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Spinach Blocks
Press thoroughly cooked and chopped spinach through a sieve, add one egg slightly beaten and a little beef stock. Season to taste and proceed to bake in a shallow tin surrounded by water, as described in the preceding recipes.
This is a soup garnish — a baked savory custard, cut into cubes and floated in clear consommé. It is what French kitchens call a royale, and the whole point is a firm, silky set that holds a sharp edge.
- Squeeze the spinach dryCooked spinach carries enormous amounts of water, and any of it left in will keep the custard from setting and cloud the soup it goes into. Wring the chopped spinach hard in a towel before sieving, or press it in a fine strainer with the back of a ladle.
- The proportions are left to youOne egg will set roughly 1/4 to 1/3 cup of total liquid, so figure on about 1/3 cup of dry sieved spinach purée plus 2 to 3 tablespoons of stock per egg. More stock than that and the blocks will slump when cut.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives none; "bake in a shallow tin surrounded by water" simply calls for a water bath. Modern practice for custards of this kind is a moderate oven, roughly 325 to 350F. Much hotter and the egg curdles and weeps, leaving a spongy block rather than a smooth one.
- Depth and timingPour the mixture no more than 1/2 to 3/4 inch deep and bake 20 to 30 minutes, until the center is just firm to a light touch. Use hot water in the outer tin, filled to about half the depth of the custard.
- Cool before cuttingChill the sheet completely in the tin, then turn it out and cut into 1/2-inch cubes or small diamonds with a thin knife dipped in hot water. Warm custard tears; cold custard cuts clean.
- Adding to the soupDrop the blocks into the tureen or the individual plates and pour hot consommé over them. They should never be simmered in the soup — they will break up and turn it murky.
- SeasoningSalt, pepper and a scrape of nutmeg. Season a little more assertively than seems right, since the blocks are eaten alongside a mild clear broth.
- YieldTwo eggs' worth garnishes six to eight cups of soup, which is plenty for a first course. Use a tin small enough to give the 1/2-inch depth called for above; an 8-inch square will spread the mixture thinner than that.
Spinach blocks belong to the family of egg custard garnishes that French cooking calls royales, moulded, baked in a water bath and cut into geometric shapes to float in clear soup. Their appeal in the period is largely visual: a properly clarified consommé was the mark of a serious kitchen, and the fashion was to show it off with something bright and precisely cut suspended in it — green from spinach, red from tomato or carrot, pale gold from plain stock and cream. The Butterick Publishing Company, better known for dress patterns, issued its cook book to the same audience of ambitious middle-class housekeepers, which is why a chapter of "Soup Accessories" sits here at all: these were the small refinements that separated a company dinner from a family one, and the recipe assumes you have already read the preceding entries and know what a water bath does.