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German Asparagus Soup
Make two quarts of good white soup, either from bones or fresh meat (see STOCK). Season it with salt and pepper, and thicken with a little flour, mixed in milk till it is of the consistence of cream. Cut the green part of one hundred heads of asparagus into pieces, three-quarters of an inch long, put them into the saucepan, and boil until they are tender, but they must not be overcooked. If it is desired that the soup should be a little richer, add the yolks of three eggs, mixed with a little milk. The soup must be drawn from the fire a minute or two before the eggs are put in, and it must not boil after they are added. Time, one hour, exclusive of the stock. Sufficient for six or seven persons. Probable cost, 9d. per quart.
A white soup finished with an egg-yolk liaison, which is where the whole thing can be lost. Everything else is straightforward once the archaic quantities are translated.
- The hinge: the yolksOnce the yolks go in, the soup must never simmer again or they will scramble into threads. Pull the pan off the heat, whisk a ladle of the hot soup into the yolk-and-milk mixture to temper it, then stir that back in and serve. Hold it below about 180F if you must keep it warm.
- One hundred heads of asparagusA large quantity by modern standards: at 15-25 spears to a supermarket bunch, that is something like four or five bunches, of which only the green upper portions are used. Since spear thickness varies, judge by the volume of cut tips rather than the count.
- Cooking timeThe stated hour applies to the soup as a whole, not the asparagus. Tips cut to three-quarters of an inch are tender in 4 to 6 minutes in simmering stock; beyond that they dull in colour and lose flavour. The original's warning that they 'must not be overcooked' is worth heeding.
- White soup and stock"Good white soup" here means an unbrowned stock from veal bones, poultry or fresh meat, not a cream soup. A light chicken or veal stock does the job; avoid anything roasted dark, which will muddy the colour the dish is named for.
- The thickening"Flour mixed in milk till it is of the consistence of cream" is a slurry, not a roux — about 2 tablespoons flour whisked smooth into half a cup of milk for two quarts. Add it to the simmering stock in a thin stream and cook 8 to 10 minutes to lose the raw flour taste before the asparagus goes in.
- YieldTwo quarts, which the recipe says is sufficient for six or seven persons. The 'probable cost, 9d. per quart' is the book's own period estimate.
The "German" label may point to the egg-yolk finish, which is familiar from German and Austrian Spargelsuppe, and to the asparagus tips being left visible in the bowl rather than sieved to a purée. Asparagus was a luxury of the English kitchen garden and the forcing frame, harvested in a short spring season and sold in bundles, which may be why the recipe counts heads rather than weighing them. Thickening or enriching a white soup with an egg-yolk liaison, and the accompanying warning not to let it boil afterwards, are both common in nineteenth-century European cookery books.