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Flemish Soup
Slice six onions, cut six heads of celery into small pieces, and slice about twelve potatoes. Put a quarter of a pound of butter and two ounces of ham into a saucepan, and cook until the ham is browned. Then put in the vegetables, add a quart of white stock, and let it boil gently until the potatoes are dissolved. Rub through a fine sieve with the crumb of half a French roll soaked in the broth, and add half a pint of cream that has been boiled, and four yolks of eggs well beaten. Work a little fresh butter into the soup previous to serving. Probable cost, 2s. 6d.
A thick vegetable purée finished with a classic egg-and-cream liaison. The proportions are generous and the liaison is the step that decides whether it succeeds.
- Never boil after the yolks go inBeat the yolks with a ladleful of the hot soup first, stir the mixture back in off the heat, then warm gently to about 175F while stirring. A boil will scramble the yolks and the soup will look curdled and grainy.
- Heads of celeryA Victorian "head" of celery is the entire bunch, not a single rib. Six heads is far more celery than most cooks would expect; three bunches, trimmed of the coarsest outer ribs, gives a balanced soup at this scale.
- Liquid is shortA quart of stock will not cover six onions, six bunches of celery and twelve potatoes. Add stock as needed to keep everything submerged while it simmers, then thin the purée to the consistency you want at the end.
- White stockAn unbrowned veal or chicken stock. Ordinary low-sodium chicken stock stands in perfectly well; the 2 oz of ham browned in butter supplies the savoury depth.
- The French rollA small crusty white roll; the recipe uses the crumb only of half of one, soaked in the broth. It thickens and smooths the puree. Roughly a cup of soft torn crumb from a baguette or similar.
- SievingA blender or food mill does quickly what sieving by hand did slowly. Pass it through a fine strainer afterwards if you want the velvet texture the original is aiming for; celery strings will otherwise show.
- Boiled creamScalding may have been intended to help the cream keep, though the recipe does not say why. Warming it through is enough now, and warm cream also protects the yolks from shocking.
- Potatoes "dissolved"Floury potatoes such as russets break down in 25 to 35 minutes of gentle simmering. Waxy varieties will hold their shape and resist the sieve.
- YieldAs written this serves eight to ten as a first course. The final knob of butter should be stirred in off the heat, just before it goes to the table.
Cassell's belongs to the great age of British soup taxonomy, when every purée was filed under a nationality. The technique underneath it is entirely French, however — a purée finished with a liaison of yolks and cream, the thickening that gives such soups their fragility. Note too the "probable cost, 2s. 6d.", a feature Cassell's carried through most of the dictionary for the benefit of the mistress budgeting a household; half a crown was an appreciable sum for a soup, and the cream, butter and four egg yolks are where it went. The French roll used as a thickener is older still, a survival of the medieval habit of binding broths with bread rather than flour or starch.