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Panada Soup
Cut the crumb of two French rolls into thin slices, and put them into a saucepan, with as much cold water as will cover them. Let them boil for five or six minutes, then press them through a fine sieve, and put them back into the saucepan, with the liquid in which they were boiled, and two ounces of fresh butter which has been beaten to a cream. Season the mixture with a little salt, pepper, and nutmeg; stir it over the fire until it boils again, then add the yolks of two eggs, which have been beaten up with a quarter of a pint of new milk or cream, and serve immediately. The soup must not be allowed to boil after the eggs are added. Time, altogether, three-quarters of an hour. Probable cost, 7d., if milk be used. Sufficient for two persons.
A bread-thickened invalid soup that comes together in under twenty minutes, despite the stated three-quarters of an hour. The whole dish turns on the egg liaison at the end.
- Do not boil after the eggs go inThe yolks are a thickener, not an ingredient to be cooked hard. Once the yolk-and-milk mixture is stirred in, keep the pan below a simmer — around 175-180F — until the soup coats the spoon. A boil will curdle it into shreds and no amount of whisking will bring it back.
- Two French rollsVictorian French rolls were small soft white rolls, closer to a modern dinner roll than to a baguette. The crumb of roughly 4 oz of plain white bread, crusts removed, is a reasonable stand-in, though the recipe gives no weight. Sourdough or a heavily crusted loaf will fight the soup's blandness, which was the point of it.
- A quarter of a pintIn imperial measure that is 5 fl oz, so a generous half cup of milk or cream. Cream gives a richer result and is more forgiving of heat.
- Butter beaten to a creamThis means softened butter creamed smooth with a spoon, not melted or browned. Beating it first helps it emulsify into the bread purée rather than floating as fat on the surface.
- Pressing through a sieveBoiled bread pushed through a fine sieve with the back of a ladle gives a smooth, slightly grainy texture. A stick blender does the job in seconds, though it produces a glossier, more uniform soup than the original.
- ConsistencyBread swells and the soup thickens as it stands. Judge it loose at the stove, since it will set toward porridge within a few minutes of leaving the heat; keep a little extra hot water or milk to hand.
- The stated timeThree-quarters of an hour is the book's figure; the recipe does not say what it covers. On a modern hob the active work is closer to fifteen minutes.
- Yield and seasoningSufficient for two, as stated — two modest bowls. The recipe asks for only a little salt, pepper and nutmeg; grate the nutmeg fresh and taste before serving.
Panada takes its name ultimately from Latin panis, bread (Italian pane, Spanish pan), and in English cookery the word covered anything from a bread paste used to bind forcemeat to this thin soup of bread boiled in water and enriched at the last moment. Soups of this kind belonged squarely to the sickroom: nineteenth-century household manuals grouped panada, gruel, beef tea and arrowroot together as "invalid cookery", food judged light enough for someone recovering from fever. The costing of 7d. is characteristic of the book, which gives a probable cost for its dishes so that a mistress could check her housekeeping accounts; it also shows how cheaply a household could feed the sick from stale bread, butter and a couple of eggs.