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Game Soup
This soup may be made of the remains of cold birds which are not required, though, of course, if uncooked, the soup will be better. Pick off all the white meat you can get from the bones, and pound it in a mortar. Put the bones and trimmings into a stewpan, with five or six carrots, a slice of lean ham, a little pepper and salt, two or three onions, and three pints of white stock or water. Simmer gently, and when the vegetables are tender, take them out, mix them with the pounded meat, and press them through a tamis. Keep adding a little of the broth, so as to press as much through as possible. Return the broth to the saucepan, and let it get quite hot. A few minutes before serving draw it from the fire, let it cool a little, and mix with it the well-beaten yolks of two eggs, and a cupful of cream. It must not boil after the eggs are added. Time, one hour and a half to stew the bones and trimmings. Sufficient for five persons. Probable cost, exclusive of the cold game, 1s. for this quantity.
A Victorian purée of game, thickened at the last moment with egg yolk and cream. Almost everything here still works; the two things to watch are the sieving and the liaison.
- The hinge: never let it boil after the eggs go inEgg yolks set from about 150F and curdle well below simmering, so the pan must come off the heat and cool a little before the yolk-and-cream mixture is stirred in. Temper the yolks with a ladleful of hot soup first, return the lot to the pan, and hold it below 180F, stirring, until it coats a spoon.
- TamisA tamis is a straining cloth of fine worsted, stretched over a frame or twisted to force the puree through; the word is also used of a drum sieve, a fine mesh on a hoop worked with a wooden pestle or scraper. A food mill on its finest plate, or a blender followed by a fine-mesh sieve, does the same job faster, and the instruction to loosen the mash with broth as you go still applies.
- Pounding in a mortarThe point is a smooth paste, not shredded meat. A food processor gets there in seconds; add a splash of the strained broth to keep the blades moving.
- Five or six carrotsFive or six modern supermarket carrots will make the soup taste of carrot rather than game; three or four medium ones are enough for three pints of liquid. Weigh rather than count if you can.
- White stockA pale unroasted stock of veal or chicken bones with aromatics, kept from colouring. A good low-salt chicken stock is the practical substitute — the ham already brings salt, so season at the end.
- Cooked or raw gamePheasant, partridge, grouse, pigeon or duck all work. The book is right that raw birds give a better soup; if you use the picked carcasses of a roast, the browned bones will darken the finished puree.
- Quantities and yieldThree pints is about 7 1/2 cups; the yolks of two eggs and a cupful of cream finish it. Five servings as written, and it reheats only gently — bring it nowhere near a boil the second day.
- The costOne shilling excluding the game, which the book prices separately.
Cassell's treats game soup as a thrift dish first and a luxury second: it opens by assuming you have cold birds "which are not required", the sort of surplus a household with access to shooting would face in autumn. The technique behind it is older and grander — a puree bound with a liaison of egg yolk and cream is standard French practice of the period. The tamis and the mortar belong to a kitchen without blenders, where a smooth soup meant a servant's arm and a good deal of time.