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Jenny Lind's Soup
As Prepared specially for her by her own cook.
Wash 1/4 pound best pearl sago till the water poured off is clear, then cook, till tender and thick, in a quart of cold water or broth, which should be heated slowly. Mix gradually with this a pint of boiling cream and the yolks of 4 fresh eggs, then add 2 quarts of strong veal or beef stock, boiling hot. Serve at once.
A nineteenth-century liaison soup: sago for body, then egg yolks and cream for richness. The whole thing hinges on not letting the yolks curdle.
- The hinge: temper, then never boilThe original has a pint of boiling cream going in with the yolks; safer is to beat the yolks into the cream off the heat, then stir that mixture gradually into the hot sago, and add the boiling stock in a thin stream while whisking. Once the yolks are in, the soup must stay below about 180F or it will scramble into threads.
- Pearl sagoSago is palm starch sold as small opaque pearls, still stocked in South and Southeast Asian groceries. 1/4 lb is roughly two-thirds of a cup. Small pearl tapioca is the usual substitute and cooks similarly; the flavour is not identical, though it is easily lost in a soup this rich.
- Why the washing mattersRinsing until the water runs clear removes loose surface starch, which otherwise turns the soup gluey. Rinse in several changes of cold water rather than one long soak.
- Heat the sago slowlyStarting the pearls in cold liquid and bringing it up gradually lets them hydrate through to the centre. Dropped into boiling liquid they set on the outside and stay chalky within. Expect 25-40 minutes at a bare simmer, stirring so they do not catch.
- Quantities and yieldA quart of cooking liquid plus a pint of cream plus two quarts of stock is roughly 3 1/2 quarts finished soup, enough for 12-14 as a first course. Halve it comfortably.
- Stock"Strong veal or beef stock" means a real gelatinous stock reduced from bones, not bouillon. With commercial broth the soup will taste thin behind all that cream; reduce it by a third first and season carefully, since the sago and cream mute salt.
- Raw yolkThe yolks are cooked by the boiling stock and cream, but only just. Use fresh eggs, and if serving anyone vulnerable, hold the finished soup at 165F for a minute or two while whisking rather than eating it straight off the liaison.
- Serve at onceThis is not a soup that reheats. Standing thickens the sago further and any return to the boil breaks the egg. Have the tureen and bowls hot before you make the liaison.