Consomme with Cucumber

A garnish recipe rather than a soup recipe: it assumes you already have clear consommé on the stove, and only tells you what to put in it.

• Start with the consomméStart with the consomm -- The recipe presumes a clarified beef or veal consomm already made. A good low-sodium boxed beef broth, simmered and strained through a damp cloth, will stand in; taste and correct the salt before the cucumber goes in.
• Cucumber choiceCut a modern English or Persian cucumber in 1/4-inch dice. Cucumbers of the period were often seedier and thicker-skinned than today's; if you use a large field cucumber, halve it and scrape the seeds out as well as peeling it.
• Half an hour is too longThirty minutes of stewing collapses diced cucumber into pulp. Simmer in lightly salted water 3 to 5 minutes, until just translucent and still holding its shape, then drain well.
• Why the cucumber is cooked separatelyCucumber gives off a good deal of water and fine solids that can cloud a clear broth. Blanching and draining it apart keeps the consomm bright and undiluted, which is the whole point of a clear soup.
• CroutonsSmall means small — 1/4-inch cubes of stale white bread, fried in butter or dried in a 350F oven until pale gold. Pass them separately or they soften in the bowl before the soup reaches the table.
• YieldTwo cucumbers produce considerably more dice than a clear soup needs as garnish; allow a scant tablespoon or so per cup of consomm and reserve the rest.