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Hop-Top Soup
Cut a good quantity of hop-tops which are now (April) in their greatest perfection, and tie them up in small bunches twenty or thirty in a Bunch, lay them in Spring water for an Hour, shake them well and set them by; set on a small Pot, pour into it three quarts of pease-soup, put in the hop-tops, boil them well, then add four spoonfuls of juice of onions and some pepper and salt; boil the whole up again, and it is enough, set it off, soak some crusts in the Broth, and lay them in the bottom of the soup dish; pour in the soup, and garnish the dish with hop-tops cut an inch long. This is plain hop-top soup and it is very good. The French often pour in cray-fish soup and this gives it a great richness, and quite alters its nature. This is to be poured in hot when the soup is in the dish. The British Housewife. Either of these soups would be just as succulent today, providing you are cooking close to the source of vine-buds, hop-tops and crayfish.
To the average Englishman, soup means turtle soup, which is always served at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, but unless you're prosperous you don't get a bid to that and have to stay at home with a bowl of mock turtle soup, oxtail, ale or just plain Bread Soup.
An eighteenth-century spring soup built on a base of dried pea broth, with young hop shoots as the vegetable. The whole thing hinges on getting hop-tops at all, and on not boiling them into string once you have them.
- Hop-topsThese are the tender young shoots of the hop vine, cut in early spring before the plant runs up its bines. They are sold briefly in some European markets and are a foraged item elsewhere; asparagus tips or thin sprue are the usual stand-in, though they are sweeter and less bitter.
- Pease-soupNot a modern canned pea soup but a thin broth of dried split peas cooked to a puree and let down with water or meat stock. Three quarts by English measure is roughly 3.4 litres (nearer 2.8 if you read it as US quarts), so plan on a large pot and a yield of ten or so bowls.
- "Boil them well"Ignore this for the shoots. Hop-tops and asparagus tips are done in two to four minutes and turn olive-drab and fibrous beyond that. Bring the pea broth to a simmer first, then add the bunches and cook briefly; the pea base itself can be simmered as long as you like beforehand.
- Juice of onionsFour spoonfuls means the liquid pressed or grated out of raw onions, used as a sharp seasoning rather than a sweet cooked base. Grate one large onion and squeeze it through a cloth, or substitute a couple of tablespoons of very finely minced onion softened in butter, accepting that the flavour will be rounder.
- The bunchesTying the shoots in bundles of twenty or thirty keeps them from scattering and lets you lift them out whole for the garnish. Keep back a handful, cut into inch lengths, to strew over the finished dish as directed.
- Soaked crustsDry bread crusts laid in the bottom of the tureen and moistened with the hot broth. Stale rustic bread or lightly toasted slices work; fresh soft bread dissolves into paste.
- The crayfish variationThe French version pours a hot shellfish soup in once the pea soup is already in the dish. If you attempt it, keep the two soups in separate pans and combine only in the serving dish, or the shellfish will overcook while the pea base finishes.
- Spring water soakThe recipe does not say why the shoots sit an hour in cold water; the likely purposes are to crisp them and to float out grit. Cold tap water will do; drain and shake dry, as directed, before cooking so the soup is not watered down.