No. 220

Consomme a la Berry

Prepare for this consomme a garnishing composed of small soft eggs (No. 2949), and lozenges prepared as follows: Take a pint of puree of asparagus, beat in twelve egg-yolks, a little raw cream and seasoning; pour the preparation into buttered baking tins, the bottoms to be covered with a sheet of paper; poach in a slack oven and when cold turn them over on a napkin; remove the paper and cut up into small lozenges, one inch long, by half an inch wide; have also the same sized lozenges cut from both carrots and turnips, keeping them an eighth of an inch thick; blanch and cook separately in consomme and when done the liquid should be reduced to a glaze. Serve the garnishings in a separate tureen, accompanied by a tureen full of consomme.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is a garnish recipe more than a soup recipe: the consommé itself is assumed, and the work is in the asparagus royale and the cut vegetables. Ranhofer expects both to reach the table in separate tureens, so the clear broth stays clear.

The hinge: bake the royale gently in a water bathThe hinge: bake the royale gently -- Twelve yolks to a pint of purée is a rich custard, and it will curdle or turn spongy if pushed much past about 180F internal. Ranhofer says only to poach it in a slack oven and gives no temperature; a slack oven is a cool one, so work low (a modern cook can set the buttered tins in a pan of hot water) and pull them the moment the centre is just set.
"A pint of puree of asparagus"Sixteen fluid ounces of thick, well-drained purée, not a thin soup. Excess water will keep the custard from setting cleanly and will weep when you cut the lozenges.
"A sheet of paper"Parchment, buttered. It is there so the set custard releases in one slab when inverted onto the napkin; silicone liners work but make the block harder to lift out of a small tin.
Custard depthThe recipe fixes the royale lozenges at one inch by half an inch but gives no thickness for them (the eighth-inch is specified for the carrot and turnip only). Pour the preparation shallow so the slab bakes evenly and cuts into flat lozenges rather than cubes.
"Small soft eggs (No. 2949)"Ranhofer cross-refers to a separate preparation of small soft eggs used as a soup garnish; check the entry itself for what he intends. Small eggs, soft-poached and shocked in cold water, are the practical modern stand-in.
Carrot and turnip lozengesCut them an eighth of an inch thick, blanch, then cook each vegetable separately in consommé until the liquid has reduced to a glaze that coats. Cooking them together muddies both the colour and the flavour.
ServingThe garnishes go into a warm tureen and the hot, well-clarified consommé into another, as the recipe directs; they are combined at the table. Warm everything, since cold garnish will cloud and cool the broth. Ranhofer gives no yield.
Make-aheadThe royale can be baked a day ahead and kept whole under film, then cut just before service. Cut lozenges dry out and their edges go leathery within a few hours.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its soup chapter is essentially a catalogue of clear consommés distinguished only by their garnish — the classic French system in which the broth is a constant and the name belongs to what floats in it. "À la Berry" points, as such names usually do, to a French place or title rather than to any technique: the old province of Berry in central France, or one of the dukes who bore it, though nineteenth-century garnish names were often attached with more flattery than documentation. The asparagus custard here is a royale, a standard consommé garnish of the period, baked firm enough to cut into geometric shapes; the fashion for cutting royales and root vegetables into matching lozenges, rounds and dice was a display of kitchen labour as much as of taste, and it is one of the first things to vanish from restaurant cooking once brigades shrank."}