No. 215

Consomme a l'Adelina

The admitted rule for all soups is one quart of soup for four persons. The garnishing consists of round chicken quenelles, three-sixteenths of an inch, poached in boiling water; green peas cooked in boiling, salted water, and carrots cut into balls the same size and shape, and cooked in white broth with a little sugar. Also timbales, twelve pieces in all. Dilute one-quarter of a pint of puree of chestnuts with a quarter of a pint of cream and four egg-yolks, salt, and nutmeg; butter some dome shaped tartlet molds, put a round piece of truffle at the bottom, and then fill the molds with the above preparation; set one beside the other in a stewpan with boiling water reaching to half their height, and poach them in a slack oven; when firm to the touch, unmold and place them in a vegetable dish with the quenelles, carrots and green peas; pour over a little consomme, just sufficient to cover, and serve separately a tureen of consomme, having all very hot. Into each plate put some of the contents of the vegetable dish and tureen; this rule stands for all consomme garnishings, that is, one timbale, and a dozen and a half carrots, peas, and quenelles, inclusive.

← No. 214 Consomme, Garnishings of Soups & Broths No. 216 Consomme a l'Andalouse →

For the Modern Kitchen

This is a garnish assembly rather than a soup recipe: Ranhofer assumes you already have clarified consommé on hand (his No. 189 and the garnishing note at No. 214) and tells you only what to float in it. The chestnut timbales are the part that needs care.

YieldRanhofer's own rule is one quart of consommé for four people. His count works out to one timbale plus eighteen small items — quenelles, pea and carrot balls combined — per plate, twelve timbales in all, so the garnish as written serves twelve and the consommé should be scaled to three quarts.
A slack ovenRoughly 275–300F. The timbales are an egg custard and will curdle or weep if the water bath simmers; keep the water hot but not bubbling and check at 20 minutes, then every 5. "Firm to the touch" means set at the centre with no wobble.
The hinge: custard ratioA quarter pint chestnut purée, a quarter pint cream and four yolks is a firm, unsweetened custard by modern reckoning — about 1/2 cup each of purée and cream. Use unsweetened chestnut purée, not the sweetened crème de marrons sold for desserts, or the timbales will read as pudding.
Quenelle sizeThree-sixteenths of an inch is tiny, about 5 mm — pea-sized balls of chicken forcemeat, piped rather than shaped by hand. Poach them in barely trembling water for a minute or two; a rolling boil breaks them up.
White broth and carrot ballsWhite broth is unbrowned veal or chicken stock. Cutting carrots into balls the size of the peas is normally done with the smallest parisienne scoop; a pinch of sugar in the cooking liquid is glazing, not sweetening.
TruffleThe round of truffle at the bottom of each mould becomes the top when unmoulded, and is chiefly decorative. A slice of black olive or a disc of blanched leek gives a similar dark medallion at a fraction of the cost, though without the aroma.
VesselsDome-shaped tartlet moulds are hard to find; small metal dariole moulds or a mini muffin tin work, though the domes will be shallower. Butter them well and line the base if you want a clean release.
ServiceThe garnish goes to the table in a vegetable dish and the consommé separately in a tureen, spooned together in each plate. Everything must be very hot: a quart of consommé loses its edge quickly once poured over cool garnish.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the long run of consommés in its soup chapter — Andalouse, Colbert, Célestine, Adelina and dozens more — shows how a single clarified broth was made to yield an apparently endless menu by varying the garnish alone. Dishes bearing women's names in this period were often understood as tributes to singers and actresses who dined in the room, and à l'Adelina is usually taken to honour the soprano Adelina Patti, then among the most celebrated performers in the world, though the book does not say so here. The chestnut timbale is the distinguishing touch, and it suggests an autumn or winter dish, chestnuts being a familiar seasonal item in New York at the time. Worth noting too is the housekeeping instinct in the final sentence: having described one garnish, Ranhofer stops to fix a general rule of proportion for all of them, which reads as the habit of a man writing for a professional brigade rather than a home cook.