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Two 18th Century Soups
VINE-BUD POTAGE They sometimes make a Vine-Bud Potage in the Countries abounding with Vineyards; in order to do which they cut off the largest leaves of the Buds, taking Care that none of the Wood be left; then they scald them in boiling Water, and tying them up in Bunches, stew them in a little Pot, with a Carrot, a few Turnips cut in Quarters, and a Clove of Garlick; they add to these as they are dressing a little thickening Liquor; and garnish the Potage with other Buds, and a Loaf in the middle. Dictionnaire Oeconomique.
A vineyard-country soup that treats young grapevine shoots as a spring green. The original assumes a cook who knows what a potage is and needs no quantities, so the useful work here is in translating its shorthand.
- What a vine bud isThe tender new growth at the tip of a grapevine shoot in spring, taken with its largest young leaves. "None of the Wood be left" is the key instruction: any part stiff enough to snap rather than bend stays fibrous no matter how long it stews.
- Source of the leavesOnly pick from vines you know have not been sprayed. Commercial vineyards are treated with fungicides through the growing season, and vine leaves are not washed the way fruit is.
- Scald them firstA brief blanch in boiling water, thirty seconds to a minute, is enough. It sets the colour and takes off the raw astringency; longer and the leaves collapse before they reach the pot.
- Tying up in bunchesThe blanched leaves are bundled with thread so they hold together and can be lifted whole out of the pot. Small, tight bundles keep their shape best.
- "A little Pot"A small saucepan with just enough broth or water to come partway up the bundles. The recipe gives no time; a bare simmer of twenty to thirty minutes suits the leaves.
- "A little thickening Liquor"An 18th-century thickening: a spoonful of flour cooked in butter, or a thick meat coulis, stirred in near the end. A tablespoon of butter kneaded with a tablespoon of flour will lightly thicken about a pint.
- "A Loaf in the middle"A potage in this period was built on bread. A dried or lightly toasted round of coarse loaf goes in the centre of the dish and the liquid is poured over to soak it; the extra buds the recipe calls for are set around it.
- Yield and seasoningThe original names no quantities and no salt, which the period took for granted; season the broth before it goes over the bread.
The Dictionnaire Oeconomique was Noel Chomel's vast household and estate encyclopaedia, first published in France in 1709 and issued in English by the botanist Richard Bradley in the 1720s, which is how entries like this one reached British kitchens. Its phrasing here is that of an observer rather than a cook: "they sometimes make" in "the Countries abounding with Vineyards" is a note on regional practice, the sort of thrift that turns spring pruning into dinner. Vine shoots and leaves have a long life in the cookery of grape-growing regions, most familiarly as wrappers for stuffed leaves around the Mediterranean, and using the discarded green growth costs the vineyard nothing. The bread in the middle is the older shape of soup, from before the word meant liquid alone: the potage was the pot's contents poured over sops, and the loaf was the substance of the dish.