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Asparagus Soup
Mrs. D.
Three or four pounds of veal cut fine, a little salt pork, two or three bunches of asparagus and three quarts of water. Boil one-half of the asparagus with the meat, leaving the rest in water until about twenty minutes. before serving; then add the rest of the asparagus and boil just before serving; add one pint of milk; thicken with a little flour and season. The soup should boil about three hours before adding the last half of the asparagus.
This is a veal broth built from scratch with asparagus used twice — once cooked to nothing for flavour, once near the end for texture. The instructions are loosely worded about that second addition, and that is where the dish is won or lost.
- The hinge: the second batch of asparagusTwenty minutes will reduce fresh asparagus to grey threads. Cut the reserved spears into 1-inch pieces and give them 3-5 minutes in the simmering soup, tips last, so they stay green and firm.
- Bunches of asparagusBunch sizes were not standardised; a 19th-century market bunch might run from about a pound to two. Two or three bunches therefore suggests a few pounds in total, half going into the long simmer and half held back.
- Veal cut fineThree or four pounds of veal "cut fine" here means chopped small so it gives up its gelatin quickly — shoulder or shank works, and a sawn veal bone or two improves the body considerably. This is a stock-making step, not a stew.
- Salt pork"A little" is unquantified; 2 oz, cut in small dice, is a reasonable reading. It supplies fat and salt, so hold back on seasoning until the end. Unsmoked bacon or pancetta stands in acceptably.
- Three hours, then strainSimmer, do not boil, for the three hours — a hard boil clouds the broth and toughens the meat. Many cooks today would strain out the spent veal, pork and exhausted asparagus before finishing the soup, though the original leaves the meat in.
- The milk and the flourAdd the pint of milk off a hard boil; milk stirred into a boiling soup can split. Thicken with 2 tablespoons flour worked into an equal weight of soft butter, whisked in in small pieces, then held at a bare simmer for a few minutes to cook out the raw taste.
- Seasoning"Season" here presumably means salt and pepper, white or black. A grating of nutmeg or a squeeze of lemon at the table suits the milk and asparagus.
- YieldThree quarts of water reduces to roughly two quarts of finished soup — eight generous servings as a first course.
Asparagus soup of this kind belongs to a long line of American and English "white soups": a strong veal broth, finished with milk or cream and thickened with flour, in which the vegetable is more a flavouring than a purée for delicate soups.