No. 343

Rice Soup a la Rudini

Potage au riz a la Rudini

Put a quarter of a pound of picked and washed rice into a saucepan, with two quarts of cold water, set it on the fire, and stir occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom; let it boil up once, then refresh it, finish cooking it in consomme with a piece of fine butter, and a pinch of black pepper; mingle in with it when done, three ounces of grated parmesan cheese, four raw egg-yolks, and set it away to get cold. Divide this preparation into small five eighth inch diameter balls; a few moments before serving roll them on to a dish containing two beaten eggs, drain them and put them one by one into new frying fat not too hot, and let them assume a nice golden color; then drain them again, and dry them in a napkin. Have two quarts of thickened chicken broth (No. 195), bring it to a boil, and remove it from the fire. Place four egg-yolks in a bowl, dilute them with one gill of cold broth, add four ounces of fine butter divided in small pieces, pour slowly into this thickening a quarter of the stock while stirring continually; return it to the rest of the stock, working it in briskly with a whisk, season to taste; pass it through a fine sieve or tammy. Pour this into a soup tureen, and serve separate a garnishing of the rice balls, and a plateful of grated Parmesan cheese.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is really giving two recipes here: fried risotto-style rice croquettes, and a chicken broth finished with an egg-and-butter liaison. Both are straightforward, but the liaison is unforgiving.

The hinge: never boil the finished soupOnce the four yolks and the butter go in, the broth must not return to a simmer or it will scramble into threads. Bring the broth to a boil, take it off the heat, temper a quarter of it into the yolks, then whisk that back in and hold the soup at about 160-175F. Straining through a fine sieve, as directed, catches anything that has begun to set.
"Refresh it"This means drain the rice and rinse it under cold water. The initial boil-up in plain water washes off surface starch so the rice will absorb consomme cleanly rather than turning to paste.
Quantities and vesselsA gill is half a cup. A quarter pound of rice is a scant 2/3 cup dry; use a short or medium grain, which will bind into balls, not long grain. Four ounces of butter is one stick.
Thickened chicken brothRanhofer cross-references his No. 195; the recipe here says no more than 'thickened.' Two quarts of good chicken stock lightly thickened with a blond roux made from about 3 tablespoons each of butter and flour will give comparable body.
Consomme for the riceThe rice finishes in consomme, not water, and that is where its flavor comes from. Any clear, well-seasoned chicken or veal stock will do; Ranhofer gives no quantity, so add it gradually as the rice absorbs it.
Shaping and fryingFive-eighths of an inch is a marble, roughly half a teaspoon of the chilled rice paste, and the mixture must be thoroughly cold before you attempt it. 'New frying fat not too hot' suggests fresh neutral oil at around 340-350F; hotter and the egg coating browns before the center warms through.
CheeseGrate the Parmesan yourself from a wedge. Pre-grated cheese carries anti-caking starch, which will make both the rice paste and the passed soup grainy.
Yield and serviceTwo quarts serves eight as a first course. The balls are passed separately with a plate of grated Parmesan so they stay crisp; they go soft within a minute or two of hitting the soup, which is the point of the ritual.

A Little History

This comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous record of his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York. Dishes styled a la Rudini in this period are usually taken to refer to Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudini, the Sicilian statesman twice prime minister of Italy, though Ranhofer himself does not say so; the Italian dressing of the dish would fit: rice bound with Parmesan and yolks, fried, and floated in a broth. The fried rice balls invite comparison with the Italian habit of rolling leftover risotto into balls and frying them, here shrunk to marble size so that a soup spoon can take one whole. The egg-yolk-and-butter liaison that finishes the broth is an older French technique than roux-based thickenings, and one Ranhofer's generation still used when a soup was meant to taste rich rather than merely thick.