Fish Soup
1 lb. cod, or other white fish 2 tablespoonfuls Crisco 1 quart white stock, or half milk and half water 1 small carrot 1 small onion 1 stalk celery 3 parsley sprigs 1 blade mace 2 egg yolks ½ cupful cream 1 lemon 2 tablespoonfuls flour 1 teaspoonful chopped parsley Dry toast Wash and dry fish and cut into small pieces. Put into saucepan with stock, vegetables cut in small pieces, parsley and mace. Let these simmer for half hour, then strain off liquid. Melt Crisco in pan, stir in flour, then add fish liquor and stir till it boils. Draw it to the side of fire and let cool slightly. Beat yolks of eggs with cream, and, when soup has cooled, strain them in. Reheat soup without boiling it, to cook eggs. Season, and add few drops lemon juice and chopped parsley. Serve with small pieces of dry toast.
Soups 1 cupful lentils 2 cupfuls milk
A classic velvet fish soup — a fish stock thickened with roux and finished with an egg-and-cream liaison. The whole dish stands or falls on the last step.
- Never let it boil after the eggs go inOnce the yolk-and-cream mixture is strained in, hold the soup between 170 and 180F, stirring, until it thickens slightly and coats a spoon. A boil will curdle the yolks into threads and no amount of whisking brings it back.
- CriscoThis is a Procter & Gamble promotional book, so the shortening is the point. Two tablespoons of any neutral fat works; butter is an obvious modern substitute.
- White stockIn 1913 that means a light stock from veal or chicken bones. A mild chicken stock or a fish fumet is the closest modern equivalent. The recipe also allows half milk and half water in its place.
- Blade maceA blade is one flake of the dried aril of the nutmeg, removed with the vegetables when you strain. If you only have ground mace, use a pinch — it is considerably stronger by volume.
- The fish is strained outAs written, the cod flavors the liquid and is then discarded with the vegetables. Flaking a few spoonfuls of the cooked fish back into the finished soup is an option, though it departs from the smooth strained soup as written.
- The cream quantity is doubtfulThe cream quantity is generous -- "1½ cupful cream" against one quart of liquid and two yolks makes a very rich soup. If that is more than you want, start with less beaten into the yolks and add more to taste.
- Lemon at the end onlyAcid added while the yolks are setting encourages curdling. Add the few drops after the soup has thickened and is off the heat.
- YieldAbout four servings as a first course. The recipe calls only for small pieces of dry toast served with it.
- Stray textThe "1 cupful lentils / 2 cupfuls milk" at the end belongs to the next recipe in the section and is not part of this one.
The Story of Crisco (1913) was written to teach American cooks what to do with a brand-new product: hydrogenated cottonseed oil, sold as a shelf-stable substitute for lard and butter. Perhaps that is why a genteel French-style fish soup sits beside fried doughnuts and pie crust. The soup itself is a velouté de poisson of a familiar kind — roux, then a liaison of yolks and cream — a technique that is generally said to have reached American cookbooks by way of the professional French kitchen. Cod was the obvious choice for a Northeastern household: cheap, firm, and available salted or fresh year-round. The instruction to serve with dry toast rather than crackers is easy to read as a bid for the formal dinner table, where a pale, strained, thickened soup was considered more refined than anything with visible pieces floating in it.