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Almond Milk Soup
Blanch 1/2 pound of almonds and brown in the oven; while crisp and hot, mash to a powder with a rolling pin. Scald 1 quart of milk, add a tablespoonful of butter rolled in a tablespoonful of flour, and the almonds. Cook five minutes, add a teaspoonful of salt and a dash of cayenne, and serve hot with croutons. Peanuts may be used in the same manner; or cook 1 cupful of shelled and blanched peanuts with 1/2 cupful of lentils for one hour, in 1 1/2 quarts of water, adding a slice of onion, a spray of parsley, and a stalk of celery. When tender rub through a puree sieve and add salt and pepper. Return to the fire and thicken with a tablespoonful of butter rolled in a tablespoonful of flour.
A quart of milk thickened with browned almonds, from the era when nuts were valued as a soup body rather than a garnish. The whole thing works or fails on how finely the almonds are reduced.
- Grind finer than the recipe suggestsA rolling pin on hot almonds gives a coarse meal that will feel gritty in a smooth cream soup. Pulse them in a food processor in short bursts, stopping before the oil releases and the mass turns to butter, or pass the finished soup through a fine sieve before serving.
- Browning the almondsThe recipe names no temperature; a moderate oven, around 350F, works, but almonds still damp from blanching take longer than dry ones, so go by colour rather than the clock and shake them once or twice. Take them out while golden; scorched almonds taste bitter, and they crisp further as they cool.
- Butter rolled in flourThis is beurre manié — equal parts soft butter and flour worked together into a paste, whisked into hot liquid a little at a time. It thickens without the cooked-flour taste of a roux, but it must simmer a few minutes to lose the raw flour edge.
- Scalding the milkBring it to about 180F, when steam rises and bubbles ring the pan, not to a rolling boil. Once the nuts and thickening are in, keep it just below a simmer and stir; almond meal settles and scorches on the bottom.
- SaltA full teaspoon per quart suits unsalted butter and plain milk, but add half at first and correct at the end to taste.
- YieldA quart of milk plus thickening gives four generous cups — four first-course servings. It is rich; smaller cups suit it better than soup plates.
- The peanut and lentil variationThis is a separate soup, not a garnish note. One hour of simmering suits whole brown or green lentils; split red lentils collapse much sooner, in roughly 15-20 minutes, and will need watching. Add the salt after the lentils are soft, as the recipe does.
- Holding and reheatingNut-thickened milk soups separate and skin over on standing. Reheat gently with a whisk, and add the croutons only at the table so they do not go soft.
Almond milk long predates dairy-free shopping aisles: ground almonds steeped in water were a staple of medieval and early modern European kitchens, chiefly because they stood in for milk and cream on fast days when dairy was forbidden, and they were commonly said to keep better than milk. By the time this book was compiled, that religious logic had faded and the almond served here as a flavouring rather than a substitute -- a soup that uses browned almonds to enrich real milk instead of replacing it. The peanut and lentil variation tacked on at the end reflects a related interest of the period in cheap vegetable protein, promoted by vegetarian and domestic-science writers who argued that legumes and nuts could stand in for a piece of meat.