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Cream of Turnip Soup
Wash and pare 1/2 dozen turnips and let lie in cold water for a quarter of an hour. Drain and cut into small pieces. Put into a stewpan with 4 ounces of fresh butter and 3 ounces of lean ham cut into dice, and stir about over a gentle fire for a few minutes. Then add 2 or 3 onions, 2 sticks of celery; cut up and cover all with a pint of white stock. Let simmer gently until they are quite soft. Dredge two handfuls of flour over them, beating briskly meanwhile to avoid lumping and until smooth. Then gradually add 2 pints of white stock and stir over the fire until it boils. Rub through a fine sieve and boil up again; add salt, pepper, and powdered mace, and when boiling beat in 1/2 pint of rich cream. Then serve with croutons on the side. A bay leaf and two or three cloves may be added to the other ingredients. Sufficient for eight persons.
A rich, old-style purée soup built on a ham-and-butter base rather than the milk-thickened cream soups that came later. The proportions are generous; the two vague measures need pinning down before you start.
- "Two handfuls of flour"An imprecise measure. Something around 1/2 cup (about 2 1/2 oz) suits the quantity of liquid given, and it is safer to start at the low end, since too much flour makes the soup pasty rather than creamy.
- Half a dozen turnipsLikely smaller than modern storage turnips; figure roughly 1 1/2 to 2 lb trimmed weight. If you are using large storage turnips or rutabaga, two or three will do.
- Butter and hamFour ounces of butter to 2 lb of turnip is a lot by current taste; 2 oz carries the flavour perfectly well. The 3 oz of lean ham is doing seasoning work, not bulk — a scrap of prosciutto end or a piece of country ham is closer to the original than deli ham.
- White stockAn unbrowned veal or chicken stock, made from bones without roasting them. Plain unsalted chicken stock is the practical substitute. Total liquid here is 3 pints (6 cups).
- The soaking stepThe recipe does not say why the quarter hour in cold water is wanted; it is usually explained as drawing sharpness out of stored roots. Fresh turnips can skip it, and it does no harm either way.
- SievingA blender or immersion blender replaces the fine sieve, but pass the soup through a strainer afterward anyway if you want the texture the recipe describes — celery fibre survives blending.
- Adding the cream"When boiling beat in 1/2 pint of rich cream" works with heavy cream, which will not split. Do not hold the soup at a boil after the cream goes in; bring it back to just below a simmer and serve.
- MaceGround mace is still sold and is worth using here rather than nutmeg. The two are closely related and often substituted, but mace is the more delicate and less sweet. About 1/4 teaspoon, added with the salt and pepper.
- YieldThe original claim of eight servings is accurate as a first course; four to five as a main.