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Sanitary Soup
Trim off the exterior leaves of three large lettuces, wash the remainder and cut them into fine shreds. Wash and shred a small quantity of beetroot leaves, one handful each of chervil and celery leaves, and about two handfuls of sorrel leaves. Put two leeks and one sliced onion into a saucepan with a little butter and toss them over the fire until the butter has melted and commenced to boil; then throw in the beetroot, celery and lettuce leaves and fry them for ten minutes; add the sorrel and chervil, pour in two quarts of broth, boil it for fifteen minutes, then move the saucepan to the side of the fire and skim off all the fat. Put some thin slices of bread into a soup tureen, soak them with a little of the soup for a few minutes, then pour in the remainder and serve.
A green herb soup of the old French kind, thickened only by bread. It comes together in under half an hour, and the main risks are overcooking the greens and under-seasoning the broth.
- The hinge: keep the boil shortFifteen minutes is the outer limit once the broth goes in. Sorrel and chervil lose their perfume fast, and lettuce turns to olive-drab sludge if it is left to simmer while you do something else.
- "Move to the side of the fire"On a coal range this meant sliding the pan off the hot plate to a cooler zone. Take it off the heat entirely, or drop to the lowest setting, then skim.
- Beetroot leavesBeet greens, sold as beet tops or with young beets attached. Chard is the closest substitute and behaves the same way; use the leaf, not the thick stalk.
- SorrelRarely stocked in supermarkets; look at farmers' markets in spring or grow it. Two handfuls is an imprecise measure -- call it a good couple of large handfuls of leaves, loosely gathered. Cook it in a stainless or enamelled pan, not bare cast iron or aluminium, which react with its acidity and dull both colour and flavour.
- ChervilSold fresh in some markets, and worth seeking out — dried chervil tastes of nothing. Flat-leaf parsley with a pinch of tarragon gets you near the anise-parsley note if you must substitute.
- BrothThe recipe specifies only "broth"; a light veal or chicken broth suits it. Unsalted stock is best here, since the greens are already gently sour and you want to season at the end.
- The breadThin slices of a plain white loaf, staled a day. This is a panade: the bread dissolves into the soup and is the only thickening. Toasted bread will stay in pieces instead of melting.
- YieldTwo quarts of broth plus the greens serves six as a first course. Season with salt and white pepper before it reaches the tureen; the original assumes a cook who does that without being told.
This is often linked to the classic French potage sant\u\health sosoup\u\ough the English title "sanitary soup" reads oddly now, it was ordinary enough in an era when "sanitary" simply meant conducive to health. The formula here is lettuce, sorrel and chervil sweated in butter, moistened with broth, poured over bread. Soups of this kind were generally regarded as restorative and easy on the digestion, the sort of thing prescribed for convalescents and served as a light opening course rather than as nourishment in itself. Its presence in Oscar Tschirky's book reflects the Waldorf kitchen's grounding in the French repertoire of the period.