Home › The World's Kitchen › Potage Nivernais with Parmesan Cheese
Potage Nivernais with Parmesan Cheese
Finely slice ten very small, well-washed carrots, place in a saucepan with one ounce butter and lightly brown on the fire for fifteen minutes, occasionally stirring meanwhile. Pour in a half gill white wine, six finely chopped shallots and half bean finely chopped garlic, then let reduce till nearly dry. Moisten with two and a half quarts white broth, season with a teaspoon salt and a half teaspoon pepper. Tie in a bunch two branches parsley, one branch chervil, two leeks, two branches celery, and add to the soup. Cover pan and slowly boil for one hour, take up bouquet, pour soup into tureen, and serve with six slices toasted French bread and two ounces grated Parmesan cheese separately.
A clear carrot soup built on a browned aromatic base and a wine reduction, finished at the table with toast and Parmesan. The measurements are Edwardian professional shorthand and one of them is genuinely odd.
- Half a gill of wineA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is 1/4 cup (60 ml). Dry white — the point is acidity and depth, not sweetness.
- "Half bean" of garlicIn old kitchen shorthand a "bean" of garlic means a piece about the size of a bean; "half bean" is half of that again, a mere trace rather than a clove. It is deliberately faint here; the shallots are meant to lead.
- White brothBouillon blanc — unbrowned veal or chicken stock, not consommé and not brown stock. Two and a half quarts of a good low-salt chicken stock is the practical substitute, and taste before adding the full teaspoon of salt, since modern stock is usually salted already.
- The fifteen-minute browningThis is the hinge. The carrots and butter should colour gently and sweeten over that whole time, not fry hard — scorched carrot turns the finished broth bitter and cloudy. Keep the heat low and stir as directed.
- Reduce till nearly dryThe wine and shallots should go to a glaze on the bottom of the pan before the stock goes in. Skipping this leaves a raw wine edge that an hour of simmering will not fully cover.
- "Slowly boil for one hour"Read this as a bare simmer with the surface barely moving. A true rolling boil for an hour will break the carrot slices down and muddy what should be a clear, light soup.
- Chervil and the bouquetChervil is the distinguishing flavour and is often hard to find; parsley plus a pinch of tarragon is the usual stand-in. Tie the whole bundle with string, leeks split and washed, so it lifts out in one piece.
- Yield and serviceTwo and a half quarts serves six as a first course, matching the six slices of toast. Pass the toast and the grated Parmesan at the table rather than melting them in — the cheese is a condiment here, not a thickener.
The name points to the Nivernais, the old province around Nevers, whose territory now falls within the Burgundy region; in classical French cookery à la nivernaise signals that carrots are the defining garnish, usually turned into neat ovals. This version keeps the regional badge but simplifies the work into plain slices. The finish of toasted bread and grated cheese served separately is the older French habit of eating soup with cheese and a croûte on the side, a practice that survives most visibly in onion soup, where the toast and cheese ended up in the bowl.