Celery Soup II
3 stalks celery 3 tablespoons butter 3 cups milk 3 tablespoons flour 1 slice onion Salt and pepper 1 cup cream Break celery in one-inch pieces, and pound in a mortar Cook in double boiler with onion and milk twenty minutes and strain. Thicken with butter and flour cooked together. Season with salt and pepper, add cream, strain into tureen, and serve at once.
A cream soup built on infusion rather than long simmering: the celery gives up its flavour to hot milk, and everything after that is thickening and seasoning. It comes together in about half an hour.
- How much celeryPeriod usage of "stalk" is not consistent: it could mean a whole bunch as sold rather than a single rib. Three whole heads would likely overwhelm three cups of milk; six to eight ribs, with their leaves, gives a soup that tastes clearly of celery.
- Pounding in a mortarThe point is to bruise the fibres so the milk can draw out flavour without a long boil. A few pulses in a food processor, or a heavy chop followed by a firm crush with the flat of a knife, does the same work.
- Double boilerMilk scorches on direct heat and celery infuses perfectly well below a simmer, which is why the double boiler is specified. A heavy saucepan over low heat works if you stir and never let it reach a boil.
- The roux"Butter and flour cooked together" means a white roux — cook the three tablespoons of each for two or three minutes over low heat so the raw flour taste goes, but stop before it colours. Whisk the hot strained milk in gradually to avoid lumps.
- Adding the creamStir it in off the heat or over the lowest flame. Once the cream is in, hard boiling can thin a starch-thickened soup and risks curdling. The recipe's instruction to serve at once is consistent with this, though it gives no reason.
- Straining twiceThe first strain removes the pounded celery and onion; the second, into the tureen, catches any lumps from the roux. Both matter for the smooth texture this style of soup is after.
- YieldFour cups of liquid, so four small first-course servings or three generous bowls.