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Cream of Potato Soup No. 2
2 large or 3 medium-sized potatoes 1 pint milk 1/2 cup cream 2 teaspoons salt Scrub the potatoes, pare, slice, and cook in sufficient boiling water to cover. Put through a colander with the liquid in which they were cooked. Heat the milk and cream, and add to the mashed potatoes. Add the salt, and cook five minutes.
A plain potato soup thickened by nothing but the potatoes themselves. Two details in the original need translating: the potatoes are pushed through a colander with their cooking water, and the salt is measured for a period palate.
- The hinge: keep the cooking waterThe starch in the boiling water is the only thickener here. Pass the potatoes and the liquid together through a colander or food mill; draining them first gives a thin, separated soup.
- Don't use a blenderA colander or ricer breaks the potato into soft grains. High-speed blades rupture the starch cells and turn boiled potato gluey. If you want it smoother than a colander gives, use a food mill or a ricer, then whisk.
- Potato varietyA floury potato — russet or a similar baking type — falls apart in the water and thickens properly. Waxy new potatoes stay in stubborn lumps and will not pass through a colander easily.
- SaltTwo teaspoons in roughly a quart of soup is on the heavy side by current taste, and the recipe carries no other seasoning of any kind. Start with one teaspoon and adjust at the end.
- "1/2 cup cream"Cream of this period was often lighter than today's heavy cream, closer to what we would call half-and-half. Modern heavy cream at about 36 percent fat will make the soup noticeably richer, so cut it back or thin with more milk.
- The final five minutesCook gently and stir. Once the milk is in, a hard boil will scorch the starch on the bottom of the pan and can curdle the dairy. Low heat, just to bring it together.
- YieldAbout a quart — four small first-course servings, or two as a light supper with bread.
- Seasoning it furtherThe original is deliberately bare. White pepper, a bay leaf in the potato water, or a little grated onion cooked with the potatoes all sit comfortably within the method.
Potato soups earned their place in plain household cookery because they solved several problems at once: cheap, filling, quick, and thickened without a meat stock or a flour-and-butter roux. The "No. 2" in the title indicates only that the book carries at least one other version of the dish; what distinguishes them is not stated here. Pressing cooked vegetables through a colander or sieve was a common way to purée before mechanical mills were usual kitchen equipment.