F and 175°F, stirring, until it coats a spoon. Let it boil and the yolks may curdle.
- Temper before you pour"Draw it to the side of fire and let cool slightly" means take the pan off direct heat for a minute or two. Ladle a little hot soup into the beaten yolks and cream first, then strain that back into the pan.
- CriscoShortening was new and heavily promoted when this book was written — the volume was published by the company that made it. Two tablespoons of butter does the same job here and tastes better in a fish soup.
- Blade of maceA blade is one piece of the dried lacy aril from nutmeg, not ground mace. If you only have ground, use a scant 1/8 teaspoon; it is more assertive than the whole blade.
- White stockIn period usage this is an unbrowned veal or chicken stock. Fish stock or a light chicken stock both work; the half-milk, half-water option given is the simplest and gives a mild, chowder-like result.
- What happens to the fishThe recipe strains the fish out with the vegetables and does not return it, giving a smooth soup. If you would rather not throw away a pound of cod, flake a little of it back into the finished soup — but do this before the liaison, not after, so the soup is not reheated hard.
- Quantities and yieldOne quart of liquid plus the cream will serve roughly four as a first course. A cupful in this book is 8 fl oz.
- Lemon and seasoningAdd the lemon juice off the heat and a few drops at a time. Too much acid alongside the cream and yolks will make the soup look grainy.
This is a fish soup of a type common in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century: fish and aromatics simmered, strained, thickened with a roux, then enriched with a *liaison* of egg yolks and cream — a technique taken more or less intact from French professional kitchens, where it finishes everything from a velouté to a blanquette. Cod was a common choice in American and British households, being cheap, plentiful and firm enough to give flavour to a broth without falling apart. The dry toast served alongside is the older habit of sippets, small squares of toast eaten with clear and cream soups. The recipe's insistence on Crisco marks its origin: cookbooks of this period were often produced by manufacturers to demonstrate that a hydrogenated vegetable shortening could stand in for butter or lard in every part of the menu, soups included.