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Vegetable Marrow Soup
Pare and cut in quarters a large vegetable marrow, and remove from it the seeds. Dissolve a slice of fresh butter in a stewpan, and put in the marrow with a little pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg, and a large lump of sugar. Shake it over the fire for a few minutes, and moisten with as much stock or water as will cover it. Let it stew gently until tender, and rub it through a fine hair sieve. Put with it as much boiling stock as will make it of the consistency of thick gruel. Add a cupful of boiling cream or milk, and season with pepper and salt. Stir over the fire till quite hot, and serve with fried sippets. The stock may be made from bones, or the liquor in which mutton, veal, or poultry has been boiled may be used.
A plain purée soup of the kind Cassell's used to teach the basic method: sweat, moisten, stew, sieve, enrich. A few of the terms and vessels need translating.
- Vegetable marrowA mature summer squash, the same species as courgette but grown on until the skin toughens and the seeds develop; sizes vary widely, from a couple of pounds upwards. An overgrown zucchini, a pale-green marrow from a farm stand, or pattypan all work; butternut or other winter squash will give a sweeter, darker soup that is no longer this recipe.
- "A slice of fresh butter"Roughly 1 oz, about 2 tablespoons. "Fresh" here means unsalted, as against the heavily salted keeping butter of the period — worth honouring, since you season the soup twice afterwards.
- The lump of sugarA Victorian lump cut from a sugar loaf; the recipe asks for a large one, so reckon on a teaspoon or two. It appears to be there to lift a bland, watery squash rather than to sweeten it; taste before adding more.
- Hair sieveA fine-mesh sieve of woven horsehair. A conical strainer, or a blender followed by a sieve, gives much the same result; blend only briefly.
- Consistency of thick gruelThe target is a soup that coats a spoon but pours freely — thinner than modern blended vegetable soups. Marrow is very wet, so you may need less added stock than expected.
- Adding the creamBring it to boiling separately, as directed, then reheat the soup only until hot. Once the dairy is in, a hard boil will thin the texture and can curdle it if the stock is acidic.
- StockThe note at the end is the practical heart of it: mutton, veal or poultry cooking liquor. A light chicken stock is the closest modern equivalent; a strong beef stock will bury the squash.
- SippetsSmall triangles or dice of bread fried in butter or dripping, served alongside or scattered on top. Croutons in all but name.
- YieldA large marrow gives about 4 to 6 servings.
Vegetable marrow was one of the great Victorian kitchen-garden crops, grown to type size rather than picked young as the French and Italians did, and by the later nineteenth century a byword for glut. Cookery books of the period accordingly carry marrow stewed, stuffed, baked, fried and, as here, sieved into soup, since a mature marrow is mild to the point of blandness and needs the sugar, nutmeg and good meat stock this recipe supplies. The method itself is a textbook purée in the French manner: master it on marrow and the same sequence serves for turnip, celery or green pea. The hair sieve and the wooden spoon it required were among the most laborious tools in a Victorian kitchen.