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Vegetables (VEGETABLE CONSOMME)
VEGETABLE CONSOMME, OR VEGETABLE GRAVY SOUP, MADE WITH FRESH VEGETABLES. Dissolve in a stewpan four ounces of fresh butter. Throw into it two large carrots, two onions, two leeks, a head of celery, and a turnip, all cut small, together with a bunch of parsley, a small sprig of thyme, and a shallot. Cover the pan, closely, put it on the fire, and shake it occasionally till the vegetables are lightly coloured. Put a pint of freshly-shelled green peas into a separate stewpan with three quarts of water. Let them boil, then pour them upon the fried vegetables. Let the liquor boil, skim till it is quite clear, and put into it a crust of toasted bread, a blade of mace, six allspice, a dozen peppercorns, and a little salt. Cover closely, and simmer gently for two hours or more. Skim off the fat, strain the soup into a bowl, and let it stand in a cool place until clear. When wanted, pour it off carefully, not to disturb any sediment that may still remain, boil it, and serve very hot with fried sippets. If it is wished that vegetables should be served in it, cut the red part of a carrot, an onion, a turnip, and about two sticks of celery into thin strips an inch long (for this purpose a vegetable knife, such as shown in the illustration, will be found useful). Put these in a saucepan, cover with cold water, boil for five minutes, and drain them on a sieve. Pour the clear soup into a stewpan, throw in the roots, and simmer gently till they are tender. Add salt and pepper if required. Dried vegetables (see VEGETABLES, DRIED, FOR JULIENNE AND CLEAR SOUPS) may be used instead of fresh ones to throw into the soup, and will save some trouble.
A meatless clear soup that gets all its body and colour from butter-browned roots and a large quantity of fresh peas. Nothing here is difficult, but the result stands or falls on two things: how far you let the vegetables colour, and how patiently you let the finished liquor settle.
- The hinge: colour without scorchingSweating the roots under a lid in 4 oz butter until they take on a light gold is what gives this soup its colour and depth. Pushed too hard they scorch and the soup turns bitter and muddy. The recipe gives no heat or time, only "shake it occasionally till the vegetables are lightly coloured", so judge it by colour.
- Clarification without eggThere is no egg-white raft here. Clarity comes from steady skimming as it comes to the boil, then long settling in a cool place, then pouring off carefully so as not to disturb the sediment. A hard boil during the two-hour simmer will cloud it; the recipe asks only for a gentle simmer, and boils the soup again only after the clear liquor has been poured off.
- A pint of peasThat is a pint by volume of shelled peas, on the order of 12 oz, boiled in the three quarts of water and tipped in with that water over the fried vegetables. Frozen peas can be substituted and are often sweeter than tired fresh ones.
- Mace, allspice, and the toasted crustA blade of mace is one dried strip of nutmeg aril; about a quarter teaspoon of ground mace substitutes at a pinch, though it will cloud the soup. The crust of toasted bread is there for colour and a faint roasted note, not thickening, so toast it dark brown rather than black.
- Timing and reductionKeep it at a bare tremble with the lid on, as the recipe directs; hard boiling clouds the soup. Covered and barely simmering, two hours will lose comparatively little liquid.
- The julienne garnishBlanching the strips five minutes in fresh water and draining before they go into the clear soup is not fussiness. It removes the starch and scum that would otherwise cloud the consomme you just spent hours clearing.
- SippetsSmall triangles or dice of bread fried in butter until crisp, handed separately so they do not go soft. Croutons by any other name.
- YieldSomething under three quarts of finished soup, enough for six to eight as a first course. It will keep a few days refrigerated.
Consomme is the past participle of the French consommer, to complete or bring to perfection: a broth cooked down until it is judged finished. Classically it means a meat stock clarified with egg white and lean beef, so a vegetable consomme is a deliberate borrowing of the name for a soup that reaches the same brilliance by other means. Soups of this kind belonged to the long European tradition of maigre cookery, the meatless dishes required on fast days and in Lent, and by the late nineteenth century they had also become useful for invalid cookery and for households keeping a lighter table. Cassell's places it in the general vegetable article rather than among the soups. The closing note that dried vegetables may be substituted carries a cross-reference to the book's own entry on drying vegetables, which points to drying at home.