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Cream Tomato Soup
In making cream tomato soup, it is not necessary, as is usually supposed, to use soda in order to keep it from curdling. It may be made in two ways: First, by using cream; second, by using milk and taking sufficient care in making the soup.
No. 1 2 cups strained tomato 1 cup water 1 cup cream 2 tablespoons flour 1 1/4 teaspoons salt Grated yellow rind of 1/2 orange Heat tomato and water to boiling. Stir the flour smooth with the cream, and whip it into the boiling liquid. Add salt and the orange rind, and serve at once. There is so little casein in the cream that the soup is not likely to curdle when made this way.
No. 2 1 pint strained tomato 1 pint milk 3 tablespoons flour 1 1/4 teaspoons salt Heat the tomato to boiling, and thicken it with one and one-half tablespoons of the flour stirred smooth with a little cold water. Heat the milk in a double boiler, and thicken it with one and one-half tablespoons of flour. Add the salt to the tomato. Slowly add the thickened tomato to the thickened milk, whipping the milk as the tomato is poured in. Remove from the fire, and serve at once.
This must not be allowed to heat again after the tomato and milk are mixed, because it will curdle if they are heated together.
Two versions of the same soup, both built on the principle that acid curdles milk protein unless the two are handled correctly. The instructions are sound and still the best way to avoid soda in tomato soup.
- The hingeIn No. 2 both liquids must be thickened separately, and the tomato goes into the milk rather than the reverse. The recipe is explicit that the mixed soup must not be heated again or it will curdle.
- Strained tomatoTomatoes stewed and pressed through a sieve, whether fresh or canned, rather than bottled juice or commercial puree. Canned whole tomatoes pureed and strained come closest; commercial puree is much thicker and will need thinning and less flour.
- CreamThe reasoning in No. 1 holds: heavy cream is low enough in casein to resist curdling. Use cream at 36 percent or higher, not half-and-half, or the advantage disappears.
- Orange rindGrated zest only, no white pith, from half a medium orange — roughly a teaspoon. Add it off the heat so the oils stay bright; long cooking turns it bitter and dull.
- Double boilerCalled for in No. 2 to keep the milk from scorching while it thickens. A heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat with steady whisking does the same job.
- SaltOne and a quarter teaspoons across roughly a quart of soup is modest by modern taste. The recipe adds it to the tomato before the two liquids are combined.
- YieldEach version makes about a quart, enough for four cups or three generous bowls. Serve immediately — this soup does not hold or reheat.