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Consomme, Julienne
Strain the consomme into another saucepan. Cut into julienne-shaped strips two medium, sound, red carrots, one ditto turnip, the white part of two leeks, two branches celery, one small white onion and a very small piece white cabbage. Spread all these vegetables on a table, sprinkle over them one teaspoon salt and two teaspoons fine sugar. Gently and thoroughly mix them with the hands for five minutes. Lightly butter a small saucepan, place the vegetables in it, spread half ounce butter over the vegetables. Pour into the pan one and a half gills hot water, then cover the vegetables with a buttered sheet of white paper. Cover the pan, place the pan on a hot range, and as soon as it boils set it in a hot oven for forty-five minutes. Remove and add the vegetables to the consomme, adding twelve small French string beans, one tablespoon extra fine canned peas and half teaspoon chopped parsley; boil the whole for ten minutes. Pour into a hot soup tureen and serve.
A classic garnish soup: clear consommé finished with a braised vegetable julienne. The dish stands or falls on the knife work and on not overcooking the green garnish at the end.
- The cut is the dishJulienne means fine, even matchsticks, conventionally somewhere between 1/16 and 1/8 inch square and an inch or so long; the recipe itself gives no dimensions. Uneven strips cook unevenly, so take the time to square off the carrot and turnip before slicing.
- The consommé is assumedThe recipe opens mid-stream because it follows a base consommé earlier in the book. The quantity is not stated; start with a properly clarified, well-seasoned consommé, strained through a cloth so the finished soup is bright.
- A gillHalf a cup. One and a half gills is 3/4 cup of hot water; note that the recipe does bring the pan to a boil on the range before it goes into the oven.
- Hot ovenNo figure is given in the book; a 'hot oven' of this period is generally taken as somewhere in the region of 400-450F. The pan comes to a boil on the stovetop first so it goes into the oven already hot, and much of the small quantity of liquid will cook away over forty-five minutes.
- The buttered paperThis is a cartouche. Cut a round of parchment to the diameter of the pan, butter one side, and lay it directly on the vegetables under the lid; it holds steam against them and stops the top layer drying out.
- Salt and sugar firstThe five-minute rub with salt and sugar draws moisture out of the carrot and turnip and seasons them through. Do not skip it and do not shorten it — it is what makes the julienne taste of itself rather than of broth.
- The final ten minutesTen minutes of boiling will turn canned peas to mush and dull the string beans to olive. Cook the beans separately until just tender, add them and the peas to the hot soup, and give the whole thing two or three minutes to come together, with the parsley added off the heat.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield, but the quantity of garnish suits a first course for roughly six to eight. Serve in a warmed tureen or warmed cups; a clear soup loses its heat very fast.
Julienne is one of the classic clear-soup garnishes, the name attached to finely shredded vegetables in French cookery from at least the eighteenth century; tradition attaches its origin to a cook's given name, though no particular Julien has ever been convincingly identified. By the time this book appeared, consommé julienne was a fixture of the hotel and restaurant repertoire, and its appeal was frankly visual — a perfectly limpid broth with a scatter of identical bright matchsticks suspended in it, the kitchen showing off its clarification and its knife skills in a single course. The braising step, with butter, a spoonful of sugar and a cartouche, is standard French practice for glazing root vegetables, borrowed here so that each strip arrives seasoned rather than leached out by the broth. The tablespoon of "extra fine canned peas" is a period detail worth noticing: French tinned petits pois were held in genuine esteem, and a professional kitchen used them without apology.