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Celery Soup
Wash thoroughly and trim three or four heads of celery, and boil them in about two quarts of white broth. When tender, take them out of the broth, and pass through a sieve. Mix one dessertspoonful of flour, and one of corn starch with one pint of fresh milk, stir it into the broth, add a lump of sugar and season with one pinch of salt. Place the celery in again, and stir it until it is quite thick, over a moderate fire, and then put in two tablespoonfuls of butter. After it is melted and properly blended, pour the soup into a tureen and serve hot.
A straightforward pureed cream soup from the Waldorf's kitchen, written for cooks who kept stock on hand and needed no measurements spelled out. A few of Oscar's terms have shifted meaning.
- White brothThis means a pale, unbrowned stock — veal, or veal and chicken, simmered without roasting the bones and without tomato or heavy seasoning. A light chicken stock is the practical substitute; avoid anything dark or deeply reduced, since the point is a soup that stays ivory.
- Heads of celeryA "head" is the whole bunch, not a single rib. Three or four heads for two quarts of broth is a great deal of celery by modern habit, but it is what gives the soup its body and flavor; use the leaves and the pale heart as well as the outer ribs.
- DessertspoonfulBetween a teaspoon and a tablespoon, roughly two teaspoons. So about two teaspoons flour and two teaspoons cornstarch for the pint of milk — a light thickening, since the sieved celery does most of the work.
- A lump of sugarA period sugar lump is roughly a teaspoon. The recipe gives no reason for it; a single lump in this quantity of soup will read as balance against celery's slight bitterness rather than sweetness.
- Pass through a sieveThe original says only 'pass through a sieve'; a drum sieve and wooden pestle would have been the usual tools of the period. A blender or food mill does it faster, but pass the puree through a fine strainer afterward regardless — celery is stringy and the fibers will otherwise stay in the soup.
- Heat control after the milk goes inTake 'a moderate fire' as a gentle simmer rather than a rolling boil. Once the milk-and-starch mixture is in, keep it below a hard boil and stir until it coats the spoon.
- The butter lastThe butter goes in after the soup has thickened and is stirred until melted and blended, as the recipe directs. Keep the heat low at this stage so the soup looks glossy rather than greasy.
- YieldTwo quarts of broth plus a pint of milk gives roughly ten cups before reduction, so something like six to eight servings depending on portion size. The recipe itself states no yield.
Oscar Tschirky's 1896 collection catches celery at the height of its American prestige. Through the late nineteenth century celery was a cultivated luxury, grown in blanched trenches, sold by the head, and set out on the table in specialized cut-glass vases so guests could see it — Kalamazoo, Michigan, built a reputation on the crop. A soup calling for three or four whole heads was therefore a quietly expensive dish, and its pale, smooth finish is pure hotel cookery: a velvet-textured white soup meant to open a long menu without overwhelming what followed. That celery also anchors the salad Oscar's kitchen is remembered for is no coincidence.