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Rice Soup (INGREDIENTS for soup)
INGREDIENTS for soup for 8 or 10 persons.-4 oz. of Patna rice, salt, cayenne and mace, 2 quarts of white stock.
AVERAGE COST, 1s. 9d.
Throw the rice into boiling water, and let it boil until tender; then pour it into a sieve, and allow it to drain well. Now add it to the stock boiling, and allow it to simmer a few minutes; season to taste. Serve quickly.
TIME.-1½ hour.
SEASONABLE all the year.
A plain clear soup that lives or dies on the stock. Two things matter: the rice is cooked separately in water so it does not cloud the broth, and it is drained thoroughly before it goes in.
- White stockNot a modern white sauce base but a pale unclouded stock made from veal knuckle, or chicken and veal together, with no browning of the bones or vegetables. A good low-sodium chicken stock stands in; 2 quarts is 8 cups.
- Patna riceA long-grain Indian rice, the standard non-pudding rice in British kitchens of the period. Any long-grain white rice works; basmati is the closest in character. 4 oz is about a generous half cup dry.
- Why boil the rice apartCooking it in the stock would release starch and turn a deliberately clear soup cloudy and thick. Boil in plenty of salted water, drain in a sieve, and let it sit a minute to steam off surface moisture.
- TimingThe stated hour presumably allows for heating the stock and bringing the water to the boil. Long-grain white rice is tender in 10-12 minutes, and the final simmer in the stock should be two or three minutes only, just to warm it through, or the grains bloat and break.
- MaceThe outer covering of the nutmeg, milder and less resinous. Ground mace is sold in most spice ranges; a small pinch is enough, and grated nutmeg used sparingly is an acceptable substitute.
- CayenneUsed here as a background warmth rather than heat. An eighth of a teaspoon in 8 cups is a reasonable modern starting point; the recipe itself leaves the amount to taste.
- Yield and servingThe original 8 to 10 portions are soup-course servings of roughly a cup or less each. As a first course in modern portions it serves 5 or 6. Ladle out at once, as the rice keeps absorbing liquid in the pot.
- The cost line1s. 9d. is pre-decimal British currency, one shilling and ninepence, and reflects Victorian prices. It is of historical interest only.
Rice soup belongs to a large family of Victorian "clear soups with a garnish" that fill several pages of Beeton and its rivals: a well-made stock carrying rice, vermicelli, sago, tapioca or barley, each listed separately as though it were a different dish. The rice named here, Patna, points to the trade that made such recipes possible, long-grain rice shipped from India and sold by British grocers by the pound. The note "seasonable all the year" mattered in a book organised around what the markets had: unlike a spring soup of peas or an autumn one of game, this one depended only on stockpot and store cupboard.