No. 280

Puree of Red Beans a la Conde

Puree de Haricots rouges a la Conde

Soak for twelve hours in tepid water, one quart of red beans; drain them, then put them into a saucepan with six quarts of water, one carrot cut in pieces, one onion and a bunch of ungarnished parsley, and let cook slowly for three hours, seasoning with salt, pepper and cloves. When the beans are sufficiently done, drain them and mash them in a mortar; dilute this puree with its own broth, giving it a proper consistency, then incorporate into it, when ready to serve, a quarter of a pound of good butter. Serve separately small croutons of bread a quarter of an inch square, fried in butter.

← No. 279 Puree of Pullet or Guinea Fowl a la Washburn Soups & Broths No. 281 Puree of Reedbirds or Larks with Chestnuts →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

A straightforward legume purée from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen, scaled for a dining room rather than a family. The only real technique is the finish: the butter goes in off the heat, at the last moment, and the soup must not boil afterward or it will break and turn greasy.

Quantities and scaleOne quart of dry red beans is roughly 1.5 to 1.75 lb, and with six quarts of water this yields something close to a gallon of finished soup — 12 to 16 servings. The recipe halves or quarters without other adjustment.
"Ungarnished parsley"Ranhofer's term for a bundle of plain parsley stems with nothing else tied in — no thyme, bay or leek, as a full bouquet garni would have. Six or eight stems tied with string are enough.
ClovesWhole cloves, not ground, and few: two or three for the full batch. They should read as background warmth. The traditional handling is to stick them into the peeled onion so they are easy to fish out.
Cooking timeThree hours may reflect dried beans of unknown age. Beans soaked overnight are often tender well short of that; test rather than watch the clock. Salt at the start, as written, is fine — it does not prevent softening.
The mortarA food mill or blender replaces the pounding. Either way, pass the purée through a fine sieve afterward if you want the texture the original intends; skins are what make a bean soup gritty.
ConsistencyAdd the reserved cooking liquid back gradually. The soup should coat a spoon but still pour freely; it thickens noticeably as it cools, so err thin.
The butterA quarter pound into a gallon of soup, whisked in off the heat just before it goes to table. Do not reheat once the butter is in. Leftovers are better reheated before enrichment, with fresh butter added to each batch.
CroutonsQuarter-inch dice from a firm white loaf, fried in clarified butter over moderate heat so they colour without the milk solids burning. Serve them in a separate dish, as directed — added to the tureen they go soft within a minute.

A Little History

In classical French kitchens à la Condé is shorthand for red beans, and the garnish or purée carries the name wherever it appears; the association is generally traced to the arms of the house of Condé and to the deep red of the family's livery, though the connection is traditional rather than documented. Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York and author of The Epicurean (1894), files it among a long sequence of purée soups — of pullet, of reedbirds, of chestnuts — that show how thoroughly the nineteenth-century restaurant menu depended on smooth, sieved potages as an opening course. Legume purées like this one were cheap and held well in a busy service. The finishing lump of butter and the separately served croutons are what raise a peasant bean pottage to the standard of the dining room.