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Rice Cream Soup
Wash two table-spoonfuls of Carolina rice, and boil it gently in a pint of stock for about two hours, or till quite soft. A short time before it is done, put a slice of onion and a stick of celery into a pint of milk, and simmer. When the milk is pleasantly flavoured pour it over the rice, press the whole through a sieve, and add pepper and salt. Make the soup hot, stir a gill of scalded cream into it, and serve. Probable cost, without the stock, 1s.
A Victorian purée soup that depends entirely on two things: rice cooked to collapse, and milk infused rather than boiled. Everything else is straining and seasoning.
- The hinge: don't boil after the cream goes inThe cream is scalded (heated to just below simmering) separately and stirred into hot soup off a fierce heat. Boiling a milk-and-cream purée thickened with rice starch will catch on the pan base and can split the dairy.
- Imperial measuresA pint here is the imperial 20 fl oz, not the US 16. A gill is a quarter of that, 5 fl oz, or just over half a US cup. Two tablespoonfuls of raw rice is roughly 1 oz.
- Carolina riceA long-grain white rice, once the standard export of the South Carolina lowcountry and by Cassell's day a generic trade name for good long-grain. Any plain long-grain white rice works; avoid parboiled, which resists breaking down.
- Two hours is far too longModern long-grain simmered in stock collapses in about 30 to 40 minutes; older, longer-stored rice and a slower fire may account for the original timing. Keep the heat low and top up with stock if it goes dry before it is soft.
- The milk infusionOnion and celery in milk want gentle heat for 15 to 20 minutes, then a rest off the heat. Never let infusing milk reach a rolling boil, and fish out the vegetables before combining unless you intend to sieve them in.
- SievingThe original means a hair or wire sieve worked with a wooden spoon. A blender or food mill does it faster; pass the result through a fine strainer afterwards if you want the smooth texture the Victorians were after.
- SeasoningWhite pepper was standard for pale soups so no black flecks show. Salt lightly at first if your stock is already reduced or commercial, since sieving concentrates nothing but the flavour is easily overwhelmed.
- YieldAbout a quart of finished soup, which serves four as a first course. It thickens noticeably on standing; loosen with stock or milk when reheating.
Cassell's belongs to the era when the purée soup became a respectable opening to a British dinner, and rice was among the cheapest thickeners available for one. Starch from rice, potato or bread carried the body, and the cream came in at the end as enrichment rather than structure. The Carolina rice named here reached British kitchens through the Atlantic trade in lowcountry long-grain, and the name outlived the trade to become a shorthand for quality on grocers' shelves. The costing of one shilling, exclusive of stock, marks this out as an economical dish for a household that already kept a stockpot going.