No. 291

Brunoise Soup with Quenelles

Potage a la Brunoise aux Quenelles

Brunoise is made with half a pound of the red part of carrots, a quarter of a pound of turnips, quarter of a pound of celerv, quarter of a pound of leeks, quarter of a pound of onions, and a quarter of a pound of cabbage. Trim or cut the vegetables into quarter inch squares, the leeks to be prepared Julienne shape; mince the onions and blanch each of the vegetables in separate waters, except the onions and leeks. Put four ounces of butter into a saucepan on the fire, and when it is very hot, throw in the onions, and the leeks a few moments later; cook a little longer, then add all the vegetables, and fry colorless. Dilute with one pint of broth, adding a good pinch of sugar, and reduce slowly till the moistening is entirely evaporated, and the vegetables adhere to the bottom of the saucepan; moisten again with four quarts of broth, then boil, skim and continue the cooking for one hour and a half more. Season with salt and pepper, pour the very hot soup into a tureen over a garnishing of small chicken quenelles three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter laid with a cornet on to a buttered sheet and poached in boiling salted water, and then well drained.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's brunoise is a garnish soup in the French service style: a clear broth carrying a precise dice, finished with piped chicken dumplings. Nothing here is difficult, but the knife work and the glazing step are what separate it from vegetable soup.

The hinge is the glazeReducing the first pint of broth until it is gone and the vegetables stick is the whole point — it concentrates the sugars and gives the finished soup its sweetness and colour. Stop while the pan bottom is glossy and light brown; if it darkens the whole tureen tastes scorched.
Fry colorless"Colorless" means sweating in butter over moderate heat with no browning at all. Ranhofer's four ounces of butter for 1¾ lb of vegetables is generous by modern taste; two ounces is enough and will not read as greasy in a clear soup.
The cutQuarter-inch dice is larger than the 1–3 mm brunoise taught today; keep to his size or the vegetables dissolve over the long simmer. Note that Ranhofer exempts two items from the dice: the leeks are cut julienne and the onions minced.
Blanching in separate watersEach vegetable goes briefly into its own pot of boiling water, so cabbage and turnip do not perfume the carrot — but Ranhofer excepts the onions and leeks, which are not blanched. Refresh in cold water afterwards; the intent is to remove strong flavours, not to cook.
Quantities and yieldFour quarts of broth plus 1¾ lb of vegetables gives roughly twelve to sixteen servings of soup-course size. Halve everything for a household pot without altering the method.
Cooking timeAn hour and a half at a full boil will reduce the diced vegetables to threads. Hold it at a bare simmer, skimming, and check at forty-five minutes.
Season at the endFour quarts of broth reducing uncovered for ninety minutes concentrates whatever salt is already in it. Salt only after the cooking is finished, as he directs.
The quenellesA cornet is a paper piping cone; a small plain piping tip does the same job. Three-sixteenths of an inch is about 5 mm — pipe short lengths onto a buttered sheet. Ranhofer says boiling salted water; water held just below a simmer is gentler, two to three minutes, since a rolling boil can break them apart.
AssemblyThe quenelles go into the tureen and the boiling soup is poured over them, so they warm through without cooking further. Drain them thoroughly first or the soup goes cloudy.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty years running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and it is essentially French haute cuisine transcribed for an American house — the numbered recipes, the clear soups distinguished only by their garnish, the assumption of a standing pot of broth. Brunoise names both the cut and the soup made from it; the word is often traced to Brunoy, south-east of Paris, though the connection is traditional rather than documented. What the entry really shows is the logic of nineteenth-century soup service: a single well-made consommé or broth became a dozen menu items depending on what was cut into it and dropped in at the last moment, so that a kitchen could offer Brunoise, Julienne, Printanier and a dozen others from one stockpot. The quenelle — a piped forcemeat dumpling, here of chicken — was the standard mark of a soup that had been finished with care rather than merely ladled out.