No. 357

Westmoreland Soup

Potage a la Westmoreland

For sixteen persons.—Prepare two quarts of reduced and well-seasoned chicken consomme (No. 190); boil it, then thicken it with arrowroot, colored with a little roucou (Annotto); dilute the arrowroot and roucou in cold water, and add it slowly with the soup, stirring it in continually with a whip or spoon; then boil and skim.

Prepare three-quarters of a pound of cooked calf's head the gelatinous, cutaneous parts, free of all fat and meat, press to three-eights of an inch, cut this into three-eighth inch squares, and keep them warm in a quart of consomme. Have half a pound of round chicken quenelles (No. 154), half an inch in diameter laid through a bag on to a buttered tin pan, and poached in boiling salted water, and add them to the calf's head. Braised sweetbreads set under a weight, having half a pound in all, and pressed down to three-eighths of an inch in thickness, then cut in squares when cold, and put them to keep hot with the quenelles and calf's head; have also some celery cut in quarter inch squares, blanched and cooked in consomme, a quarter of a pound in all, and when done, add them to the other garnishings. Just when about serving, taste the soup, season it accordingly, and pour it over the garnishings in a soup tureen.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is a Delmonico's garnished consommé: a lightly thickened, faintly gold-tinted chicken broth poured at the table over four separately cooked garnishes. Everything hinges on assembling it at the last moment, so plan the components ahead and keep them hot in broth.

Scale and yieldTwo quarts of thickened consommé serves sixteen small soup plates in the Gilded Age manner — roughly 4 oz each; a further quart keeps the garnishes hot and is drained off at the tureen. For six people, use about 3 cups of consommé and scale the garnishes to roughly three-eighths of the quantities given.
The arrowroot is unmeasuredRanhofer gives no quantity. For two quarts of consommé, start with 2 to 3 tablespoons of arrowroot slaked in cold water, added in a thin stream off a full boil; the soup should coat a spoon barely, not thicken to a sauce. Arrowroot thins if held at a hard boil, so bring it just up, skim, and hold below a simmer.
RoucouRoucou is annatto, the seed of Bixa orellana, used here purely for colour. A pinch of ground annatto or a few drops of liquid annatto gives the intended pale apricot tint; turmeric is a poor stand-in as it reads yellow-green and tastes of itself. The soup should be tinted, not orange.
Calf's headThe "gelatinous, cutaneous parts" are the skin and gelatinous trimmings of a simmered calf's head, free of all fat and meat as Ranhofer specifies, pressed flat under a weight to about 3/8 inch and cut into dice. Whole calf's head is now generally a special order from a butcher. Cooked pork or veal trotter meat, pressed the same way, gives a similar slippery, gelatinous cube.
SweetbreadsBuy veal heart sweetbreads if you can. Soak several hours in cold water with a change or two, blanch, peel the membrane, then braise, press under a weight until cold, and cut in 3/8-inch squares. Pressing is not decorative here — it is what makes them hold a clean dice.
QuenellesNo. 154 is Ranhofer's chicken quenelle forcemeat. Pipe half-inch rounds onto a buttered tray, slide them into salted water held at 175-185F, and poach 5 to 8 minutes until just firm. A hard boil, as written, risks breaking them; keep it barely trembling.
CeleryQuarter-inch dice, blanched then finished in consommé so it stays tender but square. Cut it last so it does not go limp.
Final assemblyTaste and salt the thickened soup after thickening, not before — reduced consommé plus reducing garnish broth concentrates fast. Warm the tureen, put the drained garnishes in it, and pour the soup over. Do not boil the garnishes in the finished soup or the quenelles will shed and cloud it.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of what he cooked in thirty-odd years as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and its soup chapter is a catalogue of garnished consommés distinguished entirely by what floats in them.