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Puree Crecy, Faubonne
Soak a pint white beans in plenty cold water over night, drain, place in a large saucepan with fifteen scraped, sliced new carrots, two sliced medium onions, one bean garlic, two sliced leeks, half pound raw lean salt pork cut in small pieces, a bay leaf and sprig of thyme. Moisten with two and a half quarts broth, season with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper, place lid on pan, boil for forty minutes, then set saucepan in oven for forty-five minutes. Remove, press puree through a sieve into basin, then through a Chinese strainer into another saucepan, set on the fire, add one pint broth and half ounce butter, mix well, let boil for five minutes, pour into a soup tureen and serve with a plate of bread croutons separately.
A classical French purée soup that leans on two thickeners at once: white beans for body and carrots for sweetness and colour. Most of the work is straining, and the recipe assumes equipment and vocabulary that have shifted.
- Quantities in modern termsA pint of dried white beans is about 2 cups, roughly 14 oz; two and a half quarts of broth is 10 cups, with another 2 cups added at the finish. Half an ounce of butter is one tablespoon. Expect 8 to 10 servings as a first course.
- "One bean garlic"Read this as a single clove, not a whole head; the phrasing looks like a literal rendering of a French original, though the usage is not otherwise common.
- The oven stageNo temperature is given. If you are reproducing this on a modern range, a moderate oven of roughly 325-350F is a reasonable reading; the purpose appears to be gentle all-round heat so the beans finish without scorching on the base, rather than further hard boiling.
- Cooking time for the beansForty minutes on the boil plus forty-five in the oven may not be enough for beans that have been stored a long time, and beans that are still chalky will not push through a sieve. Test one before you strain anything.
- Salt pork and seasoningHalf a pound of raw lean salt pork carries a great deal of salt into 10 cups of liquid. Add the teaspoon of salt at the end rather than the start, and taste after the final pint of broth goes in.
- The Chinese strainerA chinois, the conical fine-mesh strainer. The two-stage straining — coarse sieve, then fine — is what gives a classical purée its texture. A food mill followed by a fine sieve does the same job; a blender gets you most of the way but leaves carrot fibre that the chinois would catch.
- Consistency at the finishThe last pint of broth is there to let the soup down after straining thickens it. Add it gradually: purées of bean and carrot tighten as they sit, so aim for something that coats a spoon thinly rather than mounds on it.
- CroutonsServed separately so they stay crisp. Small dice of white bread fried in butter or clarified butter, drained, and passed at the table.
The double name records two classical French purées joined in one pot. Crécy is the standard kitchen shorthand for carrot; the name is traditionally linked to carrot-growing country around a place called Crécy, though the attribution is unsettled — both Crécy-en-Ponthieu in Picardy and Crécy in Brie have been claimed — and it attaches to anything from a plain carrot soup to a garnish of carrot rounds. Faubonne in the classical repertoire is a purée of white haricot beans, usually finished with a fine julienne of vegetables. Combining the two gives a soup thickened by its own vegetables rather than by flour or cream. Its appearance in an American "international" collection of this period is consistent with the strong French presence in professional kitchens in the United States, and with the menu French that came along with it.