A stock with any spring vegetables added which have first been parboiled
in other water. Those generally used are pease, asparagus-tops, or a few
young onions or leeks. This soup is often colored with caramel. Or,
Here is Francatelli’s receipt for spring soup, a little simplified: Cut
with a vegetable-cutter two carrots and two turnips into little round
shapes; add the white part of a head of celery; twelve small young
onions, sliced, without the green stalks; and one head of cauliflower,
cut into flowerets. Parboil these vegetables for three minutes in
boiling water. Drain, and add them to two quarts of stock, made of
chicken or beef (chicken is better). Let the whole simmer gently for
half an hour, then add the white leaves of a head-lettuce (cut the size
of a half-dollar, with a cutter). As soon as tender, and when about to
send the soup to the table, add half a gill of small green pease, and an
equal quantity of asparagus-heads, which have been previously boiled in
other water.
JULIENNE SOUP, WITH POACHED EGGS (_Dubois_).
Take two medium-sized carrots, a medium-sized turnip, a piece of celery,
the core of a lettuce, and an onion. Cut them into thin fillets about an
inch long. Fry the onion in butter over a moderate fire, without
allowing it to take color; add the carrots, turnips, and celery--raw, if
tender; if not, boil them separately for a few minutes. After frying all
slowly for a few moments, season with a pinch of salt and a tea-spoonful
of powdered-sugar. Then moisten them with a gill of broth, and boil
until reduced to a glaze. Now add nearly two quarts of good stock, which
has been skimmed and passed through a sieve, and remove the stew-pan to
the back of the stove, so that the soup may boil only partially. A
quarter of an hour after add the lettuce (which has been boiled in other
water), and a few raw sorrel leaves, if they can be procured. This soup
is quite good enough without eggs, yet they are a pleasant addition.
Poach them in salted water, trim them, and drop into the soup-tureen
just as it is ready to send to the table. Many color this soup with
caramel. In that case, the sugar should be omitted.