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Rice Soup (INGREDIENTS for soup) (II)
INGREDIENTS for soup for 8 or 10 persons. -6 oz. of rice, the yolks of 4 eggs, 1/2 pint of cream, rather more than 2 quarts of stock. AVERAGE COST, 2s.
Boil the rice in the stock, and rub half of it through a tammy; put the stock in a stewpan, add all the rice and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Beat the yolks of the eggs, mix them with the cream (previously boiled), and strain through a hair sieve; take the soup off the fire, add the eggs and cream, stirring frequently. Heat it gradually, stirring all the time; but do not let it boil, or the eggs will curdle.
TIME.-2 hours.
SEASONABLE all the year. lb.
Rice, To Boil (for Curries, &c.).-- INGREDIENTS for rice for large curry. of rice, water, salt. AVERAGE COST, 3d.
Pick, wash and soak the rice in plenty of cold water; then have ready a saucepan of boiling water, drop the rice into it, and keep it boiling quickly, with the lid removed, until it is tender, but not soft. Take it up, drain it, and put it on a dish before the fire to dry; do not handle it much with a spoon, but shake it about a little with two forks, that it may all be equally dried, and strew over it a little salt. It is now ready to serve, and may be heaped lightly on a dish by itself, or be laid round the dish as a border, with a curry or fricassée in the centre. The rice, to be well boiled, should be white, dry and with every grain distinct. During the process of boiling, the rice should be attentively watched, that it be not overdone, as, if this is the case, it will have a mashed and soft appearance.
TIME.-15 to 25 minutes, according to the quality of the rice.
SEASONABLE at any time RICE, TO BOIL.
Rice, To Boil (for Curries, &c.;
A white rice soup thickened at the last moment with egg yolks and cream — essentially a savoury custard, and it behaves like one. Everything hinges on the final heating.
- Do not let it boilOnce the yolks and cream go in, keep the soup below a simmer — around 170-175F. A single boil will scramble the yolks into grains that no amount of stirring will smooth out. If you are nervous, warm it in a bowl over hot water rather than directly on the burner.
- Imperial measuresA half pint of cream in a British book of this period is 10 fl oz, not 8; use about 1 1/4 cups. "Rather more than 2 quarts" of stock is a little over 2.3 litres (an imperial quart being 40 fl oz), and the rice will take up some of it.
- A tammyA tammy was a worsted or loose-woven cloth through which cooks pushed purees with a wooden spoon. A fine-mesh sieve does the same work; a stick blender pulsed briefly into half the rice is faster.
- Hair sieveSieves were once woven from horsehair. Any fine strainer works here — its only job is to catch bits of coagulated yolk before they reach the pot.
- Boil the cream firstThe instruction to use "previously boiled" cream is not decorative. Scalding the cream and letting it cool slightly means the egg mixture goes into the soup already warm, which reduces the shock and the risk of curdling.
- The two-hour timingThe two hours presumably covers making or reducing the stock. The rice itself needs 15-20 minutes in simmering stock, and the finishing takes five minutes more.
- Rice choiceUse a plain long-grain or a medium-grain white rice. Modern parboiled or converted rice resists breaking down and will not give up the starch that makes half of it purée smoothly.
- YieldAs written this fills eight to ten small soup plates as a first course, or serves five or six as a main bowl.
Rice soups thickened with egg yolks and cream belong to the long line of European "white soups" — the same family as the soupe \u18th-century tables — in which a bland starch base is enriched at the last moment with a liaison of yolk and cream. The technique is the same one that produces blanquette sauce and Greek avgolemono, and the warning against boiling recurs in cookery books over a long period because it is the step inexperienced cooks most often ruin. Beeton's habit of pricing each dish is worth noticing: two shillings for a soup serving ten put it among the cheaper openings to a middle-class dinner.