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Consommé à la Célestine
(Clear Soup with Shreds of Pancakes.) Ingredients.
Three pints of Consommé.
One whole Egg.
The text as printed is only the head of the recipe — the name, the yield of stock and the beginning of the ingredient list — so treat it as a garnish specification rather than a full method. What matters is the ratio and the handling.
- The measuresThree imperial pints is about 60 fl oz — roughly 1.7 litres, or a little over 7 US cups. That serves six to eight as a first course.
- The missing half of the listOne egg alone will not make pancakes. A batter of this kind would be roughly one egg beaten with about 2 oz (½ cup) flour, a pinch of salt and enough milk to make a thin, pourable cream — about ½ cup. No sugar; these are savoury crêpes.
- What Célestine means in practiceThe pancakes are cooked paper-thin in a small pan, stacked, rolled and cut across into fine shreds, julienne width. Some kitchens work chopped herbs or a little grated Parmesan into the batter.
- Add the shreds at the last momentThis is the hinge. The pancake strips go into hot cups or the tureen and the consommé is poured over at the table. Left to simmer, they swell, shed starch and cloud the soup, which defeats the whole point of a clear consommé.
- Consommé qualityThe dish is nothing but broth and garnish, so a properly clarified, well-seasoned stock is the whole recipe. A cloudy or under-salted consommé cannot be rescued by the pancakes.
- Making aheadThe pancakes can be cooked several hours ahead and kept covered at room temperature; shred them just before serving so the strips stay separate rather than matting.
By the end of the nineteenth century French professional kitchens had turned consommé into a system: a single clarified stock, then dozens of fixed names distinguished only by what was dropped into the cup. Célestine denotes the shredded-pancake garnish, one of a family that includes royale (savoury custard cut in shapes), julienne (fine vegetable strips) and vermicelli. British books of this sort reproduced the French repertoire wholesale, though the reasons are more often inferred than documented: it is generally supposed that employers expected menus written in French and dishes recognisable to anyone who had dined in a good hotel. The economy of the idea is worth noting — a little egg and flour turn a plain broth into a named dish.