White Haricot-bean Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beans
Wash the beans overnight, and set them to soak in cold water.
Boil them four hours before dinner time, and pulp through a sieve.
Finish the soup
Add the milk, salt, and butter, and make the soup boil before serving.
Make the croutons
Cut up slices of bread into dice half an inch square, and fry them a nice light brown, to eat with the soup.
Pulp the beans
Press the beans against the side of the colander to break them.
Pour a little of the hot soup over them, which will make them pulp better.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Beans (in the method)
- Form the body of the soup once cooked long enough to pulp through a sieve.
- Milk (in the method)
- Adds creaminess and softens the flavour of the pulped soup.
- Butter (in the method)
- Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the soup.
The step that matters
Frying the bread dice. Bread browns quickly and can scorch before its centre crisps. Moderate heat and a light golden colour give even browning and a crisp texture.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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