On Some Ancient and Modern Soups

Add as much stock as you want to the soup, and set the saucepan by the side of the fire to simmer very gently for a couple of hours. Skim it well before serving.

Another soup akin to the above is the Nivernaise, which is made thus:

Cut some carrots into the shape of olives or any fancy shape of that size.

Boil the trimmings with some stock, so as to give it a very strong flavour of carrots.

Toss the cut carrots in some butter, with a pinch of sugar, pepper, and salt, moistening after a while with a little of the stock.

When they are cooked and almost glazed, add the remainder of the stock.

A very effective soup for a dinner party is what is called Consomme a la Royale, which is naught else but pieces of custard floating in a clear and judiciously flavoured consomme. What gives it effect is the artful ordering of the custard, which is done thus:

Mix the yolks of six eggs with rather less than a gill of cold water and a pinch of salt; strain the mixture, and divide it into three equal parts.

Colour one part with some cochineal, the other with spinach greening, and leave the third plain.

Put them into three plain moulds, previously buttered, and place these in a pan of hot water, which you put on the fire to boil just long enough to set the mixture.

When the water in the saucepan has become quite cold, turn out the contents of each mould on a wet napkin, and you will have three cakes of custard, green, red, and yellow respectively.

Cut them into small dice, and, handling them in the gentlest possible manner, spread them out on a plate, to be kept covered until wanted to be put into the soup tureen with the consomme.

Poached eggs are sometimes put into clear soup. The length of time it takes to poach eggs is perhaps difficult.