Recipes From The Past

Recipes from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries

BROTHS   and    SOUPS

CARLTON  HOUSE  SOUP

This Was one of the delicious eighteenth-century ‘gravies’ or consommés, flavoured with sherry or with Madeira, and served with Carlton House Balls in it.  These latter were small puffs made of choux pastry, baked in the oven and sent up on a hot napkin.  Two or three were then put into each helping of soup when it was ladled into the plates, for if put in the tureen itself they became soggy.  Sometimes they were stuffed with the minced game, Parmesan cheese, and anchovies, and then reheated when they were sent to the table.  They can easily be made some hours before dinner and reheated in the oven before serving.  Made slightly larger, stuffed and served with a tasty sauce, they make a pleasant dish alone without the soup.

- TO  MAKE  BALLS  FOR  SOUP

Boil up 2 oz butter in 1/2 pint of water with a little salt.  Off the fire sprinkle in 3 oz four little by little, stirring all the time, preferably with a wire whisk, then re-heat stirring.  The mixture is sufficiently cooked when the mass becomes compact and leaves the sides of the pan.  Remove it from the fire and let it cool.  Stir in 1 oz* grated Parmesan cheese, then a whole beaten egg, then a beaten egg yolk.  Then having buttered and floured a baking sheet, pipe the mixture on it through a forcing-bag in small blobs widely spaced.  This is easiest to do if the mix is not very hot.  Bake them about 15 minutes in a pre-heated hot oven (400 degrees F Mark 6) and cool them on a rack.

*Because cheese is probably milder than it was in the Prince Regent's day it may be found preferable to add about half as much cheese again as in this old recipe and also a little cayenne pepper
(ENGLISH  RECIPES as they appeared in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Cookery Books
and now devised for modern use by SHEILA  HUTCHINS)

As The Recipe 

Preparation and Baking The Balls-Cheese Balls

The Ingredients

Boil water, add in the butter and cook until butter is melted

then drawn out from the stove, add in the flour

Mix them together, cook to make a soft dough

Left: the cooked dough   Right: cooling the dough

Add in the Parmesan Cheese, then mix them together

Add in the egg, little by little, mix them properly

Add in the yolk and blend them until smooth

The soft dough is ready to bake for cheese balls

Floured and buttered the baking sheet

Left: small cheese balls are prepared to bake in the preheated oven for 18 minutes.

Right: the freshly baked cheese balls

Cooling Cheese Balls on a Wire Tray

Choux pastry is very easy to make, these cheese balls are choux pastry with cheese.  Refrigerate the cheese balls to keep fresh.  Reheat them in the oven before serving the soup.

The balls for the Carlton House soup are ready.  The broth or consommé has to be prepared.

The Carlton House Soup to be continued.

Thanks For Stopping By

Until Next Post

Susy