Potage (a la Crecy)

Ingredients

• a dozen large carrots
• two ounces of butter
• a large lump of sugar
• three good-sized onions
• two turnips
• a quarter of a pound of undressed lean ham
• two heads of celery
• four leeks
• a dozen peppercorns

Method

1. 1

   Slice carrots and put them in a stewpan with butter, sugar, onions, turnips, peppercorns, ham, celery, and leeks.

2. 2

   Steam for ten minutes, then add stock or water and simmer for two hours.

3. 3

   Strain and press vegetables through a sieve, mix with stock, season, and boil.

4. 4

   Serve with toasted sippets.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cassell's dictionary of cookery (1892) by Cassell & Company, page 1306. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Potage (a la Crecy) . — A superlative carrot soup.— SHce off the red part of a dozen large cari'ots, and put them into a stewpan, with two ounces of butter, a large lump of sugar, three good-sized onions, two turnips, a dozen pepper- corns, a quarter of a pound of undressed lean ham, the outer sticks of two heads of celery, and four leeks. Cover closely, and let the soup steam over a gentle fire for ten minutes. Shake the saucepan to keep the contents from burning. Pour over them a quart of cold stock or water, and let them simmer gently for two hours, or until the vegetables are quite tender. Strain off the soup, and press the vegetables with a wooden spoon through a sieve. Mix the pulp again with the stock, season with pepper and salt, put it back into the stewpan, and let it boil. Draw it to the side of the fire for a few minutes, and skim off the fat as it rises to the surface. Add pepper and salt, and serve. Send toasted sippets to table in a separate dish. If there is no stock at hand, and water has to be used for the soup, a tea-spoonful of Liebig's Extract of Meat should be added to it. Time, three hours and a half. Probable cost, 8d. per pint. Sufficient for half a dozen persons. Potage (a la Reine).— This is a delicate white soup, said to be a great favourite with Her Majesty.— Skin and wash carefully three young chickens or two large fowls, and boil them in five pints of good nicely-flavoured veal stock for about an hour. Lift them out, pick off all the white meat, put the bodies of the birds again into the stewpan, and let them. simmer an hour and a half longer. Season the broth -with salt and cayenne, and when it is sufficiently simmered pour it out, let it cool, and thoroughly take off the fat which rises to the surface. Pound the white flesh of the birds to a perfectly smooth paste, and with it a tea-cupful of finely-grated bread-crumbs. IVIix gi-adually with this paste a small quantity of the boiling stock, and press it through a fine hair sieve. Add the rest of the stock, and stir the whole over a gentle fire in a clean saucepan until it boils. Add from a pint to a pint and a half of boiling cream. Serve very hot. If liked, the cream may be slightly flavoiired with almonds. If veal broth is not at hand, a little may be made as follows : — Buy a knuckle of veal from which nearly all the meat has been cut off. Break it into small pieces, and put it into a stewpan with haH a pound of lean ham cut up small — or a ham bone — a small carrot, a small onion, a head of celery, a large blade of mace, a bunch of parsley, and a dozen white peppercorns. Pour over these a gallon of cold water. Bring the liquid slowly to the boil, skim very carefully, then draw the pan to the side and let the contents simmer for six or seven hours until the stock is reduced to five pints. Pour the soup out, and leave it until the next day. Take the fat from the top, and pour off the soup with- out the settlings. Boil the fowls in this stock. If the soup is not sufficiently thick, it may be made so with a little arrowroot or ground rice. Time, about four hours. Probable cost, Is. 8d. per pint, exclusive of the veal stock. Sufficient for a dozen persons. Potage (a la Xavier). — Mix the well- beaten yolks of four eggs and the white of one with three-quarters of a pint of flour. Add a little pepper and salt, the eighth part of a nutmeg grated, and a dessert-spoonful of chopped parsley, and mix aU the ingredients thoroughly. Stir in as much stock as will make the batter thin enough to pass through a colander. Boil two quarts of strained and nicely-flavoured stock. Put the batter into it by means of a ladle perforated with holes, and stir well as Jlong as it is on the fire. Skim carefully. Boil a quarter of an hour longer, and serve. Probable cost, exclusive of the stock, 7d. Sufficient for eight or nine persons. Potage, Bisque {see Crayfish Soup or Potage Bisque). Potage de Veau.— Take a knuckle of veal weighing about five pounds. Cut off the meat, not too closely, and break the bone into small pieces. Put these into a stewi^an with an onion, a large blade of mace, a dozen pepper- corns

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.