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Russian Julienne Soup
Cut into strips one celery root, one carrot, one turnip, one leek, two onions and a small cabbage, and have ready; also cut up a quantity of mushrooms equal in bulk to all the other vegetables. Put the leek and onions into a saucepan with a small lump of butter, and fry them; do not, however, let them take a color. Then put in the other vegetables, together with the mushrooms, and cook gently until the moisture of the latter is reduced; pour over sufficient rich broth to moisten, reduce this to a glaze, pour over three or four quarts of boiling broth, remove the saucepan to the side of the fire, and allow the contents to simmer gently for an hour and a half. Mix well, stir in a little finely chopped fennels, and strain in enough sour cream to thicken; turn the soup into a tureen, and serve with rissoles, croquettes or meat patties. This latter is strictly the Russian way of serving this soup.
A vegetable julienne built on a mushroom base, thickened at the last moment with sour cream. The recipe is workable as written; the two things that need watching are the glaze stage and the cream.
- Never boil the soup after the cream goes inSour cream added to a boiling pot will break into grains. Take the pan off the heat, temper a ladle of hot broth into the cream, then stir it back in and keep the soup below a simmer from that point.
- "Strain in" the creamProbably means pressing the cream through a fine sieve so it enters as a smooth stream rather than in lumps. Whisking it slack with a little hot broth achieves the same thing.
- The mushroom quantity is the pointEqual in bulk to all the other vegetables combined is a great deal; since it is a measure of bulk rather than weight, figure on at least two pounds for a batch this size, though any figure is an estimate. Plain cremini, or a mix with a few dried porcini soaked and chopped, will give the depth.
- Reducing to a glazeThe first addition of broth should be small — just enough to moisten — and cooked down until it films the pan. The concentration is what deepens the flavor; skipping it leaves a thin soup. Note that the recipe itself warns against letting the vegetables take on color.
- Celery rootOne celeriac, peeled hard to remove the fibrous outer layer. It discolors quickly, so cut it last or hold the strips in acidulated water.
- "Fennels"Read literally this means fennel greens. Dill, however, is the characteristic herb of Russian soups finished with sour cream and may well be what is intended; use dill unless you specifically want the anise note of fennel tops.
- Cut and quantityJulienne means matchsticks roughly 1/8 inch square and 1 1/2 to 2 inches long, cut uniformly so nothing overcooks. Three or four quarts of broth plus vegetables yields something like twelve to sixteen servings; halve everything for a household pot.
- "The side of the fire"A cool corner of the range top — the modern equivalent is the lowest burner setting, with the surface barely trembling. Ninety minutes at a genuine boil will reduce the vegetables to threads.
- The accompanimentsRissoles, croquettes and meat patties occupy the place that pirozhki, the small filled pastries served alongside soup, hold in Russian practice, though the recipe does not say so. They are passed separately, not floated in the bowl.
Julienne is a French term of art — thin uniform strips of vegetable, and by extension the clear soup made from them — and it was well established restaurant vocabulary long before Oscar Tschirky assembled this book from the Waldorf's kitchens in 1896. What makes this one "Russian" is the finish and the service: soured cream stirred in off the heat, chopped green herb, and small filled pastries handed round with it, which is the pattern of shchi, borscht and the other Russian soups that travel with smetana and pirozhki. Oscar's note that this is "strictly the Russian way of serving" is the tell — American dining rooms of the 1890s were deep in a vogue for service à la russe and for dishes labeled with a nationality, and a French technique wearing a Russian finish was exactly the sort of thing a grand hotel menu wanted. The heavy hand with mushrooms belongs to the same borrowing; dried and fresh mushrooms carry far more of the Russian soup repertoire than they do the French.