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Onion Soup (Take about two pounds)
264. Take about two pounds of mutton or veal, put it on to stew with twelve large onions, sliced. When the onions are very soft, put them through a fine sieve, or put a cloth into the colander, and mash the onions in it, pouring the gravy over them till they are nearly all run through. This quantity will make three pints of soup; add one pint of new milk, with two table-spoonsful of flour mixed with it, one table-spoonful of essence of anchovy; mace, pepper, and salt to the taste. 265. BROWN ONION SOUP.-Peel and slice eight or ten large Spanish onions, fry them in butter a nice brown; when tender, lay them on a sieve to drain. Boil them an hour in five quarts of boiling water, and stir them after adding pepper and salt, and the crumbs of a penny loaf rubbed fine, then boil two hours more, stirring often, or it will be lumpy. Before serving, add the yolks of two eggs, with two spoonsful of vinegar and a little sugar, to a small portion of the soup; pour this in gently, and stir it ten minutes: flavour with a tea-spoonful of Indian soy and some ketchup. 266. GREEN ONION SOUP. - To be prepared as brown onion soup, (265), but with fresh drawn onions, of which the green part should be added to the roots, and some of them cut in very narrow strips an inch long, and put into the soup later, so as to remain in shape when it is served; at the same time that they must be boiled quite tender.
Three related soups sit in this entry: a pale mutton-or-veal onion purée, a long-boiled brown onion soup thickened with breadcrumbs, and the same brown soup made with young green onions. All three assume flavourings from the Victorian store cupboard.
- The missing liquid in the first soupNo water is specified for stewing the meat and onions, yet the result is three pints. Cover the meat and sliced onions with about three and a half pints of cold water and simmer gently, allowing for reduction; twelve large onions will also give up a good deal of their own moisture.
- Essence of anchovyA thick, salty anchovy syrup once sold by the bottle. Anchovy paste from a tube is the nearest thing, about two teaspoons for the tablespoon called for, or use a mashed salted anchovy fillet or two. Salt at the end, after it goes in.
- New milkSimply fresh whole milk, unskimmed and not soured. Whole milk is correct; the flour whisked into it cold is a slurry, so add it in a stream while the soup is at a bare simmer to avoid lumps.
- MaceThe outer covering of nutmeg, warmer and less sweet. Blade mace can be fished out before serving; if using ground mace, a quarter teaspoon is enough for three pints, or substitute a scant grating of nutmeg.
- Spanish onions and the frying stageSpanish onions are the large mild yellow onions still sold under that name. Browning them in butter is where all the flavour of 265 comes from, so take them well past golden without letting the edges blacken, then drain as directed.
- Cut the boiling timeAn hour plus two hours more in five quarts is a great deal for a soup thickened only with bread. An hour to an hour and a half is likely to be plenty once the onions are already tender.
- A penny loafA small white loaf; its weight varied a good deal by period and place, so judge the quantity of crumb by feel rather than a fixed figure. Rub or blitz the crumb, without crust, to fine crumbs, and add gradually: this is the thickener, and it will settle and scorch if the soup is not stirred.
- The egg liaison is the hingeWhisk the yolks with the vinegar and sugar, then slacken them with a ladleful of hot soup before pouring the mixture back. Keep the pot below a simmer for the ten minutes of stirring; a boil at this stage curdles the yolks and cannot be undone.
- Indian soy and ketchupIndian soy was an early imported soy sauce; use a teaspoon of dark soy. The ketchup meant here is mushroom or walnut ketchup, thin and savoury rather than sweet and tomato-based, so use a mushroom ketchup or a dash of Worcestershire sauce.
- Fresh drawn onionsFor 266, these are young onions pulled before the bulb swells, sold now as spring onions or scallions. Use the green tops as well as the white, and hold back the inch-long strips until the last few minutes so they keep their shape and colour.
- YieldThe first soup makes about four pints once the milk goes in, or six to eight servings. The brown soup starts from five quarts of water and will reduce over its long boil, though by how much the recipe does not say; either way it is plainly a large-quantity soup.