No. 255

Cream of Green Corn a la Hermann

Creme de Mais Vertes a la Hermann

Boil some corn on the cob in water having salt and butter added to it; drain, then cut off the tender part of the corn; about two pounds in all. Pound this in a mortar with thick bechamel sauce and dilute this puree with white broth. Place a pound of chicken forcemeat (No. 60) in a deep buttered dish; stand it in a sautoire with water reaching to half the height of the dish, let boil and then put it in a slack oven to poach the forcemeat; leave it to cool, then pound in a mortar adding the corn puree, and enough broth to obtain a not too thick puree; strain through a tammy, heat up without boiling, and just when ready to serve add, to thicken the soup, egg-yolk and cream; work in a piece of fresh butter. Serve separately some Compiegne croutons browned in the oven.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A late nineteenth-century restaurant cream soup built in the classical way: a vegetable purée, a poached forcemeat for body, and an egg-and-cream liaison at the finish. The hinge is the last step — once the yolks go in, the soup must never boil.

The liaisonTemper the yolks and cream with a ladle of hot soup, return the mixture off the heat, and hold the soup below about 180F. A boil will curdle the yolks and the whole thing turns grainy; there is no rescue short of straining and starting the finish again.
Slack ovenA slack oven is roughly 275-300F. The forcemeat is poached in a water bath, not baked, so low and gentle is the point — it should set firm and moist, not brown or soufflé.
Mortar and tammyA blender or food processor does the pounding, and a fine chinois or drum sieve does the work of the tammy cloth. Corn hulls are tough and will not break down; pressing the purée through the sieve is what makes this a cream soup rather than a chowder.
SautoireA straight-sided sauté pan wide enough to hold the forcemeat dish with water halfway up its sides. Any roasting pan or deep skillet serves as the bain-marie.
White brothWhite broth here is an unbrowned chicken or veal stock, lightly seasoned and pale. Use a good unsalted chicken stock; a dark roasted stock will muddy both the colour and the corn flavour.
Chicken forcemeatHis No. 60 is a chicken forcemeat given elsewhere in the book. A modern chicken mousseline (breast, egg white, cream, salt, worked cold) gives a comparable result and is easier to handle.
Two pounds of cornThat is the weight of cut kernels, not of corn on the cob. Reckon on eight to ten large ears, or the same weight of frozen kernels if fresh corn is out of season — boil them briefly in salted buttered water as directed.
Compiegne croutonsCut from a rich, brioche-like Compiegne loaf. Diced brioche or challah dried and browned in a 350F oven is the nearest thing; plain baguette croutons work but lose the buttery contrast.
YieldRoughly three quarts once diluted, serving ten to twelve as a first course. The soup does not reheat well after the liaison, so finish only what will be served.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the book is essentially the restaurant's working repertoire set down in French kitchen order — hence the numbered cross-references to forcemeats and sauces elsewhere in the volume. This soup is an instructive hybrid: the technique is Parisian, a purée bound with bechamel and finished with a yolk liaison, but the principal ingredient is green corn, an American vegetable outside the classical French canon. Delmonico's built much of its reputation on exactly this move, dressing native produce — corn, terrapin, canvasback duck — in haute cuisine method. The 'a la Hermann' tag appears to follow the era's habit of naming dishes for patrons, staff or occasions; the book carries many such tags without explanation, and this one has not been securely identified.