Strawberry Soup

A cold fruit soup of the sort served as a first course in northern Europe. Nothing here is difficult, but the sugar and liquid are both scaled to Victorian taste and want adjusting before you commit two pounds of strawberries.

• The hinge: chill it hardThis is a soup that lives or dies by temperature. The strained purée needs several hours in the refrigerator, and the wine and reserved berries go in only when it is genuinely cold, so the fruit keeps its shape and the wine keeps its aroma.
• Sugar to taste, not to formulaA pound of sugar to three pints of water is roughly 2 cups sugar to 6 cups liquid, which reads as syrup rather than soup to a modern palate. Start with half that sugar, taste after the berries and lemon go in, and add more only if the fruit is sharp.
• Pints and gillsPints -- An American pint is 2 cups, so 3 pints is 6 cups and the half pint of wine is 1 cup. If you are working from an Imperial edition the pint is 20 fl oz and the whole thing scales up by a quarter; either way the ratio matters more than the absolute figure.
• Don't boil the fruitThe syrup is made first, then the berries go in. Bring them barely to a simmer or simply pour the hot syrup over them and let it stand off the heat. Prolonged boiling drives off the fresh strawberry perfume and leaves a jammy, cooked flavour.
• StrainingPush the mashed fruit through a fine sieve rather than a food mill if you want a clean soup; the seeds are what make it gritty. For a thicker version, blend and strain only half.
• "Light wine"Here this means a dry or off-dry white or a pale rosé, not a fortified or sweet dessert wine. A Riesling or a dry sparkling wine both work; a sweet wine on top of the syrup will be cloying.
• Yield and serviceRoughly 2 quarts, serving eight as a first course or six as a dessert. Serve in chilled cups with a spoonful of whipped cream or a dry biscuit; it separates on standing, so stir before ladling.