Make White Soup for a Ball
In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bingley sensibly delays planning his ball until “Nicholls has made white soup enough,” knowing that a large quantity of properly prepared white soup takes considerable time to make.
Photo by Paul Savidge, Food styling by Dan
“White soup was (and largely still is) a recipe that confers a certain amount of status. Recipes for it are often very complex and utilize a vast and expensive array of ingredients,” says food historian Joyce White1. Serving white soup at elegant Regency era balls was very common, and it is likely Austen was well acquainted with it.
Recipes for white soup date back to 1615 and are considered a variation of the French Potage a la Reine. There were many recipes for white soup in circulation during Jane Austen’s time–including those in Martha Lloyd’s Household Book and the Knight Family Cookbook. Hannah Glasse also included a recipe for almond soup, a variation of white soup, in The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. Perhaps surprisingly, there is no standard way to prepare white soup, despite its long history. For example, the Knight family recipe thickens the soup with vermicelli—thin spaghetti—while Martha Lloyd's recipe uses egg yolk.
Most white soup recipes of the period begin with the preparation of a stock—typically beef, veal, or mutton—thickened with ground almonds and breadcrumbs and finished with heavy cream. Other versions use rice or hard-boiled eggs as thickeners, and many add bacon for a smoky flavor. And, not to be outdone by the English, a 1651 French recipe suggests garnishing the soup "with cockscombs, pistachios, pomegranate seeds, and meat stock.”2
By Dan Macey
Martha Lloyd’s White Soup Recipe
“Make your gravy of any kind of Meat, add to it the yolks of four Eggs boiled hard & pounded very fine, 2 oz of sweet Almond pounded, as much Cream as will make it of a good Color.”
Knight Family Cookbook White Soup
“Two Quarts of Strong Veal Broth, Set it over a flow fire, put in two handfuls of Vermicelli & boil it tender, then put in half a pint of Cream with the yolks of 4 eggs beat together, watch it but just boile or it will curdle, & it should be send to the table immediately–you may add a ¼ of pound of almonds pounded.”
Dan Macey’s Easy (but Still Posh) White Soup
Ingredients
2 strips of bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 onion diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 tablespoon fresh herbs, left whole
2 quarts of either chicken (homemade is best) or beef bone broth
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ cup almond flour
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded chicken or beef—depending on the broth you are using
1 cup heavy cream
Directions
- In a large stock pot, fry up the bacon pieces until crisp.
- Remove the bacon pieces and set aside. Fry the onions and celery in the bacon fat.
- Add the 2 quarts of chicken or beef stock and allow to boil. Then, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.
- Strain the broth to remove the onions and celery and place the broth back into the pot.
- Combine the flours in a liquid measuring cup. Remove 1 cup of the hot broth and add to the flour and almond flour to form a paste or slurry.
- Stir the paste back into the chicken broth pot and allow to thicken slightly. Add the chicken or beef, spices, and bacon bits to the pot and stir.
- Add the heavy cream and heat.
- Ladle into bowls and garnish with pistachios, almond slices, or pomegranate seeds.
NOTES
1White, Joyce. "White Soup: From The Pages of Pride and Prejudice." A Taste of History with Joyce White blog, 6 July 2016, atasteofhistorywithjoycewhite.blogspot.com/2016/07/white-soup-from-pages-of-pride-and.html.
