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Cream of Lettuce Soup
2 1/2 cups White Stock II or III 2 heads lettuce finely cut 2 tablespoons rice 1/2 cup cream 1/4 tablespoon onion, finely chopped 1 tablespoon butter Yolk 1 egg Few grains nutmeg Salt Pepper Cook onion five minutes in butter, add lettuce, rice, and stock. Cook until rice is soft, then add cream, yolk of egg slightly beaten, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Remove outer leaves from lettuce, using only tender part for soup.
A thin, delicate purée-style soup of the kind that opened a formal dinner around 1900. Nearly everything here is straightforward; the one step that will spoil it is the egg yolk.
- Do not boil after the yolk goes inOnce the beaten yolk is stirred in, hold the soup below a simmer — roughly 160-170F — just until it thickens slightly. A boil curdles it into grainy threads that no amount of whisking will smooth. Temper the yolk with a ladle of hot soup first, then return it to the pan off the heat.
- White Stock II or IIIThese are the book's own light stocks (veal and/or fowl based), mild in flavour. Any light homemade chicken stock works; if using commercial broth, choose a low-sodium one and hold back on salt until the end, since the cream and yolk mute seasoning as they go in.
- Two heads of lettuceHeads of the period were generally lighter than a modern iceberg, more often butterhead or loose-leaf types. Roughly 8 ounces of trimmed tender leaves is a reasonable reading — two heads of butter or Boston lettuce, or one romaine heart plus a handful of leaf lettuce.
- The onion measurement"1/4 tablespoon" is an odd way to write it, but it amounts to about 3/4 teaspoon of finely chopped onion — call it a scant teaspoon, or about a quarter of a small shallot. It is there for background only.
- Rice as the thickenerThe two tablespoons of rice are not a garnish — they cook to mush and give the soup body, taking the place of a flour roux. Use a starchy short or medium grain, and allow 20-25 minutes at a bare simmer until the grains break down completely.
- TextureAs written the soup is left rustic, with soft rice and shreds of lettuce. For the smooth cream soup the title implies, blend it before the cream and yolk are added, then reheat gently and finish off the heat.
- CreamHalf a cup of cream to two and a half cups of stock is a rich but not heavy proportion. Heavy cream or half-and-half both work; the rice does most of the thickening, with the yolk adding a final light body.
- YieldAbout three cups finished, which is two generous bowls or four small first-course cups in the manner intended.