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Consomme, Renaissance
Prepare a consomme, strain it into another saucepan and keep simmering. Prepare half the quantity of pate-a-choux. Drop it into a paper cornet, cut away an opening at the bottom, then press the paste in a clean baking sheet in little heaps of the size of cranberries. Set in the oven eight minutes. Remove and place them in a soup tureen, add four tablespoons cooked green peas and six finely sliced canned mushrooms. Pour the consomme over and serve.
A clear soup finished with pea-sized choux puffs, peas and mushrooms. The whole point is contrast between hot clear broth and crisp pastry, so timing at the table matters more than anything in the method.
- Assemble at the last secondThe puffs soften quickly once they meet hot broth. Put them in warmed bowls or the tureen, carry it to the table, and pour the consomme in front of the diners.
- "Half the quantity of pate-a-choux"Presumably a reference to a choux recipe given elsewhere in the book; in practice it means a small batch. Roughly 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup butter, 1/2 cup flour and 2 eggs gives far more tiny puffs than one tureen needs.
- Paper cornetA cone rolled from parchment with the tip snipped off, i.e. a disposable piping bag. A piping bag with a 1/4-inch plain tip does the same job.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. Choux of this size wants a hot oven, 400-425F. Eight minutes is about right for cranberry-sized heaps, but judge by colour and dryness: they should be golden and light, with no soft dough inside, or they will slump.
- Piping sizeCranberries means about 1/2 inch across, piped in dots and spaced an inch apart. Anything bigger reads as a profiterole rather than a garnish and will not fit on a spoon.
- The consomme itselfThis is a garnish recipe; it depends on a properly clarified, well-seasoned broth. Strain through a cloth and keep it at a bare simmer so it stays clear, and check the salt before serving.
- Canned mushroomsA common commercial staple in kitchens of the period. Drain and rinse them, or use fresh button mushrooms sliced thin and simmered a minute in the broth; canned mushrooms bring a metallic note that a clear soup hides nothing of.
- YieldThe quantities of garnish suit about four to six cups of consomme, or four servings as a first course.
Classical French kitchens named consommes by their garnish, and the printed repertoire ran to hundreds of them: Julienne for its shredded vegetables, Brunoise for its dice, Profiteroles for tiny choux puffs. Escoffier's generation codified these lists, and English-language compilations such as this one carried them over wholesale, which is why the instruction assumes you already know how to make consomme and pate-a-choux and only tells you what to drop into the bowl. Renaissance in the classical repertoire is usually an assortment of spring vegetables, though the naming of these garnishes was a matter of house tradition rather than any fixed authority.